Relaxing

I did nothing but relax this weekend. It felt so good. I stayed at Alice's the entire weekend. She had her family over for dinner Saturday. I wanted to hear all about their 24-day trip to Northen Europe and Italy. Alice made barbecued ribs with a Costco rub and sweet back's sauce. It was delicious. With Rhonda out of town, Sandy has been with me. She's such a sweet puppy. Gwen and I connected on FaceTime today. Fun. Alice and I watched another episode of the West Wing. This morning Alice and I hung out at Golden Gate Park. A very relaxing weekend!

Website

I'm building my website for September submissions. It's fun! Weebly is a great site, very simple and professional looking. I love sites that make things simple. There are so many bright minds making my life easier. I thank them all. My website has gotten me thinking about my identity as a writer. What kind of writer am I? My favorite part of the website, aside form the Alice tab, is my Influences tab. Aside from books and movies, I've been so influenced by TV shows. In many ways, great TV shows are my greatest influence.

Limitless

I watched Limitless with Alice last weekend and again last night. The first 60-70 minutes of this film are fantastic. Really exceptional. I loved the feel, the writing (by Leslie Dixon), the acting, the atmosphere, everything. I could have done without the Russian mob and the silly chase with the mystery bad guy and the main character's girlfriend, but up until the ending I was totally hooked, thinking this film was as good as Fight Club. Then came the ending. I hated it. It felt like totally the wrong note to end on. It rang false. It's sad when potentially great films end wrong.

3 Films

Saw a couple of films:

Interesting storyline, though the reveals weren't very surprising. The ending has a POV problem until I assumed we were in Jake's head the entire time. Vera Farmiga is a delight to watch, though I didn't understand why her character was so abrupt and detached early on. What's lost if she's more sympathetic and encouraging?

Unknown might have been decent had it not been so unbelievable and ridiculous. Did we really need that endless, silly chase scene? Why do movies do that? And January Jones dying the way she did at the end...please. This is either a really bad 2-star film or a pretty decent one-and-a-half star film. Ugh.

I'll be the first to acknowledge that Paul Giamatti is a brilliant actor. I love the guy, but how does someone who looks the way he does get all these beautiful women? I mean, really. Also, why on earth would his third wife have anything to do with a guy as crazy as Barney. The ending dovetailed into one of the silly soap operas produced by Totally Unnecessary Productions. I didn't get this film, though really liked Dustin Hoffman, Minnie Driver, Paul G. and Rosamund Pike.

I'm waiting for a really good film to fall into, Cuckoo's Nest good.

Party for Neil

On Sunday, Richard and Lisa threw a party for Neil, who will be a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge in Los Angeles. I'm so thrilled for him. He's going to make an absolutely brilliant judge. He's incredible smart, fair, and thoughtful. I have a feeling he's going to like LA a lot.

Busy

Just received all seven seasons of “The West Wing” on DVD through eBay. Should get the script books later this week. I plan to study this TV show like a college physics class. So much to admire from it. So much that’s good! They made 22 episodes each season, versus 12 or so on HBO and AMC.

I’m struggling with so much choice, so many books to read, movies to watch, TV shows to digest. So many blogs to read, sites to explore, games to play. There’s never enough time.