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Word of the day : marplot : one who frustrates or ruins a plan or undertaking by meddling
(Think of it as someone who literally mars a plot)

Julia began her first day of the fall semester at GSU today, teaching all the kiddies about art. It's always refreshing to be on campus the first day all the students are back, and it's quite a contrast from the preceding few months where Julia and I had her building (and seemingly the library) all to ourselves.

Gabriel had a wonky day at school today - 'crying and not following directions,' according to his teacher.
Oh, well, I say. Maybe he doesn't like you, I think (but don't say) to the teacher. Or maybe he's just ready to get outta town and go up to the Columbia for the day to see his aunt and visit the zoo. Not till Saturday.

Another screw-up (and late fee) with a local company, who sent our check to the wrong bank and, because it was returned, assessed us a late fee. Ah, small-town Georgia. Anyone out there who's not keeping his or her fingers crossed for Julia to get a better job next year, shame on you!

What do I think about Augusta National finally allowing women (albeit two of the wealthiest women in the country) onto its hallowed links. About time. Death to all gender and racial exclusivity. If a woman likes to play golf and can afford to play at the club, then why can't she? Christ, what year is it?

Money magazine named its annual list of the best cities in America to live. Here it is:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/best-places-to-live-2012.html

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Julia and I watched The Hunger Games this weekend. What a ride! I loved Suzanne Collins' mega-popular novel - it's one of the most exciting YA novels I've ever read (or likely will ever read). The movie, directed with a sure hand by Gary Ross (Seabiscuit) - who also wrote the faithful/not reverent script with Collins and Billy Ray - somewhat takes for granted that you've read the source material. The first hour of the 140-minute film features the long build-up to the games, with a variety of colorfully-adorned characters (Woody Harrelson, an unrecognizable Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland, Wes Bentley) backing up Jennifer Lawrence in the lead role. As Katniss Everdeen, the teenager who volunteers (taking her younger sister's place) to participate in the annual, nationally-televised bloodbath known as the Hunger Games, Lawrence gives a first-class interpretation of a character for the ages: Lawrence (so striking in the overpraised Winter's Bone) conveys any emotion necessary on her face delicately and beautifully, and she's never less than entirely believable as a girl forced to use her physicality and wiles to survive. The production design and cinematography (the film was shot in the mountains of western N.C.) is triumphant, and the movie works on all levels. It's unfair to compare a book and its film adaptation, but this worldwide smash fulfills expectations. Can't wait for the sequel.
(****)

I haven't read David Nicholls' 2009 novel One Day, but if the 2011 film adaptation, directed by the talented Lone Scherfig (who previously made the sensitive, moving coming-of-age story An Education, with its breakout star performance from Carey Mulligan) is any indication, it's probably worth a read. The story revolves around a gimmick - each year, on July 15, we follow the lives of two friends, Emma (played by Anne Hathaway, with a workable British accent) and Dexter (Jim Sturgess, of 21). In 1988, they graduate from university and over the years they remain best friends, soulmates even, as they navigate very different paths in life. Emma works menial jobs until she decides to get her certificate and becomes a teacher, marrying a good-hearted slob of a stand-up comic. Dexter spirals downward, becoming a low-rent, trashy TV presenter, lost in drugs and alcohol. As their careers rise and fall, the two seem destined to end up together, but fate and tragedy come calling - as they often do in these sorts of films. The stars have chemistry, and though I wished Patricia Clarkson's role as Dexter's dying mother was meatier, I will say that I enjoyed the enterprise. One of the elements that can kill a conceit like this is the believability of the characters' aging (i.e. watching Hathaway going from twenty-two to forty); it is to the movie's credit that I was never forced to suspend my disbelief.
(***)

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An entry today for my 500 Greatest Performances of All Time:

Al Pacino
as Benjamin 'Lefty' Ruggiero in Donnie Brasco (1997)

What a knockout performance! As an aging, underappreciated, disillusioned wiseguy, Pacino is every bit as impressive here as he is The Godfather films. Pacino reins in his penchant for going up, up, and over the top and holds you spellbound by the wary, searching delicacy in his portrayal of a lifelong mobster who befriends a young member of his outfit (Johnny Depp), only to betrayed when he finds out the Depp's Donnie Brasco is indeed an undercover FBI agent. Pacino blows everyone but Depp off the screen with his lived-in nuances. And he has one of the greatest last scenes in modern memory. Knowing that he has allowed a mole into his crew, he sits, shattered, on his bed in his apartment. The call has come in: Top dog Sonny Black (Michael Madsen), his boss, has asked Lefty to come and see him. Knowing that he will be killed, Pacino paces his apartment, resigned to his fate. He rifles through his sock drawer and then decides, as he is about to depart, to leave the drawer open, just a bit.

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R.I.P. Tony Scott. Who knows what went through his mind or what troubles he was going through when he decided to take his life on Sunday in L.A. I wasn't a fan of his, but check out some of the films he directed and produced:

Director:

Top Gun
Days of Thunder
Beverly Hills Cop II
Spy Game
True Romance
The Fan
The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3

Producer:

In Her Shoes
Pillars of the Earth and World Without End (mini-series')
The Good Wife (TV show)
The Grey
The A-Team
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Here are some Scott films I really liked: