Over the weekend, I went to Chateu de Orby (formerly and now once-again known as NymPad) and partied with
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stacis and vileorb.
mr_cynical and
misscreant were there for a portion of the night as well. We didn't do much, just sat around. We played poker for a long long time. Staci was very annoyed and bored with it at first, but then she started winning and was into it. After she was way up, she wanted to convert the useless chips we were playing with into real money (meaning that we had to pay her for beating us when we were playing for free). We refused, of course, and then started over with real money. Staci stopped doing so well and lost a good portion of her original $20 stake. Dave won most of that. I was only up $1.50 when we quit playing at SIX A.M.! I only slept until noon (in Tonya's bed, GO ME!), but it seemed like I had slept for 10 hours. Sunday morning we ate a little pizza, watched some college basketball (had there been skewers to stick in my eyes, I might have chosen that instead) and I went home right after the 60 Minutes interview with John Nash was over.
I need to take up the guitar again. And I need to return Tonya's to her, along with the books I borrowed (if I can find them). And, since that will mean no guitar, I need to buy one. So maybe I will. Then I will learn to play it, and then women will want to jump my bones. I'm pretty sure that's how it works.
I watched my THIRD film that is a nominee for Best Foreign Film this year. The film is
Lagaan (the other two I have seen are
Amélie and
No Man's Land). If I had to come up with one word to describe
Lagaan, it would be LONG. Really long. Super incredibly long. Three hours and fourty-five minutes. That's not a movie, that's a relationship. The movie hails from India. I'm sure most of you know this, but India's "Bollywood" produces more films in a year than Hollywood does. Most of them are musicals, and Lagaan is no exception. Overall, I liked the movie, but it certainly had some weaknesses in my eyes, mostly due to the fact that I'm not Indian. I thought ALL the musical numbers were unnecessary, I thought the movie, even without the singing-and-dancing was too long and would have been much better served as a 105 minute quick-paced comedy-drama. If the film is representative of Indian cinema, then I have little desire to see more. However, let me restate that I DID enjoy the film overall. The photography was beautifully done. The Indian fabrics are in such vibrant colors, and they were well captured (especially when contrasted with the rather drab landscape). Also, the story was quite interesting, at least at the top-level. It takes place in 1893, where a village of farmers are having their grains taxed by their lord, who in turn gives it to the English who occupy the area. The area is in a major draught, but the English governer (who is everything that is evil and wrong in the world) chooses to DOUBLE the tax (this tax is called a lagaan). The villagers protest to the lord, who tells them there is nothing he can do. The evil British guy, however, makes them a deal: They can play a game of cricket against the British team, and if they win, their lagaan will be relieved. But if they lose, they'll have to pay triple lagaan, which means they'll all starve. The villagers don't want this deal, but it is accepted anyway by the rebellious Bhavat, who is everytthing that is good and right in the world. And so it goes... Worth a Netflix rental (that's where I got it) if you can clear off your plate for the better part of an evening.
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