Little Miss Sunshine: Film Review

Trailer:



Overview:

I know I'm several years late on watching this movie but here goes. I loved it. Mostly I just wanted to watch a movie that was different from what I normally watch. Not only did it fulfill my need for something different, but it was also an excellent study in character development. When I listened to the film commentary, they said it was hard to explain to people why they should see the film because the characters were the most interesting part while the plot wasn't. I agree. Although, I did really like the fact that it wasn't really about the beauty pageant in the end but rather the development of the family dynamic.

Steve Carell and Abigail Breslin are hands down the best performances. It doesn't hurt that I have a soft spot for Carell as a Denison alum, but I really did think this is easily one of his best roles. Breslin didn't have any over-exaggeration in her role that I normally see in child acting. When she was excited, it was so absolutely genuine, yet I feel she must have been playing a character very different from herself because it's also generally easy to spot if children are playing themselves because they're simply being but not projecting the character. I may be dissolving into incoherency, but even while the performance was so believable, I also feel that a performance of that complexity could not have simply come from accident.

Favorite Scenes:

I love the scene in the beginning where the word "Sunshine" is transposed over Steve Carell's depressed face.

I love Breslin hopping up and down as she listens to the answering machine. It's such a happy scene and she does it so well. I actually wondered if they had a trampoline under her as the hopping was so impressive.

8 /10 Stars * * * * * * * *

Spoilers:

The grandfather was the hardest character for me to feel sympathetic towards but I loved how the family came together over his death. I was actually talking to the screen, telling them to steal the body!

Cafe Rolle: Review

It occurs to me this may not be a particularly helpful review to any of my normal blog readers, as I don't think any of them live in this area. All the same, my friend had the idea to sample all the highest reviewed sandwich places in the area. We started at Cafe Rolle, a French deli. I had a chicken pâté and goat cheese sandwich and it was delicious. I love pâté but find most of it to be a little heavy if I eat too much. Cafe Rolle's chicken pâté, on the contrary, was a nice, light flavor. We also talked about the bread which was an excellent complement to the stronger sandwich flavor but I've begun to formulate a theory that the reason I have trouble finding the French bread I loved in France is there are probably French bread for sandwiches and French breads just for eating without anything (the latter being what I miss). This was very much a sandwich bread. I followed with an order of crème brûlée. I'm not sure I've ever had crème brûlée before, so I couldn't compare it to others, but I certainly enjoyed it, particularly the crispy top. I was surprised at how cool the rest of the custard was since, with the way the caramel was stuck, I could tell they had actually flambéed the top instead of just putting burnt caramel on top.

I also just learned that not all pâté is liver and had to apologize to my friend as I seem to have disturbed her by leading her to believe she was eating a liver sandwhich. But I watched the owner make the chicken pâté on his website and it was just ground chicken breast mixed with egg and goat cheese and various herbs.

Goin' To A Party

I'm going to my friend Kara's for a party and I'm not sure I'll be back in time to blog properly. But I can at least say I finally did some editing last night. Last time I checked in I had: 206,109 words and now I have 203,308 words. I know I didn't do all of that last night so I guess I haven't been a total slacker but I still need to pick up my game.

Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides
Film Review

Trailer:



Overview:

For a movie with 4 in the title, it was actually pretty good, which isn't to say ground-shaking, but it was a lot better than I expected. Although, one should keep in mind I've never been a huge fan of the franchise. I don't hate the movies but they're nowhere on a list of my favorites. Mostly I only watch them to see Johnny Depp dance around in a pirate outfit and see special effects. This movie delivers very well on those two, so I had nothing to complain of. The story was good in that it was easy to follow, made sense with the characters, and allowed Johnny Depp to dance around in a pirate costume. To be honest, I liked the story better than a few of the others in the series because I felt like they weren't trying to do too much or be too weird or abstract. On a random note, I was a bit surprised that Amanda Seyfried agreed to such a bit role in the movie.

