I started reading Slaughterhouse-five on Friday night and finished it on Sunday afternoon. It's about a man that comes unstuck in time and experiences his life in a random order. Part of the story follows him through the allied fire-bombing of Dresden, Germany, where he was held as a prisoner of war by the Germans in World War II. After the war, the main character is up late one night when this happens:

He went into the living room, swinging the bottle like a dinner bell, turned on the television. He came slightly unstuck in time, saw the late movie backwards, then forwards again. It was a movie about American bombers in the Second World War and the gallant men who flew them. Seen backwards by Billy, the story went like this:

American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation.

The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes. The containers were stored neatly in racks. The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own, which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes. But there were still a few wounded Americans, though, and some of the bombers were in bad repair. Over France, though, German fighters came up again, made everything and everybody as good as new.

When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody ever again.

I thought that was one of the more poignant passages of the book.

Heyo! It's another week and I've got lots of blog catching up to do! But for now, a weekend recap.

Friday we had all-staff training at the university, so we had sexual harassment training, awards, musical performances, and lots of stuff about our centennial celebration. It was an okay morning. We all had lunch in the cafe. Not a lot of selection if you're trying to stay healthy, but I loved the fruit bowl I made! I swung by the bank to pick up some money and realized it was probably start time for some movies at the dollar theater, so I stopped by and saw Fracture (because I love me some Hopkins and Ryan Gosling's not so bad either). My mom is in Kansas this week, and my sister and I had a plan to help update the parents' bedroom because some of it is looking pretty old-fashioned. We went to Lowes, Target, Linens and Things, another Target, and Lowes again, searching for new hardware for their bedroom furniture, new doorknobs, and lampshades. Poor mom doesn't even try with that house any more. It's so outdated and needs so much repair that I think it's too overwhelming to even begin. So our plan was to do what we could to spruce things up without starting a major overhaul. Later on, Ric and I spent the evening packing. Exciting!

Saturday I slept in (I think the early morning workouts are a thing of the past, unless Ruth wants to start it up again, 'cause I just can't do it by myself), but not as long as usual. I was at my parents' place by noon with laundry and screwdrivers in hand. Luckily my dad was at a senior driving class all day, so we could work without him realizing it. Well, turns out the furniture was scraped up underneath the old drawer pulls, so if we replaced it, there would be new pulls, but scratched up furniture. We also found a bag in the corner of the room with new lampshades that hadn't been taken out of the wrapping yet. So basically, the whole thing was a bust. Boo! We returned everything. We did make a cake and picked up some sushi to treat my dad for Father's day (which is probably more than we've done in a few years), and Ric came over to join us for dinner. Then after a trip to Target to spend the extra cash I had because of the returns, we came home with a couple new Wii remotes so we could all three play Mario Kart together. That pretty much took up the rest of the night.

Sunday, we had church, laughed a lot at Colin and Liz' kid, and were scared to hear that Colin's unit going out in the fall will be special forces. Sounds dangerous to me. After a lot of chatting, we came home, and I left quickly to go catch Once at the theater in Brea. I forgot they were having a car show on the promenade, so that made parking and the line at the theater pretty long, but even though there was a packed theater, it was a quiet audience and a good show. In the evening, we had pizza at the Creek Park with Ric's parents and gave Todd his gift of an official Kings jersey to wear in the fall. We chatted a lot and went for a walk in the park, which was nice. When we came home, I worked on finances and hit up a couple episodes of Jericho, which I started watching last week online. It's pretty good for a CBS show! :)

This week's got a lot going on: Brendan's birthday, a trip to Disneyland, more packing, and Hamlet at the OC ("don't call it that") Repertory. AND, hopefully I'll finish the book I've been reading the past couple months. I'm excited!

It's been awhile since we heard from Joel and Ethan Coen and even longer since we've heard from P.T. Anderson. Both have some big projects releasing this Oscar season and the thing they have in common is in both they have decided to eschew their regular cast members that have appeared in most of their films. First off we have the Coen' No Country for Old Men:

The word at Cannes was very positive, especially for Javier Bardem, who looks stinking awesome. This one reminds me most of Blood Simple but looks even darker. Very cool. Next we have P.T. Anderson's There Will Be Blood. This isn't an official trailer, mind you, just a teaser of sorts that was released a couple days ago.

Looks pretty sweet. I might be speaking ahead of myself a little bit but I really hope Daniel Day Lewis wins the Oscar he should have gotten for Gangs of New York with this performance. Yeah, he already has an Oscar, but he definitely should have more than the one. I'm also excited for this one because of Paul Dano. With these two flicks alone I'm definitely looking forward to this winter.

There are several names being thrown around in connection with Zack Snyder's Watchmen film. Here's a roundup, with my reactions.

Rorschach: Jackie Earle Haley.

I saw him in Little Children lately, and I was impressed with his acting. At least we know he's got the creepy part of the character down. This may be the best news I've heard about the Watchmen film in a long time (aside from learning that Keanu Reeves turned down the part of Dr. Manhattan).

Nite Owl: Patrick Wilson.

I saw him also in the aforementioned Little Children. I wasn't impressed with how he did, but it may have been partially because of the lousy script. All I know is that if he's going to be playing a middle-aged Dan Dreiberg he's going to need to put on a lot of weight (and maybe look less pretty).

Dr. Manhattan: Jason Patric and The Comedian: Thomas Jane


I don't really know anything about either of these actors, so I have no opinion as to their credentials. Anyway, this just sounds like a rumor right now, so maybe neither actor will even be in the film.

I'm still not getting my hopes up for this movie. From what I've seen of Zack Snyder's films he tends toward sensational, over-the-top filmmaking. Even if he tries to make it look gritty and dark, I have a feeling it will turn out as a glamorous Hollywood version of gritty and dark, rather than the truly understated realism it needs. I'm afraid that our only chance for a really great adaptation left with Paul Greengrass.

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut