Movie Monday: Undercover Blues

Undercover Blues is one of my all-time favorite movies, which is to say that it is actually my favorite movie but I"m too ashamed to admit it. Unfortunately, I have not been able to track down any pictures yet because... well... no one actually cares about this movie but me! My love for this movie knows no bounds. If you expect to be considered a member of my family you have to watch this movie and when you tell me that it's bad I will assuredly tell you that you're just joking. If you really want to show me that you love me you will watch this movie with me multiple times and you won't even be mad that I say the lines with the actors and actresses half of the way through. In truth, I probably have the entire movie memorized, although I'm not sure that's something I should admit to publicly. And when I read the Wikipedia page on this film just a few minutes ago I laughed throughout the entire article.

I first watched Undercover Blues when I was seven or eight. I don't think I was supposed to do but I did and I have been in love ever since. I'm fairly certain that this movie was not well-received by most people but they just don't realize what they're missing. What do I love most about this film, you ask? The characters and the actors who play them.

Dennis Quaid plays Jeff Blue, the husband in the husband/wife spy team of Jeff and Jane Blue. Jeff can fend off a mugger with a knife while holding his baby in one arm, but in pretty much everything he comes second to his wife in terms of knowledge and skill. He readily admits to that as well. One thing he does have is his wit and his charming smile.

Kathleen Turner plays Jane Blue, and lets just say I would not want to get into a fight with her. However, if I needed to someone to defend me and I was best friends with her (because, of course, I would be) she'd be the first person I'd call.

Stanley Tucci plays Morty, a mugger intent on taking the Blues down. And while you're cheering for the Blues, a little part of you cheers Morty on as well.

Honestly, between these three characters I can't tell you which is my favorite. I don't think I have one. And the actors play their parts perfectly. I won't go into detail but the supporting cast is also fantastic. I hope, if you ever have a free hour and a half and the inclination to watch a funny film, that you'll give this one a shot. I don't expect anyone in the world to fall as madly in love as I am but I do hope that these characters will at least touch your heart in a small way. They are totally worth it!

Life has been busy recently but I'm hoping to make more appearances than just popping in once a week for Movie Monday. We'll see how that works!

The movie cover was taken from Wikipedia.

Movie Monday: Closer

In honor of Natalie Portman's recent Golden Globes win, I chose one of the few films I've seen her in, Closer. I have to admit, when I first watched this movie I didn't like it at all. But I did walk away intrigued so I watched it again and so began my love of the film. My favorite thing about this movie is its characters, because none of them are all that likable. I love flawed characters, and this film has some incredibly flawed characters! While the movie can be uncomfortable to watch at times, it's interesting to see how the characters work through the mistakes they make and deal with the consequences of each others actions. It also has some wonderful quotes, like this one from Alice: "Oh, as if you had no choice? There's a moment, there's always a moment, "I can do this, I can give into this, or I can resist it", and I don't know when your moment was, but I bet you there was one."













Movie poster and images are from Yahoo! Movies.

Charmed: Phoebe Becomes Queen

I logged in today to post my Movie Monday entry but decided that since it's so late in the week I'll just postpone it until next week. I know, I know, I'm only a week in and I'm already pushing it off. But, this allows me to post about another topic I wanted to write about today!

Classes started this week, which means that last week was my week-before-the-semester-cleaning-and-organizing-frenzy. Before the start of each new semester I put a TV show into the DVD player and clean/re-organize everything!

This time I put on season four of Charmed, which has my favorite storyline from the entire series. In my opinion, it's one of the best storylines, as well as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, battle the Charmed Ones had to face. Which storyline am I talking about? Phoebe marries the source and eventually tries to embrace her new destiny as the queen of all evil.



That last episode always makes me tear up!

Screencaps are from screencap-paradise.com

Hello everyone!

Movie Monday will be delayed until tomorrow (hopefully). It was a busy, but good, day today!

In other news, school starts tomorrow. So, maybe with a routine, I will get around to posting more often!

Movie Monday: Wicker Park

How exciting is this? It's my first Movie Monday post! (I'm calling this Movie Monday because I feel like something I do regularly should have a catchy title.)



Wicker Park is a hard movie to describe. A brief, basic description would be that a man on the verge of becoming engaged catches a glimpse of his former love and sets out to find her. It's a thriller, and it may not the best out there, but I find it to be one of the most engaging. I watched it once, years ago, and have remembered it but I didn't fall in love with it until recently. I was quite young when I watched it the first time and I think it was a film that I needed to be a little bit older to fully understand. There are a couple of things that I love about this film: the subtlety of its nature and the younger cast, to name a few. My favorite part of this film, however, is the final scene and Josh Hartnett's performance in it. Watch it just for that, it's beautiful.

Also recommended is the French film that inspired this one, L'Appartement, which in some ways is better than Wicker Park.











Movie poster image is from Amazon and the movie stills are from Yahoo Movies.

Bonne Année!

We're nine days into the new year and I haven't even posted! I've found that during breaks from classes I tend to avoid the computer since I'm on it so much during school.

