Friday Fanatic - INDIE FILMS coming to a theater near you

Now that the summer blockbusters are over

(I love me a blockbuster once in a while, but I love me an indie anytime)

it's time to get back into the good stuff!

Movies are no longer a cheap night out, so check the previews (forget the reviews) and get there early.

The one thing we are (almost) never late to are movies because we really, really love the little previews. Hate the commercials though, so you have to time your entry just right!

Here are a few little previews that might get you into a theater over the next few weeks.

No Impact Man is out now and is a good choice for 350 Action Day (tomorrow) if you can find it. It's a documentary about one NYC family's quest to leave no carbon footprint for a year. Am hoping my Indie cable channel which has indie in theater movies has this one for tomorrow.



A must see for music fans is Davis Guggenheim's It Might Get Loud. He brings together three guitar gods— Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White and listens to their stories and their music.



Before she was a famous couturier, Gabrielle Chanel had lived a whole other life. Coco Before Chanel starring Audrey Tautau (love her) is a must see for me.



Zombieland with Woody Harrelson looks like a hoot - I couldn't grab the trailer, but you can watch it here.

My sister and I watched the roller derby on Saturday afternoons and knocked each other around on our skates in the driveway afterward so I've always been partial to roller derby movies and this one has the totally amazing combo of Drew Barrymore and Ellen Page so Whip It seems like a must-see!



Psychic soldiers, George Clooney and Jeff Bridges - I'll definitely be seeing this one - The Men Who Stare at Goats!

Precious cleaned up at Sundance this year, winning both Jury and Audience Awards. Clareece "Precious" Jones is an overweight, illiterate African-American teen in Harlem about to have her second child. Precious gets into an alternative school where a teacher helps her change her life. Love the power of the teacher!



There are at least a dozen other great indies hitting the theaters within the next few weeks that you might not want to miss!

Uh, Does This Look Safe To You? or if you are our insurance agent please do not read this post

My hubby is actually quite a handy guy and I am pretty handy myself, but lately things around here have begun to get a little out of control...

and maybe even a little dangerous

(which hubby denies)

and since I can't get Sparky the fire safety dog

(I tried)

out here for a proper inspection I thought I would see what everyone thinks of this and if anyone has anything like this going on in their house

For a little background- we have an extra room upstairs that has been my mother's room, my daughter's room, my studio and now it is our "gym"

(ie the room we never use)

which means it has some exercise equipment and some tacky plastic wall mirrors that tend to give you a funhouse kind of body

(well, at least it gives me something to blame)

Back when it was my studio and I needed a particular kind of light, in a particular space, hubby installed a particularly outdated ceiling light from our garage.

Somehow and for some reason he wired this light into the ceiling so that when you want to turn the light on you stick this little plug to nowhere into the outlet below the light


(yup, you heard me right)

plugging this little plug into the outlet causes the ceiling light to light up



(try to ignore the beautiful popcorn ceiling surrounding said light and stay with me here)



So anyhoos, about a week ago hubby and I were having some kind of little to do while "working out" in our "gym" that resulted in my saying how things around here never get done and hubby saying

"like what- what doesn't get done around here?"

and me looking at the plug and then the light - plug, light, plug, light

"what, you want that fixed?"

"yes, I want that fixed- I'd like to go to bed at night knowing we are not going to burn the house down. "

"you'd like to go to bed at night not worrying about the house burning down?"

(hubby loves to mirror my issues back at me in an argument - for years I've wondered if he secretly sneaks home in the afternoon to watch Oprah - this does not make me feel better, this only makes me want to jump off the treadmill and stick the little plug to nowhere ... somewhere)

so tonight at dinner he lets me know that he taken care of our little "problem" with the disclaimer that there really is no "problem"



(not sure this is quite the same as a properly wired plug or a properly installed fire alarm, but you can see why I keep him around)

GIVEAWAY Xenotees Amazing NEW Scarves CLOSED

AND THE WINNER IS: JOYFUL GIRL NATURAL PRODUCTS! She has a great blog! Winner chosen by random.org Generator Min: 1 Max: 727 Result: 543

The girl who put the Tee in eTsy has added some AMAZING new soft-alicious scarves to her shop!

Noelle of the awesome shop XENOTEES has the most amazingly original t-shirt shop that you will just love!

Her designs are Noelle's own original creations (she is a clipart free kind of girl) and she is one of the most generous, kind-hearted and funny of all my Etsy buds! Her tee's are whisper soft, beautiful and totally addictive.

Xenotees added totebags this past summer and a gorgeous new scarf collection just last week!



WHAT YOU GET:

One lucky winner will receive your choice of a XENOTEES whisper soft SCARF!






HOW TO WIN:

Visit XENOTEES and leave a comment letting Noelle know which scarf you want to win!

For additional entries:

(5) Twitter this post
(5) Blog about this contest; linking to this post
(5) Follow my blog
(5) Follow Noelle's blog

Noelle is also offering 15% OFF non-sale items in her shop if you mention Polarity or Uncorked in the comments to seller section of your order through Oct 31- just pay for your items and she will refund you!

Let me know if you have done these things so I can give you additional entries. This contest is open to everyone.

DRAWING:

MIDNIGHT on Sunday, October 25th! Good luck! CLOSED

Weekend Wheezing, Whispering and What Nots

So, I am sick ... again ... - my immune system which kept me from even having a sniffle last year must have taken that road-trip that I never got to take and crashed somewhere between Jersey and North Carolina.

At least yesterday I managed to put my t-shirt on right side out (better than Thursday when I found myself in line at the post office at 4:30 in the afternoon with little inverted seams running down both my arms and my care instruction tag standing straight up at my hairline)

but looking at the bright side

(I have always been a glass half-full kind of girl ... really)

I got a second day's wear out of that t-shirt because the day I wore it inside out doesn't count, right?

So anyhoo, I spent quite a few hours last night catching up with the Dog Whisperer and am more convinced than ever that Cesar is more wizard than whisperer.

Somehow in the twenty minutes he gets between Cialis commercials Cesar can transform a destructive pooch who has eaten enough end tables to poop out a Raymour & Flannigan showroom into a calm submissive furball who not only ignores the sofa but has also prepared the evening meal.

(from scratch)

I lay in bed with a few happy delusions of having Cesar whisper to Olive and of me running with my pack (ie little pup Olive) through the streets like Cesar does, but without her usual erratic, paranoid behavior that always makes me feel like the Lynn Spears of dog mommies.

Olive watches me watching Cesar from her hidden perch under George's pillow and I can see in her little eyes just what she thinks about that.

(you's the one needs the whispering, Cat)

So back to the web and even in my Airborne and Cold-Eeze induced stupor I actually found some amazing stuff that I don't think you're gonna want to live without knowing about.

Love boots and dresses when the weather gets cold and how awesome are the finds at Sundance


Drinking glasses that fit together to tell a story and look as cool on your shelf as they do on your table.


Isn't this just the best bumpersticker ever!



The staggering amount of work that goes into these wood paintings by Faile make me glad I'm already lying down.

Fleurfatale's beautiful twining leaves ring.


The stunning photography of Portland photographer The House of Six Cats (and Bill has a locket).

SaltandPaper's adorable little modern - vintage earring sets.

Karina Marusinska's ceramic spice cup flowers - love these - very Martha.

Have you seen the 2010 Olympic Gold Medals - they won't be giving them out in Chicago anytime soon but at least they will be made from recycled circuit boards!

My new favorite bathroom tiles- how cool are these- bubbles without the formaldehyde-forming substances and cancer-causing nitrosamines found in those fragrant bubble bath products.

ECO Geek Tips for Blog Action Day

Every October 15th is Blog Action Day for Climate Change.

Concerned bloggers are asked to post about climate change (and what we can be doing) and give a shout out to October 24th and 350.

This year I'm going to focus on going eco for geeks with 5 quick tips:

1. Turn off your computer- this could have a huge impact.

(turn the computer off when you go to bed at night)

2. Use eco-friendly light bulbs

(they make them for everything now)

3. Use Blackle

(Based on the theory that a black Google could save 750 Megawatt-hours a year, Blackle is just that)

4. Pay your bills online

5. Ditch your screensaver

(Screensavers were initially created to add life to the monitor by keeping phosphors from burning images into your idle monitor. Modern computers don't have these problems and screensavers still use power and can even keep your computer from going into a fully saving power mode)

and if you share a cubicle with someone who has those tacky tropical fish swimming across their screen or endless family pictures of their little angel's last birthday party - this may be a good tip to bring up at your next office meeting

(you will then owe me one .... and I prefer chocolate .... or cash)

Who Ya' Gonna Call?

OK- so maybe some of us

(not me)

have been watching a few too many episodes of GHOST HUNTERS

(the scifi show with the RotoRooter nerds who hunt ghosts),

so when we decided to hit Phillie for Columbus Day

(sans hubby who was working, of course - personally I am on the same schedule as the U.S. Postal Service and take my postal holidays very seriously)

we (ie they) wanted to check out the Eastern State Penitentiary-

(the photo above is NOT the Eastern State Penitentiary but is from that day and the best choice for my photoshopped TAPS insignias which believe me certain members of my little ghost hunting posse really, really wish were real ... sigh)

The penitentiary was the location of the TAPS Halloween special last year where they set up live and found.... well, they found nothing actually (but, they had recorded alot of activity there in a previous episode and by alot of activity I mean alot of unexplained creaking noises and heat sources)

(I must admit I was a bit oblivious to our investigation while the actual investigating was happening- ie photographing empty, closed off corridors for suspicious ghostly activity- my ears covered with the plastic headset for the audio tour, my fingers going numb from the cold and my mind on lunch)

This penitentiary was founded by Benjamin Franklin and the Quakers who believed that people were basically good and given enough time alone (and I mean totally alone- they spent 23 hours a day in their cell and were hooded anytime they left their cells to maintain their privacy) would find God and see the error of their ways.

Later it became a regular prison and even housed Al Capone.

(maybe I was paying more attention than I thought to that audio tour)

So, anyhoo- here is the best photographic evidence from our little adventure and you guys can let me know what you all think (this is a closed off corridor- far from the camera person).



I am convinced we have definitive proof of a haunting.

(or a lens smudge)



1. Home Haunted Home print by RusticGoth
2. Tragic Locket by HeartworksbyLori
3. Spooky Chic Ghost Hairclip by PunchDrunkPrincess (my new favorite shop name!)
4. Treats for the Neighborhood Monsters by GooseGrease
5. Something Terrible Pin by BeanForest
6. Blue Ghost by FetishGhost