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Adjusting to life post-Woodsboro Sidney Prescott is safe and happy as a theatre major at Windsor College; her life has now escaped feeling like a horror movie and is about to be committed to the horror movie genre literally. Gale Weathers wrote a follow up book to her torrid tale about Maureen Prescott’s murder telling the tale of the Woodsboro murders and it is being turned into the latest and greatest slasher movie – Stab. Sidney prepares for the release of the film and the worst time of her life to be rehashed in a melodramatic teen horror movie until the killer returns and it becomes apparent that the killer too is obsessed with sequels and he wants to recreate the Woodsboro murders.

While I cannot definitively say which of the first two Scream films is my favorite I do have to say that for just a pure, fun watch I adore Scream 2. In Scream 2 the movie about a movie factor is heightened, the sequel cliché’s are played to a T and the college campus setting is a way to inject yet more youthful arrogance into the mix and allow for a much larger body count with very little effort.

Perhaps my favorite joke in all of the Scream series is Stab the movie. Stab is not only pulls directly from the characters conversations in Scream but the name Stab is a direct reference to the name of the movie. My favorite joke about Stab is that in Scream Sidney worries that if her life were made into a movie she would be played by Tori Spelling, and in Stab Spelling is the actress that lands the role of young Sidney. The irony and tongue-in-cheek humor is readily apparent and fabulous.

All of the Scream films were made while Courtney Cox was on Friends and Scream 2 decides to use the popularity of Friends (and Cox’s good standing with the cast) to throw in a few subtle references to her Friends co-stars. At one point we find out that Dewey was played in Stab by David Schwimmer and Gale tells of naked photos of her on the internet were her head on Jennifer Anniston’s body. The jokes work on their own, but if you are aware of Cox’s connection to Friends they play even better.

As someone who went to film school, the fact that Randy is a film student is absolutely fabulous to me. Randy and Mickey the rival film students are my kind of geeks and their opinions make me laugh.

In the end I cannot separate my love for Scream from my love for Scream 2. Both movies are fabulous thrillers in their own right and Scream 2 is a great sequel that lives up to its predecessor while managing to feel like its own film with its own set of rules.

Director: Wes Craven
Writer: Kevin Williamson
Sidney Prescott: Neve Campbell
Gale Weathers: Courtney Cox
Dewey Riley: David Arquette
Randy Meeks: Jamie Kennedy
Derek: Jerry O’Connell
Mickey: Timothy Olyphant
Cotton Weary: Liev Schreiber
Debbie Salt: Laurie Metcalf
Hallie: Elise Neal
CiCi: Sarah Michelle Gellar
Maureen: Jada Pinkett Smith
Sorority Sister Murphy: Portia de Rossi
Stab Casey: Heather Graham
Stab Sidney: Tori Spelling
Stab Billy: Luke Wilson

Mickey: Oh come on Randy, with all due respect, the killer obvious patterned himself after two serial killers who were immortalized on film.
Guy #2: Thank you!
Film Teacher: So, you're saying that someone is trying to make a real life sequel?
Randy: Stab 2? Why would anyone want to do that? Sequels suck!

Blake Lively as Anabelle Leigh In "Elvis and Anabelle," ...

It is about every terrible tragedy brings about something equally miraculous. Groomed by her overly ambitious mother who had also previously been a Miss Texas Rose (Mary Steenburgen), Anabelle Leigh (Blake Lively) is on the road to winning the Miss Texas Rose tiara when she dies tragically of an unexpected stroke during a pageant.

Her death lands her on the embalming table of Elvis (Max Minghella), an embittered young man whose sense of family duty and love for his ailing father (Joe Mantegna) keep him from following his dreams. When Anabelle is miraculously resurrected on Elvis's embalming table the two unexpectedly connect and sparks fly. With the help of each other and Elvis's father, they discover love, freedom, and happiness as the real world and their own demons threaten to force them apart.

The film premiered on March 10, 2007 at the South by Southwest film and music festival in Austin Texas.

"Manifestation sabotages SNCF: 8 policiers blessés, 15 interpellations à Paris" is the headline on Yahoo.fr's website tonight. So, at least I know what was going on in the metro today at Defert... It was a number of manifesters (protesters) who went into the metro and were causing trouble or maybe just fleeing the cops on the streets above were the protest was taking place. Not really sure as to WHY they came down into the METRO... maybe the wanted to manifest or maybe they were on their way home... but it really worked to scare the living daylights out of us unsuspecting voyageurs, let me tell you!!!
I learned from the woman I had accompanied to the RER B with her daughter that some of them pulled the cord on the Line 4, thus stopping it. And that at that time, the cops (? or the manifesters) set of a tear gas bomb (though I happen to think it was the police) and then they manifesters were trying to get away from the cops. At least they were stopped... as I saw a bunch of them while I was crossing over the walk way to get my train at the end of my adventure. I don't even know how many of the actually entered into the metro halls, but I did learn from the news article that there were about 1, 200 protesters. What a day, I tell you!!!!

