i see (more) dead people

So, for the 1st time EVER, I am not making my Halloween costume this year.

After some discussion, a few not-so-great ideas (middle-aged Barbie and Ken, Jim and Tammy-Faye Bakker, Gilligan and Ginger - again ...) and what I know was (is) my sweet husband's attempt at curtailing, containing and completely stopping (good luck with that ...) my making things and leaving what I like to call 'creative clutter' all over the apartment, we went to a costume shop not too far from our apartment to check out some other options ...

I'm not telling exactly what we ended up with, though I do promise photos after the party ... here are a few pix to sate you in the mean time .. notice Elvis' tie and my swell rubber rain boots!
We had fun playing dress up - (don't fret, neither of us donned anything risque or potentially embarrassing to any of the other shop's customers)

I left the final decision to M., as I was (am?) still a bit uneasy about paying to rent a costume - but know that it made (makes) him less stressed in the end, and that - of course - makes the hausfrau less stressed as well!

As we walked back to the bus stop, we realized it was v. near a new favorite place of ours (though I try to avoid it, as nothing there is on the current 'healthy/cleansing' diet ...). The Pie Shop is adorable and yummy. A true British fix right in Zurich. I took my mom when she was here and Mark and I have gone a few times for their Ploughman's Lunch.

Last night for the first time, they were not sold out of Shepherd's Pie and that made M. v. happy, which - of course - made me happy ... (see, I'm learning how this whole marriage thing works ...) so we got the grosse (large) one - still tiny compared to US standards - darn, I should have taken a photo ... it's about the size of a tiny UNO's personal pizza - like 5" I think - anyway ... we couldn't leave without getting some of their yummy chocolate chip cookies as well. Choc. chip cookies are not easy to find here and these are the flat, chewy, made with Crisco kind of cookies (I think) .. and that purchase actually made my husband SMILE! yes!

Next time I promise to take pix. Needless to say, it was a happy night full of pie, cookies, salad (for me...) the season 2 finale of Mad Men, me finishing knitting my shawl - finally made something for me!) and getting to sleep before midnight ... lovely.

dead celebrity mannequins and more broken glass

While running errands with my fabulous upstairs neighbor, Sarah for her upcoming show - (she is a modern dancer from Canada who studied in NYC for years and she is performing with a opera singer in a show they've created about strong women characters through music and dance - it's really great) - I came upon a men's clothing store with these familiar-looking mannequins:

It made me sad, as it was just days after Paul Newman died and it was unmistakeably him ... but it wasn't as though the mannequin makers suddenly made this to honor his passing, I mean they must have had this for years ... and what about Luciano Pavarotti? He died in 2007 and here he is, as robust and big-bellied as ever, smiling and ready to sing. Next to Pavarotti was a mannequin that looked like Gerard Depardieu, and he's still alive, so there went my theory that this was a tribute window ... It was really odd. I mean, someone went to a lot of trouble and effort to create these characters and use them in this non-chain men's clothing store. There were no signs or labels or anything ... just Paul, Luciano, Gerard and some guy we could not identify (maybe I'll try to find the store again and take a photo of the other mannequin in hopes that one of my astute readers might be able to identify him ...)

And as for the broken glass, I guess I'll share the photos, though they are far from thrilling ... (on the left - the remnants of a sexy-looking memo and magnetic board for the kitchen - it matched the stainless steel and was not from the BrockiHaus so not really cheap, per se ... and it fell off the small counter it was leaning on after only one day! All I ever got to write on it was, "Welcome home, handsome!" Guess that's better than a grocery list ... on the right was a little IKEA lamp I got for the second guest room when my mom was here. Not really enough to be a reading lamp, but just enough to illuminate your way to and from the loo without the overhead lights on ... because we use my laptop as a tv to watch shows from itunes, etc... I constantly have to unplug my speakers and camera and microphone from my 'office' where I try to work during the day and schlep the power cord and laptop to the guest bedroom where we currently reside until we figure out what kind of bed we'd like in our room that still only serves as a dressing/ironing/dirty laundry room - needless to say - in my haste one day to get the 'media system' set up for us to watch the latest episode of MadMen, I tripped on the cord to the 15CHF lamp and shattered it. Brilliant.)

I keep telling myself to be happy that they were not mirrors ... but really - 3 big (well, one really big, one medium and one small) glass breaks in a matter of a month? Does that add up to a mirror? I hope not. ... All I know is that I am not buying anything breakable anytime soon and if I do, it is being hung correctly immediately ....

Lastly - I am putting the finishing touches on my new website and blog, which will be www.kristenvermilyea.com. This blog will forward to it when it's ready, not to worry ...

