Archerr

What's your favorite movie?

This morning I went to see Mamma Mia. It was the first time in my life that I went to a movie by myself. The boyfriend is still on vacation so he couldn't go with me. I was just in a mood to see a movie. I went to the 9:50 AM show because I was up and wanted to get the lower price. Even at the matinee price of $6.00, it was probably too much to pay to see the movie. Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed seeing the movie. The story was fun, and I thought Amanda Seyfried did a great job acting and singing. And of course there were several hot guys to see in the movie. But the older people in the movie were awful singers and shouldn't have done any singing. I love Meryl Streep but at times in this movie I thought she was over acting and it seemed fake. Anyway, I did enjoy going to the movie and it wasn't too odd going alone.

The boyfriend and I saw Brokeback Mountain shortly after it came out and we loved it. Then we saw Crash and realized why Crash won the Oscar for Best Movie.

I bought the DVD of Brokeback Mountain when it came out but never watched it. I just finished watching it for the first time since seeing it in the theatre. I'm in awe of the story and thoroughly love the movie. It's got to be one of my favorite movies. I'm such a sucker for a love story. I shed a few tears as I did the first time I saw it. During the movie I felt so bad for Ennis. He lived such a sad life. Even though I'd seen it before, I still hoped that Jack and Ennis would have created a life together. We need a movie where men like Jack and Ennis create a life together without fear and poverty.

Anyway, it's a great movie. You should see it again.

W. is out of town visiting his family in New Orleans so I've been alone this weekend. I've spent the weekend so far migrating all my blog archives. That is now finished. I've also spent the weekend watching holiday movies. I've probably watched way too many but I do so enjoy the old holiday movies. So far this weekend I've watched:

In The Good Old Summertime
A Christmas Carol
Little Women
Going My Way
Holiday Inn
The Shop Around The Corner
Christmas In Connecticut
Meet Me In St. Louis

Every year I watch these movies and love them every time. Of course I also eat a healthy dose of popcorn while watching the movies.

This afternoon I decided to turn off the computer and enjoy a movie and some popcorn in my living room. I should watch movies in there more often. I have a 32 inch flat screen Sony TV and a Bose surround sound system. You'd think I'd take advantage of these items more often. But I usually spend time in my computer room. I usually have the computer on and the TV on at the same time. I have a 27 inch regular TV in that room. It's a decent set up and I spend most of my time in that room. Anyway, I decided to watch Food Of Love and enjoy a bag of delicious 94% Fat Free Kettle Corn. Doesn't that sound delicious? I put the movie in and began popping the popcorn. This time I didn't burn it. I stayed close and listened. When the popping slowed to 1 to 2 seconds between pops, I pushed the cancel/stop button on the microwave. The directions are pretty good if you just read them and follow them.

The movie was pretty good. It's based on the book "The Page Turner" by David Leavitt. The acting wasn't that great but I did like the story. Plus, Kevin Bishop, the guy who plays the page turner is really cute. He's very young and not a very good actor but not bad to look at. The thing I liked best was the music. The score was perfect. I loved that music. It's mostly classical. Not many people enjoy classical but it fit perfectly with the movie.

During the movie I ate the bag of popcorn I had popped. It wasn't too bad actually. I like kettle corn. It's the appropriate blend of sweet and salt. Of course I washed it down with a bottle of spring water. I have to make sure I drink plenty of water with salty things. I love popcorn but it gets in your teeth. I wish they could make a popcorn without the kernel skin that surrounds the popped pieces of corn. Those little kernel pieces always get in between my teeth. So after enjoying the bag of popcorn I spent a few minutes flossing my teeth. Then I felt something at the back of my tongue. So far back that I can't reach it. Sure enough, it was a piece of that pesky kernel skin that was stuck in my teeth. I could not get it out! It was like it was itching the back of my tongue and making me swallow over and over. I hate that! So to help break it free, I had to eat some peanut butter crackers. Even though I know I shouldn't eat these fat filled crackers, I knew I just had to get that kernel skin off of my tongue. After 6 delicious peanut butter crackers, the kernel was gone and I felt better. I'll just have to walk an extra mile tomorrow to work off those crackers.

