Saturday, January 9, 2010

Wine and song...

Well, I blogged best friend Amy's birthday dinner, so I thought I'd slip in a few words about mine (from last night).

My sister Moira and Amy came over last night to spend the evening at my place for my belated birthday celebration. They put together a wonderful steak salad, brought some wine, and then after dinner we all sat down to watch "Mamma Mia" together.

The wine:



The salad:



The song:



Thanks, you two! What a lovely evening. XO

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Terms of Endearment

This holiday season, I've opted to immerse myself in happy thoughts. The political goings on that I've been following, coupled with recent terror threats had me on edge and...dare I say --- a bit crabby? Heh. So, following some recommendations on Twitter, I recorded all of the Thin Man movies, watched a bit of a Three Stooges marathon, and followed it all up with a Looney Tunes bonanza on the Cartoon Network. Ahhh...the therapeutic effects were amazingly successful.

The combination of these movies and cartoon/comedy shorts got me thinking a bit. What is it that makes me feel good about a show or a movie? Well, the easy answer is a happy ending. I'm definitely a sucker for that. But there are truly sad movies I'd watch over and over as well that seem to lift me up in the same way.

Pondering this, I began to formulate a list of (at least somewhat sad) movies that I loved, but probably couldn't take watching again, along with a list of similar movies that I had no problem viewing over and over.

First, the list of movies I thought were excellent, but have not viewed again:

1. The Deer Hunter
2. Frances
3. Family Business
4. Life is Beautiful (though I'd really like to try to watch it again)
5. The Untouchables (I'm sensing a theme here..hehe.)
6. The English Patient
7. Braveheart
8. The Last of the Mohicans
9. Million Dollar Baby
10. Bang the Drum Slowly

Now, the list of the movies I will sob my head off watching, but can't help but view over and over:

1. The Green Berets
2. Affair to Remember (Some may call this a happy ending. Me? Not quite.)
3. Terms of Endearment
4. Ordinary People
5. Legends of the Fall
6. To Kill a Mockingbird
7. Penny Serenade
8. Imitation of Life
9. Stella Dallas
10. The Alamo

That's just a start. Are there any that you would add to either list?