Workout Update: Lift-4/645 Corrective and Foam Rolling- Round 2 -Day 40

Day 40 was the Legs workout from Lift 4, and because it is an even-numbered week, that means it was all HIIT.  The moves were not as bad (aside from the 45 seconds of triple bear) as in prior weeks, but I was still modifying some of them. But, even the modified versions of the exercises are hard, there is just not as much impact on your body.

Book Review: My Story

 

My Story is the closest thing that the world ever got to an autobiography or memoir from Marilyn Monroe. The original version of the book was published about 12 years after her death and was created from a manuscript she submitted to Milton Green (who was a photographer who took many pictures of Marilyn throughout her career) and was essentially finished by journalist, Ben Hecht. This illustrated version of the book, published in 2007, adds many pictures of Marilyn selected by Milton Green's son, Joshua, who also wrote the foreword.  In the book, Monroe broadly details her early life, her rise to stardom, and her romance with Joe Dimaggio. The book ends with a discussion of her trip to Korea to entertain the troops during her honeymoon with Dimaggio.

The hardcover version of the book is relatively short, coming in at a little under 200 pages. In it, Monroe covers her life in broad strokes up through 1954. She does not go into a ton of detail about everything in her life but does discuss being molested as a girl, the infamous nude calendar photoshoot (which turned into the first Playboy pictorial), and her struggle to get acting jobs (and what was expected by the studio heads and producers). She does not go into detail about whether and how much she participated in the whole "casting couch" phenomenon, or really discuss her sex life (aside from saying she was not very interested in sex during her first marriage. She also talks about how Za Za Gabor hated her because Gabor's husband flirted with her at a party. The big thing I took away from the book is that she was not an overnight sensation or star and she was not instantly rich. Even when she was not an established star she pushed back against some of the parts she was offered and was looking to be taken more seriously. There is an eerily prophetic line in the book that she was the type of person who would be found dead in a hallway with a bottle of sleeping pills next to her. In all, the book shows her as a complicated figure whose life was not at all as glamorous as it seemed. It is absolutely worth the time to read.

Workout Update: Lift-4/645 Corrective and Foam Rolling- Round 2 -Day 39

Day 39 was shoulders invervals from Lift 4. This means each block at two shoulder resistance exercises and one 30-second HIIT exercise. I am almost back to feeling 100% so I could lift heavy again and did not have to modify as much when doing the HIIT. I again took a bit of a break from the foam rolling but will start that up again next week. 

Blu-Ray/Movies Box Set Review: Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection

 

This is a set that contains some but does not contain all, of Hitchcock's movies Depending on what you consider his best movies to be, this may not contain your favorites. Nor do each of the movies have perfect video and audio. The 15 movies included in this collection (each on separate discs) are Saboteur, Shadow of a Doubt, Rope, Rear Window, The Trouble With Harry, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, The Birds, Marnie, Torn Curtain, Topaz, Frenzy, and Family Plot. 

There are a lot of reviewers on Amazon pissed at Universal for not restoring all of them. I am never one who expects movies that old to look as good as something made today, so the grain and glitches in the video that you occasionally see do not bother me all that much. In fact, some movie purists enjoy seeing grain and imperfections that are common to movies that were shot on film. That said, some movies have a wonderful restoration (e.g., Sabotuer), others have a good to very good restorations (e.g., The Birds, Rear Window, and Psycho), while others (e.g., Family Plot) have a very bad transfer. The films that have been restored like Rear Window do look great, however. 

I also think the extras that you get on each movie are very good. The documentaries which have interviews with the remaining stars, filmmakers, and Hitchcock family members are very good. I don't really know how this compares to the DVDs that are already out there. You probably want to research whether this will be that much of an upgrade to what you already have if you own any of the movies included here. That said I do like the collection and am very happy with it.

Workout Update: Lift-4/645 Corrective and Foam Rolling- Round 2 -Day 38

For Day 38 I just did the two Lift 4 recovery workouts. Both went fine and I feel like my flexibility has (somehow) improved from last week.