Serial Game Movie

A Letter From Julie Powell

Day... The Last Youll Ever Hear From L/J&J.

Even though the Lawrence/Julie & Julia Project technically ended weeks ago, Ive tried to milk every last second out of my 15 minutes of fame by extending this "celebration" period a.k.a. recapping my glorious final viewing party in Denver for all three of you readers whove stuck around. But this is it. The final final post.

Its been a pretty weird year for me to say the least. The first strange thing to happen to me was that the actual Julie Powell left a comment on my first post. And then she went away for awhile... understandably so... After all, this pretty much became primarily a Julie Powell Hate Club. But as much as I hate the she-devil (or rather, the portrayal of said she-devil in Julie & Julia), I respect her accomplishments.

So anyway, the awesome people at Denver Off-Center managed to contact the real Julie Powell to ask her about my blog and she was nice enough to give a thoughtful response. And since her years work was pretty much the genesis of mine, I thought itd probably be most fitting that she would get to postmortem The Lawrence/Julie & Julia Project, once and for all.

Without further ado, the real Julie Powell:


Lawrence Dais project was brought to my attention - not by him, I might add - within the first week of its inception.  I read along for awhile, impressed by Lawrences attention to detail (many of his early entries mirror my own nearly forgotten ones to the point of eeriness), his dedication, and most of all his sense of the meta and the random.

I will admit, after reading for awhile, I got a little soul-sick, just putting myself in Dais shoes.  I myself have watched "Julie & Julia" 7 1/2 times, and if I ever had to watch it again, at least for another decade or so, I will probably just go ahead and stab my eyes out.  I mean, maybe "The Third Man" could withstand such abuse.  Maybe "Rashoman."  Maybe "Serenity."  But this sweet Nora Ephron movie, made from my fluffy little book?  No one could survive this.

"Surely," I thought, "SURELY he will cave on this, he will give up and get on with his life."  I hoped so, for his sake.  But he didnt.  After a while I read it only once a week, or once or twice a month.  He made a lot of funny points, a lot of sort of painfully right-on ones, and quite a few I disagreed with but found intriguing.  But still.  It hurt me.  Not because of his incredibly fair criticisms of the movie, but because witnessing sado-masochism in such an intimate and daily manner takes a lot out of a person.  Gradually I dropped out entirely, perhaps hoping that if I wasnt reading, it wasnt happening.  So imagine my shock when I heard a week ago, that not only was Lawrence Dai still watching, still blogging, but that he was at the home stretch and doing fine!  That, my friends, is strength.  Its also insanity.  But mostly its strength.

The whole "My-year-of-whatever" trope has become the tritest cliche of blogs and blogs-to-books in the last few years, but Ive always thought that what blogs really do best is chronicle obsession, and the more obscure the better.  Lawrences dedication, his daily session of flagellation-by-rom-com, moves his project to some place beyond the usual spate of snide one-joke internet gimmicks into something else.  I am not sure what that place is, and Im not entirely sure I want to, but it is a deep and sticky place and nutty place.  Like pie!

Chin-chin, Lawrence!  May all your dreams come true and your J&J DVD languish in some dusty corner, forever and always!

~Julie Powell

***

Listen, I know I was going to gracefully bow out and let Julie Powell have the last words, but I have to interject. ONLY 7 1/2 TIMES?!!? POOR YOU, JULIE POWELL. POOR YOU. 

Seriously though, its very cool that Julie Powell sent that letter. And she was super complimentary and supporting of the whole thing... I think...

Anyway, though this is my official goodbye to Lawrence/Julie & Julia, I wont be leaving the blogosphere entirely. In fact, youll soon be able to find some Lawrence Dai-generated content at typesofbabies.tumblr.com. Follow me if you wish. I know, I know--a tumblr, what? Have I sold out? Yeah, probably. And Types of Babies? What is that all about? Youll see. Soon enough. Probably sometime in January.

But hey. This thing. Julie & Julia. 365 days. 365 viewings. We did it, guys. Its been fucking real.

Mad Respect.

