Listography Sunday + a gift with purchase

Today's list is "List your favorite films." Now I enjoy a good film (or a not so good film, as my taste in film often leads me to the RomCom category or the ever popular chick flick) every once in a while, but unfortunately I am not one of those people that can remember seeing the film once a few months has past. In fact people who quote movies while we watch them really annoy me, not only because it's annoying, but because I'm jealous that I can't even remember the titles of films after seeing them. Needless to say this should be interesting.

1) Amelie: I own this film on both dvd and vhs. It's a wonderful imaginative world and who doesn't want to be like Audrey Tautou.

2) Dirty Dancing Havana Nights: This is a classic. Cuban dancing and a Patrick Swayze cameo. This is one of the only films I can watch over and over again. Just ask my college roommate Angie.

3) Little Women: One of my first favorite films. I was devastated when I lost my vhs copy.

4) Sound of Music: Who doesn't want 8 brothers and sisters? I certainly did. And I wanted them to sing and I wanted to wear curtains with Julie Andrews. This film led me to try out for the play in 3rd grade (which was a devastating realization that my stage career was going to end before it started), to see Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer in concert with the London Philharmonic (they sang Edelweiss!!), write a paper in college on my desire to be one of the VonTrapp children as a child, because of the sibling factor (never mind the whole Nazi, WWII thing), and lastly get really excited when I went to Saltzberg and saw many of the sites from the film.

Stairs where they sing Do-Re-Mi

5) I am Sam: First off, amazing sound track. Makes me cry every time, even when I had to watch it in class in college (embarrassing).

Okay well I'm sure there are more, but these are the first 5 that came to mind. I'd love to hear what some of yours are so that maybe I can see them and improve my film repertoire.

Gift with Purchase!

So I've been wanting to tell you all about a few recent events I've gone to and I'm going to forget about them if I don't do it now.

First was a WashU alumni event where a WashU alum and the vice president of HOK in Wash. D.C. gave a presentation on greening the workplace. She has written a book on the subject that is geared towards a non-design public. Now I think this is a great idea and I bought the book to see how she sells green to the non design world (I have yet to read it, but will let you know if there is anything interesting in it).

One thing really bugged me about her presentation and brought me back to the age old debate between the architect and interior designer conflict was the fact that one of her points was guess what, the occupants of the building matter! She made it seem like this was an Aha! moment for her and all I could think was really? Really? Who the heck are you designing buildings for if it isn't the occupant??? How do architects not think about the human factor or the people that these places are built for??? Isn't the whole point of architecture to provide shelter for PEOPLE? Why else do we need buildings? We don't is the answer. We could live in stick huts. Does the same thing as a "green" billion dollar office building (okay, okay, maybe not quite, but you get the point). So, this brought me to the realization that although I love the design process, I love researching the user more and now I'm looking into being a human factors researcher (because this actually exists! The only downside is that it doesn't exist in Atlanta. So we'll see who gets to me first, my dream job or a design job in the ATL. I'm going to take either).

The second event I went to this week was "The Late Work of Dali," the show that's at the High Museum right now. I went this week, because I didn't have anything going on and I didn't want to go on a weekend, because I hate people and crowds. In this regard I'm a genius. So, in the past I haven't really been a fan of Dali (I saw a show of his in college at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and have to say, just thought it was bizarre). This show gave me a whole new perspective on Dali and his process. Now I will say I'm still not a "fan" but I understand him a little better. First, the show has two dialogues happening. One is his relationship with photog Philippe Haussmann. Together they created a book called Dali's Moustache in which Haussmann asks Dali questions and basically his moustache responds in a series of portraits. I found these really quirky and amusing and bought the book before leaving the exhibit (the back of it says "This book is preposterous." Who doesn't love a book that warns the reader like that?)


The other dialogue was that of Dali's thought process later in life. First off he was a great proponent of Renaissance art and was an intimate follower of Vermeer. I found this interesting, because I'm reading a book on Vermeer right now called the Forger's Spell and I can see the similarities between the two artists' work. Dali if nothing else, technically was a fantastic painter. His subject matter later in life dealt less with dream imagery and the subconscious of his earlier work and more with ideas of religion, nuclear imagery (the atom bombs had recently been dropped on Japan), and pop culture. He also used his wife and love of his life as a model and inspiration in a lot of his work. There was a quote from Andy Warhol that said he wasn't sure what Dali would have been had it not been for his wife and having his watch melt. I thought this was hilarious. Anyway I really enjoyed the show and recommend checking out the High's website for more info.

That is all for now. So go a seize the week, because the world is your oyster, and as always live by Dali's words and be preposterous!