What did I do today(as in yesterday)? Not that much really.
Ate some hummus, did some homework, watched Modern Family - loving DVR!
What I did of some interest is watch a movie which made me think about movies and listen to some new music which made me think about music.
So The Time Traveler's Wife...
While an incredibly interesting concept (a man balancing love and family while randomly traveling through time for unknown periods of time - naked!) this concept was too big for a movie. While Rachel McAdams' character attempts to cope with her time traveling husband she continues to tell him how much she loves him and how she wouldn't have it any other way but the audience can't see that.
A.O. Scott noticed that this was the problem with Sandra Bullock's character in The Blind Side:
"The biggest problem here is that her character never changes, never experiences a moment of doubt or guilt or selfishness, and after a while her display of goodness sinks into vanity. "
At least the Time Traveler's Wife has the excuse of a dizzying plot involving time travel and its consequences, or lack of. The fact that he wasn't able to change anything in the future makes The Time Traveler's Wife' world a little too fated without touching on the concept at all.
This makes me think about my recent obsession with At The Movies. I've been watching At the Movies recaps on their website. At the Movies has been a movie review television show since Siskel and Ebert started it in 1982 and been a weekly must-watch for me since November.
Some have said that watching reviews of movies spoils and bias' the viewer. I originally started viewing to see if a movie is worth seeing... A.O Scott, didn't become the film critic for the NYTimes from nothing. And while I sometimes don't agree with him or Michael Philips of the Chicago Tribune, they aren't just saying if something is good or not they go into details about audiences and such.
Anyway, enough of defending them, I enjoy At the Movies because I am learning to view movies in different ways. My Screenwriting classes in college started me on the right track of viewing movies by structure, support, and character development and not just what the plot it about. At the Movies has let me think more about the type of audiences movies are aimed towards and the disagreements between the two credits proves how personal the experience viewing a movie (or music, or anything) can be.
And I like that bigger picture shtuff. If anything, the hosts are sometimes mean to each other which is entertaining.
Anyway, I been listening to a lot of new music this weekend too. Even though right now, I've fallen back to enjoying an older favorite, Eric Hutchinson, I really enjoyed experiencing Sufjan Stevens' Chicago and Ray LaMontagne's Gossip in the Grain this weekend. I also downloaded MGMT's Oracular Spectacular which I still need to really listen too. I have a feeling that it may be a little backgroundy for my taste, I enjoy music that really requires me to listen to it... or I require myself to really listen to music I enjoy... hmm. I do like track "Kids" though and I was informed that the all guy A Cappella club from college is learning it now.
So, that was my weekend... the new At the Movies is on so I'm going to go check it out and go to bed. Spinning class tomorrow!
