Julie & Julia, or, The Life of Ashely the Artist

Tonight, for her birthday I went with my good friend Laura to see "Julie & Julia". I am inspired. We loved it. The movie was totally adorable, Meryl Streep is my new favorite actress and Julia Child is my new favorite cook (move over, Gordon Ramsay, you old coot). I completely identified with the movie version of Julie the blogger. I think we share a lot in common. We both started out as frustrated 20-somethings, created a blog, and besides a great body we do not both share (I'll let you decide who has the better), both made strides towards a goal. Where she has already reached hers, I am still searching for mine. It's okay. I am comfortable in my slightly ambiguous personal and professional life and my meager audience in the the blog-o-sphere. I'm...not jealous. My blog, instead of being a short-term journey to finish a cookbook and find oneself in the process, is more of the life's journey of someone who already knows who she is but just needs to find where she fits.

But back to the movie. Can I just say the relationship between Julia and her husband as portrayed by the movie was so endearing and sweet. I wanted to cry on several occasions and would have done so had I not been surrounded by a packed movie theater and one particularly bad breathed man sitting behind us. Poor guy.

In a nutshell, go see the movie. It's worth your $10.50. The only thing we didn't like was towards the end and fairly easy to explain away. I won't tell you what it is in case it doesn't bother you. I don't want to ruin it.

Meryl Streep will win an award for this movie. If she doesn't, I'll sue.

Oh, and just to keep this thing art-themed, here:



Bon appetit!

Reality?! HUH! What is it Good For? Absolutely Nothing, Say it Again...

Life is much more real than I care to accept. I like to happily delude myself into thinking I can do absolutely anything despite annoying details like degrees, schools and regions. Tonight, while in the mist of researching some perfectly wonderful delusions, I came across a perfectly unwonderful slap in the face. Money. I think I'm just going to have to come to grips with the starving artist label and give up on the luxury condo idea.

I saw two movies tonight: "Juno" and "Becoming Jane". "Juno," despite the rambunctious tweenagers in the front row of the movie theater, was really cute. It ended up being completely different from what I was expecting and actually enjoyed it's weird quirkyness. My favorite character was Michael Cera who was so dang cute I just wanted to pinch his little cheeks the whole time. [Die hard "Arrested Development" fan. I have Gob's "Final Countdown" as my ringtone.] The only thing I didn't like was Jason Bateman's character which I liked until I hated. The situation between him and Ellen Page [Juno] was cute but then strange and a little unclear and I felt like I was left with some unanswered questions.

"Becoming Jane" was also good, but unfortunately based on real life so it couldn't be shallow and end happily like I wanted it to. Let me just say this, it ended without ripping a hole in my soul. Hey, I get very involved in movies.

I would give a synopsis of each but 1) I'm fading fast 2) you can find a much better one somewhere else and 3) to be honest I'm having a hard time distinguishing between the two. Did Jane puke in an urn? No, no, that was Juno. Was Juno in love with a Fawn? Dangit. No, that was Anne Hathaway. Did Jack Black collaborate with Mos Def to recreate VHS classics like "Driving Miss Daisy" and "Ghostbusters" while socially inept Jr. Highers made a spectacle of themselves and I contemplated chucking popcorn in their general direction? Oh. Yes. But that was during a preview.

In a gesture of self-pity, I'm going to snag the last brownie. Don't tell my mom.