the latest and greatest

in theaters: Gone Baby Gone

LOVED it. It was a really honest view of Boston, the gritty, uncouth side of Boston, the place where the people who are poor and white live. Ben Affleck, who annoys me to no end on screen because, I don't know, he looks too polished or something, is GREAT behind the camera. He used a lot of locals to make the film more authentic, which worked so well that the bigger names, like Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris, actually pulled me out of the story. I don't want to give away too much, but I do want to say that Casey Affleck is great and a far cry from the dude that wanted to sit in the front seat in Good Will Hunting, and also, I don't ever want a private dectective boyfriend (which is what Affleck plays) because I thought Affleck was going to die about 7 different times in this movie and that would be too much for my frail little heart.

Also, one reviewer from the Boston Globe said that B. Affleck did a great job portraying class (which, I agree, phenomenal) but struggled a bit with race. The reviewer said that the great Boston movie will deal with race expertly, but no one will want to see it.

online: Project Runway Canada & Robin Hood BBC. I guess I'm not very patriotic these days.
on PRC:Canadians are just calmer than Americans it seems, and, don't tell Tim Gunn but I almost love this show better than the US version. Less drama, more sewing, and they even made dresses that were auctioned off to benefit AIDS relief in Africa.

on Robin Hood: Robin Hood is campy and cheesy and horribly inaccurate and purposely anachronistic and so predictable and cliche (like the weekly-Robin-and-Merry-band-sneak-into-the-castle-will-they-escape business, or the love triangle between the cocky and dashing Robin, the headstrong Marian, and the vile (but increasingly softhearted) henchman Guy of Gisbourne)...BUT I LOVE IT. I've come to the realization that I don't necessarily want intelligent TV, because usually it's just TV that tries to be intelligent and fails and drives me crazy (hello, LOST). I like a little cheeseball melodrama with a dash of humor. That makes me happy.

in life: Christmas music! and lights, the tackier the better. There's a guy in Jamaica Plain who put up 500,000 Christmas lights as well as a 650 lb crown this year, but mostly I really love driving down the street and passing a little row house all decked out with different size and color lights. I could think about wasted energy, wasted money, etc., but this time of year, especially, I prefer to think about people feeling cheered and ready for the season.

You know what this post has told me? especially the last two bits? I'm a sap. Might as well embrace it.