Below are the most recent 12 friends' journal entries.

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
sarah_ovenall	10:57p	footsteps in the dark January 4 movie: Footsteps in the Dark. Errol Flynn stars as an upper-middle class businessman living a double life: his conventional, proper wife and mother-in-law have no idea that's he's secretly a detective novelist and amateur detective. Flynn's character is kind of a smug asshole. The kind of guy who isn't satisfied with running circles around the hapless police chief (Alan Hale); he has to be a jerk about it, get in Hale's face and make fun of him in front of his staff. Come to think of it, there's a touch of smug asshole in all Flynn's romantic comedies. It makes me wonder how much of that was the real him. Plotwise the movie was enjoyable enough. The secret identity of the killer was completely obvious because a minor character with no apparent purpose in the movie was played by an actor too big for such a trivial part. post a comment
sarah_ovenall	10:44p	honeymoon for three January 4 movie: Honeymoon for Three. Completely forgettable comedy starring Ann Sheridan and George Brent. In fact, I've already forgotten it. post a comment
Monday, January 4th, 2010
sarah_ovenall	10:58p	one life to live: a year of days It was a pretty good year for One Life to Live, at least from my point of view. My least favorite character in the history of the show, Antonio Vega, left. And they finally resolved the dead baby swap storyline. I really, really hated the fad for dead baby swaps, which All My Children and One Life have both done in the past couple of years. And the kookiest villain of all time, Mitch Lawrence, came back from the dead again. Maybe I'm feeling optimistic about the show because of something that's happening right now: a groundbreaking gay romance. One Life has tried to do gay storylines before & have always mucked it up: the first time was notable just for being the first (and was a really long time ago, in the late 80s I think) and the gay character was a teen who was completely chaste, and the storyline was all about other people's homophobia, not so much about the gay kid himself. Then a few years ago they had a villain who was married to a core character and was secretly schtupping his teenage son's best friend. And he was a murderer. That was kind of a disaster. This time I feel like they're doing it right. The couple, Kyle and Oliver, are treated like any other soap couple: the romance has built over the months, giving people a chance to get to know them and root for them; each one has a life & friends besides each other, so they're part of the whole canvas; they've faced obstacles which are wacky in that soap way, but not completely over the top (in that soap way). Kyle and Oliver had their first love scene last week and it was just like any soap love scene. Candles in the room, cheesy music (they have their own theme song!), the whole thing. I didn't realize it was such a big deal but it was reported in Huffington Post and on Andrew Sullivan. Apparently it's the first gay love scene ever on daytime. (I thought for sure Bianca and Reese had had a love scene on All My Children, but maybe they just snuggled a lot.) This may sound corny but One Life is "my" soap, the one I will always keep tabs on. And I'm proud of my soap. Behind the scenes, when All My Children moved to California, One Life inherited AMC's studio in New York. AMC's space is much bigger so I hope this will be a good change. The move is happening right around now and I don't know when episodes filmed in the new space will start to air. I don't expect we'll see a difference, except that maybe we'll start to see sets AMC left behind, redressed for One Life. We may also see some actors who declined to move with AMC showing up on One Life. I fear this means Patrick Thornheart, who I hated almost as much as Antonio, will come back. The actor just left AMC because he preferred to stay in NY with his wife, who plays Marty on One Life. In 2009 there were 46-47 days (once it was unclear whether a new day had started or not). They had the following holidays: New Year's Eve, Valentine's Day, Halloween, Election Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve again. Click here for the crazy goings-on in Llanview in 2009 post a comment
sarah_ovenall	9:11p	if i had a million January 4 movie: If I Had a Million. A dying millionaire who hates his family decides to give his money to eight random people, a million to each. This premise sets up a series of eight vignettes showing what people do when offered a million dollars. The movie features tons of stars of the day: Gary Cooper, Charles Laughton, George Raft, W.C. Fields, Gene Raymond, May Robson, and Mary Boland among others. Each segment had a different director, including Ernst Lubitsch who directed the Charles Laughton segment, which is the shortest and maybe most effective of the bunch. It's uneven, as you would expect. My favorite segments were the funny ones where the new millionaires take revenge on people who had power over them in their old lives. In particular one with W.C. Fields and Alison Skipworth: they play a married couple who have saved their whole lives to buy a new car, which gets totaled on their first spin around the block. They buy a whole fleet of cars and hire drivers to follow them, so they can spend the entire day on the road seeking out "road hogs" to crash into. Another favorite featured May Robson as the resident of a group old folks home which is run more like a prison. She uses the money to convert the facility into a fun, homey place for all the old ladies. Then she rehires all the staff, pays them a salary so high they don't want to leave, and then makes them sit in rocking chairs all day with nothing to do but rock silently. Revenge is sweet! I also really enjoyed one of the not-funny ones, where the money goes to a prostitute. She checks into an expensive hotel and methodically puts away one of the pillows before going to bed: all she wants is to sleep in a nice, clean bed with only one pillow. post a comment
