Movies, Movies, and More Movies [entries|friends|calendar] Siobhan siochembio@livejournal.com [ userinfo | livejournal userinfo ] [ calendar | livejournal calendar ]

[Fri - 06/30/06 - 7:52am] [ mood | uncomfortable ] The Spanish doping scandal just got a whole lot bigger. Ullrich and Basso are out of the Tour de France. That's right, OUT. On the eve of the Tour, the two biggest names are out. My mind is reeling... read 2comment edit

[Thu - 06/29/06 - 1:42pm] [ mood | quixotic ] Alright, now that we know Vino IS riding the Tour, I'm going to go out on a HUGE limb and try to predict the top 10. 1. Ullrich. sentimental pick, perhaps. 2. Vinokourov 3. Ivan Basso 4. Levi Leipheimer 5. Cadel Evans 6. Floyd Landis 7. Alejandro Valverde 8. Denis Menchov 9. Yaroslav Popovych 10. George Hincapie Green Jersey: Tom Boonen Polka Dot Jersey: Michael Rasmussen This is all bollocks. Totally and completely. But hey, I gotta take a stab, right? read 9comment edit

[Thu - 06/29/06 - 1:36pm] [ mood | relieved ] Woohoo!! This current doping scandal is getting remarkably confusing. But huzzah! Vino is racing the Tour!!!! It just wouldn't be the same without him. comment edit

Astana-Wurth update. [Tue - 06/27/06 - 10:57am] Okay. Here's the poop. The UCI, cycling's ruling body, ruled that Astana-Wurth (Vinokourov's team) COULD compete in the Tour de France last Thursday. Yesterday, the Tour de France organizers said they had asked Astana-Wurth to withdraw. Astana-Wurth is expected to appeal the decision by the Tour de France organizers to the CAS, the Court of Arbitration of Sport. The CAS is like the Supreme Court for sports quibbles - it's the end all and be all. The CAS has already said they will deliberate the case this week and get a ruling out by Friday. Which is good, because the Tour starts on friggin' Saturday. TOUR!!!! AAAGH!!! comment edit

[Mon - 06/26/06 - 6:27pm] I was all excited about watching OLN's Tour de France Preview show. And then I watched it, and it was massively disappointing. WAAAAAY too American-centric. Yes, there are still Americans racing that have a chance of winning this year, but there also loads of Europeans/Australians/other people who are capable of winning! They basically covered Ullrich and Basso (the two "duh" choices), then Leipheimer, Landis, and Hincapie. And man oh man, am I missing the boat on Hincapie or something? Because I think he'll be lucky to be Top Ten, but others are all "Podium, podium, podium!!!" He just doesn't have the experience of being a leader or of racing to win in the mountains. Yes, he won a mountain stage last year, but that more out of dumb luck than anything else. He didn't attack, and he didn't lead or set the pace on that stage - he merely "hung on." You don't win by "hanging on." Plus I'm willing to be that Johann Bruyneel is more interested in seeing how Popovych performs than Hincapie performs - Popo IS the future of Discovery Channel, after all. Anyway - the main point - they didn't talk at all about Cadel Evans, Alexandre Vinokourov (who might not be racing now, GRRRRRRRR!!!), Francisco Mancebo, Michael Rasmussen, Denis Menchov, or Alejandro Valverde. Absolutely no mention of sprinters of King of the Mountains contenders. Pitiful. Ah well. I'll just have to be giddily appeased by the awesome Cycle Sport July issue. Now THAT'S a Tour de France preview!!!! comment edit

[Mon - 06/26/06 - 6:14pm] [ mood | angry ] bad news! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! read 1comment edit

[Mon - 06/26/06 - 4:02pm] Today's Robbo's birthday. Happy Birthday, Rob!! He's coming back from his weekend party in MD. Or at least, he's supposed to - he hasn't called me with plans like he said he would, and I cannot reach him. What's the point of a cell phone then?!?!? read 4comment edit

