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| Won't you give Thor his summer back? |
Currently reading:
A Lesson in Love and Murder by Rachel McMillan: The type of book you want to read in a gulp instead of in sips.
The Black Widow by Daniel Silva: Kinda struggling through this one, TBH.
The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla by Lauren Willig: The only other Pink Carnation book my library has.
The Vegetable Butcher by Cara Mangini: Soooo many good recipes. This book makes me crazy hungry.
Movies watched:
Anna is a divorcé of a certain age; yet she's still putting herself out there, looking for love. In all the wrong places. When one of her take home guys winds up dead, the police can't help but take an interest in her, both professionally and personally.
This is a very Truffaut-style film, by which I mean it's Hitchcock interpreted through the lens of art more than entertainment. The beginning is really slow, but there's some truly fantastic cinematography, and Rampling's performance is perfect. She is SO GOOD in this movie. By the end, it had won me over. Recommended if you're in the mood for a slow-moving psychological thriller.
A documentary on Missy Franklin and Kara Lynn Joyce getting onto the 2012 London Olympics US Swim Team. At the time, Missy had just turned 17, and Joyce was in her mid-20s. Even though I don't swim at all, I always like watching movies about how people who are excellent at what they do actually go about it, and this doc was much more engaging than I was expecting. The only thing that bothered me was that when it came to Joyce, sometimes I was reminded me of that scene in Dangerous Beauty where Veronica takes that younger woman to the seedy part of Venice to show here how the old courtesans live and is like, "This is where we wind up." But other than that it wasn't too sexist, and the filmmakers only showed Michael Phelps' face like six times.
On the verge of losing their childhood ranch to Texas Midlands Bank, Toby and Tanner hatch a fool-proof plan to steal the money to pay off the ranch from the bank that's about to foreclose on it. Not only are they bank robbers, they appreciate irony! But will they avoid capture by an old-timer Texas Ranger and his trusty Indian sidekick?
This is one of those movies that has a lot of great elements, but needed more focus to pull them all together. I liked that it was a modern western, I loved the scenery, and I appreciated the portrait it painted of these small plains towns on the verge of going extinct, which was at once nostalgic and realistic. The story's far from realistic, however, and the motivations of the characters are a bit simplistic, especially when it comes to the various townspeople who are all like, "Down with banks! Up with robbery!" It also feels really slow when there's not a robbery going on. But if you enjoy heist movies it's worth watching. Pro-tip: be sure to drink every time someone says, "Old man."
This week[s] in heidenkindom:
It seems like only a few weeks ago I was getting all pumped about 100 degree temperatures, and now it's September and the last weekend of summer! Dislike. It's only downhill from here; pretty soon I'll have to start wearing socks. sadface
Anyway. Last Sunday my mom and I went to a tasting of Argentinian wines, which was kinda cool. On the reading front, I'm having trouble settling into a book, but I did start binge-watching Mr. Robot after reading this article about its connections to Hitchcock. It's trippy, fun, and disturbing at the same time. Definitely worth watching, especially if you're a tech geek.
Bonus:
On the lookout for some good, basic recipes, or maybe just a cookbook with lots of cursing and sardonic humor? You can find both in Recipes You Absolutely Can't Fuck Up, a cookbook written by "The best goddamned sister in the whole mother fucking world" for her brother, "Warren," and shared with the world via Google Docs. It's a short, fun read, but what do I like most? The recipes all sound really good!
Have an exceptional week, everyone!
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