10.05.2012

Randomosity on Fridays: Books, Movies, Travel!

The first week of October has flown by! Most of you seem to be well into Fall mode, but you can try telling that to the Southern California weather. We were at triple digits earlier this week! Although, I hear it's finally cooling down; the dog walk tonight was a bit chilly.

Thanks for all your kind words and enthusiasm on Wednesday's WIP post! It's very motivating and much appreciated!

Anyway, many things to cover so onwards!

1) This past week was Banned Books Week.


I hope you read some good, juicy books in honor of it. I actually did read a banned book very recently, the new classic The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I enjoyed it, though not as much as I probably would have as an actual teen, but it does a very good job of capturing the feeling of being a teenager. (Here's my goodreads review for Perks.)  I also saw the movie for Perks, and it was excellent. Logan Lerman's the perfect Charlie (and goodness this kid can act), Emma Watson demonstrates that she's more than just Hermione, and Ezra Miller totally steals the show. :)

2) It's been a movie sort of weekend because I also saw Looper, which despite the weirdness of Joseph Gordon-Levitt being made to look like Bruce Willis was quite good. A light Sci-Fi that doesn't get too caught up in its high concept and actually explores its bigger themes.

3) The Sister, my friend, and I also saw the much buzzed about Pitch Perfect, which is basically the a capella version of Bring It On. Which is to say the movie was fun and hilarious with the bonus of having some great musical numbers. Here's a clip of one of my favorite scenes.



The Sister's favorite line of the movie was: "Leave it. It fuels my Hate Fire."

4) Speaking of fun music, I'm about to be reunited with one of my Great Musical Loves tonight, Mr. A to Z himself, Jason Mraz at the Hollywood Bowl! The Sister is actually the huge fangirl, but he is just one amazingly talented singer who is straight up brilliant live. His live performances are magical; he is basically always better live. AND not only are we seeing him tonight, we're also seeing him again Saturday night at a much smaller venue for his acoustic show (even better!).

We realized the last time we saw him was 4 years ago. As the Sister put it, "I'm ready to fall in love again."

5) Lastly, I'm going on vacation! Next week to be exact and I'll be gone for a while, so Alz will have full control of the blog then. Make sure she behaves, yes? I'll be traveling to the eastern side of Europe and hitting up a bunch of places with a tour group. I'm probably most excited about going to...



...Prague, which is a place I've been dreaming about since Laini Taylor enchanted me with her descriptions of it in Daughter of Smoke & Bone! We're starting in Germany, which means I should probably brush up on my German this weekend. 4+ years of taking it in school shouldn't be hard to recover, right?


Q4U: I'll be on planes, trains, and buses a lot. So do you have travel music suggestions? I need to fill up my iPod this weekend!

6 comments:

Tracey Neithercott said...

I just read PERKS yesterday and I really, really liked it. I've been dying to see the movie since I first heard about it. I seriously love Ezra Miller and think he rocks in every single movie he's in, so I'd see this even if he played Sam and only wore a snow suit the whole time. Anyhow, in the previews there's this one part where Charlie's at his desk and running his hands over his head and the looks about five seconds from a breakdown and I was like YES that's so Charlie! In short, I'm psyched.

Also, I'm so jealous you'll be going to Prague. It's one of my very favorite cities. It's beautiful and everything, but there's something else about it that I really love. It's very easy to find yourself on some small winding street with gorgeous buildings on either side and not a single other person. Unlike other cities, it's quiet and lovely. I remember we were at this club/bar that was along the river and from the back patio you could see the bridge all lit up and the castle lit so it looked like an old Disney castle and I was like, I want to stay here forever. I hope you get that feeling there somewhere.

Connie Keller said...

Have a wonderful time!! I fell in love with Prague when I read the book too. I can't wait to hear if it's as wonderful in person as it is in the book. BTW, I'm expecting to see some pictures on the blog when you get back. :)

Golden Eagle said...

I hope you have a great vacation! Visiting Prague sounds amazing.

Angela Brown said...

Alz, controlling the blog...all on her own. This will be fun :-)

Enjoy your vacation. I can't think of any music right now as I'm not sure if you're going to want to sleep on the plane or have some jam out music.

Lydia Kang said...

Have fun in Prague! Hope you post lots of pictures!

Anonymous said...

Oh vacation time!!! Enjoy yourself and come back with bountiful of stories to tell. :)
And be safe.