Things of varying levels of randomosity

• I saw Run Fatboy Run* last night with Courtney. It was funny and oh so very corny — man, the symphony was swelling on the soundtrack — with its storyline about a sad sack dude who shirks his duty as a soon-to-be husband and father by leaving his pregnant bride at the altar, and then five years later decides to win her back by running a marathon. That's a pretty idiotic premise, and I usually love idiotic premises. Anyway, had it been anyone but Simon Pegg in the main role, I might have hated this movie. But I lurve him, and he and Dylan Moran have some fantastic chemistry as well (arguably more chemistry than either of them with Thandie Newton, who boasts an impressive array of pretty but vacant expressions; also, she sported an awesome bead and stone necklace that I will own a badly imitated copy of some day).

Yeah, so. Lots of unexpected man ass in this movie, though. And a blister-popping scene that nearly sent me over the seats in front of us. But mostly it's just Simon Pegg being Simon Pegg and making silly Simon Pegg faces, and that's worth the price of admission. Until I get tired of him, of course.

Oh, and I should mention that the most charming character in the entire movie is the city of London itself. I've never been to London, but I love how so many movies set there make it seem like everyone lives in the same little neighborhood, and every little charming village is within walking distance of a bustling downtown.

And is that building that's shaped like a buttplug (Courtney says it's shaped like a rocket ... to-may-to, to-mah-to) a real building? Is that a question that's going to get me laughed at? Is there a bone in my body that cares? Checking ... ... ... nope!

Seriously, though, I need to get on a plane to London and fast. Who's with me?


• COURTNEY BOUGHT ME A UNIVERSAL REMOTE. The best part? IT WORKS. I'm sorry. When I get excited, I type in allcaps. This means that last night she got her first taste of Strangers With Candy, which I shove on all my friends at one point or another because everyone needs to have a taste of the awesomeness, and everyone needs to know why I say "good times!" all the time. Even in bad times.

• My universal remote also allowed me to watch Paris, Je T'aime, which had come highly recommended to me and I have to say I really did love. It's a movie of vignettes, short little films by lots of different directors (including the Coen brothers and my man Alfonso Cuarón), all of which are about love of some sort. Some are optimistic, some are bittersweet, some are outright depressing, but all of them are quite beautiful in their own way.

I can't watch a movie about Paris — even a freaking cartoon about rats who cook — without giving myself a mental tongue-lashing for never having visited there. It seems absolutely magical. I love the density of the population and the buildings. I love the old streets, old walls, old iron fences, and old trees, and the touches of new that keep the old world and the new forever intertwined. I love the feeling that Paris has always been there and will always be there. I wonder if that's an illusion coming across because of the loving way filmmakers treat the city. There's really only one way to find out, I guess. And that's to get there. So. London and Paris. Someday, I hope.

• I went into Burke's yesterday on the hunt for Jeanette Winterson's new book, The Stone Gods. They didn't have it. But I'm a sucker and can't leave a bookstore without buying a book, so I picked up Leonard Cohen's Book of Longing.

It was the first time I'd been in Burke's since they moved into their new space in Cooper-Young. I have to say, I'm not crazy about the new space. I suppose it's smaller, though I don't know by how much. It seems colder than the old space. Maybe it's a high ceilings and the concrete. I'm not sure. I dug being able to walk around C-Y, though.

• I really need to try out that little restaurant next to Burke's. First I should learn its name.

• There are two tiny pumpkins, a pot of dead mums, countless cigarette butts, and two garbage bags — one full of dirt, the other full of garbage — on my balcony. I'm making it my mission as soon as I hit publish on this meandering piece o' crap post to go out there and clean all of that up and make way for some new plants that maybe I won't kill this time. Ahem.

• I noticed the other day that the roof of Anderton's East has caved in. I wasn't able to get a picture, but you could clearly through the front windows that the roof had collapsed. I don't remember seeing news that they are tearing that building down. :(


*Can we get a consensus on how to punctuate this, please? Rotten Tomatoes has it as Run, Fat Boy, Run and IMDb has Run Fatboy Run, which I went with after a lengthy philosophical discussion with myself involving commas and previously nonexistent compound nouns and OH MY GOD does anyone else in the world give this kind of inane crap any thought?