Excuses, excuses.

Alright, internet. Get your shoes on! I'm actually making a post. About a Great Movie! I didn't want to watch The Leopard which is like five hours long, so I let the internet decide between the two other Great Movies I had on DVD from Netflix - Rear Window or The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. The lazy poll resulted in the selection of Rear Window (much thanks to those who texted or came into my goon laboratory to tell me). A post about it is coming up after the film is over & I have stuffed my face with Vietnamese food and white wine.

"Why has she not posted anything for so long?" you might be wondering. Unfortunately I injured my back right after Thanksgiving, and it was pretty painful and dumb. The sort of serious business medications they prescribe you for stuff like that are not so great for movie watching and blog postin'. I was lucky if I could stay awake past 8 p.m. before the combination of muscle relaxers, painkillers, and physical therapy knocked me out. My physical therapists were awesome, though, and managed to fix me. At least I wasn't still going through the Great Movies books. Now that I'm sort of back to normal (that's pretty relative of a term), it seemed like a good time to get back to something that really matters.

Anyway, I wanted to make a post explaining myself, so I didn't clutter up the movie post with bitching and moaning about my strange adeptness at injuring myself. So there you have it.

What's Next?

So, if you've been reading my posts lately, you might have noticed something I snuck into yesterday's movie post - Yojimbo is technically the last movie out of Ebert's books. (!!)

"What does that mean?" you might be asking yourself. "Is this stupid project over or not?"

Well, yes and no. Mostly no.

 

Tonight.

I thought I'd skip (i.e. watch over the weekend or at the end of the project) tonight's long-ish movie, The Last Temptation of Christ, because Ebert was signing his memoir someplace vaguely in my area. I got there early and lazed around, but I was expecting it to be like the last one I went to - in the upstairs part of the B&N, which it wasn't, so I didn't get into line until a bit later than I wanted to. It was really cool to see all the people who came out, it was a really diverse group.

Proof of the lazing.

It was pretty good - I'm always stoked to see someone I admire so much, and having books signed by him is really meaningful to me. It was a little disappointing, though. It felt really rushed - you sort of had time to say half a sentence and by that point, the B&N employees were giving him another book to work on. I had hoped to get a picture with him, but by the time I had explained that I was some dope from the intarwebs, he got handed another book and I didn't want to rudely cut into someone else's time, like "No! I'm important, I'm from the internet!" I feel a little let down, just because the other book signing I went to felt a lot more intimate and we all seemed to get more time to be chatty and goofy with him, and I was hoping to have that experience again.

Yay!

But it's ok. I didn't start this blog to get his attention. I did it because it means something to me. Because I wanted to take on a project and see it to the end (I can't count how many times I thought I'd do something different in my life and stopped after a few weeks or months). I wanted to keep learning about film, and keep myself writing and working while I was unemployed. And to connect, on some level, with someone I look up to. To be honest, doing this has changed my life. There are plenty of reasons why the signing could have gone how it did - maybe he wasn't feeling well, or hell, he's probably such a fan that he was a little embarrassed and star-struck about it. You never know, right?

Welp.

Power is out again at my house, and much of the surrounding area. There was a bad storm this morning (and I was lucky enough to get to drive through the high winds, white-out rain, and falling branches on the tollway!) and I guess we lost power quickly. Figures.
The news says that  over 700,000 people are now without power, the most following any storm in the last half-decade. Ugh!

An update from Tom Skilling - "Commonwealth Edison says the loss of electricity this "derecho" (the term for squall which holds together over a long path producing damage all the way) has produced is the worst in at least a decade and among the 3 worst on Com Ed's books here. It may end up the all time worst, says the company. It's t-storms towered to 61,000 ft. which is swept across the metro area producing gusts of 80 mph at some locations." 

I'll probably try to do the whole generator-to-watch-movies thing again, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to post or not. If it's quiet around these parts again, you know why.

The Inner Workings of this Crazy Project

I often surprise people when I mention how much work went into setting everything up for this project, and maintaining it. I thought it might be vaguely interesting to write about it, so you guys can see what goes on behind the scenes. Heh, movie jokes (I kid, I kid).


Hopefully this isn't too long and dull!

Sort of Spring

It's finally starting to feel vaguely like spring - things are sort of green, there is much rain, it's occasionally warm out, the whole deal.
Spent pretty much the whole day relaxing and reading, which I needed so badly. Nikita and I adventured outside for a bit as well. :)

She needs a haircut. Badly.

Fuzzes!

Lacking a real vase-type thing, I horribly used a mug for these guys.

So cutes!