I hope you all had fantastic New Year's celebrations. I did exactly what I had planned--I went out for dinner with a friend and afterward we went back to my house and watched some TV. We watched Pretty Little Liars because it's a show that she's been interested in watching I still happened to have it on my DVR.

Since then, I have been working, reading (a little) and writing. I also watched the first season of True Blood, which I enjoyed greatly! Now to move on to season two, which I have already. I think I'll wait a little while at least, though. A coworker of mine who also works at McDonald's gave us some free Redbox movie coupons but they expire at the end of the week so I'd like to take advantage of those. I already used one to watch a movie I was interested in but would never pay to see: Vampires Suck. I'm not the biggest fan of spoofs but some parts were excellent and the girl who played Becca really captured the awkwardness of Bella. There were moments when she actually looked like Kristen Stewart.

One thing I'd like to do in 2011 is to watch the movies that I own because they're some of my favorites but I don't watch them often. I think I'll start blogging about them too, each Monday. Since things get busy, if I can't watch a movie one week I'll post about a new movie I've seen recently or about one of my favorite actors and actresses. I don't claim to like the best movies; in fact, some of my favorites are very unpopular. But they rank among my favorites for a variety of reasons; maybe the story touched me or I watched it while doing something that made it special, and I'll explain some of that in each post.

I watched one this morning so look for the first post tomorrow!

New Year's Eve

This is where I spent New Year's Eve last year: in bed. I was asleep when 2009 ended and 2010 began. While others were out toasting with champagne I was taking painkillers. I had a toothache; a bad toothache! After a day it disappeared and when I was finally able to get in to see my dentist I learned that it was temporary pain from clenching my teeth at night while stressed.

This year, I plan to be social on NYE. Sarah and I are getting together. We don't have a big night of partying planned, but we will go out to eat and watch TV after. It'll be a relaxing way to ring in 2011. I work on New Year's Day, so that will be perfect. What are all of you doing for NYE?

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone!!

I hope you all have a great time celebrating the holiday with family and friends. I will be back soon after the holiday's with some recipes (hopefully) if everything goes off without a hitch.

For now, I'll leave you with two videos. The first is an interview with my favorite photographer. Hey, I promised you I'd post it this week, right? ;)

His name is Chris Lowell and he's an actor. You may have seen him on Veronica Mars as Piz and on Private Practice as Dell. He's a fantastic actor, but he's also an amazing photographer and his photographs are beautifully rendered. This video is one of the special features on S2 of Private Practice, so it also features some of the other actors on the show, such as the great Taye Diggs. So, sit down and get ready to tune into some funny stories and a look at photography from someone who has to be one of the sweetest guys in the world. Seriously.



To view more of his photography, check out his website, Chris Lowell Photography.

Next up, is a song I am obsessed with at the moment. "Silent Night" by the great Mahalia Jackson. Lately, I have been listening to Harry Connick Jr. and Mahalia Jackson non-stop.

The Memoirs of Gluckel of Hameln

The semester has come to an end! Finals week was... interesting, to say the least! My poetry class had a reading at the end of the semester. It was my first reading, which was completely nerve-wracking but wonderful as well. The audience (and the poets) laughed, cried and journeyed to strange lands. The wonderful Sarah came along to cheer me on. Apparently, she almost literally cheered me on. Thank you again for not doing that! ;)

After finishing a paper that night I came down with the stomach flu and was in bed for two days. (Note to self: research immunity boosters for next semester. I think I was sick with one thing or another for a majority of Fall!) Next came work and then, my Jewish History final papers, one of which was on the book The Memoirs of Gluckel of Hameln. I read the book in one night so that I could write my paper and I have to say that reading the book in so short a period of time did not do justice to the book. It was extremely interesting to read a first-hand account of what life was like at this time and it was actually quite easy to read. But it was a bit much to read in one night! I would like to read it again, more slowly, reading a book at a time. This particular quote stood out to me because it represents Gluckel's outlook on life throughout the book and is one of those "putting things into perspective" quotes that really hit me:

“Even if our sages say « it is better not to be born, » meaning that men have so much to endure in this sinful world, still I thank and praise my Creator that He made me according to His will and beg Him to take me under His holy charge.”

So, coming up this week I promise I will write about one of my favorite photographer's and I'll start working on some book and movie reviews.

Cranberry Almond Biscotti

While finishing up my poetry manuscript today (yep, that's right, my senior project is done!) I decided to do some baking. I've had my eye on this biscotti ever since the recipe was posted. I do all my mixing by hand, instead of with an electric beater, but other than that I stayed true to the recipe. The biscotti is excellent! I definitely recommend trying it out. I'm sorry the pictures aren't that great today; this pair of contacts has been bothering me.

Snowy Days

Since my attempt to be unproductive for a day over Thanksgiving break proved to be unsuccessful, I decided that I might have been setting my sights too high. A whole day? That's not exactly realistic. So, I decided to try for a smaller period of time. Friday night it began to snow. A lot. I think we're at fourteen or fifteen inches now. Before the snow hit my parents went to a Christmas party so I decided to take advantage of having the house to myself and I hooked my iPod up to the speakers upstairs, put Harry Connick Jr. on play, poured a glass of wine and sat. And I was able to make myself last an entire song. That's wrong, an entire song of doing nothing else but sitting and drinking a glass of wine. I'm also serious when I said I was able to make myself. Before the first song was over I started to stand up thinking, I need to do this, this and this, before realizing that the first song hadn't even finished. As soon as it was over, I jumped off the chair and ran around getting some things done.

