Of Maids and Muscle

This past weekend, in between meeting up with friends, both old and new, I got a chance to partake of two things that are pretty much on opposite ends of the "edifying" spectrum.

On Saturday, I had a chunk of downtime between brunch with the old UCSB Geeks and dinner/karaoke with my SB friends. So after cleaning the house, I settled into my chaise and promptly got lost in what is now one of my favorite books: "The Help"

I got the hardcover version, so it was a pretty sizeable tome. And one of the reasons I can zip through books like that so quickly is that I tend to skip over the long, rambling paragraphs that describe a setting or a character. Impatient as always, I prefer to go straight for the action and dialog. So for most fiction books like that, I really end up reading only about 80% of the entire book.

Not so with this one. This is one of those rare books where I slowly savor every single word. The writing is so good that the characters come vividly alive-- I can picture them and hear their voices in my mind. Of course, since I'd never seen the movie, the characters ended up looking a lot like characters from Downton Abbey, which I'm currently in the midst of watching ;-)

Moreso than an enjoyable read, however, it offered a good glimpse into what life was like in the South in the 1960's-- a time when racial tensions ran rampant. Not unlike "To Kill a Mockingbird", another perennial favorite. And I particularly enjoy books that are fiction at the core, but deal with real historical events.

When I got home from karaoke at around midnight, I couldn't resist picking the book back up-- and promptly stayed up till past 2:00am, finishing it. It was that good! Now I can't wait to see the movie-- it's next up in my Netflix DVD queue :-)

So after that edifying Saturday, I took a turn in the opposite direction on Sunday, when my friend Leah and I got together at my place to watch "Magic Mike".

I came into this movie with extremely low expectations. Which, of course, meant that it exceeded them :-) The plot was thin, but the acting was actually pretty decent. And I did like how they portrayed how the tables were turned-- how the men were used and objectified and seen as nothing more than a piece of meat, much like many women in today's society still are. I'm not entirely sure if the social commentary was intentional or not, but I definitely caught it.

The actual dance scenes, which comprised about half the movie, were okay. I confess that the main draw for me was Matt Bomer (whom I love as Neal Caffrey on "White Collar"), so I was a bit bummed that I didn't get to see much of him (hooray for deleted scenes, at least!)
Channing Tatum is not really my idea of eye candy. He's too overbuilt for my taste, and I don't find his face pretty in the least. What I was impressed by, however, were his dance moves. You wouldn't think that a big guy like that would be able to move so fluidly, but he did!
And Matthew McConaughey gyrating in a G-string? Not a scene I'd like to relive again, thank you very much. He's a little too old for that, and I just felt sort of sad and full of pity when I watched him do that last dance scene at the end.

"Magic Mike" was an enjoyable way to waste a couple of hours, especially since I got to hang out with Leah, whom I haven't seen since before her now-2-year-old began talking! But it further reinforced the notion that this is how I prefer my men: neat, fit, clean-shaven (for the most part, anyway), and dressed smartly: