Not All Who Wander Are Lost...

'The End' of LOST

2010-05-24T12:01:00.001-06:00

Six years. Growing from age 12 to age 18. The last year of middle school, all of high school, and the start of college. 2004 to 2010. The complete journey of LOST, from beginning to end.

LOST has been called many things: baffling, emotional, mysterious, a game-changer for the television industry, intelligent, frustrating, magnificent, epic. Last night, the show ended with the powerful two and a half hour finale entitled, simply. "The End."

Right now, I'm sitting here, with Michael Giacchino's incredible soundtrack playing, trying to find the words to voice some of my many thoughts about the end of the show and the finale episode itself. I'm doing so before talking to any other fans, other than my family; before reading theories and opinions; before discussing it, or even giving it much space. These thoughts are raw and, to give them justice, will have *spoilers* -- but anyone who cares will have seen the episode by now anyway.

Before I dig in, you should know what kind of LOST fan I am. I don't read 40 blogs and listen to 10 podcasts after each episode. I don't read every book that is hidden in the show, or have dozens of theories that I am 100% positive will come true. I do watch every episode, obviously, many of them multiple times. I spend time thinking about the show. I regularly read (and gain most of my insight) from who I consider the LOST guru, Entertainment Weekly columnist "Doc" Jeff Jensen (and his partner from Totally Lost, Dan Snierson). I consider Doc Jensen's theories, am blown away by his research, and bow down to his knowledge of the show. I can't wait to read his recap of the finale.

But mostly, I am [or, after last night, I suppose I should say was, *sniff*] along for the journey.

I have experienced something very much like last night before, when the seventh Harry Potter book came out. There's a feeling of excitement mixed with dread when you face the final chapter of a magnificent story: excitement at seeing it all come together, at learning the ending; and dread at saying goodbye to a world and set of characters that you love. There's a morning-after feel of "now what?" -- a feeling of not being able to put that Deathly Hallows book on your bookshelf; at not being able to delete LOST from your DVR queue, because it means admitting that it's over.

I'll be interested to see how LOST "ages." How will it be remembered? Will future generations watch it? Much like Harry Potter, I get the sense that watching it, with it finished, won't be the same as watching it over the past six years. Half the fun was how it kept us guessing and discussing, reaching for Wikipedia and online forums as we try to guess what will happen next. Of course, unlike Harry Potter, LOST has many more loose threads. There's more to discuss and guess at. But it won't be the same without the weekly new material. I know that someday (probably soon), I'll want to sit down and re-watch the show from its beginning, considering it from different angles now that the ending is out in the world. But, despite a re-watch marathon, it's over.

Many people can tell you that LOST was special, maybe even unique. They'll list the ways it changed television. They'll marvel at the way it wasn't "dumbed-down for its audience, but instead, it reached out to the "nerd herd" and challenged us to discuss philosophy, history, literature... to ask about the significance of the Watership Down book Sawyer was reading, or question the meaning behind a character named after the philosopher John Locke. They'll tell you that it was a heavily serialized show (try just watching one episode if you've never seen it and you'll be lost within minutes), in a time of easy to follow shows like CSI. They'll tell you that setting an end date for a popular show had never been done (side-note: I seriously hope networks learn from this, and both stop canceling good shows too early, or running once-good shows into the ground).

I'm one of these people. Being part of the LOST phenomenon is to know something that broke precedents, that hadn't been done, and that may not be done ever again.

Now I have that out of the way, let me just say something general about the finale episode: What an emotional two and a half hours!! I cry easily when I'm invested in a show and its characters, and the finale had me tearing up almost constantly. Both the second-to-last scene, with everyone reunited in the church, and the plot-device of the characters "remembering" their past, flashing around past seasons of the show, and all the joyful, tearful hugging and kissing of loved ones... instant tearjerker for me. More than that, though, I thought it was a simply brilliant way of ending the show, of paying homage to all the events and characters of the past, of saying goodbye.

I just sat down to watch the last 10 minutes of the finale again, so that's what I want to talk about next: the end of The End. I'm not sure where I expected the show to go in its last few minutes, but this wasn't it. As I sat in tears last night, watching Jack return to the bamboo forest that started it all, seeing the show in the tree, Vincent, and finally seeing Jack's eye close in direct reversal of the opening shot, there was one thought in my blown-away mind: Wow. I knew the show was built in a pattern where seasons 1 and 6 mirrored each other, 2/5, 3/4, but I just didn't see such a beautiful final scene coming. Bravo.

Going back before the absolute end, there are the scenes what I still must call the "Sideways" reality, in the church, that struck me as incredibly significant. I love the way that LOST has turned into a spiritual show that is not religious (there's a big difference between those two ideas). The setting of that key final scene, with crosses next to menorahs, and Virgin Mary's on the shelf with the Buddha -- and especially the stained glass window with all the major religions represented, lighting up the whole room -- was somehow just so beautiful to me. I am a firm believer that creative individuals have the opportunity to change the world, and I love that Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse took this time to show that all religions have at their core a basic faith. LOST has long been known for breaking racial boundaries with its international casting, and I think it's great that the writers took it one step further with this inclusive setting.

As for the content of the final scene, I'm still turning the conversation between Jack and Christian over in my mind. I like the idea that these characters were reunited in death -- no matter when they died -- because it brings the show back to its relationship-driven roots. Yes, there are polar bears and smoke monsters, but this show comes down to the people, and this ending reflected that completely.

I could go on and on, but instead, let me finish (for now) by saying, I don't know how I wanted LOST to end, so I can't hold up last night's episode and say "yes, that's what I wanted to see." I don't know how others wanted it to end, or if the fanbase is happy with last night's episode -- I'll be setting out soon into the depths of the internet to find out. The ending is what it is. It's out there in the world, Darlton are on radio silence, that's it, it's done.

I'm happy with the ending. I'm still pondering its significance, but I don't feel disappointed or that I would have had it another way. In the words of the show itself: Whatever happened, happened.

Namaste.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

2010-01-18T20:08:00.002-07:00

I don't usually do book reviews, but when I power through a series of five books in seven days, we're talking about a particularly review-worthy group of books.

So, I'm here now to talk about the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan. Made up of The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Battle of the Labyrinth, The Titan's Curse, and The Last Olympian... and soon to be a major motion picture, this is an adventure story after my heart. You see, I've always had a thing for Greek Mythology. I had this little set of books from one of those Scholastic Book Orders from Elementary School that I read a bazillion times. I drank the stories right up, I reveled in the legends of the Olympian gods, the myths of Pandora, Narcissus, and Hercules... there was just *something* that drew me to these tales.

Of course, when I heard there was a series of books that had a lot of the same elements that made us fall in love with Harry Potter -- and had to do with Greek mythology -- I was hooked before I even read the first word. And the stories didn't disappoint at all once I finally got around to pulling them off the shelf. Sure, they're easy reads made for younger children (in fact, the 9-year-old I was babysitting a few weeks ago was reading The Lightning Thief) -- but that just made them all the more exciting. When you can really power through a book -- I read just about all of the 300-page books in 2 days -- you get to enjoy the pace and adventure even more than a book which bogs you down with complex writing.

Riordan is witty and playful as he mixes up the adventures of Percy Jackson, Son of Poseidon, and all the other demi-gods who go to Camp Half-Blood. He makes the existence of the Olympian Gods believable with the explanation that they follow the beacon of light that is Western Civilization. He gives Apollo attitude, Hermes personality, and mythical creatures like satyrs, cyclopses, and centaurs so much energy that they seem to leap off the page. I particularly liked the way Riodan mixed other Greek tales -- like the Odessey, the Labyrinth, and the Trojan War -- into the story of Percy and his friends. And the way he drew out the basic plot-line of Kronos returning to power didn't feel stretched, even though it is the focal point of most of the latter four books of the series.

I'm going to be writing brief reviews of the individual stories on my Goodreads account, so I'll wrap this up by saying that I really enjoyed this series. I'm looking forward to see what Chris Columbus (director of the first two Harry Potter films) does with the movie adaptation in February... and I'm pleased to hear that Riordan is writing more Percy Jackson stories, possibly due Fall 2010. Overall, reading these books over the past week has been a fun ride -- if what I've described sounds like something you might like, I encourage you to give the series a go, but don't start until you have all the books and have a bit of time to read, because you won't want to put them down! Cheers :)

NINE

2010-01-06T15:10:00.004-07:00

This post is a few days overdue, so I'm hoping I can recreate my thoughts on the new movie NINE* which I saw last weekend...

Nine is a very interesting movie. It's directed by Rob Marshall, the genius who brought the world Chicago a few years ago. In my mind, its cast is rivaled only by the upcoming film Valentine's Day ... It stars Daniel Day-Lewis, and an astonishing assortment of female divas: Sophia Loren, Judi Dench, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, and Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson (of the Black Eyed Peas).

The film comes from a 1980's Broadway musical, which in turn was inspired by an Italian play, which itself was based on the film 8 1/2, which is loosely autobiographical of Italian director Federico Fellini. Whew!

It's hard not to have extremely high hopes going into a film like this - just LOOK at the cast list! ... and it's even harder not to have these hopes turn into disappointments if everything about the movie isn't perfect. In all, I really enjoyed the film. It was a flashy, entertaining, and emotional musical with fabulous stars, great music, and an interesting idea. I do agree a bit with some of the more negative reviews I've read that writer's block isn't the best subject for a film. After all, watching Daniel Day-Lewis suffer for inspiration for two and a half hours isn't exactly a blast.**

That said, this film really touched me. It's ironic (and coincidental) that I had been thinking about inspiration on the day I saw Nine. The film deals exactly with the relationship between a creator and the creation... And the struggles that come from lack of inspiration.

