Barcelona

This movie was a fun story about Barcelona in the early 1980's. Virulent anti-Americanism and stupid Americans make for plenty of humor; and the dialogue was snappy and well-written. Thumbs up!

The Long Goodbye

We watched this long movie over a couple of nights. Excellent movie, in the way all Altman movies are excellent: they tell great stories with interesting characters. Elliot Gould in his youth was fantastic as Philip Marlowe.

Brideshead Revisited

We decided to watch the "classic" British television serial (10 episodes) based on the novel. After just a few episodes, it was clear that the movie that we watched sucked, big time. The series is beautifully done, and is far more about the influence of religion (in particular, Catholicism) on the characters' lives. Definitely worth watching!

Microsoft Money replacement

Hey, now this is incredibly useful...a way to keep using MS Money after Microsoft is done supporting it...

This post has gotten a lot of hits, so let me clarify. The link takes you to a python script that you can adapt to download quotes into MS Money. You have to understand a little bit of programming (and Python, in particular) to be able to use it, unfortunately. If you have that knowledge, this is a great way to work around the end of MS Money.

Trader Joe's

Wow, a Trader Joe's within a few blocks of our apartment: that would be outrageously wonderful!

Amsterdam

Since I enjoyed the movie Atonement (based on a novel by Ian McEwan), I thought I should read Amsterdam, which won the Booker Prize in 1998. The novel is beautifully written, but dark and verging on depressing in the way it portrays humanity. I hope Mr. McEwan has a more optimistic outlook on life than his novels depict! Nevertheless, I really enjoyed reading this novel.

Eastwick

We watched the new TV show Eastwick, which is based on the novel by John Updike (which I haven't read). It was entertaining since one the stars is Paul Gross, who was in Slings and Arrows and Due South, two old series that we've watched in the last year. Nothing profound, and somewhat predictable (especially since I'm familiar with the basic plot), but amusing.

The Scarlet Pimpernel

Because we have been watching Brideshead Revisited (with the actor Anthony Andrews), we decided to watch another movie that he stars in: The Scarlet Pimpernel. Filmed a long time ago, when he and Jane Seymour were young. A corny and predictable plot, but entertaining (especially in how it makes fun of the French.

Atonement

This film, which was nominated for many Oscars, was beautiful to watch. A bit depressing, but very well written and acted. I can see why it was so well-liked by the Academy: it's a "feel-bad" story about life and about story-telling itself. Highly recommended.

Prisoner of the State

I tried to read this book, which consists of Zhao Ziyang's notes about his life (and Tiananmen, in particular). Unfortunately, my knowledge of contemporary Chinese politics is fairly weak, and the notes were pretty dry analyses of what went wrong: nothing really gripping, other than the historical context. So eventually I gave up: the first book I haven't finished in a while.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Finally got around to watching this movie, which was quite entertaining. David Yates (who is apparently directing the last 4 of the Potter movies) did a good job of producing a film from a rather dense book. It's been several years since I read the book, and the book did a great job of hitting the book's highlights (and even throwing in some details without tedious explanation). Take that, Chris Columbus!

The High Line

 

We went to see the High Line park that opened this summer. It was quite crowded, but for most of its length the crowdedness was bearable. (At the current northern end that wasn't the case: it was too busy). Overall, a nice experience and pretty park: the elevated walk is quite nice!

Nisos

Had dinner at this Greek restaurant. Good food (and good-sized portions) at a very reasonable price. Highly recommended; I'd like to go back when it's not after a long work day; as it was, we were both very tired and didn't quite enjoy it as much as we should have.

Slumdog Millionaire

We finally got around to watching last year's winner of the Best Picture Oscar: and it was well worth it. The story was very well written, and the kids were really cute. The main plot sure made India look like a pretty corrupt place, though: it would be interesting to know if that was accurately done.

Slumdog Millionaire

We finally got around to watching last year's winner of the Best Picture Oscar: and it was well worth it. The story was very well written, and the kids were really cute. The main plot sure made India look like a pretty corrupt place, though: it would be interesting to know if that was accurately done.

Due South Season Three

We've been watching episodes of this season on and off (Netflix is great!). It's not as fun as the first two seasons: Callum Keith Rennie (who recently was on the Battlestar Galactica series as a Cylon) wasn't as entertaining as Benton Fraser's partner. Still, an interesting series to watch: I like seeing how Canadians portray American society.