Typical Saturday night for me. No dates. Alone again. So what do I do? Get on AOL and Gay.com and watch the screens fly by. I did have a great chat with Patrick. He's the iMovie guru who taught me everything I know. Too bad he's on the other coast. So then I let the computer sit there while I decided to watch the DVD I rented on Friday, Goodbye, Lenin!

I mentioned it in my post on Friday but I got the description wrong. Here's the description from IMDB:

East Germany, the year 1989: A young man protests against the regime. His mother watches the police arresting him and suffers a heart attack and falls into a coma. Some months later, the GDR does not exist anymore and the mother awakes. Since she has to avoid every excitement, the son tries to set up the GDR again for her in their flat. But the world has changed a lot.

I really enjoyed the movie. It was German with English subtitles. The music was typically period East German music. I really liked the length at which the main character, Alex (played by cutie Daniel Brühl), went to convince his mother that East Germany was still alive and well during her 8 month coma. He truly loved his mother and didn't want the fall of the Wall cause her death. He could have also been feeling guilty because his mother had the heart attack when she saw him protesting the regime. He was determined to make sure the rest of her life was filled with the memories of East Germany. I think he succeeded. There were a few funny parts. Once when she looked out the window and saw a Coca Cola banner hanging from a near by building. Another humorous time was when they were trying to re-create a news show from East Germany and a poster in the back ground fell off the wall. Mostly this was a serious movie. There was some great historical footage of the Wall coming down. If you are looking for a decent foreign film to rent, check out Goodbye, Lenin!

Here are the results from my fourth poll. The poll was the brain child of my friend David. He was convinced that gay men who are good friends help each other with their manscaping. Now I believe him. It's nice to have good friends who will help you get through an emotional crisis as well as wax the hair off your back.

I started the day editing video from my vacation. I was only able to complete one little video showing the mountains of West Virginia. You can see it below. Just click on the picture. Of course you'll need Quicktime to see it. Anyway, so after I finished that video I got bored and watched some TV. I was watching the View. It was a rerun. They had the cast of "The Stepford Wives" on. I hadn't seen that movie. When the show was over, I decided to walk down to the video store and see if it's out on DVD. It wasn't. But I looked around and found some titles that I really hadn't seen but have talked about with Shawn and others. So I picked up Along Came Polly, The Station Agent, and Goodbye Lenin.

I started with Along Came Polly. I know, I know. This isn't the cinematic gem that some might think it is but I wanted to see it anyway. Even though this was a silly movie, there were things about it that I liked. I liked several of the songs that were in the movie. Songs always evoke emotions in me so hearing some of these songs brought up emotions. None of which had anything to do with the movie. The two songs that evoke emotions were Don't You Forget About Me by Simple Minds and Let My Love Open The Door Pete Townshend. I don't know why these songs stood out but the lyrics were so fitting. Anyway, I did enjoy the music. Another thing I liked about this movie was the way Ben Stiller's character learned how to salsa dance because Polly liked to dance. I thought that was very thoughtful of him. I know it's silly, but I thought it was hilarious.



After watching Along Came Polly, I watched The Station Agent. This movie was a bit odd. It was about a little person, FinnFinn, (that picture doesn't do him justice) who inherited a train station and decides to live in it. He meets some people in the town and basically becomes friends with them. We go through their problems and learn more about them. Shawn told me about this movie a long time ago so of course I had to watch it. I know he liked it because he likes Bobby Cannavale. I actually liked this movie too. It's not your run of the mill movie that everyone would like but it does have it's moments. Surprisingly, the little person, Finn, reminded me so much of Brad. He looks just like him and the character had the exact same personality as Brad. Granted, Brad is not a little person, but Finn has the same facial features as Brad. What struck me most was the personality traits that this character had and how they were SO much like Brad. Anyway, I did enjoy the movie.

I still have yet to watch Goodbye Lenin. I know it's about a boy in one of the Baltic states whose mother is in a coma. When she comes out of the coma she thinks it's still in the time of Lenin. Her son goes to extreme lengths to make her believe it. It should be a good movie. I've heard and read good things about it. Of course I'll write about it after I see it.

