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ibmiller
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Gender: Male
Interests: 
Favorite authors: Jane Austen, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, not in any particular order. Favorite books: Emma, Till We Have Faces, The Silmarillion. Favorite movies: Peter Pan (2003), The Winslow Boy, A Man For All Seasons. Photography is something I enjoy very much, but unfortunately I am almost completely untrained. "All that is not eternal is eternally out of date." C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves, chapter 6 "Charity."
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Expertise: I grieve to say the only thing I'm really good at is sin. What I'd like to be good at: reading, writing, growing up, playing the piano, photography.
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Member Since:
11/23/2004
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| Is it odd that the only two movies I've seen with Julia Roberts in them, I chose to see because of the directors?
Seriously, I watched "My Best Friend's Wedding" because I loved P. J. Hogan's direction of "Peter Pan," and just finished "Notting Hill" on the strength of Roger Michell's understated direction of "Persuasion." I greatly enjoyed both. Another odd note - I saw "Hitch" because I liked "Ever After," both directed by Andy Tennant. And I like to avoid Speilberg films. On principle.
On a plus note, I will watch movies, no matter how dumb (i.e. "Underworld," "The Aviator," "Serendipity") for Kate Beckinsale (and she has been in good stuff, like "Emma" and "Much Ado About Nothing").
And anything with Kenneth Branagh or Jeremy Brett is my friend.
Though I will go on record by saying that Nathan Fillion, Jewel Staite, Sean Maher, Summer Glau, Adam Baldwin, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, Ron Glass, and Morena Baccarin (the cast of "Firefly" and "Serenity") are some of the most phenomenal actors I've ever seen - and they have never been stars.
Oh, and soundtracks are fun - especially James Newton Howard ("Signs," "Peter Pan"). Let's see, are there any writers I would see a movie for - not necessarily. But Emma Thompson is good, as is Michael Goldenberg, Akiva Goldman, and Joss Whedon. Haven't seen a movie for a writer yet, but I'm working on it.
And "Notting Hill" was very sweet. | | |
| Dear All,
I'm doing early recruitment for my Rounders group in the spring, and would like to invite anyone from Union to join. We'll be reading "The Man Who Was Thursday" by G. K. Chesterton, about anarchists and poets struggling to make sense of a world which is falling to pieces around them. I'd love to have all of you in the group! Please let me know if you're interested! | | |
| Activities over break, with commentary:
Books read:
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell: whimsical yet dark fantasy set in Jane Austen's England, with no reference to Austen, but a strong imitation of her type of style.
The Remains of the Day: nostalgic and heartbreaking reminicences of an English butler about his employer and his fellow servants as he drives along the countryside. One of my advisor's favorite books.
The Proposal: unfortunate bit of Christian fiction, also set in Jane Austen's England, but much less well written. Made me wince. Lots and lots.
The Third Sister: an actual Austen imitation, continuting Sense and Sensibility, but just about as wretched.
The Boy's King Arthur: Editing of Malory's Morte D'Arthur, which is quite interesting. First time I'd read anything this close to the original. Here's my favorite picture (the death of Lamorak, Pellinore's son):
The Pearl: interesting, well written, but a mite pretentious, and I think the "loss of innocence" story is a bit overdone.
The Light Beyond the Forest: the Holy Grail section of Rosemary Sutcliff's Arthurian retellings for children - decent, but mostly another editing and revamping of Malory, so not as much of interest.
The Minstrel and the Dragon Pup: fun short kid's story, rather like Adam of the Road, or something like that.
Sword Before Sunset: Rosemary Sutcliff's dark, adult, but original portrait of the "historical" Arthur, without magic (except for hints of the Druids). Interesting portrayal of Lancelot, with two faces. Rather too sexually fixated to be terribly wonderful, though.
The Sword and the Circle: the first of Sutcliff's Arthurian trilogy. Less dependant on Malory than the second, but still not too much original stuff.
The Road to Camlann: Last of the Sutcliff Arthur trilogy. Well constructed around Mordred, but agian, nothing stunning.
Blue Remembered Hills: Sutcliff's autobiography - lots of rather interesting but odd observations about life and parents and reading.
Never Let Me Go: Another book by Kazuo Ishiguro (author of Remains of the Day), not as good as that one, but still interesting and well written, about clones used for organ donations.
Mansfield Park: wonderful, morally inspiring, beautiful, great stuff. The best thing I read or reread in a while. At least until I read another Austen book.
