The days are so long and the sky is a weird purpley pink and Rufus Rufus Rufus is singin’ Judy Judy Judy, so what a perfect time to write.
Proudly, I must announce that I am doing very well indeed without the luxuries of cable television. And per usual, when one addiction goes away I quickly fill the gap with something else. This time, however, I’ve found some more [dare I say it] *sophisticated* substitutes. Cable, you get replaced with an obsession with european history. Internet, you get replaced
with opera.
I know. Who does that?
It all started when I had this shut-in, Netflixxed weekend of period piece watching. In the span of seven days I watched Marie Antoinette, The Other Boleyn Girl, The Duchess, Elizabeth, Elizabeth:The Golden Age, and the entire five-hour series of Pride & Prejudice.
I know. Who does that?
BACKSTORY. I took a European history class my freshman year of college, fresh off a summer visit to Italy and France. Pretty sure I looked at the course catalog and thought, “Hey! I saw some Renaissance things. This class will be cake.” Yeah, no. Know what happened between the late middle ages and the Industrial Revolution, people? A LOT OF SH*T. It was probably one of the hardest classes I ever took (which I guess isn’t saying much because I was a telecomm major.) (Oh. Zing.) I didn’t have time to read Utopia and I needed cliffs notes for Voltaire and hey, wow, they did NOT teach us about The Inquisition in Catholic school. But some of it must have stuck.
Sophia Coppolla’s Marie Antoinette wasn’t even that good of a movie (I wanted to see her beheaded at the end, which I realize is way macabre but I love drama.)However, it was shiny and colorful like candy and lead me to borrow this 29348274 page biography from the library. I’m kind of loving it.
I know. Who does that?
I’m not really sure how the opera obsession came about, really. I’ve been getting back into classical music lately and when some opera got thrown in there I probably said, “I can hang.” Rameau, Mozart, Schubert all came home with me (awkward car ride, to say the least) from the downtown library. SPEAKING OF WHICH, Indianapolitans, have you BEEN? Mercy. Pretty sure I spent a good hour just riding up and down the six floors of escalators.
Let’s not kid ourselves into thinking I’m sipping brandy by the fireside or something. I still get easily distracted and I still drink too much and I still spend my paycheck to the dime. I’m just getting better at Trivial Pursuit in the process.
Also: Recommendations for my Netflix queue. Leave ‘em in the comments.
June 17th, 2009 at 7:05 am
Woot! Woot! You Updated! Be jealous, I have to go to the library today to return my book about how to open a book store.
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June 17th, 2009 at 7:14 am
Since you’re on a European kick nexflix “In Bruges” its set in an amazing location with super neat buildings and it is funny, kind of vulgur with the language but you get that when they team an Irishman and and Englishman together.
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June 17th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
link fixed dood.for opera, i’m all about turandot (grisly beheadings!), la boheme (consumption!) and madame butterfly (pinkerton and cio-cio san! ritual suicide!)for movies, netflix totally has my favorite movie ever, Leolo. It’s best if you don’t know what it’s about and just watch it with virgin eyes. Also, You and Me and Everyone We Know is great. AND FINALLY, The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill is a sweet little documentary about birds.
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June 18th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Rambo: First Blood Part II
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January 26th, 2010 at 8:38 pm
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