Last night I went to see Fahrenheit 9/11 with Ken (a post about him is coming soon). We got our tickets first and then went to have a quick dinner at The Silver Diner. I had a hamburger, he had catfish. It was good. Then we were off to the movie. Got some decent seats and the theatre wasn't that crowded at all. Since the movie has been out a few weeks, I didn't expect it to be too crowded. But of course some chatty people had to sit next to me even though there were plenty of seats open in the theatre.

The opening of the movie is all about how the Supreme Court gave the election to Bush. Watching the scenes and following the chronology of events, I was reliving my anger from 2000. The movie was just beginning and I was already mad. The movie continues with the events that lead up to 9/11. After that the connections began. From that point on I was shocked and amazed at how connected Bush and his father are to the Bin Ladens and the Saudis. Point after point was made with evidence showing the very tight relationship between them. No wonder Bush wanted to take attention away from Bin Laden and 9/11. He didn't want the connection to be known. He put all the attention on Iraq and Saddam. It was mentioned just briefly but I believe Bush also wanted to get Saddam because he tried to assassinate his father back in the gulf war. The movie continued showing connections and how the lack of evidence of WMD's in Iraq and how senseless this war is. There were some very sad moments during the movie. Some images that were hard to see. I was quite amazed at the amount of research and detective work Michael Moore did to create this movie. I'm so glad we have free speech so that this movie could be shown. I think the sad part is that the people who are going to see this movie are not the people who need to see this movie. It's like preaching to the choir.

At this point, I just can't see how Bush can be re-elected with such strong evidence against him. There is NO reason for going to war with Iraq. He says he's helping Iraq become a free, democratic society while at home he's creating discrimination against gays and lesbians. I hope eventually he will be held responsible for what he has done to our country, the men and women who have lost and will loose their lives in Iraq, and for what he's done to the country of Iraq. I left the theatre mad, frustrated, and feeling sad. If you haven't seen this movie, you need to see it. And recommend it to all your friends, especially if they are republicans (even though I can't imagine anyone actually being friends with republicans).

When I woke up at 5:15 this morning there were mostly infomercials on. Flipping through the channels I found Big Eden on The Sundance Channel. I have this movie on DVD but I just had to keep it on and watch it. I love this movie and how the relationship between the two guys develops. Arye Gross (from the old Ellen show) does a great job of convincing us that he's gay. Is he gay in real life? Also, it's rare to have a Native American in a gay movie. I like that part too. Overall a great movie. If you haven't seen it, you should.





After that movie I went to Home Depot and then to my mom's condo to do some more work. I was only there a few hours. When I got home Cat On A Hot Tin Roof was on Turner Classic Movies. I absolutely love this movie. Surely you've seen it and know the plot. So again, I just had to stop and watch the movie. I was doing laundry and whatnot so I had time to watch it. The gay story line is never actually spoken but it's so obvious what's going on. Again, if you've never seen it, you should.





Last week I ordered The Man I Love from Amazon.com. Since I had more time to kill while doing laundry, I decided to spend some time and watch it. This is a French movie with english subtitles. It's the story of a guy (Martin) who works at a public pool when a new guy (Luca) begins working there. Luca is supposed to be straight but Martin is in love with him. The movie continues with their relationship growing and Luca realizing he is actually gay and in love with Martin. Turns out Martin has AIDS. I won't ruin the ending but it's a very sweet love story. The kind I always enjoy.


So, this has been a very gay movie day. While many of you were downtown enjoying and participating in the Gay Pride activities, I was enjoying my own kind of gay pride at home. I was also able to talk to Shawn for over an hour today. He's nervous about an upcoming project at work and closing on his house in two weeks. His stomach was in knots. I tried my best to calm his nerves. I'm sure everything will go well. Good luck, Shawn!

Editors Note: Some of you might wonder why I use links to Barnes and Noble when I actually buy my DVD's from Amazon.com. Well, it's simply because the graphics are better on Barnes and Noble. On Amazon.com all their graphics have that "30%" off circle on them. I hate that.

