Little Talks

I apologize for my lack of posts recently. I am also sad to say that as the school year begins, it is not likely to improve anytime soon. Anyways, let me get on to the next movie in the long line of features I have watched this summer: What's Your Number . This movie stars Anna Ferris as a young woman who realizes - thanks to her sister's wedding and a magazine article - that she ha slept with a whopping 19 men.  Obviously this disappoints her since statistics are that after 20, you are far less likely to find your soulmate. Besides, her friend are all have far lower numbers.  The opening scenes include her breaking off a relationship with her activist  boyfriend played by Zachary Quinto, and getting fired. The morning after her sister's bachelorette party, she wakes up in a fit after sleeping with her ex-boss (I don't know how else to refer to him) played by Joel McHale, making her number 20. Enter another celebrity: the player neighbour across the hall, Chris Evans....

SPOLIER WARNING I decided at the beginning of the summer that while on vacation I would attempt to work my way through a number of classic books that I felt might be interesting. This was inspired by my reading of A Tale of Two Cities earlier this year. Of course, I really only got this one done because it was so long, then I moved back to a few books on my shelf. Anyways, back to the book. As already stated,  The Hunchback of Notre Dame ( Notre Dame de Paris ) by Victor Hugo is fairly long. To make it worse there are two simultaneous chapters, the second about three times larger than the first, that talk extensively and exclusively about the architecture of Notre Dame and the history of Paris respectively. As if that was not frustrating enough, the last pages state that the author originally published the book without those chapters and one other that came with it. The other had plot, but was not necessary to add to or advance the story. Hugo says that when h...

In honour of my next blog, I decided to share a quote from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I would like to apologize for the quality of this image, I just googled a picture and pasted the text on it because there are apparently very few images of quotes from this book.

I decided since I watched these only a few days apart to group them together in one post. These movies are quite awesome, even though they are technically for children. I think that the most appealing aspect of these movies, even better than the dragons, is that Hiccup is an outsider and an underdog. I find that no matter who we are or where we've come from, the unexpected hero seems to be the most relatable and loveable character. Hiccup is a Viking, but he's not very good at Viking things. This upsets his father. However, when he attempts to do what he believes is expected of a Viking, his father gets equally, if not more, upset. His life is made worse by the fact that his mother died when he was only a child. This means that he was raised solely by his father and missed out on the experience of having his mother, but it also means that he is the only heir to the cheif. His life is stressful and all he ever wants to do is please his father. I love that Hiccup has come to re...

I apologize for my tardiness, but somehow I've managed to be extremely busy, even in the summer. Luckily, I have still had plenty of time to keep squeezing in books and movies (especially movies). Today's movie discussion is on an old Disney classic: Mary Poppins . For starters, let me warn anyone who has not watched this that it is far longer than you would expect, especially from Disney. Secondly, I find it all a little confusing. The world in which these children live seems to be somewhere between normal and magical with a hint of a nonsensical children's story setting thrown in: every day at a certain time the Banks's house shakes and the women must grab everything to stop it from moving or breaking; the grandfather lives in a house that has been altered to appear like a battleship fully equipped with a working canon. Not to mention, despite the fact that they seem to emphasize that magic is not a part of their world, Mary Poppins arrives with all of her magic, a n...

I just finished reading Guy Gavriel Kay's The Sarantine Mosaic and can I just say, "Wow." It was unbelievable! I thought that the first book had been good, despite the fact that there was no huge, single conflict to the plot. But the second book was amazing, and the ending took my breath away. Every little intricate string in the plot created this neat web that all worked out in the end, but with a conclusion I can honestly say I had never anticipated. The entire ending was amazing and it took my breath away! I wish I could write the blog post now while it is still fresh in my mind, but I need to work in order or else some things will never get done. I promise to get to it as soon as possible, and I will keep the book right here with me as I write so that I miss nothing. I feel that everyone should be able to experience this masterpiece. It truly is a must-read!

For this week's Sunday Sayings I chose my favourite quote from one of my favourite series, The Wheel of Time .

Warning: this movie is rated R for the use of certain explicit words (and content I suppose). One of the movies I went to the theatre to watch this summer was Jersey Boys. I don't know if it was the fact that all four of the guys were broadway stars rather than big-name actors, the story (and the fact that it is true, or Clint Eastwood's  ability to make crime and dark times into something artistic, or all of them together, this movie was awesome! I think it was very smart to have the same actors playing the boys the entire time, however when they showed them at the beginning I was finding it hard to believe that Franky was only 16. Yes, they definitely looked younger, but not young enough. The story was crazy. The mob connections and loans that Tommy racked up was a bit insane. They were musical stars, so why did they need all those loans? Of course, the fact that he was using the money to treat his mistresses all over the country would explain it. It is just sad to believe th...