emily k(nits, watches, and writes)

After moving and shuffling things and refinding things I have finally finished and woven in the ends of my two most recent cowl projects.

Clinton

Clinton by Berroco. Uses 8 skeins of Vintage, and I’m pretty sure you can squeeze two cowls out of the 8 skeins.

Calm Cowl

Calm Cowl, a free pattern I found on Ravelry. Knit up with 1.5 skeins of Berroco Vintage DK in Oats. Love it.

Both are on display near their respective yarns at Hill Country Weavers. Feel free to check them out!

So I knit Kyle a hat at one point, but it was a teal color that was a bit too much on the green side …. it was also made out of 50/50 alpaca/wool so it’s super warm. Seeing as he lives in LA, something a bit lighter would be more functional. So I made him this watch cap (which fits me because I have a big head and a lot of hair):

Watch Cap

I knit it out of pretty much my favorite yarn ever, Berroco Vintage. Wool/Acrylic/Nylon blend, super soft, washable, great colors. A much more manly color and fit. The pattern is from Bruce Weinstein’s great Knits Men Want. I’m determined to knit most of the patterns from that book for him. (But not a sweater. This I know. Not yet anyway.) The picture was taken above New Mexico on an airplane as I as headed out to LA to spend a week with him (d’awww).

Now I’m casting on another in Berroco Ultra Alpaca for my friend Scott (what color? black. “forever black, forever alone” so he says). It’s a quick knit and a great on-the-go project.

There’s my review! Thank you and goodnight.

Fright Night

Well… I’d like to write a spoiler-free review, so we’ll see how this goes. Craig Gillespie’s Fright Night, coming out today in theaters nation-wide, is a remake of the 1985 film with Chris Sarandon and Roddy McDowall. So in that respect, I’m not sure how much can be considered spoilers seeing as the movie has been out for so long already. ANYWAY. I’ve never seen the original so I went into this film with only my low expectations. Because honestly, the trailers were not very impressive. And I’m the kind of movie-goer now that avoids trailers and preview images like the plague. I don’t want other people’s impressions to ruin me before I see a film.

Yet here I am doing that very thing.

So I’ll just tell you what I think worked and what didn’t work.

Visuals: I’ll start off by saying that the screening I attended at the Disney Studios in Burbank was in 3D. (Making this screening my first foray into 3D film.) And there were quite a few shots in 3D that worked incredibly well. The establishing shots were stunningly gorgeous and all the outdoor filming was great. The layering and depth of shots in 3D were really beautiful and there was a lot of careful detail put into the rendering. Yet that was ruined a bit by the GOTCHA! moments. The stuff made to intentionally jump out at the audience was pretty lame. But we expect that now with 3D in movies, right? …. right. I wish filmmakers had more faith in 3D visuals. It’s apparent to me that 3D can be used to make something beautiful and engaging, but seeing a dude in a club throw a t-shirt and have it jump out of the screen at me? Puh-lease. Whatever. And there’s this digital 360º pan that’s just … unnecessary. Another dumb thing is the ending credits. They basically just re-show things from the movie. “Hey stupid movie-goer, don’t forget what happened in the movie YOU JUST SAW.” Heh.

Tennant and Yelchin in Fright Night

Acting: The acting was really great. I mean, really. Especially from Tennant and Yelchin. They totally made the movie. Colin Farrell was almost able to pull off being creepy (without Vampire makeup) but he’s just a bit too sexy for it (I guess). The supporting cast was great: Toni Collette (as Mom … again) was a bit underutilized, but that happens to the Mom Role in movies like this. Imogen Poots managed to take a relatively dry side-character, the “out of his league” girlfriend, and make her relatively interesting. Ginger, Peter Vincent’s assistant/girlfriend/antagonist was maybe the best side-character in this movie. She was hilarious. But really, David Tennant as Peter Vincent was fantastic casting. He was very, well, himself, especially with the yelling and the quick delivery of his lines. But it worked perfectly for the role; his comedic timing was excellent and he didn’t take himself too seriously. The DT Fangirls will eat this movie up. And fun to hear the Doctor swear. There have been rumblings of a spin-off/sequel of Peter Vincent going around killing vampires, which I’d totally see. I’d 100% go see that in theaters. I think the only gripe I have is Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who is way too bitchy and angsty for me to feel any empathy for his character (his name is “Evil Ed,” so maybe that’s the point). Oh, and they spend a bit too much time with Charley’s stupid jock/stoner friends. They’re pretty useless.

