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FUNKO is in da HOUUZZZEE !!!!



My Comic Con Goodies !!!

Alexandria broke her arm and is stuck in a Catholic Loas Angeles hospital until it heals properly; the little girl is well known and loved by all for her spirit and curiosity, the same curiosity that one day carrys her into Roy’s room. Roy is a Hollywood stunt man who has had a serious fall, and along with that a serious heart break. His troubles have left him suicidal and when Alexandria wanders into his room he decides to use her to amuse himself and see what she can sneak out of the dispensary for him; he begins telling her an elaborate tale of 5 bandits who are on an epic quest in India and Alexandria begins to visit him every day so that she can get another piece of the story. However, while the story is helping Alexandria forget her troubles, Roy is still fixating on his own and incorporating them into the adventure tale.

The Fall is the first film I’ve seen by Tarsem (who also did The Cell) and I can already tell you I am a fan. Tarsem has a visual style that is lush, striking, bold & epic all at once; the closest thing I can compare him to is Julie Taymor, another director that has a visual style unlike anything that is usually done in the movies nowadays. Tarsem made The Fall so visually stunning I would have liked it based on the decadent visuals, even if I hadn’t liked the story.

What struck me as I watched the film is that there are a lot of similarities between The Fall & The Princess Bride; both are about an adult that tells a sick child a story and the only real difference is how dramatic The Fall is. Through the course of the film Roy and Alexandria bond in a way he doesn’t expect and this makes it more difficult for him when he realizes that the quests he’s been sending Alexandria on are dangerous for her, and wrack him with guilt when one she decides to do something for him to surprise him and hurts herself badly.

I feel completely in love with the character of Alexandria just like the characters in the hospital do. Her character is pure innocence and Tarsem manages to get young Catinca Untaru to give a very emotional and genuine performance that most children her age are not capable of giving. Lee Pace was also an excellent choice a Roy; he shares almost all of his scenes with Untaru and the two manage to have an excellent chemistry together.

When The Fall was in the theatres I wanted to see it but never found the time. I can guarantee when Tarsem’s next film comes to a theatre near me I will make the time to see it. The Fall was excellent on DVD but I can only imagine how beautiful it must have been to see on a giant screen in a darkened theatre.

Director: Tarsem
Writers: Dan Gilroy, Nico Soultanakis, Tarsem & Valeri Petrov
Alexandria: Catinca Untaru
Roy/Blue Bandit: Lee Pace
Nurse Evelyn: Justine Waddell
Bandit: Emil Hostina
Luigi: Robin Smith
Indian: Jeetu Verma
Darwin: Leo Bill
Otta Benga: Marcus Wesley
Mystic: Julian Bleach
Sinclair/Governor Osious: Daniel Caltagirone

Alexandria: You always stop at the same part, when it's very beautiful. Interesting.

**MORE** Karaoke Night
Chula Vista

brother LOVE's Birthday !!

Karaoke Night - Chula Vista



bobbleboy ROCKS Out !!

Is it just me, or is Starbucks a rip-off?!! Okay, so this will be my last time at Starbucks here in America... I only went this ONE time here in Vegas b/c I felt like having a coffee... It was just an espresso, but WTF?!!! Are espresso's usually this short??!!! I need to find some REAL coffee!!

I loved Swingers the first time I saw it and I have to say that the more I see it the more it grows on me, and I know part of that is because right now I am deep in the envy that Favreau & Limon had on that film.

Swingers swept the festival circuit, gained wide recognition and launched the careers of all the people involved with it. If I could be lucky enough to do that with END (my first feature) I would be estatic. I know that’s a very long shot as my film was made even further fromt eh studio system than Swingers but I gotta hope it can be done.

Until then, I get to enjoy Swingers and think about the wild ride their little film took them on.

Irresistable! and titled, Glaces: une grande envie de fraîcheur - L'EAU A LA BOUCHE (mouth watering) I'm ready to think about ice cream and nothing else again.

Down the street from my 6ème studio was Amorino at #4 rue Vavin, is one of a chain of 7 gelato shops. Natch I went there my 1st day in Paris. And you could stop in at chocolatier, Jean-Paul Hévin for a take-away lunch like salmon quiche + a chocolate bar etc) at #3 rue Vavin. Then get your cone at Amorino and head for the Luco (Jardin du Luxembourg) for a picnique.

The Amorino gelato servers are Italian as are the terms and flavor names used here to get you into the proper frame of mind...

It wouldn't hurt to bone up on French flavors. They can be a lot more exotic than straight vanilla, strawberry or chocolate chip though you will always find the classics.
Some examples - get out your dictionaires:
Thé Earl grey, pomme verte, thym citron, mûres de framboisier, litchee, thé vert matcha, Noisette praliné, Café pamplemousse, Cannelle, pêche de vigne, violette,caramel au beurre salé, macaron pistache, l'armagnac-pruneaux, After Eight, safran,fleur de rose, tomate, avocat-guacamole, betterave, citron-romarin et citron-basilic, Goyave, fraise et citron vert, Cassis, melon, pêche, abricot en juillet, framboise, cassis, myrtille en août, orange sanguine, ananas aux six épices, rhubarbe, mangue etc...
And that doesn't include the endless fruit sorbet flavors. These always taste more intense to me over in France.