Sunday, January 3rd, 2010
sarah_ovenall	7:01p	recapping the recap I think the show today went well! Surprisingly so considering how ill-prepared I was. All I did beforehand was make a list of all the theme shows & events from 2009, then made sure I had all the CDRs I'd made for those shows in my case. During the show today I just pulled up the flowsheets for all those shows, and picked out the songs I wanted to play. These were the theme shows I covered this afternoon: January: memorial tribute to Eartha Kitt January: interview with Sammy Davis impersonator January: "Latin a la Lounge" all Latin music February: memorial tribute to Blossom Dearie February: birthday tribute to Harold Arlen April: "Jungle Madness" all lounge/exotica May: birthday tribute to Bing Crosby May: Memorial Day June: birthday tribute to Richard Rodgers August: memorial tribute to Les Paul September: birthday tribute to Mel Torme October: "Let's Misbehave" all sweet dance band music November: birthday tribute to Hoagy Carmichael November: birthday tribute to Billy Strayhorn The only themes I skipped today were the July 4th and Christmas shows, which I do every year. Ahh! I just remembered that I was going to promote 2010 and mention all the great theme shows I have planned for the upcoming year, and I totally forgot. Dang. It's going to be a good year too, with theme shows for Valentine's Day, July 4, Halloween, and Christmas, plus birthday tributes to Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, Dinah Washington, George Gershwin and Frank Sinatra. Plus I'm working on an interview with a lady who attended Duke in the 1940s and sang with Perry Como in the Duke Chapel. I hope that works out! post a comment
sarah_ovenall	1:20p	the year that was On air today from 2-6 pm, I'm planning a recap show with a set for each theme show I did during 2009. I didn't plan a flowsheet in advance, just going to wing it, which I may regret. Especially since I just found out one of the 3 CD players is randomly malfunctioning. It's never a dull moment at WXDU! post a comment
sarah_ovenall	8:50a	shalako January 2 movie: Shalako. A Western starring Sean Connery and Brigitte Bardot? Why not? Bardot plays a countess, part of a group of European big game hunters. Connery is a outlaw, and it's not specifically explained how a Scottish man got to be a wild west outlaw, but the movie begins with a title card of a quote from Louis L'Amour, saying that there were lots of Europeans who visited the Old West and that some of them stayed and became cowboys, outlaws and what-have-you. So there you go. The plot is pure cliche. The European big game hunters are assholes who piss off the local Apache, and Connery tries to rescue them. The portrayal of the Apache is pretty bad. I was expecting that a movie made in 1968 would be a little more even-handed -- heck, John Ford made movies in the 40s which portrayed Native Americans as rational people with three whole dimensions -- but no. The Apaches in Shalako are unstoppable killing machines and sadistic monsters. Except the chief, who can't speak English in his first scene, and then can by the end of the movie. The best thing I can say about Shalako is that I predicted an ending which turned out not to happen. So I can't say it was totally predictable. Also, there's a topless love scene between Connery and Bardot. Which is nothing to sneeze at. post a comment
Saturday, January 2nd, 2010
sarah_ovenall	3:23p	rollerball January 1 movie: Rollerball. First movie of 2010! The first time I saw this, I hated it. Now I think I was being a bit too harsh. Well, just a little. It's still a deeply flawed film. The non-sports scenes are talky and boring, and the ideas driving the plot, which should be thought-provoking, are so vague and poorly developed that it just doesn't come together. Still, a movie that fails to execute good ideas is better than a movie with no ideas. (I think.) My main criticism of the movie, on this second viewing, is that the movie can't help but glorify the violence it's trying to condemn. You know that saying that there's no such thing as an anti-war movie?* That's exactly the problem with Rollerball. Before the movie started Robert Osbourne said that when a group of investors contacted Norman Jewison about starting a real-life Rollerball league, he was appalled that people had misunderstood his movie so badly. After watching it last night I wondered, why was he surprised? The Rollerball scenes were the only part of the movie worth watching. On the bright side? Well, it's pretty interesting that it only took 35 years for the science fictional dystopia of Rollerball to seem almost commonplace. Right right, our corporate overlords use violent entertainment to work out any aggression in the population so we'll remain docile and conformist. Bread and circuses, Society of the Spectacle, I get it already. John Houseman's corporate master seems almost benign today. I mean, he's not eating people; he just wants them to do what they're told. So the movie was worth it just to see how fast things have changed (or maybe what I mean is, how cynical I've become). And the Rollerball scenes are well filmed, exciting and easy to follow, especially for a made-up sport. *if you've ever seen Stalingrad you know that saying is false. post a comment
