At the Zoo

What Emily's Been Watching May/June

Ug.  I've totally been putting this off because I was crap about writing my movies down, which snowballs into all kinds of problems that have culminated into a double post and probably missing movies (although I skimmed through my entire Netflix history for May and June which proved very helpful as I came up with at least 3 titles I would have totally forgotten I think). 

Well, let's go then.

THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED (De battre mon coeur s'est arrêtè) (2005) [R] crime/thriller/drama. I am only guessing here, but I imagine the title of this movie sounds and is more eloquent in it's native tongue.  Clunky in English or not, this movie was really good.  It's about a guy that was kind of born into a crime family of sorts (father's side at least), his mother was a celebrated pianist and in his youth he was on the road to following her footsteps, but dropped it (oops- forgot why) and became little more then a thug for his father.  One day he runs into his mother's old teacher/mentor and basically gets an audition to play for him.  Problem is, he hasn't played in a long time.  So he basically goes through an existential crisis about his life, takes piano from an oriental lady that doesn't speak french, and the film goes on from there.  I really liked this movie- it had a great and interesting ending, and was just all together good and worth a watch.  Emily thinks this movie is worth a watch.

I DO (Prête-moi ta main) (2006) [NR] romantic comedy.  This one gets a meh to ok.  (It is a romantic comedy after all.)  I thought I would try another French one.  It was enjoyable enough I guess- way better then some I've seen-  I really liked Charlotte Gainsbourg in it.  This one is about a bachelor that has some meddling/busy sisters and mom that bug him about his bachelor status to the point that he hires a girl to pretend to be his fiance and then leave him at the alter, breaking his heart to the point that they no longer bug him about getting married.  Well, things don't quite go according to plan as you may suspect.  It broke the romcom mold by not having a slutty best friend.  Score a point.  Emily can recommend this one to all you rom com likers.
trailer's here

CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS (2010) [G] documentary.  I had been meaning to check this one out for a while and finally got around to it.  While it wasn't the most exciting movie one has ever seen, and I did have to start it over about three times cause I kept falling asleep, I ultimately enjoyed it.  It's the latest Werner Herzog and is a doc about the Chauvet Caves somewhere in France.  Basically these caves contain the oldest known human paintings ever discovered (by A LOT!).  These caves weren't discovered until the 90's and had been perfectly preserved this whole time (like 30,000 years).  It's not only cave paintings, it is hundreds and hundreds of cave paintings- and they all look like they could have been drawn yesterday.  After it's discovery, they let tourists in to see them, but discovered that the humidity the people were bringing with them was causing trouble, so they closed it to the public and now only let select scientists in.  So, giving Herzog rein to film these caves was quite the big deal and the best way we can all enjoy the amazing beauty of these caves.  The part that had the most impact on me, was the discovery of a child's footprints in the dust along side wolf prints.  They have no idea if they were walking together, if the child was being tracked by the wolf, or if they occurred within thousands of years of each other.  Kind of cool.  The last 20-30 minutes were basically just images of the paintings shown with some sort of pretty opera music (or something- it's been a while.  The music was so nice, this is where I kept falling asleep.)  Emily thinks this movie is totally worth watching, but many before me and perhaps after me have and will describe it as "boring".  So watch at your own risk.

JULES ET JIM (1962) [NR] drama/romance.  This was a movie recommendation from Chris and Jimmy and my sister Sue.  It's an old film by the old acclaimed french director,  François Truffaut.  This was my first of his and I have a few more in my queue.  Interesting movie.  It is essentially a movie about the friendship of two men, but also a love triangle with this woman named Cathy.  I just loved Jules and Jim- they were just cute.  Cathy was pretty much atrocious, but you could see the tie/fascination they had with her.  This movie caused some ripples in it's day on account of the living situation they find themselves in at one point.  Definitely progressive, especially for it's time.  It was a really, really enjoyable movie to watch and well made and well acted.  I really enjoyed it.  See it sometime.

