JennyExiled’s Neighborhood

I see a lot of mags/sites are breaking out their “Best of the Decade” lists, but I can’t be doing with that. Amélie remains my favourite film of all time, so it follows that it’s my fave of the decade... beyond that, there are too many likely candidates to calculate. Still, I think I can just about manage a “Best of the Year” list...

Film: Inglourious Basterds

I’ve been a Tarantino fanboy ever since I first saw Reservoir Dogs at the cinema, back when it was still banned from video release in the UK. Hard to imagine in our post-Saw, “torture porn” era, but the censors seemed to think that a scene (sort of) showing a policeman getting his ear cut-off was the height of horror. All I remember is thinking how cool and funny Steve Buscemi was, and to this day I maintain that Mr Pink made it out alive. Until I see a body, I’m counting him as the sole survivor, so nuts to you. It’s hard to say if QT has grown much since those days... he still has a taste for tense stand-offs, and if anything his stories have gotten a little sloppier. But he has broadened his cultural/historical frame of reference, and when it comes to arresting images and colourful dialogue, he always delivers. This flick didn’t turn out to be quite what I’d been expecting from the trailer, which suggested a Jewsploitation take on The Dirty Dozen... there are certainly elements of that in there, but the “Basterds” aren’t the sole focus of the story, and the other characters make for a more expansive experience, although the incidental scenes do tend to drag a little. Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent) still impresses as a strong, smart heroine, even if she does forget a golden rule of dealing with movie villains. One thing you can always rely on with QT, even as the clones try to play catch-up, and the accusations of his own pop-cultural pilfering come flying, is that there’s no one else making movies like him right now... and that’s a shame.

Honourable mentions: Star Trek and Drag Me To Hell, both of which were big, pulpy fun. I had high hopes for Marina de Van’s latest, Don't Look Back (Ne Te Retourne Pas), starring Sophie Marceau and Monica Bellucci... but when it was screened out of competition at Cannes, it dropped like a lead balloon, so it’s unlikely to get a big release in this country.

Album: It’s Not me, It’s You by Lily Allen

Some of the lyrics may have proven to be slightly less sardonic than they first sounded (she’s since gone topless for a magazine photo shoot, making the “I’ll take my clothes off” line from ‘The Fear’ a bit prophetic), and its hard to sympathise with a pop-star who buys a beach and then complains that she isn’t making enough money, but I’m still impressed by how biting and satirical her deceptively cheerful ditties can be. I haven’t heard any other artists drop the F-Bomb with the sugar-coated venom Allen does on “F*ck You”, which puts most modern punks to shame. Not every track is a keeper, but then with today’s technology it’s easy enough to swap some of the syrup out for caustic B-sides like ‘Kabul Shit’. And no one romanticises the mundane details of dating like Lily does, bless her.

Honourable mentions: Jigsaw by Lady Sovereign, which was quite catchy but lacked the spiky spontaneity of her debut (and had far too much auto-tune on it for my liking) and Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful? by Paloma Faith. 21st Century Man by Luke Haines would probably be a strong contender for the top spot too, but it only came out the other week, and I haven’t heard it enough times to really comment.

Book: Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse

True, it was first published way back in 1927, but I don’t read a lot of new books, and this nifty little novel deserves a nod for achieving the seemingly impossible task of making me feel like an upbeat, adventurous optimist! It didn’t last, but for a few days there I was flying. Along with the Bhagavad Gita and Teach Yourself Happiness, this has been a pretty positive year, reading-wise.

TV: Coming Soon

Sad to say, but the best television I saw this year was actually from 1999, namely the three-part series Coming Soon by Annie Griffin. Her latest offering New Town could have been a contender too, of course, but it was aborted after only one episode, so who knows how it would have turned out?

Honourable mentions: Lost (S5) and Ugly Betty (S3) both had their high points, but they also had plenty of lows. The way the Lost writers have treated Locke since the second season is disgraceful, and that resentment taints everything else that happens around the poor sod. Boo, I say! Ugly Betty has become so predictable with its tragedy and melodrama... “Oh look, a new girlfriend for Daniel... wonder how long she’ll last?”, “Oh, a fancy job offer for Betty... wonder if that will fall through somehow?” The whole thing would work much better as a family/workplace sitcom, imho. Make it so! I really wish I’d watched Misfits from the beginning, because that looks like it could be pretty good... I only caught the first half-hour of the third episode, but I already have a slight crush on Lauren Socha (love at first head-butt, you might say!). The premise of a gang of random juvenile delinquents gaining superpowers is a strong one, and they seem to have a great cast for it. I’m strongly considering taking a blind punt on the DVD, which is a very rare impulse for a miser like me. Meanwhile, I’m still addicted to Judge Judy, but let’s not talk about that.

And if you read all of that, give yourself a cookie. You earned it. :)

So basically ever since I reached the 250 (books read this year) milestone, I haven't read anything longer than Vanity Fair's article on Meryl Streep.  (Really good, incidentally; I love her.)

I've read the first chapter of Churched by Matthew Paul Turner, and I can tell I'm going to love that book once my brain starts working again.  I've also read the first chapter of The Angel's Game (thank you again, Rob!) and same thing.  I'm going to love it.  But right now?  Now I don't want to read anything.  (This may even include the ARC of the new Joe Hill novel, which I am really looking forward to.  But it hasn't come yet, so there's no way to know for sure.)

So probably this weekend will be an exercise in not reading (except for People and Entertainment Weekly).  I need to do laundry and I'm definitely watching Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.  I'm also planning on getting Julie & Julia and Up from OnDemand. 

