In my great-grandfather's kitchen,
though only his for breakfast time
The butter crackles on the stove
batter spreads into a perfect circle
like wine spilled onto a white tablecloth
In my memory I sit patiently
awaiting the pancakes I love best
I sit in a chair made for someone larger
my bare feet swing wildly as I get my prize
through the glassy prison of memory
I watch as a younger me eats crudely
shoveling mouthfuls of opa wallie's pancakes
into a mouth already a bit like an overfull trash can
I hate this tiny, blond, happy, me
For taking such interest in pancakes
instead of the man who made them.
a man for whom he would have so many questions.
I curse that stupid naive child,
for his joy that day, for his lack of questions
for not knowing better the best man he ever would.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Friday, January 1, 2010
DVDs in Review
In the Category of movie snobbery, my top five movies released on DVD in 2009. I'm going with DVDs because I've seen all of those I care to and a fair few I wish I hadn't.
Honorable mentions: Taken and State of Play, - Really both of these are terrific films and you owe it to yourself to see them. I just didn't have much to say about them beyond that so I didn't put them on the list.
5. How To Lose Friends and Alienate People - Simon Pegg's best acting job I've seen, though certainly not his funniest. I'd say the same for Megan Fox, and I hope to see more of her in scripts that actually allow her to act. This movie is one I didn't really like at first, but it grows on me every time I think back on it and it's really a great showbiz commentary, not that I'd know. It also has a single line which sums up how I feel about most of the punks who try to pass themselves off as cinemaphiles these days. "He thinks Cinema begins with Tarantino and it doesn't." The movie could have been better, it could have been a lot better, but it's one of those movies that wormed its way into my heart and for that, it gets number 5.
4. Star Trek - Probably the best reboot of a franchise since 2005's Batman Begins. If you never watched it because you weren't a fan of the original series or it's spin-offs, you're a fool. Not for skipping those, they were pretty heavily geared toward the sci-fi nerd, but this, this is one of those films I don't really see anyone hating, and have yet to see anyone even complain about. Well, except Shatner. But he's creepy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fu656gGkhI
Seriously though. He told Kimmel it was wonderful.
3. Doubt - Stand up and clap performances from Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Meryl Streep, and brilliant support from Amy Adams and Viola Davis, whose scene as a mother between a rock and a hard place was heart wrenching. The film is a well-adapted play set in 1964 about a nun(Streep) who becomes convinced that a priest (Hoffman) at her parish has had innappropriate relations with a young african american boy. Without a shred of hard evidence she endeavors to gain both a confession and resignation from him.
2. Gran Torino - This and Unforgiven (1992) are the contenders for Eastwood's best film ever in my opinion, and considering that this is a man who, in 65 years as a leading man has yet to make a bad movie, is quite a feat. Eastwood plays an angry old Korean War Vet who gradually and begrudgingly befriends the Hmong family next door, and teaches their son to become a man.
1. (500) Days of Summer - This movie made me fall in love with Zooey Deschanel and made me want to see a lot more of Joseph Gordon-Levitt. A killer, if a little too hipster, soundtrack backs the film up brilliantly and first time feature director Marc Webb shines here. Some critics drew comparisons to Annie Hall as a generational relationship movie, but there's certainly a stronger comparison to be made with High Fidelity. I hesitate to call it a romantic comedy, because it feels a bit too true to life for that title, but if one were to force it into a genre I suppose it'd be a romantic dramedy with a healthy injection of (sur)realism. It jumps backward and forward through the relationship and breakup of a couple. It's brilliantly executed and the humor is regular enough that the movie is light enough to watch more than once.
Edit: I forgot District 9. It should have come in at 3 or four, but I forgot it at the time of making this list.
Honorable mentions: Taken and State of Play, - Really both of these are terrific films and you owe it to yourself to see them. I just didn't have much to say about them beyond that so I didn't put them on the list.
5. How To Lose Friends and Alienate People - Simon Pegg's best acting job I've seen, though certainly not his funniest. I'd say the same for Megan Fox, and I hope to see more of her in scripts that actually allow her to act. This movie is one I didn't really like at first, but it grows on me every time I think back on it and it's really a great showbiz commentary, not that I'd know. It also has a single line which sums up how I feel about most of the punks who try to pass themselves off as cinemaphiles these days. "He thinks Cinema begins with Tarantino and it doesn't." The movie could have been better, it could have been a lot better, but it's one of those movies that wormed its way into my heart and for that, it gets number 5.
4. Star Trek - Probably the best reboot of a franchise since 2005's Batman Begins. If you never watched it because you weren't a fan of the original series or it's spin-offs, you're a fool. Not for skipping those, they were pretty heavily geared toward the sci-fi nerd, but this, this is one of those films I don't really see anyone hating, and have yet to see anyone even complain about. Well, except Shatner. But he's creepy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fu656gGkhI
Seriously though. He told Kimmel it was wonderful.
3. Doubt - Stand up and clap performances from Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Meryl Streep, and brilliant support from Amy Adams and Viola Davis, whose scene as a mother between a rock and a hard place was heart wrenching. The film is a well-adapted play set in 1964 about a nun(Streep) who becomes convinced that a priest (Hoffman) at her parish has had innappropriate relations with a young african american boy. Without a shred of hard evidence she endeavors to gain both a confession and resignation from him.
2. Gran Torino - This and Unforgiven (1992) are the contenders for Eastwood's best film ever in my opinion, and considering that this is a man who, in 65 years as a leading man has yet to make a bad movie, is quite a feat. Eastwood plays an angry old Korean War Vet who gradually and begrudgingly befriends the Hmong family next door, and teaches their son to become a man.
1. (500) Days of Summer - This movie made me fall in love with Zooey Deschanel and made me want to see a lot more of Joseph Gordon-Levitt. A killer, if a little too hipster, soundtrack backs the film up brilliantly and first time feature director Marc Webb shines here. Some critics drew comparisons to Annie Hall as a generational relationship movie, but there's certainly a stronger comparison to be made with High Fidelity. I hesitate to call it a romantic comedy, because it feels a bit too true to life for that title, but if one were to force it into a genre I suppose it'd be a romantic dramedy with a healthy injection of (sur)realism. It jumps backward and forward through the relationship and breakup of a couple. It's brilliantly executed and the humor is regular enough that the movie is light enough to watch more than once.
Edit: I forgot District 9. It should have come in at 3 or four, but I forgot it at the time of making this list.
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