Hot Date

10 Aug 2015 Leave a comment

by wifemothereventplanner in Brave New World Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Well not really that hot, but my husband and I did sneak out to a movie last night. On a Sunday night. Aren’t we crazy? We’ve always loved movies. When we first met we went to a movie every Friday night. This was pre-Rotten Tomatoes so you really didn’t know what you were getting. It was great. We would see whatever was out. Action. Love story. Horror. We just loved going. We saw really good movies and really bad ones too. The only governing factors were the time of the show and the theater we saw it in. Now we need all of the internet to tell us it’s good before we deem to see it.

Things slowed down when we had kids – we saw fewer and fewer movies. Babysitters were hard to get – and it just seemed easier to just stay home. As the kids got older we started taking them to the movies with us, which meant most of what we saw involved princesses, action hero’s and toys. That was fun too.

We passed on our love of movies to them – actually just to my daughter. My son is a good sport but there’s a lot of other things he’d always rather be doing (although 2 summers ago we watched the entire Harry Potter Series together and he still talks about it). Kera on the other hand, loves movies like we do. She loves a good scary movie equally as much as she likes a good indie. And because she grew up in a world with YouTube, she loves documentaries too. My husband and I were secretly delighted to hear that she may want to focus on film production in college (or music. or something else). We acted all cool like, “oh that’s nice…”, when in reality we were both more like,” omg! omg! that’s what we should have done!”. What’s wrong with us? We need to calm down.

Where was I? We love movies. Now that the kids are older we have lots of opportunities to sneak out on our own, and we do. We love Oscar season and try to see everything nominated that we can get our hands on. We love the summer fluff movies and the fall serious moves (ok I love the fluff, my husband takes a nice nap). Our local theater just installed all recliner seats. If they start serving wine I’m moving in.

We come from a long line of movie lovers. My mother-in-law used to take my husband and his sister to the movies all the time. My family loved the movies too – hooray for Bollywood! When we meet people who don’t like the movies we are immediately suspect. Not like movies? Do you hate America too?

Long story long – we went, we ate popcorn, we had fun. Happy Monday!

(forgot to mention that we saw the The Gift. We give it two thumbs up and a very red ripe tomato)

In Defense of Gwyneth Paltrow

10 May 2013 Leave a comment

by wifemothereventplanner in I need to tell you about this right now Tags: , , , , , , , ,

220px-GwynethPaltrowByAndreaRaffin2011

She’s been getting a lot of flack lately. First her lifestyle website, GOOP, listed her top spring must haves.  A list that totaled up to well over $100,000. Then she was named People magazine’s most beautiful woman. This past week she showed up wearing a see-through side-paneled dress that showed all of her assets.

In the past she’s even been quoted saying things like,” I can’t pretend I make $25,000 a year because I don’t”.

She works out for 4 hours a day dancing around to Tracey Anderson – and now they’ve opened torture excercise schools all over the world. So we can all have tight, toned, dancer’s bodies. Ummm. Sure.

She named her kids Apple and Moses.

I get why she has haters.

But I have a soft spot for her.

I love all her horrible movies. I love all her great movies. Sliding Doors, Se7en, Shakespeare In Love, Sylvia – loved them all.

I loved her on Oprah talking about her perfect macrobiotic life and “mysterious” marriage to Chris Martin.

She’s absolutely ridiculous and out of touch. I know we could be besties. I really do.

There’s a ton of people who deserve haters; Kim Jong-un, Kim Kardashian, Mark Sanford – you get the point.

But why do people hate GP so much (that’s what dedicated readers to GOOP call her, fyi)?  Speaking of GOOP, her website, they’ve added a new feature. Every month they highlight a different, esoteric, completely-out-of-touch-with-the-majority-of-the-world company. This month it’s Foundwell. If your only worry is how to stock a vintage bar – and money is no object – it’s for you.  And although money is a huge, massive object for me, it’s for me too. Because that kind of flight of fancy doesn’t bother me. It makes me insanely curious. I dream about the people who really do go on the site and see the $950 sterling silver shot cup and say, “finally, I’ve found it”.

So give her a break will ya. She ain’t so bad. She can’t help her rich, untouchable life. She was just born that way.

Here’s to you Mrs. Jones

20 Mar 2013 3 Comments

by wifemothereventplanner in I need to tell you about this right now Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

IMG_4653

This is my boy and his all time favorite teacher – Mrs. Jones.

