An American in Paris #68 (AFI)

Cas and I also sat down to watch An American In Paris recently. I have to say, having been to the City of Light in 2001, it brought back some fond memories of getting lost in the city and stumbling upon the Paris Opera house. I believe the best scene in the movie is toward the end when Gene Kelly and Leslie Carron are dancing in a fountain, mind you it is not a real fountain, but a stage fountain which includes fabric water "sprays" that rise from the mouths of the figural beasts on the exterior circle of the fountain. They twirl and whirl and it is rather divine and romantic. I'm not much of a romantic sucker. I mean, I laughed when Rose finally let go of Jack's hand in Titanic as his corpse-cicle plunged to the depths. (This was of course after she's emphatically exclaimed, "I'll never let go!" about a million times...well okay, maybe only twice..but it just seemed to ironic for her to say that, and then literally let go, while maybe metahorpically still "holding on") Anyways, I digress.

American in Paris features the fancy footwork of Gene Kelly, and to be honest, he rather remarkably resembles a penguin in many movements. So much so, that when I think on it, and in fact mentioned to Cas that, I now understand where Dick Van Dyke got his inspiration for Mary Poppins. He was mimicing Gene Kelly mimicing penguins. (or at least that's my opinion)

Leslie Carron's performance shows that she's a classically trained dancer with a more modern dancer's build, which makes her endearing if not a little bit more believeable as the "woman they are all in love with"

Overall, it's entertaining, though I felt the dream sequence at the end runs a little too long.

Double Indemnity #38 AFI

Cas and I sat down last night to watch a movie that I'd rented from the CPL last week. Without remembering that it was on the AFI list, but thinking it looked good. I rented Double Indemnity. It's a fantastic noir genre piece that stars Fred MacMurry and Barbara Stanwyck. I highly recommend it to anyone who is or is not a noir buff. Having finished a paper on Edward Hopper's Nighthawks for my art history course last semester, I could see the influences of Hopper's paintings of isolation and shadow playing into the cinematography of Wilder's direction. Besides the great on screen chemistry of the leads, the film is a good old fashioned murder mystery with a well written script and a slew of Academy awards to its credit. Also, coincidently enough, Cas will be staring in a noir piece for City Circle's upcoming Valentine's weekend theater experience. I think she was definitly finding some character traits to play up while watching the film....

Additionally, we also watched two more films, A Perfect Murder (the Michael Douglas version/remake of the original Hitchcock film) which features another murder/attempted murder, insurance money clause plot. I told Cas she needed to see my favorite Audery Hepburn movie, Wait Until Dark, which is adapted for the screen by Hitchcock first, and originally the play Dial M for Murder.

It was a great night for good classic films and very enjoyable.

caucus time

There is one very good reason for me to keep my permanent address as my parent's address in Coralville, rather than my apartment address in Iowa City. Round about this time of year, during an election, we get numerous calls to our home asking about caucusing and supporting various candidates. I am a registered Democrat for the reason of having experienced my first caucus at age 18, at the Kirkwood Elementry school gym, and I caucused for Al Gore that year. I am only a registered Democrat for lack of energy in changing my status back to Independant, which I generally more aptly fall in to. So, unfortunately my parents have been fielding these phonecalls and adverts for me for the last couple of months. The few times I have been home, I did receive a knock on the front door, and a woman from the Obama camp asked to speak to me. She asked me who I was voting for and why. But, before I could actually tell her my opinions, my mom told her her own. I found this pretty hilarious. I only had enough time to slip in that I am caucusing for Hillary (haven't decided who I'll "Vote" for yet..), and mostly because of her health insurance plan, and her understanding of international politics that far outweighs that of her fellow candidates.
I will say this though...being in Iowa this is one of the few times we get all this national and international attention, and this year, with the caucus moved up, I know many students at the U of I and ISU and UNI won't be doing the caucus, because they are at home for winter break. THat will be interesting to see, since Obama appears to have a huge following at the U of I campus (this is based only on the # of ppl marching for him in the homecoming parade that I witnessed)...
guess it's anyone's race right now....

Aught Eight aught to...

While I haven't posted in awhile, I have thought about things I could write, and then just didn't get around to writing them here. So instead, a quick update and a new year's wish.

