On the Needles

Some simple knitting in anticipation of the holiday onslaught: a Buttonhole Bag for me and the beginnings of a little something for my Winter Wonderland Swap buddy. I've never been much of an Exchange knitter...terribly afraid to disappoint (see current thread on Knitters Review about disgruntled exchangers), and then there's that thing about having the object packed and ready to go and Actually Getting to the Post Office. But there is something appealing about gift knitting during the holidays that doesn't really have to do with the holidays. And a couple of warshrags? Hey, that I can do.

In non-knitting news, I went to a screening of the upcoming Soderbergh film The Good German and found it disappointingly "meh." I think I know what Soderbergh was trying to do--an homage of sorts to all of those anti-hero WWII movies--and in many ways he got it right. The B&W cinematography and bombastic score are way cool. Unfortunately, I've always been desperately bored by all of those anti-hero WWII movies. Even, dare I say it, Casablanca. Bogart has never gotten to me, and while George Cooney is undeniably appealing in context (for me, the Ocean's 11 films), he's mighty clunky here. Anyway, didn't hate it, and it gave me a cool poster to mount in the Last Movie I Saw sidebar (and considering the Last Movie I Saw outside of Netflix and TCM was Snakes on a Plane, it's been awhile). EDITED TO ADD: Here's an interesting blog entry from the Hollywood Reporter about the screening I attended; guess I wasn't alone in my wishi-washiness.