[Fri - 06/23/06 - 10:54am] I just found this Thin Man icon. And I had to use it. So there. read 3comment edit

[Thu - 06/22/06 - 7:26pm] NEW CYCLE SPORT JULY ISSUE IS HERE!! *breathes* TOUR DE FRANCE SPECIAL! STAGE BREAKDOWNS! BIG ARTICLE, BASSO VS. ULLRICH! TEAM BY TEAM ANALYSIS!! MAJOR CONTENDER ANALYSES (INCLUDING CADEL EVANS)!!! AND CADEL EVANS ON THE BACK COVER IN AN AD!!!!!!! *dies of giddiness* read 2comment edit

Breaking cycling news [Thu - 06/22/06 - 3:06pm] This just in: Alexandre Vinokourov's team, Astana-Wurth (formerly Liberty-Seguros), has been given the tentative go-ahead for the Tour de France. Since the Spanish doping scandal broke about a month and a half ago, and their former team manager Manolo Saiz was implicated heavily in the scandal and even arrested at one point, the Tour organizers have been talking about rescinding the offer to the team to compete. But they hadn't decided! And the Tour is only ten days away! (*does HUGE excited happy dance*) So they FINALLY decided today to give them the green light for the Tour - depending, of course, on the assumption that no new information will come to light implicating anyone else on the team. Thank goodness, is all I have to say. Vino is, IMO, the most exciting all around cyclist riding today. He's so damn erratic, it's fantastic! You really can't predict what he's going to do except that he's going to be aggressive. This year's Tour will only benefit from having him there. Personally, I used to hate him. Now I love him. I'm hoping he'll get on the podium. comment edit

[Thu - 06/22/06 - 12:42pm] Ordered the 2001 TdF 10 hour set the other day... will be here for the weekend... yesssssssssssssss! The Boy's going to go play with other Boys this weekend, leaving me to nothing but kitties, cross stitching, and watching movies. Sounds PERFECT!!! Throw in some Mexican food, and I'm ecstatic! comment edit

[Sun - 06/18/06 - 10:41pm] Ah, nothing like watching severely depressing German expressionist films from the twenties to make you want to slit your wrists. The Last Laugh, 1924, starring Emil Jannings, dir. FW Murnau. Murnau's a genius. No doubt about it. But oh my god, this is so sad. Old man is hotel doorman, and it's all he lives for. Then he gets demoted to wash room attendant. And his life falls apart - he becomes an alcoholic and desperately tries to figure out a way to get his uniform, his precious uniform back. Jesus Christ. One depressing scenario after the other. I'm in the middle of it right now. AAAAAAAAHHH!! I'll definitely need movie Prozac after this finishes. Where are the razors? read 3comment edit

[Wed - 06/14/06 - 1:46pm] [ mood | leaving work early! ] Ulle had a good day in the Tour de Suisse today, finishing sixth on the stage, 17 seconds back. Good thing too - first mountain stage, especially considering he didn't exactly try too hard during the Giro. And the T-Mobile team really helped him out. He moves up to 6th overall. My man Cadel Evans also had a good day, finishing 13th on the stage, and 22 seconds back. This moves him up to 12th overall. More mountain stages over the next three days. This is really Ulle's first race where he's competing. I REALLY want him to be on form for the Tour. I also REALLY REALLY REALLY hope Astana-Wurth doesn't get their bid to the Tour rescinded, because Alexandre Vinokourov just HAS to be at the Tour. He just HAS to. Stupid Spanish doping scandal. read 3comment edit

