What am I up to? On a day-to-day basis, not a whole heck of a lot. But I just got back from my daily lunch on the Champ de Mars, where today a brass band was playing "Build Me Up Buttercup," inspiring me to write an entry. The best moments in Paris are those little random ones.
Not so random moments from this past weekend:

Subcontinent's Visit
Subcontinent and her parents were passing through Paris and we grabbed dinner with them Friday and an ice cream lunch and shopping session with them on Saturday after I got off work. It was all kinds of fun, and it reminded me of how much fun we had when we were in Paris together last time two years ago.

The Trip to Bruges
We rented a car (and that was quite a to-do, since the usually amiable if a little slow National was this time just slooooow and then they ran out of cars even though we had a reservation and then we went over to Avis and then...but you know what, we got one in the end so I'm not telling that whole story) and drove up to Bruges on Sunday with Mom driving and me navigating. We decided that Lille is a black hole, since we got lost around there on the way up and on the way back for unrelated reasons, neither of which were our fault. Finally we made it and our hotel was clean and pretty and, most importantly, had an ENORMOUS bathtub. If you've ever talked to me about bathtubs (not exactly the most scintillating topic, but oh well), you'll know that I love them, and put up with showers because I like to be clean. But tubs I really love and since, nowadays, I only get to enjoy a nice soak when I'm at home in Damn-Big-Midwestern-University Town, I was very happy to find one waiting for me in Bruges.
We spent the afternoon wandering around town. We took a boat ride on the canals and the river (which, for comparison's sake, cost the same amount as a ride on the Ferris wheel in Paris but while the Ferris wheel ride lasts five minutes, this lasted half an hour and included a spoken tour). We visited the Gruuthuse. We had drinks at the 400 beers bar that Dad insisted we go to on his behalf. For dinner, we ate the best mussels I have ever had in my life. I'm never eating mussels again, because these were so good.

Dear God.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel and made an early night of it, since we were both so exhausted from our rental car fiasco. The next day, though, we got a lot in. We climbed the bell tower, made famous by the movie In Bruges, saw many churches and medieval/Renaissance houses and even touched a relic said to contain a bit of Jesus Christ's blood. Yes. We also ate ice cream, had tea, and saw the béguinage before starting to drive home at three. We were supposed to get the car back my nine and we thought that would give us an hour and a half safety cushion. We ended up getting the car in at 8:20, thanks to the Lille Black Hole of Doom, which on this end manifested itself through framers on tractors spread out across the auto route, protesting something or other. We had to take surface roads for several miles, and we had to find these roads ourselves, since no one has thought to set up a detour.
We made it back to the apartment tired, but happy on the whole with our quick trip into Belgium.

Bastille Day
The day following our return was Bastille Day, so neither of us had to work and we had the chance to relax a bit. Relaxation in this case meant going to see Public Enemies, which brings me to three things:
1) Johnny Depp can actually exist in a movie without making me crack up and/or roll my eyes. Well done Johnny. You actually freaked me out a little bit.
2) Chicago films SO WELL. Love it.
3) Baby Face Nelson. Was he this nuts in real life? In both this movie and in O Brother, Where Art Thou he was portrayed as nutso and trigger-happy. Compared to his antics, all the other random violence in the film looked positively rational.
After the movie we relaxed some more, ate dinner, and then went for a walk by the Seine to watch the fireworks.

