“She heard the bitter wind, she saw the darkness of the enompassing night, the naked reality of the winter. But, overhead, were stars.
It took suffering and near tragedy before Hilda Barrington, M.D., could believe that there were stars. In love with Carey Dennis, she had to make the difficult decision between her professional and her personal life — whether she was to be physician or wife.
Faith Baldwin’s moving novel, “He Married a Doctor,” is the story of that choice. Hilda and Carey determine that they will make a go of their marriage in the face of almost insurmountable difficulties. They believe in each other and are intelligent and honest. But they reckon without the beautiful and ruthless Maida von Kunst, Carey’s former fiancee, who is resolved to win Carey back at the expense of Hilda’s happiness.
Miss Baldwin has written a dramatic story with sympathy and understanding that proves her faith in the young men and women of today.
I remember seeing the one sheet for Underworld quite a while ago and dismissing it almost immediately. IMHO, the last thing The Cinema™ needs right now is another Matrix | Crow | Blade | Dark City knock-off with some gun-toting babe in patent leather pants doing that whole neo-gothic “Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves” schtick. I’m still recovering from the crushing disappointment of The Matrix Reloaded.
Never mind that excrutiating scene with The Architect, the eye-watering inanity of the orgasmic chocolate cake, or the fact that the Wachowski brothers have set themselves up for a midichlorian-sized blunder in the third film of the series, the biggest disappointment of The Matrix Reloaded was the fact that, when it comes right down to it, Trinity might as well have spent the duration of the film in a housecoat and slippers.
Yeah, yeah, yeah…crashing through high-rise windows with guns ablazin’, racing motorcycles against traffic, destroying security posts, nmap exploits, blah, blah, blah. A housecoat and slippers, I tell you!
Mind you, I’ve got nothing against Carrie Anne Moss, who is doing a tremendous job with what she’s been given, but what she’s been given lately is nothing more than a vehicle for Larry Wachowski to work through his personal issues.
So, anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah…Underworld, underwhelmed. But, after finally seeing the trailer for Underworld, my reaction has gone from:
“That’s so lame…”
…to:
“That’s so cool…”
Why? Because it turns out that the gun-toting babe in patent leather pants in question is none other than Kate Beckinsale.
I’m a huge fan of Kate Beckinsale’s, though I will readily admit that my feelings have more to do with my belief in her potential than with actual past performance. Ms. Beckinsale, after all, has an inate ability to set the screen on fire that is eclipsed only by her steadfast refusal to do so. But in the trailer for Underworld she looks great. She makes Jennifer Garner in Daredevil look like Shannen Doherty in Beverly Hills, 90210.
(Tangentially, Underworld also stars Scott Speedman, who got his big break on Felicity, which also featured Scott Foley, who Jennifer Garner is in the process of divorcing.)
But, other than Ms. Beckinsale, the movie has disaster written all over it:
Here is the synopsis:
Underworld reimagines Vampires as a secretive clan of modern, aristocratic sophistcates whose mortal enemies are the Lycan, a shrewd gang of street thugs who prowl the city’s underbelly. The balance of power is upset when a beautiful young Vampire and nascent Lycan — deadly rivals for centuries — fall in love.
Hmmm… I appreciate a gothic Romeo and Juliet as much as the next man, but that description doesn’t make the film sound terribly compelling to me. Granted, lichen can withstand great extremes of heat, cold, and drought, but in any battle pitting vampires against a rock-clinging compound organism made up of fungus, algae, and/or cyanobacteria, my money’s going to be on the blood-sucking immortals who are capable of locomotion.
What? “Lycan?” As in “lycanthrope” — werewolves? Oh, that’s very different…
It’s being billed as a “British-German-Hungarian-United States Co-Production.” Isn’t that the same combination that gave us Zsa-Zsa Gabor?
The trailer reeks of quality editing. This usually means that all of the editing budget and resources were concentrated on the trailer, leaving the film itself to be edited by summer interns.
It was directed by Len Wiseman whose only professional film credits up to this point are as an assistant prop guy for Independence Day and Stargate, though he did direct a Megadeth music video once.
Danny’s mother, Pati, a talented folk painter, urged him to be creative, caring, and, above all else, loyal to his true friends…which, according to Danny was “Crucial to surviving the most dangerous jungle of all — Los Angeles.”
