13. Watch all the movies in AFI’s 100 Years 100 Movies list. (44/100)

Oh my goodness!  I loved Bringing Up Baby!  It's the 1938 comedy starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant as Susan Vance and Dr. David Huxley.  I loved these two together in The Philadelphia Story and their partnership here is equally entertaining, if not more so.   

Bringing Up Baby is fantastic and completely ridiculous, but not in a distracting kind of way.  The situations that these characters find themselves in could potentially happen I guess, but never in such a short time period and to the same people.  Nevertheless, Bringing Up Baby is absolutely hilarious!  I recommend that everyone see it at least once.  It is definitely something that I will rewatch and perhaps buy in the future. 

P.S. - Baby is a leopard and thus, a major source of the movie's shenanigans.  I didn't realize this until I started watching the movie.  It's good to know. 

14. Watch all the movies in AFI’s 25 Greatest Movie Musicals. (24/25)

I watched the 1951 version of Show Boat yesterday.  The 1936 version is actually the one on the list, but I have been unable to find a copy of it anywhere so this will have to do for now.  If I can find it later, I will watch it as well.  I've read that it is the better version. 

Th 1951 version features Ava Gardner, Kathryn Grayson, and Howard Keel.  Show Boat tells a story of love and misfortune, centering around the riverboat Cotton Blossom.  I recognized the song "Ol' Man River" and I really liked "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man."  This will sound weird, but I had some Gone with the Wind flashbacks while watching Show Boat.  I'm not exactly sure why, since the movies have nothing to do with each other.  I think that maybe it was the dynamics of the relationship between Magnolia and Gaylord.  Anyways, Show Boat was entertaining with a slice of human nature's dark side. 

One Year Progress Report

Happy 1 year project anniversary to me!  I can't believe a year has already gone by since I started!  I've had so much fun completing my tasks so far.  I have watched new movies and television shows, read new books, volunteered, worked towards graduating, eaten more fruits and vegetables, attended concerts and speaking engagements, baked cookies for my friends, and taken a lot of photographs, just to name a few things.

Here are some numbers for March 15, 2009 - March 14, 2010:

New Movies Watched: 147
New Books Read: 13
Tasks Completed: 24

By my calculations, I have completed 23.8 percent of my list.  I have 636 days, or 1.7 years, to finish the remaining 77 tasks.  Since I have already progressed pretty far with my movie watching, I'm planning on devoting more time to reading in the coming year.  I started my two year-long tasks in January, so they will be complete at the end of this year.  I have seven tasks that won't be completed until the very end of the project, even though I'm working on them now.  That leaves 68 other tasks to complete, several of which revolve around finishing school.  Thus, I think I'm alright with my pace right now.  I will definitely need to be thinking about the tasks listed under art though.  Some of those will take more time.

Overall, so far, so good.   Here's hoping the next year will be as productive!

21. Read 10 other books. (10/10)

Complete!
I finished reading Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke today.  It's the first book in the Hannah Swensen mystery series.  It was a fun read.  I liked that it had recipes throughout the book.  I plan on trying several of them!  I picked up this book because I saw on goodreads that it was similar to Janet Evanovich's Stephenie Plum series, which I adore.  While Janet remains superior, I am interested in continuing the series in the future. 

Since this little 10 book task is complete, I think I may add another reading task since I still have space to fill at the end of my list.  I have other reading to do, but it is all categorized.  I need another fun, fiction reading goal since that is what I'm most likely to read right now and I like checking things off my list!

14. Watch all the movies in AFI’s 25 Greatest Movie Musicals. (23/25)

I watched 42nd Street yesterday.  It's from 1933 and I read that its popularity rescued the movie musical, for which I am very grateful.  I am feeling indifferent to the movie itself, though.  I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it.  I liked the ending sequence best, but I don't see myself feeling the need to watch it again anytime soon. 

96. Read 10 books for spiritual growth. (3/10)

I finished reading Beth Moore's Breaking Free.  I started it with my last Bible study, but we never finished it.  So, I've sort of randomly been reading it since then and now it's done.  It would probably be more beneficial for me to read it completely though again in a more reasonable amount of time, but it was still a good study.  I know I identified with a lot of Moore's points throughout the book.  I'm looking forward to reading more Beth Moore in the future. 

I'm losing my mind or 21. Read 10 other books (9/10)

I'm losing my mind.  Here's the thing: I have been seeing previews for Dear John (the movie) for a while now and each time I see the preview I remember that I have read the book.  I know I have read the book because each time I see the preview I also think about how the book ends, which makes me want to give Nicholas Sparks a little shake and ask him why people can't just live happily ever after sometimes.

Anyways, last week I was making a list of all the books I have read during this project in preparation for my upcoming one year anniversary (yay!).  Dear John was not on my list.  That bugged me because I knew it had not been that long since I had read it and I was positive that I had checked it out from the library when I read it.  Since I checked it out from the library, I had to have read it at home, not when I was away at school.  So, after pondering this subject for a while, I finally decided (for peace of mind) that I must have read it before starting this project, even though I couldn't remember that.

Well, turns out my memory isn't quite as bad as I thought.  Fast forward to Saturday.  I'm home for spring break.  I see that I still have my library "receipts" from last summer tacked up on my bulletin board.  What do I find?  Proof.  I checked out Dear John last June.  On the same receipt are, in fact, two other books that I also read last summer AND listed on the blog.  For the life of me, I can not figure out why I did not post about Dear John, or at the very least, check off having read another book.  I LOVE checking things off lists.

The point of this story: I read Dear John last summer, so my progress for 21. Read 10 other books becomes 9 out of 10.  Better late than never.

10. Romantic Comedy (7/10); 13. Watch all the movies in AFI’s 100 Years 100 Movies list. (43/100)

As Charlie Chaplin's last silent film, I've heard City Lights called his best work.  If it weren't for watching AFI's movie lists, I probably would have never sought out this film.  I'm glad I did though, because it was funny and charming.  There is an innocence about City Lights that more recent romantic comedies lack.  I found it refreshing.  I will certainly be more open to watching silent films in the future. 

32. Attempt to compile a list of every movie I have ever seen.

A mini-update on this project: I'm up  to 811 movies on my list!

13. Watch all the movies in AFI’s 100 Years 100 Movies list. (42/100); 14. Watch all the movies in AFI’s 25 Greatest Movie Musicals. (22/25)

Well, I finished watching Cabaret.  I don't have much to say about it.  I had a hard time getting into it, so it's certainly not my favorite musical.  Mostly, I just thought about how ridiculously large Liza Minnelli's eyes looked.