Winter break was wonderful and jam-packed (evidence of this: lack of blog entries). And now it is over, alas. Nonetheless, I got to meet up with HarvardGirl, StOlafBoy (erstwhile Roxanne to my Cyrano), BrandeisGirl, CornellBoy, UPSGirl, HaverfordBoy, and others. As well as, drum roll please, SUBCONTINENT!!!! We were finally reunited after six months and the giggles flowed freely. And we actually saw and liked (to varying degrees) Twilight, which of course means that my guilty pleasure quotient for 2009 has been used up just like that. From here on out it's Oscar nominees and Booker Prizewinners ONLY.
Yeah. Let's see how long that lasts.
In general, I have a pretty good (albeit eclectic) taste in movies and books. I did not expect to enjoy Twilight, though, and I confess that I did. Two movies that I also got to see in theaters while home and liked without shame were Slumdog Millionaire and Doubt. I had both read Doubt before, and seen it in Chicago starring Cherry Jones, so I was really, really excited to see the movie, but I was also a little trepidatious. After all, how could my second best theatrical evening (after seeing The History Boys in London) translate well into a movie?
I'm still not sure that it did, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The average moviegoer may have found it slow-going at times, but it started on stage, and John Patrick Shanley, the playwright, both adapted it for the screen and directed it, so that was bound to happen.
As to the question of whether or not "he did it," I give you:
Three Things about Doubt:
1) I read the script in 2006: No, he didn't do it. Absolutely not.
2) I saw the play in 2007: YES. If he didn't do it, I'm a ninety year old African man.
3) I saw the movie in 2008: Yes, he did it, if, to allude to Bill Clinton, we are loose in our definition of "it." I e-mailed back and forth with Intern T about the movie, and he put it well when he said that it struck him that some line had been crossed, but whether or not it was physical molestation was unclear.
In short: Doubt. Read it, see it, whatever. But encounter it in some way.

The majority of my break was spent trying to convince myself to write two of my four papers (I ended up writing one), finishing The Wire (as you know), and starting Homicide. Homicide is like the nicotine gum you start chewing when trying to kick the cigarette habit that is The Wire.
And then you're addicted to gum.
At least in my case I know what's fueling my addiction. Detective Frank Pembleton.

He wants you to watch Homicide.
This is one of those characters I am IN LOVE WITH, and I can't decide whether I wish I were married to him or wish I had written him.
At any rate, intersession can't come too soon. We'll watch the next season then.

Until then, wish me luck on my three (remaining) papers, two RCA interviews, and two exams! À bientôt!

Saturday night Roommate J and I caught a free showing of Burn After Reading.
Three Things:
1) Brad Pitt. Some may have found him annoying. Annoying was Troy. Here, he was adorable.
2)George Clooney. Oh God. I don't care what the New Yorker said. This man can do no wrong.
3) John Malkovich. Of course Osborn Cox went to Princeton. Of course, of course, of course!
3a) And, since I can hear my mother in my head saying, "You just listed three men," Tilda Swinton! Frances McDormand. I don't know what Christopher Hitchens was smoking when he said women aren't funny.

Now that I've attended all of my five (!) fall classes, I'm able to give those oh-so witty encapsulations I'm apparently addicted to.
French--American Professor with a perfect accent. Native speakers are the other students. Lots of film vocab. Très intimidating, but probably pure awesome at the core.
English #1--We started by reading Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which I had already read, but which still scares me. Think it's hard going to bed after reading it? Try walking back from the library in the dark.
English #2--OHMYGODYESILOVETHISCLASS. Taught by Master Awesome, this class promises to have the most quotes, notes, and memorable moments by the end of the semester.
Gender Studies--This class worries me. I'm worried that I'll fall so in love with it that I'll be tempted to minor in it.
Religion--Prof. Bagel, you're awesome. Little did I know that when I saw you as an articulate and *gasp* interesting talking head in a high school history documentary that I'd some day be taking your class. Looks as awesome as you. Just lighten up on the reading, would you. I've got Daniel Deronda to finish.

While typing this, Florida Flatmate H called. We had an awesome chat. I knew that I missed my friends from this summer, but I didn't realize how much until we had talked for a bit.

