The SSLP has just returned from a month-long winter sojourn to a far off midwestern ring of hell. Actually the state was not the hell, just the state of affairs she landed in. Anyway, to honor her return and describe her a wee bit better, here are two photos that, if you could combine them just right, would be just her:

This goddess

Plus this goddess

Equals my goddess.

I must add something here. I believe somewhere in my profile I've listed "Celibacy" as a hobby or profession or something.

I'm totally over that. I have some editing to do.

I'm back, I'm back, I'm baaaack. My computer suffered a hard drive malfunction and was out of my line of sight for at least a month. So much has happened, but first, a song for my shiny red laptop: Reunited, and it feels so goooood....

I am not bitter about the separation. I am just happy to be back together again.

Alright, so I've been away at least a month, probably more, and so much has happened. I'm really tired and I keep hearing a little voice in my head to step away from the computer and resume normal living, but first I have two things that I want to ramble on.

Item 1: Auntie Sister and I have recently been discussing some of our favorite novels we'd like to see turned into movies. Our focus was the dream cast for each book's main characters. The novels that prompted the discussion were actually Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat. Yes, there have already been filmic attempts at these novels. But I don't consider those fucking plane wrecks any kind of cinematic anythings. TOM CRUISE? As LESTAT? Come ON. Who did he brainwash to get that job? So here's what we came up with for our dream cast (if there were no limits: as far as death, age, etc. are concerned):

Lestat: Heath Ledger (when he was alive, obviously - WE LOVE YOU HEATH!)
Louis: Henry Cavill
Armand: Joseph Fiennes (younger than now, and clean-shaven)
Claudia: Dakota Fanning

The next we cast was The Witching Hour, also by Anne Rice. But only a couple of characters:

Rowan: Gwyneth Paltrow
Michael: Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Mona: Emily Browning

Then we discussed Dagny Taggart from Atlas Shrugged, because we've been dying to make that into a movie for the last, oh, 16 years (when I read it in high school and it changed my life). First we thought Gwyneth but with different hair, but then we thought about Tilda Swinton, and then: lightning. Cate Blanchett, who is the perfect combination of the attributes that Paltrow and Swinton would have thrown into the mix. Fried gold.

We're going to throw it all away and become casting directors.

Item 2: I made a new friend with whom I have discovered an accord that is both pleasantly comfortable and sparkfully hot. He has many characteristics and attributes that I enjoy, and I'm sure they'll come up along the way, but today I'm going to pick on one particular trait. One that I respect and admire because it is admirable and completely not anything that I have ever possessed in more than fleeting moments or swift, sweet dreams. Athleticism. So here, in praise of athletes:

Coordination. Discipline. Teamwork. Dedication. Stamina.

It stirs the blood.

Yowza. Lots of italics today. Because there's lots to italicize.

I've been away for awhile - more technical difficulties. Here's some catch-up:

Lars and the Real Girl. It's a brave, bold, and quietly beautiful film about real love, and not the kind you might think if you know anything about the premise. It's a fantastic treatment of an offbeat story line that I thank the gods for, and the best love story since Fargo. Yes, I believe that Fargo was all about love. Watch the final scene one more time and then tell me to my face that it isn't.

Penelope. Another good story, this one's a fairy tale and it's exactly the kind of fairy tale every little girl or grown woman should see. I'm addicted to fairy tales (not the Disney kind - I prefer the gritty, scary, bloody vengeance and witchcraft flavor. The sort the brothers Grimm and Hans used to write). I've tried to get my alma mater to add a fairy tales study to their class roster, but the English department has not given in to my demands as yet. So I study on my own. Aside from the old standards, read this contemporary classic collection of adult fairy tales. But you might want to hold onto something...between your thighs.

The Thirteenth Tale. So gorgeously written, and so gorgeously English that I can hear the narrator lilting in my head while I work at other things throughout the day, waiting to get back to it. This one gets to you quickly, even though I'm reading it slow and easy - relishing...every...single...moment. I'm not even sure I care whether it's a good story because I like the writing so much. The plot could pretty much fall to the wayside.

