Edward and Doc Cullen look like death warmed over. (Pun intended.)

This is a combo post.  Book review/movie review/pop culture gossip-y chat... 

I am an avowed fan of the Twilight books.  I am still waiting to reserve judgement on the movies until they are all out.  I definitely think the new director did a better job with New Moon vs. whoever directed/produced Twilight.  But the thing with New Moon is that it is really a transitional bridge between Twilight and Eclipse and not a lot happens, it just sets up the action to happen in Eclipse.  So, I don't know if I can judge the success of the production team on New Moon until I see more.  


Unlike some fans of the series, I can also laugh at them and see the humor in the overdramatic acting.  I'm going to argue that a lot is lost from book to movie.  The dialogue that sounds stilted and stalker-ish in the movies reads as flowery and romantic in the books.  Most people don't actually read anymore, so they probably never picked up the books and just judged the movies based on their own merit.  (Of which there wasn't a whole lot to Twilight.  But I still liked it.)  

With the Eclipse trailers coming out there is some sense of anticipation over the upcoming release.  But what the hell is wrong with old Ed and Doc Cullen?  They look like pasty faced victims of pancake makeup gone horribly wrong.  I know they are supposed to be pale. (Hello, sparkly reflective in the sun?  Hard to tan.)  But in the previous two films they still look attractive.  Unlike now.  What is up with them in these trailers?  Did they get a new makeup person?  Did said makeup initiate think that White Lily flour mixed with water was an acceptable base?  Jezebel did a great "Translating the Twilight: Eclipse Trailer" 

http://jezebel.com/5523146//gallery/gallery/11

Hee-larious!  John got a big kick out of it, probably because now he doesn't think he has to take me to see it.   

Movie Reviews (Part 2)

Inglourious Basterds-  I don't know why this movie got such a bad rap when it came out.  I was really expecting this one to be a "John, you can just finish it without me," kind of movie.  A friend mentioned that it wasn't a drinking movie, meaning it would be hard to follow if you didn't have all your faculties about you.  Not to mention that it is 2.5 hours long.  My attention span is iffy at best when I am completely sober and is exponentially worse when I have been drinking.  As it is, I usually have to have another activity going at the same time John and I watch movies/DVDs/tv shows.  This is usually some type of craft or if my sewing pile has become so large that it threatens to topple off the shelf in my closet and smother me when I am selecting a t-shirt to wear...I might deign to sew.  


As it was, I think I was cutting out pictures of cats (that I then feed into my Xyron sticker makers, to make, what else? but cat stickers!)  This product is genius, by the way.  I grew up in the 80's when collecting stickers and displaying them in your sticker book was all the rage and this is heaven incarnate to my inner sticker-collecting child.  


So, there I am, cutting out stickers and John and I have had our customary evening cocktails with dinner and I am just not up to also dividing my attention span a third direction to reading the subtitles.  We decided to finish the movie on Sunday afternoon.  I don't have a problem with subtitles at all and I thought it lent the movie a bit of authenticity that was really nice.  (Of course, as much authenticity as a work of simulation and fiction can have.)  Back to why the movie was not better received by the masses.  John's theory was that WWII and especially the issue of Hitler and the Jews might be a taboo subject that wasn't ready to be made fun of yet.  On the contrary, I think the film does a really good job of making the Nazi's look like bumbling fools.  I believe as a society, the only way to get over such travesties in our collective history is to parody them and learn to laugh at that which is most raw and tender.  


One bone John and I had to pick with the film was Brad Pitt's character's accent.  It was pure Texas hill country and definitely not East Tennessee, where Pitt's character is from.  You would think being from Knoxville (where John and I hail from) Tarantino would do a better job of casting that part or getting Pitt the training to get it right.  I think Pitt did a great job of the part overall and it didn't grate on my nerves so much that I couldn't lose myself in the fantasy of the movie.  


Again Tarantino managed to create a wonderful strong female lead in Melanie Laurent's character, Shosanna Dreyfus.  Bully for you, Quentin.  I love to see a chick kick some ass.  

Maybe I'll Review Movies Too...(Part 1)

The Crazies made it to the dollar theater here in town.  So that meant a double feature for John and I because we also watched Inglourious Basterds

 which had been in our Netflix "box to watch" for a while.  What are lazy Sunday afternoons for anyway?  Oh,  yeah, grocery shopping, which we did as soon as we finished watching The Crazies.  What's better than heading to your local Wal-mart on a Sunday afternoon after watching a zombie movie?  The parallels abound... it doesn't matter if you take it in the "rampant consumerism" or the "ignorant masses" interpretation, you can pretty much compare and contrast to your heart and mind's content at Wal-mart.  

Let me start with The Crazies since I have already started talking about Wal-mart, I mean zombies.  I was worried at the beginning of the movie that the actress that plays Bullock's wife was going to ruin the whole thing.  (I mean, of course Timothy Olyphant's character's wife.)  She sucked.  It was broadcasted as plain as day on her face the moment anything was about to happen.  Luckily the movie wasn't really dependent on her acting skills, or any one's for that matter.  I definitely enjoyed the movie, but does anyone go to a zombie film expecting Oscar greatness?  

