That's all!

As many of you may know, The Devil Wears Prada (DWP) is my all time favourite chick lit novel.

And, the GREAT news is that a movie of DWP is soon to be released!

Exciting stuff!

Even bigger news is that hottie Simon Baker has been cast as Christian, the love interest that our leading lady should really be staying away from. And as some of you may know, I have a soft spot for Mr Baker ... despite the fact that he has managed to photographed stepping out in some pretty ordinary kaftan like garments of recent times.

A link to the site is here. It's quite a fun site ... they picked great music as well I could play around with the site all nite, but unfortunately I have contracts to read : (

Anyway, I will most definitely be seeing this when it's released ... which is apparantly September 28. I hope it lives up to the novel!!

**Update 30/06/06: Props and clothing from the movie are being auctioned off at ebay - let me know if any of you decide to glam it up at the office :P

"Beware of the man of one book" (Thomas Aquinas)

I was dying to do some reading on Sunday, but there wasn't anything new in the house that I actually felt like reading, and Giles recently reminded me about Basement Books in Central, so I decided to go book shopping after work this evening.

Basement Books is the literary equivalent of DFO or Birkenhead - heaps of books, including classics and relatively current releases, and all on sale. It's a book worm's nirvana!

As we had our Bookclub catch up on Saturday, I was planning on buying our next bookclub book, Love in a Cold Climate, however I couldn't find it. That's probably the one disadvantage of this place - you won't necessarily find the specific book you're after, as they have different stock coming in all the time ... but you'll always find something you'll want to read.

For example, although I couldn't find Love in a Cold Climate, I managed to leave with the following:

1. Bergdorf Blondes by Plum Sykes (I have been wanting to read this for ages - I started reading it on the way home, and although I dont think I'll enjoy it as much as The Devil Wears Prada, it still seems like a fun read)
2. Perfume by Patrick Suskind (highly recommended to me by my hairdresser when I went in for a a haircut over the weekend)
3. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby (I really enjoyed About a Boy, so thought I'd give this a go)
4. Spicery: A Cook's Guide to Culinary Spices by none other than Elizabeth & Ian Hempill, owners of Herbies at Rozelle, and mum and dad of Soph, one of our book club gals. It took me a minute to make the connection when I first saw it on the shelf, right next to Jamie Oliver's book!*
5. The Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver*

*Although I do not cook (I can when I need to), I had to buy these two. For starters, when i do cook, I LOVE Jamie's recipes - they are usually really easy (ditto Spicery), and very yummy (although Jamie could have included more pics of the finished meals in this book).

I was going to get Enron: Smartest Guys in the Room, but the editors/publishers didn't do the book any favours when they were doing the page layout - small font, light text printing, and minimal white space on the pages. Even if it was a good read, it would have sent me blind. So that was a bit disappointing. I also thought about getting White Teeth by Zadie Smith, but I suspected it was something that I may not finish ... I wasn't particularly sold on On Beauty her recent release, which was our last book club read.

All in all, a good night of book shopping.

My enthusiastic contribution to the World Cup Fever Mk 2

I woke up at 1.45 am to watch the Aust v Brazil match, from the comfort of my warm bed. Quite a good effort, I thought.

I wasn't awake enough to catch the offside rule in action though.

I watched the first half of the game - until Brazil scored their first goal - and then I went back to sleep. I (correctly) suspected it would all be downhill from there.

My enthusiastic contribution to the World Cup Fever

I received the following (female friendly) explanation of the offside rule recently, and, in the spirit of the World Cup, I thought I would share:

You're in a shoe shop, second in the queue for the till.

Behind the shop assistant on the till is a pair of shoes which you have seen and which you must have. The female shopper in front of you has seen them also and is eyeing them with desire.

Both of you have forgotten your purses. It would be rude to push in front of the first woman if you had no money to pay for the shoes.

The shop assistant remains at the till waiting.

Your friend is trying on another pair of shoes at the back of the shop and sees your dilemma. She prepares to throw her purse to you.