6 days, 16 films

I spent much of last week watching films at the 4th Zurich Film Festival. I was fortunate to receive 'industry accreditation' so I got a pass (which I still had to pay for, though not as much as I would have had I not claimed to have been an actress, writer, producer, former film festival chair, lion tamer, fake tanner, fledgling cartographer and inventor of the Internet.

This is the list of films I watched: (the entire list can be found here) (Also - I'm only making a few comments here but that is really not enough ... if you are interested in hearing more, please send me a note and I'll tell all ... or perhaps I'll make my friend Matthew Newton, over at CinemaGoulash review them all...)

Brides of Allah - Doc - well done, about women who are now in prison for having attempted to be or have been involved with suicide bombing...scary stuff
My Life Inside - Doc - well-presented and heart-breaking story... not only about someone accused of a crime, but the larger story of how much of a fair trial can a poor Mexican get in a rich, white Texas town? - made me want to be a law student and work on the case, kind of..
Blindness - feature - interesting concept, but I would not encourage anyone to run out to the theatres and see it (stars Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo)
Mr. Rakowski - Doc - lots of moving stuff, but can seem a bit as though the son funded this film as therapy to attempt to connect with his distant father and at times feels as though the audience is being manipulated
The Art Star and The Sudanese Twins - Doc - heavy and entertaining on many levels - worth seeing if only to witness the narcissism of the lead character juxtaposed with her apparent desire to help others ... hard to explain - would need to talk about this one ...
Kurtzfilmprogramm Sam Spiegel School (short films from the Sam Spiegel Film School in Israel) - really fabulous series of shorts from Israel.
Boy of Pigs - feature - interesting concept - well-cast, acted and shot. Good script. I think it's worth seeing - many aspects have been done/seen previously, but the combination of story lines works. Met the writer, the producer and director at fest - all 1st timers and it's really a cinderella story of how they made the film ... or at least that's what they are telling us .. I am terribly envious of Gretchen Mol who gets to play a dream part ...
Dunya & Desie - feature - cute girl road trip film - well-done and acted. Based on a popular TV series
Blood Appears (left about 45 mins through) - I didn't get it and didn't really want to
Sweet Mud - feature - autobiographical - about young boy growing up on a Kibbutz in Israel. Many lovely moments and well-worth watching.
Sell Out! - feature - I loved this despite the crazy and oft-times all over the place story line and need for editing ... totally unlike anything you've ever seen - I still have some of the songs in my head and people were quoting from the film around the festival tent - in an 'Office Space' kind of way ...sort of
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired - Doc. - well-done and interesting - learned things I had not known about the director and the case brought against him
A Thousand Oceans- feature - interesting concept about death and after death experiences, but a bit too 'film-school-like' for me. Needed to go farther and be much, much edgier
The Man Who Loved Ynvge - feature - I loved this one too - for many reasons, one of the main ones being the soundtrack - all my favorite 80's tunes - I was rockin' out in the packed theater both times. Great story and v. well acted.
The Hurt Locker - feature - v. good war epic from a new perspective. worth seeing
The Wackness - feature - worth seeing if only for Ben Kingsley's not-typical-for-him-to-play-character ... v. amusing

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I went to a party one night and met Stephen Nemeth almost as soon as I walked in the door, "This is great ice!" I heard him say to the bartender. I had to agree. Crushed, but not to a mush, to a v. small cube ... perfect. Then we began to talk about how ice in Europe is harder to come by than in the states and that was followed by an inquisition by him of me regarding my 'pedigree'. When I told him I was from NH, he asked, "Do you know Paul Hodes?" Well of course I know Paul. Doesn't everyone? But truly - I had the pleasure of knowing him before he was a 'big shot' politician. We used to have lunch every year or so when I was home from NYC and visiting NH. My film business partners and I even consulted with him on a few film projects - needless to say, it was a v. odd but v. cool coincidence.

Turns out that Mr. Nemeth is a fan of NH. He knows Governor Lynch and Paul and is up on all the latest with the state. He is also v. involved in the Democratic party ... so we talked a little Obama-talk and moved on to the festival, etc...

One of the 'paparazzi' that was at the party snapped this shot of us. Notice Stephen is far better at hiding his drink for photos than I am. (Note to self - put the drink down ...)

So, I met some great people and now have a few more resources and connections both in Zurich and in the 'industry' ... now I just need to learn German, finish writing those scripts, finish recording my voice over demo, loose 20 lbs., revamp my website, start my own film festival, make a documentary, get a better haircut and start getting up before noon ...