Friday, January 1st, 2010
sarah_ovenall	9:52a	friendship, unity, caring and kindness One last thing from the NY trip: on the way back to the ferry, on the subway, we saw a young couple who barely spoke English being given directions by a young family (couple and sleeping toddler). Lots of gesturing and pointing. As it happened we think the directions were wrong -- I heard the New Yorker tell the tourist, "you can get off here with us and walk for five blocks, or you can go one more stop and get off at Fulton Street," and the next stop wasn't Fulton St -- but close enough that we felt pretty confident they would find wherever they were going. Not a big deal, just a nice little moment. And a far cry from the last trip, when we saw a young tourist couple who barely spoke English being dragged out of the subway car by 5 cops for daring to take photos of the station. (Which is legal.) I still think about those people & wonder what happened to them. They had backpacks and walking shoes and they looked so harmless, and so scared. Welcome to New York! post a comment
Thursday, December 31st, 2009
sarah_ovenall	10:39a	amigurumi how-to A few people have asked me about learning to make knitted and crocheted toys. And in general, they are much easier than they look. For me they are much, much easier than sweaters and scarves. Because my problem is having a short attention span. So I'd much rather make a toy that I can finish in a day or two, even having to learn new stitches, than a sweater which I will never finish. Of the knitted amigurumi I've made, if I were starting as a beginner I would make the cherry pie first. It's done on regular sized needles, and the only new technique is the bobble, for which the pattern provides nice photo instructions. A real beginner could make the crust first and then they would have gotten some practice in before trying the bobble. If I were comfortable with double-pointed needles, I'd start with the slug. (Probably because I did, that was the first amigurumi I made.) It's simple and made in one piece with almost no sewing. So it's a good way to learn a few key techniques like short rows and how to increase without making a hole. The only reason I wouldn't recommend it to a super-beginner is the first few rows, when you only have a few stitches on the double-pointed needles, are kind of fiddly. For crochet, they were all equally easy. Well, that's not strictly true. The katamari was a bit more difficult because the pattern said to crochet as tightly as possible, so the weight of the magnets couldn't pull it out of shape. And I ended up crocheting so tightly I couldn't get the hook through the stitches. It took a while for me to get a feel for the right gauge. But anyway, the point is that crochet is really not hard to do. There just aren't any difficult techniques, so a beginner can start with anything they like. If you don't know how to knit or crochet at all and you want to make amigurumi, there are some terrific sites with instructional photos and videos. Or I have a great knitting book called Reader's Digest Knitting Handbook, maybe we can have an amigurumi party and I'll bring the book! It really, honestly doesn't matter if you've never made anything more complicated than a scarf before. Any stitch or technique you don't know, you can google and find either photo or video instructions. (I personally prefer photos to videos because I'm left handed and everything I do is the mirror image of what most people do. I have to translate the instructions, and that's easier for me to do with a photo. Videos go by too fast.) As for me, I have a few more presents to make, and I need to make a hat for myself while it's still winter. And then I think I'm going to try some more challenging toys. I found a pattern designer on ravelry.com with some really complex, realistic patterns for sea creatures like octopus and angler fish. And maybe I will try designing a pattern of my own! post a comment
sarah_ovenall	8:23a	best and .. best, you fools Why, oh why do I read Dear Prudence? Her advice is frequently terrible, and when called on it her response is belligerent. This week's Best and Worst of Dear Prudence in 2009 is a case in point. It's not at all a list of best and worst columns; instead it's a list of columns which her readers are stupid for disagreeing with. She does this every year. You'd think by now she would have gotten over knee-jerk defensiveness and would be willing to acknowledge the occasional mistake. But if you thought that, you'd be wrong. Maybe I need to make a New Year's resolution to stop reading Dear Prudence.* On some level I'm still incredulous that they replaced Margo Howard with this judgmental bore. *funny aside, throughout this post I have been typoing it as "Dear Produce" and having to correct myself. post a comment
Tuesday, December 29th, 2009
