2011: Year In Review

FANTASTIC VIDEO!!!



What a year...

Sugar & Gravy Movie Mania #7

Whoa (a la Joey Lawrence)!!!  Why has it been nearly a month since I last posted???  I'm not sure, but I'm fixing that... right now.

It's time for another installment of Sugar & Gravy Movie Mania.  Over the years at S & G, I have reported on a variety of movies via Movie Mania... the good: "Temple Grandin" and Sofia Coppola's "Somewhere", and the oh-so-very-bad: "Secretariat" and "The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2".

Now it's time for 2 pretty darn good movies...

This past weekend I saw "Like Crazy" at the Varsity Theatre in Toronto.  I've heard of their VIP theatres before, but have never been in one before.  (Un)fortunately, "Like Crazy" was only playing in the VIP theatre, so the ticket was $18.99.  That said, the increased ticket price = popcorn delivered to you at your seat & a licensed theatre.  It was worth the money to drink a pint of Mill Street Organic while watching a movie.

I highly anticipated this movie after seeing the trailer before I saw "50/50".  Considering the trailer made me cry, I figured the movie itself would be a winner.  I heard from a friend whose film tastes I really respect that the trailer was better than the movie and that the movie actually sucked, but I went anyway, and I have to respectfully disagree.  I thought the movie was great, and the more it sinks in, the more I like it.  It wasn't perfect by any stretch, but it had many great qualities.

1. It seemed very real.  I learned before I saw it that there was no script and it was fully improvised.  This fact was very apparent in a good way.  Actions and dialogue were really realistic and made everything much easier to relate to.
2. The arc of the story was very real, too.  It didn't clean up nicely like you maybe want it to, but then the other part of you wants it to be messy, because that's what life is like.  The outcome you have your heart set on isn't always/usually the way things end up, and it's awkward and unfortunate, but it's real.  I thought the ending was spot on.
3. I thought the acting was splendid!  My sister didn't think the male lead was as good, and I have to agree, but overall the main two actors were very real (again... realness) and improvised extremely well.

Arbitrary S & G rating = 4.5/5

The weekend before that my sister and I saw another movie together -- "The Descendants".  The trailer for this movie also looked fantastic, but the movie left something to be desired.  It was an interesting enough story, there were interesting and funny parts of the movie, but it just didn't leave you with much.  There was some great interaction between the family members, beautiful shots of Hawaii, and the two young actresses who played George Clooney's character's daughters, I thought, were fabulous!  But... it just didn't give you much, that's all.  It wasn't a smash hit by any stretch, in my opinion, and I can't elaborate on it much more than that, I'm afraid.

Arbitrary S & G rating = 3/5

...until next time!!!

Australians & iOS 5.1

At 5:45 this morning I woke up to my first alarm and, in a dream-like state, checked for any Facebook notifications, texts, etc. on my phone (which acts as my alarm).  I ignored a Groupon, checked FB, and then received a notification that iOS 5.1 was ready for download.  Sweet!  As I approved the download (which could be done without hooking up to a computer... Sweet!), I noticed one of the new features.  Was this a dream, or is iOS 5.1 in fact optimized for Australian voices?  I remember laughing about this and then fell fast asleep right after.  The download was complete when I woke up, but did it ever really happen?

rc-3: 14 down, 6 to go...

It's been too long since I properly updated my die-hard fans readers on Sugar & Gravy's Reading Challenge #3, more commonly known as rc-3.  The truth is that I was on a total roll up until August and then in September I barely read at all.  I was really busy with work and going through a few personal things and just couldn't catch the reading bug again.  But I slogged through and managed to get a few books read after The Help.  I'm currently on book #15 - Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Alboum.  I've always meant to read it and picked it up for $1 at a book sale (along with 9 other books I really didn't need to buy, but $1/book?!  How could I not?!).  I'm loving it so far and it's a fast read, so that'll leave me with 5 books to go in about 6 weeks.  It's possible that I can still do it, though I might need to pick the shortest books on my shelves.  I shall do my best and see how I make out.

So, this year I have read...

1. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
2. The Girls by Lori Lansens
3. Live from New York by Tom Shales & James Andrew Miller
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
5. The Divinity Gene by Matthew J. Trafford
6. 38 Witnesses: The Kitty Genovese Case by A.M. Rosenthal
7. I Met the Walrus by Jerry Levitan
8. Saturday by Ian McEwan
9. Bossypants by Tina Fey
10. Animal Farm by George Orwell
11. No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod
12. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
13. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
14. A Million Little Pieces by James Frey

Random note: 5/14 are non-fiction... seems as though the love for fiction is back and in good form!!!

EDIT: This is too funny.  In re-reading this post, I realized, wait a sec... 6/14 are non-fiction... or is it 5?!  SUGAR & GRAVY QUIZ -- Which of the books listed above is like a tomato in that it's unsure whether it's a vegetable or fruit?

I'm a lady!

It's Friday and even though I cursed when I saw frost on my car this morning, there's still a beautiful blue sky to be pumped about. Plus, it's FRIDAY!!!  TGI to the friggin' F, y'all, and how better to celebrate that than with a hot jam?!?

What would you do?

I don't hunt for new music like I used to, but every once in a while the mood strikes and I hit up the Hype Machine's popular list for some new jams. 

And every once in a while (read: pretty much always), hypem delivers. 

Case in point:
Note - I can't vouch for the video that accompanies the song; the important thing is the audio.

What kind of example would she be setting for Clippy Clippy Clip-Clop?

Yet another example of why James Lipton is pure genius.



See the rest here!