Tom, let's steal Megan and go see a movie Saturday night maybe.

Movie??

Speaking of, I am 25 minutes into Troy, and have already burst out laughing at the sheer godawfulness of it all three times. Brad Pitt is currently looking heroically into the middle distance, contemplating his Doom. But they are all extremely pretty. Especially in the midriff shirts.

(And of course, because I'm me, each time Helen appears onscreen, I think to myself, "Is this the face that launched a thousand ships and burned the topless towers of Ilium?")

I don't get not knowing Sweeney Todd is a musical but what people don't know often baffles me.

The subject of Sweeney Todd has just never come up in my life. But I don't care - my life has been great. And I know what Blackadder is.

The subject of Sweeney Todd has just never come up in my life.

Heh. Conversely I first heard of Sweeney Todd via The Two Ronnies back when I was knee-high to a grasshopper. They did one of their musical spoof things about it. It was many years before I realised that there actually was a musical about the Demon Barber, mind.

Ah, Troy. I liked that they incorporated some of my favourite moments from the poem, and I liked the way they handled Achilles' conversation with Thetis - so that an audience member who knows she's a sea goddess will see her in that light, whilst one who doesn't won't. Mostly, though, my memory is of that whole "Cousins! They're cousins, okay? COUSINS, damn it!!!" thing.

My favorite "My GOD why was she cast (as if I don't already know razzin' frazzin' married or whatever to the director grumble grumble)" moment was when she and Toby sing together and the 10-year-old had a stronger voice than she did. Like, obviously and painfully stronger.

Yeah. She was just not good at the singing.

And I know what Blackadder is.

I know both! I win!

[eta:

Mostly, though, my memory is of that whole "Cousins! They're cousins, okay? COUSINS, damn it!!!" thing.

Heh, yes. Cousins. Wink wink. Suuuuuuuure.]

Except for the bits where HBC sings. My favorite "My GOD why was she cast (as if I don't already know razzin' frazzin' married or whatever to the director grumble grumble)" moment was when she and Toby sing together and the 10-year-old had a stronger voice than she did. Like, obviously and painfully stronger.

See, I liked her voice. It was rough and real. But I have a big soft spot for non-professionally trained singers who sing (in public) being one myself.

"Is this the face that launched a thousand ships and burned the topless towers of Ilium?"

Paris was so much prettier.

Gilding the Lily
What movies get wrong (and right) about gardening.

So there I was muttering, "Fraud, fraud," while watching Enchanted April.

It's a charming movie that sets very few viewers to grumbling. Oppressed women leave cold, rainy 1920s England and proceed to find happiness, peace, and sunshine in a rented castle on the Italian coast.

My complaint wasn't about the story line but about the fact that the movie's Portofino, Italy, hillside garden was bursting with flowers that wouldn't be blooming simultaneously. No garden in the real world would look like that—the blooms of high summer (roses, sunflowers, geraniums) right next to the flowers of April (daffodils, tulips, camellias). It's garden fraud.

Mostly, though, my memory is of that whole "Cousins! They're cousins, okay? COUSINS, damn it!!!" thing.

Cleolinda certainly did make that movie a lot more enjoyable in retrospect. I can't see a photo with Brad Pitt in armor and helm without hearing the smartass audience member yell "STELLAAAAAAA!" in my head.