Dipped into:
Harold Bloom's The Best Poems of the English Language: read the introductions to the poets - Bloom doesn't stray too far from the Norton Anthology, but his takes on poets are interesting, even if rather pretentious. I like his judgement of Poe - the man couldn't write prose. His power rests in his nightmares.
Clouds of Witness: Just a few pages - because I bought it.
The Once and Future King: to compare with all the other Arthuriana I was reading. Dark, whimsical, and very very eccentric. Extremely anachronistic.
The Ugly American: furious polemic about the US's foreign policy - namely the lazy politicians. Good portrayals of heroic ordinary Americans helping in southeast Asia.
Pride and Prejudice: Great stuff.
Bought:
The Nine Tailors: a good Dorothy Sayers novel, about bells.
Clouds of Witness: we meet Mary Wimsey, and Charles Parker is shown to be a good fellow.
The Remains of the Day: see above, except that the funny thing is I'd borrowed it from the library, then bought it, so I had two.
The Pearl: Good edition. Niceness. Thrift stores.
East of Eden: same as Pearl.
Coat: Trench, black, but not able to bring it back because of space.
Socks: black nylon dress. Good stuff
Shoes: black or brown dress. Wonderful and clunky.
Saw:
Pride and Prejudice: liked it better the second time.
The Remains of the Day: great filming, acting, and music. Not so great writing, but not bad at all.
Henry V: Fun, but not as good as Branagh's other work.
Much Ado About Nothing: gorgeous - music, acting (except for Keanu Reeves), and writing. | | |
| Well, I have a nice (I hope) post planned for when I get back to school in two days (do I sound like I'm counting? Ooops  ) But I thought that I might as well update on the Christmas present list. Here's what happened, the surpises, the expected, and the yet to come:
An extremely cool dry cleaned tux, tux shirts, and other wonderfully dry cleaned things (like my coat, which is all packed up in my suitcase right now).
Wonderfully clunky new dress shoes that make that incredible "ca-click, ca-click" when you walk with them.
I decided to buy myself books this time, so I got Sandition and Other Stories and The Man Who Was Thursday from Amazon.com, and some Dorothy Sayers (Clouds of Witness and The Nine Taylors) from a great little used bookstore.
No movies that I know of, though my mom gave me an unopened present (I usually don't open presents til January 6, Epiphany, as a family tradition) which feels like it might be a DVD, but I don't know. Most frustrating, I suppose.
No CDs, either, but after the dry cleaning and shoes (which were about 50 dollars, I think), I didn't really expect much else.
Got bunches of foods, like gum, candy, I think some chips (unopened, but rather distinctive feeling in that package).
Not many clothes gotten this time, but I did buy some nice slinky nylon dress socks, which I have already lost one pair from, and found another pair of my dress socks I bought on last break. So it's about even (though I miss my poor slinky dress socks. Oh well, I still have two pairs of them).
Snow! Lots of it, yesterday. Sledding, and loveliness, and wetness, and fun!
Laundry - I live too far away to do this often, but I haven't had to pay for two weeks of laundry now, and I'm lovin' it.
Oh, did I mention I worked at McDonald's?
Watching Pride and Prejudice for the second time yesterday with my mom and sister. Oh, what fun. By the way, that's on my Easter present list...what, there's no such thing as an Easter gift exchange? Rats. What about an unbirthday present? (I must keep on hoping for these things, you know.)
Finally, I am bringing my beautiful coat back! Yay! Nellene got to see it, but now I get to have fun with it down in Tennessee too.
Two days...ooops, counting again. Note to self: must sleep between now and then. | | |
| Wish List
Note to all readers: This list is not to say I expect anyone to get me things. It's more to help me remember what is on it, for posterity.
Dry-cleaned tux
Dress shoes
Books: Gaudy Night, The Man Who Was Thursday, Sandition and Other Stories, The Silmarillion, The Book of Lost Tales II
Movies: Sense and Sensibility, Ever After, The Winslow Boy, Pride and Prejudice (2005), Hamlet (1997), Much Ado About Nothing
CDs: Sense and Sensibilty, Bach, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Mozart, Amadeus, Copland, Much Ado About Nothing
Food: Chips, other salty things, Hot Tamales, dark chocolate, coupons for free ice cream, gift cards to Kroger or other such places (Target, Walmart, etc)
Clothes: Black Socks, Dress/Button up shirts, jeans, black slacks, black dress pants, a black suit, a charcoal suit, some nice ties | | |
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