Pre Party Party

I hosted a pre party party at my house on Saturday and it was a ball!!!  A friend of mine lives in my condo building and has a big bash every year.  Last year I started this pre-party and we continued on this year.

My god, it was so fun.  

As Andy later said, the thing about a pre-party is that you know everyone's going to leave and not be there all night.  

So true!

And, the actual party was a ball, too.  A bit of a blowout for old Beck, even more so then my purposely tame NYE.

Today is back to life, which, for me, at the moment, means cleaning up my desk, doing laundry, hitting the gym, trying not to spend any money until the work comes in later in the week.

Apparently, tonight, Ohio State plays in the Tostito bowl!  I may just have to make a steak and potatoes and watch the game for my entertainment.

I've watched so many movies over the past month, including this weekend's movie festival of my own making..here are my thoughts:

1) Batman The Dark Knight--Boring and so so

Why?  These kind of movies are far too noisy for my taste, I don't care about advances in blowing things up, there are an awful lot of guns and killing and why can't the whole movie just be the butler and Morgan Freeman?  Why do I always think Gordon is William H. Macy instead of Gary Oldman?  Where did he go when he fake-died?  And the joker!  Man, I guess the way we portray "crazy" is by licking our lips and inventing knife scar stories?  UGH!)  When I told friends I saw it, they look at me with glee, and then I tell them my opinion and they seem disappointed in me. I think if I saw it in a movie theatre I would like it more.

2) 27 Dresses---fine.  Nothing big.

The leads didn't have a whole lot of chemistry together, as much as Heigl was trying to light up the screen with her giant display of teeth smile, he just didn't seem that into her.  And, when a movie is about 27 bridesmaid's dresses, you know it's already a farce.  But if she was such a good friend to all those gals who's wedding she was in, why on earth weren't they part of her life during the movie?  I get why people have beefs with romantic comedies--they are basically poorly written, love to have women engage in a cat fight (in this case, two sisters!  Two sisters with a dead mom!  I mean, come on!  Really?) and love to have women wearing crazy clothes.  These 27 dresses were so god-damn awful.  And I don't mean awful, like, oh that crazy bride picked something that doesn't flatter me.  I mean, awful, in that costumer went crazy and won't it be hilarious to have these super-over-the-top dresses?  Right? We all think tacky clothes are hilarious?  Because we are all smarter then that?

Anyway, with no chemistry, a wanky premise and even with the lovely Heigl slugging her way through, this movie just didn't do it for me. Uh, fine to watch, but nothing great.

3) La Dolce Vita--I didn't read a thing about this movie before watching it, nor had I ever seen any Fellini, so I found myself looking for the narrative to follow.  But once I just chilled out and watched, it was really cool visually. I've been to Rome for a few days of my life, but this movie just made me want to learn Italian immediately and move there.  Nicely done old Fellini.  Some bonus material on the DVD included Fellini TV with some fucked-up cool commercials.  And then an interview with the lady who played the blond Swedish-American actress, Sylvia.  She was washed up in every sense of the word---bloated, a dress that tried to hide her body that was not the same as the one she had in the movie, and so much war paint.  Oh lady! It's ok, you don't have to look that way anymore.  We'll still be interested in you.  Sad. I couldn't really watch it.

4) Into the Wild--By far, my favorite movie of the whole fest.  Man, it was so so great.  So beautifully shot, and such a great adaptation of a wonderful wonderful book.  This is a sad story about a young man who is kind of a dick, but is so recognizable and just seemed to make a few mistakes that cost him his life.  Or made one big huge mistake.  Not sure which, but I loved it.

5) Read after Burning---Those Cohen brothers make some good movies. This one was interesting, but not great.  I mean, the actors are wonderful, the story is kind of, eh.  I don't know what they wanted it to be--a caper? A crime story?  I wasn't satisfied, though I was impressed by the performances.  Don't hurry out for this one.

Now, onto laundry!