Iron Man Alive!

Photo: Stop! In the naaame of looove! Before you breeeak my heeeart....

New foods I've eaten in the past 48 hours:

Dried white peaches
Rice cracker medley
Pink Lady apples (the best!)
Whole Foods crab & artichoke dip
Perrier and fresh-squeezed OJ
Pagliaccio salad (three times--it's my new favorite)

Songs I've listened to in the last hour:

Melt My Heart to Stone (Adele)
Dry the Rain (Beta Band)
Love is Strange (Buddy Holly)
Golden Years (David Bowie)
In My Mind (Thom Yorke & the Posies)
Ghost Town (The Specials)
Fa-Fa-Fa (Datarock)
Over and Over (Hot Chip)
Disco Science (Mirwais)
Cosy in the Rocket (Psapp)
Got It (Sebadoh)
Stinging Velvet (Neko Case)
Aganju (Bebel Gilberto)
Epoca (Gotan Project)
Alison's Starting to Happen (The Lemonheads)
As (Stevie Wonder)

Guess what I'm not listening to? The new Mariah Carey album. Mimi's a mess and I can't support it.

Favorite chapter titles of the book I'm reading, LOOK AT MY STRIPED SHIRT!; Confessions of the People You Love to Hate:

This Gangbang is So Awkward
Half of This Relationship is Not Working
Damn, My Pencil-Thin Beard is Perfect!
This Office Snack Situation is Unacceptable
These Personalized License Plates Should Get the Word Out That I'm a Huge Douchebag
We're Just Like Sex and the City!
I Am the Greatest Pretend Worker This Company Has
You Can't Plinko For Shit, You Dumb Bitch
Can't You Just Get a Cab to the Abortion Clinic?

That last one almost killed me, I was laughing so hard.

Movies I've watched in the past 24 hours, for better or for worse:

The Princess Diaries (figured we'd get that one out of the way first)
Oceans 11
Zoolander
Iron Man

What was that? Oh yeah, we saw Iron Man; we went this afternoon, and it rocked my freaking balls off. See? Look at me. No balls. Toldja.

Movies like this are usually 100% saturated in fat from the cheese wagon; not this one. It had a sardonic flavor to it, an undercurrent of...snarky...which surprised me little when I saw that it was directed by Jon Favreau. Dry humor, good line delivery, lots of guns and fire and fired guns and gunfire; it was smart, in a breezy way, but still mysterious. I appreciated that they tried to sell an actual story to me, and although I wasn't totally transported into the world of Marvel, I was definitely engaged for the entire movie. One thing the Esq felt it lacked was a satisfying showdown near the end--the Big Boom was never fully realized; he still said he enjoyed it, but his description made the movie sound like the biggest prick tease ever. One thing I felt it lacked was Gwyneth Paltrow. Oh wait, she was in it. One thing I think they could have gotten rid of in the first five minutes of the movie was Gwyneth Paltrow. The wide-eyed, professional Bobblehead did little except look like a frightened daywalker and say next to nothing. Her best line in the movie was one of her first, which was annoying. That woman does almost nothing for me. Fine, I liked The Royal Tennenbaums, Sliding Doors, and Shakespeare in Love; other than that, the woman does nothing for me. Did you see her cover on Vogue? Hideous.

Back to Iron Man. I think it's a fun summer flick, so all should check it out--plus, movies like this should be seen on the big screen, not the blurry, 19-inch TV you got from your grandparents. Go see for yourself.

***New pics posted at the Sanitarium!