Music & Lyrics

Another chic-flick for this year's Valentine :) I was at a point where I couldn't stay home alone anymore, and so I dragged my friends out for a movie over the weekend. Been a while since we went to the cinema - blame it on the freezing weather here..

An easy-to-watch romantic comedy, and it has Hugh Grant written all over. Whatever role he used to play, he's pretty much still doing the same. But that's his signature, and it's rather funny as is. A bit too much of the (weird) dancing in this one, but I still like listening to his posh accent :P The highlight is probably the back-to-the-80's theme of this movie. Alex Fletcher (Grant) was a big-time star in a band called Pop! And the no.1 hit was called "Pop! Goes My Heart" which stuck in my head for a while afterwards. Time passed and of course his singing career went downhill, until his manager got him a chance to compose a song for another rising star singer. Problem was, he can compose but cannot write lyrics. So that's where Sophie Fisher (Barrymore) comes in, started from being just the 'plant girl' to helping him out with the lyrics. Beginning of the lurrvvveee story...

Most of the songs didn't quite meet my expectations. The oldies ones were funny, together with the music videos.. but the modern ones didn't catch my ear. And the fact that these actors/actresses couldn't sing didn't help either, hehe.. But, overall it was a good movie to enjoy on a lonely weekend.. Seeing Hugh Grant dressed and danced like that was amusing enough already.. If you fancy him, you should watch it.. Remember, he's getting old.. Can't be taking this type of role forever.. :P

Trailer Widget

As I was trying to find a decent way of sharing movie trailers, I stumbled across this new release from Universal Pictures that seems to be a new way of advertising their film. I know you can find it in youtube or google video or whatever, but the quality is just bad. And many times I've had problems with 'video no longer available' which is rather annoying. This was taken from an entry in widgify which talks about widget advertising, but it doesn't seem to say if other film producers are doing this as well. I just thought it would be kinda neat if you could browse through different movies, and I'm sure widget creators can easily make one! Anyway, this is Smokin' Aces. I haven't watched it, so not gonna comment ;) But don't you agree it looks much better than youtube?

If anyone has a good source to share, please let me know.. I would never underestimate the power of web 2.0 and obviously I can't keep up with what's happening anymore..

Frosty Valentine

The sun was out today, and of course I wouldn't miss another photo walk. After the snow yesterday and last night, Evanston is officially white, except where the cars run which is always always yucky. Took a walk during mid-day towards the beach around Centennial Park. It wasn't so cold when I left the house, but after a while the wind just got my toes some serious frostbites! But I would have to say, Lake Michigan looks amazing! The other day I could only see icy rocks, and water was still water. Today it's all frozen, with very interesting surface texture too. I don't know how much weight it could take, but I really wanted to try walking on the ice. Of course I didn't try.. afraid it would crack hehe.. So my first walk didn't last so long as my feet couldn't handle it. Decided to walk downtown to grab some hot coffee and warm myself up, got into Peet's, about to order, and then realized I forgot my purse! Great.. Lucky I hadn't ordered yet - that'd have been really embarrassing. Plan B, Park-E! (that is short for Park Evanston which is the apartment bldg nextdoor). Have to thank Kuk for letting me stay for a while :)

two lonely benches at Centennial Park

all the white in the back is Lake Michigan, frozen..

Second walk, basically walked back home and detoured towards the Lake again. This time, got a better view of the endless frozen lake. It looked as if we could walk to downtown Chicago from there. Some parts of the walkway weren't plowed, so it was fun walking with half my legs under the snow. But again, after a while as the sun was setting it got much colder. Pitstop was Norris center as always.. This time I got to have my hot latte at Starbucks sa tee ;)

yup, that is (or used to be) the lake!

More on flickr: my wintertime in Evanston album ja..

More snow

Been snowing like crazy all day.. and the wind was so strong that any direction you turn, your face still gets struck by it.. I walked to a meeting earlier today, and had to struggle through piles of snow.. not that I didn't enjoy it ;) fresh snow is always fun.. and it wasn't as cold as several days ago.. but after a while my face was just all wet.. Nothing much today, just sharing the cold moment with you.. tomorrow will be a very white valentine's day for sure ^^

can't get any gloomier than this..

snow pile in front of my place..