Marigold

In flipping though the channels today I happened upon an exquisite little film called Marigold. It stars the incomparable Ali Larter (of the whipped cream bikini) as an American actress who finds herself acting in a Bollywood musical. Against all odds, this is not a comedy. It seems to take itself very seriously despite including scenes like this:

Tan Man , Marigold - Hindi Song - Ali Larter @ Yahoo! Video

As luck would have it, I was going to an Indian restaurant today with a friend. What I didn't realize was that the name of the restaurant was Marigold. I can say that my experience was much more satisfactory at the restaurant than it was watching the movie. I can only hope, however, that the name of the restaurant was chosen because the owners are huge fans of Ali Larter.

Uptown Downstairs Abbey

If you are like me and adored the first season of Downton Abby, this will just kill you.

So very funny.

If you haven't seen Downton Abby, you really must watch it. It is funny and juicy, and you feel smarter for having seen it (but really it is just a soap opera). A good thing to offset the hours you spend watching America's Next Top Model or Jersey Shore.

Let the Games Begin!

So I guess 5'7", fair haired, fair skinned, and almost 21 is the new small, dark, skinny and 16!

Meet Jennifer Lawrence, your new Katniss Everdeen!

I haven't seen her Oscar nominated performance in Winter's Bone, but I hear she was good. My concern is less with her acting ability and more with vague feeling of being let down by this casting decision. At this point it is purely cosmetics for me. I guess I would have liked to see the announcement of a younger girl with an appearance more closely resembling that of (my image of) her Katniss.

That is silly, really. Let's be honest, if they had cast on looks, this girl wouldn't have ever been a contender. My only hope is that she did something amazing with the part and totally sold the director and producers. You know she's going to have to sell it to the fans!

Even though I was in favor of casting a younger actress, I can admit that Katniss and the other tributes probably would look older than their actual age. It stands to reason, since all of them have lead rough lives, they may not look like a normal teenager. Casting older also allows the filmmakers to work more quickly without having to worry about the number of hours a Haylee Steinfeld can work. (Another bonus: if they keep this up, I won't feel like a dirty old lady for being firmly "Team Peeta"!)

Also, Jennifer is from Kentucky (which is probably part of District 12). She was passed up years ago for the part of Bella Swan. That may mean we all dodged a bullet in that we don't have to watch Kristen Stewart play with her hair and fidget as she fights to stay alive as Katniss!

I guess that is it for my silver linings. And I'm sending up a prayer that this apparent disregard for the natural coloring of Katniss doesn't extend to casting a lily-white Rue!

Captain EO

Back in 1987 my family took a trip to Walt Disney World. There was an epic new movie experience to be had in the World of Imagination. It was called Captain EO.

Starring Michael Jackson, Anjelica Houston, and a robot with a mustache, it was cutting-edge 3-D movie making. You know that's true because it was produced by George Lucas and directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

24 years later (a week ago) we went back and lo and behold: Captain EO was back! They could have brought it back earlier when Jackson passed away, or they could have waited for the quarter century anniversary, but no, the return of EO corresponded directly to my family's return the WDW. Coincidence? Probably.

Below is part one of the movie. Of course you can't watch it in 3-D, but you will get an idea of just how awesome it was and still is. My favorite thing about it is how unabashedly unselfconscious they all were. By the end, this film looks like a gay pride parade and I don't believe anyone involved in the production is really aware of this.

Soften All The Bones In Your Face

I feel just sick about this: Rich (from fourfour) will no longer be recapping America's Next Top Model.

Let's have a moment of silence.

I have always enjoyed the camp and absurdity of ANTM, but what has really kept me watching was Rich's hilarious, spot-on commentary every week. He actually changed the way I watched the show. I would seen an episode and think "what will Rich say about that?" This cycle is no exception.

The first "runway show" had so many elements. The runway was narrow (12 inches wide), surrounded by water, the girls had to walk inside bubbles and the bubbles were full of red petals that further obscured their vision.

I'm not really sure why they even bothered with the Alexander Wang clothes. The girls might as well have been wearing sacks (some of them looked like they were).

Two girls fell off the runway and floated around in the water nobody helped them out, they just had to crawl around like hamsters until they could move close enough to the edge to roll themselves out. It was beyond ridiculous.

Only one girl didn't look like a total mess and she's from a small town in PA! I'll be rooting for Britanni (and pretending that she doesn't spell her name in such a dumb way).

Luau

We've been in Orlando for 3 full days now, and every day has been a different park. Sunday was Epcot, Monday was the Animal Kingdom, and today we did the Magic Kingdom. So far my favorite has been the Animal Kingdom. I feel like I could have spent much more time there. There was a lot to see and do and the rides were pretty impressive.

Today, though, we went to a Luau at the Polynesian resort after a day at the Magic Kingdom. The show was a 8 so we got there about 15 minutes early. There was a bit of a SNAFU with the seating (I didn't have our confirmation ticket, but we definitely already paid). That was a bit annoying, but when we were seated, we found we had pretty great seats.

After a few minutes sitting there, my brother noticed that I was right up at the edge by the aisle. He told me to be ready because they were definitely going to single me out to dance on the stage! I thought he was right, for sure, and proceeded to get very nervous about it. As the show progressed, it didn't seem like they were going to bring people up on stage. I started to relax.

Next thing I knew, they were announcing that they were going to need the audience's help and that if a cast member asked you to dance, you had to do it! I was in a panic. I kept my eye stealthily (stealthy, so he wouldn't see me looking at him) on the guy going out to find women in the audience. The danger passed, two guys and two girls were up on stage shaking their hips, and none of them was me!

But wait! Where did SHE come from? One of the cast members snuck up on our table like a hula ninja and commanded my brother to get going! She wasn't taking "no" for an answer (mostly because she didn't give him a chance to say anything) and just kept telling him to hurry it up to get to the stage.

Poor Ryan! He was up there with just one other guy from the audience and he was surrounded by these dancers. He was a real trooper (and way better than the other guy). It was so funny I was weeping. My dad got photos (which I will post later, with any luck).

The rest of the show was pretty amazing, but I think the crowd really liked Ryan. He got a number of compliments on his dancing on the way out of the luau!

Vacation!

I am less than 48 hours away from taking my first vacation in years! I use most of my holiday time to visit my parents in beautiful St. Cloud, MN or the rest of my family in Erie, PA. The one exception (in the last 3 years) was my 4 day trip to Nashville. That was fun, but it wasn't truly a vacation in the same sense as my upcoming week-long excursion to Orlando.

Some people may wonder why a 31 year old

would be going to Orlando with her parents and 29 year old brother. They would probably expect Key West or some other beach-oriented destination. Well, that is just not us! We have been talking about doing this for a couple of years now and we are finally all gainfully employed with vacation time (I'm talking about myself as the late bloomer in this scenario). The only hitch in the planning had been that my gainful employment and my mother's conflicted a bit when it came time to choose dates. Luckily, this year Mom's Spring Break falls in February, when I'm not too bogged down at work to justify leaving for a whole week.

This is a pretty close approximation of my current level of excitement:

I have one request from my co-workers, though. They are adamant that I get a picture of the four of us in Mickey Ears! I don't know how likely that is, but we may be so infected by the atmosphere of Disney that my father whips his wallet out of his fanny pack to buy Ears for us all. If that happens, I PROMISE to have photographic evidence! (Also, if he insists on wearing the fanny pack, there will be evidence)