sparkly

little things

Cards and Guns

(image from http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.magicbob2000.com/resources/hocus%2520cards_edited-3.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.magicbob2000.com/Individualtricks.html&h=838&w=847&sz=224&hl=en&start=3&um=1&tbnid=kU_PFH6199fWOM:&tbnh=143&tbnw=145&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcards%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN)

Last night I watched one of Almodovar's earlier films, Live Flesh (Carne Tremula, 1997). Like all other Almodovar films (All About my Mother, Talk to Her, Volver), the plot was basically operatic. It took place in Madrid, which looks a lot like Vienna in this movie. I knew it starred Penelope Cruz, but I was surprised to see that Javier Bardem was also one of the main characters- a parapalegic cop who is both obsessed with his wife and playing (handicapped) basketball. Since this was 1997, there were a lot of cheesy architectural interiors as well as an unbelievable amount of tazmanian devil t-shirts (pretty much every scene). Remember those? I'm kind of glad they're not around anymore. But about the movie- it was really good (if you like high drama)! And Javier Bardem plays the role really well. So yeah, if you're looking for a movie...

In other news, I also saw 21 over the weekend (fun, but less good). It's that movie about vegas card-counting. Anyway, I looked up card-counting on Wikipedia and it's actually super-easy (although maybe less easy when a dealer's watching to see if you're doing it). Take a look: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Card_counting

Things I am in love with

Why don't they make more clothes and bags like this? I had to hunt for these images. And while I'm on the topic, why don't they make cheaper versions? :(

Oranges

Dishes

BOKEH

Do you know what that is? I do... now. Apparently its the effect of having an out-of-focus foreground or background (or some other ground) in photography. Photographers actually use special lenses to achieve this effect for photos. Sometimes it's a way of making the viewer focus more intently on the in-focus part of the picture, sometimes it's just used as a impressionistic effect, sometimes it's good for close-up shots. I'll post some examples soon; for now, I've got to go finish this damn assignment!

Some examples (sorry, not so great):