The weekend review, with birdies!

[annathepiper]

Friday night: Mostly went to paying bills, oh joy oh glee, but it needed to be done.

Saturday: Ran assorted errands! Went to go see my chiropractor to have my bones cracked about, which they needed. Had a bookstore accident at Barnes & Noble--couldn't really resist, what with two of my top favorite authors having new books out! Got Elizabeth Peters' The Serpent in the Crown, Julie Czerneda's Migration, Naomi Novik's His Majesty's Dragon, and Laurie King's Locked Rooms. Fun reading expected all around.

After that solarbird, spazzkat, and I headed over to Woodinville to knock out a few more errands and to see V for Vendetta. The errands proved a bit troublesome as Dara and I wanted to order a custom blind to put in the arch window in our bedroom, since we're heading into Photon Cannon Season. But the clerk at the Linens N Things who was helping us out with that was horribly swamped with things she had to do, and we wound up having to go ahead and leave without placing the order, since our dinner window was closing and we had a movie to make.

The movie was very good, though. Hugo Weaving did an excellent job of emoting while wearing a mask the entire time, and his delivery of his lines was a thing of beauty. Natalie Portman was also very, very good. The story was gripping and almost chillingly pertinent for this day and age, for all that the original graphic novel came out in the 80's. I hadn't ever seen the graphic novel before, but Paul has a copy, so I flipped through that after we saw the movie. Pretty neat--and it underscored how well Weaving caught the character.

Sunday: Back to Woodinville for more errands! This time we got that blind we wanted ordered, so yay, and they'll deliver it straight to our house. We all bought a few other things we needed as well, though most importantly, we got birdies! Dara finally decided that we needed more budgies; what sold her was that Zoe has been visibly cranky and bored since Oasis died. So we stopped at Petsmart and picked out a couple of budgies, one sort of yellow-and-light-blue-and-white, and the other white with blue and sort of slate-blue markings. (Dara and Paul and I were also really impressed by a gray cocktatiel they had as well, but we couldn't afford him, sadly.) Dara was going to name the budgies Lenin and Trotsky and get this whole Russian dictator naming scheme going on for future budgie purposes, but then Paul said we should name them Starbuck and Apollo, and we said, "WINNAH!" So Starbuck and Apollo it was. We brought the birdies home, and it was funny how quickly Zoe perked up once she saw Dara getting the budgie cage ready for its new occupants.

Last night I amused myself watching a new episode of The Simpsons, which I hadn't done in a while--the Richard Dean Anderson episode I mentioned in an earlier post. As I expected, pretty giggleworthy. ^_^

And not quite as much writing as I wanted to get done, but I did finish a chapter, so that was all good.

Friday evening miles: 2.15
Monday morning miles: 2.1
Miles out of Hobbiton: 868.25
Miles out of Rivendell: 410.25
Miles to Lothlórien: 53.75

Comments

[rosepurr.livejournal.com]

Photon Cannon Season?

[annathepiper]

Yeah, it's the season when the sun flings a DEATH BEAM OF LIGHT down through the arch part of our bedroom window--which means it hits Dara and me at an ungodly early hour of the morning. So we'll be all HI IT'S NOT EVEN FIVE AM YET AND WE'RE AWAKE!

I whined about this in depth last year. ;)

[solarbird]

It's just so frikking expensive. ;_; I mean yes we need it and no I don't regret ordering it, I'm just whinging about it because.

It'll still be pretty damn bright in there, you know. Just not that kind of bright.

Also? "TWO WEEKS." AGH I'M TRAPPED IN A TOM HANKS MOVIE

[annathepiper]

"Well, ain't this place a geographical oddity. Two weeks from everywhere!"

[rosepurr.livejournal.com]

Ugh. That sounds evil-wicked.

[annathepiper]

Yeah, it was exhausting both of us! And we found a solution, ordering a custom blind. But as Dara mentions above, oof, expensive. @.@ (Damn good thing I'm working right now.)

[rosepurr.livejournal.com]

I guess that's an improvement over tacking a blanket over the window. :)

[annathepiper]

Quite!

[raise-a-jar.livejournal.com]

FYI, live webcast of the GBS show tonight on the WoodSongs program in Lexington. Starts at 6:55pm EST. You can find the info on the OKP.

Wanted to give you the heads-up. It should be archived as well, which is good for me because it starts five minutes before I head home from work :( It'd better be archived!