Available link for download

200 000 Clicks From Outer Space

Hola de nuevo, amigos. Resulta maravilloso comprobar que en sólo tres meses se han duplicado los "clicks" (y por consiguiente las visitas) a éste, vuestro blog. Pienso que hemos crecido en calidad y que somos un pequeño referente del universo fantástico (cinematográfico) presente en la red. Estoy anonadado. la verdad es que poco a poco "Plan 9" ha crecido, intentando ofreceros lo mejor, con una buena calidad de vídeo y audio (si es posible) y con la sana intención de compartir con todos vosotros esta loca afición por el cine de sci-fi, terror, fantástico. Evidentemente, nada de esto sería posible sin vosotros y, por supuesto, el blog estaría cojo sin la presencia de maese Ente Dilucidado (Sgt. Howie) que ha cubierto un hueco, de forma magistral, dándole más consistencia a este pequeño espacio dedicado a lo fantástico. Mil gracias, maese Dilucidado.
Gracias a todos por estar ahí: Elessar, Zardoz, Muertevideano, Primo Nacho, Protext, Macnolo, Terraman, DAVIDEOMUSIC73, Ana, Lagry, [LuS-K], Maxi, Sr Nocivo, Crowley,... Y a todos los demás que aunque no os cite estáis presentes en esta destartalada nave especial.
Así que, mientras podamos, estaremos aquí, al pie del cañón, ofreciéndoos esas peliculillas que a todos nos gustan.
A por los 500.000 clicks!!!!! Salud!!!!

Available link for download

12 Performances from 3 People Born on November 12th Grace Kelly Ryan Gosling and Anne Hathaway

TThis is my third birthday post in the past week, and thats not because Im running out of things to talk about. It just seems that November was a good time to have talented babies, and it would also seem that the 12th was an especially good day to have talented babies. On this day in 1929, Grace Kelly, later known as Princess Grace of Monaco, was born. On this day in 1980, Ryan Hey Girl Gosling was born. On this day in 1982, Anne Hathaway, a.k.a. the sweetest person on Earth, was born. And I didnt know who to focus on, considering theyre all my favourite people, so I just decided Id focus on them all. What follows is my four favourite performances from the three of them, which adds up to 12 performances because, yknow, it is the 12th. And because doing ten performances from each would have been extremely tiring.


Grace Kelly is a woman who I know a lot about - much like I did with Vivien Leigh, I got obsessed and read a whole lot of biographies because I used to have a lot of spare time. Grace did live an interesting, somewhat short life. She rose to fame as a movie star after her debut in 1951s Fourteen Hours. Her breakthrough, however, was the western High Noon, which she co-starred in with Gary Cooper. In terms of her film career, she is best known for being a Hitchcock blonde - Hitchcock himself said that she was her favourite - in Dial M for Murder, Rear Window and To Catch a Thief. In 1956 she left Hollywood to marry Prince Rainier of Monaco. She was going to return to acting in 1982, but unfortunately she died in a car accident that year. She was only 52 years old. My favourite performances of hers, in chronological order, are:


In High Noon, Grace plays Amy Fowler Kane, the young Quaker wife of Gary Cooper. The role isnt an extremely demanding one as the film mainly follows Gary Cooper, but when she shows up, she brings such intense vulnerability and youth to her role. And its impossible to take your eyes off her. Interestingly enough, even though I wasnt so hot on westerns when I watched this one four and a half years ago, I was particularly taken by this tale of the rise and fall of a village. Now it is known as one of the best westerns ever made, but back in the day, the reception wasnt so great. I think it has survived pretty darn well.


Dial M for Murder was Graces first collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock, and probably her best, performance wise. She stars as Margot Wendice, the wife of Ray Milland. He finds out that shes having an affair, and proceeds to have her killed. However, Margot fights back and kills her killer, which lands her on death row. It is a pretty intense film, and Grace isnt just a pretty face in this - she is a force to be reckoned with.


Rear Window is perhaps her most famous role, and her second collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock. She plays Lisa Carol Fremont, the Manhattan socialite and model girlfriend of James Stewart. Even though she spends all of her time wearing divine costumes made by Edith Head, she isnt just a clothes horse in this movie - in fact, this was one of the only films in which she played an independent career woman.


The Country Girl was the performance that won Grace an Oscar. In this film, she appears as the plain, dowdy wife of an alcoholic actor, played by Bing Crosby. Ironically, that year her biggest competition was Judy Garland in A Star is Born, who was also playing the wife of a washed-up, alcoholic actor. The race between them was very close, and many were upset by Graces win, but her performance is a fantastic one. This isnt the movie star Grace Kelly that most people know - this is the seriously talented actress Grace Kelly that very few people are aware of. If you can ever track down The Country Girl, youll be impressed.


Ryan Gosling is a guy who is supposedly in a relationship with half of the worlds population, because everyone, and I mean everyone loves him. And how could you not? The guy is very talented, very good-looking and generally a very good person: he fights crime and everything. He started out as a little guy on Mickey Mouses Clubhouse along with the likes of Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears, and then continued on in his career in showbiz. Hes probably best known for The Notebook, but here are four other performances which are far better than that already unusually good performance for a Nicholas Sparks film:


Lars and the Real Girl was a film that somewhat slipped under the radar upon its first release in 2007, but Ryans performance as a man who falls in love with a sex doll is a performance that simply cant be missed. This is a performance that sticks out amongst his filmography because it is so quiet, yet so effective. He makes a somewhat strange situation seem totally normal. And he made me cry like a baby.


