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busy Saturday
I met with the florist this morning to re-do the colors for the flowers now that we HAVE colors (changed around things to ivory instead of white, dark purple and lavender mix, pinks instead of blues). I was late and I took the wrong exit on the freeway, so I called to let them know. I was told they had a walk-in customer anyway, so I had plenty of time to get there before they'd be done with her. It turns out she wasn't a walk-in, someone had double-booked the 10am time slot. The other girl was also named Christine (or some variation), so the florist thought it was me and was confused when I arrived, thinking she had already finished that appointment. So when I got there I ended up waiting around for 10 minutes or so, not really a big deal.
Then this afternoon Josh and I went to Santa Cruz to see a movie and go to the Tea House Spa (you get a private room where you sit in a hot tub and drink tea and the scenery is sort of Japanese-ish). It's very relaxing, and the jasmine tea was good (better than the spearmint tea we tried last time, I thought). The movie we saw was Pan's Labyrinth (although the real title in Spanish was just "The Labyrinth of the Faun," so I don't know why they bothered changing it to "Pan's Labyrinth" in English). It's a Spanish film (English subtitles) that takes place during the Spanish Civil War in 1944, and it's pretty much a portrait of a young girl dealing with the horrible life she's having to live with her mother and new evil step-father (a Captain in the army and the guy in charge of the base where they're living). She's obsessed with fairy tales, and there are these weird ruins next to the base (it's in a forest), and she kind of creates her own fantasy world as a sort of escape from her real life. In it, she's the reincarnation of the long-lost princess of the underworld, and in order to return home to her kingdom, there are three tasks set to her by a faun in the labyrinth (the ruins) to prove her purity (non-mortalness) before she can be allowed back.
I will say this: the fantasy creatures and settings are truly stunning to look at. But aside from that, everything else about her fantastic adventures is rather, well, SCARY. The creatures, both the good and the bad ones, were just plain creepy looking. So I was both fascinated and horrified watching this movie. I was wary of it from the start, as it is rated R, and with GOOD reason! Only some scenes here and there are the actual fantasy story; the rest of it is quite a horrific war story, and violence (including gory scenes) abounds. I ended up shutting my eyes through a good chunk of the "real" story. So while this movie is very creative and interesting, bizarre even, it's also quite graphic. If you have a weak stomach for violence (like me), I don't think I could recommend it. Otherwise, I'd call it a twisted new spin on an Alice-in-Wonderland-type tale and worth seeing.
Then this afternoon Josh and I went to Santa Cruz to see a movie and go to the Tea House Spa (you get a private room where you sit in a hot tub and drink tea and the scenery is sort of Japanese-ish). It's very relaxing, and the jasmine tea was good (better than the spearmint tea we tried last time, I thought). The movie we saw was Pan's Labyrinth (although the real title in Spanish was just "The Labyrinth of the Faun," so I don't know why they bothered changing it to "Pan's Labyrinth" in English). It's a Spanish film (English subtitles) that takes place during the Spanish Civil War in 1944, and it's pretty much a portrait of a young girl dealing with the horrible life she's having to live with her mother and new evil step-father (a Captain in the army and the guy in charge of the base where they're living). She's obsessed with fairy tales, and there are these weird ruins next to the base (it's in a forest), and she kind of creates her own fantasy world as a sort of escape from her real life. In it, she's the reincarnation of the long-lost princess of the underworld, and in order to return home to her kingdom, there are three tasks set to her by a faun in the labyrinth (the ruins) to prove her purity (non-mortalness) before she can be allowed back.
I will say this: the fantasy creatures and settings are truly stunning to look at. But aside from that, everything else about her fantastic adventures is rather, well, SCARY. The creatures, both the good and the bad ones, were just plain creepy looking. So I was both fascinated and horrified watching this movie. I was wary of it from the start, as it is rated R, and with GOOD reason! Only some scenes here and there are the actual fantasy story; the rest of it is quite a horrific war story, and violence (including gory scenes) abounds. I ended up shutting my eyes through a good chunk of the "real" story. So while this movie is very creative and interesting, bizarre even, it's also quite graphic. If you have a weak stomach for violence (like me), I don't think I could recommend it. Otherwise, I'd call it a twisted new spin on an Alice-in-Wonderland-type tale and worth seeing.
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I did like the movie, but I really can't handle war movies/war-related violence, not even the fantasy kind like Lord of the Rings; didn't like those movies much since they had all those battle scenes. On the other hand, cheesy horror flick violence I'm fine with; go figure. I guess it's just so phony it's laughable to me, whereas with war stuff I can imagine they're things people really do to each other and it sickens me. This one was WAY too gory for my sensibilities. =(
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However, except for the part where the Captain sews his own mouth after being stabbed - geez, my stomach - I don't think it was especially gory. I've definitely seen worse and more bloody things that were not rated R xDDDD
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Well, I thought the part where he bashed the guy nearly to death with a beer bottle was pretty disgusting, so after that every time I thought something violent was about to happen I closed my eyes! I did see her slash the captain all up, though; actually I kind of liked that part because he so deserved it! But apart from that, I tried to avoid the bloody parts as much as possible (that thing eating the fairies? EWWW. >_< I could NOT watch that!). And torture scenes, no way. Yeah, I'm just sensitive.
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I've always thought it was amazing how many people from other countries, mainly England and America simply left it all behind and came to fight here as volunteers (along with the republican side, mostly).
If you haven't read it, I recommend Hemingway's "For Whom The Bells Toll". Even if it's almost completely fictional, it's a nice portrait of how things happened. Although the book that left the biggest impression in me is The Sleeping Voice by Dulce Chacón. She tells the stories of some women after the end of the war. The story is based on the lives of actual women. It's really impressive.
Rawr!
BTW, did you get my email about the bachlorette party? *g*
=^..^=__)