I'll never forget a certain Pomme Grannie Smith sorbet I had at Brasserie Flo once...
What's your favorite French flavor? So tell.

"Ice cream colors" tend to be pastelly. They're called tints because they're made by adding white to pure color or with watercolor by adding lots of water to dilute the color to a thin wash.

They connote a summery feeling, feminine, child-like or prettiness.

Some other useful French ice cream words:
artisanal = small shops with less than 50 workers using traditional methods= homemade/handcrafted
une boule / deux boules = 1 dip / 2 dips
avec Chantilly = whipped cream on top
le cornet = a cone
la crème glacée = frozen custard
les glaciers = ice cream sellers
les granités = chipped ice with flavoured syrup on top
les bâtons glacés = popsicles
nos fraîcheurs = our freshly made...
les parfums = flavours
un sorbet = fruit sherbet
Don't expect giant scoops of ice cream. The French diping scoop is about the size of a small apricot and easily 1/2 the size of US scoops. Unless you're at Amorino where they throw on as many flavors tulip-petal style as they can manage and you can eat.

BONJOUR GLACE!

Making a great film is like capturing lightning in a bottle, and I truly think Favreau & co. captured something with Iron Man. As great as many other comic book films are Favreau and his team managed to do what so few comic book films have – he captured the essence and story of the characters without being so literal that the non-geeks were bored.

While I am a geek, I am a prime example of the demographics they managed to snag – not only am I a female, but I am a DC girl not a Marvel one. I knew nothing about the Marvel-verse until Iron Man, since then I’ve become so interested in the characters that I’ve been learning about them and at Con I bought the Civil War trade paperback as I have an inclining that this might be where the Marvel movie franchise is going, plus the idea of the Super-hero registration act is pretty dang compelling.

I still hold that getting Iron Man 4-5 films into his career is a great thing for Jon favreau, and I would love to be in his position one day – just in the DC universe…

Agent Coulson: I'm Agent Phil Coulson with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.
Pepper: That's quite a mouthful.
Agent Coulson: I know. We're working on it.

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes is unlike any Sherlock Holmes story I’ve ever seen, but I should expect nothing less from Billy Wilder. This incarnation of Holmes is about the Holmes we do not see, the Holmes Waston and the people he works the cases of see; this is Holmes complete with bumps, bruises, faux pas, brilliant moments and confounding mysteries.

This time Sherlock takes a case that appears to be rather mundane, an amnesiac woman washes onto his doorstep and once she regains her memory it appears that she is looking for her missing husband. Watson & Sherlock take the case and track it all the way to Scotland and the Loch Ness monster only to find out that the case is nothing that it seems.

What I love about Billy Wilder is that his films are vastly unique from anything else you’ll ever watch. I was hooked on this one from the opening titles; Wilder enjoys building subtext and meaning into everything that he does and this starts right in the titles. For the titles Watson’s bag is opened presumably after his death, and he has left a letter explaining a case that he never wrote about; as the letter is read the items in Watson’s case are examined and the wonderful thing that is done is that every object has a dual purpose, it appears to be one thing but is actually something else – until a syringe is pulled out. The double meaning of this item is actually what the rest of the film is about.

Wilder paints Holmes as a complex, tortured and brilliant man. A man who would rather shun society than deign to appear in the trivial goings on of day to day life. Honestly, he’s a bit of a prick, but somehow this makes him human.

I loved this version of Sherlock Holmes, but it only excites me for what’s coming this Christmas – the return of Holmes to the big screen in with Robert Downey Jr. and Guy Ritchie.

Director: Billy Wilder
Writers: Billy Wilder & IAL Diamond
Sherlock Holmes: Robert Stephens
Dr. Watson: Colin Blakely
Gabrielle: Genevieve Page
Mycroft Holmes: Christopher Lee

Holmes: Some of us are cursed with memories like flypaper. Stuck there is a staggering amount of miscellaneous data, most of it useless.

Cinderella is one of the stories I have a weakness for. I love it. Always have and always will. This is why I had to check out the version on DVD with Julie Andrews. It was the first version of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella done for television.

This version is not perfect in regards to its transfer to DVD; as most TV programs weren’t recorded and kept in the 1950’s this was definitely recorded off a playback, but it still holds all of its charm. Julie Andrews is a perfect Cinderella and watching her reminded me of how much I miss her musicals. I think I may be watching a few more of her films soon.

Cinderella: Julie Andrews
Fairy Godmother: Edie Adams