Last week I bought two DVDs: Lost In Translation and Under The Tuscan Sun. Last weekend I watched Under The Tuscan Sun. It was a very good movie. Diane Lane is a great actress. I think she should get bigger and better roles. The scenery of Italy was breathtaking. The story was well written and filmed well. I highly suggest this movie.

This morning I had a chance to watch Lost In Translation. One thing I've learned from reading reviews and hearing from others who have seen it, you either hate it or you love it. I loved it. It's about an older actor and young married woman who find themselves in Tokoyo. The actor (Bill Murray) is there filming TV commercials for a Japanese Whiskey. He's left his wife and children back in the states while he's doing this job. The young married woman (Scarleett Johansson, who I saw in Girl With a Pearl Earring and loved! ) is there with her husband. Her husband is a photographer there to photograph rock bands. They both find themselves with lots of time to spend in Tokoyo. They both have insomnia and meet at the hotel bar late at night. Slowly the develop a relationship and gets stronger and stronger over the time they are there. I think they are only there for a week or so. It seems that their friendship develops awfully fast but I think friendships can develop that fast in real life. Since they have things in common at the time, it makes it easier for them to build a relationship. At times you wonder why they are doing the things they are doing but it all comes together. From drinking in the hotel bar, going out on the town, hanging out in their rooms, Sofia Coppola (who won and her first Oscar for writing this movie) does a fine job of weaving the instances together for these two to build a relationship. The humor in the movie is very subtle but well done. The funniest scene is when Bill Murray is in an elevator surrounded by Japanese business men. The towers over them all. He's at least one and a half heads taller then all those who surround him. Another great scene is when he gets in the shower and the shower head is considerably lower then it should be for an average height male. Of course this humor plays on the stereotype that all asian men are shorter then average white Americans but it was funny none the less. Both characters seem to be stuck in lives neither enjoys. But they seem to overcome this while developing their relationship. The film leaves you believing they will both be alright and one day be happy. I really enjoyed this movie. If you haven't seen it, I suggest you do. Rent or buy it. It's worth it.

I've been thinking about buying some new DVD's. I have a decent collection as it is, but I'm always looking for new titles. In the past I've only purchased DVD's that I've seen either in the theater, on video, or rented at some point. I have a fear that if I buy a title that I haven't seen before, I may not like it and therefore wasted my money. I might be ready to let that fear go and buy some not-seen-before titles. On my wish list on Amazon.com I have several titles I haven't seen before. I kind of use this list as reference to either rent the titles or borrow them before buying. I also have a few titles on the list that I have seen before but just haven't brought myself to buy them yet. I probably think too much about the DVD purchasing process. Here are some titles I'm considering buying. Some I've seen, others I haven't.

Seen and want to buy:



Haven't seen and might want to buy:

Weight 180 lbs
Miles Walked 7.14

Sweet Brad came over this evening for a few hours of quality time. We watched thew news and caught up with each other. We then finally watched Logan's Run. Back in 1976 when it came out, I thought it was the coolest movie. I thought the effects were great and the idea was wild. Seeing it now as an adult with many years of great movies in between, I think this movie sucks. I mean, the special effects are awful. They are so bad. Of course this is 1976 when special effects were lots of lights and small models that were filmed as if they were real. I wasn't impressed with the movie at all. The only redeaming quality was that we got to see some bare chested men. That's always nice. After the movie I gave Brad a little back rub. That was nice too. We were both tired so Brad went home. We're going to do something tomorrow evening but neither one of us knows what. If you have any ideas, let me know.

Sweet Brad came over this evening. We watched the news together. We were going to watch an old favorite Logan's Run. But instead we got side tracked and watched Playing it Straight and Wonderfalls on Fox.

Fox in general is a shitty network. They take other popular shows and tweak them just enough to put them on their network. Playing It Straight is a take off of Boy Meets Boy on Bravo that was on this past summer. Playing It Straight is about a straight woman trying to find love and money among 14 guys. The twist is that some of the 14 guys are gay. They don't know who is gay and who isn't. In the first episode she meets the guys and they all find out that some of the guys are gay. No one comes out because if she picks a gay guy then the gay guy gets a million dollars. If she picks a straight guy they split a million. By the end of the first episode she has to pick two guys to leave the ranch. She did and turns out both the guys she picked were straight. All the guys are good looking and could be gay or straight. It was hard to tell. We haven't found out who is gay yet and I don't think we will. I thought it was a stupid show. The girl started crying at one point and it was so lame. She had only met the guys a few hours before and was already crying. Doubt this show will provide anything but humor while it runs it's course.