A manifestation gone bad... for me, at least, and the others inside the underground corridors of the Line B, Metros 4 and 6 at Denfert Rochereau tonight. It was a bit too much excitement for me, and the whole thing really stressed me out, bringing me to tears of fear and frustration as I was trying to figure out what was going on and what to do to stay safe.
Today, Dawn and I had a lovely time at Aimee's teahouse and a nice but short walk down the Canal Henri Martin. We parted at Republic as she hopped on the 9 and I hopped on the 6 and headed home.... Little did I know at that time that a short 10 minutes later, I would be full of fear and terror as I tried to figure out how to get to safety in the underground halls of the metro station!
I was just passing through the turnstile to get to the Line B from the 6 when I heard the word----RUN!!! Someone was screaming and I looked up ahead of me and saw lots of people starting to rush at us, so I turned around and tried to jump over the turnstile as others were trying to do the same. All I could think of was getting caught up in a mob of people charging at us and pictured the mobs at the WHO were people were killed in the stampedes... I was sooo scared. I ran and looked back to see what was happening. There was really no where to exit up to the street level as there were only the metro correspondence lines and no sorties!! What to do?!!! It felt sooo surreal, people were running and scattering, no really knowing what was going on or where to go or what to do. I asked someone what was going on and got- les manifestants!! I didn't really know why, because the mainfs were on Thursday and I didn't know of anything else going on.
I waited in the tunnels trying to see if they were coming my way and to see which way to go... Others were confused, still and there was no one really to ask, as no one knew what was happening!! I asked a man with a stroller and he said there was a lot of "trouble" going on by the Line B, MY LINE to go home, so I figured I could just get on the 4 and go to Montparnasse Bienvenue and grab the B there and that would be the best thing. I was right in front of the 4 line that I needed to take and saw the metro so I made a cautious run for it. Just as I approached the metro, the doors closed. A man was struggling with the door frantically trying to pry it open. Lots of people were panicky at that point. I grabbed the handle and tried to open the door but then the train pulled away. Right at that instant, I turned to the noise I heard on my right... Down the end of the quay I saw the manifestants, and noticed someone masked like DEATH!!! I freaked and at that instant in time my eyes and throat started to burn. A familiar sensation, as I have had this happen to me already twice before since I have been in France, it was la cimogane, or tear gas!!!! I had been caught up in tear gas... I made a run for it as I am asthmatic and I am VERY sensitive to this stuff...
Of course, I started to panic, since I had NO idea what was going on at all... I ran through the corridors asking people what was happening and were it was safe to go... I was in a big daze. It was an out of body experience, and I felt like a hostage in the underground Paris subway system awaiting only God knew what! I made another dash for it through one of the tunnels and saw my TRAIN!! WHEW, I thought.... As I ran to get on, I noticed large groups of police everywhere... About two cars up from where I was were a group of about 20 police... I was waiting for the train to pull out and asked some teens if it was going to Antony... No, it was going the opposite way, to CDG... mais, so what!! At that point, I was only thinking... GET ME THE HELL OUTTA HERE RIGHT NOW!!! I called Alex up and told him what was going on... I sounded like a mad woman and finally broke down in tears... The train wasn't moving .... What's taking so long and BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!! An explosion!!! WHAT THE F**K was that?!! Then, I imagined bombs and terrorists... still not knowing what was going on around me. I asked one teen what the nose was..." Un flashball," he said. WTF?? I was thinking it was a paintball or beebee gun... But, then... I thought it was a bomb or grenade exploding! I got out of the train since it wasn't going anywhere and went back to where I started... back to the corridors... I saw a group of 5 women huddling in a group, some crying, some looking really shaken... I asked if it was safe to pass back over to the 4 and one lady said, "Don't go there, their is a cimogane bomb that went off and it's all over. So, the 4 was out... I asked them where they were going and one lady said, "To Antony," she said, but she didn't know how to get to the right train. Happy to not be alone, I said," I'm going there, too... Come with me, I know where it is... " We walked through a hallway and found the metro but it was the one to CDG. We saw hundreds of police on both sides of the platforms... just waiting and watching for trouble..... I felt glad they were there!
I went up to one and said, "Excuse me, I just got hit with crimogane and I am asthmatic. He said to me, "Bonjour," and told me to get some air because we were in an open area and that would be good for me. I then asked how to get the B to Antony and if it was now safe. He told us (the lady and her daughter) to go up the steps walks cross over the walkway, and go downstairs to the other side of the quay. When we crossed the walkway... we saw soooooo many police there at least 30 or so and they had stopped some young folks - manifestants -- some with their faces painted white.... We crossed over to the other side and found our train!!! I was NEVER sooo relieved! I still had NO IDEA what had happened, if it was over, or what? But, I figured that with the great number of police EVERYWHERE around us, that they had the matter under control and we were safe!
Once sitting down on the train, I started talking to the lady to ask what happened. She offered me a can of Perrier because she saw how shaken I was and that I was out of breath. That was really sweet of her... Her poor, terrified daughter (about 8 or 9 years old) was sooo shaken she was crying and I told her... "I know, me too.. I cried on the phone to my husband!!! I was soooo scared!!" I think that comforted her a bit to know that an adult like me was also scared! WOW... I am sooo glad that was over and that I was on my way back home!!! I called Alex to tell him I was on the train and headed back home and he invited me out for dinner at the Indian resto in our town... He was pretty worried about me because when I first called him, I wasn't communicating coherently since I was so filled with fear and actually more than just fear.... I was filled with terror for the first time in my life... I'm just glad we were all okay, though I am still feeling some of the affects of the tear gas in my throat and on my lips....

