June 2012 - Things I Read, Things I Watched & Things I Decided I Want to Read

Well, I read more this month than I have the last couple of months. So that's nice.

Previous posts - April & May / March / February / January

Books I read - Making Mischief: A Maurice Sendak Appreciation / Sitcom Style / Allure / The Elephant to Hollywood

How Sassy Changed My Life / The Last Invisible Boy / The Rescuers

Now for the books I discovered this month that I'd like to read some day - People's Pops: 55 Recipes for Ice Pops, Shave Ice, and Boozy Pops from Brooklyn's Coolest Pop Shop.

NorCalMod: Icons of Northern California Modernism / Palm Springs Holiday / California Design, 1930--1965: "Living in a Modern Way" 

Julius Shulman Los Angeles: The Birth of a Modern Metropolis.

Gardens for a Beautiful America, 1895-1935. Photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnston.

Don't Squish the Sasquatch! / Squid and Octopus: Friends for Always  / Bink and Gollie, Two for One

Dragons Love Tacos.

My Snake Blake.

The Age of Miracles.

Tell the Wolves I'm Home / Beautiful Ruins

Laduree: The Sweet Recipes / SprinkleBakes: Dessert Recipes to Inspire Your Inner Artist  / Cooking from the Farmers' Market / The Sugar Cube: 50 Deliciously Twisted Treats from the Sweetest Little Food Cart on the Planet

Now for the things I watched this month.

I watched Being There again on my long bus ride to New York.

A saw a few movies in the theater this month, and I enjoyed watching each of them (partially because of the intense air conditioning) but at the same time - they were all flawed in my opinion. You know, the sort of movies you wouldn't want to own (yeah - I still buy tons of dvds: if you lived in the woods like I do, you wouldn't want to depend on having an internet connection to watch things). 

I loved Charlize & Michael Fassbender in Prometheus. I wish there would be a sequel that consisted of Noomi carrying around the head. 

Also - the part at the very beginning with the engineer on the cliff? All I could think of was "This is what Edward is supposed to look like!". I have TONS of problems with the Twilight books, but one of my big issues is that all these girls wish they could get with Edward and I want to scream - "HE FEELS LIKE HE'S MADE OF STONE!" Stephenie Meyer states that fact over and over and OVER AGAIN! Why on EARTH would you want to make out with someone whose lips don't have any give? I don't go to museums and look at a statue and think - "Oh yeah! I want to spoon with that!" If you are attracted to Edward, you basically want to make out with a movable version of the David statue. I mean, he's basically as old as the David statue, so there's another similarity for you. 

Anyway - that was a long tangent just to say that when I saw the engineer I thought he looked like he was made of stone and that the make-up people working on the Twilight movies should have done something similar with Edward's look that if they wanted to be accurate.

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. The ending sort-of ruined it for me, but I enjoyed the first hunk a lot. Lots of people hate on Kiera Knightley, but I like her. Sorry? I prefer her version of Pride & Prejudice to the mini-series version. Sorry again?

It was very weird seeing her & Steve Carrell put their lips together, though. BUT - give me Steve Carrell any day over some vampire dude that's supposed to feel like he's made of stone!!

The dog (named Sorry) is delightful.

I literally went to see this movie just because it was super hot and I wanted to escape it, but I ended up really liking Snow White and the Huntsman. I wish that I had been able to watch it when I was younger: I would have watched it on repeat along with the other fantasy movies I loved as a child.

I finished my rewatch of Six Feet Under at about 4am this past Friday. I got home that night and decided that there would be no better way to prepare for bed than to watch the series finale and SOB UNCONTROLLABLY. Sob louder than Ruth did at Nathaniel's grave in the first episode. But that's so satisfying! Sobbing over fiction. 

Favorite tv show ever..... even though I think I loathe Nate more every time I watch it. 

The only good thing about finishing it is that I won't be thinking about death / being really morbid as much as I have been the past few months or so.

Finally, I just started watching The West Wing for the first time. I got in to a small argument with my sister because she doesn't like Allison Janney in this or in anything else she's in. How!?! Why?!?! I don't understand.

Also - right now I'm listening to Christina Hendricks & Robert Morse do a commentary for an episode of Mad Men from season two (yeah, I do things like that when I'm putting together blog posts - tv show / movie commentaries & podcasts) and Robert Morse is talking about what a nut Vincent Kartheiser is & it's great. Basically everything Robert Morse is saying is great. What a gem stone.

Also - I recently decided that I want to watch a comedy that features Bryan Cranston & Jon Hamm as brothers. I'd also like Jonah Hill to be in a period piece that takes place in like the 1500s or something. Also - I want to watch Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Christian Bale in a happy movie in which they play gay fathers. Because they're almost never happy in movies! And I want them to be! And I was thinking about how they could be in a quality family comedy, and I figured - why not just kill two birds with one stone and have them be together in this hypothetical movie. Instead of in two separate ones.  


I have lots of other "movies I'd like to see specific actors in" (obviously, considering that I just mentioned guys and didn't even start to list my dream roles for various ladies), but I'll restrain myself from presenting them to you. Anyway, get on that, Hollywood! Love, Mallory.


But one more thing - if Emma Stone and Michelle Monaghan never play sisters it is a TRAGEDY. They look and sound alike. It needs to happen.