Library Haul

I meant to write this post up yesterday, but I was in a bad, not very companionable mood.  I’m feeling better today, having, among other things, cooked some beautiful dal and finished watching Mother!, which was much better than last autumn’s reviews had led me to believe it would be.

Other news? I’m looking forward to seeing Deadpool 2, probably this weekend, hoping to go out for  meal or ice cream (or both), my chocolate quinoa pancakes continue to be excellent, and Solo is getting some pretty mediocre reviews. Oh, and I’m falling behind on reading Travels with Charley.

Here’s what else I have checked out:

Books:

• Travels with Charley
• How to Break Up with Your Phone
• The Little Book of Lykke: The followup to the widely acclaimed Little Book of Hygge. I’ve actually already finished it, just not ready to return it yet.
• Lolly Willowes
• Ripley’s Game: Wondering if this third installment will be the one that puts me off the Ripley series
• The Wings of the Dove: I really fear the day when I have no more big Henry James. This and The Golden Bowl. That’s all I’ve got left, I think.
• The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning

Movies:

• Gran Torino: Clint Eastwood is bae.
• Lady Snowblood: Miss Havisham goes violent samurai.
• Mother!
• Enter the Dragon: Triggered by a youtube video pointing out a very extra extra.
• The Furies: Barbara Stanwyck is also bae.
• My Name is Nobody
• The Old Gun: Yay westerns!
• Prisoners
• Frenzy: One of the chronologically last Hitchcock films and one of the last ones I haven’t seen yet.
• Amarcord: The first movie of Fellini’s that I’ve liked.

Friday Fun Links 4/28

A Friday off, it’s just like last semester! Except this time it’s because I’m essentially done with my classes (except for an optional Music History session on Monday (at which I will be) and a mini English conference on Wednesday).  It’s really just reading period and exams from here on out.
This is the first time I’m finishing up a year of classes with no guarantee of further classes ahead of me.  School has always been a kind of constant expectation, and it’s very weird to, for the first time, not necessarily expect it to continue.

In short, I can feel the encroaching existential dread.
But, with every new milestone (last ballroom show, last day of classes, etc.) I’ve been buying myself a little present, usually about $10 or under.  So now I have a new rosewater facial toner which is quite lovely, and a few mL of Tubereuse by Mona di Orio awaiting me at home.
And yes, I know that my rampant consumerism is just a distraction, a search for a false sense of security to stave off my anxiety about my future.  But hey, at least, when the breakdown comes, I will smell good and have glowing skin. 😛

Things Get Confusing

At least I’m not the Yalie who was called out recently on Facebook for conflating renowned scientist and victim of radiation-poisoning Marie Curie with similarly-yet-differently renowned singer and diva Mariah Carey.

But I do have equally embarrassing things that I confuse with one another. Here are a few of them.

Seven Favorite Movies

I’ve decided I’m going to write this post after feeling challenged by this youtube video from Shmoes Know, one of my favorite movie-related youtube channels.  Which should be another list.

The idea of writing a list of my top seven movies is horrifying to me.  But it’s also an oddly exciting challenge.  But I’m sure I can’t do it without regret and self-blame (because of those poor sad rejected favorites- how will they forgive me?!)

You know I love making lists, right? Yes, I know it’s the whole point of this blog, but I’m just checking.  I have an Excel spreadsheet of movie ratings.  From 1-5.  It’s been a while since I went through and edited to reflect current preferences, but as it stands now, there are 81 ‘5-star’ movies and 312 ‘4-star’ movies.

I Have the Best Words

 

An addition to my ‘choice words’ category, which has, I suppose, become a series.  Honestly, I’ve really started to enjoy keeping track of the random words that pop into my head.  The American-English language is a pretty amazing thing, it’s as though we plundered all of these other languages and just kept words based on completely arbitrary criteria.

15 Summer Movies

In honor of the beginning of the summer solstice, I’m going to be doing a bit of a seasonally themed week.

Summer movies are an interesting category. I think most people are familiar with the idea of the ‘summer blockbuster’, but I’m wondering more about what it is that actually makes a film as classically summery in feel as sandy toes and an iced tea on the porch.

Decants and Minis (Part One)

When I was talking about my full bottle perfume wardrobe (God, isn’t that such a lovely phrase?) I believe I made it clear that my preference these days is decidedly for purchasing decants or relatively small mL volumes of the perfumes I want to have on hand.
I’ve too many fragrances at this point to wear any single perfume with any great regularity and I don’t want to fall into the trap of having a volume of perfume beyond my life expectancy…
Add to that that decants are more easily storable and travel well, and it’s a bit of a no-brainer. I make exceptions for vintages and limited editions, where the possibility of replenishing one’s stash is slimmer.

Part One of my decant list contains my choices from the Dior and Chanel private collections, both of which I find to be consistently well done.  And no, I have not tried the entirety of both lines (and there are scents from both that I want but have not yet acquired- stories for another day).

Familiar Film Faces

For a person of 20-going-on-21, this list is… um…. a bit embarrassing.
I like old movies (classics, please) just as my literature preferences lean more toward the 19th century.

Naturally, my favorite actors and actresses are similarly timeless/currently deceased.  Mostly.
And my favorite actors are not necessarily the ‘best’ actors, but rather the people I am always happy to see on the screen.  Just as when a book is written by my favorite author I try to read it, if a movie has one of these people in it, I try to watch it.

Jimmy Stewart: I date my film obsession back to when my grandmother showed me Rear Window the summer before my freshman year of high school.  In reality, it had probably been seething beneath the surface before then- but the breathtaking combination of Jimmy Stewart, Grace Kelly (see below), and director Alfred Hitchcock caused a veritable explosion in my conception of what films could be.  I like Jimmy Stewart for his self-effacing, foot-shuffling charm, whether he’s bringing it to a screwball romantic comedy (Philadelphia Story), a Western (Destry Rides Again), or the quintessential Christmas film (It’s A Wonderful Life).