My blog was really lacking in Nikita pictures, so I had to remedy it. Hope everyone is experience a bit of nice spring weather themselves!

What I've been up to

I'm not abandoning my project, I promise!
For the next few days I'm going to be watching the documentaries that are part of the Up series. It started with 7 Up, which I watched on Monday, and I'm going to watch them all up to 49 Up. If you're not familiar with this series, it follow a group of kids as they grow up, touching base with them every seven years. From what I can gather, a lot of what makes them so famous is their use of film, of chronicling lives this way. The first documentary was made in 1964, long before reality TV, so it was a really new idea to film people this way, and to watch their lives so closely. They have been really interesting so far - I'll post about them when I finish watching all of them!

Other than that, I've mostly been full of surl. Not surly, as that implies that I have actually been able to express my distaste for what's been going on in my life. No, I've just been congested with surl, and from a cold I picked up at work. Lots of stupid things have been going on, but hopefully once it's all over and resolved it will have all worked out for the better. But while it's going on it's quite ugh.

Anyway, if I have time, I'll try to produce some sort of content, but otherwise, I'll let you know what I think about the Up series after about an entire week of watching them. :)

Snowpocalpyse!

I promised some pictures of the snow disaster, so I of course, I have some for you! I'm near Chicago, so we got a pretty horrible amount of snow. Driving has been pretty stupid even still, since a lot of streets are down to one lane.

 

 

This was on Tuesday night - my car is starting to get buried and you can see lots of blowing snow.

Front door, covered with snow.

 

Wednesday morning. I used to have a car. :(

If it looks like there is an ungodly mountain of snow in front of my house, it's because there actually is.

 

 

Backyard. Fire pit it totally buried. The fence is about 6 or 7 feet high, for scale. Look at how covered it is in the back!

The snow and went bent our bird feeder in half and buried the gnome.

Big piles of snow.

One more of my lost car, since it is the best and worst thing ever. 

Since then, we managed to dig our cars out and makes paths, but it's still very snowy everywhere and it's been freezing cold!

Blogging.

This is what I do in my free time - watch movies, and blog about them on my netbook. With Nikita. Life is good.

The Next Three Days...

For January 15, 16, and 17, I'm going to be watching The Decalogue, a series of ten, one-hour Polish films (er, TV shows, really) from 1988 directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski. The films are based off of the Catholic Ten Commandments. I'll do a post about all of them when I am done watching, but after the first three today, I am already really surprised by how much I am loving these.
Hope everyone is having a nice, relaxing weekend!

Late Night.

I'm just getting home and sitting down to eat dinner - a Blockbuster near my house is closing, and I had to go and purchase many Blu-rays.
Due to this distraction, I haven't watched Days of Heaven yet. But I'm going to! I'm just going to eat dinner, which is ready, and then start it. I just thought that my post might be a littler later tonight than usual.
I'm sort of a purist about things, so I just wanted to make it clear that even if my post is late, I will have watched the movie today (before midnight). Hahaha, this seems stupid now that I've said it. It's how I am. The Blu-rays I bought all came in DVD boxes...so I feel like I need to buy some "real" cases for them so they "match" my other Blu-rays. So you can rest assured that I am actually this weird about everything.

Snow!

Lots of snow today - a constant flurry of huge clumps of it drifting down from the sky. I love it when it snows like this, I'm always in such a good mood the whole day because it's so beautiful. :)

Nikita is displeased.

 It's a nice cozy day for staying in, curling up under a blanket with Nikita to watch a movie. She is upset because she had to go out in the snow - which is pretty deep, mind you. Being lazy, I didn't shovel a path for her, so her ittle feets got cold, daaaawwwww. One last adorable picture, and then I have to focus and watch Chinatown, lucky for me. :)

Nikita, an intrepid snow poodle.

Just a note.

Over the next three days, I'm going to be watching the Apu Trilogy. These three films (Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road), Aparajito (The Unvanquished) and Apur Sansar (The World of Apu)) are directed by Satyajit Ray and were made between 1955 and 1959. Ebert, and other critics, write about these three films as a whole, so I probably won't make a post about the any of these films until I have finished watching all three of them. Just wanted to let you know why my blog might be a bit for inactive for a few days. :)

Happy Holidays!

