I Hate Stanley Kubrick. No Apologies.

I hate Stanley Kubrick and I will NOT apologize for this. Ever time I go see one of his movies, I always think that that was two or three hours of my life I will never get back. The sole exception to this is A Clockwork Orange, and that's mainly because I loved the message of the movie rather than it's execution. And there were a couple of scenes in Dr Strangelove (okay, the whole thing) that were good but otherwise...I walked out of 2001, not once, but twice. Would it have helped if I had been high? Doubtful, but at least I would have napped and felt good (and maybe hungry) rather than irritated at the whole thing. I walked out of Eyes Wide Shut feeling sorry for Tom and Nicole, having to film hundreds of takes of a crappy movie. If it had been filmed as a Viennese turn of the century, fear of what is to come kind of movie, it would have made sense. But modern day New York? It seemed just an excuse to film an orgy and a bunch of naked women (I'll bet Kubrick had a blast with those casting sessions).
Of course, I didn't realize all this when I:
A) Read The Shining
B) Read that Kubrick was going to direct The Shining

My relationship with The Shining is complicated. When I read, it was the first book that truly terrified me. It wasn't like Salem's Lot, that scared me, or The Exorcist that had me wearing a cross for a week (I still wonder why my brother thought it was a good idea to buy me a cross when he went on vacation to the Bahamas when he was 18. We were NOT a religious family. Nonetheless, it came in handy when I thought I was going to be possessed by a demon).
The shining was far worse than those two-mainly because I think that books about normal parents who turn into monsters and hurt their children are every kids worst nightmare. So, when I finished, I refused to have it in the house (it haunted me, in a way), so I made my sister take it (she loved it, by the way. For someone who doesn't like science fiction, she loves supernatural horror). And that was the end of that, until the movie came out.
I didn't want to see the movie, I was talked into it by my friends. And it's funny, because as soon as I saw the beginning, I thought to myself "it's okay, this isn't going to be scary". And to me, it wasn't. Come on-Jack Nicholson? He's a great actor, charismatic, clever and cool. He is NOT a normal guy who gets taken over by powers beyond his control. he's much better as the Devil controlling those powers. You see right away that he's on a very thin edge and it's not going to take much to push him over-he WANTS to go over-but this is not a weak guy.
I've read things about how well-directed The Shining is-I saw a web site where the writer went over it shot-by-shot and it's clear the Kubrick thought about every single minute detail, but all I thought at the end it was that if I were Stephen King watching this movie, I would be PISSED. It almost completely subverted the book, while not even being that scary.
I found out later, much to my amusement, that that was indeed that case. King hated it so much, that the studio actually paid him off to keep him from talking about how much he hated it, although it became obvious when he later directed his own version of it. And who did he choose for Jack Torrance? He chose Steven Weber. A nice guy. A normal guy. A guy who looks like he couldn't go crazy because he loved his wife and kid-and yet he turns into a monster-which is the true horror of the story and its whole point. Kubrick, for all his technical virtuosity, completely missed it.

Likes and dislikes

Life is still depressing. I know I'm at the age where people I love grow older and die, but I was really hoping to put that off for another year or two. However, there are some things we don't have a choice about and that's one of them.

But here's what annoying me lately (this always cheers me right up)

1) That girl I saw today with the bad hairdo. When I was seven, my Mom tried to make me wear my hair this way. She combed my bangs down in front of my face and then pulled them straight back past my forehead and clipped them there with a barrette. Even I, at seven, knew this was an unflattering hairdo but I wore it for one day to make her happy and swore I would never do it again. Ladies, this do looks bad even on gorgeous models. Please don't wear it.

2) That other girl I saw today wearing the tightest Capri pants I've ever seen, along with high heels. Ladies, you have to be tall and thin for Capris at the knee not to make you look like a stump. And heels don't really help, I'm sorry. Also, the fact that she looked like she was going to bust out of them did not sell me on them.

3) The pants that I tried on at BR that had a hole in them. A HOLE in them. Right in the middle of the thigh-it was hard to miss. Was I the first to try them on?

4) The finale of Bones. I could see the end coming a mile away, but to have Booth as "Who are you?" Come on! At least when the X-Files did that, Mulder smirked, so you knew he was kidding, and it was touching and funny both. This was neither. 

5) The finale of NCIS. Although I don't expect much from this show beside pure entertainment, so maybe I expected too much. 

Things I've liked lately:This doesn't cheer me up, but I'm all about balance. 

1) The finale of Lost. SO COOL. Everyone was good, the story was amazing, with Jacob touching and meeting the Oceanic 6 (plus a couple more) and the bomb going off...I have my own ideas about Jacob and his enemy (mainly to do with Egyptian mythology) but it was all good.

2) The finale of Supernatural. I was pretty sure Same was being played by Ruby (how can turning into something that sucks demon blood be good?) but they really outdid themselves with how it all came to pass-good job, guys. 

3) The book I'm reading-Devil in the White City. It's really good and very creepy (and the serial killer in it was in an episode of Supernatural! Who knew? Not me, apparently).

4) The two books I just got from Amazon, one by Lee Child and one by Laurie R. King. I can't wait.

5) The free music I just got from Banana Republic. It's really good.

6) Star Trek-the new one. I liked it. 

7) And finally...the Red Wings are up two game on the Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Go Wings!