This is too a blog

This just angers me so, I can't stop writing about it.

For those of you who, like me, are too lazy to click a link, here is the movie "binge" schedule:

• May 26
  • X-Men: The Last Stand
  • An Inconvenient Truth
• May 31
  • Coastlines
• June 2
  • The Break Up
  • Peaceful Warrior
  • District B13
  • Typhoon
  • The War Tapes
• June 6
  • The Omen
• June 9
  • The Heart of the Game
  • Cars
  • A Prairie Home Companion
  • Agnes and His Brothers
  • Only Human
• June 16
  • Nacho Libre
  • The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green
  • The Lake House
  • Loverboy
  • Lower City
  • Wordplay
  • The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
• June 21
  • Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man
• June 23
  • Garfield's A Tale of Two Kitties
  • Click
  • The Great New Wonderful
  • Waist Deep
  • Wassup Rockers
• June 28
  • Strangers with Candy
  • The Motel
  • Who Killed the Electric Car
• June 30
  • The Devil Wears Prada
  • Superman Returns
• July 5
  • Little Man
• July 7
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
  • A Scanner Darkly
  • Once in a Lifetime
• July 14
  • Pulse
  • You, Me And Dupree
  • The Groomsmen
  • Time to Leave
• July 21
  • Lady in the Water
  • Monster House
  • My Super Ex-Girlfriend
  • The Amateurs
• July 28
  • Brothers of the Head
  • House of Sand
  • I Could Never Be Your Woman
  • Little Miss Sunshine
  • John Tucker Must Die
  • Miami Vice
  • Scoop
  • Barnyard
• August 4
  • Fearless
  • The Science of Sleep
  • The Ant Bully
  • Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
  • Quinceañera
  • The Night Listener
• August 9
  • World Trade Center
• August 11
  • Accepted
  • Zoom
  • Conversations With Other Women
  • Half Nelson
• August 18
  • Fakers
  • Snakes on a Plane
  • Clerks II
  • Trust the Man
  • Factotum
  • The Illusionist
  • Rolling Family
• August 25
  • Invincible
  • Beerfest
  • DOA: Dead or Alive
  • How to Eat Fried Worms
  • Idlewild
  • The Quiet
  • Material Girls
  • The Descent
• September 1
  • The Return
  • Crossover
  • This Film is Not Yet Rated
  • Idiocracy
  • Crank
  • Stormbreaker
  • The Wicker Man

Today I went to see the very cool documentary Stagedoor (Not to be confused with the brilliant 1937 romp, Stage Door). And I saw X-Men on Friday.

Here's an inconvenient truth: you bitches are toast.

There is a team of people who are setting up a "challenge" for themselves that they call Movie Binge: to see every movie that comes out between Memorial and Labor Day. There are six people participating right now, and they will have "guest" bingers. They will split the duties among them.

I'm sorry, but this merits bragging? I don't call that a movie binge; I call it "summer," and I don't need to split the duties.

UPDATE: Here is their very demanding schedule.  My grandfather could do this, and he's 91 and can't sit for more than half an hour at a time.

I spent the weekend with Audrey Tatou. On Friday she was an English-speaking Parisian cryptologist who favored a sexy librarian style and came from a good background. Sunday she was a French-speaking, boho-styled eco-activist single mother who thanked her ex-boyfriend for babysitting by telling him his life pursuits were meaningless.

The DaVinci Code movie was more like reading the book than reading the book was. I think Ron Howard and Dan Brown should be forced to marry.

Russian Dolls, the follow-up to L'Auberge Espagnole, was the rare sequel that is slightly more interesting than the first. I didn't love L'Auberge, and I decided to see the sequel because it was playing at the IFC Film Center, near Joe's Pizza, and near the CVS that sells my favorite gum.

The Morning News linked to Learning to Draw yesterday and lots of people came to visit. His blog stats look obscene. Yeay Daltron!

I’ve often said that laziness, not necessity, is the mother of invention. Need proof in recipe form? I submit my version of Nicoise Salad - which I have just re-named “Can-can Salad.” See if you can figure out why.

4 cups chopped romaine lettuce

2 hard cooked eggs, peeled and sliced

1 6 oz. can tuna, drained
1 8 oz. can french style green beans, drained
1 14 oz. can yuca, drained and chopped

6 nicoise or kalamata olives, pitted and chopped

Evenly divide ingredients between two plates. Serve with your favorite vinagrette.

Serves two.

Today my principal had a buffet lunch for teachers in her conference room from 11:30-2.

Sadly, I teach non-stop from 11:13-1:46. I did not make a mad dash down from the fourth floor to the first floor for a free wrap in the fourteen minutes between the end of my 7th period class and the end of the T.A.W.  lunch.  The idea of sloppy wrap seconds was just not enticing enough to encourage the sprint. 

I don't have much, but I do have my pride.

When I got to work this morning there were students at the teacher mailboxes, putting business card-sized notes that said something like “We appreciate the ROLL you play in our learning,” and signed ” Student Government.” I love a bad pun, especially when it refers to the tootsie ROLL stapled to the note.

Also inside my mailbox was a letter from the incomparably sexy Chancellor Joel Klein.
I know he probably sent the same letter to all the teachers. I know he signed it “Sincerely,” and not “Hugs and Kisses.”
Still, it felt personal somehow. That quote at the top: “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” (Henry Adams). That was to ME! That was personally directed to me!
Let’s face it: it was a nervous love note to me from the chancellor. He digs me. Now, I’m married, but I’m still flattered. I hear you, Joely baby. Next time, send a simple card. No need to kill so many trees trying to cover your tracks.

Sad to say, but the naysayers were right. Terry Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes did not recapture the Ghost World magic with this clunker. While Max Minghella was easy on the eyes, the three-movies-in-one (Look up at the screen: It's a romance! It's a murder mystery! No, it's a [superlame] comedy!) did not a good time make.

Let's just chalk it up to the team's sophomore slump and hope they get it right next time. 

I am good both at making tally marks and at doing simple addition. I rarely get to use these gifts, so I was thrilled to  help count the ballots this afternoon after our UFT school-wide election for Chapter Leader, Delegates, and Executive Board. 

The Chapter Leader race was an easy call, but the Delegates drove us nuts! We counted the 196 ballots (about an 85% voter turnout) over and over, and finally decided we need a runoff between two of the candidates, one of whom is a doll and one of whom is a troll. It would have been so easy to make the numbers come out in my candidate's favor. I blame my parents for my unwillingness to accidentally add an extra tally mark in the right column. 

Don't read A Great Improvisation. It's my current book club book, and I could only make it half-way through. (I've slogged through some literary dogs on behalf of book group, and I decided to cut my losses this time). Still, we are meeting at my house tonight, so I can't bail. (Not that I want to: it's always fun to have an excuse to go to Sahadi's). Three other people have bailed, though. (I am convinced "I couldn't get a sitter" is code for "I didn't read the book.&quot

The good thing (other than shopping Sahadi's) about hosting is that I get to make the book suggestions for next time, which means that I offer three book ideas for the book clubbers to choose among.

Here are my picks, none of which I've read:

March: A Novel

by Geraldine Brooks

My Latest Grievance

by Elinor Lipman

Cruddy

by Lynda Barry

Here's to making it through the while book next time.