Alice in Paris

Apparently there's currently an exhibit in Paris on the inspiration for Disney artists. It looks amazing. The closest it may get to Chicago is Montreal, but maybe I can make that happen??? Probably not. Anyway, this website, which is awesome in its own right, has a very nice post about it.
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/archives/2006_09.html#002309

Excessive info about me

Four Things About Me:

I'm desperate enough to post something that I'm posting silly things about myself. And since I had an image-less post last time, that just isn't okay now. So here you go, not just 4 things about me, but also a picture of me. I may delete this post later.

Things you may not have known about me.....

A) Four jobs I have had in my life:

1. at a daycare
2. writing tutor
3. at the Journal of American History
4. research assistant

B) Movies I would watch over and over:

1. Star Wars trilogy
2. Dirty Dancing
3. 12 Monkeys
4. Pride and Prejudice


C) Four places I have lived:

1. Indianapolis, IN
2. London, UK
3. Bloomington, IN
4. Chicago, IL (these are in fact ALL the places I've lived)

D) Four TV shows I love to watch:

1. The Office
2. Deadwood
3. Gilmore Girls
4. Lost (you can't imagine how hard it was to narrow down to 4)

E) Four places I have been on vacation:

1. Glasgow, Scotland
2. Madrid, Spain
3. Toronto, Canada
4. Ireland

F) Websites I visit daily:

1. webmail
2. kottke.org (this represents one of a billion blogs I visit)
3. nytimes.com
4. televisionwithoutpity.com

G) Four of my favorite foods:

1. sushi
2. soup
3. ice cream
4. peanut butter

H) Four places I would like to be right now:

1. London
2. in bed
3. in the tub
4. fishing

AMB

My friend T has a blog that just lists the movies he's seen lately. I like this idea. I like that he has a document of what he's seen (especially since I so often forget the titles of things I've seen on TCM) and that he doesn't feel the need to rank them or rate them in any fashion. A final caveat: this list doesn't include any of the movies I've seen in the theater this summer. Basically I've created a kind of artificial time barrier for my list of movies. Anyway, here they are:

Network
Walk Softly Stranger
Love Letters
Abominable Dr. Phibes
In Harm’s Way
Shivers
Lemora
Days of Heaven
Black Orpheus
James and the Giant Peach
Matador
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Old School
Sin City
Waiting
Wedding Crashers
Some Kind of Wonderful
Not as a Stranger
The Squid and the Whale
It Happened One Night

Shopping

Since I got back from DC, I've spent most of my time shopping. I went both to a huge church rummage sale in Batavia and the Renegade Craft Fair in Wicker Park. Here are some of the highlights:














All the fabric I could stuff in a bag for $4. I also got some amazing picture books this day, which I'll post later.















I also got a mooshie (little mushroom girl hanging out with my other toys), a yeti shadow puppet, and a small print.

Movies in Maryland

I stayed with my friend Q and his girlfriend R (and now my friend R) while in DC (actually Maryland). It was a bit of a movie marathon. My favorites were:
Black Orpheus. Wow. This is the Orpheus myth set during Carnivale in Rio. I couldn't remember which myth that was when the movie started, though it's more than clear by the end. The music and visuals were awesome, and its mythic strain made it bizarrely surreal toward the end, especially considering how earthy it was up to that point. It was also way more open about sex than I expected, being used to American films from 1959. Very very good.
My other favorite was the Abominable Dr. Phibes. First of all, Joseph Cotten was in this movie. I fucking love Joseph Cotten. Ever since Shadow of a Doubt, though he's also great in Citizen Kane, Walk Softly Stranger, Love Letters, what I've seen of Magnificent Ambersons, and this. Plus I'm an anglophile. And finally, this is more or less a kooky detective story. You should definitely check it out if any of this appeals to you because it's pretty damn awesome.

I also loved the fashion in both movies. I pulled a picture from Dr. Phibes in particular that hopefully shows this. This girl wears amazing outfits the whole movies. And I loved Eurydice's viriginal but hot outfits and hair (and not quite virginal behavior). Yay for movies!

Washington DC

I was in Washington DC for almost two weeks, doing research at National Archives, Library of Congress, and the National Archives of Black Women's History. Since none of that is very exciting, here are some pictures of the Library of Congress itself. Pretty!

TV on DVD

Thanks to Netflix and our friends T and A (ha!), we have been watching Deadwood and Veronica Mars incessantly!!!!!!!!!! We LOVE it. Awesome. TV on DVD is the best.













Things got crazy just last episode(#8 I believe, as T warned it would). Can you guys believe this shit? I can't watch this fast enough.
















Deadwood is also amazing. Pretty much the vibe I heard about Deadwood was "cocksucker." But actually there's been less swearing than I expected, and the series is so smart. I love so many characters, but I'm particularly touched by the Reverend. I guess it's a little close to home right now, but it's still so sad to see him gradually fall to pieces. Okay, this post has become sad and I have to end it anyway because I leave for DC at 6 am tomorrow. I hit three archives in 9 days. It should be insane. Plus I need to buy a portable tripod. Because my friend sucks. Long story. Enough is enough.