Wonderfalls was a different kind of show. Thom Shales in the Washington Post gave it a good review. I thought it was odd. All these objects kept talking to this girl telling her to do things. I can't even go into much detail because Brad and I were laying on the couch and I kept nodding off and missing parts. Brad really liked the show. Coming from a guy who doesn't have a TV or cable, I thought it must say something for the show. I told him he could come back next Friday and watch it again. I doubt I'll watch it again. There was one part where the sister of the girl who was talking to objects realized she was a lesbian. That's about the only thing I found interesting. I'm sure if Brad was writing about this show he could tell you so much more. I didn't care for it and therefore can't tell you much about it.

I've had a busy week and was really tired so instead of staying over, Brad went home. Brad had a very busy week and was tired too so it was best for us both to get some sleep. I have a work related thing all day tomorrow so Brad and I will do something fun tomorrow night I'm sure. I always enjoy spending a few hours with Brad. He makes me think.

So I stayed up until the very end of the Oscars last night. I paid for it all day today. I've been so tired. I'll be going to bed early tonight! The show actually started at 8:00 but the awards part didn't begin until 8:30. Billy Crystal did a great job as the host. I always enjoy seeing what he'll do at the beginning. I love seeing his montage of the movies nominated with his image inserted in just the right spots. This was his 8th time hosting. I wonder if he'll brake Bob Hopes record of 18 times. The only thing I didn't care for seeing was Billy Crystal's naked body (mostly) during several of the clips. I went to the Oscars web site and download the ballot to keep track of my predictions. Of the 24 Oscars handed out last night, I actually predicted 15 of them correctly. Here is a list of the Oscars I predicted correctly:

Best Picture
Best Director
Best Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Animated Feature
Cinematography
Costume Design
Documentary Short
Film Editing
Makeup
Short Film-Animated
Sound Editing
Sound Mixing
Screenplay-Original

The interesting thing here is that I only saw 2 of the nominated movies. So my picks were completly by random. I mean, I knew Lord of the Rings would get all the technical awards but I didn't think they would sweep every category they were nominated in. That was quite a feat. I didn't even see the movie. I'm not a big fan but it seems that many gay men are. Go figure. It must be all those hobit men.

The best acceptance speech was by Charlize Theron. I had seen her a few years ago in a movie called Sweet November with Keanu Reeves and I thought she was great then. I think her speech was the most moving. Other speeches were just okay. And if I remember correctly, there were only two little political statements. I think Sean Penn said some little something about WMDs. Good for him. I considered what Robin Williams said when he grabbed Billy Crystal and said something about being the wedding cake models for San Francisco to be a political statement. Maybe no one else did. I was thinking Tim Robbins might say something because he's so political. But nothing of a political nature. I do want to see Mystic River sometime. It sounds like a good movie. Every year I say I'm going to see more movies and end up seeing so few. There were many that I wanted to see but never made the time to see them. The last movie I saw was Girl With A Pearl Earring. That was a great movie. It should have been up for more Oscars then it was. I'd recommend you see it.

While watching the morning news shows, they all had segments about the Oscar fashions. They always tear up some and glorify others. I thought the fashions were beautiful for the most part. You can expect Diane Keaton to dress the way she did. That's her style. The younger women looked fabulous. To me, the dresses seemed like a throw back to the really glamorous days of Hollywood with big bows, long gowns, muted colors. I don't get into the fashion side of the Oscars at all but I couldn't create a post without at least mentioning what I thought even though I didn't give it much thought. It's been more of an after thought actually.

Now that the Lord of the Rings Trilogy is complete, what movies will dominate the Oscars next year? Any predictions? Maybe The Passion of the Christ? We'll see. But one thing is for sure, whether or not I actually see more movies, I'll definitely tune in to see the 77th Oscars.