Michelle Williams seemed to get all the love for her work in Blue Valentine, but lets not forget how fantastic Ryan was in the movie (and how vital he was to the films success). One of the reasons why I dont really want to revisit this film is because Ryan is so goddamn heart-breaking in it. Hes basically a boy trapped in a mans body, unable to fully process his emotions or the situations that he gets in. Sometimes he is too sweet, sometimes he isnt sweet enough. And I just cant handle that.


Ryan had a boomer year last year, with his most popular and iconic role coming out from the shadows: as the Driver in Drive. People started calling themselves Driver. They tried to replicate Ryans "swag" in his gold jacket with a scorpio on the bag. Toothpicks became very popular accessories. Drive wasnt exactly a box office success, but it felt like every man and his dog was going crazy over this film this time last year, and with good reason: Ryan totally kills it (no pun intended) and this was a freaking awesome film that none of us really deserved.


While most people preferred his work in Drive, my favourite performance of Ryans last year was in The Ides of March. The film has a fantastic ensemble filled with marvellous performances, by Ryan leads them all as the determined, driven Stephen Myers. As the guy gets thrown around like the ball in a pinball game, you can see just how pissed off he gets with everything - and because of Ryan, it is fascinating to watch. A seriously underrated film from last year that deserved a hell of a lot more love than it got.


Anne Hathaway has been my idol for a very long time. Back in the days where I was obsessed with Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal and I saw Brokeback Mountain, she became my first favourite actress. I vowed to see everything that shes been in, and even though I still have some gaps, Ive been pretty true to my word. I just adore Anne. Shes a great role model, and always makes me feel super happy whenever I see her. Shes evolved so much as an actress, and I cant wait to see her at the Oscars for Les Miserables. Because thats where we know that shes headed with her unbelievably great singing voice and acting chops. For now, here are my four favourite performances of hers:


The Princess Diaries may be an odd choice to stick in amongst three other largely dramatic roles, but shes so darn lovable in this movie. I know it is mostly Disney piffle but Im always so happy seeing this movie. Anne is just so sweet as Mia Thermopolis, who is the kind of girl who doesnt revel in the idea of being a princess, but she eventually rises to the challenge. All I can really say is how much I love her in this film, just coz.


Rachel Getting Married got Anne her first Oscar nomination, and showed the world just what she was capable of. She plays Kym, the titular Rachels sister who has just got out of rehab for the titular wedding. The film was a tiny, independent production which most actors usually excel in, and Anne does exceptionally well, shredding any memory of her princess days.


Love and the Other Drugs wasnt a very good film - it was a rather messy movie that featured a little too much sex - but Anne was damn good in it. She played Maggie, Jake Gyllenhaals sex buddy who is diagnosed with Parkinsons. She begins the film as a firey, free spirit, but as the film goes on (and it goes on for a very long time), the Parkinsons starts taking over her body and things start getting extremely depressing. I was so numbed by the experience of the film, but I was still crying over Anne.


When The Dark Knight Rises came out a few months back, a lot of people were singing Annes praises for his performance as Selina Kyle. Even though she does have her fair share of haters, she stole the show off everyone in that movie, and that wasnt exactly an easy thing to do. Annes voice purrs (it is actually quite scary how she can do that), she slinks around, and shes totally badass. Had it not been for her performance in Les Miserables which will inevitably win her Oscar notices, I would be out there campaigning for her performance in this during this Oscar season.

What are your favourite performances from Grace Kelly, Ryan Gosling and/or Anne Hathaway?

Available link for download

30 Things I Learned From a Two Year Old

One of the greatest gifts my two-year-old son has given me is the opportunity to live like a child again. I have learned to stay present, cherish simple pleasures, think creatively, and just play. Here are 30 ways to enjoy life like a child (thank you, Jake):

-Take a morning walk
-Enjoy a book filled with just pictures
-Smile and say hi to passersby
-Pick up sea shells, even broken ones
-Stop and smell the flowers (literally)
-Lie in the grass and watch the clouds
-Make a wish
-Color outside the lines
-Follow birds and butterflies
-Say I love you spontaneously and loudly
-Run just because
-Collect rocks
-Delight in the beauty of bubbles
-Wave to passing cars
-Bury your feet in the sand
-Eat with your hands and lick your fingers
-Give really tight hugs
-Walk down the street holding someones hand 
-Keep found treasures
-Cry because you need to cry
-Dig in the dirt
-Run through the sprinklers
-Take an afternoon nap
-Stay in pajamas all day
-Stare off into space and daydream
-Make time for arts and crafts
-Go barefoot
-Curl up with a good book before bedtime
-Eat only the icing off a cupcake
-Find the joy in everything that surrounds you

Available link for download