Julie & Julia

I had been excited to see this movie ever since I first saw the preview, a little over a month ago.  So my boyfriend and I finally got ourselves together for a date to see Julie & Julia last night, and I. was. thrilled.  I LOVE Meryl and I’m hot n cold about Amy Adams, but regardless of my personal actress preference, I was mostly looking forward to these women’s stories and to getting to know the history of how Julia Child came to be…well, Julia Child.

Smartly, I made sure I ate dinner and was quite satisfied before entering the theatre, and it was a good thing I had that foresight, because this movie is filled with a zillion close-ups of delicious and freshly prepared food, and scene after scene of people taking a bite here or a taste there, and “mmm”ing and “ooo”ing as they gobble up the perfect morsels of food in front of them.  Just visiting the website made me ravenous (for a good time, check out the recipes section).  Frankly, I think they should have special screenings of this film, where they hire a wait staff, you get a tray and utensils when you walk in, and the waiters bring you some of the signature dishes as the characters in the movie are making/eating them.  Does that exist??  Oh my god.  Heaven.

My boyfriend admitted to enjoying it (caring much more for Meryl’s story line more than Amy’s), but he wasn’t over the moon about it…like I was.  As I sorta expected, I felt very connected to this movie, on several levels:

*it’s a story based on a real-life blogger. *takes place in an outer borough of New York. *portrays women expressing themselves through food. *food. *food. *amazing food.

In this movie, it’s All About The FOOD!  Which I dig.  I also realize that it’s pretty meta and a little cheesy for me to be blogging about a film about blogging about food.  But how could I not blog about it??  It ruled!  I’m just sad I didn’t come up with the idea before that Julie girl did.

I’m now actively on the hunt for a killer boeuf bourguignon recipe.

We’ll Always Have Paris

(sorry for the first photo’s darkness! My camera’s flash done broke!)

I can now check “Casablanca” off my list! You see, I have an embarrassingly long list of “movie classics” that I’ve yet to see. Maybe part of the reason I’m putting them off is because several of them happen to be depressing dramas – I mean, who really wants to come home after a long day of work and tune into “Schindler’s List” or “The Pianist”. Personally, I’d much rather pop in “Love Actually” and call it a night. However, “Casablanca” happened to be playing at the Dryden Theatre while David and I were in Rochester this past weekend, so we made it a date. The theatre was packed with people munching on yummy popcorn.  Young people who, like me, had never seen it.  And old people, sharing stories about “The first time I saw this movie in the theatres, I was dot dot dot”.  I absolutely LOVED the movie.  It made me want to travel and smoke cigarettes.  So old-school romantic, right?

Inspired by the experience, my love of that era, and in an effort to streamline my MoviesINeedToWatch List, I proposed a movie-watching plan to my boyfriend. Starting in 1929, the year of the very first Academy Awards show, let’s Netflix every single Academy Award winning movie. He was way into it. So, there’s another thing to add to my growing list of things to do – I’ll put it right after “call mom” and right before “get a kitten”.

I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Those lost boys always get me

Usually, when I have a Sunday night to myself, free of rehearsal or work, I cherish it.  This usually involves a couch, a sweet treat, and a netflix.  However, last night, despite all Sunday odds, some friends and I ventured out to…Bushwick!  With cookies in hand and a couple magazines in my purse (you just never know how long the subways will take.  As a precaution, I carry at least 1 snack and 3 hours worth of reading material with me at all times) we landed at the Bushwick Starr to see The Centrifuge‘s production of The Forgetting of Things, an interpretation of the Peter Pan story.  My boyfriend played a lost boy, Captain Hook, and Smee.  Made us very proud.  It’s always a funny thing to watch someone on stage who you know so intimately.  Like, by being in the audience, you’re all of a sudden not any closer to that person than anyone else watching the show.  But more on that another time.

One of my favorite elements of the play was the sound design.  In some of the darker and more twisted moments of the show, emerged some music that reminded me of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.  Sounds of strings followed by a mash up of various Peter Pan sound bytes.  Audio clips from the Disney version, and the Mary Martin movie, and some of the score from Hook.  I have to say, that I grew up on all 3 versions, but Hook holds a special place in my heart.  It was like  Ladybugs.  Or A League of Their Own.  Always on TV.  And when it was on, you better believe that my little brother and I were glued to the tube.  It wasn’t uncommon for us to chant “Ru-fi-ohhhhhhh!” to each other in the den, or reenact the Lost Boys’ massive imaginary food fight (if anyone could explain to me what those colorful globs were, please get in touch).  But, without fail, the part that got me every time was the “Oh, there you are, Peter.”  Where did they find that kid?  Sigh.  Grab a tissue.  Bangarang.