bed rest and blahs

kind of mundane, but that's the tenor of life right now.

so i've watched "13 going on 30" which was cute and funny and very light and airy. i've never really noticed jennifer garner before, as i'm not an "alias" fan like my brother is, but i can see why she gets work. she did a good job. and i liked the fact that Mark Ruffalo was a good romantic lead without looking like a Brad Pitt clone. Not that there's anything wrong with Brad Pitt, but it's nice to see someone more "normal looking" getting air time on the big screen.

i also watched "chasing liberty" with mandy moore. dumb. another cute guy, Matthew Goode, but that was about the best thing in it. the nice thing about dvr is that you can record something that looks interesting but ditch it quickly thereafter if it sucks. Mark Harmon was about as one dimensional as you could get in this film.

"Stealing Beauty" was another pick of the week, but as my Italian isn't nearly as good as my French, it was a little tough to follow exactly what was happening and why all the characters were laughing when someone said something witty in Italian. Yes, yes, I know, from Lucy's point of view, she wouldn't understand either, and Bertolucci was probably just trying to replicate his protagonist's experience for his audience. The movie was beautiful to look at but quite predictable. I was sorry to see Jeremy Irons go. He does good work. Another underrated actor in the realm. Liv Tyler was believable, and for her "breakout" role, as this is often termed, I think she did quite well.

On to books. Finished Misfortune by Wesley Stace. A bit bizarre and a bit trying at times, kind of like reading old English ballads and wishing you could skip the middle bits and just get to the end. but the concept was quite interesting. i bet it would have worked quite as a serial back in the time when that was popular (Dickens, etc).

Also reading Everything Bad is Good for You, which I'm finding to be wonderful. Thought-provoking. Affirming. Especially Johnson's theory that if video games had come first, we would all be shouting down books and the printed word as being "limiting" and just as damaging as video games. You kind of have to read it. But I highly recommend. And it's a quick read.

As for the knitting, well, I have been working on a sweater for dd for months now and i finally finished the back yesterday. weee-hah! i started one of the front yesterday and got to practice some intarsia, which was good. nice to see a bit of yellow peeking out from all the blue. i put down the felting bag for the moment because i think the center panel is all wrong and i don't have the heart to remeasure and rip and redo. sigh. and i still have to sew in a zipper into baby-to-be's bris outfit. if i could only get my hands to stop shaking long enough to do so! that darned procardia...

must go back to the couch before i get caught out of bed!