7 / 10 stars * * * * * * * A good enough distraction.

Jean Valjean Was Born This Way

Wow, remembering to blog daily is going to take some getting used to again. Or just telling my sister so I'll owe her a ton of treats if I don't. That might help me remember. Anyway, here's a quick links post. More substantial ones to come.

Best interview EVER!



This song never fails to make me happy:

Dark Places: Book Review

BLOG NOTE: I've decided to start to blog again daily because I have the time again. But I'm thinking of changing the structure a bit. More on that when I work it out.

Summary
Libby Day's entire family was butchered when she was only seven years, old and the one locked away for their murders was her brother. But now that Libby's an adult, a club investigating her family's murders makes her doubt everything that she's ever believed.

Overview (No Spoilers)
The characters are hard to like, which is usually a turn off for me, but there were enough bits of sad and recognizable humanity in Libby to keep me going. I felt bad for her mother and didn't care at all for her brother or his friends as characters. For a murder mystery, the imagery was very well done. I'm not used to mysteries being particularly artsy in their descriptions. At the same time, I felt the plot, structure, and pacing, were all complex enough where I was compelled to keep reading but couldn't predict the end.

Book Club (Spoilers)
We talked about this book in my actual book club and a lot of people did not like the end of the book. They seemed to feel it stretched the credibility of how much Libby could change. But I didn't feel as if she was that changed at the end. She indicates that Diane had always forgiven her before. With such certainty and the fact that she's all Diane has left, I actually thought it was surprising that Diane didn't forgive her earlier and began to wonder if she might be dead. Also, while didn't care for Ben and I think he was pretty guilty for allowing his girlfriend to murder at least one of his sisters, I was less annoyed with him as an adult and could understand perfectly well why he would feel honorbound to keep the secret to protect Diondra and his child. Although, I did hate Diondra and I'm surprised her baby wasn't born malformed with all her drug use.

The Conspirator: Film Review

Trailer:



Overview:

I found it interesting that the movie was about due process of the law and not necessarily innocence or guilt. Obviously, they lean toward one assumption but the point is that the method of the trial is wrong. I wanted to find out more about the lawyer Frederick Aiken, afterwards, but I think it would take a bit more in depth historical research than I'm used to doing.

Last Week In Cherie News

My novel got rejected by Jennifer Jackson at the Donald Maass Literary Agency, but I will have an interview for one of the library positions I applied for, so that's good. I'm used to rejections from literary agencies; I pretty much expect them. But sometimes I wonder if it says something that I get them so quickly... A lot of people complain about having to wait too long but they seem to decide quite quickly they don't want me. Oh well. I know my books at a marketing disadvantage, so it's not exactly a surprise.

I also saw Thor with my sister on Friday and enjoyed. I liked that Loki was a complex character and, even though I'm pretty sure it's not what the writer's intended, I can imagine that everything was all part of Loki's plan. Loki also looks good in a suit. Thor was exactly the sort of stupid jock character I expected and the romance just never sparked, there was no chemistry between the actors, but even if there had been, not enough scenes were written in to make me believe they were in love. Thor's friends also seemed a bit flat as characters. But overall I enjoyed the story (since they had a fair amount of Loki) and Heimdall was a great character as well even tough he didn't have a lot of lines, the scenes and lines he did have did a good job of establishing his character.

In Cherie News...

Who cares that Osama Bin Laden was killed or that At&t has started capping its Internet services. I know you all care more about what's going on in my life, right? Okay, I admit I kinda care about the At&t thing because that's the provider my family uses. I wish I could care more about the Bin Laden thing, but I'm too practical to think it fixes much of anything or that someone couldn't try to take over for him. I don't really have a problem with other people celebrating homicidal crazy dude's death, but I just can't get excited about it myself. It doesn't take back 10 years of war, it won't magically fix all the problems in Afghanistan or the Middle East, and it doesn't change the fact that there are still plenty of scary people who hate us.

Anyway, enough of depressing news and onto what really matters. Me.

