Last night the Snook and I finally saw Amelie (or as it’s known in France, Le Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain). It was fantastic. Seriously, go see this film. Afterwards we met up with some people from work who were asking if it was a “chick flick” or “pretentious”. No no no. It’s not that kind of French film. Sure, it has subtitles, but if it was in English and starred Julia Roberts it’d be number one at the box office and snag Jules another trophy next year. (It’d suck, though, but I’m just tryin’ to make a point about American cultural elitism.) The theater was packed, which I really didn’t expect. And everybody was laughing! We were having a great time. It’s two hours long, but to be honest I didn’t even realize that until the end. It’s hilarious, it’s sweet, it’s got some awesome effects, and it’ll make you feel happy when you leave the theater. If/when this finally gets to America, make an effort to see it. You won’t regret it.

Everybody who knows me knows I have rotten gaydar. (Heck, just look at my ex-boyfriends! *drum sting* Thank you, you’ve been a lovely audience.) But anyway, now – thanks to technology and capitalism – I will no longer be caught unawares that yet another of my snappy-dressing Englishman buddies is a friend of Dorothy. I can buy gaydar! (Link courtesy of Ernie.)

My Buffy Dream Date is… Giles? I guess I can accept that. I do like when he goes all Ripper and kicks some ass. I was really hoping for Oz though. I think the quiz sucks. Because really, within the realm of the show you’d expect Willow to get Oz, right? But there’s no way she’d have picked any of the answers that correspond to him. She’d have picked all the bookish ones like I did… which get you Giles. (Maybe that’s why there’s all that Willow/Giles fan fiction?) But anyway, I base my claim to Oz on the fact that if Willow gets him, so do I. (Link courtesy of Fresh Hell.)

A question for you English-teacher writer types: is there a word that means to put things in order numerically? Kind of like “alphabetize”, but with numbers? Because that’s what I just did with about a bazillion Harry Potter trading cards. 🙂

“Hey Mum! I’ve got good news! I got an acting job in a historical drama on Channel 4! Well… I’m playing a syphilitic Hackney whore being impassively tupped by a boil-faced plague-pit digger in the desperate belief that my pox will cure his plague.” That is some funny stuff.

Embarrassing realization o’ the day: if you’re going to rant on a friend’s weblog, for the love of God rant about something worthwhile…. as opposed to, say, “the Creek”. I’m pathetic.

Modern art is rubbish?
Damien Hirst, “master of the modern British art scene”, had a launch party recently for his new work. At the party he arranged some of the rubbish — beer bottles, ash trays, candy wrappers — into an impromptu art installation. The next morning the gallery janitor arrived and promptly threw it all into the garbage. Ha! The gallery had a cow, of course, and workers had to dig through the trash to reclaim everything and rebuild the “artwork” from photographs. Hirst apparently found the whole debacle quite funny.

Personally, I just love the way the British press crow about this stuff. “Cool Britannia” was a great marketing slogan, but the reality over here is quite different. Sure, Londoners are pretty modern about most things, but there are certain topics guaranteed to bring out the conservative side in most Brits: joining the Euro and scrapping the pound, laws the force the use of the metric system, genetically modified foods, and modern art and architecture. Of course, having seen the Lloyds of London building up close and personal, I’ve got to agree with them on the last one…

The Lord of the Rings will debut in London. Yes! Yes yes yes! But wait… December 10? Will I even be here? Bugger.

Whoa! Just mooching around on MetaFilter and found an interesting optical illusion. My sister was making fun of me rocking back and forth in front of my computer until I made her look for herself. It’s pretty cool.

Okay, everybody who uses Reblogger? It’s slowing your site down to the point where I can’t see it this morning. That sucks.