Segue Whiplash.

--By the by, I did donate the Valdez-Rodrigues book to the books for prisoners as for the reasons that I explained during the last post, The Books that I've managed to say goodbye to. I also gave two books to my student Anne so they have homes. One vaguely touches on what she's pursuing, queer young adult lit/ picture books, The Wild Swans by Peg Kerr and the other is by Joan Hess which we read in the mystery class. Regarding the Wild Swans, it's a book that deals with the AIDS crisis and sort of also deals with the witch trials in England and is a "re-telling" of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Wild Swans." As you can perhaps imagine, it's a mish-mosh and parts of it I liked, but it's woah depressing and the fantasy element that happens at the end doesn't quite work for me, as it tries to connect the two storylines. I warned Anne that it was depressing. I lent it to JKS and RJN and they pretty much agree with me and are still speaking to me somehow. I think JKS read the swan book and either Louise Erdritch's Tracks or Love Medicine shortly on top of each other. The Erdritch books are good, but up there on the intense characters and situations. JKS, through reasons that are far too long to get into also saw Frida and the Hours on the same day. Again, maybe I don't deserve to have friends if I enable them to experience such depressing movies. For her birthday I got her Must Love Dogs, so I feel somewhat less guilty.
--Speaking of depressing movies, have rented the following Brokeback Mountain, Joy Luck Club and Clerks which has got to be up there on weird renting days. My rationale was I hadn't seen them and I figured it was about time to do so. There might be weirder combos I've done, but they're not springing to mind right now.
--As far as intense films to see on top of each other, the limit I've done and don't think I've ever topped were as follows: Henry V, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and her Lover, and The Last Temptation of Christ within a forty-eight hour time span. Henry I saw with my then-friend EMF as her Shakespeare class was showing it on Thursday night, we went to see the Cook on Friday night at 7:00 and someone was watching Christ in the parlor and I got sucked into it. I liked it, though I remember being confused because the actor who played Ralph Garcy/ Garcia from Fame was one of the disciples and his previous role was distracting me. Ralph, no. This is forever happening to me, a previous role seeps onto the current one. Like in the Crucible, I kept reading the relationship between Winona and Daniel in Age of Innocence into it. And Eric Balfour, who's a minor, minor actor is forever linked with Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Jessie even though he was only in the first two episodes and dies in them.
--I can't remember which one of my friends came up with the phrase segue whiplash, but I know that it was in heavy rotation in college and afterwards. I also know that I didn't make the connection that segue was pronounced the way it is for a while. Maybe it's a french thing. It's se-goo isn't it? Ay.
--Have started reading a book called Movie Lust, to add to the multiple movie lists I already have. I agree with much of them, but there are some movies that could be great but I will just never care about, either do to subject matter or casting.
--Could someone explain to me why Graham Norton (annoying British man) and Craig Ferguson (Annoying Scottish Man) have talk shows and careers? Because I don't get it. Craig was tolerable (just) in Drew Carey Show as he wasn't the sole focus, but in the movie The Big Tease he was just too full of himself. It wanted to be the Spinal Tap of hairdressing competitions in L.A., but it was just hard to watch. Rent Blow-Dry if you want a hairdresser film. The fact that Josh Hartnett is in it doesn't even bother me.
--And while we're at it, I'm at a loss of understanding the appeal of the Guardian, the new Coast Guard movie with Kevin Costner and Mr. Demi Moore and Flyboys, which is a historical version of W.W.I Flying Aces with James Franco. I'd probably watch it for the W.W. I stuff. I don't care very much about Costner to begin with, much less Kelso. And the more that James Franco does, Tristan and Isolde (which I liked), Annapolis and the Spider-man franchises makes me forget that he was ever attached to something as good as Freaks and Geeks, which I would like to re-watch. He reminds me of the new Richard Gere who I never was that crazy about to begin with. I watched Officer and a Gentleman, and okay, he's kind of attractive, but he's just such an asshole. The thing that surprised me about that movie is how blunt they are about their backgrounds as they refer to him as Zack Mayo the Wop. How un-PC can you get? And it's definitely an early 80s flick. He's least annoying in Chicago. I think we can agree that I'm not someone who gets the appeal of a man in a navy uniform or any other military type garb. Debra Winger, you can do better. I can forgive a lot of flaws in a film or a tv show if there's at least someone cute or cool in it, but cuteness cannot solve every problem as far as plot-holes go. And while we're on it, could someone explain Prison Break to me as I don't care? Anyone? Bueller?
--Am amused, spell-checker suggested inane as a possible spelling for Winona (Ryder's) name. Certainly appropriate assessment for her recent works; after Reality Bites, it was all downhill.