Basically, the story is about Italian filmmaker Guido Contini (Day-Lewis), who has had many successes, but more recently, many *flops.* As he struggles to find a subject for his new film, Italia, we meet the seven women that have shaped his life: his mother (Loren), his old friend and costume designer of his films (Dench), his wife (Cotillard), his mistress (Cruz), his leading lady (Kidman), a reporter from Vogue (Hudson) and a mysterious gypsy woman from his childhood (Fergie)

One of the other "stars" of the film is the stage where the new film is meant to be filmed. The centerpiece of the otherwise chaotic sound stage is a beautiful but uncompleted set with columns - some sort of old fashioned Italian exterior... The scaffolding and ropes from the construction of the set provides wonderful monkey bars for several of Guido's songs. Furthermore, all of the songs of the film take place on this set, cutting back and forth between the real-life circumstances of the singer, and the idea that Guido is trying out various parts of his real-life for the subject of the film.

The film is, to use one of the terms I learned last semester, self-reflexive... It itself openly acknowledges its own nature as a film and deals with filmmaking as a subject. Furthermore, its former nature as a stage play can easily be seen, though it has been opened up somewhat to include locations and movement (like the beautiful shots of the winding roads above the ocean as Day-Lewis flees a press conference). This can be seen throughout, in the idea of the stage I already mentioned, in the opening sequence in which the seven leading ladies parade across the stage, more or less introducing themselves to the audience. It continues (slight SPOILER alert) into the end, when Guido finally finds inspiration for a film, called Nine. The film itself ends with his cry of "action!" in a bizarre onscreen-offscreen kind of parallel.

My mind would not stay quiet during the film, and I know I'm missing many of the interesting ideas that occurred to me then. Perhaps when I see it again someday they'll come back to me. I really enjoyed the performances of everyone involved in the film. In fact, two of my favorite songs were not by the Oscar winning actor or actresses... but by the others. Hudson's "Cinema Italiano" and Fergie's "Be Italian" are, in my mind, the most memorable numbers of the work. That said, it was still amazing to see Cruz's flexibility, to hear Kidman's voice again (it's been too long since Moulin Rouge!), to see Dench belt a wonderfully fun number, to see Cotillard overcome awful lyrics in her first song*** to give an amazing and moving performance in her second, etc.

It seems that the critics didn't receive this film as well - EW, one of the only reviews I read gave it an appalling C! - so perhaps it won't reach Oscar-dom. It does have a shot at a Golden Globe, though, and we'll see what happens there. I and everyone I went with sincerely enjoyed the film... it's a great flashy musical with some wonderful performances. Though there are so many movies in theaters right now (gotta love the holidays) - and the ever-so-awesome AVATAR worth seeing again and again,**** I would recommend this movie overall.

Cheers :)

*I'm just going to come out and say it... What's with all the #9 movies this year? There's this, Nine, there's District 9, and there's 9. Of course they're all very different films, but is it just because it's 2009? Weird!
**Although he sure does get to show off the veins in his head and his amazing ability to keep a grungy five o'clock shadow look for nearly two hours.
*** "My husband makes movies / To make them he lives a kind of dream/In which his actions aren't always what they seem!" -- By the way, HOW did she manage to keep tears glistening in her eyes this entire song?
****I still can't believe AVATAR grossed $1 billion worldwide in 17 days... that's just incredible. I'm really rooting for it to beat Titanic's record and for it win some major awards. I stand by my review that it's a stunning and incomparable film - everyone NEEDS to see it at least once in theaters.

I can haz inspiration?

2010-01-02T14:29:00.003-07:00

Last night, I talked with a woman who's life story would make a GREAT movie. It would be Erin Brockovich meets Slumdog Millionaire, and it really surprised me how much the movie-ness of what she's been through came out and smacked me in the face.

I find I often struggle with fostering my creativity. Though I want to make movies, write stories, be imaginative, whatever... actual characters and plots don't pop into my head that easily. One of my goals this year is to see this as a skill that I can develop. Hopefully being in my first film production class (last semester, I was only taking critical studies film courses) will contribute to this, but it an ability that I really want to foster.

I often find that I don't know what to write about, even though the truth of the matter is, you can write about ANYTHING. I've been keeping in mind an exchange from the movie Finding Neverland:

Peter Llewelyn Davies (the young boy in the story): I still have no idea what to write.
J.M. Barrie (played by Johnny Depp): Write about anything. Write about your family, write about the talking whale!
Peter: What whale?
J.M. Barrie: The one that's trapped in your imagination and desperate to get out.

It's so easy for me to see stories in people's lives, or the possibilities for a film in a good book (Tamora Pierce movies NEED to happen, people)... but I really want to work on getting inspiration from a good story from all around me, in everyday life.

When I see things like the MoMA exhibit about Tim Burton, I am astounded by the kind of creative visions some people like Burton have. It's like they see a different world from you or I; or like they have this imagination of steel which processes everything and churns about amazing ideas.

Anyway, this is just a random little blog post to get some thoughts out there. If you're a creative person, where do YOU get inspiration from?

Sherlock Holmes

2010-01-02T14:08:00.002-07:00

My family went to see the new Sherlock Holmes yesterday, which is a movie I was really looking forward to ever since the first trailer dropped. I can honestly say I was not disappointed... the movie is fun, interesting, and highly entertaining from start to finish.

Robert Downey Jr. makes a great Holmes (not that I have much frame of reference for the character). He's witty, smart, annoying, funny, slovenly, charming... the list goes on. He pulls off a kind of *damn-it-all* attitude that I see in his own personality and in his character Tony Stark from Iron Man. It seems to me that the characters he's choosing matches his Hollywood status as an actor who spent a great deal of time outside the circle and is now a bit wary of being welcomed back into it. I think it's wonderful and, in some ways, highly fortuitous that the trailer for his next movie that is sure to be a blockbuster smash, Iron Man 2, plays before Holmes in theaters.

Holmes is doing well in the box office, as far as I know - it set a Christmas Day record last weekend - so I'm guessing that this first film will be the start (or perhaps RE-start) to a franchise. I welcome this idea, and the opportunity to see Robert Downey's Holmes and Jude Law's Watson continue their banter on screen. On that note, Law's Watson was equally up to par and far from being the sidekick that he is in the books (I've just begun reading an illistrated version of all the Arthur Conan Doyle stories). Law easily keeps pace with Downey Jr., even outshining him at some parts of the film.

All in all, I thought the film did a good job handling the mystery genre. They gave you enough hints to know that Holmes was on the trail of something (a sniff here, a keen look there), but when all the pieces came together at the end, I don't think audience members felt stupid for not having figured out the case - as I've noticed I do after certain similar films. The story was engaging, the bad guy was sinister, and the damsel in distress was... well, a bit of a badass herself. Rachel McAdams was lovely as ever (that pink satin dress? damn).

The film's soundtrack is particularly worth commenting on, as it was superb. Done by Hans Zimmer, one of my all time favorite composers (The Dark Knight, Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3, Lion King, etc). The music is unusual, upbeat, exciting, unnerving, quirky, adventurous... and above all, completely fitting for the film itself.

Overall, I'd recommend the film as it's just plain fun. Back to the theaters again today to see the movie Nine. Cheers :)

AVATAR

2009-12-31T16:20:00.010-07:00

James Cameron's AVATAR* was, in my opinion, one of the best pictures of the year, of the decade, and maybe ever. I don't find it easy to rank and compare films, or to easily say something was "my favorite"** Every film is different, and saying one is better than the other is, for me, a lot like talking about apples and oranges. However, AVATAR was stunning. It reminded me why I want to be in the film business, why I admire the craft. It sets new standards for other films in my mind. In some ways, it seems like what films might look like ten, twenty, or even thirty years from now... James Cameron just happened to make it a little earlier. This movie is the most astonishing visual experience I've ever witnessed on the silver screen. I've seen it twice and a bit of time has elapsed since both viewings, so it's possible that my opinion might change if I see it a third time, or when time passes and I see it on my computer. It's possible that the shock and awe will someday wear off and I'll look at this blog entry and think "huh?"... only time will tell. But for now, all I can say is that AVATAR blew me away.

You ARE on Pandora when you watch this film. Cameron takes you on a journey when you sit down and the lights dim. This is not a movie that is about a brilliant script, witting dialogue, powerful characters... it's a movie that's about a vision. Everything on Pandora, from the banshees to the little lemur monkeys with four arms to the seeds of Ewya looks and feels real, though completely otherworldly. I found out recently that Cameron has a history in natural science, which makes TOTAL sense to me based on the world and creatures he created.

Cameron is not a guy to go halfway. This is "King of the World," creator of the highest grossing film ever James Cameron we're talking about. The guy was brave enough to sink the frikkin Titanic on screen, after all. So, of course, writing a script that is not possible to create didn't stop him... he just went right ahead MAKING it possible. This is something that I admire to NO end. The fact that there is camera technology credited at the end of the film that is named after Cameron is just brilliant, in my mind. If more people were like this, if more people had the attitude that nothing is IMpossible, just not possible YET, well my friends, the world would be a different place.