I've seen two movies in the past two days.
Yesterday was my day off and I celebrated by doing what I normally do: driving to the farthest possible movie theater and seeing something ridiculous (see: Sex and the City) or beautifully filmed and well plotted (see: The Fall). After much internal debate during which time I decided that Mamma Mia was too ridiculous to spend seven dollars on, even for me, I opted on The X-Files movie.
Three Things:
1) I've never seen the series, so I don't really know what I'm talking about, but I know about Mulder and Scully's Josh-and-Donna relationship and this is exactly the kind of sequel I would have envisioned for them.
2) This movie raised a lot of ethical questions and then didn't harp on finding answers to them, which was pretty classy, if I say so myself.
3) Creeeepy, with the severed limbs and the dogs and especially the pool scene oh my God.
3a) WEST VIRGINIA = BAD NEWS

Then, today, just now in fact, I saw the movie I've been waiting all summer to see. That's right. Brideshead Revisited. Intern N, Intern T, Intern A2, Intern J and I went to see it. It was the perfect group, because we're all mature enough to handle complex plots, which, love them as I do, not all of my new friends here are capable of. Afterwards, Intern N (who LOVED IT; yay!) said that he intended to read the book. I told him to go for it, but to expect a lot less kissing and a lot more religious angst.
On that note,
Three Things:
1) I would like to disagree with whichever reviewer it was (the New York Times?) who likened the lead actor, Matthew Goode, to a piece of asparagus. If he was at any time inert (I only noticed hints of inertia in the last twenty minutes), it was only because his character was.
2) Gorgeous. Everything. Everything but Emma Thompson's teeth. Very British, those. White though, which was good. Nonetheless, she was beautiful in the movie (evil but beautiful) and she's aged well.
2a) Ben Whisaw? Awesome. Hayley Atwell? SMOKING HOT. Seriously, none of us who went would be interested in her on an ordinary day, but were I suddenly plonked in the middle of the film (or Line of Beauty, for that matter, which she was also in), Charles wouldn't be the only character dabbling in sexual confusion.
3) The edits that were made were perfect. It was streamlined and, although there was of course a certain point of view that this director was aiming for, it was pretty darn faithful to the spirit of the book.
3a) Still: not enough Anthony Blanche.

Just saw The Dark Knight with Interns T, D, and C, and Flatmates M and S. I loved it. I was definitely in the fetal position for the last fourth of the movie.
Three Things:
1) Chicago looks great on film. I love that city, and I love how creepy and beautiful it can look simultaneously at night.
2) Heath Ledger was everything the reviews said he was: brilliant, and scary as hell. It was one of those performances where you can't forget the story of the person playing the character, but it doesn't take away from the performance, it just adds another layer that, in this case, was terrifying.
3) This movie was so dark. I thought that Batman Begins was dark, but there's really no comparison. The scene with the ferries was amazing because I honestly didn't know how it was going to end.
3a) Maggie Gyllenhaal's last scene was so good, and the fact that it happened made the movie stronger.
3b) I was so glad Gary Oldman didn't die.
3c) Did I mention that I was in the fetal position?

Recommendations abound! Even the most jaded action viewers will like this one.

Enjoying my day off today involved driving to the farthest possible movie theater, buying a large Pepsi and seeing WALL-E.
Three things:
1) So cute. SO cute. Pixar can make anything cute.
2) So dark. SO dark. I have a feeling that this was one of those movies that doesn't bother kids, but adults walk away from nervous, on the brink of tears and needing a massage. (Example A: when Dad and I saw The Truman Show together when I was ten.)
3) I loved all of the scenes in his house, especially when he discovered new things about the junk he collected. Those scenes were beautiful.
3a) BILLY BASS!!!

P.S. The shows yesterday actually went well. Actors B and P were appropriately shamefaced when we brought up the fact that in the interest of our last week of performances they may not want to, you know, go entirely insane just yet.