One of those things was cooking. I turned this:



into these:



and these:



into these:



I got the idea from Kitchenist to shred brussels sprouts and stir them into a cream-based sauce, to serve with pasta. I decided to add some peppers to the mix as well since I had only eaten one other vegetable that day. While it isn't the best pasta dish I ever made, it was tasty and it's a quick, easy recipe for those busy days.



We had snow all day and our snow storm was quickly labeled a blizzard. I woke up this morning and pulled a loaf of bread from the cupboard to find that there was a slice left. Since we weren't planning to leave the house today, my mom decided to take advantage of the opportunity and bake a few loaves. I love homemade bread! I usually don't eat jam (lots of sugar and healthier ways to get the nutrients) but I decided that a freshly baked loaf of bread on a snowy day called for a spoonful of jam.



Towards the end of the snowfall I began taking pictures. This is the window in my (basement-level) room:



The little black dots by the street are mailboxes. You can also see the reflection of lights on the Christmas tree.



There are steps buried beneath the snow.



I've been watching Anthony Bourdain while working on my flashcards for geography. So far we've traveled to Shanghai, Malaysia, Sicily, Argentina, Uruguay, Romania, New Zealand and Washington DC. I should get back to that. Up next, Chicago. Let's see if he visits Billy Goats!

TV Shows, Books, Music

Where has the time gone? My family did a lot more on Thanksgiving than I thought we would. I didn't work on any homework that day, which is really unusual for me! I just finished up the second to last module in my geography course (one to go, yippee!) and thought I'd pop in for a few quick updates.

♥ TV: My dad expressed an interest in Bones so I pulled out my S1 DVD's. We watched the entire season in a weekend. No, I'm not kidding! We watched a few episodes each day, until the last day of the weekend. My mom was out of town, so my dad made one of his delicious homemade pizzas and we watched the rest of the season. I don't need to do that again for awhile, but it was a lot of fun!

♥ Cold: I was struck down by a bad cold. It hit Tuesday, I lost my voice on Wednesday, and now I'm finally starting to get better, but still feel like crap. I will feel better next week though, whether this cold wants to leave or not!

♥ Books: Being sick does have some perks. I focused on the homework that was most pressing (meaning, due this week), but the rest of the time, if I wasn't at work, school or sleeping, I was reading. I picked up This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen. I borrowed it from a friend probably about a year ago (if not longer) and I wanted to read it since she'll be in town the next few weeks. Now I'm on a Sarah Dessen kick, so I reread This Listen. I love her stories! Even though she writes about teenagers in high school I feel like adults (especially adults in their 20's) can still relate because the situations that her characters face are situations that we can face.

♥ Holidays: The holiday season has arrived! I've already made my lists of books and movies to read and watch. And those who know me know that for me the holiday season doesn't start until I listen to Harry Connick Jr's Christmas music. So, the Friday after Thanksgiving I put in my first HCJ Christmas CD of the season. I thought I'd share some of his music with all of you today!

This is the first song that I listen to every year.


A great video of HCJ singing with this daughter.


And one last song.


♥ Remind me to share one of my favorite photographers with you one day this week. He's absolutely fantastic and I'm sure you'll love him!

Baking, Snow, DWTS

Today was my wasted day. I'm not sure how much I like the idea of spending days without being productive. I kept making lists of all that I need to do! So, what did I do? I started Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick and continued reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling. I found some new blogs that I'm excited to start reading and I introduced my dad to Bones. We watched the first two episodes and he said he'd keep watching the show with me! My dad isn't big on TV and movies but it's always fun to watch something with him. (Except for Year One. That was a bad choice and a really traumatic experience!) The last time my dad and I watched a TV show together was a long, long time ago! It was all the way back when Early Edition was still on TV.

Anyway, moving on. I also did some baking. I volunteered to make the pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving tomorrow and I also made a few loaves of Apple Walnut Bread to take to my sister's as well. My parents and I tried both (I made two pies) and they were pretty good! Here are some making-of pictures:



We also got some snow today. The second picture was my attempt to take pictures of the snowflakes but they were teeny tiny!



So, last night the DWTS results came in and Jennifer and Derek won. I think this is the first season that my favorite couple actually took home the mirror ball trophy so I was excited! Although, if Kyle and Lacey or Bristol and Mark had won I would have been happy too. Kyle was so much fun to watch all season long because he really brought personality to the dances and Bristol is what the show is all about. Anyway, after watching all three couples on Good Morning America and The View I had to go back and find my favorite dance of the season, which was Jennifer and Derek's instant dance.



I'm sure I'll be online tomorrow! My family has pretty laid back holiday's, which is nice because I actually get a lot of homework done on that day. But if I'm not, I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!