The 3D effect in AVATAR is effortless, so different from Robert Zemeckis' A Christmas Carol or Beowulf, which are my main frames of reference for 3D feature films. The 3D in this film does not seem like that Disneyland attraction that sprays water in your face, shakes your seat, and shoots images out of the screen for maximum effect.*** When I saw A Christmas Carol, the 3D was so OBVIOUS, as if the entire time I was watching it, my brain was going "ooh, look, that's in 3D. Ooh, so is that." No, the 3D in this film is not obvious or flashy. Instead, it aims at recreating real life. The screen has a depth that you never knew was missing from traditional 2D movies. When so-and-so is standing in front of a desk, you can TELL that they're in front of it.

As for the CGI... well, what can I say. The translation from motion capture to photo-real image is stunning. Gone is that "video game" plastic-y look that plagues so many CG scenes of the past. Na'vi skin looks touchable. Motion is real, emotion is real. The only thing holding Pandora back from being real is reality itself.

Now, I have no idea how much Cameron changed the script from what he originally wrote in 1995, but the fact that the core idea of this movie has everything to do with the danger of destruction and war, the peril of an threatened world, and the importance of seeing, understanding, and valuing the NETWORKS in the world around us ... was written FOR 2009. This is a message people need to see and understand. Pandora is Earth, only there aren't clear victims like the Na'vi people. WE, humans, are the ruthless power-hungry, greedy bastards that the film makes clear "bad guys." Our only hope is to learn from Nuteri and her people, to learn to SEE and understand how everything is connected.

This is getting long, and is only likely to develop into novel-esque size if I don't stop soon. See AVATAR, if you haven't. See it again, if you have. I will be rooting for it at the Golden Globes and Oscars, I will be watching it many more times, I'm sure. This is a monumental film, and I only hope that someday, I can have a small part in making something like it.

Cheers.

*Somehow the title just HAS to be written in caps. It's not avatar or Avatar... it's AVATAR, complete with booming loud drum noises, ala the end of the film, or a movie-trailer voice and flashy neon letters.
**Except Pirates of the Caribbean, which remains my FAVORITE film, the movie I saw 9 times in theaters, the movie that I have honored with posters all over my room, the movie which will always hold a special place in my heart. -- I know, I'm weird.
***Please tell me you know what I'm talking about here.

Obleck

2009-12-31T13:45:00.007-07:00

Time is like obleck, I have decided.

"What is obleck?" you're probably asking... Besides being a silly word, obleck is that crazy stuff that hopefully everyone experienced in their childhood. Obleck is what results from mixing the right amounts of cornstarch and water. Obleck is fabulous. It runs and drips through your fingers like a liquid, but squeeze your hand together, and it somehow feels solid.

How this works continues to boggle my mind. (No, please don't explain. I'm not a science person; I prefer to see it purely as MAGIC.). But today when I was thinking about the end of the year and the end of the decade (!!!), I came to see that obleck makes a fabulous metaphor for time.

When you're in the middle of everything, time usually just slips by. A few minutes, an hour, a day, a week, even a month go by fairly quickly. It doesn't take that much effort for time to pass - it's just like you're holding your hand open, and the obleck is slipping through your fingers.

But as soon as you make your hand into a fist, as soon as it's December 31st, and everyone is talking about where they were in January 2009 or even January 2000, time feels solid and real. It's mind boggling to consider everything that happened in a year, and almost beyond comprehension (for me, at least) to talk about the last ten years put together.

So there's your metahporical dose for the day, thank you, goodbye.

On a more serious note, I am doing a lot of reflecting and planning for 2010. Though it sometimes seems silly to tie up all our homes and dreams for change with a date and a holiday, 2010 really does seem like a chance for a fresh start. I spent a great deal of time this morning writing out a great many personal goals I want to work on starting tomorrow (or tonight at midnight, I suppose). Somehow, writing them out feels like chiseling them in stone (though of ocourse with much less effort, thanks to computers) - it makes the idea of having "resolutions" more real.

I'm not going to get into all the ways I want to be a better person - those are things for me and me alone to comtemplate and work on for now. The one goal I do want to share has to do with the very website you are currently reading this from. I want to blog more. I know, I know... If I had a nickel for every time...

But I really do want to make an effort to update this site more frequently. I wrote in my resolutions list that my quantitative goal is "at least three times a week with a goal of five" - but that goal is modifiable. I also want to write more for my official CU Blog more next year, and there might just be a limit to what I can do.

Overall, I have a lot of thoughts and I want to share more of them in written form on here. I'm going to work on writing more casually, not as if I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY in big captial NEON letters, but just as if I have something to share, feel free to read it. I want to return to reviewing more movies, particularly the ones I watch for class, so I can solidify my thoughts about them and practice analysizing and describing films.

That said, I will soon be following this up with other entries. I want to review Avatar (OMG) and some of the other movies I've seen recently. I want to talk about the Oscars. I want to dig into some of the books I've been reading lately.

One last thought before I hit the big scary orange "PUBLISH" button... Last year, I wrote some of my resolutions in a blog post here, and I think for the most part, I can put check marks by them (with the exception of "make films," I suppose). The one resolution I don't see on that list but that was a goal for me was to read 52 books this year. I failed at this goal. At last count, I have read 44 (although that list does include the GARGANTUAN Mists of Avalon which should probably count as more than one. Anyway, I want to read MORE than 52 books next year. Nice quantitative goal. Let's make it happen.

That's it from me for now, folks. Hope you have lovely New Year celebrations when the clock stikes midnight - and more importantly, I hope you have a lovely NEW YEAR. May 2010 be awesome for us all. Cheers!

(Feel free to share your thoughts on the passing of time, this decade, this year, and new year's resolutions, if you are so-inclined).

Plugged In

2009-11-28T12:48:00.006-07:00

Last night, my family sat down to watch the Paul McCartney concert 1-hour special that had aired on Thanksgiving. We followed this up with the 1-hour Beyonce special that had also aired on Thursday night. Both of these got me thinking about cultural phenomenons and what it is that I find so interesting about following pop culture.

Paul McCartney was great, as always. At several points between songs, bits of an interview with him are cut in... and Paul remarks on all the speculation that he will someday retire. He says with a grin on his face, "What am I going to do? Sit at home and watch the telly?" (I love British-speak :P) "That's fine for about five minutes."

In presenting the show, the editors also cut in some original footage of the Beatles playing the same stadium when they first came to New York. That, along with the jubilant faces of the audience members, singing or dancing along, reinforced the amazing strength and force of the mania that I believe still surrounds the Beatles.

It was great to hear Paul play hits like "Hey Jude" and "Yesterday," but equally fun to see the stunning pyrotechnic-laden performance of "Live and Let Die." I was disappointed that Paul didn't do any of his more recent hits like "Nod Your Head" and "Dance Tonight" -- but perhaps he did and they just didn't include them in the one-hour version of the show.

Paul remarks at one point that he loves that parents and kids and even grandparents can all enjoy his music equally. While I have long appreciated the Beatles hits (who hasn't?) I'm sure I don't hear them with the same rush of emotions and nostalgia as people like my parents who were growing up in the midst of their popularity. My mom was talking about what it was like to follow the Beatles, watching them release hits, break up, get back together, not quite knowing where the group was headed or what would happen next.

I think what really struck me was that the night before, Thanksgiving, I got into a rather heated debate with an old family friend about what made/makes Harry Potter the phenomenon it is. I was trying to explain what it was like growing up alongside the release of the books, not knowing when the next book would be released, who was going to die, how the story was going to end. It occurred to all of my family while watching gracious and talented Paul perform that the Beatles was a very similar phenomenon.

Transitioning from Paul to Beyonce was rather odd, but it was great to get a glimpse of what looks like her very energetic and intimate performance from Las Vegas. I admire Beyonce greatly -- she's gorgeous, sexy, talented... She can sing, dance, and is an inspiration to women with her messages of independence and confidence. There's something lovely and almost hypnotic about watching someone so clearly in their prime, loving what they do every minute.

It really hit me when she performed Single Ladies (mainly because she pointed it out) that the Single Ladies video and dance was a kind of mini-phenomenon of 2009. I remember the first time I saw this video and what an impact it made on me. It's cool to think that it was a major part of the pop culture of this year and that I was somehow a part of it -- that I experienced it.

What I realized through all these musings was that I find immense pleasure from the feeling of being "plugged in" to the larger world, particularly when it involves pop culture phenomena. There's something really satisfying for me of understanding and being part of an experience -- whether it's Michael Jackson's death on Twitter, the VMAs and Kanye bashing, or any of the other big events of this year. Every now and then, I question why I care so much, if it's frivolous, how it really impacts my life... But I think what attracts me to experiencing pop culture phenomenons is the feeling of connection and belonging, the knowledge that thousands of other people love the Single Ladies video and have a memory of watching it the same time. It's the same feeling I associate with Harry Potter book releases, and that I'm sure my parents' generation links to the Beatles albums.

So, we're heading into the last month of 2009... the last month of the first decade of the 2000's. Soon we'll have a new year, a new decade, and new phenomenons to experience. I can't wait!

Gobble Gobble

2009-11-25T21:22:00.005-07:00

Love to eat turkey... love to eat turrrkeeey
Love to eat turkey, cause it's good
Turkey for me, turkey for you
Let's eat turkey in a big brown shoe!
~Adam Sandler's Thanksgiving song, Weekend Update SNL

Well, it's that day again... the day when we celebrate pilgrims having a dinner party with the indians, where we're supposed to be spend the day grateful for all that the universe has blessed us with... and where we're supposed to gorge ourselves on the bird that Ben Franklin once wanted as the national animal, along with three different kinds of pie.