If she does so, you can catch the purse, then walk round the other shopper and buy the shoes! At a pinch she could throw the purse ahead of the other shopper and whilst it is in flight" you could nip around the other shopper, catch the purse and buy the shoes!
BUT, you must always remember that until the purse has "actually been thrown", it would be plain wrong for you to be in front of the other shopper and you would be OFFSIDE!

Makes absolute sense now :P

And while I'm talking sport, which as we know doesn't happen very frequently, I have to mention SBS's Nerds FC. I'm not sure whether anyone has been watching it - I've managed to catch a couple of episodes and its a crackup. It's a reality TV series in which 14 guys (super-nerdlings) who seem to have no sporting prowess what-so-ever (not that there's anything wrong with that) who undergo 3 months of intense training with the goal (no pun intended) of becoming an "all-star team".

They have even produced their own music video clip of a v catchy tune.

All da (vinci) hype

I went to Leichhardt today to catch up with G for a coffee. One of the things we touched on was the Da Vinci Code (the book). And funnily enough I saw this sign up at the All Souls Church, on the corner of Marion and Norton St, on the way back to my car. I had to happy snap it.

I actually just read the Da Vinci Code last week. I figured it was about time I did, seeing as the movie had just been released (I dont really like seeing the movie of a novel unless I've read the novel first). Anyway, I found the book kind of underwhelming. The first 2/3 was great, and a total page turner, but Brown lost my attention towards the end - unlike Angels and Demons, which had my attention from beginning to end.

I also went to a talk this week, "Decoding the Da Vinci Code", hosted by the Sydney Institute. Basically the seminar was a critique of the contents of the novel by a historian who specialised in the study of religious history. Apparantly each page of the book contains some sort of factual inaccuracy which can be verified by basic research (eg the claim that there were oringially 80 gospels - there were only 22; Silas the Opus Dei monk - there are no monks in Opus Dei). It seems the major issue with the book, is the forward, which states certain legit "facts" which the book are based. Combine that with the fact that there are lots of people out there who have no substantive factual knowlegde about the religions concerned ... and you have a heap of people taking what they read to be fact.

I dont know why the book was so popular...I found it difficult to finish. And when I read it, I took the contents as I would take that of any other fiction novel...ie fictional.
Anyway, I dont think I'm going to see the movie...this billboard isn't the first bad review I've come across.

No chance in hell with a side of dessert

I saw "No chance in hotel" at the Darlinghurst Theatre tonite.
It's by same people who wrote "Bangers & Mash", which also played at the DT a while back (I think I saw it with the Chambers people). The playwrights/director obviously loves incorporating music, more particularly singing, into to their productions, usually with a hilarious result. They were both unbelievably silly and fun plays to watch.

If you subscribe to DT's mailing list, you'll get emailed about their "ticket rushes", to buy cheap tix for their midweek shows.

Highlight of the nite for me though was dessert at Young Alfred - honeycomb and strawberry parfait. As anyone who works with me knows I LOVE that place. Love the pizza. Love the decor. Love the dessert. I've become a bit of a regular. I'm actually going to a farewell dinner there on Friday nite* ... he he two visits in the one week. Needless to say, if you haven't visited and tried their pizza, you're missing out.

* Friday nite - had dinner at Young Alfreds tonite. Ordered a Little Sister Pizza (potato, rosemary, caramelised onion and gorgonzola - yum as usual but for some reason was v oily - maybe from the cheese?). Resisted the temptation to order the parfait for dessert again. I went for the chocolate terrine with marmalade ice cream and caramelised pistachios. Parfait wins hands down.

Of Middle Eastern Appearance

I went to the opening night of the photographic exhibition, Of Middle Eastern Appearance, tonight.

There were some really stunning photos and plenty of varied subjects: cityscapes, mosques, markets, shoes (more specifically, moroccon slippers), food, kids at play, and people at work. Being a novice "photographer" (and I am using that term in its loosest sense), it was really interesting seeing how others view the world through their camera lens.

I also bumped into a woman I used to go to uni with - apparantly Cameron, who exhibited with Ed, works with her - such a small world!

The exhibition is open from 1 to 14 June at the Blanco Negro Gallery at 72b Fitzroy St, Surry Hills - go and have a look!