Not spirited away

02.09.2003

I'm seriously behind on grading, so I'm not going to see Spirited Away at The Little Theater this afternoon. Too bad; I was really looking forward to seeing it. But I still have 30-some papers to grade, and I hope to get them all finished before The Simpsons (or at least enough so that I can finish the rest soon after and go to bed early for a change).

I did hear from Upson, however, that Russian Ark will be showing at The Little Theater in a few weeks. I've really been looking forward to that movie. It's the first entirely unedited, single screen, single take full length feature in movie history (also the longest ever steadicam sequence). It was all shot in a single day at the St. Petersburg Hermitage Museum w/ a cast of over 800 actors (not including the extras) and three live orchestras. I hear they rehearsed for six months prior to shooting. It's gotten rave reviews and is supposed to be just breathtaking. I'm not going to miss this one.

Last night, as I was leaving The Space, I found an odd book left on a table. A sticky note attached to the cover read: "Pick me up! Read me. Release me. (I'm free!)." There's a website on the sticky note, too. It's for bookcrossing.com, which seems to be a strange anarchic online book swapping community.

The book's called I & Claudius: Travels With My Cat. The book even has an insert of color photographs of 19-year-old Claudius (the cat) in various locales (such as peering over the Grand Canyon and sauntering down the aisle of a train). I couldn't resist; I took it home. Here's an excerpt from the book jacket:

It was an unpredictable road trip. From celebrity hair stylists in New York to brown bears in the Appalachians, from astronauts in Nashville to Elvis' shag ceiling in Graceland to voodoo snakes in New Orleans, the unlikely couple just about kept their Guccis intact and even learnt to read a map. That was before riding with psychic cowboys in Texas, losing vital body parts in the Grand Canyon, gambling with hoods in Vegas and spilling drinks over film stars in Hollywood.


Maybe some day I'll write about wild adventures w/ my intrepid sidekicks, Annie and Sophie.

Posted by Miguel at 04:39 PM

Comments

Russian Ark is beautiful- I saw it this past weekend at the Music Box Theatre. My knowldege of Russian history is limited, so I think I missed quite a bit of references, but visually it's a stunning 96minutes of film. The costumes and location are beautiful.

Posted by: vanessa at February 10, 2003 08:26 AM

I just went and saw Russian Ark too. While the camera work is impressive and the visuals are rich, it's boring as hell. No real narrative, just the camera panning around with vauge historical references thrown here and there.

Posted by: Simon King at February 11, 2003 10:44 PM