Don't get me wrong... I love Thanksgiving. It's a great excuse to not only have the day but the week off from school, to spend time with friends and family, to eat delicious food, and to reflect and respect the life you're living. But really, you gotta love the irony of this holiday.

People express their appreciation of this holiday in different ways...
Adam Sandler wrote a song about it
Friends always took it as an excuse to be extra funny.
Hank Green told us 50 things he appreciates in his daily life.
President Obama took it as opportunity to show off his adorable sense of humor.

I always associate it with those construction paper turkeys you would make in elementary school by tracing your hand and decorating it with a little face and drawing in feathers. This year, my family is hosting a large dinner with family and friends - 10 or 11 people and I expect deliciousness and over-eating to be had by all.

I got myself in a bit of a funk today (meaning slightly bad mood but you can't pin your finger on what you feel bad about). It's mostly school related... I'm in the final stretch (2 weeks, 4 classes, 7 major assignments left) and it's hard to be on break and not be fully able to relax. I did see a great, hilarious film with George Clooney and Ewan McGregor -- <3 -- The Men Who Stare At Goats, but I'm not quite in a particularly *thankful* mood tonight. I am in a very talkative, bloggy mode tonight, hence the rambling.

I've said this a bazillion times without it coming to fruition, but I want to blog more. I like how it is similar to keeping a journal, but that it feels more purposeful since you have somewhat of an audience. I think it's important to formalize my thoughts into writing, to take the time to figure out what you're thinking and how you're processing what's been going on in your life. I'm not going to put a goal on it now, but I hope to be on here more.

If you're celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow, I hope you have a lovely holiday. If you're not (probably because you're not American), take it as an excuse to spend a few minutes thinking of what you're grateful... cause it can't hurt, right?

Cheers :)

New this week in Newsweek

2009-11-16T21:58:00.004-07:00

This past weekend I decided that I wanted to read the current (November 16) copy of Newsweek cover to cover. This may sound insignificant, unimportant, or uninteresting, but it's something that not only do I never do... I'm not sure I've ever done it at all. In the past, I've read some of the articles, flipped through the stories while eating breakfast, or simply opened it straight to the political cartoon page... but I'm not sure I've ever read every word of every story.

My family has had a subscription to Newsweek for quite some time now -- before that it was Time, or maybe it was both... but they've been piling up in our magazine basket for several years now. I don't know exactly why I'm never drawn to them -- it's partly an issue of time, I think. I also currently get Entertainment Weekly, People, Glamour, Allure, and Real Simple [before you protest, they were all free and I only have them for a limited amount of time. Oh, and I always give them to friends before recycling them] and I barely have time to read those as it is. On top of that, there's reading for school, for my bookclub(s), for fun... Yeah, I just basically never make it to reading Newsweek.

But I had a few quiet minutes on Friday, and it was just sitting there staring at me, so I started flipping through it, then I started reading it, and then I started reading all of it. I actually haven't finished at the time I'm sitting here writing this, but I certainly plan to read the rest. I can't say if this is indicative of a new pattern - if I'm going to be able to read every word of all the Newsweeks from now on, but I certainly have gained a new appreciation of the magazine as a whole, and a new knowledge of how interesting it can be to really read in depth.

The magazine's cover story is about lessons we can learn from Vietnam - and how they can be applied to Afghanistan. The story is really quite interesting, though I don't see what made it timely enough to make it the cover story; but I particularly enjoyed John Kerry's subarticle. He had a very striking conclusion that I think is worth sharing: "One of the architects of the Vietnam War, Robert McNamara, confessed decades later that he knew victory was no longer possible well before the American death toll had reached half its eventual total. He offers a horrific lesson that the time to voice concerns is now." It seems clear to me that America's involvement in Afghanistan is far from over, and I hope to follow its events and debates closer than I did with events in, say, Iraq. I was too unappreciative at the time of what was going on in Iraq to keep up and as such generally don't know what was/is going on there.

I have always admired John Green and other individuals who are very well versed in current events -- people who understand the innerworkings of what's making headlines well enough to explain them to others and debate them intellectually. I guess my reading Newsweek this weekend is, in part, an attempt to follow in those footsteps. Next semester I'll be taking a Modern US Policy/Diplomacy class, which I'm sure with further my understanding of the crazy world of political happenings.

The Newsweek issue had many other interesting stories - lots of chatter about the Berlin Wall Fall anniversary, about the recent elections in favor of the Republicans and what that means for the country, etc, etc. But I'm not going to go into that now... If you're interested, you can read for yourself!

If anyone out there happens to read this, I'd love to hear what YOU read in the realm of magazines, websites, RSS-feeds, newspapers, etc. How do you keep up with current events -- or do you not care at all? Let me know!

Cheers :)

More weekend, more movies

2009-10-05T22:07:00.017-06:00

So this was just a weekend for movies, I guess... Another couple of days, another couple of pictures. This was boosted by a trip to the library - holy cow, they have a lot more DVDs than I remember! They must be adding them all the time! Anyway, since I'm really into older films right now, it's perfect. I got a collection of Buster Keaton shorts that I can't wait to watch. Anyway...

Last night, my mom and I finished Agatha Christi's Death On The Nile, which was just plain fantastic. Not sure how much I got into this last night, but it has an amazing cast, and was such a classic old-movie murder mystery flick. Hercule Poirot (with his great mustache) is hilarious, and I hope to watch Mystery on the Orient Express next weekend. Anyway, it was great to finally find out WHO DID IT and wrap it up.

I was literally sitting through a lot of the movie just thinking "this is great, this is great." It had that combination of suave British/30s charm (though it was made in the 70s) and with such a great cast and melodramatic acting and filming... it was a real treat. I really recommend it!

Next up was To Catch a Thief, today... as something we happened to see on the shelf (Grace Kelly and Cary Grant! -- and Hitchcock!) and decided to use as a reward for me finishing homework and a last bit of fun to end the weekend.

So it was basically GREAT Grace Kelly. Wow, between her white and blue dresses, there was a bit of fashion-related drooling in this picture. Cary Grant was... very much as I know him to be. Very tan, very smooth (he would be a good James Bond!), and a very good reformed jewel thief. It had some great moments, though it wasn't one of Hitchock's most suspenseful films. It did inspire me to set a little goal, though not quite sure how likely this is to happen... It'd be really cool to see all of Hitchcock's movies either before the end of the school year or before next school year starts. They seem like films I should see (even though I don't particularly want to see Psycho or The Birds).

And then there's tonight... right now.. It's Disney Movie Night again in my dorm, something I found out about last weekend and attended for the first time last week (Hercules). In a different sense of older-movie traditions, MAN old Disney is great! I don't think I'll ever grow out of these movies and hope I can raise my own kids on them some day. The current Pixar or Shrek-type films just don't even hold a candle to the music and magic of Lion King, Aladdin, and ALL the rest!

But anyway, here I am with a group of people who know the words to Lion King by heart and have been singing along the whole time and... well, life is good.

I'm particularly excited about this week, though it's really the same as every other, with long Tuesdays and Thursdays, homework, general business... Anyway, there's something that makes it special: MORE MOVIES.

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to the movies we're watching in my film classes this week, PARTICULARLY Singing in the Rain, but also Fatal Attraction (which I just feel like I should see), and Fight Club (which I KNOW I need to see, even though I haven't). Anyway, on top of that, I have the Ian McKellen production of King Lear to supplement my reading for my British Literature class, and Shakespeare in Love because I saw it on the shelf and though I'd see if I have time to see it again.

Right, so there's another post that's very simple and probably not gramatically correct or fully spell-checked, but I really do want to start blogging more often. It's a good journaling experience. Cheers! :)

What do Fred Astaire, SNL, and Dan Brown have in common?

2009-10-04T11:54:00.013-06:00

...They've all been a part of my weekend. I'm once again going to pick up my goal of blogging more frequently by chattering about what's recently been in front of me. They are three mediums, and certainly three very different pop icons, but between last night and this morning, they've all been in front of me.

I honestly don't know that I've ever seen a Fred Astaire movie. I'm a big Gene Kelly fan, so I may have seen Astaire in a movie with Kelly, but as far as the famed Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers go, I don't know that they've ever actually crossed my path. Anyway, the recent abundance of oldie movies that I've been seeing in film classes have inspired me to keep it up on the weekends. Last week I watched Some Like It Hot, which I had heard of but certainly had to see it. I wanted to find out why it was being called the "best comedy of all time" by AFI. Anyway, this week, I grabbed Swing Time with Astaire and Rodgers off the library shelf. It was really quite sweet, in that old "swell romance" kind of 30's musical kind of way. And, man, can they dance. Once again I feel inspired to take tap lessons... Who knows, maybe I'll actually do it next summer. This week in my Intro to Film class, we are watching and discussing Singing in the Rain. I couldn't be more thrilled and I feel fairly certain it's going to make me want to see Anchors Away, another favorite, yet again. Anyway, that I know of, Swing Time didn't have any TOTALLY FAMOUS songs or dance numbers in it, although I can't say I really know what Astaire (and Rogers) are most famous for. Anyone know...? I guess there's the scene where he dances on the ceiling and walls, but are there any other pictures he did that are pegged on that "OMG how have you not seen ____" list?