Tennant as Peter Vincent

Sound: To be honest, I found the sound design to be the least interesting aspect of the movie. Yes, I know, Claudia Gorbman says music has to remain unnoticed to be effective, but I don’t know if I necessarily buy that. Music is definitely noticeable at all times, it just depends on the audience’s level of engagement with the film. I have a biased ear (I study film and television music if you didn’t know), and I didn’t find any element of the sound design engaging in any way. There was one moment, very early on in the film, where they panned the audio across the stereo channels as the camera did a 180º. Which was cool! It’s like you’re there. But that was it. The rest of the film used relatively stock horror music, pauses for enhanced jump-out-of-your-seat factor and popular music mixed in way too loudly. One cue in particular, which you’ll all notice I’m sure, happens on a shot of Peter Vincent looking out his window. The camera is positioned outside so you’d figure the music would start softer, then become louder when we eventually get a shot of the interior of the room. But no. It’s SUPER LOUD SO YOU KNOW IT’S A POP SONG AND THAT THEY’RE IN A VEGAS CASINO. Which is just lazy sound editing. The weird cover of “99 Problems” at the end of the film is …. well, weird. I’m not sure why they play it. If they’re relying on the lyrics to drive home some point of the film it’s lost on me. Except for Jerry’s weird adolescent lust and semi-homoeroticism. But it doesn’t seem to be a big narrative point so… I don’t get it. My best guess is they used it because the music video has similar horror visuals as the film and the end credits.

Overall: I hear there have been some minor changes to the story, aside from location and what-have-you. If you’re a fan of the original you may find that a bit distracting, about as distracting as the stupid 3D goggle things that didn’t quite fit over my glasses. But overall, if you like slightly campy vampire/horror flicks you will definitely enjoy this. I sincerely hope the 3D element doesn’t deter people. I also hope the “success” of the Twilight films doesn’t make this film less appealing to the general masses. This is a true popcorn-horror flick. It’s not meant to be a serious horror movie. It’s meant to be fun. And if you go in with that mentality I guarantee you’ll enjoy it. I wish more movies like this were being made. I’ll be seeing Fright Night again at the Alamo in 2D to see if it plays out any differently. And to see Tennant [edited] again. I lol’d.

The last few days have been a combination of me working at Hill Country Weavers and working on my bibliography for my dissertation prospectus. While searching for “science fiction television” as a subject heading I found a few great additions to my bibliography, as well as this:

Intelligent Design Coloring Book

Here is the book detail:

A child’s life is full of both joys and challenges—the infinite wonder of learning, the literal and figurative scraped knees of everyday life, and, of course, deep, penetrating theological terror. That’s why Pastor Brett of the Mega-Pheasant Heights Assembly Church has created an activity book that will divert those long lazy hours of idle youth into a soul-saving good time. Inside are crafty puzzles, mazes of wrath, and connect-the-dots! Also, the mysteries of God’s creation are revealed and explored, including, but not limited to: why God sometimes does not answer your prayers; why heterosexual monogamy is demanded of us; and why listening to scientists will end with your corporeal destruction and eternal damnation. You will learn the nature of other “religions” as well as how best to crush them. And then there will be juice boxes. While tradition states that the path to heaven is paved by knowledge of scripture, the doing of good works, and the conversion of heathens, it has recently been revealed that no one can obtain their eternal reward without first obtaining a copy of The Intelligent Design Coloring Book!

(emphasis added by me)

The cover, luckily, says “100% Fact Free.” And as soon as you open it up and flip through the pages you realize that it’s an expert parody into the origins of fundamental religious intolerance, human ignorance, and the formation of ideologies and philosophies that breed distrust and hatred in the US. The sad thing is some people will pick this up and go “totally!” But the part about the couple on the beach has to be the best thing I’ve ever seen.

“Carrie is doing the Intelligent Designer’s work. Using her breasts, she attempts to distract Matt from looking at Michael.”
“Breasts can be used for good or evil. When they are used to foil homosexual activity it pleases the Intelligent Designer.”

Granted, for me, this is the kind of sarcastic junk that perpetuates stereotypes and fuels the fire of fundamental conservative christians. Which for me is just as infuriating. But I guess the best place to turn to make these horrible things more tolerable is comedy…

I started knitting this guy on Thursday, June 23rd. Friday morning this is how far I had gotten:

Clinton

Today is Monday, June 27th, and here is how much I’ve gotten done:

Clinton

It’s been such a quick knit for me, mostly because I am so excited to switch colors. The gradation of the different colors is wonderful, and all you need to be able to do is work with two colors at once.

I’m following the tip from Mason Dixon knitting of turning stranded colorwork inside out. It helps keep the floats on the loose side.