#70 AFI's Top 100 Movies: #6 The Wizard of Oz

#6 on the AFI's Top 100 Movie List is the Wizard of Oz.

*sigh*

Even as a little kid I didn't like this movie. I used to run out of the room every time the flying monkeys came on screen. Those things are still really creepy, as I discovered when I re-watched it.

I was hopeful that perhaps the long years since the last time I'd watched this movie and my subsequent aging, that perhaps I might enjoy it more now.

Meh.

My childhood impression still remain the same. The flying monkeys are still uber creepy.  Glinda's a bitch. The celebration of the dead witch is morbid and creepy, making the munchkins into something kind of terrifying (village full of Chuckie's AH!). Scarecrow is still annoying. The lion is both obnoxious and amusing. And the Tinman still fails to really catch my notice.

My Mom LOVES this movie, which always makes me wonder what I'm missing out on.  I just don't get it.

Hubby and I synced it up with Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, as recommended by How I Met Your Mother, and that made the beginning a lot more interesting, but the album ends long before the movie does. Which was kind of a shame.

The best thing I can say is, I didn't mind watching it once it started. I didn't feel like turning it off anything. I just don't know if I agree that it's one of the best 100 movies I've ever seen, although it probably deserves its place on the list just by virtue of its place in movie history.

#97 New Restaurants: Parva

When Parva first opened in Bethesda I was interested but not that interested. It's not in the best location; the building it resides it tends to change hands pretty frequently.  I ended up taking advantage of a Living Social deal to get me there... holy crap, WORTH IT.

First of all, the menu is pretty reasonably priced for Bethesda and the food is incredible. South American deliciousness and SO MUCH FOOD with every order, whether it's an appetizer or an entree.  I haven't been back yet, but I definitely want to go.

Their corn cakes are delicious, the specialty drink menu has some unique and tasty offerings, the paella was fantastic, the chicken dish that I had somehow got completely eaten despite how full I was, and the desserts were to die for.

Definitely a good option for a date night or a ladies' night happy hour because they have some fantastic specials!

#70 AFI's Top 100 Movies: 10th Anniv. #83 Titanic

Titanic is actually not on the original AFI Top 100 list, it's on the 10th Anniversary List that was made and included a bunch of new movies. Well, not a bunch. Maybe fifteen movies that aren't also already on the original list. But Titanic was one of them!

I went to see it when it came out in theaters again. Not because it was in 3D, although that was pretty cool for the most part, but because this is a movie that is worth seeing on the big screen, in so many ways.

What a freaking fantastic movie. I'd forgotten how much I loved it. Are there some historical inaccuracies? Sure. But the sheer amount of stuff they got right has always boggled my mind. I've had a minor obsession with the Titanic ever since I was a little girl, I read up on it, studied the schematics, and I still have the giant book that has all the information I could ever want to know and more, including eye witness accounts of what happened the night it sank.

It's such a dramatic story, not so much because of Kate & Leo's characters, although they do provide plenty, but because of the sheer amount of human choices that had to be made over so many hours. Even before it hit the iceberg, the captain and the ship designer were arguing about how fast the ship should be going, the iceberg warning came a little late thanks to a breakdown in communication between the telegraphers and the ship's officers. The boat did not go down quickly. There was time, SO MUCH TIME, for the earlier lifeboats that only had a few people in them, to return to the ship and save more lives. There was time for them to have been filled to capacity, and yet the crew sent the boats off with less than twenty people in them.

The captain stayed with the ship. The designer of the ship got on a lifeboat.  People in the third class cabins were trapped down below, along with the lower level workers, sealed in by the crew who were trying to keep the decks from becoming too crowded.  Women and children first, as long as they were first or second class. So many tiny human decisions that effected so many lives.

And the movie did such a good job showcasing all of that, even around the somewhat ludicrous love story. Although, I have to admit, I do enjoy the love story as well.

#97 New Restaurants: Shangri-La

This was my first time EVER eating Indian food. And what a way to be introduced.  I happened upon a Groupon that Chef Hubby and I used, gotta love Groupon, and we were not at all disappointed. Shangri-la might not look like much on the outside, but the food was fantastic and the prices were much better than Bethesda's normal.

They had a special where you order two platters for the price of 1 1/2... and you get SO much food. It's like a little culinary tour through India or Nepal.

Hm. For some reason the photo is coming out sideways. TURN YOUR HEAD AND SEE THE DELICIOUSNESS!!!!

I got to try several appetizers, main dishes and sides.  The Chicken Tikka Marsala was OMG NOM. One of my new favorite foods. Determined to get a good recipe for it and make it at home. There was also a rice pudding dessert.

Chef Hubby got a vegetarian platter of food from Nepal. Also delicious judging from the nom sounds he was making and the thumbs up. OMG SO MUCH FOOD.
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Highly recommend.

I like Indian food. Who knew.

#23 Visit My Grandmother's Grave

On my grandmother's birthday, April 1, my brother and I went out to visit her grave.

My grandmother passed when she was only 70 years old, a cancer victim. She was light and life and fun, she gave herself the nickname "Twinkle Toes" and she wore more fancy dresses in a year then I have in my entire life.  We grew up only 5 minutes away from her, so I was lucky enough to have her presence in a lot of my life, although I didn't always appreciate that luck.