[annathepiper]

Oooooooooo webcast! Right, they're playing in Kentucky tonight! Thanks for the heads up! :D

[wildshadowstar.livejournal.com]

I've heard rather bad reviews for v is for Vendetta, so I've been leary of wanting to watch it. With your positive review, I may actually give it a chance when it comes out on dvd.

[annathepiper]

It's a pretty grim story, and there are bits of the plot that are quite fucked up in that "well, THAT'S creepy" kind of way. There are some slow bits in the middle as well. But both Hugo Weaving and Natalie Portman were fabulous and pretty much made the film for me, especially Weaving. (Who does have a fine, fine voice.)

[wildshadowstar.livejournal.com]

There is a resident at work who's last name is Anderson and Mr. Weaving is the reason I do not call him Mr. Anderson. Mr. Weaving does have a nice voice.

[annathepiper]

Of course, I've also been hearing him intone "MISTER Underhill" in my head ever since The Fellowship of the Ring, too, when we first saw ol' Hugo playing Elrond. ;)

[wildshadowstar.livejournal.com]

Why is it that some voices, like Hugo Weaving's, create lasting tones in our memories and color everything said after that? There are others who have singularly notorious voices like Marlon Brando and Harrison Ford. I'm sure there are more, but can't think of them. Sure Russell Crowe is another, but there are snippets that stand out with him, whereas with some people, their voices stand out all of the time.

[annathepiper]

Heh, I could make a crack here about how Russell's voice absolutely stands out for me with every word he utters. But I will also cheerfully grant that a good bit of that is hormonal on my part. Hee. And I'm actually way more used to swooning over his singing voice than his speaking one--you're right in that when I think of his most memorable deliveries, it's in snippets for the most part. Some of his roles have more memorable snippets of delivery than others, such as, oh, say, Maximus. And Jack Aubrey. Jack Aubrey especially, I think, bids fair to color my impressions of anything else Russell will ever do. :) :)

And I put Harrison into the same category as Russell. I think Harrison's got a sexy voice and always have, but it's more "sexy" to me than "memorable". Weaving, on the other hand, is a more aesthetic pleasure for me to listen to. Kind of like Patrick Stewart as well. Men to whom I am not otherwise attracted but whose voices I appreciate like the sounds of well-played instruments--Ian McKellan would be another of that category, as would Richard Harris, both in his role as Marcus Aurelius in Gladiator and his stint as Dumbledore in the first Harry Potter.

[wildshadowstar.livejournal.com]

I'd add another name: James Earl Jones. You should recognize his voice fairly easy if the name doesn't ring a bell. Hint: "Luke, I am your father." He was the voice for Darth Vader. The list could get rather lengthy as to the voices I would like to listen to.

You mentioned Ian McKellen. I watched most all of the commentary for LotR, and I remember somewhere (I think on one of the discs for TTT) that one of the ways that Sir Ian identified with Mr. Weaving was that they both had done theater work. I'm sure that Patrick Stewart has done some theater work in his career, as would Richard Harris. That may be one of the reasons they are able to recognizable voices over the entire production they are working on instead of just snippets for those emotional clenchers that purely cinema actors have.

The one voice that makes me swoon completely is Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn). I've seen most of the movies he's been in and I also have a cd where he's recorded poetry readings and a few songs.

[annathepiper]

That's... quite the icon you have there, babe. ;)

And I'm with you on Mr. Mortensen's voice, though to date all I've seen him in has been the LotR flicks (and, well, ARAGORN, what more do I need to say there?) and Hidalgo. But oh my yes, he has a lovely voice.

Also, indeed, very familiar with Mr. Jones--very distinctive voice indeed.

Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart both having theatrical experience, I daresay, is part of why they came across so very, very well in both of the X-Men flicks so far. As solarbird put it, they were throwing off their lines like they were Shakespeare, and as a result both Professor X and Magneto were beautifully, beautifully done. :D

[lethendy.livejournal.com]

Yay! Birdies :D

[annathepiper]

Yay birdies indeed! These little guys are a lot livelier than Woodlock and Rainsong and Oasis were--of course, Starbuck and Apollo are also way younger. They've started hopping all over the cage and especially gobbling down food. :)

[lethendy.livejournal.com]

Awww, they sound adorable - any pics to be seen?

[annathepiper]

Dara says she's been meaning to get some pics of them posted--though it may be a few days yet since we're about to scamper off to Norwescon. I'm sure she'll post some to her journal as soon as she has them, and when she does, I'll post a link here too. :)