white noise

While scarfing Chinese takeout from a rather new place downtown, Jon and I watched Akeelah and the Bee this last Sunday evening. Although predictable and trite in some areas, it’s a decent movie, well worth watching. Laurence Fishburne does a wonderful job portraying Dr. Joshua Larabee, Akeelah’s spelling coach, and Keke Palmer plays her part (Akeelah) exceptionally well.

Oohohoh, I got it. I got it! Some really smart geek-type needs to invent a shrink ray and just shrink everything but the environment down about 100X our normal sizes. Really, think of the waste reduction and our resources would really strrrrrrrrrrretch then.

:P

Here’s a picture of the engagement ring. It’s blue. Very very blue. :) Jon hasn’t been much into blogging lately, but if you’re of a mind, you can throw fluff and confetti at him here.

I swear, have ya’ll seen how much weddings can cost these days? $20,000? I saw a little cut from The View about two weeks ago. Disney World offers wedding packages for parties of up to 50 people that start — START — at $50,000. Are you NUTS?! I mean, I’m all over the “it’s your special day,” and “you should feel like a princess,” but I think I’d feel quite queenly with a newly remodeled house. :P

I had a dream
once.
I met a prince
and eventually
married him.
Then I kissed him.
Magic spell broken,

He turned into a toad.

Watch El Laberinto del Fauno (aka Pan’s Labyrinth). Mind you, it’s dark fantasy, wrought with violence and not intended for the faint of heart (or young children!). The story is beautiful and the movie — unlike most Hollywood movies these days — has substance. Don’t get me wrong, I love Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Chronicles of Narnia, and they each have a certain majesty, beyond being just eye-candy, but Pan’s Labyrinth is moving much in the way Sophie Scholl – Die letzten Tage is moving.

I don’t care for gratuitous violence or gore (says she who cut her movie molars on B matinée horror flicks) and this movie does deal its fair share of gritty scenes. It hits like an iron fist and what makes it so riveting is the realism it portrays — this fascist darkness hovering over Spain, a sadistic army general who kills unabashedly, much in the way one imagines Hitler did. Then we have Ofelia, newly arrived step daughter, along with her sick and pregnant mother, soon to be trapped in both, the nightmare of human brutality and the fantasy of fairy tales.

See the movie. It’s worth every cent.