sexy python aviator

Weird. Obscure. Violent. Incomprehensible. Funny. Disturbing. Sexy Beast is a new addition to my library's collection, having been donated by...Nick. Since June 10, when it was added to the collection, it has circulated 9 times--pretty impressive for one of the strangest and most unsettling films in existence. I would recommend this film to anyone with a strong stomach, an ear for Cockney, and a demonstrated imperviousness to the word cunt, 'cause it's used about 100 times in 89 minutes.

First, has anyone else thought that the photograph of Leonardo DiCaprio from the cover of The Aviator makes him look alarmingly like Muhammad Ali? Compare with these:

The film itself is quite something. Not at all what I'd expected. DiCaprio is masterful--and profoundly disturbing--as mentally ill airplane genius Howard Hughes. Cate Blanchett is eerily accurate (if somewhat irritating) in the role of Katharine Hepburn. My favorites were dreamy Matt Ross as Glenn "Odie" Odekirk and the beautiful Kate Beckinsale as Ava Gardner. Alec Baldwin chomps through the scenery as rival airline head Juan Trippe, and Alan Alda (usually a favorite of mine) takes an odd turn as corrupt senator Ralph Owen Brewster.

The special effects in The Aviator are amazing, particularly the early flight sequences. Some of the cinematography effects are peculiar, but the entire movie is somehow 'thrilling' to watch. It is definitely worth seeing.

Mmm, Monty Python & the Holy Grail. I've loved this movie for years. Nick and I watched it a couple of weeks ago. Or, we tried to. We made it through about half, maybe two-thirds of it, before succumbing to distraction (i.e. the lure of Chinese food). I'm not sure that he was as taken by it as I'd hoped he'd be, but...hey, we can't always love the same things. (Look no further than Sexy Beast for proof of that!) Anyway, I love this movie. Love, love, love.

And no review of this film can be complete without sharing at least some favorite lines. To wit:

French Soldier: "I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries."
...
Sir Galahad: "Is there someone else up there we could talk to?"
French Soldier: "No, now go away before I taunt you a second time."
...
King Arthur: "Look, you stupid Bastard. You've got no arms left."
Black Knight: "Yes I have."
King Arthur: "*Look*!"
Black Knight: "It's just a flesh wound."
...
French Soldier: "You don't frighten us, English pig dogs. Go and boil your bottoms, you sons of a silly person. I blow my nose at you, so-called 'Arthur King,' you and all your silly English K-nig-hts."
...
Dennis: "Listen, strange women lyin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony. ... Oh, but you can't expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you. ... Oh but if I went 'round sayin' I was Emperor, just because some moistened bint lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away."
...
Tim: "Follow. But. Follow only if ye be men of valour, for the entrance to this cave is guarded by a creature so foul, so cruel that no man yet has fought with it and lived. Bones of full fifty men lie strewn about its lair. So, brave knights, if you do doubt your courage or your strength, come no further, for death awaits you all with nasty, big, pointy teeth."
King Arthur: "What an eccentric performance."
...
French Soldier: "I'm French. Why do you think I have this outrageous accent, you silly king?"
...
Peasant 1: "If she weighed the same as a duck...she's made of wood."
Sir Bedevere: "And therefore..."
Peasant 2: "...A witch! Burn her!"
...
Tim: "I *warned* you, but did you listen to me? Oh, no, you *knew*, didn't you? Oh, it's just a harmless little *bunny*, isn't it?"

Nothing need be said about The Art of Kissing by William Cane, other than this: it's worth it. Just put it on your coffee table, flip through it now and then, and try something.

Totally worth it. [There is, however, one...version...that I've yet to try. I may report the details.]

I finally finished Book Lust. Now I have 6 lists of books to buy for myself, having already passed on about 20 lists of books for the library to buy. Mine include: Books About Books, Companion Reads, Kitchen-Sink Poetry, Lost Weekends, My Own Private DUI, and Sex and the Single Reader. Book Lust is great 2-pages-at-a-time reading. Unfortunately, I'm not much of a 2-pages-at-a-time reader. It took at least a year and a half to get through this one--how long will More Book Lust take?

     One more thing. If anyone can figure out how I can buy one of these plates (featured in Architectural Digest, September 2005, on the table of contents page [p. 12 or so?]), I would be ever so grateful. The only information that I have about it is the name of the designer, Giovanna Amoruso-Manzari.