Is this the caliber of writing we can expect?
Ms. Beckinsale recently left her long-time boyfriend (and father of her four-year-old daughter, Lily) for the aforementioned Mr. Wiseman. Actresses and directors linking up on set is rarely a good sign for the quality of a film.
Ms. Beckinsale just wrapped Van Hesling, a film starring Hugh Jackman that also features vampires and werewolves. I don’t think she would have signed on for a second film with the same subject matter if she had any faith in the first.
In other words, I can’t wait!!! I mean, just because a film is going to be a disaster is no reason not to go see it. Heck, I saw the trailer for Underworld when I went to see Gigli. Crap holds no fear for me!
“Dancer Isadora Duncan spent her final days trying to educate Henry Ford. A letter dated 1927, the year of her death, is on sale at momentsintime.com for $15,000 in which Duncan defends her choreography against the auto magnate’s charges that it was too sexual. Ford wanted children taught classical dances such as the waltz rather than racier styles like the Charleston. ‘Just as you would not teach a child of any free Republic the doctrines of Louis XV or George III,’ Duncan chided, ‘so you would not teach to a child the courtesan movement of the Minuet or the coquettish sex expression of the Polka.’”
Mint has been used as a breath freshener for centuries. In the middle ages, young men who were on their way to their beloved’s would alter their course in order to pass by the herb garden first. They would pull off a few peppermint leaves, toss them into their mouths, and chew them for a while in hopes of covering up the stench coming from the abscessed molar that they had yet to have the blacksmith pull.
This historical association of “mint” with “fresh breath” seems to be so ingrained in our collective psyche that nearly every toothpaste and mouthwash you buy today is mint-flavored. Listerine is, of course, the obvious exception, but its competitors mocked it so mercilessly by saying that their own products left your breath “minty, not mediciny,” that Pfizer finally relented and came out with Listermint. This just reinforced the belief that the ultimate aspiration of all human beings should be to have a mouth of which it could be said that it is “minty fresh.”
But our mouths are not enough anymore; now they want our whole heads. Nearly every hair care company has come out with some product that has mint as a featured ingredient. In fact, Aveda’s most popular product line is their Rosemary Mint Shampoo and Conditioner, whose “tonic properties of rosemary and peppermint cool and revitalize your scalp.”
But the “tonic” and “cooling” properties they are touting are not necessarily coming from the peppermint, per se, but a derivative thereof:
mint (‘mint) n. Any of various plants of the genus Mentha, characteristically having aromatic foliage and nearly regular flowers. Some plants are cultivated for their aromatic oil and used for flavoring.
menthol (‘men-“thol) n. A white crystalline organic compound, CH3C6H9(C3H7)OH, obtained from peppermint oil or synthesized, and used in cigarettes and as a mild topical anesthetic.
So, of course it leaves your scalp feeling “cool”; you’ve lost all sensation from the ears up.
I first noticed this “mild topical anesthetic” effect when using American Crew’s Daily Shampoo and Conditioner. They say that the menthol in these products “cools and refreshes the scalp,” but I found that as I rinsed the conditioner out of my hair some of it would run down my body and, if I wasn’t careful to rinse it off completely, I’d get a rather unwelcome cooling and refreshing effect in an area of my body that doesn’t usually react well to being cooled and refreshed.
This mentholic sensation is referred to as a “tingle” by the makers of Denorex, the anti-dandruff shampoo:
The tingle tells you it’s working, and Denorex leaves your scalp feeling fresh and clean!
…and numb. Come on, guys, admit it. The only thing that tingle is telling you is that you just smeared the active ingredient in Vicks VapoRub all over your head.
I firmly believe that when it comes to the bathroom:
Aromatherapy:
Good
Anesthesia:
Bad
And I can think of a few other rooms in the house where that axiom holds true.
Zoë was wearing her sloppy slops this evening during our 4th of July festivities and while runningjumpingchasing she tripped twice…twice…on the concrete, skinning both elbows and both knees quite badly.
Henceforth, my daughters shall only wear these:
An exception will be made for their Junior Prom, when they will be allowed to wear something a little more formal…
…but only for the actual dance portion of evening.
