Saturday,
February 3, 2001

We break from Melanie's Moving Angst(TM) to bring you a special announcement--

I've been a bad Webrat. Didn't do a lick of writing today (mainly because I was running around like a maniac trying to secure a place to live).

But that's okay. All is forgotten, because as of this afternoon I have seen Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Oh.

My.

God.

If you haven't seen it yet, go. Go now. Drop whatever it is you're doing and buy a ticket, because if you don't you'll be missing out on the performance of the millennium. I cannot wait for the Oscars. And Ridley Scott should be looking behind himself nervously, because Ang Lee is back there with a thoroughbred of a movie and the riding crop of public worship.

And, much as I adore him, I suspect Russell Crowe is going to lose the little naked gold guy again this year. Banging America's Sweetheart, breaking up her marriage, then dumping her in favor of partytime with his buddies wasn't going to endear him to the Academy in any case, no matter how brilliant he was in Gladiator. Now that Chow Yun Fat is burning up the turf with CTHD, there's someone else they can give the statuette to in good conscience. Mark my words -- this movie is walking away with gold in March and Russell will be scowling at the camera once again, or I'll eat my power cord.

But about CTHD. Yes, it's undubbed and subtitled. Yes, it doesn't have your usual American-style ending. Who cares -- this is a brilliant movie, full stop. It's a love story, it's a thriller (once I realized that the two leads were special agents trying to track down a master criminal, I thought, "Oh, my God, it's the Chinese Avengers"), it's a tragicomedy, it's kung-fu fighting at its finest, and Michelle Yeoh runs neck and neck with the scenery for the accolade of "Most Visually Stunning."

Do you get the impression that I liked the movie? Well, I liked the movie. No, I loved the movie. In fact, I wanna see it again sometime this week, after I've moved in and have recovered some sense of sanity. In the meantime, however, I'm going to encourage everyone to forget about silly things like working and sleeping -- instead, go see this movie. It's faboo, I promise.

Oh, yeah, moving -- we decided on the new place. It was just too nice to pass up, and a half-hour commute isn't that bad, really. It'll give me time to plot, I suppose, if I don't wind up blowing an artery screaming at the Dallas drivers (these people, sheesh). And I also found out that Lyndon's department will be moving to the new TBS Hamlet, which is very close to the new place -- since he'll be a new driver, it's more important for him to have a short, easy commute.

Besides, you have to love that vaulted ceiling. We're gonna have so much fun. . .

But enough of my househunting. If I couldn't be bothered to write, what else did I do today? Well. . .instead of writing, I went shopping with Julia, to be truthful. And this is a very dangerous proposition, since it's obvious that she's on retainer to all the major department stores. We walked into JC Penny's looking for socks (for HER daughter, I may add), and I walked out with three tops, a pair of slacks, a set of ruby earrings and a matching necklace on layaway. And I don't know how it happened.

She's an deep mole, I swear.

And in the evening, instead of writing, we went over to HarpHaven, the home of Lee and George Martindale, for a jam session/pizza run. I met Lee at Chicon -- in addition to her own writing duties, she's also the editor of the anthology Such a Pretty Face and runs Rump Parliament, a size-activist newsletter. Needless to say, Lee is extremely intelligent, articulate, and a real firecracker, as well as a hoot and a half. We actually went out to dinner last night with a group of assorted friends, and when she found out that a number of us were musical, tonight's jam session was organized.

So we loaded Julia's Casio keyboard and my two guitars into the car, and headed over to HarpHaven (which is gorgeous. I can't risk bringing Lyndon there because he'll want to move in) for an evening of food, music and general treason. Of course, the minute we walked through the door we were introduced to the newest feline members of the household, Mistletoe and Eggnog (any guess when they arrived?), who shyly crept out to say hello. The shyness was undertstandable -- they just came back from being neutered and we're the first new humans they've seen since then, so they were probably wondering, "Oh, man, what are THESE hairy apes gonna do to us?"

The oldest feline member, Chia, just looked at us as if to say, "Eh. I've seen better." She stayed rather aloof throughout the evening, but the kittens warmed up after a bit and started nuzzling us periodically -- Eggnog, in particular, was absolutely fascinated with the bottom of Julia's foot and kept running her nose back and forth along it. Needless to say, Julia was almost wetting herself trying not to scream with laugher at the tickling sensation. It's amazing -- I've never seen a woman make those kinds of faces (men, yes. Oh, let's just not go there).

Then Joyslin Molpus, she of the Mercedes tank who helped me get my driver's license, arrived later. That was our cue to sit down, noodle away at various pieces, listen to some of Lee's filksongs, snarf pizza and chocolate, play with the kitties, and generally relax and enjoy ourselves. And after all the running around we'd done in the morning and afternoon, it was just so nice to stop for a while and sit quietly while Joyslin strummed a 12-string, Julia and Lee debated the merits of erotica and George picked out the bass line to Fleetwood Mac songs.

There they are at left, by the way -- the hostess is seated, as is proper, with Julia kneeling and Joyslin and George in the background. The background is cedar panels that some yahoo painted and George is in the middle of stripping (and quite rightly so -- now they just have to take the paint off the brickwork). And right next to Joyslin, you can just about see my electric guitar. Yeah, I'm a multi-talented kind of girl.

But I still didn't write today.

TOP

Welcome | Lewis Carroll | Speculative Fiction | Cool Canadian Bands
Hoosier Red | Crafts | Belaurient Web Design | Journal