It is such a giant cliché, but it totally works on me (see the name of my URL). For example, some of my favourite characters are: Harry Potter, Ryan Atwood, Chris Chambers, Jack Mercer, Lee Adama, Severus Snape, Nu!Trek Jim Kirk, everyone in The Outsiders – I could go on. It’s pathetic really, how totally predictable I am and how quickly I prefer this archetype. But I’ve learned to accept my quirks for what they are and embrace them.

And now I’ve added a few more to my list. Sam and Dean Winchester from the TV show Supernatural. This is my latest obsession. The premise of the show is that Sam and Dean are two brothers who hunt demons and other Bad Things. Lots of monsters and ghosts abound. But this is not what drew me in. What got me was the relationship between the brothers, the I-Will-Do-Anything-To-Protect-You attitude, particularly from older brother Dean. And if I have a thing for lost boys, throw a bunch of them together and make them brothers? Well, I’m done for (see again: The Outsiders, Four Brothers).

I’ve been feeding my new Supernatural obsession with the DVDs The show is currently in season five and I recently purchased Seasons 1-4 from eBay. I am bound and determined to get caught up by March 25th when the show returns from hiatus.

This stuff is my crack.  It is an illness, I swear, lol.

Today was that day.

I was training it to Barrie for Christmas and started up WALL-E.  And, oh man.  I thought PIXAR were geniouses before, but now?  WOW.  I LOVED this movie.  I wanted everyone I know in the world to watch it.

It is so freaking adorable!  I know that’s hardly a ringing endorsement, but the was this movie manages to pull you in and tug at your heart strings with only minimal dialogue is hard to dsecribe.  How they managed to get one animated robot to give such a completely heart rendering “performance” — especially the facial expressions OMG!

Highly reccommended.  One of my new favourites.

Eastern Promises is about the mystery surrounding a Russian girl who dies in child birth.  The midwife on duty takes the girl’s diary (written in russian, of course) and attempts to translate it to find out the girl’s story.

I wasn’t 100% sure I wanted to watch this movie.  Randomly violent plotlines, particularly those involving any sort of mafia, aren’t really my thing.  Indeed, the brutally violent and disgusting opening scene (or perhaps it is the second, but it’s right up there at the front) had me looking away and covering my eyes.  I definitely had my doubts.

But I’m glad I stuck in out.  This movie deserved every award it received and every nomination as well.  It surprised me greatly.  Highly recommended.

But sometimes that’s the best way to see a movie that’s based upon a book.  I could go into it with very few preconceived notions.  It was a really, really good movie, as these things go.  My nephew told me that they had changed things, but it didn’t seem too drastic.  But then, 9 year olds aren’t really that detail oriented.

The visuals of the movie were beautiful; I especially loved the scene with Lucinda and the flower fairies (pixie? sprites? I have no idea.  But they were super cute.).  And Freddie Highmore, who plays Jared and Simon was brilliant.  I had no idea it wasn’t actually two separate boys.  And he hides his accent *really* well.

I enjoyed the movie so much that I went out and ordered the following books:

• The Spiderwick Chronicles – The Complete First Series (all five books)
• The Chronicles of Spiderwick: A Grand Tour of the Enchanted World, Navigated by Thimbletack
• Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You

But before I get into the whinging and complaining about code, the background/story behind the site and the domain. Because, of course, there is one.

In all the fic I write, most of the fic I read and a fair chunk of the tv and movies I love, there is a theme. I confess that I have a thing for the “little boy lost” story. See: Harry Potter, The OC, Stand by Me, Seaquest. The more orphaned the better, apparently. It’s wildly embarrassing for a 30 year old woman to get all emotional over themes like this, and I’m sure there’s some sort of psychological explanation for it, but I’d rather not think too hard about it. You love what you love. Embarrassing or not.

So. While I was reading Deathly Hallows I came across a line that just about killed me. It went like this:

Hogwarts was the first and best home he had known. He and Voldemort and Snape, the abandoned boys, had all found home here.

