Odds and Ends

When I put together the Things to Watch on Netflix, I had on my list (but somehow neglected to write about)...

1.) Departures

The winner of 2009's Best Foreign Film, it only played at one film festival.  That was enough, though, to get it onto the Oscar ballots.  

Like the best of films, it's both funny and tragic.  Like Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown, it explores death and burial, this time within the context of Japanese culture.  When he is let go from the orchestra - after purchasing a very expensive cello, musician Daigo returns to his hometown where he answers a job ad to make ends meet.  The job is to be an assistant to the town's nakanshi, who prepares the dead for burial (there's a sequence involving the filming of an instructional DVD that's completely hilarious).  Social taboos regarding the handling of the dead, however, threaten Daigo's marriage even as he finds in the nakanshi, Ikuei, the father figure he never had.

2.) We're headed to Nashville this weekend! It's out little Danny's Birthday / Valentine's getaway; we're excited.  It'll only be a short trip, but it'll be fun to get out of town.  The biggest piece of the itinerary is a trip to the REI store in Brentwood; Danny's North Face jacket, after 13 years of honorable service, is going to be ...upgraded.

Not quite replaced.  Just upgraded.  And there aren't a lot of REI stores in the area.

Go figure.

3.) I'll admit, we skipped the Super Bowl.  Neither of us were much interested in the game, and with this newfangled thing they call the "internet," commercial watching has never been easier.  Our favorite?  It is (not surprisingly, the Audi Ad.

I love it all - the Kenny G, the Russian Wolfhounds (gorgeous dogs, actually - I totally want one), the spleen complaint...it's just glorious.

BUT, you've got to see the BMW commercial too.  Watch it!  The Spartanburg factory?  That's where we were last summer.  Remember the Big Giant Robots I kept going on about?  THOSE ARE THE ROBOTS!!!

4.) The one downside to missing the Super Bowl was that I missed the advertising blitzkrieg revealing the Glee episode afterwards.

I was probably the only American with a TV who didn't know.  But hey, there's hulu.  And it was a good episode.  The season's struggled with consistency; the writing at times just not as sharp and perfect as we know it can be.  This episode?  Sue's taking raccoon hormones?  Of course she is.  And now I totally want to watch 13 Going on 30, if only for the Thriller sequence.  And Katie Couric at the end?  Wow.  So great.

5.) Danny's birthday chocolate is, like, 18 inches away from me, and that's too close.

6.) There's a geeky guy with dark, curly hair in The Social Network in one of the Harvard scenes, and I've totally seen him in something, but for the life of me (and even with the help of imdb.com) I can't figure out where I've seen him.  If you have insight, share please.

7.) Naptime approacheth.

8.) I think I'm going to make the Pecan Pie Muffins again soon...