So I forgot to say in my last (possibly overly introspective and moody post) that I got a part-time shelving job at the library where I volunteer. It's not much, but better than nothing while I look for a real library job, and all the staff are really supportive of my job search, which is the best thing I could ask for in a part-time position. Okay, I could maybe ask for more money, but support is nice.

I applied to several open positions in the local area and I'm still waiting to hear back on two youth positions and two library associate positions.

Also, on April 30th, I sent a query for my novel to the Donald Maass, Literary Agency, specifically Jennifer Jackson who handles fantasy novels.

Ephemeral

I often regret the fleeting beauty of spring. My favorite flowers are Magnolias, but I have a soft spot for all flowering trees. I envy my friends in the Midwest and on the East Coast, spring is just beginning for you. I feel it already ending here in California.

In Japanese culture the cherry blossom represents the ephemeral nature of youth and beauty. I just wish this was something I could accept more easily. I'm not saying I'm particularly concerned about my youth or beauty. But it's the ephemeral nature of the joys of life that I struggle with, that so many joys in life are fleeting as well. I now I should celebrate them while they last, but I somehow always find myself wondering why they can't, wishing there was some way to preserve the cherry blossoms or take a Magnolia from the tree without it falling apart. But these things cannot work. You can only enjoy these things while they live in their own way, there is no taking them or controlling them, or you lose what makes them great.

New Phone

I had to get a new cell phone today because my old one was being very quirky. Of course, now that I've replaced it, it's on its best behavior. I have mixed feelings about the upgrade. On one hand I loathe cell phone companies and hate giving them my money. On the other hand, my new phone has a keyboard, which I'm sure won't be impressive to all you smart phone carriers, but I was using an old razor phone. Now, I loved that phone, and the fact that it was a hand-me-down that my sister got for free. But it was not optimized for texting. And if I was going to have to spend any money on a phone, I decided I may as well get one that made my life easier.

Calamity Jack Youth Graphic Novel Review and New Weekly Schedule

Summary

In this sequel to Rapunzel's Revenge we learn Jack's back story which includes some magic beans, a giant, and floating penthouse? Jack also yearns to show Rapunzel he's a sauve city boy--but upon returning home he finds his city on the verge of destruction and his mother kidnapped by giants! Can he save the day in time and win Rapunzel's love? Find out in this clever, fast-paced steam-punk adventure!

Overview

The story of this and its predecessor are both delightfully clever while still being unambiguously age appropriate. They manage to make a good story without talking down to children, which is what I look for in good youth fiction. Their plot-lines both follow and stray crazily from the original fairy tales but it's always good.

The characters might be a little simplistic but they're still more fleshed out than their fairy tale counterparts and their standard motivations like love, fear, and jealousy are easy to relate to. It's also hard not to love them and want good things to happen to them. They are the stuff childhood heroes are made of.

I also enjoy the bright colors and style of the artwork. The drawings are a little Disney-esque if Disney did awesome steam-punk fairy tales.

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In blog news. I'm thinking I'm only going to remember weekly posts if they are on a specific day. Since I seem to have forgotten this week. So the new day shall be Sunday. I should be able to swing that. We'll see. If not, I'll change it. But for now, expect to see a post every Sunday.

March Madness! New Weekly Blogs.

Okay, I think that's a sports term, but it just sounded like a good title. Anyway, I said I would return in March, and though one day late, I still fully intend to. However, with my life having become significantly more full recently, I'm not sure the daily thing will work. I'm a little wary of weekly blogs as I could barely remember the daily ones. And because of the nature of my schedule changes, there really won't be one day that works for me every week. But I shall prevail! Or fail epically... Either way, I'm hoping it'll be fun to watch. I think I'll also have to drop my daily themes for now, but I may bring them back. We'll see. I'm going to have to play it fast and loose for a bit, but I'm not ready to break up with my blog quite yet. So if you're a loyal reader, watch this space! There should be weekly blogs from now on. Also feel free to pester/punish me as need be if I do stop posting with no notice at all.