Favorite "Music Moments" [Mon - 06/12/06 - 4:32pm] [ mood | good ] As I sit here listening to my iPod at work, I smile as I come across a great music moment... I define "music moments" as small snippets of a piece of music (generally classical, for me) that are simply so sublime, they deserve recognition. Sometimes it's because of the original composition, sometimes it's because of the particular recording. Anyway, here are some of my all time favorite music moments. 1. Mars, The Planet Suite, by Holst. The tutti about 2/3 of the way through when the WHOLE ORCHESTRA plays the percussive repetition in 5/4. It sends chills down my spine. I once went to a performance of The Planets, and they weren't QUITE on at that point. It ruined the whole concert for me, unfortunately. 2. Symphony No. 7, Mvt. I, Beethoven. The very end of the first movement when the horns come in, in a triumphant fanfare. It's only four measures long, but it's awesome. 3. Symphony No. 9, Mvt. IV. About halfway through - when it gets all quiet, and it's down to just the french horns holding the sustained rhythm, and the woodwinds very quietly play the theme, and then it just EXPLODES. The whole orchestra comes in, the singers come in, they play/sing the refrain to Ode to Joy, then there's the TREMENDOUS TRUMPET FANFARE. Too many recordings don't play the fanfare loud enough. It needs to be JUST as joyous as the first entrance. On more than one occasion, this particular part has moved me to tears. 4. A Midsummer Night's Dream, Overture, Mendelssohn. The opening 90 seconds. It's frightfully quiet, sixteenth note runs in the string section, depicting a magic forest VERY well, then it opens up into the hugely majestic royal theme. It's awesome. That's all I can think of for now. Just awesome little moments in music - not even entire songs - that are so perfect and so beautiful and so moving. read 1comment edit

[Sat - 06/10/06 - 12:23am] [ music | watching Summer Stock, recorded on DVR from earlier today ] Gene Kelly is sex on a stick. That is all. read 4comment edit

Movies, movies, and more movies! [Fri - 06/9/06 - 2:43pm] [ mood | artistic ] After my trip to Germany and my committee meeting and finishing up my community band for the summer, I've gotten back into my crazy movie watching, once again aided by that brilliant book of mine, 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. Here's what I've been watching lately and my take on it. ( Love Me Tonight, A Nous La Liberte, Le Million, Earth, The Birth of a Nation, Jezebel, She Done Him Wrong, On the Waterfront, Rear Window, and more!! ) cross-posted a couple places. read 9comment edit

[Sat - 05/27/06 - 1:57pm] [ mood | cranky ] Can't go with Rob to family Memorial Day bash due to stupid committee meeting on Tuesday. Must prepare document and do final little experiments. Have been working since 10am on document, and the past four hours have been very productive, which is good. I'm done working on it for today - will polish it up tomorrow and Monday. It's mostly finished - just need to finalize the presentation and add the figure legends to the document. Also need to revise the background section to include more recent results. Ah well. For tomorrow. I need to now a) shower b) go to lab and do assay c) relax for the rest of the evening and eat too much mexican food. yay. ps - Basso rawks. comment edit

[Fri - 05/26/06 - 2:30pm] Basso is kicking ass in the Giro d'Italia. He's just over 6 minutes up on the second place guy, and third place is more than 10 minutes back. That's HUGE. There's only two stages left. Basically, if he doesn't DIE first, he'll win. I have NEVER seen him perform so dominantly. Good for him!! (now the question is - can he recover and build up again for the Tour de France in only about five weeks' time?!?!?) comment edit

Germany picspam! [Thu - 05/25/06 - 11:35pm] [ mood | accomplished ] My Germany pictures! It took forever to pick which photos I wanted (from about 500), upload the pictures, write the captions, and then edit the pictures so they're all right side up. So no rundown on the trip for you! See the album - it's all in there. It was great fun. I'm so glad I went. *grins* (ps - about three weeks ago I left a message on the messageboard at Cadel Evans' official website. I checked it today - and he responded to me!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!) comment edit

[Wed - 05/24/06 - 5:42pm] Back from Germany. More details forthcoming. Trip went fine - no lost luggage, no illness, no stolen money, no flight cancellations. Best part - Burg Eltz (see previous photo post). From the train ride to the tiny village to the walk through the woods to the huge castle, and then everything again in reverse. All of it was, for lack of a better word, magical. Photos also forthcoming. Yay! read 3comment edit

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