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Dec. 30th, 2008 11:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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synn has gone. It's too quiet here.We ate a lot and watched movies, as is tradition. Garlic mashed red potatoes, more latkes, sushi, Fire + Ice and curry were highlights. We also exchanged gifts—in the sense of
synn bringing a sack of goodies* and me picking out gifts as we went along—and made it over to the Museum of Fine Arts, Harvard Square and a mall, and played some ping pong and pool. * Such as: much-needed dish towels, the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix DVD, brownie mix, marzipan, Christopher Hitchens' The Portable Atheist, Natalie Angier's The Canon, plastic ice things in the shape of stars, and three books by Robin Hobb she says I need to read.
Many movies and TV were watched, including:
- Order of the Phoenix – Hadn't seen it since it came out in theaters. Still pretty good.
- Heathers – One of those innumerable '80s movies I managed never to see, even though I adore Winona Ryder.
- My Beautiful Laundrette – Okay, those of you who said this movie was a fangirl staple that needed to be added to Yuletide, etc. etc.? You're all fired. It was awful. Granted, awful in a laughable way some of the time, and a few of the scenes between what's his name and a Cockney/punk Daniel Day-Lewis were kind of hot, but still. I'm never getting those two hours back.
- Transformers – Solid action-movie fun. Just wish the Transformers had transformed a little slower so we could appreciate the effects and intricacies of the gears and such. With bonus boy/girl/car threesomes. And Taub!
- Drop Dead Gorgeous – Wonderful black humor, and Kirsten Dunst is adorable as always.
- Interview with the Vampire – Still ludicrous after all these years. At least it has richer visual detail and stands up to rewatching better than The Queen of the Damned.
- Ten minutes of The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys. Maybe it got better after we turned it off?
- Independence Day – Even though we could probably recite the whole thing. I have the VHS at home and didn't know there was a special edition on DVD with a few extra minutes of footage. Glory! Though most of them were throwaways with the trailer family, there were two or three cut scenes with David that were quite fun. Also I told synn about the SGA/ID4 fusion I was toying with last year.
- House was on USA, again, so we watched a couple of episodes. She also made me try NCIS—bleh, minus a few good moments; Spooks does it better—and Psych—cute and silly—while I made her watch a few eps of SGA, namely "The Shrine" (hard to appreciate when she didn't know the characters), "38 Minutes" (to see the bug and meet Zelenka and Kavanagh) and "Common Ground" (for Kolya and Todd; still very good). And thingswithwings's Sheppard-whump fanvid for good measure.
But of course it wasn't about what we ate or watched, it was about getting to see her after a year and a half apart, when we used to see each other every day, and then after she moved, at least write to each other every day. Five and a half days was wonderful, but hardly enough, especially when we don't know when we'll be able to get together again.
.
The day after I got back to Boston and the day before she arrived, I got to see my college friend R. for about 8 hours, which was great. He comes over from London once or twice a year, which is just about the right amount by virtue of being not quite enough—always leaves you wanting more. He's experienced, and is experiencing, some phenomenal things—former Rhodes scholar, ridiculous intellect, cushy job that flies him to other countries every month—and it seriously couldn't happen to a nicer guy. I want to brag about him to you. But he's very down-to-earth, and we passed a lovely day making latkes and talking and ending up at John Harvard's for burgers, where the restaurant was treated to an impromptu Appalachian music jam session from a group of people at one of the larger tables who'd brought their instruments.
He and
synn and I were able to get together again over the weekend for dinner, after which we witnessed a moron kid trying to get his SUV out of a snowbank he'd apparently interpreted as a parking space. Screech, lurch, smoke, screech, pause, repeat, while traffic and pedestrians went by, seemingly unaware of the possibility of getting hit by this idiot. Who had an ice cream cone in one hand, on top of everything. Eventually some guys offered to push the back bumper, and he made it out without crashing spectacularly into the expensive-looking car in the actual parking space in front of him..
I've been reading books a little bit again—Jerome Groopman's How Doctors Think, thanks to
elynittria's recommendation more than a year ago, and now an anthology of literary examinations of humanistic medicine called A Life in Medicine, which my sister got me for Hanukkah last year. There was a wonderful poem in it about the intimacy and creepiness of conducting a dissection in gross anatomy lab. Haven't been online much in the last couple of weeks since the semester ended. Now all I have on my to-do list besides chores and nonessential schoolwork is to finish my tentacle fic, and yet it is not happening. I wish
oxoniensis's porn battle were going on right now instead of next month. Short prompts would be right up my alley right now.
no subject
Date: Dec. 30th, 2008 05:23 pm (UTC)I heartily approve of any fusion with ID4 (which is one of the best movies ever--Will Smith FTW!). You may take that as a prompt if you wish. :-D
How Doctors Think is an excellent book, and oh yes, it definitely applies to doctors today. >:-(
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Date: Dec. 30th, 2008 08:53 pm (UTC)ID4 is great fun and would make an awesome fusion, but it is not short! Hee.
http://bironic.livejournal.com/117278.html?thread=1816606#t1816606
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Date: Jan. 3rd, 2009 01:39 am (UTC)How could you have never seen Heathers? Mind you, I've never seen My Beautiful Laundrette, either. I remember at the time it was a choice between that and Prick Up Your Ears and we went the sordid route XD
The only thing I remember about Independence Day is that it had Will Smith in it, and it was looong. And there was lots of running around and screaming...
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Date: Jan. 3rd, 2009 01:53 am (UTC)You chose well with Prick (hee); that at least had Gary Oldman, even if Albert Molina traumatized me. Was he naked at some point, and bald? I seem to remember that it was so. Laundrette just sort of sucked.
Re: Mongolian BBQ, you are right. Too bad it is not called Genghis Khan here, that would be fun. I thought Fire + Ice called itself Mongolian BBQ-style, when you mentioned it, but I just looked at the website and don't see that anywhere.
And yeah, no, never seen Heathers, still haven't seen Breakfast Club or Goonies, didn't see Lost Boys or Sixteen Candles until college, etc. etc. I fail at having grown up in the 80s. Star Trek took up a lot of TV time, darn it.
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Date: Jan. 3rd, 2009 03:03 am (UTC)I can't remember a thing about PUYE except that it was definitely a little raunchy in places. I kind of really want to see it again now that I realise how amazing Gary Oldman really is.
I would have thought your 'defining movies' were more likely to have been 90s ones. I'm fairly sure there is no-one of my vintage in the Western world who has not seen The Breakfast Club. Whereas Goonies was too juvenile for me by the time it came out XD
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Date: Jan. 3rd, 2009 03:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Jan. 3rd, 2009 03:12 am (UTC)Geez, he was Rosencrantz, too? This is getting ridiculous...
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Date: Jan. 3rd, 2009 03:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Jan. 3rd, 2009 03:23 am (UTC)Edit: Oh, dear, Murder in the First too. I loved that movie way too much...
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Date: Jan. 3rd, 2009 03:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Jan. 3rd, 2009 03:29 am (UTC)