we've got it hard, second floor living without a yard

last night we watched pan's labyrinth and the night before that the last king of scotland, that makes three movies in three nights, none of them particularly spectacular. interesting that they all have a character that is a tyrant who gets his comeuppance at the end, and i don't just mean the villian, literally all three were tyrants (although i suppose nicholson isn't technically a tyrant in the political sense, still).

scotland had some pretty great acting, but then i am probably bias as i happen to love forest whitaker (ghost dog...who didn't love that?), and the scottish lad in there was quite impressive. marko was frustrated that it deviated from fact for the sake of fiction and i was frustrated at how completely unbelievable some of the scenes were. it wasn't a terrible movie but it didn't leave me impressed much either.

labyrinth was actually quite similar. the acting didn't stand out as much in this one, but the cinematography, sets and costumes did, which i suppose is why it won so many oscars. again marko was frustrated that a spaniard would make a movie about the spanish civil war and yet fall so off the mark. if one is going to make such a violent movie (and yes, like scotland, it was quite violent) then should it not be to help us learn from our mistakes of the past? why create so much fiction when the fact was story enough? tough questions for sure (and ones that i think should be asked about both of these films). it didn't help that about two thirds of the way through characters started acting out of character and making strange and glaringly obvious mistakes, presumably so that the narrative could continue. i hate it when that happens. it is particular evil when it happens in a book, you know the "great book, terrible ending" syndrome (i am looking at you murakami), at least with a movie i didn't invest hours and hours into it. so again it was alright, probably worth seeing, but there was no wow! when was the last time i felt the wow? i can't even remember. perhaps my standards are getting too high (or i need to start renting international flicks from the local indie video store again).

speaking of wow, to compensate for my long movie tirade i offer up this movie of my own. it is of my boys singing me a song before bed...enjoy!

good night, sleep tight and...

today went so much better than expected. we were in and out at the hospital. they were incredibly busy and there was some concern by the nurse to have cohen exposed to all the germs for yet another day so she called the pediatrician right away. he came and spoke to us in the waiting area so no need for a room. it turns out cohen does have an infection but a very minor one. still we were sent home with a prescription for antibiotics and will be getting a call as to when to come in for the ultrasound. if that turns out ok then it will be clear sailing. everyone expects that it will. best of all cohen has been fever free since friday and the fussing has disappeared.

tomorrow marko's brother milan is here for a visit. he lives in new york and will be meeting cohen for the first time so we are all getting excited about his visit. hopefully i will get out the camera a little more this week so that i can get some new stuff to share on flickr. this photo was taken tonight just before bed, as you can see he wasn't exactly sleepy. he is still chatting to himself in the crib as we speak. i wonder what it is he talks about in there? it won't be long now before i know the answer to that and many of the other mysteries that are cohen. for now i will listen to the babble.