Oh Hai!

Well peeps, how y'all doing? I've been down on the distinct drop-off in the regularity of my postings. Truly. It makes me wonder whether I'm becoming what I never ever wanted to be - a mindless, colourless drone. Noooooooooooooooooooooooo I must retain my opinions on everything and anything!!!!

Anyway, I have identified possible reasons why I'm becoming less interesting. Top is what I do. Seriously, the research world is not that interesting. People at work comment from time to time on my continued enthusiasm for finding papers in my pigeon hole and receiving packages. I say to them that finding joy in everyday things can stop the spirit from being crushed. They say that they await the eventual crushing of my spirit. Cynical, so cynical. In addition to this is the change my project. I was formerly spending hours on microscopes what were hooked up to computers that allowed me to blog while the mic/comp did it's funky thing. I'm now mostly doing cultured cells which are imaged on a mic not hooked up to the net. It is a long and boring process that doesn't produce the pritty pritty data I used to churn out and post from time to time. *sigh*

Secondly is the change in what I do. I've gone back to drinking again and that pretty much describes my weekends. When was the last time I saw a movie?! I was conversing with one of Spuey's friends and he asked me what was the last movie I saw when I mentioned I had not seen ANY of this year's Best Picture Nominees (seriously, I don't think this has happened for at least the last 10 years). I think I was slightly embarrassed to say that the last movie I saw was 27 Dresses - I know he was slightly horrified! But the French Film Fest is here and I'll try to see something. ANYTHING!!!

Exercise...everything is pretty much the same. I still go to Pilates. Glen doesn't pick on me as much anymore, although he did mention to me that while I may not be the best practitioner in the class and my abs are not made of steel, he has noted an improvement and I have been attending for two years now and should therefore move to a different (higher class). I haven't taken up indoor rock climbing properly yet so there are no new sports (and interesting bruises) to comment on.

Hmm, this has been a really boring and pointless blog. The next entry will be about Liz & Chris' wedding.

Movie review - 27 Dresses

Ahhhh, chick flicks; the film genre equivalent of romance novels. You know what's going to happen. They know you know what's going to happen and doesn't pretend to be anything but a fluffy confection. And if you walk into 27 Dresses expecting a something heavy or with a sad ending...I think you need to reassess why you go to see movies. Flaneur and I were catching up after not having seen each other in years and so went to see this because we needed a movie that only went for 1.5 untaxing hours.

27 Dresses starts off with adult Jane (Katherine Heigl) explaining how was a 10 year old, she fell in love with the happiness inherent in weddings and how she likes to help that happiness along. Fast-forward about 20 years and Jane has become the equivalent of a professional bridesmaid by helping anyone who asks her to be a become one and help organise the wedding to the extent that she's done it 27 times (natch). At one of these weddings she meets Kevin (James Marsden) who does go to weddings professionally - he's a columnist who writes about weddings - but is the opposite of Jane because he's cynical about the whole wedding thing. Despite Kevin's good looks and obvious attraction to her, Jane's not interested because she's been in love forever with her boss George (Ed Burns)...who then falls in love at first sight with Jane's sister Tess...who then asks Jane to organise their wedding. You see where this is going, right?

There's no real point of me doing a huge Departed/Infernal Affairs-style analysis, nor did it enrage me enough to do a Miami Vice/Just Friends-esque movie assassination. The main points are thus:
1. Kevin and Jane had nice chemistry when they were bickering together. I'm not sure if that was really transmitted into romantic chemistry but I did feel a bit teary when they got to their big misunderstanding.
2. The reason for Kevin's cynicism (failed marriage) was brushed over in about two lines and not explored at all.
3. Tess is shown throughout to be a pretty shallow bitch to the extent that she does something pretty horrid to something that had a lot of sentimental value to Jane. And again, her character does a massive turnaround in about 2 minutes.
4. Sure, he's good looking but I didn't see the appeal of George to Jane. He totally took advantage of her taking care of every aspect of his life for 10 years with only token thanks and I can't believe she didn't get over her crush in about three years.

Nothing groundbreaking, but hey, chick flicks almost never are. 27 Dresses lives up to the soft and fluffy and formulaic perceptions of the genre but not in an unpleasant way. It filled in exactly what I needed it to be - something nice and short and unchallenging for a Saturday evening.
6/10

P.S. I have been advised to post a photo of James Marsden because he's pretty smokin' looking. Enjoy! (photo from rottentomatoes.com)