Also, last night, my mom and I started watching Death on the Nile, a film based on an Agatha Christie novel and starring an amazing group of actors like Maggie Smith, Bette Davis, David Niven, Mia Farrow, Olivia Hussey, Angela Lansbury... and on and on. We haven't finished it yet, but the whole time we were watching the first half, I was just sitting there ABSOLUTELY loving every minute of it. More on that when I've seen the rest!

Anyway, after that came the wonderful weekly comedy fest that is Saturday Night Live. I was thinking back and I realized that i have seen absolutely every episode of SNL since around 2005 - the first episode I DVRd was when Catherine Zeta-Jones was hosting... yes, I still remember. So, yes, my family is a big fan of the show. We've watched actors and actresses come and go, the Weekend Update desk change hands, sat through skits with glazed eyes thinking 'this isn't funny,' and split our sides laughing. Last night was a good episode. It had a fabulously weird Samburg Digital Skit: Throwing things on the ground reminded me of the "punching people while eating" sketch that still makes me laugh. The host was Ryan Reynolds, although I can't say I saw him that much. It was great to see them using "what the....?" musical guest Lady Gaga, who, I must say, I appreciate in a new way after the episode. It also had the feel of a Season Finale, with celebrities popping up left and right. My mom and I were going "is that really Madonna?!" for about 10 minutes, and then it was Elijah Wood (who knows why), and Scarlett Johanson (no big surprise as she's married to Reynolds). The skits were funny, Seth's news was great, and I doubt I will ever forget Andy in a bubble outfit.

Oh, and Drew Barrymore and Regina Spektor next week... could it get any better? Drew is hilarious, and I absolutely LOVE Regina Spektor's voice.

So that was midnight last night - or rather, this morning. Anyway, when I woke up after a nice doze today, I decided to tackle the last 100 pages of Dan Brown's latest giant bestseller, The Lost Symbol. I feel a bit torn between the book, mainly between the fact that I have always like Brown's addictive writing (even the lesser known ones like Deception Point), that the man is simply an irresistible phenomenon of an author, that the book is about D.C. and the Masons (which I find really interesting)... and all the relentless teasing he's been getting lately. A prime example of this teasing is this article, which is really quite hilarious. However, I think I had that article's tone of voice a little too much in my head... to the point that I couldn't fully appreciate the book I had looked forward to and was enjoying. Anyway, I would give the book four stars out of five... it was interesting, but felt like it needed a little tightening up. It didn't have the urgency and pace of his other books, and got a bit too bogged down in the creepiness of the bad guy and the interesting-ness (I know that's not a word) of Robert Langdon. However, I really liked a lot of the points the book made, and found the information about Masons and Noetic Science particularly fascinating. It's always cool to learn some fun facts, like the bit about the recurrence of 13 on the US National Seal. Furthermore, there was one bit at the end (I don't think it really gives anything away, but here's a SPOILER warning just in case) that I want to remember, because it captures something very well:

Two heads are better than one... and yet two heads are not twice better, they are many, many times better. Multiple minds working in unison magnify a thought's effect... exponentially. This is the inherit power of prayer groups, healing circles, singing in unison, worshiping en masse. The idea of universal consciousness is no ethereal New Age concept. It's a hard-core scientific reality... and harnessing it has the potential to transform our world. This is the underlying discovery of Noetic Science. What's more, it's happening right now. You can feel it all around you. Technology is linking us in ways we never imagined possible: Twitter, Google, Wikipedia, and others - all blend to create a web of interconnected minds. [...] And I guarantee you, as soon as I publish my work, the Twitterati will all be sending tweets that say 'learning about Noetics,' and interest in this science will explode exponentially. (Brown, 504).

Yup, that's pretty much it. Articulate and interesting stuff. Feel free to comment on anything I've brought up. Cheers :)

Quick-fire movie review: (500) days of Summer

2009-09-12T22:40:00.010-06:00

This review is long overdue to say the least - I saw (500) Days of Summer before I went to Canada for my cousin's wedding in mid-August... but it's the kind of film that was so good, I feel obliged to review it, even if it has been a while. Since time has elapsed, I'm going to focus on the parts of this film that have stayed with me for over a month, not only telling you why it was good, but why it was memorable.

Honestly, this is probably one of the best films of the year, which I say knowing that the "movie season" (which in my mind leads up to the Oscars in February) is only about half over. It was enjoyable, well-crafted, thoughtful, intelligent, well-acted, cinematically creative, funny, sweet... I could list adjectives for another paragraph. The premise is simple, as the poster says: "This is not a love story, This is a story about love." In other words, as per the beginning of the film itself, "This is a story of boy meets girl, but you should know up front, this is not a love story."

(500) Days of Summer takes everything you think you know about the rom com/chick flick/girly film and turns it on its head. It is from the boys perspective. Depending on how you look at it, it doesn't necessarily have a "happy" ending. It is optimistic and at the same time, completely realistic. I saw it with an extremely diverse group of people - male, female, different ages and preferences - and everyone liked it. How many times can you say that, honestly?

A few moments from the film stand out vividly in my mind, and perhaps, by describing these and the effect they had on me, I will be able to communicate this film's beauty and power. Of course, if you haven't seen it and don't want to know any of this before you do see it, feel free to stop reading any time.

Moment #1:

"She only loved two things. The first was her long dark hair. The second was how easily she could cut it off and feel nothing."

First of all, I love this writing. But even more than that, this simple line illustrates the power of characterization that these filmmakers have. A few sentences of narration, right from the beginning, of odd anecdotal information, and we know exactly who we're dealing with. Furthermore, this line shows one thing I found very unique and powerful about the film, the characterization of "the girl" - Summer. This is not a typical chick flick chick. She does not melt at the sight of her soulmate, but RUNS from commitment. Sound familiar? I'm only describing every guy to ever grace the silver screen in a romantic comedy. The role reversal was one of this film's most powerful weapons, and quite frankly, it was refreshing.

Moment #2:

Expectations versus Reality

A very important sequence in the film is when our main character is invited to Summer's house for a party after not seeing her for some time. In filming the time leading up and through the party, the camera changes to a split-screen, marked on one side "Expectations" and the other "Reality." Before our very eyes, two scenes are acted out simultaneously, the way that Tom hopes things will go with Summer (Hint: she's thrilled to see him and shows it) and the way things actually go (Not the same). Wow. I mean, I've never seen such purely psychological filmmaking. It might sound odd, but even though it's only in this one scene, the technique totally works. It grabs our attention. It shows us what we do with our own minds. Just wow.

Moment #3:

"I'm the hero of this story, I don't need to be saved!"

This line comes from one of the songs on the film's soundtrack, "Hero," by Regina Spektor (who's voice I am COMPLETELY in love with). Usually, I don't like songs that are on a film's soundtrack. I am enamored with musical scores, but unless the song is iconic (in which case it's usually overused), it just doesn't draw my attention. The (500) Days of Summer soundtrack is a completely different matter. Almost all of the songs were vaguely familiar, but not well-known. They fit my mood, my personality, and most importantly, the scene they were placed in. After downloading it, a few songs in particular have caught my fancy, most notably the two by Spektor, one by Feist (of 1234/Apple ad fame), and haunting melody by France first lady Carla Bruni. The line I quoted comes from my favorite song, and in so many ways, summarizes what this film is about. As I've already said, this movie turns Hollywood on its head. Boy meets girl, but girl and boy don't make it together. The story doesn't end at "love at first sight." Gah, I just love the lyric and everything it represents.

Moment #4:

(MAJOR SPOILER)

Autumn

A great movie needs a great ending, and boy did this one deliver. If you know the film, you know what I'm talking about, the moment where it all pays off: Autumn, a quirky, unexpected and yet *perfect* way to finish. I don't have much to say about this, but to pay homage to it. These filmmakers sure know what they're doing.

Catching up: Tour of my new home!

2009-08-31T13:34:00.017-06:00

This blog is the first of many quick, random, and possibly not-so-timely entries in an effort to catch up on my posting and continue blogging with some regularity. I've been meaning to put up this particular post for over a week, so without any further ado, here it goes. I moved into a dormitory on Thursday August 20th, and though it is less than 20 minutes away from my home, it's where I'll be staying for my freshman year of college.

So, let the tour begin. Welcome to Boulder! This is my door (from the inside) - a weird shot, I know. Turning around 180 degrees from here, you will see our weird little hallway which, as it turns, houses our closets. (Mine is the one on the right). On the wall directly behind these closets, my roommate and I found an excellent poster of one of our favorite men, Johnny Depp.The poster is a huge - 3 foot by 5 foot, and takes up the entire last wall of our hallway. The left side of the room is my side, so here is my bulletin board (and posters) and bed. Every dorm room needs storage...And I even have a nifty little windowsill. In this shot, you can also see the lights that hang outside my window and shine straight at my face at night. Annoying. Here's my desk, including...My meager collection of books and DVDs (I left most things at home), as well as....My gadgets: computer, iPod, and iPhone. Honestly not sure how I'd live without any of these things at this point. (Oh, and woot for Snow Leopard, which my Macbook is now running).
Next, there's our food area (the fridge is mostly full of smoothies right now) - and, yes, that's another picture of Johnny Depp. We can't get enough. Our TV has its own little spot. We figured out a nifty way to hook up our laptops to the larger screen and better speakers, so we can stream stuff from Hulu and watch DVDs with ease. Finally, I was lucky enough to get a suite room with a private bath, so as you can see in the above picture (on the right), here is the door into the bathroom... (The crazy red and black towels are mine - kind of love them).
Oh, and that sliver of wood on the left side of this picture shows the door to the OTHER room, which currently has only one person, but will probably have another as of tomorrow.