It kills me every time. Every. Time.

I was thinking about it after that, and it occured to me that that particular line “the abandoned boys” could so easily apply to all the characters I really love.

I thought about registering the domain for a while, but figured it would be taken. But yesterday I found a really good deal on hosting and registration AND the domain was available, so I grabbed it up.

But man the “site builder” that comes with the hosting package is pants. It’s completely useless. And I haven’t been able to find any free HTML editor yet. Well I did find one, used it, was happy and then discovered when it came time to publish that it could only be used to post to their company’s hosted sites. NOT something it says on the software download page at all.

Hours down the drain. Plus all the time it took to make the banner. I don’t know why I do this to myself. I’m distinctly not a techie. Ah well. Some skills you learn the hard way.

Oh the Long Room. This place is clearly the inspiration for the Jedi Archives in Episode II: A Horrible, Horrible Movie.

I totally geeked out when I was there — and not just because of the Star Wars thing (although that was pretty huge). But man is this place a real library. The kind you can sink into.

Unfortunately I have no pictures of it, because pictures were not allowed.

But it was BRILLIANT.

The Jedi Archives

Trinity College Library

I am so glad that I went.  This movie is getting rave reviews for a reason.  It’s the directorial debut of Canada’s own Sarah Polley (who also wrote the adapted screenplay, based on a short story by Alice Munro, which I will now have to read), and it has a stunning cast who act beautifully.

And it is easily the saddest thing I have ever seen.  And that’s saying a lot.

Away From Her is a very simple story at heart, about a man who must put his wife in a home when she begins to suffer from Alzheimer’s.  A story that is far too real for many people I’m sure.  But there’s more to it than that; without giving anything away, I’ll just say that what happens once his wife is in the home will break your heart into a thousand pieces.

I highly, highly recommend seeing this if you can manage it.

New international trailer. So, so awesome.

I’d been wanting to see this movie for over a year. It had played at one of the repitory theatres here in town, but I never quite got around to it.

Anyway, the movie was filmed and French and as this was a French class, we also watched it with the French subtitles turned on (makes it much easier to understand what people are saying that way). Even watching it in my less than stellar second language I thought the film was brilliant.

The main story of Les Choristes is how a failed musician takes a post as a teacher at a “troubled boys school”. As you may predict, he manages to pull together the boys and form a chorus, which of course is generally well received (except by the school’s strict headmaster).

While the teacher-reaches-troubled-students-through-art is hardly an original premise, the story is nonetheless touching (particularly little Pepineau). The thing that gives this movie its edge is the music. All the choir music is original for the film and it is absolutely gorgeous. One of my favourites – Vol sur ton chemin – was nominated for an Oscar last year, I believe.

(Although I must say I’m glad I didn’t know the song at the time, because to hear Beyonce Knowles butcher it probably would have been more than I can take.)

I ended up renting the film that same weekend and watching it again with the English subtitles, and was pleasantly surprised to note that I missed very little of the story in French.

It’s not original, but it is archetypical, and those types of stories cross language barriers.

I saw this movie last night after wanting to see it for quite a while, and it did not let me down. But likely that’s because I wasn’t expecting much beyond “Top Gun in the water”. The Guardian was cheesy and formulaic, but damn it! That formula works for me!

The story is about rescue swimmers in the US Coast Guard, and centres around the characters of Ben Randall (or, as we loving know him “Senior Chief”) and Jake Fischer (okay, heh). You follow them through a course at A School where Randall, as a shining star of the USCG, goes to lick some wounds, and where Jake goes to prove himself and (whadaya know!) lick some wounds.

Most people will want to keep this as a renter, probably, as there is absolutely nothing new here. And hey, maybe the recruitment numbers for the USCG will go up (I’m sure they’re hoping for that effect). But Ashton is pretty and can cry really well, and Kevin isn’t so bad himself after all this years. Myself, I loved seeing Dule Hill (yay Charlie!) in a small film role.