Finished the semester at UIowa with success in my one art history class, though I've found that high standards of excellence here, in the form of having to maintain a 3.5 gpa (which also counts for courses outside of the Art History program...see taking classes in translating French) means that I am also exploring other possible places to complete this degree (Hopefully my final one). I'm currently looking to programs that have a non-thesis track option, on the assumption that a non-thesis track program isn't trying to churn out professors after the M.A. projects, but instead recognizes that many people with an MA in art history do far more than go on to simply get a PHD. Case and point...me, art librarian, or many of my friends pursuing museum education and curatorial positions, or gallery jobs. So, alas, while I know that someone special is considering moving back to the area to be near me, I may fly the coup after one more year in the ole IC. He's well aware of this fact though, and we'll see how the whole "life" thing shakes out.

If I haven't already said congrats to the friends with recent additions (Ella Jane born December 18th) and those starting lives together (engaged, moving in together etc) well congrats to you all.

Life for me has been pretty nice lately. I could complain about the health related issues, but I hate it when I complain about them enough in person, so I'll spare you all the annoying details of migraines and headaches, and flu bugs, and now apparently a sinus infection. I think my primary reason for voting in this next election (and cacussing tomorrow night will be socialized healthcare for the U.S.) While I have insurance through one of the three jobs, it does not do nearly enough to cover the problems, and because of some past issues, I'm high-risk, so I can't get insurance through independent means. Luckily I have fantastic parents, who are understanding of my needs and have been kind enough to literally fit the bill for a number of things lately. I'm trying really hard to support myself, but unfortunately without a full time position that has health benefits, I'm sort of stuck in a limbo mode.

My roommate is a fantastic example of someone who has a dream of the job she'd like, and is working against the odds to get there. However, she, like me, has to have more than one job to support not only her day to day expenses but also that dream job. So goes the way of most of us in the humanities before we become big shots or big stars in our fields huh?

I do hope that everyone has a very happy and healthy start to Aught Eight, and that you will be able to reach those dreams and realize the potential you recognize in yourself and others.

Sorry Everybody. I know you've been waiting with bated breath for my next post, and it's been far too long. Over a month, wow, I guess I've been a combination of: busy, lazy, uncreative, without Internet, etc etc.

First off, congrats to Jaime on the soon to be born addition to the Ausman family. December 18th...hopefully they'll get a separate Birthday/Christmas ratio of gifts...I always feel bad for December babies for that reason.

Congrats also to the couples that have gotten engaged recently. Traci and John, Michelle and her man, Christy and Scott, Emily and Dan (a while ago, but I'm slow with blog congrats), Katie and Matt and Steve and Victoria. Whew...what this translates into is hope for lots of happiness for the couples - and potential travel and fun for Erik and me.

In an unrelated note...selling the Jackson Pollock Mural from the University of Iowa Museum of Art collection: uhm, DUH! not likely to happen, especially since the intended use of the funds from the sale would be to purchase "other smaller works to diversify the collection" - um, do you remember the museum's mission statement and collection development policy? Much like that of a library, you've got to stick to it. Also the AAM would frown quite a bit on selling that work for the sake of buying others, unless Peggy G. said that was okay when she gave it to the U of Iowa. She did that before the museum was even built, so technically, does it even realy belong to the museum or the U of iowa in general? How does that work? If you want $$ for more art, ask the community to help you out...btw, did you really think it nec. to buy a giant Big Boy statue that you can't even display adequately and where it is now looks like a giant eyesore? And moving the museum downtown? if so, make sure Moen doesn't make you pay an arm and a leg for rent...make sure you get ALOT more actual gallery space to make it worth while, AND don't ahve it on the ground floor. Too easy without full time all night security for drunks and idiots to break windows and destroy works of art afterhours...remember Sweden's issues a few weeks ago? Plus, that building was JUST rennovated, AND it's the surrounding grounds that provide the best atmosphere with the outdoor works nearby that the museum cares for that make a walking tour very easy from teh doors of the current museum around the Iowa River and grounds, rather than downtown. Sure downtown has public art works too and local art galleries, etc...but do we really want a 3 story museum? I'm not sure...plus, consider the parking situtation...Right now, museum employees and patrons can park in the theater lot on the weekends to vist, or after 4:30pm without paying...downtown they'd have to park in a ramp no matter what and fight for parking during festivals and events.
Just my 2 cents...