Margret Sloan

Even with the writer’s strike over there is not much on TV that I find interesting anymore. So I’m hitting the DVD shelf and watching movies each night.

The cool thing about falling asleep to a DVD is that it plays decent music when its over and waiting for you to push start again. The music is like white noise and helps me stay asleep through all the neighborhood night noise, like dogs barking, dummies with their windows down and their boom boom boom on the stereo blasting the air, occasional fire trucks or cop cars, etc.

Last night’s movie was a total chick flick, “Under the Tuscan Sun” with Diane Lane. A college professor discovers her husband is cheating on her and gets divorced. He gets the house and everything in it. She falls into a deep depression, and her girlfriend intervenes by sending her on a trip to Italy. She comes across a house by chance and ends up buying it and trying to make a new life for herself in Italy.

What a cool idea. I’d like to skip the cheating husband and divorce and depression part, but I’m down with going to Europe. If any of you friends want to send me to Europe – perhaps France? – I will certainly be glad to go.

While in France I promise to take the time to look for a house or french property to buy. I got a head start on the project by looking online and used a site called medhead.com to preview homes and property all around Europe.

They show over 7000 properties for sale and rent in France, Spain, and Italy. This site even translates all of the property information into different languages for you. I thought that was pretty cool.

So, send me to Europe, won’t you?

About 20 years ago a spectacular movie about aliens coming to earth was in the theatres, called “E.T.”

It was great for families and had a lot of special effects, but the story was the magic behind that movie. To think that an alien would be discovered by and make friends with a boy around 10 years old and have a series of adventures with the boy’s family and friends took a lot of imagination to write.

We watched the movie again just a few nights ago, and I was surprised to see that most everything in that movie was still applicable in today’s world. Kids still play Dungeons and Dragons, which is what they were doing in the beginning scenes of the movie. They still order pizza by phone and have it delivered. Kids still eat Reeses pieces and ride their bikes around their neighborhood. They still hide things from their parents and teachers.
A lot of that movie is almost timeless, and we still enjoyed watching it.

Recently I was bored out of my mind with TV and decided to watch a movie. Normally, I like action movies like Mel Gibson and Bruce Willis films, or comedies. For some reason I picked the movie, Sideways, starring Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh.

It was a strange movie and I’m still not sure if I liked it. It particularly bothers me that people not living in America might watch it and think that the way these characters behaved is typical for Americans and their values, because I don’t think that is true. At least, I hope not.

If you haven’t seen it, the premise is that a couple of guys are going on a short trip to California’s wine country as a type of bachelor party for Jack. The two guys are good friends but can’t tell the truth to each other nor the several girls that they meet. The comedy is in the consequences for their lying.

My favorite part is at the very end – (yah! it’s over!) when Miles gets manipulated into breaking into someone’s house to get back Jack’s wallet. The very premise and the chase scene that ensues is absolutely hilarious.