My only commentary on this NBA story- ew. The Nets are going to stay sad sacks forever, aren't they? There's a reason I found out about this more than a week after the fact.
Please let it be Spring Training. Please.
What I'm reading today: Skinny Dip, by Carl Hiaasen
I watched The Station Agent with my parents yesterday, and it really helped me get out of my Christmas-induced grumpiness. I'd been grocery shopping with my mom for about 2 hours before then, and the store felt it necessary to wish us all "a happy holidays" and tell us their Christmas (non)hours every 5 minutes. Just in case we didn't hear it the 37th time around.
Anyway, back to the movie. It stars Peter Dinklage as Fin, a dwarf and railroad enthusiast who moves into an abandoned train depot in the middle of nowhere, New Jersey. The movie has a few moments of people's dumber reactions to Fin's appearance- gawking, laughing, even taking pictures as if he's a zoo animal. But instead of making the movie into preachy tripe about how we're all human on the inside, the filmmakers made a wonderful story of friendship instead.
Fin, for obvious reasons, is pretty anti-social when he first moves in. And when Patricia Clarkson's Olivia almost runs him over twice in one day, it really doesn't look like the beginning of a good relationship. It takes the catalyst of Bobby Canavale's sunny, desperately lonely Joe to get Fin and Olivia (who has her own set of troubles) to come out of their respective shells. The three of them begin to bond over Fin's passion for trains, and small-scale human drama ensues.
The Station Agent is great because it takes these 3 isolated, dysfunctional people, who all have difficulties to spare, and doesn't judge them or make fun of them or reduce them to cliche. And it would be so easy to do so- Fin's a dwarf, Olivia pops pills to forget about her dead son, and Joe is taking care of his unwell father. It's the stuff of soap opera, but the movie never even begins to get mawkish. It keeps its touch light, and ends up being a masterpiece of "show, don't tell." In a time when some movies seem to be written by fourth-graders, that's a beautiful thing to see.
What I'm reading today: A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. LeGuin
Actually, no. Very unhappy winter solstice. Because I'm freezing and this house never warms up and I can't feel my toes. Hrmph.
Now this is exactly what New York needs- another certifiably insane pitching ace. With Roger Clemens back in retirement limbo, Kevin Brown hardly pitching like an ace, and David Wells in Boston, we were really lacking in the "crazy man who throws 90 mph" department. But never fear- Pedro Martinez and his former good luck midget are here to save the day, and to make the interminable winter a little more interesting. Thanks, guys.
What I'm reading today: A Study in Scarlet, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Yesterday I watched the SciFi channel's two-part Legend of Earthsea mini-series. As a tremendous fan of Ursula K. LeGuin's original Earthsea trilogy, I approached the mini with trepidation- I already knew that Shawn Ashmore, aka Bobby from the X-Men movies, was cast as Sparrowhawk, and I didn't exactly have the greatest faith in his acting skills. Nor was I particularly happy with the fact that he was white, which his character certainly was not.
I should have realized that the casting of teen favorites Ashmore and Kristin Kreuk (of Smallville) was part of a pattern. This was Earthsea as WB melodrama, complete with Ashmore and Kreuk sharing a smooch at the end. Of course, no such thing happened in The Tombs of Atuan. But who cares about the text when you can add sex to the story, right?
By combining the plots of A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan into one timeline, the creators of this series could have done something interesting, I guess, showing the parallel maturations of Sparrowhawk and Tenar in their respective worlds. But they passed up even that opportunity and instead mutilated the storylines of both books for the sake of some half-assed romance between the two characters. Tenar was turned into a bright-eyed, smiling priestess-in-training and Sparrowhawk became a typically petulant WB bad boy. There were girls at the wizarding school in Gont and no mention of the fact that wizards weren't supposed to consort with women. Oops.
They couldn't even keep Sparrowhawk's "public" name and his true name straight, and I'm supposed to settle for that? No one who has even an ounce of appreciation or respect for LeGuin's text should watch this mini-series. Avoid it like the plague.
What I'm listening to today: Rockin' the Suburbs, by Ben Folds
Between the disgrace of the ALCS, Jason Giambi being a complete ass, and the general lack of Soriano and Clemens, I was pretty unhappy with the Yankees of last season. But no matter how stupid they act, I keep coming back in spite of myself. I'm a sad, sad little fangirl.
So I hope you'll excuse my little squeals of joy when I read that Carl Pavano is leaning towards signing with the Yanks. I mean, he's good, he's youngish, and he's not Eric Milton. What more can a team ask for in a free agent pitcher?
As for David Wells- go ahead, Boston. You can have him. Just don't be surprised when his back snaps in two from carrying his gut around all season.
What I'm reading today: Psychology, by Henry Gleitman et al.
Nothing says Chanukah quite like doing musicianship homework and going grocery shopping, don't you think?
What I'm reading today:A Very Long Engagement, by Sabastien Japrisot