So, that's it from me for now. I've got lots more to catch up on, but I'm working on taking this one entry at a time. See you soon!

Cheers, :)

Here goes nothing.

2009-08-31T13:17:00.010-06:00

I. Have. So. Much. To. Say.

I can't even begin to tell you the number of ideas I've had for blog posts recently. I just couldn't find time. But here I am, back with a mission. I am, slowly and surely, going to get my blog caught up, and then start keeping it right. I know, I've said that before, but this time I have a plan. But I'll get to that in a moment. First, I want to say: this is going to be epically long. And it's going to have a lot of photos. Prepare yourself.

What's new with me? Let me see... I started college! I now live in a dorm! I had a birthday! I'm now 18! My cousin got married! Yes, lots has happened, and it's all BIG. Worth mentioning. I could probably make dozens of full blog posts out of each of these topics, but I'm going to cram them all together for now. Perhaps I'll return to them in the future and flesh them out a bit. But I've got to start somewhere

The sea of gold shirts at CU's convocation last week.

College is... different. The first weekend, setting up my room, and first week of classes was completely hectic. I feel like I'm beginning to find a routine, but it's definitely taking some getting used to. I'll be talking more about this at my official college blog, which can be found here: http://cubookstore.blogspot.com/ It's important to know, if you're reading this, that I didn't go very far from home at all, and I can't even begin to explain what a good decision that was. Anyway, overview: I'm doing a 15 credit semester, and I'm a film major. I'm enrolled in Intro to Film, Women in Film (Honors), Constructions of Knowledge, Advanced Writing, and British Literature (which was formerly Physics, good switch).

In my next post, you'll see a virtual tour of my dorm room, something I've been promising I'll do, so go check it out.

Music Fail

2009-08-05T18:41:00.003-06:00

So, I just had a rather frustrating half hour. This summer, one of those big overarching mega-things I've been wanting to do is learn guitar. My Uncle gave me a guitar (I know, right?) several years back and I basically never picked it up. This was not from non-interest - I think guitars are beautiful instruments and I envy people who can play well - I just never did it, basically. Learning a new instrument is complicated - so I've found out. A few weeks ago now, I had what a friend of mine would call a C2J (Come-to-Jesus) chat with my mom. I was distraught at the feeling that summer was ending soon (even sooner now, as I write this) and that I hadn't done any of those big overarching mega-things I had been saying I wanted to do. So, she encouraged me, even if I only had a few weeks left, to just do my best to do them. Guitar was high on this list.

So I took out my guitar, wrote it on my to do list, opened up GarageBand (a nifty Apple program that has a lesson section), found a pick, tuned the sucker, and started trying to play an E chord. FAIL. My fingers were numb for a week and all I managed were a few dissident noises. But, even though I didn't practice again for a few days, I still had hope and interest. I was doing this now - I was going to magically teach myself guitar in the last few weeks of summer. I came back from the mountains this weekend, I practiced E chord again, started messing with G and C and... nothing. The cords were still a buzzing, thumping, music-less mess while the weird guy from the GarageBand lessons seemed to act like it was a piece of cake. (Side-note, where does that expression come from? It doesn't make a lot of sense). My fingers still hurt excruciatingly after a few seconds of holding a chord down... yada yada. So, here's today, attempting to have at it again, and, I just can't do it. I know you have to build up calluses and practice and ALL THAT, but that seems to be advise for when you can touch the damn strings for more than a few seconds without causing permanent nerve damage! I just don't get how to BEGIN!

So, in a fit of frustration at the GUITAR itself, I sat down to play piano. For many years (now long ago), I took piano lessons, learned songs, had little practice schedules (which I rarely followed), etc... But it fell by the wayside in the latter years of high school. What I've realized recently is that I really love the piano - I love playing it (especially since I tend to only play MY kind of music - sondtracks) and I love the way it sounds. Thus, when I got out my favorite song, (which I never fully learned), "My Heart Will Go On," I guess I was hoping to be cheered up in some sort of "SEE, YOU CAN STILL MAKE BEATUFIUL MUSIC" kind of way. Not so much. I can barely even read music anymore! I barely remember where the basic C octaves that you look for, what the song is supposed to sound like, and a few parts that I practiced ridiculous numbers of times. I'm sure if I picked up any of the other songs I had actually mastered, my fate would be just as grim. I can't play the piano anymore! And, more importantly, I want to be able to!

I'm in a great situation. I have two instruments I want to learn and fail at, and 3 real days left of summer (HOLY GOD!!!) I realize this is a rather spastic blog post but, I guess I'm sending this out into the universe to ask for... help? Advice? I'm leaving home (and my piano) behind, and I'll shortly be living in close quarters where guitar practice would probably be unwelcome... But despite all that, I don't quite want to give this up for a lost cause until next summer. Lessons, especially for guitar, sound like an obvious option, but I have a nagging doubt that I won't be able to fix it. What do I do?! I could mess around with reading music to get some piano skills back and maybe try to get in some time in music rooms (if the music school has open ones)... But, GAH, I just feel stuck between my desire to get a bit of music in my life and my apparent inability to do so.

Yeah, right, that's it from me for now. Cheers.

Of plans, matches, and bad moods

2009-08-03T18:54:00.006-06:00

Hello dear blog-o-sphere. More and more, I've been thinking of how I'd like to blog more, but not just that - how I'd like to blog about more. I love writing movie reviews, but I think it's time to expand. In the future, I'd like to fill this blog with a variety of different kinds of entries: journal-style posts, creative pieces, philosophical or even political thoughts... basically, I'd like to open this up for more of an "anything goes" kind of publishing. I'm not sure how well I'll carry through with this, but it's important for me to get this out there so I can feel free to put up any kind of entry I like.

I've been in a bit of a funky mood today. My family just got back from a trip to the mountains, and I'm feeling the time-crunch before school starts. Basically, I've got this week, then next Tuesday I'm off to Canada for 7 days for my cousin Marie's wedding, and then 2 days after that, I will be moving into my dorm. In my mind, this day, August 20, is D-Day. It's when my life ends - I mean changes. When life-as-I-know-it ends. I dunno, this move to college just feels SO big that, wrapped up with the general gloom that summer is ending, it all feels a bit daunting right now.

But that's not what I want to spend the entire post talking about. I was inspired, this afternoon, to pull out a book I haven't looked at in a long time. It's called The Writer's Book of Matches - and it includes 1001 short and simple prompts to get you writing. Random things, either scenes or quotes that are meant to get your brain moving. Example: A reclusive young woman sets out to conquer her phobias. Or in quote form "That is the biggest bird I have ever seen." Anyway, I just wanted to get my mind off things today, so I sat down with one of the prompts and wrote a bit. I thought I'd put it out in the world, just so I have something to do with it. Enjoy!

---

“Go ahead, compare me to your life’s work.

Just once I’d like to know where I stand.”

I glared at Timothy as he lowered his paintbrush and wiped his hands carefully on the rag he kept tucked into his belt. For several months now, I had put up with the steadily-growing group of goddesses his studio featured more and more. All of them seemed to stare at me now, wondering how I dared to invite such a comparison.

When I had first met him, Timothy Smithson had been busy painting landscapes. Flowers, fields, sunshine… all that lovely nature stuff. I thought it was sweet, but a bit boring. Now, I’d give anything to see a bit of grass instead of the gorgeous women that seemed to challenge me from all sides.

He always talked about the changes he wanted to make in each picture, how each should be improved. Over time, they did seem to be evolving, almost turning into woman gorgeous superwoman. I never knew what he was trying for, but over time, I began to understand that it must be his idea of the perfect woman.

Tim blinked in that lazy way that I so adored, only this time it only made me more angry.

“Answer me, damnit!” I cried.

“Julie, the women that I paint aren’t your competition,” he chewed the words around carefully before speaking.

But I didn’t care what he had to say. I was a volcano that had sat dormant for years on end, and nothing was going to stop a full-out eruption now.

“You spend 8-hours a day in this attic, working with these muses of yours… Refining the shape of their bodies, their lips, their eyelashes. How do you expect me to feel?” He knew it was a rhetorical question. “I feel like I don’t even know you lately,” I said with a frown.

“You don’t understand--” he started, but I cut him off.

“And what was with last night?”

It was our third anniversary. We had reservations at Le Petite Diamant, a nice and fancy restaurant downtown. I had spent hours getting ready; he barely made it out the door on time. Over wine and appetizers, we began reminiscing, a sweet conversation for an anniversary.

But then he had become distant, his eyes slightly unfocused, until he scrambled for the scrap of paper and charcoal pencil that he always kept with him. He sketched quietly for a moment, while I took the time to peer carefully over my shoulder.

At the table directly behind us, a beautiful woman sat. You know, the kind that has probably been on a magazine cover at some point in her life? Perfect model features; the perfectly pouting lips, the perfectly flirty eyes; the perfectly fitting dress.

As I looked back at Tim, I carefully glimpsed his sketch, of a face that was already taking shape, a face that looked familiar. In fact, it looked an awful lot like the likely-model behind me. I had made it through the rest of dinner that night, but barely.

“Last night,” he echoed, lamely.

“You couldn’t stop admiring the other women around us long enough to look at me!”

He frowned, but it wasn’t a look of guilt, but rather one of confusion.

“Jules…” he began. He shook his head slightly.

