Third time's the charm

Three things I ate on my recent trip to Seattle:

- Muenster cheese, organic baguette, almost overripe but actually perfect pear from Ralph's Grocery, the gourmet grocery store across the street from our hotel

- A handful of peanut M&M's from a vending machine in the hallway of the movie theater, because you can't buy a package of them at the concession stand, while you are purchasing your medium (also known as the bucket large enough to soak your head) soda

- A trio of creme brulee: cappuccino, butterscotch, and zablagione, washed down by a shot of Amaretto DiSaronno and an espresso doppio con panna.


Three movies I have seen this week:

- Juno
My biggest beef with Juno was not the dismissive way it treated reproductive health care providers or the apparent ease with which the title character dismisses abortion as an option, but instead... the music. Juno goes on at length about her old-school punk sensibilities, and Jason Bateman's character, whose name I can't recall, loves the early 90's grunge, but the soundtrack is nothing but twee indie pop. I mean, damn. The girly tosses out names like Mott the Hoople, Iggy and the Stooges, and the Velvet Underground, and they trip convincingly off her tongue, but while they show up on the soundtrack, in the movie itself, they play as background music. The Velvets do show up singing "I'm Sticking With You" in a pivotal moment, but anything cutting ended up (sorry, I have to) on the cutting room floor.

- Sweeney Todd

It was bloody. Very, very bloody. Also, Johnny Depp listened to a little much glitter rock in his formative years, and Tim Burton needs to make a different movie, for God's sake. Not the same movie with different sets and children, a different movie, please. No more strange, misunderstood outsider. No more longing beautiful woman willing to overlook his faults. No more shredded velvet and puffy shirts and weskits. Enough.

- The Darjeeling Limited

Luggage as baggage. Subtle.

There were a few rough editing cuts in the beginning that I know were intentional, but which felt to me like poor filmmaking. Wes, please read my note to Time Burton above. Except please replace puffy shirts and weskits with bespoke suits too short in the inseam and quirk.

Three items of clothing in my closet I am anxious to wear when the weather returns to normal:

- The new red dress I bought in Seattle, which has a vibe that is a little forties (square neckline, cap sleeves, A line skirt) and a little mod (oversize black buttons arranged double breasted, a wife black belt).

- The cherry print camisole with red buttons I bought at Anthropologie last summer.

- My cowboy boots. Any of them.