Bird About Town

What I've been watching: Watched Brideshead Revisited from netflix last night. I thoroughly enjoyed it--it's just the kind of period piece that I could get lost in; I'm definitely reading the book. I love being alive in the time of computers, the internet and iPods, but if I could pick another time to be alive, it would be the early 1900's. Emma Thompson did a good job as a super Catholic mother who ruins her children's lives in various ways, the main guy, Matthew Goode (previously seen in Match Point and Chasing Liberty), was super handsome. This is a movie that I could watch again and again.

Having read the Oscar nominations a couple days ago, I went out this morning to a matinee of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button so that I could see for myself what all the fuss (13 nominations including Best Picture) is about. The acting was good, the makeup and set design impecable, but Best Picture? Really??? No way. And it's so flipping long; there must have been a few minutes they could have shaved off here and there. Of the 5 Best Pic noms, I've also seen Frost/Nixon and Slumdog Millionaire, and I think both of these are superior to The CCBB (plus, WTF, where's Revolutionary Road on this list????). I'll be severely disappointed with the Academy if the CCBB is voted Best Picture.

Movies I need to see in the next month, in order of how much I want to see them: The Class, Milk, The Reader, Waltz With Bashir, Doubt.

In neighborhood news: Walking past my laundromat this morning, I saw an unexpected site. The place was closed, the grate was down, and taped to the grate were florescent signs explaining that the business had been closed by order of the Supreme Court of New York for "Illegal Gambling."

Crazy! When I came home in the afternoon, I saw that the business owners, a couple I've very fond of (I've been doing my laundry here for 3.5 years, and I've had various members of the family as patients), had put up signs saying that they were sorry, the laudromat was closed due to legal matters, and that everyone who has laundry inside would get it back (a lot of people drop off their laundry to be washed and pick it up a few days later when it's clean). I hope they open back up soon! I don't want to have to find a new laundromat for my last month here. I figure I have 2 or 3 trips to the laundromat left and it would just be hassle fo find someplace new. Boo. They couldn't have waited another month for this debacle??

I've been going through a bit of teenage vampire withdrawal. Any suggestions? I checked Ask Metafilter, searching "twilight withdrawal" but got nothing. Really? No one else has asked what to do to remedy twilight withdrawal? Hmph.