Friday, October 26, 2007

watching

i've been having an internal struggle lately over the fancy-schmancy cable television we have, and which we really and truly can't afford. it's not all that expensive, considering we have a package that includes our cable modem (which is not a luxury, but an honest-to-goodness necessity), but the tv part is definitely luxurious. so while i keep almost calling the cable company to disconnect us from the world of the food network and our beloved dvr, i also keep thinking

1. the next project runway is starting in a couple of weeks!

2. i love to watch old movies on tcm. the other day they had a hitchcock extravaganza, and bean and boo and i watched dial m for murder and recorded psycho for later.

i watch while i sew, and while i could just as easily listen to the radio or put on a dvd, there's something about that tv that makes the time fly in my sweatshop. the other day, i watched the women (1939, starring norma shearer as the heroine and joan crawford as the bad girl), which wasn't a great movie, but was kind of fascinating. it's about a bunch of catty girlfriends, several of whom end up in reno obtaining quick divorces from their (never seen) husbands. the idea of a movie with not one single man in it seems kind of arty for 1939. and it includes this bizarre line, spoken by the heroine's mother (i paraphrase): "the good thing about sleeping alone is that you can stretch out in bed like a swastika."

in other watching news, boo's simpsons obsession continues unabated (funniest moment this week=selma* singing brandy as a bedtime song to lisa -- "my life, my love, and my lady is the sea"); our current unsavory family viewing is the defunct series dead like me, which is great, dark and funny. did i mention we went to see across the universe (psychedelic!)? awaiting our viewing pleasure: the continuation of the sorrow and the pity; masculin feminin (godard); and the recent pbs series, the war.

*edited for simpsons accuracy

7 comments:

pixiegenne said...

did you like "across the universe"? i'm itching to see it.

i overheard charlie ask jane recently "why do you think homer is so mean to bart?"

Artemis said...

OH MY GOD!!! PROJECT RUNWAY GROUP?!!! WE NEED A DATE EVERY WEEK SO WE CA WATCH IT, I hope it isn't wednesdays! yay!!! i've been waiting so long!!

Liz Woodbury said...

meg -- yeah, we all really liked it a lot. it's VERY julie taymor, very psychedelic, and the songs are fun. it's also a musical, so the plot kind of pales in importance compared to the spectacle.

artemis -- wednesday nights at 10 i think, but how about we meet up on...thursdays? fridays? hey, i should totally charge $5 and invite a bunch of people over to watch! i could probably pay for my cable bill that way!

Jeannette said...

we stopped our cable service about 6 months ago. the only thing that made it OK was that you can download individual episodes of project runway from ituns for $1 per episode or $25 for the season. you can download each episode the day after it airs. it's way cheaper than the $50 per month for cable. seemed ridiculous to keep it, actually.

Liz Woodbury said...

wow, i had no idea. hmm, i'll have to reconsider. i can always rent my 1940's movies at the liberry, too...

Mary said...

Can't wait to tell Greg that you liked The Women - that is his FAVORITE movie in the whole wide world - he bought it for me & often quotes from it, compares life experience to various characters, etc. He sez it is THE quintessential Gay men's movie....?! He will be thrilled that you found it on your own. (you can watch it on my DVD in French !)

Liz Woodbury said...

see, now if i didn't have my fancy cable and i weren't obsessed with old movies on tcm, i never would have discovered 'the women!'