Yesterday I woke up around eleven and hurried to catch the 12:15 showing of Sex and the City.
Three Things:
1) Those books Carrie had supposedly written looked exactly like the Tales of the City format. I got very excited about that, and I'm sure the screenwriter considered it as well.
2) I like Charlotte. She's sweet without being irritating.
3) This movie made me want to cry. I have no idea why, especially since that was NOT the intended response.
3a) Maybe I was just sorry for Samantha's boyfriend.
Then I came back to the apartment and relaxed until it was time to watch two hours of the Tony's. They were pretty lackluster (at least the parts I saw), but it was fun to watch with other theater fans, and I was still really excited at having seen so many of the nominees.
Intern S, Neighbor C, Flatmate S and I had to leave before it was over to go do set changeover. We arrived at the theater at ten and left at three. The entire time was filled with heavy lifting and moving. It was less than fun after I got separated from my initial work group (Flatmate S, Intern W, and Intern T, who suggested we form a moving company called "Three Girls and a Gay") and was instead put on the not-as-fun detail of suspending an entire set piece by holding onto a rope for dear life.
Today Intern T, Intern S and I got to come into the office at noon, which we did. I spent the day shredding paper and sorting mail (including a postcard for me from Mom!) and reading synopses (my favorite job). I won't be back in the office until July 1st, because my secondary duties are kicking in with this impending show, so I felt kind of sad to leave the office at the end of the day.
Tonight was a blast. I went to a minor league baseball game with Flatmate M, Neighbor C, SexyDownstairsNeighborMan, Intern E (whom I had seen before but never met because he lives with his grandparents and not in housing), and StageManagerGuy, who is awesome. We had a great time. Highlights include enthusing about In Bruges with SexyDownstairsNeighborMan and StageManagerGuy. I loved that they knew The Lieutenant of Inishmore came from the same author. Yay theater people!
We got back to the apartment and played a game of Quick Scrabble, introduced to us by Intern T.
I won several times.
Tomorrow I don't go in until three, but then it's for more heavy lifting and set-building. Wish me luck!

June 8th—8:47 pm addition

After Panera I stopped in at Barnes & Noble and ended up getting my favorite beverage, the chocolate chip frappachino (props to The Street for introducing me to this fabulous comestible) in their Starbucks. I opened my computer and started working on my summer short story project, killing time as the movie time drew nearer. There was a man seated two seats down from me at the bar facing the window. He was grading papers. I didn’t notice him get up to go get another drink, but I did notice him come back because he stood halfway between out chairs and spoke to me.
Man: (holding up a frappachino) You’re a bad influence on me.
Nom de Plume: (laughs) Oh.
Man: Just so long as you don’t smoke crack. (sits)
Nom de Plume: (laughs, nervously)
Man: (after a moment) You don’t, do you?
Nom de Plume: No. So you’re in the clear.
It would be nice to flirted with for once by a man under the age of thirty. That’s all I ask, really.
So after my Barnes & Noble adventure I went to see The Fall. I have come to the conclusion that Roger Ebert is God and the New York Times doesn’t have a heart. Then again, Roger Ebert is a fairly intellectual guy who likes a good drama or well-done comedy, but isn’t above liking romantic comedies from time to time, sees the good in scatological humor when used sparingly, and grew up in NeighboringMidwesternTown. In short, he and I have a similar background and a similar taste in movies, as evinced by the fact that I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve disagreed with him on a film’s merits (The Usual Suspects, I’m looking at you).
Anyway, Roger Ebert loved The Fall and so did I. Recommendations abound.
Three things:
1) Lee Pace is all kinds of attractive and boy can he act. Oh my God. I may be forced to watch Pushing Daisies now.
2) The little girl was so cute. Whoever wrote her lines was a genius. In fact, all of the dialogue between Roy and Alexandria was stuff I would sell my legs to write. And speaking of legs, that part with the toe checking? May be my favorite new scene I’ve watched this year.
3) Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. This is the most beautiful movie I’ve ever seen. The cinematography needs an Oscar. Also, the entire movie used no computer-generated special effects and was shot on a shoestring budget over the course of four years. Think about that when you see it and understand why Roger Ebert and I are so in awe.
3a) AAAAAHHHHHH!!! I need someone else to see it NOW.

