Brilliant, just brilliant

Just came back from the film Bend It Like Beckham, courtesy of UEA's Union Film Society. The film was very much like a My Big Fat Greek Wedding, except the heroine was Indian, and her love was soccer (football) rather than a WASP. Though she did end up hookin' it up with her Irish coach, who was played by the studly Jonathan Rhys Meyers. He is the newest addition to my lis -- he and Edward Norton. **Grin**

Anyhow, the film was super-cute, despite the frequent, awkward protrusions of the boom mic. But if even Spider-Man has boom mic mistakes, you really can't blaim this little indie venture. Hopefully it'll get cut out when the film goes to tape. I'll tell ya this, though. There was a very interesting intercut sequence where the heroine scores the winning goal in her championship simultaneously while her sister is being lifted up in the ecstasy of her wedding celebration. Lovely juxtaposition of modern and ancient ideals. **Sounding very pretensious, swirling a snifter of brandy in my left hand while typing with my right**

And, I've begun, it seems, to make a tradition of the weekly catch-up routine with my NY Times reading. Today I was reading about the new "miniplanet" that scientists have found. They're calling it Quaoar, after an Indian god of something or other. Also, I read an article about this woman's trips to Costco and various other bulk warehouses to pick up food for a dinner party. The best particle came when she described her trip to Stewart Leonard's, recounting the variety of products made on-premises... such as "balloon-like balls of mozzarella." -- YES!

And there's more: "Entertainment, of the amuse-bouche variety, is a key element. I was barely in the store when a woman offered me cheddar cheese wrapped around a slice of apple. A few yards later, someone handed me a cup of warm apple crumble. Before I left, I could have had focaccia, cheese spread on crackers and coffee cake. In between, there are animated displays of a Chiquita banana and the "Holstein Family Singers," a band of robot cows that sing atop the dairy section."

So, there it is, folks. Wholesale stores may give you way more of an anything than you could ever possibly need, but they're practically amusement parks. How can you stay away?

So, my recommendations for today are as follows: Bend It Like Beckham (if it ever comes to America), Wholesale Warehouses, the New York Times (as always), Jon Rhys Meyers, the Brown Derbies (particularly their rendition of "Anna Begins" -- siiiiigh), Peter Gabriel, Ed Norton (sans goatee) and the entire cast and crew of Say Anything but definitely not in that particular flick.