A second after 3rd grade started, the teacher he was supposed to have all year had a baby and Mrs. Jones stepped in. She immediately turned the room into an interactive, dynamic place – new rugs, new wall coverings, new everything. It wasn’t just room B-6, it was Hollywood.  All the “kiddos”, as she called them, were mini directors in their own productions. The room was covered in colorful, themed imagery.  She was animated and sweet and my boy (and the whole class) loved it.

As the year went on and we all got to know Mrs. Jones, it was clear how much she loved teaching and how much she loved our kids. Yes, all the usual teaching stuff happened. They learned, they read, they wrote.  But her class was more than that – it was fun. It was silly. It was over the top. And it was exactly what those little people needed. I’ve never had a teacher send me daily updates (sometimes more!) or pictures of fun things the class did that day.  We even got Sunday reminders of what the week ahead would look like. I don’t know about you, but I try very hard to forget where I work from Friday night to Sunday night, not her.  It was obvious that this wasn’t a burden for her.

This past week we got a letter from the school that our original teacher (who I’m sure is a wonderful person) is coming back for the last two months of school.

Devastation ensued.

9 year olds crying everywhere.

I still remember my favorite elementary school teacher, Mr. Walter Freeman. 4th Grade. He ate oranges at his desk every morning. When you went up to talk to him,  he had a citrus halo around him. Is it weird that almost all my good memories have food related connections? Anyway. He was dreamy.

Teaching is a calling. You need some sort of superpower to be able to walk into those classrooms every day and actually enjoy being there.

So good luck to you Mrs. Jones – there’s a lucky class out there waiting for your cheery voice.  Thanks for making a really good memory for my boy.

Argo go f’yourself

22 Oct 2012 Leave a comment

by wifemothereventplanner in I need to tell you about this right now Tags: , , , , , , ,

When I first met my man, 1,000 years ago, we went to the movies every Friday night. Rain or shine. Good movie or bad. We have always loved the movies. Then all kinds of stuff happened. The kind of stuff that happens to everyone. Work. Babies. The urge to sleep when you have an extra 2 hours.

Now that our kids are giants, we are slowly getting back to those days of popcorn glory – kinda.

Long intro to start a movie review eh?

Last night, yes a Sunday night, we went to the movies! And because it was a school night, we grabbed a friend to ease the guilt.

Argo

I give it 2 thumbs up! Are those dudes still around?

Smart, funny, and nerve-racking. Will they make it/won’t they make it.

The CIA runs a covert operation pretending to be a movie production company to rescue 6 trapped diplomats in 1979.

Ben Affleck. Brian Cranston. Alan Arkin. How can you go wrong? Ben had me at The Town, and ofcourse Cranston can do no wrong for me post Breaking Bad – and Arkin.  He was one of my favorite things about The Slums of Beverly Hills and Little Miss Sunshine.

I won’t go into all the details that make the movie so clever and entertaining – you can google that.  But I loved it and I think you all should see it. The end.

(the title of the post refers to a funny line Arkin says when someone presses him to explain the title of the movie. Old men saying swear words. Hysterical)

Pop Culture Vulture

13 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

by wifemothereventplanner in I need to tell you about this right now Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

That’s me.  Celebrity gossip. Reality shows. Anderson Cooper. These things make me happy. People.com, Us Weekly, Dlisted.com – daily reading for me. Don’t get me wrong, I am a full-on news junkie – but pop culture has a special place in my heart, right next to chocolate and wine.

Pop Culture Vulture will be a reoccurring post – advance apologies to anyone out there rolling their eyes.

So!  This be my thinking to some current gossip headlines:

Steven Tyler Will Not Return to American Idol

(People Magazine)

Although I stopped watching Idol when Simon and his tight white tee left – I did see a couple of episodes of the show with Tyler and I didn’t get it.  He seemed like a weirdo uncle flirting with all the young contestants (male and female).  In all honesty I can’t really comment on him judging because I spent the majority of my time staring at Jennifer Lopez.  Does her glowy, sparkly skin fascinate you too? No? If only I could have 5 minutes with her make-up bag….

K.Kardashian’s Photos Of Baby Penelope Are A Hard Sell

(Huffington Post)

The Kardashian’s. I have one thing to say to you all – Bruce included.  Turn off the cameras and take a good, long, hot shower. Yuck. 