Christmas! There will be some lists of Christmas favorites to come.

I want to post this link again, because I don't think I gave the credit it was due. I like it because it makes a lot of salient points about the difficulty of forging an equal alliance in any day and age, regardless of each partner's educational, financial, or professional status. I've written papers about that. Also - the writing kicks serious A. I couldn't stop reading it, and not just because I liked the topic. Aside from all that, I've had Mrs. O on the brain because last night I had a dream that I was going down the street to my new neighbor's house - named Michelle Obama - to welcome her and her family and ask her advice on what to do next with my life. But I woke up before I heard her answer.

I haven't forgotten my new boyfriend. I found this fun thing.

Welcome to my new love jones. Christ, this guy is hot. I've been reading a lot of reviews of Quantum before and after my viewing of it, and there is a lot of outrage out there about the amount of violence and action (not the usual kind) that Bond sees in this film. That James Bond is an attitude, not an action hero. I should preface the following statements with the disclaimer that I have not yet seen Casino Royale, the film to which Quantum is a direct sequel (also a first for Bond). But I have a rebuttal to the whole wave against this movie.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but in Royale James Bond actually falls in love and then his love is murdered. Okay, so what did everyone expect him to be like, following his experience with that? Psychologically speaking, he'd be very angry and distant and hungry for vengeance, and maybe a wee bit violent, yes? And he is a spy who is trained to kill, yes? So put those two factors together, and you get a James Bond who feels like beating the shit out of people and protecting beautiful women without getting too close to them. I admit, I was a little bereft when Bond didn't get the usual amount of play (although that redhead was super cute), but it made sense to me.

Maybe it's because I'm a girl and I understand. I empathize. I liked this story because it made sense to me that he had loved, lost, and the suave, cool Bond that we all know and love would develop after all this action went down as a defense mechanism to protect himself from ever being vulnerable to love again, and to avoid killing again if he didn't have to. He decided to choose the cool factor vs. the passion principle for his own sake. I think these two movies are an explanation that the attitude developed for a reason - James Bond was a man before he turned himself into the myth.

Last night I went with the SSLP and her parents to dinner and a movie. It was her dad's turn to choose so we saw the new James Bond. I confess I'm a chick who digs Bond movies. Hot banter, hot chicks who usually put out (a little or a lot), how can you go wrong? This one is my favorite:



I'm a child of the eighties, can't be helped. Anyhoodle, Marc Forster directed and Daniel Craig starred in this new installment, Quantum of Solace. For a definition of the enigmatic title, read this. Forster and Craig are each tasty in their own right. Forster because he directed the cinematic nuggets, Finding Neverland and Stranger Than Fiction. He also did Monster's Ball, which I haven't seen. Too dark for me in a way that hits all my buttons. Craig's tastiness will be expounded upon later.

Aside from the two opening action scenes which were filmed with a gritty realism that may have sounded good on paper but in action turned out so blurry I couldn't keep track of who was doing what and where, I loved it. Beautiful cinematography, delicious dialogue, esp. between Madame M and Bond, and spectacular architecture in each locale. I was struck also by the exchanges between Daniel Craig and Giancarlo Giannini. Giannini almost stole the scene-stealing award from Judi Dench in the last 30 seconds of his screen time.

It was a rollicking ride of a Bond film. And though there wasn't enough proof of it in the movie, I think the new Bond fella might also be a rollicking ride himself. Daniel Craig has a fascinating look, like a man completely carved out of ice. I don't have a "type" per se, but rarely am I attracted to blond men. For him I make another exception. Yowza. And man, can he wear the clothes. He looked so good in his clothes I didn't think it was possible for him to look as good out of them, and he proved me so so pleasantly wrong.

Here he is all dressed.



Here he is all wet.



Above all else, my favorite part of any Bond movie is the Bond song. The latest offering is the first duet on a Bond movie, and it's a pairing orchestrated by the gods. Jack White and Alicia Keys got together on this new ditty titled "Another Way to Die" and my feet couldn't keep still.



This all takes me back to Madonna. Peek here for today's Madonna moment.