Blog Optional February

This month is crazy! So I think for the rest of it my blog will be optional. You'll all hear from me again in March.

Wildcard Wednesday
Factoid

Bounty hunters are only legal in the US and the Philippines.

Review Friday
Sony Product Review: Ultimate Durability

I promise I have not sold my soul to Sony, nor are they paying me. But they could pay me if they wanted to. That'd be cool.

Anyway, I have three Sony products that I use regularly: my Sony earbuds, my Sony portable CD player, and my PSP.

My earbuds are currently the most impressive to me because all my previous earbuds would be amazing if they reached 1 year. These are at least two years, if not more. I can't quite recall when my sister got me my CD player that these came with. Regardless, they're the Gilgamesh of earbuds. I'm also very abusive, so there have been exposed wires on these earbuds for some time and I was sure there were goners but they still work just as well as they did before I violently yanked them every time I forget they're attached to my head (more frequently than I'd like to admit).

As for the CD player--and yes, I still use a portable CD player--my earbuds came with it, so it's the same age. It still runs great, and I've dropped it several times already as always happens with all my portable devices.

I don't actually play games on my PSP, which I understand is its primary purpose. Instead I use it as a portable music and audio device--like an iPod. Admittedly, there are a few important differences between it and an iPod. First, it's bigger than an iPod. Basically the same size as my hand. But for me this isn't a downfall as I would always be terrified of losing an iPod. Then there's the replaceable battery, also something the iPod does not have, and the reason my sister purchased them in favor of iPods. The interface, however, is a downfall. I'm assuming an iPod would be more optimized to shuffle and arrange music without having to do clever things on the computer. But the most invaluable part of my PSP is that it seems just as durable as my earbuds and CD player. It was a hand-me down from my mother so I'm not sure of its age. But it has borne with my tossing it about for the past two years as well. This entire review was prompted by how, upon dropping my PSP on the train, and having the battery case pop off, the battery scatter across the floor, and the SD card holder pop open, I heard one of the passengers exclaim "Oh, no!" as if they expected I'd broken it. But I told them not to worry, but all the pieces back in order, and was not surprised when everything worked exactly as before because this has actually happened many times. Not that it happens easily if you're a normal person--but a complete clutz (like myself) can be assured of keeping any of these devices for some time to come.

On a personal note, there will be no Saturday, Sunday, or Monday posts as my next few days have become quite full.

Info Thursday
Saga of King Hrolf kraki

The old Norse saga above includes a Loathly Lady story that sounds a little more similar to the one I read because the lady asks to sleep in his bed and he reluctantly agrees and then she turns into a beautiful elf. Then her rapes her. Lesson: don't turn into a beautiful elf around strange men. The story I read as a child did not include rape, so this isn't it, but it's interesting. I do remember something about a house in the woods and she slept in the bed.

Wildcard Wednesday
Orion

Orion is my favorite constellation and is almost like a friend. He's always been there for me and used to look like he hung right over my apartment in Ohio. He makes me think of home and safety. My sister took this lovely picture, as I am not nearly so good with a camera in the dark. Click on the picture to zoom in and see it best. Orion is to the right over the trees. His belt (the three stars lined up) and dagger are most visible. The bright star to the lower left is Sirius, the dog star.

Diary Tuesday
The Loathly Lady

When I was a child I heard some old folktale about a man marrying a truly hideous woman who became beautiful once they were married. But I will never forget the ending because it was so strange. Rather than her beauty being a simple happily ever after, it said he never forgot her ugly form. It was so bizarre that I've always wished I could find the story again, but I can't recall the name. While volunteering in the library today, I found a book with a very similar story called The Loathly Lady, but without the disturbing ending. Still, I think I may be on the right track because many folktales have several different versions, so it may be if I search enough Loathly Lady stories, I'll find the one I read all those years ago.

Writing Stats Monday

I just sent my first query of the New Year!