coraline boxes

How do you define “success” as blogger? Fame? Fortune? Traffic?

I just want to be cool enough to be on the receiving end of a Coraline box.

Coraline boxes are a genius bit of viral marketing for the Feb 6 release of the movie Coraline, a gorgeous bit of stop-motion animation based on the Neil Gaiman novel.

Apparently, there are 50 boxes, all unique, designed with the recipient’s interests in mind, and they are being sent as surprise packages to hand-picked bloggers all over the world.

Notcot is collecting images of the boxes as they pop up. You can see them here.

Quirky, inspired genius.

Want.

sneak peek: Tim’s Burton’s 9

I think I must see this.

(via designrelated)

I STILL don’t get it

“The Matrix”, that is.

Having reluctantly sat through it again, it don’t get it anymore than I did the other handful of times I’ve watched it.

It doesn’t help that I’m not a big Keanu Reeves fan. He kinda creeps me out. For the record, so does Christopher Walken, Joaquin Phoenix, and Sean Penn. My worst nightmare would involve the 4 of them, clowns, and Willy Wonka. Does Keanu turn into a bad guy at the end? Why is he dressed like a bad guy?

Anyway…

I still don’t get it. It’s pointless and confusing and depressing. I don’t WANT to get depressing movies. Depressing does NOT equal entertainment. And perhaps most offensive of all, it’s loud. There’s punching and oofing, and shooting. Tons of shooting. Thank God there’s no screaming.

Terminator 2 has screaming. And punching and oofing and shooting. And things blowing up.

“Hasta la vista, baby.”

Ick. Ack. GAG.

I don’t think there was kissing in EITHER of those movies. Or rapier-sharp wit and repartee. No “happily ever after”.

Just. don’t. get. it.

I’m SUCH a girl.

current pop culture obsessions

My current bedtime reading is Leon Uris’ Trinity. Re-reading, actually. I read it first a long time ago, long enough that I’ve forgotten most of it. Which is why I’m re-reading it. Because I haven’t yet read the sequel Redemption.

The Boy was supposed to be reading Trinity. The g’rents gave him their paperback copy when he expressed some interest in his Irish heritage. However, and I could have TOLD them this was going to happen, the Boy “forgot” to pack it upon his return home. Trinity has more than 30 pages and therefore is condemned as having Too Many Words. Besides, it has nothing to do with the Red Sox. Oh well. His loss is my gain.

I’m embarrassingly excited about the upcoming movie “The Other Boleyn Girl“. It’s been a while since there’s been a good Tudor costume drama at the movie theatre (I just introduced Himself to “A Man For All Seasons“.)

This season’s two must-not-miss TV shows are House and Project Runway.

Recently played on the iPod:

• Hazy Shade of Winter, the Bangles
• All My Fault, Fenix TX
• Karma Police, Casual Harmony
• In the Mood, The Puppini Sisters
• Target Market, Sophe Lux

I seem to be leaning toward tight vocal harmonies these days….

spending time with my favorite Tudors

It was a lovely and perfect weekend.

The dog ate and then hacked up a catnip mouse.

Himself fixed my Bernina.

After my near-death scare at the doctor’s, we’ve made a mandatory panicked decision to start eating better. We visited the local Chinese grocery and stocked up on brown rice. Tonight, we made a pseudo-healthy dinner: chicken, brown rice, carrots and broccoli.

And then we smothered it in Velveeta.

And it was GOOD.

We bought insulation for the barn and napped.

And I finally finished Episode 1 of Season 1 of The Tudors, and was sufficiently intrigued to order another episode. We’ve just been introduced to Anne and Mary Boleyn. Nice, sympathetic portrayal of Kathrine of Aragon, and Sam Neill as Cardinal Wolsey is mesmerizing. The Young Henry doesn’t do much for me.

Anyway… episode 2, the Field of Gold … it’s mine now.

And to complete my little minor obsession du weekend, I also ordered Anne of The Thousand Days and Mary, Queen of Scots (you know, the one with Vanessa Redgrave and Glenda Jackson, SSOOOOO good.)

If you need me, I’ll be in 1520.

ode to bacon, part II

From one of the Grumpy Old Men series … if you haven’t seen them, HIGHLY recommended.

Kelly Anne of the Thousand Emails*

my inbox is out of control, originally uploaded by kellypuffs.

Thought this moment was worth commemorating.

One thousand (1000) unread emails in my inbox.

Nice.

They aren’t ACTUALLY unread. Most of them were read (or acknowledged) via my crackberry, obviating the need to go onto the web to deal with email.

Still.

The picture is good, if only for shock value alone.

* One of my favorite films of all time.

10 Things I Hate About You

Have I admitted before to a regrettable fondness for a certain genre of teen film? … the kind that includes such great icons of cinematography as “Mean Girls“, “The Princess Diaries“, “She’s All That” and my all-time favorite, “10 Things I Hate About You“

Well, I’m admitting it. I like these movies. A lot.

Particularly 10 Things I Hate About You.

What’s not to love? An impossibly skinny Julia Stiles, an adorable Heath Ledger, a Seattle where it’s sunny EVERY SINGLE DAY, a good catchy soundtrack and Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew as your storyline.

I also am a big fan of the Cole Porter musical Kiss Me, Kate. And Gilbert and Sullivan. But I digress.

For some reason, one of my favorite quotes in 10 Things sprang to mind this evening, the one where, Bianca, the younger sister, was explaining the difference between like and love:

“I mean, I LIKE my skechers, but I LOVE my Prada backpack.”

So now I want to see 10 Things. Which we own.

w00t!

Wait a second. The Girl owned it. And she took it with her to college.

Damn.

I’ve lost half “our” wardrobe and damn near 75% of “our” DVD collection. I hope she left me Pirates…..

20 days to “World’s End”

I think Pirates 2 was the LAST movie I saw at the theatre…

happy feet

Finally saw Happy Feet. Great silly fun.