GRIZZLY MAN (2005) [R] documentary.  Figured another Werner Herzog was in order.  I've wanted to see this one for a long time and it's been floating in my queue for almost as long.  One day while folding a mountain of laundry, I got around to it (can't watch french movies while I fold and Grey's Anatomy is on summer break).  This documentary is on a man named Timothy Treadwell  who was a nature/grizzly bear activist.  He lived among the bears for years and years trying to pass himself off as one of them.  After surviving for years that way, he and his girlfriend at the time were attacked and killed by a bear in Alaska. 
What he did and how he lived was very controversial to the parks service and other activists.  But let me tell you, he really believed that what he was doing was helpful to the grizzlies. But I find that all kind of irrelevant really.  I liked him right away and feel like I got him pretty quick.  I think he simply just loved those bears SO MUCH (and foxes) that he was happy living with them.  I think it was a story of a man that lived and died the way he wanted, so all is well at the end.  He knew the risks his lifestyle presented.  And man he cracked me up! I thought he was great and would have loved to have known him.  He basically filmed all the time and he would be alone for very long stretches with nothing  but bears, foxes and his camera for company (one time he goes on this rant about how women don't stay with him very long and how it would be so much easier if he were gay- because gay men have it so easy.)  I don't think a lot of people would agree with that- but he sure believed in the theory.  Anyway, Herzog put his footage together and made a documentary out of it.  Emily really enjoyed this movie and found it very entertaining.  Just a sad and fascinating story, a happy story too though-well done and well worth a go. 

 

CONAN O'BRIEN CAN'T STOP (2011) [R] documentary.  This is a documentary about that time in Conan's career when he was in between  The Tonight Show and TBS and he took an act on the road because he wasn't allowed on TV and well, because he can't stop.  Conan is just one of those people that needs an audience laughing at him to feel normal and happy.  I'd call this an enjoyable little watch on a lazy day.  Especially if you like Conan.  It gives you an inside look at his operation and his life and people he works with.  I don't know- that's about it. I like documentaries and I like Conan.  This was fun to watch.  Probably should be a Conan fan to really enjoy.  If you are- well, you'll like it. 

MOONRISE KINGDOM (2012) [PG-13] comedy/drama/romance.  I saw this movie with some sisters and my cousin Dan.  We had been very excited to see this one for a few months and finally got together and saw it at The Broadway.  We SO were not disappointed!  What a great movie.  We are all Wes Anderson fans, and this was very Wes Andersony and awesome.  I am going to call it my favorite of his so far.  (Oh that's hard to say, I do love Rushmore so much).  It's a very close call, maybe we'll call it a tie.  It's basically a love story between two misfit/troubled 13ish year olds.  They run away together on this island they live on and camp on the shores of a river.  The kids (especially Sam were just adorable).  It contained the regular Anderson players (Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman (in a cameo), etc.) but also had some fun additions such as Edward Norton (in a Scout's uniform complete with shorts and knee socks), and Bruce Willis had a great outside the box (for him) roll.  Totally charming little film, if you are a Wes Anderson fan, I recommend it highly.  If you dislike his style, probably stay away.

BORN TO BE WILD (2011) [G] documentary.  I gave this movie to Scout as a birthday present some weeks back.  We hadn't seen it yet, but baby orangutangs and baby elephants- no brainer.  It's just as cute as it promised.  This is a pretty short film (40 minutes or so) and was made as an IMAX picture mostly for museums and stuff.  It is about people that adopt orphaned orangutangs and elephants and raise them to go back out into the wild when they are ready.  Morgan Freeman narrates it.  I think this is one practically anyone would like.  Also a good reminder about respecting our world and the animals around it.

May Wall of Shame

THE DARK KNIGHT (2008) [PG-13] action/drama.  This is a wall of shame movie that truly encompasses what it means to be on my wall of shame.  The whole word has seen it, it was a phenomenon at it's time, and when you mention when it's brought up that you "missed that one" you get looks of incredulity and are told you are crazy.  I figured that since another one was coming out soon, this would be a good time to watch it finally.  Even though I can't say I'm planning on seeing the new one either.  Here is the scoop:  it was a fine movie, yes Heath Ledger was an incredible Joker, I am a Christian Bale fan, when it comes to superheros- Batman would have to be my favorite, BUT I simply care very very little for superhero movies and all that jazz.  I can't get excited about them.  The whole comic book world totally escapes me.  It's just not my thing.  This seems to have gotten worse and worse over the years.  The rise of the fanboy and the whole nerd culture uprising especially the million superhero movies that come out yearly, just all compiles to making me less and less interested.  That's just how it's working out for me.  Don't quite know why.  Oh well.  Um, you've probably already seen this movie.  It was worth seeing I suppose although I honestly could have done without seeing it and been perfectly happy.  Does that make it not worth seeing?  Perhaps for me, but most people seem to really like it.  I'm going to say this:  Heath Ledger's performance was definitely worth seeing.  Also- Christian Bale made a fine Batman.  Oh and I am a total Christopher Nolan fan.  Maybe I liked this movie alright. 