It's quite busy around my house right now, with everyone getting ready for Christmas. I tried to get all of my gift shopping and wrapping done early, before the first day of movie watching, but I'm still finding myself with so much to do. It's harder to find the time to sit and watch films and write when I have errands to run, gifts to wrap, and the house to clean! I'm not taking a break from the project, so on Christmas Eve, when my family exchanges gifts, I'll have to make time to watch Ali: Fear Eats the Soul and on Christmas day, when my extended family comes over for more face-stuffing, eggnog drinking, and gifts, I'll have to find time to watch All About Eve. I'm sure it will be a bit of a challenge to keep writing and watching during this busy time, but hopefully I can wrangle some of my family to check out these movies with me. :)
I hope everyone has a warm, merry Christmas, with lots of food, drink, and special moments with family and friends!

All my presents are wrapped...even Nikita.

What is this project?

An undertaking as long and involved as this needs a bit of an explanation, I would imagine.

What is this project?
I'm planning on watching every movie out of Roger Ebert's Great Movie books. I am hopefully going to be able to watch one every day until I am finished. Some of the films are very hard to find, but I am working on tracking all of them down. There might be times when the mail messes up and I don't get a DVD delivered, or times when there are complications, but I will cut myself some slack for things like that. I'll do everything in my power to get and watch the movie, but I do accept that I might have to make some allowances for things out of my control. I'm going to be using books I-III, and watching the films in order, from the first film listed in The Great Movies  to the last in Great Movies III.

Why are you doing this?
For fun! I really respect and admire Roger Ebert and his eloquent writings on film. I hope that I can gain new insights by reading his essays along with the films. There are more than a few of these films that I have watched before, but I'm interested in thinking about them again and re-visiting them in a new light. I'm doing this because I love to watch movies, write (and write about) movies, and learn about movies. There are tons of movies on this list that I have shamefully never seen, and many more that I have intended to. Of course, they get lost in the Netflix queue I make, or start to serve as decorations on my coffee table. "Hmm...to watch The White Ribbon or another No Reservations?" usually ends in Bourdain snarking at me from the television. I want to watch all of these films anyway - I might as well do it during all of my unemployed free time and have a bit of a challenge as well.

I'm not doing this because I think that Ebert's books are some sort of definitive "top movies" list. They are movies that he likes and provoke strong emotional reactions in him, but it is not a list of the best movies of all time. I'm not doing this because I want to parrot what Ebert thinks or says. Some of these films I have seen already and did not like, and I'll tell you about that. Hopefully I can learn to appreciate some of them, but I'm not afraid to share my stupid opinions. I'm not doing this because I am an expert on film of any sort! I'm just a passionate girl who has a screenwriting minor and likes to think too much about what she watches. It doesn't make my opinion right or wrong - I'm doing this to just keep a log of my thoughts of all of these films, and my experience of watching a film every single day, and finding them! I'm not really doing this to "review" classic films, just to have a place to write down my thoughts about this wide selection of movies. The second movie I am going to watch is The 400 Blows, which I have seen for a class every year for the last three years - I'm curious what I will think of it now that I'm watching it for a different reason, in a different way, and having a blog is a great way for me to work out my thoughts quickly and have a record of this goofy project. :)

When are you doing this?
I'm going to start on Monday, December 20th, if everything goes as planned. Today I'm going to finally watch the Netflix films that I have that are taking up space, and send them back, so hopefully I can amass the first few films I have to watch before the weekend. The only break in the calender for me is the fourth week of August, when I am taking a road trip to Colorado. I'll be staying in a cabin that was built in the 1800's at about 10,000 feet above sea level, where there is no TV, internet, or cell phone signals, and I really, as much as I would like to, can't be posting blogs and watching movies in those conditions.

Who are you, by the way?
A good question. I'm Amanda, but please call me Mandy. I get uncomfortable around too many syllables. I graduated from DePaul University last June with a major in English and a minor in screenwriting. My film classes, be them in production and lighting or writing, were my favorite classes to take and I always looked forward to them, even the ones late at night. I spend most of my time playing video games, watching movies, reading, or writing. I love going to the movies in the winter when everything good comes out, which I will still be doing while working on this project. Other than that, I love hiking and camping, road trips, and working on my skills in amateur photography. I do watch TeeVee, also. Some shows I've adored lately are True Blood, Boardwalk Empire, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Dexter, Conan, The Walking Dead, and of course my favorites, Hoarders and Intervention.
Other fun facts: All of the movies that first started my obsession with film are not in any of these three books, so right there you can tell I'm no expert. :)
I like 80's music, and current pop music, and...metal.
The first full-length screenplay I ever wrote was a Western. I hate Westerns.
I have a tiny toy poodle who demands much of my attention every day, her name is Nikita.
Nothing makes me happier than a glass of scotch and a movie with James Spader.
I guess that's me! It's harder than I thought to explain yourself to the internet.