Live blogging You've Got Mail

I am not ashamed to admit, I love this movie. Its cute settings, clever dialogue, and sweet romance never fail to warm my heart. Now that the internet has assisted my own romantic history, I like it even more. Since my family is snowed in, we might as well retreat to New York's Upper West Side with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.

1:12 As the clunky CGI West Side credits begin, we all agree that this record of early internet material culture will be required viewing for all of our future children.
16:00 Movies like this are what make me want to go back to New York City
17:00 Aww they bond over smug observations about Starbucks customers
17:30 I've had many a grin like that, where something reminds you of your guy, and you wistfully space out remembering him.
18:13 Oh gross sweater, Meg Ryan
19:34 Greg Kinnear is also smug and hyper-literate
21:30 HELLO NEW JERSEY!
23:36 Aww the fall festival. The seasons are so alive in this film.
24:57 Roald Dahl book at storytime. Must find at local library.
25:13 Betsy-Tacy-Tib and connoisseurship of antique book illustrations
27:19 General sibling freak out about pop-up dinosaur book. We had the same one!!
30:37 Guggenheim-esque spiral staircase with skylight?
33:01 Well-stocked bookshelves appear in every apartment here.
38:15 Foucault reference!
40:32 Print media is so dying. All the characters in this film should enjoy their publishing/journalism jobs while they can.
42:31 Sara Ramirez cameo as grocery cashier. Another relic - cash only lines. What store doesn't let people use their credit cards in every lane?
53:16 Oh Dave Chappelle making jokes about food stamps. This movie wins at minority character actors.
53:59 "I said we were a godammed piazza!"
54:26 Price Club, another bygone element of the late 1990s. Holy Cow this was made in 1998 - this film is over a decade old! Poor Meg Ryan's face has only gotten scarier.
59:17 "Until I reach that level when it becomes absolutely imperative for me to leave."
1:00:31 Rewind to rewatch "She HAD to be!!!!"
1:05:41 "It's like they're an entire generation of cocktail waitresses." Oh Nora Ephron, just wait until Reality TV is invented.
1:06:31 When they "meet", both parties reveal how much they idolize their pen pal. "She is the most adorable creature I have ever come in contact with." "There is not a cruel or careless bone in his body." Alas, at this moment, they are only infuriated with the person before them.
1:18:23 Birdie's secret wealth and affair with Generalissimo Franco are stupid random plot points.
1:20:09 Noel Streatfield's shoe books FTW.
1:26:40 Elevator scene, the reason we stated watching this in the first place. I miss our antique museum elevators already!
1:32:10. Meg Ryan walks down the street with the defunct shop's bell. Dad says "Bring out your dead."
1:33:37 Arrrgh incorrect use of ironic.
1:36:21 Meg Ryan takes echinacea for her cold. Is that in vogue anymore?
1:51:22 "I have to go" is a ridiculously cliche chick flick phrase. Meg Ryan says it at the critical moment of all her films. (See: Sleepless in Seattle, Kate and Leopold.)
1:52:11 Dad: "Oh look, she changed from a gray thing into...a gray thing." I agree, oatmeal is not a good color for meeting a cute guy.

Annnnd roll end credits.

Holiday menagerie

"Mummy, do look at Rex's Christmas present."
It was a small tortoise with Julia's initials set in diamonds in the living shell, and this slightly obscene object [splipped] impotently on the polished boards. {BR page 164}


Tonight I was a tour guide for an evening museum Yuletide event. Normally, I would run from activities involving carol selections on repeat for 2 hours, but somehow I am full of holiday spirit this year. I think it comes from being in a new and exciting place. I had fun, the guests seemed to have fun, and the dried flower tree looked amazing.

Fun fact: Christmas dinner at the country estate always began with terrapin soup. Of course this reminded me of Julia's "slightly obscene" tortoise. Now there's a classy gift.

Speaking of animals, a wild creature mascot is becoming a tradition in my program. The 2nd years have an iguana named Iggles. He went to London with them and even helped with a Ms. Frizzle Halloween costume. Tonight my class finally got our own - a little purple felt mouse sewn by one of the girls. He doesn't have a name yet, but we know he will look just adorable at the V&A.

Hello There

I'm a material culture grad student who needs to write more often. That is, write things that aren't my homework. Last year I kept a blog about my service year in St. Louis, and I enjoyed getting in the habit of composing my thoughts. So here we go.

My title is taken from my favorite book, Brideshead Revisted. It's about how beauty and meaning can be found even in the tacky, shoddy, or difficult. Also, I have an inexplicable fondness for tacky modern church design. I often connect passages from BR to my life, so consider yourself warned.