As an American expat, long time resident and soon to become FRENCH CITIZEN (a year and a half from now and counting)... I do agree that I have brought with me here to France, my "American mentality." Let me share with you readers-- WHEN I lived in America (40 years of my live) I prided myself for NOT being the "typical" American and NOT having the "typical" American mentality.
I have a very extended experience of overseas travel, even living abroad in New Zealand for a short period of time duirng my University years (I did a "work abroad" in New Zealand for three months and traveled through Australia for 2 1/2 months). I did this at age 19 and did it all by myself, too. I have been to all kinds of countries, rich and poor. I have seen a lot and experienced a lot.... So, I can really say that I don't have the "typical American mentality." What I do have is an American cultural heritage which inevitably causes me to see things here in France as VERY different to things in America.
Hey, it doesn't take ROCKET SCIENCE to figure that out.. Toto... We're not in Kansas anymore!!!!

Very rarely do I see a movie that just eludes me – Velvet Goldmine is one of those movies. It’s been two days since I watched the film and I still am not sure if I can form a full opinion on it. I think that Velvet Goldmine was a visually spectacular movie with great direction and acting, but after that I really have no idea.

The film is pretty complex and simple all in one. It is about British glam rock in the 1970’s, specifically the rise an fall of fictional character Brian Slade who staged his own murder and then his career went even further down the tubes.

I think part of my problem with Velvet Goldmine is that the story structure is based on a device, it is told in flashback through interviews by journalist and former glam rock devotee Arthur Stuart. The device didn’t work for me. I could figure out Stuarts past and how that worked into the story, and even his broken down present but it almost seemed like there was no connection between his past and his present. It made me unable to connect with the character.

Toni Colette plays Brian Slade’s wife Mandy in the film and honestly for me she was the best character and the best performance in the film. When she meets Brian he is young and struggling and she is the first person that takes a chance on him and marries him. They live together happily admitting Brian’s preference for open love and both sexes until the stardom goes to Brian’s head and he meets Curt Wild, and slowly but surely through the process Mandy becomes the forgotten one, the joke in the entourage. Colette plays it beautifully and you see her love for Brian be slowly replaced with disappointment and confusion as time moves on.

Part of me really thinks that this film feels like a first draft. I vaguely feel as though it should be remade someday as a musical and then it will be a perfect film.

Director & Writer: Todd Haynes
Curt Wild: Ewan McGregor
Brian Slade: Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Arthur Stuart: Christian Bale
Mandy Slade: Toni Collette
Jerry Devine: Eddie Izzard

Curt Wild: We set out to change the world... ended up just changing ourselves.
Arthur Stuart: What's wrong with that?
Curt Wild: Nothing, if you don't look at the world.

Clark Kent comes to the big city from his small town life, is intimidated by his job at the bustling Daily Planet, and crushes on star reporter Lois Lane but can’t figure out how to even flirt with her without humiliating himself. In stark contrast Superman blows onto the scene rescuing Lois from a accidental death and smooth talking her about the safest way to travel, he catches jewel thieves with a nod & a wink, and has Lois Lane crushing on him. But of course the road to being the worlds savior is not easy, it must have a villain – in this case it’s the real estate obsessed, over the top Lex Luthor who plans to exploit California’s fault lines and create a new west coast.

Superman the movie is very exaggerated – beyond exaggerated in fact as at one point Superman flies around the world and reverses its rotation to turn back time. But that said, I still love this movie with all it’s bumps and flaws.

I’ve had an obsession with Superman my entire life and this movie is part of that obsession; while Richard Donner did not create the perfect version of Superman, he did manage to bring the hero to the screen in an epic and monumental way. Donner has defined the way the man of steel has been used in movies and TV for the past few decades. Even Bryan Singer in Superman Returns directly tried to follow the Superman world set up in the first two Superman movies.

