(no subject)

Who got netflix?

Sam got netflix.

Some of you may remember what [info]juniper200 termed my INSANE LUDDITE POST about DVDs, around this time last year, and I stand by that. I don't like DVDs, for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that as Lore Sjöberg says, "they look just like Playstation games. That's never been an actual inconvenience, but it offends me on an aesthetic level. Different things should look different, dammit." Other reasons include their outrageous price, their lack of convenience, and the fact that I don't care how fancy your player is, no, they still don't fast-forward like videotapes.

Don't even try to argue with me on this one. As with last time, all I will do is brain you with a videotape. And that hurts me more than it hurts you, because I love my videotapes.

However, I will concede to the convenience of having things mailed to my door for free, so I got a two week free netflix trial and two DVDs arrived in my mailbox today.

Now, let it be known that Total Eclipse was not actually my first choice, but I figured, you know, Thewlis, plus I've never actually seen a film with DiCaprio in it. And I still haven't, really, because as Tai put it I "Y Tu Mama Tambiened" my way through it. (Footnote: I had a copy of Y Tu Mama Tambien with no subtitles, so I fast-forwarded through it and stopped at the sex interesting-looking scenes. What?).

That movie is like one long absinthe trip. Things seem normal, for a while, and then something weird happens, and then, normal again. And then there's a naked woman, which is nice, and then there's a naked slapfight, not so nice, and then there's some actual absinthe, which is cool, and then Leonardo DiCaprio can't act, not so cool. I mean, maybe he can act now. But he couldn't when he made this movie. He's very convincing when he pops a wine cork with his shoulderblades, however. It reminded me of Prick Up Your Ears, and not because Gary Oldman is in Prick Up Your Ears, since I saw it years ago when I had no clue who Gary Oldman was but was mildly infatuated with the writings of Joe Orton, who actually used his own deceased mother's false teeth as a stage prop.

Er, the point is, they're both about brilliant young assholes and the slightly-less-talented older men who love them. However, Prick Up Your Ears is marginally more worth watching. Though if you really want the story of Joe Orton, read his plays. Especially Loot. Cos his life is really just heartbreaking. (His insane lover killed him with a hammer.)

The other DVD I got is an old favourite, An Ideal Husband, which features a gay love story between two members of the British upper class is by Oscar Wilde. It really pretty much has it all -- blackmailing prostitutes, politics, wit, gay subtext so strong it becomes gay supertext, like an action hero, and a solarium.

And that's enough rambling for one day, I think. I'm off to watch An Ideal Husband and eat some Amish bread. Made with real Amish!

(no subject)

Well, today was kind of....anticlimactic.

I went to see the "Eyes Wide Open" display on the independence mall, which was well worth the trip and gut-wrenchingly difficult to experience; if you're in the Philadelphia area you should go see it, or if you're on the east coast it's touring all summer. Essentially eight hundred pairs of military boots are laid out in rows, each with the name, age, and state of origin of an American soldier who has died in the Iraq war. Nearby are a thousand pairs of shoes representing Iraqi civilians who have also died. There are a lot of children's shoes, and some photographs too. It's a very simple, silent statement, and it hurts.

Anyhow, after that I should have just gone home. The rest of the afternoon I was pretty much thwarted on a number of levels.

Instead I went to see the Liberty Bell but my expectations far outweighed the actuality, and there were too many people there being way too noisy and really...it's a bell with a big crack in it. I know it's supposed to be a great symbol and all, but it's in this big ugly white room and people don't really seem to be there to see an artefact of American history, they seem to be there because that's what you do when you're in Philadelphia, you have your picture taken with the Liberty Bell. It feels cheap and tacky, the way it's being handled, and it made me feel tacky too. I may go back sometime in mid-July after the crowds for the Fourth are gone, and try again.

I couldn't get tickets to see Independence Hall and wasn't really sure what it was, anyhow, so I walked over to the Atwater Kent museum, which is a very small museum with basically three rooms and a giant map of Philadelphia on the floor. It's neat, I'll admit, but the displays at the moment were early American toys, Philadelphia baseball, and Norman Rockwell paintings, so I sort of overdosed on Americana.

I gave up on going to Penn's Landing to see the sights there, and walked back to Reading Terminal in the hopes of getting my hands on a water ice, but the only place I could find that would sell it had just drawn the attention of a family of nineteen million people (no, seriously) and my train was coming soon, so I bought some cheese instead and went home.

Well, they can't all be perfect days, and a bad day of tourism in Philadelphia still beats a good day of gainful employment anywhere else. So I can't complain too loudly :)

(no subject)

I have discovered the Tastykake. And lo, I am afeared.