On a completely unrelated note, March came in like a lamb here in Northern Virigina. The weather was beautiful! It got into the low 70's. The sun was out and there was a slight breeze. It would have been a great day to go on a hike. I can't wait for Spring!

Sweet Brad and I got together early this morning to go shopping. We went to Costco (The Price Club). We started going up and down the isles and Brad kept picking up items and putting them in the cart. Now, I'm different. I make a list of what I want to get before I go. When Brad sees something on the shelf he remembered that he needed it, so he put it in the cart. We did this isle after isle. Then we checked out. The bill was $212! I couldn't believe it. I never spend more then $75 at The Price Club and I only go about once every 2 months. So we loaded it all in the back of my car and went on to Target.

There we did about the same thing. Isle after isle, putting things in the cart. At one point Brad picked up a box of tall kitchen garbage bags. I quickly reminded him that he just bought 200 tall kitchen garbage bags at Costco and we wouldn't be needed another 200 at almost twice the price. I thought it was funny that he didn't remember he just got trash bags at Costco. Brad said he doesn't go shopping very often and doesn't keep a list of the things he needs. As I observed earlier at Costco, Brad remembers he needs things when he sees them at the store. I'll have to teach him how to keep a running list of the items he needs to buy the next time he's in a store. We checked out but this time I didn't spend nearly as much as I had at Costco. We loaded everything on top of the Costco items in the back of my car and came home.

After shopping, Brad and I decided we would go to a movie and to dinner. I suggested we see "Girl With A Pearl Earring". We decided we would go to a matinee and have dinner after the movie. So Brad picked me up and drove us to the movie. We got there just in time to get tickets and get our seats. I thought we might be late but Brad assured me we would only miss the ads and maybe the trailers. Unlike most people, I like seeing the trailers and was hoping we wouldn't miss them. We didn't. Brad was right. We only missed the ads. He's so smart. So we watched the movie. I thought it was a great movie. It was basically about a maid working for Vermeer and how she became the object of one of his famous paintings. I thought it was beautifully shot and captured 1665 very well. I thought it was amazing how the movie was filmed to show the emotion and interaction of Vermeer and Grete (the maid) with very few spoken words. The visual images were wonderful. The ending actually showed the original artwork by Vermeer. Scarlett Johansson looks very much like the original painting. This film should win the Oscar for Art Direction. And if you haven't seen it yet, you should. You would enjoy it. Oh, and all through the movie Brad held my hand. I thought it was sweet.

After the movie, Brad took me to Ribsters in Annandale for dinner. They make one of the best burgers I've had in a long time. I enjoyed it. Brad had chicken fingers and we shared our meals. The place isn't anything to talk about but the food was good. After dinner Brad then took me to an ice cream shop and we had some frozen custard. I had chocolate and Brad had mango. Then Brad and I came back to my place for some smooching, etc. We had a great day together. I thoroughly enjoy spending time with Brad. He really is a sweet guy.

It's February 1st! The year is moving along quickly. Earlier this week the Oscar nominees were announced. I love the Oscars. I get excited about it every year. In recent years though I have seen less and less of the movies that have been nominated. And I think some of the movies I've seen should have been nominated and weren't. There are several movies that were released in 2003 that I do want to see. Most of them aren't in theaters anymore so I'll wait until they show up on HBO or Showtime.

Movies I'd like to see:



Some of the movies I saw this year and really liked:



Today starts Apple's promotion to give away 100 million songs from iTunes. Pepsi has special yellow caps on their bottles and if you have a winner, you can download a song free from iTunes. I don't drink Pepsi (I'm a Classic Coke man), but I'd love to get some of those caps and expand my iTunes music library for free. If you drink Pepsi and find a winning cap, let me have it!



It's SuperBowl Sunday! Of course I won't be watching the game for the game. I'll be watching it for the commercials. All the sunday morning talk shows had some kind of segment on the commercials that will be on this year. They also credited Apple's famous 1984 ad for starting the whole SuperBowl commercials trend.



Also Survivor starts again tonight. It'll be the all stars edition. Should be interesting.