 June Wall of Shame 

THE EXORCIST (1973) [R] horror.  A local theater (in Salt Lake) is showing some classic movies on the big screen every Wednesday this summer and when Sue caught wind that The Exorcist was playing- we decided to go.  I had never seen it and figured it was about time and how can you pass up seeing it in the theater?  I was really nervous to see it.  I knew the basic story of course and had seen scenes etc almost my whole life from it.  I was so worked up about it I had a nightmare the night before I saw it about it.  It turns out that it didn't scare me as much as I thought it would.  It was all just too familiar and much of it was just too over the top to really scare me.  Sue and I agreed that if you saw this in the theater when it first came out, being a subject that hadn't been done in movies before and the images weren't familiar to you yet- it would most likely scare the ever loving crap out of you.  In this day and age, it's still shocking and scary, but not the same and not so much.  I will admit to being a little nervous when Rob left me alone with the girls overnight a few nights later to go fishing, but I made it though just fine.  I can recommend this movie if you like horror movies and haven't seen it.  It's a good story and well acted and well done.  The story of the priest was very good I thought.  It surprised me at the end.

So far I'm writing down my July movies like a good girl.

Newest Utah Fire

Is hitting a little close to home :(  -well, by home I mean our home before we moved-.  My old neighbor took this pic from her house and it happens to be a direct shot of our old house.  Sad huh?  My beautiful mountains and view.  Thinking of my old friends and neighbors and wishing all these fires would stop.  

The fire seems to be going over the mountain instead of towards the neighborhood, but all it takes is a wind shift.  Towards the back of the mountain means devastation of the Alpine Loop :(  No good options, it's all just depressing.

It's supposed to rain tomorrow for the first time in over 56 days-- almost the longest on record without rain.  That sucks!  But I'm looking forward to the rain and hoping it brings some relief.  

Taken yesterday on our way to Salt Lake

Just an old picture I took a few years ago. 

 Kind of the same angle as the first picture, just no fire.

Scout's Birthday!

Well, my Beantown Monkey turned 7 last week.  Man was she excited for this one.  She has had it planned for months and months.  I let her have party this year (I don't throw one every year, on partyless years I take her out for the day and we do a bunch of fun stuff).  She wanted to have a water party this time and that sounded fine by me.  She has a little plastic pool and I bought a Slip and Slide for the party and filled a bunch of water balloons.  We also had a pinata and played water balloon games for prizes.  But mostly they splashed in the water and laid on towels and did yoga (yeah, I know- weird).  I managed to keep them in the yard until the last 5 minutes, when they all wanted to go to Scout's room and see her horses.  I ran the whole party myself too, so I may have forgotten to take some pictures of the pinata and the games.  Eh. 

Scout requested the exact same cupcake cake I made her a few years ago:

I (politely) explained to her that is kind of lame and asked her if it would be ok if I just came up with a surprise that I knew she would like.  She liked that idea and I came up with something similar but different and she ended up liking it, so that was good.

I only had to make the tiniest batch of fondant and that made me really happy.  Lots of different food colorings though- but it went fairly fast and was kind of fun. 

 (Even though I didn't start until midnight.)

We served the cupcakes with ice cream sodas (raspberry sherbet, sprite and whip cream- with a pirouline cookie)  I tried to make the table look kind of elegant and grown up (ish) and the girl's were thrilled, so it worked out.  AND we only lost one of my inexpensive Ikea water goblets, and it may have been my fault (discovered cracked in the dishwater later).   There was only one second of drama, when Scout dropped her Zebra cupcake on the lawn and it was the last one.  I quickly took the zebra off her fallen one and switched it with an untouched tiger one and all was good again.  Not too bad for having 11 excited little 6 and 7 year olds around for an afternoon I think. 

Can I just share how much I am enjoying raising Scout?  When it comes to kids, she is like the whole ball of wax rolled into one.  She is obedient, smart, and funny.  I like how she isn't a tom boy exactly- she loves pretty dresses and pink, but she could care less about princesses and would rather pretend she is an elephant playing in the dirt.  She makes friends easily and is almost always willing to try new foods.  She still puts her foot down on Mexican food which I can't see her surviving in this family like that forever.  But she will always eat sushi and especially loves the fish eggs on top- so how can you argue with her?  Elle couldn't ask for a better big sister either.  Even though the promise of a sister for Scout didn't turn out the way we had all planned, she has totally rolled with it and embraced Elinor for who she is.  The doctor always gets the third degree from Scout when we bring her in, they are always asked what they are going to do to her, if it will hurt and if she is going to get a shot.  

