Yo-ho-ho and a Ball of Yarn!
Monday, Dec. 24, 2007 at 7:52 a.m.
Greetings, friends, and Happy Christmas Eve! I always get so excited about Christmas. Last night I was on my hands and knees counting the presents under the tree and poking them. Hubster was laughing at me, but who cares! Tonight we go to Midnight Mass at 10 pm (yeah, I know) to fulfill Hubster's C&E obligations for church. He actually missed Easter again this year � he seems to get sick right around that time. I give him merry hell because I'm the one with the suppressed immune system, yet he's the one who gets sick. I suppose that's because I'm more careful! Ha!
So anyway, I got miffed at Lackluster.com last week because they announced they were raising my prices again, so I proceeded to print out all 21 pages of my movie queue and toddle over to Netflix and signed up. Lackluster wants to charge me $20 a month for 3 DVDs in the mail (unlimited) but only 5 monthly store trade-ins! Whereas Netflix is charging me $17 for 3 unlimited DVDs and unlimited hours of on-line movie watching. I've already watched 2 movies on-line at work. Of course, it's just the movie, no extras or commentary or anything, but that's okay. Here are the movies I saw on-line:
Girl 27: Back in 1937, MGM was god of Hollywood. That year, MGM invited all of their outside sales force from around the country to a big convention in Hollywood (read: bacchanal). For one party at Hal Roach's ranch, MGM hired 120 of their (mostly underage) back-up dancers to wear costumes and be party candy, and Patricia Douglas was attacked and raped at the party. She attempted to bring criminal charges and take to court her attacker, but the machinations of MGM brought her morality into question (go figure) and she lost. She then brought about a federal case (the first of its kind!) that her civil rights had been violated. Again, she lost, due to the mafiosa that was MGM, and she spent 65 years in utter anonymity, never telling her story to anyone, until Daniel Stenn happened upon a headline while researching Jean Harlow. It's a bit choppy as documentaries go, but the subject matter is amazing. Very interesting.
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: This is the 192-something silent version, with very bizarre title and dialogue cards done in the 1960's with barely legible graphics. Of course, this movie is all about the forced-perspective, very contrived scenery which only adds to the weirdness of the subject matter. How very cool.
Right now, I'm listening to the commentary on the 1922 silent movie Haxan: Witchcraft through the Ages, by Bernard Christensen. It's an interesting sort-of documentary . . . the first parts deals with some historical factoids about not only witchcraft but also what superstitions were generally believed during various times in history. For the bulk of the movie, though, Christensen follows a story about a family besieged by witch hunters (that is, the Dominican friars of the 15th century) as a sort of re-enactment. Christensen goes on to compare beliefs of what constituted witchcraft in the Middle Ages to various mental illnesses of the 20th century. The really bizarre part of the disc, though, is the 1968 re-release of the movie, complete now with a modern Jazz soundtrack and narration by none other than William S. Burroughs! Yikes! Talk about hallucinogenic.
I also have been knitting like a madwoman, working more on the blue cardy with the yarn I was so recently searching for � and now have a major over-abundance of. Here is the right front of the sweater:
These are the sleeves:
Only one more front panel to go! Then it can all go together! Yippee! I also mentioned that I took a class in socks, and I'm working on a pair. One of the problems that most people have with socks is that they make one but never have enough steam to finish the second. I found a book on how to knit both socks at the same time, and here is my attempt at it so far:
Knitting like a pirate! Arrrrggggghhhhh!