I got home and chatted with Flatmate S and Intern J for a while before eating dinner. Then Flatmate H and Neighbor C came in. They were shortly followed by SexyDownstairsNeighborMan and Flatmate M. We all sat around and talked and then they went to see a movie, leaving Flatmate S and I here together. She and I are definitely the quietest, so it’s nice to get some time in the apartment to ourselves, I think. I’m sitting in the living room writing and listening to thunder rumble in the distance, very relaxed.

June 11th, 2008 7:08 pm
I'm watching Serenity with Flatmate S right now. Intern S, the final literary intern showed up, and I'm reserving judgment until she has time to settle in more.
Monday night all the interns came over and we and our neighbors made breakfast for dinner for everyone. I was in charge of dishes before and after and I did my part well. Then a lot of people went to Sonic and I stayed behind to watch Superbad with SexyDownstairsNeighborMan, Intern T, and Flatmates M and H.
Last night I went to Karaoke Night with the whole gang. I didn't sing, of course, but I did have a great time chatting with Flatmate S and listening to CostumeLady and Intern T gossip about staff members.
Work lately has been great. I've been doing a lot of things, but the best has been when I read synopses sent in my playwrights without agents. (They send in synopses and ten pages of sample dialog and we let them know if we want to hear more.) I picked four out of the twenty I read yesterday and today that I liked and wanted to order and BossLady agreed with me. (YAY!) I sent out the letters to the playwrights too. The rejection letters were very polite. The query letters were brisk and to the point. It was awesome.

Roommate J, RussianRoommate and I just got back from the Fencing Twins' birthday party, where I knew most of the people there. What an amazing feeling, to have lived somewhere for months and to realize you have, in fact, made social progress.
Today's Dean's Date festivities went off without a hitch. I turned everything in, and then spent the afternoon reading all of More Tales of the City. (I read all of Tales of the City two days ago.) Why oh why oh why have I suddenly discovered a HIGHLY ADDICTIVE heptalogy when I should be studying for Rome final and packing my stuff before Cousin J and Cousin B show up on Saturday to haul it to Uncle Hoagie-Free-Zone's house in Philadelphia (the logistics are very confused, but the fact that I SHOULD be packing is clear)?
More TV/Movie Watching:
Part one of the season finale of House was last night, and I watched it, as always, with HSClassmate. Talk about intense. Anticipation of next week's episode is at an all-time high.
I also just watched the season finale of Brothers & Sisters. Great show. Recommendations abound, even if it is veering dangerously close to soap land with this mysterious sibling plot line. Rachel Griffiths is still awesome, though, and Luke MacFarlane is freaking adorable.
In a rare instance of spontaneous hallway bonding, Roommate J, two guys from downstairs, HaHa's roommate, and I watched Mulan two nights ago, and sang along to all the good parts. It was so much fun, mostly because we were forced to borrow our RA's DVD player and hook it up to the broken one in a dorm we don't even live in in order to watch it on a screen big enough for all of us to see. It was worth it, though, for the looks on the faces of the people in the study room next door when we at last burst out of the room at one fifteen still singing "I'll Make a Man Out of You."
On Sunday I also watched The Bubble (Ha Buah), which was playing in France along with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix when Subcontinent, Family, and I were there this summer. We saw Harry Potter and didn't see this, but I remembered the title and that it got good reviews, so I decided to give it a shot. Three Things:
1) For once, the Romeo & Juliet parallels didn't occur to me until after watching it, when I sat down and re-read the reviews it got. They were all there, though: star-crossed lovers, Benvolio and Mercutio characters, the crabby cousin on the other side, death, assumed-death, death, and eventual death. Also, like Romeo and Juliet, you know that it's not going to end well--it's one of those edge-of-your-seat movies that is physically uncomfortable to watch--but hope against hope that you're wrong.
2) I've always felt woefully uneducated about the whole Israel-Palestine conflict, and although I would never go as far as to say this movie cleared some things up for me, it was easy to enter into the plot and not be confused by politics. This was not because the movie was devoid of politics. Quite the opposite. However, it deftly navigated its way through Tel Aviv, checkpoints, and Palestine in a way that allows the viewer to follow along easily.
3) Well-acted. Very well-acted.
3a) Those fake French accents were adorable.