She always lets me know if she thinks Elle needs something, or looks sad, when I ask them both a question, Scout will answer for herself and then will reply for Elinor too in a special "Elinor voice".  Yesterday they took a bath together (they never do that), and it lasted FOREVER!  The entire time, 20 seconds wouldn't go by without an Elinor belly laugh.  She was so delighted.  Scout washed her hair, splashed water in her face, did silly voices and Elle was just eating it all up.  I haven't heard her so consistently happy for so long in a long while- content- yes, actively laughing- no.  In fact, when I got them out the water was cold.  Neither one seemed to mind, silly little things.  

Anyway, I am SO proud of Scout and just love her so much.  I seriously couldn't ask for a better kid.  Love, love, love you baby girl!

Thought I would post a few pictures of her, then thought about how I have all my favorite pics of her in an album on fb, so if you click here you should be able to view them with or without an account and this saves me a lot of time and hassle.

Alright, here's one of her I love that isn't in that album

Bonnaroo and Regan

A few weeks ago, Rob got invited to go on an overnight fishing trip with a friend.  I told him that he should go, it would be fun (it wasn't, but that's another story).  The only thing that made me nervous about this was that I knew I was going to see The Exorcist (for the first time ever, on the big screen no less) a couple days before he was to leave.  I started wondering if that was a wise thing to do.  I went anyway and it didn't scare me as bad as I thought it might.  (More on that whenever I get around to my what I've been watching post).  Friday came and Rob left, I took the girls out for rice bowls at Rumbi's.  Scout went to bed kind of early and so it was just Elle and I.  Elle, I and a live streaming Radiohead concert at the Bonnaroo Music Festival!  Elinor and I had a great time, the light show was right up her alley and Thom was in such a funny mood.  The concert was a lot of fun, and Thom hinted at a Radiohead/Jack White collaboration (!!!!!!!!!!)

At some point we switched to the laptop (better sound)

Lola joined us after a while

Suck face signaled the end of Elle's concert experience.

While watching I was also texting with Matt while he was watching and I was also chatting with B on facebook.  It was like we were all at the concert together (well sort of, I was lying on my own bed- which is kind of nice too).  My neighbor Charity was also chatting on facebook and by "chatting" I mean she was doing her best to scare the crap out of me.  I had text her earlier that if I come running into her house wild eyed at 1 in the morning it was because Rob is gone and I just saw The Exorcist.  She told me that she and Josh have a king sized bed and I would fit comfortably between them.  What I didn't know was Charity's fiendish side when it comes to scaring people.  She kept reminding me that Regan was most likely watching with us.  She also asked me if I knew the weird looking guy that had been standing outside my house staring at it for the last half hour. 

No thanks to Charity or our hall light that decided to flicker (seriously?- there is light flickering action in the movie) I totally made it without freaking out (and Josh and Charity woke up that morning without 3 additional people in their bed).  I even slept with the lights out- I was proud of that.

However, I made Lola sleep by me.  She stuck around me that night way more then usual.  She slept on the floor by my side of the bed during concert watching time and she has never done that.  She has her own chaise in Elinor's room which is the only piece of furniture she is allowed on, and she pretty much spends her time sleeping there, so it was strange for her to be on the floor there.  Maybe she sensed that she was wanted or maybe she just missed daddy.  After I put Elle to bed however, she took her place on her bed and I got into mine and decided I liked having her there.  So........ I dragged the cushion off her couch and put it next to my bed.  She was in heaven.  She loved it and stayed there all night and I was happy too.

Onwards and Upwards

Elle has graduated from this:

To this:

(Man I look tired!  Perhaps I should have taken the picture at the start of the hike instead the end...) 

I borrowed this backpack from my friend (and next door neighbor and taunter-of-scary-images-at-night-when-Rob-is-out-of-town-just-to-freak-me-out) Charity. 

 I Loved it and Elle loved it and now I need to get me my own.  

I wonder if they make any of these that fit 4 year olds......  

Perhaps I'm not going to want her on my back when she is 4 though.  

Maybe I'll just need to get into better shape.

Remember this?

This was our hike up Timpanogos Cave

One of the best pictures ever.