Frequent Citations

Week's End

Sorry about not posting earlier. Due to technical difficulties it had to be delayed. Also, I was passed out (from exhaustion!) for a portion of the day.

Then I woke up and went out with friends. Yay! To a nearby swanky-ish bar and restaurant. Cosmos go well with steak tacos, but then cosmos go well with most food. We also had the most enormous piece of chocolate cake ever. Three of us couldn't finish it. It could have fed a small country. The best part was not the cosmos or chocolate, though, it was enjoying my friends' company again. The extremely snarky conversation may have had something to do with it too.

Last night they showed the Maltese Falcon at school. What a fantastic movie. Some German LLM guy afterward (of course it was a guy) said he thought Humphrey Bogart was terribly overrated, and I thought, my dear man. You have no idea. Very few woman watching that movie wondered why Bogart ended up with one of the most beautiful actresses of his time. Sigh.

I did no law school work tonight. None. I think I desperately needed the break. I'm looking forward to my reading; however, it can wait until tomorrow.

el-Lawrence

Boy and I spent a considerable amount of time this weekend watching Lawrence of Arabia.

I pause for a moment to sigh in appreciation for Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif.

We had to spread it out over two evenings because the movie is almost as long as the whole war was. A considerable amount of the time was spent watching Lawrence sulk, or think, or both; but that was quite all right because it meant watching Peter O’Toole and I could do that for a long, long time. TFL bears a remarkable resemblance, now that I think about it.

It was fascinating to see the beginnings of the modern political landscape of the Arab world. There was so much culture and romance, strife and chaos -- and still is today. Do you suppose the world would be a better place if the Arab world concentrated more on its heritage of, for instance, remarkable math and architecture, and less on their knack for strife? I imagine only if the rest of us turned our backs on the chaos and ruin we create and put our energies into productive and peaceful pastimes.

The pointless speculation in my law school classes is rubbing off on me.

Did you know that T. E. Lawrence spent the rest of his life anonymously in the RAF?

A Mission from God

I'm on a mission from God. (I was listening to Aretha the other night, so sue me.) Although I don't have a school to save, I do need help finding something.

Remember the tasseled ear plugs Audrey Hepburn wears in Breakfast at Tiffany's? I MUST find some.

I know I'll need ear plugs in law school, but I insist that they at least be glamorous.

So if anybody stumbles across a source of tasseled ear plugs, please let me know! You will receive a reward... in heaven.

Al Pacino Is a Scary Guy

I finally got around to watching The Godfather last night (while I folded 4,939 loads of laundry).

Yikes.

Had I realized it was 12 hours long I probably would have started it a little earlier. I did know about the scene with the horse's head, so I refused to watch that part. Yes, I am a wimp. Also a big fan of horses.

I'll fall right in line with everyone else who says this is a fantastic movie. Marlon Brando was a riot on the one hand, with his over the top gestures; on the other hand he was a powerful actor and there are some scenes where he is absolutely gripping. When he's dancing with his daughter? And playing with his grandson? And when he realizes that his dear son has come over to the dark side!

Now, Al! (By the way, is Andy Garcia his clone or something? The way he looks and acts in Ocean's Eleven is identical to Big Al in The Godfather.) How can a guy go from being a nice soldier boy staying out of the family business to a nasty piece of work who has his own brother-in-law (well-deserving, but still!) killed in front of him? And then! Then lies to his own wife about it! Right to her face. He gives a whole new meaning to the word "ruthless."

His doom is obvious from the moment he decides to kill the guys who shot his father, of course. I thought Pacino did a nice job of showing nervousness in the bathroom there, but he went cold and bloodless so quickly. He didn't even struggle against it -- just BAM and he's a cold-blooded hood who will wipe out anyone who crosses him. The only suspense was in waiting to see how far he would go.

Pretty far.

Oh yeah -- Robert Duvall was awesome. I want to be that kind of lawyer. Okay, no, not a mob lawyer totally owned by a syndicate. The pay might be good but the whole sacrificing your soul aspect is a real downer. I don't like blood much either. I do want to be a cool as can be and all business lawyer who never ever lets a nerve show. 

I have II and III in my Netflix queue.

Bad Mom Reason #643

It was recently brought to my attention that my children have never seen Gone with the Wind nor even a James Bond movie. They have seen Monty Python -- I'm not that bad --  but not The Godfather.

So I am compiling a list of Movies They Must See, and your input, dear reader, is always appreciated. Jill, I'm looking at you, you film major you! Oh, and Kris, I remember you had some really good ones, but I forget which they were.

Here's what I have so far, in no particular order:

1. Gone with the Wind
2. Casablanca
3. The Thin Man
4. The Maltese Falcon
5. To Catch a Thief (They have seen Rear Window, but they have to see those marvelous winding roads -- where she eventually met her end. *sniff*)
6. North by Northwest
7. Dr. No and/or Goldfinger
8. Apocalypse Now
9. Adam's Rib
10. The Red Shoes

I'm definitely missing a lot. They have to see one Doris Day movie, and then a John Waters flick as a counterbalance. And a western or two, of course, and a Cantinflas movie if I could ever find a video of one.

It's going to be a jam-packed summer, I tell you. Pile on the movies: what else must we see?