One of my biggest regrets is that I didn't go visit her in the hospital before she took a turn for the worse. We all thought she was going to get better, and I was wrapped up in my own life - swimteam, being in the school show, church youth group, chamber sings and AP classes my junior year - and I thought there would be more time. So much more time.

I miss her and think about her often. Visiting her grave and telling her that I got married this year was hard. I was glad to have my little (ie. younger because the dude is over 6 feet tall) brother with me to cry on.

When we left, the chorus to the song "I'm Glad You Came" was playing on the radio. A little creepy? Maybe. But even so, I like to think that perhaps she knew we were there, and that she was glad we came.

#96 Rock the Dress Photo Shoot

I was lucky enough to find a way to Rock my Dress for free!!! A local photography class needed brides (preferably already married) who were willing to pose in the gardens of a nearby state park. Sounds like MEEEE!!!

Here's some of my favorites:

#65 New Authors: Dead Until Dark

Ugh, what is it with these female characters? I wanted to like Sookie Stackhouse, I really did... it seemed there was a lot to like. And she did end up growing on me by book 5. But mostly she comes off as so callous and cold, just like a lot of the other characters, every time someone dies.  Her grandmother is murdered and she's like, well, guess I'll move into her room cuz it's bigger and has a nicer bathroom. Excuse me, what? I don't care if this is a week after the funeral, shouldn't there be more of a mourning period? Shouldn't it at least be hard for her to move her grandmother's stuff out? Like, come ON.

Same thing happens when a co-worker dies. Sookie's all, oh it's horrible... God we'll have to get someone to cover her shift.

In the beginning of the second book she actually kind of makes jokes about the dead body of another co-worker, less than an hour after finding it. Are you freaking kidding me?

Despite this, the plot line is interesting enough that I kept reading and I liked most of the other characters. And eventually Sookie did stop pissing me off so much. Or maybe I just got used to the fact that she's completely unrealistic when it comes to deaths. Oi. Would I recommend these as some of my favorite books? No. But they do have a certain appeal and once I got over those moments with Sookie I really enjoyed them.  If someone was interested, I'd warn them that they might not like Sookie at first, but that she gets better.  I'm eagerly awaiting the next one because I want to know what's going to happen next in her story.

#68 Museums I've Never Been To: Madame Tussaud's

Not like I didn't already suspect this, but now it's confirmed: wax museums = uber creepy.

But still pretty cool.  Seeing Morgan Freeman scare the crap out of my husband was worth every wax figure that scared the crap out of me. It's weird to be walking around, apologize for almost running into someone, and then turn to find that you've just apologized to a wax figurine.  And then you feel like an idiot.

The museum wasn't quite as big as I was expecting, to be honest, although it did have a lot of stars within it, for some reason I was expecting more.

Considering the size of it, I was glad that I got our tickets off of a LivingSocial deal and that we didn't pay full price. But we had a good time. Took us about an hour to run through the whole museum, despite my penchant for taking constant pictures. =)

#97 New Restaurants: Cesco Osteria

Holy noms!

I love this place.  It's got good food, great atmosphere, and is actually worth dressing up to go to, even the bar. Perhaps especially the bar.  At first I thought I would be sad that McCormick and Schmick's was gone, they had such a good happy hour, but I'm SO happy that there's finally a restaurant with an upscale bar in Bethesda! So many of them seem to be downsliding.

The food is fantastic. Good gourmet Italian. Everything is fresh made, even the pasta, which makes such a huge difference. The price point is about the same as other Bethesda restaurants.  And it's friendly. I've seen both the owner and the chef walking around, introducing themselves to people and asking how their experience has been. So not only do you get the feeling of a classy joint, you get the feeling of a friendly place that cares.

My ridiculously yummy steak dinner:

In the bar you can get Happy Hour, prices are a little higher than other places in Bethesda, but this is a good thing.  Keeps out the riff raff for one ;) LOL. By which I mean, most of the people at the bar are dressed up, some came straight from work but a lot seem to have gone home and dressed up a little before going out. Isn't that awesome?

The food selection is huge and they bring out some pretty darn large portions, so that you don't mind the slightly higher food prices than usual for happy hour. See the giant calzone below. NOM.

If you stick around till 8pm or so then the live music starts.  And people dance. They don't bump and grind, they don't wiggle their hips - they DANCE.

God I love this place.

#70 AFI's Top 100 Movie List: #100 Yankee Doodle Dandy

Seeing as it's #100 on the AFI's Top 100 Movie List and it's an old time musical (which I usually don't particularly like), I was not expecting this movie to be that good. Once again, AFI didn't let me down.

I loved it.

It's not a musical like I was expecting. There is no transition from plot line to song. Instead it's a biographical movie about George M. Cohan, a man who wrote and stared in so many musicals that he became known as "The Man Who Owned Broadway."  The music and dance numbers are all his music and dance numbers, done as close to the original play versions as possible, and all are set on stage or in rehearsal spaces.  It's like getting a little bit of live theater, but in a movie.

The story was fantastic. It was fun to see the hot headed and talented young boy start to realize that talent isn't everything and a bad attitude will mean black listing, and then begin to turn his life around.  He's a good guy at heart, even though at first you want to wallop him for being a self-centered little idiot. By the end of the movie I was a big fan of both him and the movie.