So here I am, with the year rapidly coming to an end. Tomorrow I plan to immerse myself in Rome studying until after dinner, when I'll turn my eye to packing. Maybe then I'll read Further Tales of the City. I don't think I can restrain myself longer than 24 hours.

Today was an extremely relaxing day, spent writing a bit, and then reading for pleasure. I read an entire novel--An Awfully Big Adventure by Beryl Bainbridge--and then went to the library to get two more. Now I'm watching Spartacus for one of the essay prompts in the Rome class final.
Three Things so far:
1) Tony Curtis' accent is almost as ridiculous here as it was excellent in Some Like It Hot.
2) I much prefer the villains to the heroes. Uh-oh. What could it mean?
3) Peter Ustinov and Charles Laughton eat chicken with more acting prowess than 84% of the other actors in the movie.

The Day of Silence and Take Back the Night yesterday made for an activism-filled day. The latter consisted, at Princeton, not of a march (we don't have much of anywhere to march), but of a series of speakers and performances followed by a candlelight vigil. This was actually in keeping with an article I read in the newspaper over my silent breakfast (having gotten up so, so early to sign up for courses, I had time to go to the dining hall for it) about activism at Princeton, and how it consists of talking and not shouting. I'm not sure how I feel about that in general, but last night I was grateful for it because I was completely exhausted. Five hours of sleep (I am an abnormal college student and usually get nine) + silence all day = soooo sleepy.
Anyway, the keynote Take Back the Night speaker was Katie Koestner. She was such an amazing orator (not loud or bombastic but quiet and perfectly paced) with a horrible story to tell. She told it well and we were moved to a stand ovation.
Afterwards I collapsed into bed with my computer and watched Pedro Almodóvar's La mala educación (Bad Education), which I had missed when it was shown in Residential College during the week but which I had wanted to see so I rented it from the library.
Three Things:
1) Gael García Bernal. I need say no more.
2) Almodóvar is the new Hitchcock. I suspected as much when I saw Volver, but this completely confirmed it (and Roger Ebert agrees with me). It had the music, the mistaken (and taken) identities, the femme fatale. Now I want to see Talk to Her and All About My Mother.
3) This was the first movie I've seen that jumped the MPAA R barrier. It wasn't too much more graphic than HBO, and I'll never understand why sex tips the balance of taste so much more easily than violence. Having seen Sweeney Tood on Thursday night and La mala educación on Friday night, I can tell you which one I found more disturbing: the one "Rated R for graphic bloody violence," because there was no context that necessitated anything beyond a handful of the barbaric barber-isms. Whereas each element of La mala educación, whether disturbing or not, is intricately weaved into the plot.
3a)Graphic and bloody? No, that's not overkill (pun intended).

Pre-Sweeney Todd viewing with CC, Roommate J, RussianRoommate and the fencing twins, I decided to watch The Jane Austen Book Club, which I got out of the library.
Three things:
1) Hugh Dancy is freaking adorable in this film.
2) I love a movie where people talk about books, fall in love with books, and fall in love with each other over books. It was so heartwarming, and it didn't hurt that I overidentified with (one of) the female lead(s).
3) At the end of the movie, once they've read all of Jane Austen, one of the characters suggests MOVING ON TO PATRICK O'BRIAN!!!!! Despite the fact that these were fictional characters in a movie, I yelled, "Do it, do it!".
I haven't yelled at the screen since my first viewing of the BBC Pride and Prejudice. There's something about Jane.