“And then you just had to rush home to paint the bimbo sitting behind us. Never mind that I’m left downstairs on a friday night, on our the night of our anniversary, all alone!”

"I wasn't painting any women from the restaurant," he shook his head again, but didn’t say any more. I let the silence grow for a moment.

“I didn’t mean for it to be like this,” he finally said.

“Like what?” I snapped.

Without saying anything, he turned his easel around.

It was like looking into a mirror. Each of my features had been replicated perfectly. My hazel eyes seemed to glint in the unseen light source. My too-thin lips turned upward in a slight smile. My shoulders were set in a determined stance.

“Wha?” was all I could manage, unable to pull my eyes away from the portrait of myself.

There was a fumbling noise from behind me, and as I turned to see what it was, an astonishing sight met my eyes.

Tim was standing with his palm outstretched, gently cupping a ring. A ring! A diamond ring! My brain raced to catch up with the events happening around me.

“Jules, it’s all been about you. I knew I could never call myself an artist unless I could paint - truly paint - the person in this world who mattered most to me.”

I swayed a little bit, reaching out to steady myself on the table next to me.

“Julie Henderson," he said in a strong voice, "Will you marry me?”

---

Haha, I guess I must have weddings on the mind. But anyway, it was just for fun. It was interesting seeing how the little prompt grabbed me and started sparking thoughts, the way my mind kept adding layers until I had a miniature story. I think I'm going to try using more of these prompts whenever I have some free time and feel like writing. It's a nice exercise for the creative mind I want to develop.

Well, that's about it from me. On a final note, I want to share with you a website I spent some time last week creating. It's basically a collection of my favorite photos - pictures of various parts of my life, my travels, my family, etc. It can be found here. Please enjoy.

Hope your day is cheerier than mine. Cheers.

I Have Doubts!

2009-07-28T16:10:00.005-06:00

Doubt was one of the last big films from this past Oscar season that I hadn't seen. But, with five nominations, it remained on my list long after February passed, and I finally managed to rent it. Overall, it was one of the most incredibly acted films I may have ever seen, in the classical sense of the word "acting." Sure, it didn't show the quirkiness of Jack Sparrow or ingenuity of Forrest Gump, but in general, Meryl Streep, Phillip Seymore Hoffman, and Amy Adams filled their roles so effortlessly that it was quite amazing to watch.

The film shows every mark of being adapted from a play. You can almost see the distinct sets, feel the scene changes, and watch the actors enter and exit the stage. Still, it was marvelously filmed. The cinematography, particularly the coloring, did wonders to enhance the colorless world in which the story is set. And the closeups on the individual actors added to the performances in which plays would surely miss out on.

In simple terms, Doubt tells of events at a Catholic school in the 1960s. When a priest is suspected of abusing one of the children, the principal nun of the school stands up against him with little to no proof, but a great deal of certainty. All the while, it's hard to tell who to trust or believe in. For the most part, the main characters, Streep's Aloysius, Adams' Sister James, and Seymore-Hoffman's Father Flynn along with Viola Davies' mother character, carry the movie. In many ways, the plot is quite simple, and the movie is fairly short, but the intensity of the characters and the performances adds incredible depth.

Streep's strict character, guided solely by her certainty that Father Flynn did something wrong, proves what I have long known: that Meryl Streep is one of the most stunning and versitile actresses currently in the business. She rivals Tom Hanks in her ability to totally inhabit a character, to become that person. From the little touches like the way she moves her mouth, to the riveting speeches she delivers with all the intensity she can muster, to the final defeated line she utters, "I have doubts!"... her performance was truly a gift to watch.

It's easy to understand why the film got so many acting nominations, but that's about where my appreciation for the movie ends. The grand dramatic plot comes to a limited conclusion. It's not bad, just not outstanding. I've had fun debating whether or not other people who have seen the film think Father Flynn was by default guilty, or whether that's just something the audience is meant to not know. I lean with the side that he would not have quit had he not had something to hide, but could easily play devil's advocate in a different direction. Additionally, does the "I have doubts" line that brings the film to a close take away from the power of Streep's character, or add to it? I, personally, thinks it adds to the performance - it's such a classic human trait to be unable to attain 100% certainty, there is always room for doubts to eat away at you.

So, this is a rather short and simple blog post from me, but with all the reviewing I did last winter, I wanted to round out the Oscar season with Doubt. It was a film I enjoyed and would recommend, but not one that made a life-changing impression on me.

I'm watching you watching me

2009-07-25T14:13:00.006-06:00

I'm here today on a bit of a different topic. This is part of my larger goal of blogging more often and discussing a wider variety of subjects. This time, I'd like to tell you about Taking Leave, a new CD from DFTBA Records.

I'm going to admit I'm writing this review with a goal in mind - one of the CD's creators is giving out an EP of alternate versions of the tracks in exchange for a text or video review, but I'm also going to enjoy the challenge about writing about music, something I haven't done before.

Taking Leave is the result of a collaboration between Alan Lastufka and Tom Milson, two individuals who are, for lack of a better word, "webelebrities." Both are well known for highly popular YouTube channels and important ties to the generally awesome online communities. Tom is someone who I haven't followed for very long, but who has a CD of his own that I enjoy (entitled "Awkward Ballads for the Easily Amused"). Alan is a bit of an incredible shadow, one of the founders of DFTBA records, and a creative master who not only creates his own videos, but has a published book on being successful on YouTube. Incredibly, the CD was created without Alan and Tom ever meeting in person. (The miracle of the internet nowadays, right?) As I understand it, Alan was responsible for the lyrics and production of the CD, while Tom provided vocals and mixed the music.

In all, I bought the CD not knowing what I was getting into other than an interesting creative work by two artists that I admire, that deserved some of my support. The CD is short, with 6 tracks wrapping up in just over 15 minutes, but when you really sit and listen to the songs, they take you somewhere. Each track is different, in mood, sound, story, and even vocal style (Kristina Horner joins in for the 4th track). It's easy to listen to while working, yet it can also hold your attention. It's somber and beautiful, yet still carries the trait that I associate with nerdfighters, and the online world in general: ingenuity. Taking Leave stands out as not just a CD but a work of art.

Like all great works of art, I think Taking Leave is subject to your own interpretation. This is summarized by the artwork on the CD cover. What do you see in the red trees and turquoise hills? In the box and forlorn arm? In the fallen flower petals? Is it a happy image? Do you see heartbreak? This is probably different for each individual. Meanwhile, the tracks themselves are clearly composed of two separate components: lyrics and music. True, these pieces come together easily, but perhaps because there were two creators, these elements can also be separated.

The first note of "Just a Boy" jumps out at you, before the song begins. In my mind, this track tells a clear story, more so than the others, and is more wrought with emotional distress. It tells the tale of a boy fighting the nature of his father and adulthood in general, only to grow up and be reduced to the same level - to be "brought down" in the end. It's a strong and troubled voice and introduces the theme of mirrors: "I will never forget the day / looked in the mirror and was filled with grief, / when I saw my father's face staring back at me." As my dad is a therapist, this song resonates with the numerous people who attempted to outgrow their childhoods, only to be haunted by them for the rest of their days.

"The Wind" is one of my favorite tracks. It's much more upbeat than the others on the CD, and seems more hopeful than the others. I like the use of the wind as a metaphor for life and love. Clearly in life, we all "want to fly," but how many times have we found the "winds of change" ended up directing us, "[taking] us by surprise"? The emotions of this song are sweet, yet still bearing the strong pull of reality.

I first heard "Can't" from the music video Alan posted on his channel, so I can't help but associate it with the images in that video. This is one of the best songs I've heard about heartbreak. "His edited heart was her favorite work of art" is a poetic line that I continue to ponder. I think it is because we're overly exposed the stereotype of the macho man with fear of commitment, ending a relationship, that it's refreshing to hear the story of a sad boy tied up in the "relationship games" of the girl who rules this song.

"The Mirror Song" is definitely my favorite on the CD. Tom and Kristina's voices together are stunningly beautiful, and the line "I'm watching you watching me" has been in my head for days. There are just so many images in this song that resonate with me, so many emotions that tug my heartstrings. The sweet piano is simple. The song's key line, "I'd forgotten how happy we looked," fits with the story of the song, within a relationship, but it also speaks to a key philosophy I'm attempting to follow in life: never forget happiness, continue to look for it around you.

I'm curious as to why "The Sparks Fly Upward" was include on the CD. It's a beautiful track - a solemnly spoken set of lines from the bible (I think), read by John Green and accompanied by (unless I'm mistaken) organ music. Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful passage, one worth re-reading (or listening to) and pondering. It's classic John Green - I can almost hear him talking about it on an afternoon Ustream... But I definitely wonder what significance it holds to Alan, Tom, or to their idea for this CD.

What I do like about that track is how it leads into the final song, "Forgiven." It's as if the declaration that "man is born for trouble, as the sparks fly upward" is the revelation that leads to the image-heavy and religiously significant track. It allows it to exist, and the tracks, musically, flow together nicely. This is one of my favorite songs in terms of Tom's singing. The long words at the end of each line "Haaands" "heeeart" play into his melodious voice.

In all, I'm not a music connoisseur, but this is now a permanent addition to my music collection and one I appreciate immensely.If what I've been talking to sounds interesting to you, the CD can be found here.

P.S. Alan, I hope you liked this review!

