Consumables #61

I just got done taking a four-day weekend just for the hell of it and one of those days included sunshine! This exceeded all expectations in my cold gray Seattle heart so I am basking in an afterglow of happy.


I kicked off my weekend by going out and trying a new restaurant with Nordic Boy. My quest for a drink I like a lot continued. I decided to go FULL HIPSTER and order an "astronaut mimosa," which is champagne and Tang. I don't know why I did this, but perhaps it was due to the fact that they were only charging four bucks for one and I am sick of paying out the yin yang for stuff that I don't like. You drinkers can drop some serious coinage! I actually liked the hipster special, which makes me happy that I liked something but sad that it was a hipster drink involving powdered sweet-tart-like material. Not exactly the sophistication I have been searching for.


I think I am going to give up on this quest. Should I?


Some other time-off stuff: Biogirl and I took trip to Ikea where we made it out alive (always a risk when going into that gerbil maze), with Biogirl stocking up on a myriad things and me getting a couple packs of napkins. I get undue joy out of Ikea napkins, you guys. We also hunted down a bakery that we had never been to before ("Biogirl is interested in sugary carbs" might be the understatement of the year), and then I heard a mesmerizing commentary from her about the term "oily bohunk" from the movie Sixteen Candles which was capped off by her talking too fast and accidentally calling the star "Molly Ringworm." Don't you wish you could be part of our think tank?


There were many other awesome things that happened but I am feeling a little backed up in the Consumables (wow, so gross!) so Ima talk about those instead.


Books!
Peter and the Starcatchers, by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
The first in a series of prequels to Peter Pan. I had to read this for work, and I wasn't super jazzed about it but I ended up liking it for the most part. It was solid action with plenty of swashbuckling pirate stuff and magical business going on. I kind of found the original Peter Pan to be a bit of a dick but in this version he wasn't.


Duck, Death and the Tulip, by Wolf Erlbruch
I sort of loved this picture book, although I can't think of a situation where it would do anything but freak a little kid out. Maybe it's one of those kids' books that are really more for adults? I don't know. The whole thing is about a duck who has a feeling that someone is following him, and it turns out to be Death. Duck goes about his life, with Death his constant companion, until well, you can probably guess how this all turns out. It is stark and beautiful and creepy.


The Sibling Effect: What the Bonds Among Brothers and Sisters Reveal About Us, by Jeffrey Kluger
I don't know what I was expecting from this one, but it didn't live up to what I wanted it to be. It focuses on a lot of things that I think most of us already have heard (first-born children tend to be caretakers of younger sibs, conflicts between siblings can carry on into adulthood) but doesn't go much further in complicating those ideas.


In the TeeVee!
The Bachelor
Did anyone notice that I haven't said THING ONE about The Bachelor this season? That's because I am off the junk, people! I want full credit for this! I am in recovery!


Dancing with the Stars
I am sort of loving this season, mostly because the stars aren't stinking up the joint as bad as they usually do. Plus, how exciting is it that Half Pint is on? I am waiting for her to do a prairie-themed tango or something. Maybe her partner Maks will dress up like Nellie Olson! Ok, probably not but a girl can dream.


Movies!
The Hunger Games
I went to see this on opening weekend and was startled by the sheer lack of costumery in the crowd. I guess dressing up for this one is hard- it's not like you can walk into the theater with a bow and arrow. Still, I thought something like that would happen. When I add up all of the things I didn't like about the movie it should add up to me not liking the movie, but yet? I liked it. I think I was able to get over the fact the Gale is Mrs. Miley Cyrus pretty well, and I could tolerate Peeta although I still maintain that he looks like an evil kid in a Karate Kid movie. Every time I see him I want to tell Ralph Macchio to beware. I think my favorite thing about the movie was Lenny Kravitz. There's a sentence I never thought I would say.


Strictly Background
A documentary about people who make their living by being extras in movies. That's pretty much it.


If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
Follows the trial and the events leading up to it of a man accused of eco-terrorism. I thought it did a good job of raising really hard questions. I found this really sad on many levels, but then again I am a hippie pinko, so of course I would.


Hell and Back Again
An embedded journalist films troops in Afghanistan, and then follows a wounded soldier's journey back to the US, where he copes with his injury, getting back to his life, and the aftermath of battle. I guess this one isn't much cheerier, is it?


After Innocence
Woo! Another depressing one! I really can pile it on, can't I? This one follows The Innocence Project, which is an organization that helps people who have been wrongly accused to get new trials so that genetic evidence can be used to help exonerate them. They follow a bunch of people who have been in prison for decades who don't belong there, and the fight to get them free.


Prodigal Sons
The filmmaker is a transgender woman from Montana who is filming her return to her hometown for her high school reunion. I thought this was going to focus on trans issues, but really it turns out to be a film about the filmmaker's brother and his battle with mental illness. Plus, Orson Wells plays a major role in this family's life, which is a bizarre twist.


Hiding and Seeking: Faith and Tolerance After the Holocaust
Just when you thought I couldn't get more depressing, I bring in the Holocaust. This one is about  a father who takes his grown sons to Poland to find the family that helped hide his uncles from the Nazis.


War Dance
Ok, so none of my movies are chucklefests this time around, I can see that now. This one is about kids in Uganda who are struggling to survive in refugee camps. In the camp that this film follows, the kids have formed a group that does traditional songs and dances, and they have the chance to win a national competition. You get to hear their stories, how they came to be in the camp, and what the dances do for their lives.


I feel like I have to promise a silly movie for next time.