I'm also trying to remember that I've read a ton of books this year (101 more than last year!) and so even if I don't read any more books for the rest of the year, I've more than done my part.

(And then I think, "Not read for the rest of the year?!")

Best. Surprise. EVER.

Yesterday, the mail came after I had already left for work.  When I picked it up last night, I had a little notice saying there was a package.  When I got that package this morning, it was a parcel of books.

Automatically fantastic, right?

Turns out it was from my friend Rob.  And it consisted of two books I had loaned him and a copy of the new Carlos Ruiz Zafon (The Angel's Game).  And upon closer inspection?

"To Kelly, Friend of the Shadow" and a signature.

My awesome friend Rob sent me a personally signed copy!  He met Carlos Ruiz Zafon at a bookstore in Germany (where he and his wife Tasha now live) and snagged me a book. :)

I am a very happy Kelly. :)

Finished A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

I haven't read this before, but of course I've seen several different movies (and TV show episodes) that are based on the story, so I knew it going in.

In case you've lived under a rock: Scrooge is a miserable bastard who does his level best to make everyone else miserable, too.  He pays his one employee incredibly poorly and wishes that the sick among us would just die already.  He doesn't want anything to do with his nephew and said nephew's family.  And then three ghosts come (four, really, counting his dead business partner) and show him the error of his ways.  And God bless us, every one.

One thing I didn't realize going in was that this is actually really funny.  (Scrooge tells Marley that he's not a ghost so much as a case of indigestion.)

But it's a sweet, funny (and, thanks to the final ghost) creepy tale.  If you've only known the story through movies, you should read the book, too.  (It's also pretty short, so it probably won't take too long.)

A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens

Paloma Faith

As the lead “Emo” Andrea in St Trinian’s, Faith scored herself a considerable amount of screen time, although I didn’t really notice her until she ditched the face-paint and piercings, and appeared as herself on an episode of Never Mind the Buzzcocks. According to Wikipedia, “as an ex-magician’s assistant, trained contemporary dancer, Leeds alumna with an MA in time based arts, a performer in burlesque show and dance club, and an actress, Paloma has been mixing artistic media throughout her adult life. A few years ago she introduced music into the equation, at first mimicking the blues and soul singers she admired, but eventually finding her own voice.” Um... except that “her own voice” sounds suspiciously like Amy Winehouse’s... not that that’s such a bad thing, of course. Still, it would be difficult to confuse the two because, as asserted in an overly harsh NME review of her debut album, Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?, Faith lacks the sneering, snarling and swearing swagger of her predecessor. True, that’s a large part of the appeal with Winehouse, but that doesn’t mean that Faith doesn’t have anything to offer, simply because she’s taken a sweeter, softer approach to White-Girl Soul.

Singles like "Stone Cold Sober" and “Upside Down” are hooky and charming enough on their own, but also benefit greatly from being seen as part of her overall performance. Faith isn’t “edgy”, by any stretch of the imagination, but she has chipper charm, quirky style, an easy smile, and a powerful set of pipes... plus she knows how to play to the camera/audience in ways that the typical NME-approved hipper-than-thou artists could never manage. Yes, maybe her show has more spectacle than scathing social commentary or political bluster, but what’s wrong with that? Pop music is a pretty broad church, and there’s plenty of room on our playlists for a little levity, isn’t there? And there’s always the outside chance she’ll fall under the spell of a sinister Luke Haines-esque svengali, who’ll have her singing about the Baader Meinhof Group and such... but until then, come to the cabaret, old chum!

Finished Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

I hadn't read this before, but I have seen the Disney cartoon (and the one that aired on TV in the 80s, the one with Sammy Davis Jr. as the Caterpillar). 

So pretty much if you've seen the movie, you know what happens. (Except the book didn't have Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum or the story of the Walrus and the Carpenter--are they in Through the Looking Glass?)

It was really cute (and insanely short) but I wish I had read it when I was little, because this is definitely a book for children.

The best part was reading this right after Alice I Have Been and seeing how some of the characters in this related to people in the real Alice's life.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: A Pop-up Adaptation

Lewis Carroll

Finished Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin.  (This is a review copy; the book comes out January 12.)

This is a fictionalized account of Alice Liddell, who was the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland.  The book starts when she's a little girl and friends with Mr. Dodgson (who you know better as Lewis Carroll), but continues through her entire life.  In fact, most of the book takes place after her family stops speaking to Dodgson. 

I enjoyed this book a great deal.  The last part (where she's a wife and mother) dragged a little for me.  It's not so much that it was boring (it wasn't) but that the first two parts (Alice as a child and Alice in love) were so interesting that the third part was almost doomed for me. 

There's an author's note at the end where she explains which parts of the book were true and which weren't, and that was very interesting, too.  (No, I'm not going to tell you.)

You don't need to have read Alice in Wonderland to appreciate this book (although I'm going to read it next).

Alice I Have Been: A Novel

Melanie Benjamin

Groundhog Day is #34 on 100 Years, 100 Laughs and #8 on their 10 Best Fantasy list.

I'm sure everyone's seen it, so no synopsis.

It's held up really well, and it made me miss Andie McDowell.  (Why doesn't she act anymore?)  And of course, Bill Murray is always great.

Groundhog Day (Special Edition)

All I want for X-Mas this year is a cheque for $30 Million, and Sarah Silverman on my arm. Make it so!

Big-S-Cheque

(Aside from being a window into my dearest day-dreams, this is also a still from a new movie starring Steve Buscemi, called Saint John of Las Vegas. Apparently it has already appeared at several film festivals and is scheduled to hit American theaters on January 29th, in limited release)