The cha cha is no more ridiculous than life itself.

So I completed my list there off to the side of Top 10 Films of 2008, as seen for the first time. Not theatrical releases. I mean, I guess technically In Bruges was released here theatrically this year, but I saw it on DVD.

More to the point, however, jesus...apparently I watched a whole lot of disappointing films this year. Seriously. Just barely anything good. I mean, I liked Lars and the Real Girl, but not sure if it really merits a place on the list. And honestly, An Officer and a Gentleman just really surprised me. As I mentioned when I watched it, it's got a few flaws but I still quite enjoyed it. Sure, better films might have bumped these off the list, but I guess I just rented crap this year...

I mean, Road House almost made the list. That's what I'm talking about. But the rest of the films on the list I did genuinely enjoy and certainly belong on my list.

But back to In Bruges.



If you have not seen this yet, you really must. It might be the most enjoyable film I saw all year. Great bloody scenes, terrific humor and fantastic dialogue. It's written by Martin McDonagh, so that really shouldn't come as a surprise. But I need to own it. It's a perfect mix of cute and tough and the more I think about it, the more I adore it.

Also, I purchased my New Years dharma doll online this morning (see previous post) and hopefully it will arrive before my rejections start rolling in from various schools! I am absolutely not a superstitious person (though I am married to one of the most superstitious people I've ever met...I've stopped arguing about why I need to eat a black-eyed pea on New Years when it should be satisfying enough for just him to eat it).

But all I know is that several years ago, shortly after the New Year, Drew and I asked our dharma to find us a cool centrally-located apartment in Tokyo and within a week we were moving in. Dharma then lived on our kitchen table and I tried to buy fresh flowers for him whenever possible.

Finding an apartment in Tokyo is not unlike finding an apartment in New York City: mind-boggling fees and hidden costs, not to mention the headache of finding an affordable, available anything in the first place. And preferably less than a 20 minute walk from the station. The hassle of settling everything, waiting forever to move in...

But somehow we wound up with a totally cute place in Osaki, which is located on the Yamanote Line (the snobby line, woot!) and was a 5 minute walk to the station and 10 minutes from Shinjuku and Shibuya, the hub of downtown. And the people from whom we rented gave us the key without our even having paid anything up front. It was unreal.

So yeah, I'm ordering a dharma.