Let me enumerate the reasons why I liked this movie: zombies, Bullock (I mean Timothy Olyphant), lots of shooting of guns, gore, nuclear weapons, political conspiracy, and biological weapons.  Oh, and two tall drinks of water clad in good fitting blue jeans didn't hurt.  (No offense intended to my own tall drink of water, John, but I have to let the lady readers know these things.)  

1st Book Review (a two for one)

I just finished Mysteria Lane, an anthology that is a kind of sequel to Mysteria.  Both by MaryJanice Davidson (of Betsy the Vampire Queen fame), Susan Grant, Gena Showalter, and P.C. Cast (part of the House of Night series writer mother/daughter duo of P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast).  I have to say I liked Mysteria a little better than Mysteria Lane.  Anthologies are tricky for me.  I generally only read them if I recognize and like more than one of the authors or if I know that one of the stories is part of a series that I am currently following.  I think the former is what drove me to pick up and read Mysteria.  Also the premise behind these two anthologies centers around characters in the town of Mysteria.  So it almost like reading a collection of assorted short stories with the same general setting to tie it together as opposed to an anthology that just has a loose them to bind them. 

Like: "Here are some stories about vampires."  Thanks, that was super-vague and I am completely not interested. 

Mysteria and Mysteria Lane have an interesting gimmick with the commonality of setting though.  I would definitely read both of them.  I found that I liked the majority of the stories in both.  And the great thing about anthologies is if you don't like one story, just skip to the next.  You don't have to give up on the whole book.  The one big disappointment I had with Mysteria Lane was Davidson's story.  Lame-o. 

I'm sure there are some book review purists that don't think it is possible to review a book without reading every word... but I am of the mind that there are so many books I want to read, why spend time on one I don't?  Unless I'm getting paid to review...(just holla atta girl if you need a reviewer!)

John with Pearl and Isis in background.

Just submitted to http://www.cuteboyswithcats.tumblr.com/

Paperback Swap 2

I realized in the last post I kind of went on a tangent and didn't really get into talking about Paperback Swap itself or why I finally decided to give it a try. So to back up: a couple of months ago I got to talking books with my favorite barmaid, Marion, and she told me about Paperback Swap. (There should be a link above, but just in case: www.paperbackswap.com If you tell them "beanbaleen" sent you, I get a referral, so drop my name, all right?) I check it out online and thought it was pretty neat, but really thought I could do okay by checking out various used bookstores around town and utilizing the library.

I'm sure there are probably some hard-core readers out there that can sympathize, but I exhausted my library. Don't get me wrong, I didn't read every freakin' book there... just the ones I wanted to. After that I was forced to wait for them to acquire new stuff, and this usually meant a ridiculous waiting list.

So I researched used bookstores in town and found an article that reviewed several. One listed was described as having a "large and friendly cat in residence." Hello? Major plus in my book. So what if it was a bit of a drive? So what if the salesperson was rude the first time I went? I'll give it a second chance. He outright made fun of me this time, so I opted that my own 5 fabulous felines at home would have to do and wrote his store off.

Another store was a bit closer, if noticeably cat-less, and they seemed to have a better selection. I don't want to name this store and hurt the business because I was always treated well, I just felt it was a bit expensive for a used bookstore. Emphasis on the USED lady, you can't get away with charging a dollar less that full price for an obviously used book. The last time I visited, which was the clincher, I took in about 40 books. Let me note to everyone at this time that I am very careful with my books and I am not a smoker, so they are in great condition. I selected 11 books and went up to see how much credit I had earned.

"It's going to be 26 and some change."

"Oh, that's what I have left over?"

"No, that's what you owe."

What?! It was time to seriously consider paperbackswap.com again.

Paperback Swap

Sooo, don't know if any of you all are aware of a nifty little thing called Paperback Swap, but I just got tuned into it. I bet if you have a decent used bookstore in your town, there is no reason for you to know about this great site. Unless, of course, you are reading this right now. It's paperbackswap.com, PBS for short.

In Knoxville, where I am from, we have this awesome used bookstore called McKay's. Awesome in selection and usually, price. Not so awesome in customer service, or let's be frank, employees that give even the tiniest damn. The hipster blase attitude works well when you are pretending to be bored at a rock show or, god forbid, forced to take your little sister to the mall. It doesn't come off so well when you are sighing about ringing up my requisite suitcase-filling number of paranormal romances that I will be taking back from winter vacation to Las Vegas. It doesn't matter that my Mom, my sister, and myself will spend a little over $200. We are only capitalist whores that should have purchased "The Anarchist Bible" or a Nick Cave CD, slightly scratched, but we shouldn't care, because it's just so damn good.

Book Reviews

So, in addition to art-making and cats what else do I like to do, you ask? Read. Alot. Of course I read my share of "serious" articles, books, and essays on topics that usually relate to art theory. But, that is more like work. My guilty pleasure is paranormal romance, but I will pretty much read anything. Except for westerns and political thrillers. (I don't think the words "political" and "thriller" should be in the same proximity.) My cousin recently started using her blog for movie reviews so I am taking a page out of her book to write some book reviews. Ugh, just realized that last sentence was a big, ugly pun. But I'm leaving it in because I like to write how I sound to myself in my head. Does that make sense? Reviews to be forthcoming....