One thing that has always driven me nuts about this movie is the interview Superman give Lois. In a classic information dump Superman sits down and proceeds to tell Lois all of his strengths and every single one of his weaknesses, plus his entire origin…thus painting a target on his cape. What I noticed this time that is even more absurd is at the beginning of this interview Lois asks Supes how old he is and when he gives a coy answer she states she realizes he needs anonymity for protection…then they devolve into the aforementioned interview. Also, how does Luthor immediately jump to kryptonite being Superman’s achilles heel?

All that being said, Superman is a movie that I love, and it will remain part of my viewing library for many years to come. At this point, it is still one of my favorite Superman films.

Director: Richard Donner
Writers: Mario Puzo, David Newman, Leslie Newman & Robert Mankiewicz
Clark Kent/Superman: Christopher Reeve
Lois Lane: Margot Kidder
Jor-El: Marlon Brando
Lex Luthor: Gene Hackman

Perry White: Now look. The Post: "It Flies." The News: "Look, Ma, No Wires." The Times: "Blue Bomb Buzzes Metropolis." The Planet. We're sitting on top of the story of the century here! I want the name of this flying whatchamacallit to go with the Daily Planet like bacon and eggs, franks and beans, death and taxes, politics and corruption.

YEP!! Today is a National Strike Day in France! HOW FUN!!! Instead of going up to Paris for fun today, I'm staying home. Alex is staying home, too, because when there is a strike it can take up to two hours on the freeway to get up to Paris... So, it's not worth it to go in for just a few hours and spend four hours in traffic!! Today is a day where IF the metros and RERs are running- it's VERY limited, so you get scenes like THIS below... I have done it once before ... but now that I know what it's like- NO WAY!!! People get very vicious and even violent!! It's horrible!!!
Anyhow.. Alex is giving me a lift to work later this afternoon, so that's nice!! Have a nice Strike Day, everyone... Be careful!!!

STRIKE!!! STRIKE!!! STRIKEEEE!!!!!! Yep!! It's gonna be one of THOSE kind of days today!!
*Pictures taken off the web.

Yesterday, I made some yummy oatmeal cookies with butterscotch and peanut butter chips!  There is NO such thing as this in France.  It's an American invention.  Anyhow.. they're made with oatmeal so they are 'somewhat' healthy!! I'm bringing them with me to my students homes today to pass out to everyone... That way, I don't eat them all myself!!! 

is NONE OTHER than my super cool friend, Brigitte! Brigitte is not only a FANTASTIC jazz singer, by trade, but she is also a professional make up artist!! Kudos to Brigitte for being awarded the title, "Parisian of The Month," by the renowned Paris Blogger, Ricahard @ EYE PREFER PARIS.  There is no one more deserving of this honor than Brigitte!  I am so proud of her and happy to see her receive this recognition. Richard features a lovely interview with Brigitte 0n his blog posted on the 29 January, so I highly recommend you to hop on over to his blog to read it and to learn more about this talented woman!  Brigitte has a Myspace Page that features some of her recorded music and talks about her career as a singer.  Her other blog,  Pretty One in Paris, is a blog devoted the art art of make up and it what she does.  Please check out her websites and drop her a line.  She's always thrilled to make new acquaintances and is truly a jem of a person to know!  Felicitations pour ton sucess, Brigitte!!  Je suis très fière de toi!!!!  YOU GO GIRL!!!!!

Blake Lively played as Bridget Vreeland in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. This film is a 2008 sequel to the 2005 film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. The original cast and real life friends (America Ferrera, Amber Tamblyn, Alexis Bledel and Blake Lively), return to star in the movie, which was directed by Sanaa Hamri. The film is based upon the 4th novel in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, Forever in Blue: The 4th Summer of the Sisterhood, but incorporates scenes and storylines from The 2nd Summer of the Sisterhood and Girls in Pants: The 3rd Summer of the Sisterhood. Unlike the 1st film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants which was rated PG This one is rated PG-13 for mature material and sensuality. The film was released in the US on August 6, 2008.

In The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 film, the 4 girls find themselves wrapped up in a flurry of events. Tibby decides to take her relationship with her boyfriend to the next step on their 10 month anniversary. Later on Tibby is left unsure. Carmen returns home only to find that her friends are not as sentimental as they used to be and upon feeling left out, she leaves to Vermont with her friend from Yale that she meets when doing backstage work, when going to Vermont she learns more about herself. Lena deals with Kostos' as her past, develops feelings for an handsome art model that she meets at her drawing class. Bridget (Blake Lively) cannot deal with her problems with her father and goes to Turkey on an archaeological dig to discover who she used to be but really discovers what she's looking for.