Weekend Update

[zuptd]

Thiis weekend I was originally planning to go to DC to visit peeps, but due to my workload and other factors I decided to stay home and catch up on stuff instead. It was a good choice for me right now, as grad school really is taking a burden on my life at the moment, and the funeral weekend for my grandfather set me behind quite a bit.

I had a fun Friday night. Patrick and I went out for pizza and then a movie. We saw Volver at the Cedar Lee. It was a really good movie IMHO, wasn't sure I would like it going in. The movie is directed by Pedro Almodovar and is in Spanish with English subtitles, but totally watchable and very engrossing. I'll warn you that it was kind of shocking, especially early on, until I was able to get to know the characters and get comfortable with their personalities. All the actors were incredibly expressive and really portrayed their characters well. The film focuses on a cast of mostly female characters, and only men get only a bit of screen time. Almodovar really does a masterful job of pacing the film and not revealing things too quickly. He creates these very interesting symmetries between the lives and events of the characters. So, I definitely recommend this film.

After the movie we met up with friends for a bit of dancing before we called it a night. Since then I have been alternating between relaxing, doing schoolwork, cleaning and organizing around the house, and catching up on some Chorus stuff. I needed to be more productive than I have been, but I could have done worse as well.

Oh, and yesterday afternoon I finally got back into the gym after a couple weeks off due to schedule and some unrelated back pain. I worked chest and biceps and actually upped my weight a bit on a few exercises. Due to a brief inability to do math (heh) I ended up doing my final set of incline bench presses (admittedly on a plate loaded "machine" rather than free weights) with 2 - 45 lb plates on each side (that's 180 lbs total.) That was very heartening for me actually....whenever I push past the intermediate weights to adding a 45 it is psychologically a large threshhold. It's just such a great feeling to be making major progress on my workouts.

Anyhow, I must get back to my work so I can finish and get myself to Chorus rehearsal on time tonight.

Comments

[guardian1.livejournal.com]

I also saw "Volver" last week with my friend Edith. We both loved the film ! The opening scene of the village wives cleaning the
tombstones of their dead men establishes the theme of the film as women being survivors because they are courageously superior to weaker men, which is interesting since Almodovar is an openly gay guy who says he loves women, especially their breasts. Some of the camera angles down the gorgeous cleavage of the lovely Penelope Cruz confirms his bi-vision.
We weren't sure at first if the mother had really returned from the
dead seeking forgiveness, or if she had been in hiding. I won't be
a spoiler for anybody who hasn't seen it. If you haven't, and you
like a movie that's difficult, challenging and ultimately rewarding, see "Volver" and find out for yourself.

[zuptd.livejournal.com]

I will admit that I laughed out loud at the opening scene actually. In fact there were many times during the movie that I found myself laughing, several of them I am sure were completely inappropriate, but I couldn't help myself as there was some incredibly morbid black humour throughout....I guess the absurdities of life and death are of great amusement to me. I probably won't think so when I'm dealing with my own eventual death, but who knows, maybe when that time comes I will develop a sense of humour about that too. *smirk*

[guardian1.livejournal.com]

Part of the genius of Almodovar is that he DOES make us laugh a lot
during very dark scenes. For instance, when Raimunda is trying to get rid of Paco's corpse, someone comes unexpectedly to the door and
asks "What's that blood on your neck?" and she replies, "Women's
troubles!" Edith and I laughed out loud.