George Clooney & Stacy Keibler Scoot Through Switzerland

(Us Weekly)

I hate it when these magazines take a photo and make a story out of it.  Although I’m hugely into what George does when he’s over in Lake Cuomo and on holiday in Europe.  If I ever make it to Italy I may have to make a pilgrimage to see where the Clooney scoots around.  I also imagine secret parties with Brad Pitt and Angelina sans kids – or maybe George and Obama solving world hunger while Michelle helps Stacy build an organic garden in the back (after explaining to Stacy what “organic” means). 

The Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise divorce: Accepting the silence … sort of

(Washington Post -yes, it has a gossip page!)

I know I’ve already written about this but it’s everywhere – Brian William just did an hour-long report on them last night, although it was cleverly hidden by calling the piece, Scientology Facts and Myths.   It should have been called, How to do a gossip piece and call it the news.  So it’s 8 days after the first news report broke and the papers are signed, everyone’s moved out, and Tom is being re-engineered as we speak.  Personally I liked Tom best when he was fighting with Brook Shields and calling Matt Lauer glib.  Good times.

It’s none of my business and no one asked me but…

06 Jul 2012 7 Comments

by wifemothereventplanner in I need to tell you about this right now Tags: , , , , , , ,

We interrupt this regularly scheduled blog to bring you breaking gossip or at least, my opinion of breaking gossip.

Katie Holmes dumped Tom Cruise.  All the (trashy) articles are saying that it was Scientology that did it.  That she was being controlled and didn’t want Suri to grow up trapped.  That she needed to get away from Tom.

WTF.  Where do I begin….

  • Why is everyone so freaked out by Scientology? Why is Scientology any stranger than God being born by a pregnant virgin? I don’t think it’s that weird, although I grew up in a house that had a different God for every day of the week.
  • Suri is a little alien baby, but she’s gorgeous and happy – so who cares
  • Correct me if I’m wrong but what part of Katie Holmes’ life was oppressive?  The vacation homes in Belize and St. Tropez? The designer duds? The endless luxury? Being friends with Will/Jada AND the Beckham’s? I have at least 20 more questions but I’ll spare you.
  • What was Katie busy doing before they got together? Dawson’s Creek was over – she did a couple of cool indie flicks – but other than that…snooze.
  • Tom Cruise.  I like him. I always have.  I like his movies – good, bad and Valkyrie.  I could be very happily married to him and his wacky religion.  And isn’t he gone most of the year? All we ever see are pictures of her walking around with Suri going to ice cream shops and cupcake shops. Although you never see Katie eating anything. Ever.
  • Yes, it’s a very big possibility that Tom is gay.  Even better!  Pressure’s off Katie.  Go have a life, hire a pool boy (or 3) and have some fun.
  • Before Tom, Katie was engaged to Chris Klein.  Don’t know him? ‘Nuff said.
  • Wanna know my ultimate theory on Hollywood romances and why they fail? Hunger. I think they are all hungry.  The men and the women.  Hollywood would have longer marriages if they would all just have a bagel.

Bad Movie Streak

15 Jun 2012 7 Comments

by wifemothereventplanner in I need to tell you about this right now Tags: , , , ,

Ugh.  UGH. I love movies. My husband loves movies.  When we were young and wild and free, we went to a movie every Friday night. We still make it out of the house –  but we also “on demand” a lot.  When Oscar time comes around – it’s a personal mission to watch everything nominated.  And we are not movie snobs.  We like a big budget Tom Cruise movie as much as a small, independent Sarah Polly flick.

It’s this spirit of openness and non-discrimination that hastotally messed us up.  We’ve seen crap movie after crap movie.  Sometimes we get duped by reviews (damn you Rotten Tomato), sometimes we get duped by cute faces (by we I mean me), and sometimes we should have just known better.

Here’s some recent failures:

  • Prometheus: WTF. I love Michael Fessbender, Noomi Rapaci, and Luther himself – Idris Elba, but WTF.  I have no freakin’ idea what the movie was about.  I know, I know – it’s a prequel to Alien.  Still have no clue – none.  Listen, I can easily follow the plots in Game of Thrones, The Wire and the new Dallas, so it’s not me.  Is it?
  • Man on a Ledge: Should’ve known better
  • Contraband: Ditto. Although come on Marky Mark – after The Departed and The Fighter I expect more.
  • The Vow: it makes The Notebook look like Shakespeare
  • One for the Money: just because it’s on HBO doesn’t mean you should watch it.
  • The Hangover II:  Bradley Cooper is insanely good-looking.  Freakishly handsome.  It’s almost painful how sexy he is. Movie still sucked.

Oh well.  I have some high hopes for the next few weeks – and if that doesn’t work – there’s always reality TV to keep me warm at night.