TV and movies

Saw a preview for The Fountain, which looks fascinating. Hugh Jackman, mmm. But more important than that: Shut Up and Sing is going to be playing at the Landmark Cinema in DC. Woohoo! It opens next weekend, so I'll probably slip over after work one even and see it. Doesn't look like it'll be playing any place else around here. Have I mentioned how awesome I think the Dixie Chicks' album is? I love the entire album, from start to finish, especially Lullabye and Lubbock or Leave It.

Went to dinner at D&M's last night. We were going to go to the movies, but couldn't agree on which one, so we ended up watching TV and playing Cranium instead. Men vs. Women. The women kicked ass...twice. We're fine as long as I don't have to sing or draw or act. But I can spell words backwards and forward and have an astonishing store of otherwise useless trivia in my brain. TV-wise, we watched a rerun of Friends, the episode in which Ross and Rachel are on a break and he sleeps with someone else. You know, maybe I'm betraying all women when I type this, but seriously, I'm on Ross's side in that episode. Yes, it was a mistake -- Ross should've told Rachel the truth rather than hope she wouldn't find out, but she said the words "take a break."

On the book front, I picked up a YA book, Bright Purple that looked interesting. From the backblurb, it was about a teenager's best friend coming out to her as a lesbian and then the aftermath. Should've checked the publisher. A subsidiary of Multnomah, an inspirational publisher. Too much talk about the heroine trying to be a strong Christian and going to bible study. Not interested.

In Death

I'm not going to do a full blown review of Born in Death, since I'm sure other readers are writing in depth reviews. My thumb-nail review: the mystery would've been much better without the coincidence of Mavis's friend Tandy; I'm surprised the issue/conflict with Roarke as a Civilian Consultant hasn't come up before; I like the continued personal development. Not bad, but not going to become my favorite Eve Dallas book. Grade from me: B.

More interesting to me was to re-read Naked in Death and compare it to BID. [NID is the book for discussion this month for a group that I subscribe to.] It is fascinating to see how Eve has developed as a person. One poster pointed out the use of the cat as a mechanism, how it went from being something she was stuck with b/c its owner was killed to being a creature she named and is now a part of her daily life. That's an excellent example. But I'm also thinking of Mavis and Feeney. They are her only friends in NID, and she doesn't really feel the lack of humanity in her life. By BID, she has expanded her circle to include Peabody, MacNab, Mira, Charles, Louise, Nadine, Crack, Morris, etc. While she complains about the buying of gifts, she doesn't mind the giving as much as awkwardness of the exchange.

I know lots of readers think Roarke is overrated and too good to be true. As a hero, he is very much a typical Nora Roberts hero: tall, dark, handsome, dangerous, wealthy, utterly gone on his heroine. That's nice, I guess, but not what I find interesting about him. My thing: the flipping of gender roles for Roarke and Eve. Yes, he can buy anything and has high levels of testosterone, but he's the caretaker in their relationship. He is the one who cares for Eve when she works too hard; he is the person who makes the home, even he isn't actually a housewife or homemaker; he arranges their social lives; he is the one more often waiting for her to come home to him, even though he is occupied with work of his own. Eve plays the role of man: she takes little interest in the running of their household; she relies on him to take care of things like their social calendar and her wardrobe; while her work doesn't come before him necessarily, it interrupts their personal lives regularly. There's no question that Eve and Roarke love each other, but clearly Roarke is the one who can more easily show it, in both large and small ways.

Clinton & Obama, '08

Is America too racist to elect Barack Obama president? Too sexist to elect Hillary Clinton? Go check out Benjamin Wallace-Wells's piece for Outlook in today's Post.

Dance of the Gods & Valley of Silence

Apparently I have a lot to say today. But I promise this will be my last post...it must be, because I have laundry and homework to do in order to be ready for tomorrow. Plus my checkbook needs to be balanced.

I finished Nora Roberts' Circle trilogy. First, I don't think NR deserves to be jumped on as she has been about jumping on the paranormal/vampire bandwagon. Yes, Lilith (villain) is a vampire and so is Cian (one of the circle of six). But the vast amount of paranormal "stuff" going on inthe book isn't about being a vampire. It's about magic, which is not new to NR trilogies. In fact, NR goes out of her way to separate Cian from other vampires, having him not drink human blood and being estranged from his sire (Lilith). Second, the trilogy got better as it went along, IMHO. The first book spent a lot of time establishing the world and the conflict. The second spent some time, but a lot less. And by the time the third book gets going, there isn't much left in terms of set up; the big confrontation is about to occur. This trilogy is not my favorite (I like the Key trilogy for NR's magical trilogies, and the Quinns for nonmagic), but read as a whole, it was okay. As an entire story arc, I would give the series a B: the first book was a B-/C+, the second a B, third a B/B+.

Food tip of the day: Whole Foods' carrot cake cupcake -- the cupcake is nothing special, but the icing is insanely good. I shared some with The Goofy Cat, who is now curled up at my feet purring and snoozing, ignoring my occasional twitch as I type and watch the Saints-Steelers game.