sarah_ovenall	9:39a	home for the holidays I'm getting a jump start on one of my New Year's resolutions: to post regularly in my blog again. Starting with today's entry, What I Did On My Christmas Vacation. We drove. Traffic was bad on the way up to Delaware before Christmas, easy up to Staten Island on Christmas Day, and a slice of hell coming home yesterday. Some of the worst traffic I have ever seen. It was so bad that eventually we pulled out the map and left I-95, and found the state road just as backed up. Probably it was full of other people fleeing 95 just like us. We expected to get home about 8:30 and actually got in just before midnight. We saw snow! Both Delaware and Staten Island had had heavy snowfalls a few days before we got there -- 17 inches in DE! -- and there was still plenty of snow on the ground when we arrived. It got warm and rainy and all melted off while we were up there, but still. That was the first "white Christmas" I've seen since I can remember. We ate Sri Lankan food. It's a lot like Indian, with a lot of coconut. Apparently there's a Sri Lankan community on Staten Island. (For those nearby, the Sri Lankan restaurants are all together on Victory, in walking distance of the ferry.) The place we went to, called Dosa Garden, served mostly Indian with a Sri Lankan page at the back of the menu. I read on chowhound that they specialize in dosas. Thus the name, I suppose. We had pittu, cakes of dark brown rice with coconut, served with hot spiced coconut milk. And chicken kothu roti, which was chicken, onion and a dosa, all chopped together and sauteed, and served with sambal. We didn't realize the chicken had a dosa in it, so we also got a dosa. I'm pleased to report that the dosa at Spice & Curry or Green Leaf are just as good as at Dosa Garden in NY. Go Triangle! We saw Sita Sings the Blues on the big screen at the IFC center in Manhattan. We didn't spend much time in the city; just rode the ferry in, went up to the movie theater, then took the ferry back to Staten Island. We spent way more time in transit than we did at the movie, which must be breaking some kind of rule of city life. I didn't mind, it was great to see the movie like that (even with the Amazing Talking Audience, this time perpetrated by two chatty old ladies who I think knew the director somehow). And just walking to and from the subway we got to see a few blocks of Manhattan. We learned that lots of New Yorkers have the same gripe with the iPhone map that we did: you can't fine tune the directions, for instance it may try to put you on a bus and you can't make it give you subway directions instead. So it's very frustrating if you know basically what you want to do but can't remember some detail, like the location of the subway stop (or the exit number you want off the turnpike, and it keeps sending you a different way). On the bright side, the phone has the subway schedule with times, which was a big help. And it even has rudimentary drawings of buildings -- just the basic shapes -- which I think would be really really useful if I were lost in the city. We went back to the Russian grocery near Georg's mom's house. There must be a sizeable Russian community on Staten Island because the store is a full sized supermarket. At least as big as the Red & White on Club & Roxboro in Durham. We went once before and didn't buy anything, I just took photos. This time we had a cooler so we stocked up. We bought: cheese pierogies (the sign said pierogies but the receipt calls them "vareniki with farmer cheese") pork & beef dumplings lamb dumplings (the receipt says "manti handmade 10 pieces") lithuanian cheese (the receipt says "kastromskoy"). We have no idea what it's going to taste like, there was a whole case of cheese named after former Soviet countries & we picked one at random. fresh crepes and farmer cheese to make blintzes. They had a wide variety of farmer's cheese, many of them labeled "Amish." Are the Amish known for farmer's cheese? They also had a huge variety of yogurt, kefir and feta cheese. We didn't buy any because we can get all that back home (even the same brands of yogurt). a couple of items from the amazing wall of sausage If you count bologna there had to be 50 different kinds. We got "kielbasa moskovskaya" which I guess means Moscow-style kielbasa. And a little tube of goose liver pate. a couple of teas for a friend who always serves tea to his guests & clients, and I think he will have fun offering people Russian tea. We got chamomile and one called "linden" on the signage and receipt, but "lime" on the tiny English-language sticker on the box. The picture on the box doesn't look at all like lime. Who knows what it actually is. a package of bialys. Which aren't Russian at all, but we always bring bialys back from NY and we didn't have time to go to a bakery. We also looked at these beautiful frozen cakes with lots of layers, but decided that if we were getting the blintzes, we didn't need cake too. And we skipped the horseradish soda because we only wanted to buy things we genuinely wanted to eat. I do have a desire to try horseradish soda, but they only sell a big bottle. And besides, I don't even like regular soda very much. While I was browsing the teas, trying to figure out what to get for my friend, a short, rotund old lady kind of pushed me out of the way (no physical contact was made but she definitely took over the space) and started grabbing boxes of tea while muttering to herself in Russian. It sounded like she was reminding herself of the kinds of tea to get. Mostly she got rose hip. She must have taken 6 boxes. It was kind of cute. I guess she really needed tea. post a comment