---

On an unrelated note, I wanted to quickly share this link with you. Perhaps you've recently read a highly exciting novel entitled Hunger Games (by Suzanne Collins) and are dying for the sequel Catching Fire, which is not released until September. The link above leads to a contest in which you can enter to receive an advance copy of the book.

Dumbledore, We will fight for you tonight!

2009-07-15T14:38:00.017-06:00

The wait is over. Tuesday night was a sleepy, well-worth-it feast of awesomeness. I'm talking, of course, about the midnight release of the much-anticipated sixth and third-to-last Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. In a nutshell, it was FABULOUS. Being back at Hogwarts was as magical as I would have expected. Quite simply, Half-Blood Prince delves into Lord Voldemort's past through a series of memories. We learn who he is, and what Harry will have to do to kill him. Meanwhile, inside Hogwarts, hormones rage, while outside, Death Eaters pillage. I came home from the film at 3:30 AM and had a head full of thoughts, ready to be transformed into blog form... so we'll see how many of those opinions stayed with me in the day since. I'm going to assume you've either read the book, seen the film, or don't care about being spoiled if you're reading this, so please continue with this understanding in place.

I always love midnight or opening showings of films because the audience is very engaged. The movie means a lot to the people who show up to these showtimes - otherwise they would not have waited 3+ hours in line (or in our case, thankfully, in the auditorium itself). The atmosphere of excitement and anticipation was nearly tangible in our theater. First of all, I found out that our particular auditorium - #4 - was the first to sell out, so the fans in their were probably some of the more dedicated of the lot. People were dressed up (we had a great Dumbledore and an awesome Mad-Eye Moody), sporting T-shirts and Hogwarts colors, posing for photos by a cardboard cutout of Harry that some awesome person brought in, and even dueling, wizard-style, in the aisles. There were deafening cheers when the projector was first turned on, when the trailers started, for each individual trailer, when the WB symbol came up, AND when the HP logo appeared. (I'm serious about the cheering - the decibel levels in our theater would have rivaled a rock concert!) People literally laughed out loud at every funny moment, gasped when it was scary, whistled at romantic moments, and said "aww" when characters were sad. As an audience, we were a living, breathing extension of the film, as much AT Hogwarts, as if we had leaned into our own Penseive and found ourselves among the characters we love so dearly.

On to the film itself... First off, I simply have to say that the movie was unexpectedly funny. Hilarious, even. I hardly stopped laughing, giggling, or chuckling heartily until the final climactic 20 minutes. HBP is rated PG, the first film to not be PG13 since the much lighter first and second films. Of course, under the laughter, the darkness was still there - as the opening sequence, development of Tom Riddle, and tragic ending will attest, but there was a comedic lens present for much of the 2 hours and 33 minutes. Rupert Grint proved, once again, to be a master of comedy... but Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and even Michael Gambon stretched their comedic muscles as well. Overall, this was excellent. I don't think I've had this much plain ol' FUN in a HP movie to date. There were a few laughs that I think they could have done without - for a few moments it felt like the filmmakers just weren't taking it seriously... But overall, it was a great direction for them to take. The two Deathly Hallows movies are going to be so emotionally intense and action packed that perhaps it was good to get in a bit of comedy before we hurtled in the other direction.

Let me take a step back. Overall, surveying the entire film, I LOVED it. Many more of the favorite moments of the book seemed to be represented on film (compared to the other movies) - they really managed to fit a lot in. Parts that I would have guessed would fall by the wayside in favor of the main plot were there, which was awesome. I'm not sure if I'd call it my favorite movie - "favorites" are always hard for me to choose, and I'd have to see it again when I'm fully awake to be able to determine just how fantastic it is... But it was certainly better than OotP, and certainly 100% enjoyable. Unlike other films, I've had a fun time lately listening to others' opinions - friends, critics, and strangers alike. In exiting the theater on Tuesday night (well, actually Wednesday morning), I heard a surprising amount of disappointment. The girl behind me said something akin to "what the hell was that?" - which did surprise me. In a twist, though, most of my friends who are HARCORE fans of HP are more than thrilled - calling it the best film yet, their favorite, absolutely praising it to the MAX. Critics seem to lean in this direction as well, calling it the best Potter yet, praising the script, acting, cinematography, etc. Not to be discriminating, but I definitely lean toward the opinions of the people who live and breath Harry Potter, as well as those who know what good movies are made of, versus those from whom I've heard dislike. I'd like to have a conversation with someone who didn't like the movie, to find out the specific faults they found.

Along those lines, though, I'd like to point out a particular attitude I have hard among my HP fans that makes me rather happy. I have heard many comments akin to "I LOVED IT! I have a few issues or things I would've changed, but overall, it was AWESOME!" This is how you have to approach books -> movies. There are going to be changes you don't like, parts they left out, or things that didn't translate... but if you get caught up in nitpicking each and every one of these, you'll have a very disappointing experience! In the end, you have to let go, realize that FILM and TEXT are two entirely different mediums, and go along for the ride. For me, there is such a thrill in seeing Hogwarts brought to life - however they choose to do it - that I see no point in ruining the experience by griping about what wasn't there. Sure, in 30 years, some filmmaker might decide to remake the HP films, or they might do a miniseries in which they bring EVERY moment on the page to life, or pigs may fly... but for now, this is what we have to work with. ENJOY IT!

Having said this, hopefully I've made clear that I liked the film and am able to see past any issues I had. That's not to say I didn't have issues. I would like to take a moment to go through the couple of things I would've liked changed, in a perfect world. One of the biggest complaints has to do with the scene at the Burrow, in which the dear little Weasley house gets attacked by Bellatrix Lestrange and Fenrir Greyback, Harry and Ginny attempt to fight them off, and the entire house is engulfed in flames. This scene is NOT in the book, and was deliberately added for the film. I knew this was coming - it was reported probably a year ago on Leaky, and I was surprised when I heard about it. I do understand why it was in there and the purpose it served, from a filmmaking perspective particularly... In just that small little scene, the stakes were raised, and it they managed to show that the danger was everywhere, that our heroes were not immune. The romantic plot was advanced. Etc. And it was a cool scene, cinematically - with the swirling grasses, Ginny and Harry fighting, the spells flying back and forth... But, as I've heard discussed, this goes against the book, was not necessary, and disproves JKR's adamant rule that the Burrow is a safe haven for Harry that will not be touched (until DH). Overall, though, I would have liked to see this screen-time used somewhere else. The movie is already quite long, so if they could have displaced this time with a more worthwhile scene, I would have been happier (more on this in a moment).

Additionally, as I've already said, the comedy was a little stretched at points - there were plenty of moments that were funny, and were made even funnier by a few good quips and good acting... but at a certain point, it felt like a bit much. I think the film needed a few more dramatic punches. In other words, it needed to be PG13, and Yates and Kloves needed to take it a bit more seriously. This came to a head, for me, in the movie's end. The climactic cave scene was great, but it leveled out too much when they got back to Hogwarts. In the book, the final moments after Dumbledore's death are a mad rush of swirling emotion and pain. Everyone is fighting, it's not clear who is injured or dead, Snape has betrayed them all, Harry shouts coward, and then the cool anger of "Don't call me coward" brings it all to an tearful yet determined end. THIS NEEDED TO BE STRONGER. I would have liked to see the Burrow scene removed in favor of a bit more action at the end. Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville, Luna, as well as the rest of the Order should have been fighting. The stakes needed to be raised in order to throw us properly into the raw world of DH. I am personally of the opinion that Dumbledore's funeral would have been stunning on film. The scene they had in place worked, but it didn't pack the punch I would have liked to see. In short, the ending of the film didn't take my breath away, as I would have liked.

But back to what I did like for a moment. The acting was SUPERB. Everyone felt more comfortable in their characters. Daniel was the strong Harry, resigned to his fate of the Chosen One, accepting his responsibility, the danger, and yet still a student living out his time at Hogwarts. He loses his mentor but turns his pain and heartbreak into determination to win out over Voldemort. Rupert was hilarious, Ron in every way, confused about his feelings, awkward at Quidditch, and yet able to come into his own in time for his emotionally charged role in DH. Emma's acting has improved in leaps and bounds. The breathless speech and eyebrow-acting were both nearly gone from her perforamnce. I felt for her in her pain, in her platonic love for Harry, and her not-so-platonic love for Ron. Michael Gambon finally stepped it up as Dumbledore, returning to the beloved character of the books instead of the throw-Harry-against-the-wall stranger that we had seen from him before. Jim Broadbent as Slughorn was hilarious, perfect, magical, well-cast in every way. And then there's Tom Felton, who I daresay stole the film as the dark and haunted Draco Malfoy. Between "knowing" him from Twitter (and consequently feeling more like he's a "real person" out there), and the turn that his character naturally takes in this part of the story, I sympathized with him like never before. He was no longer the archetypal bully, the comedic relief, the snivelly ferret we had seen. He was incredible. And then there's Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltrane, Maggie Smith, Helena Bonahm-Carter, newbie Helen McCrory, Bonnie Hunt... all who stepped up their game, gave their all, and threw down the gauntlet in preparation for DH.

Yes, I'm mentioning DH a lot. It's hard to think of this film without moving that train of thought straight along to the final two films that are currently in production. It's hard not to think of the end. In a lot of ways, this film served as the Empire Strikes Back to Return of the Jedi... It set up the final chapter. This is the first film to come to theaters since the final book's publication, and I think it showed. The end is in sight, though still two years away. We are headed on the path that will take us to the walk into the forest, the final battle with Voldemort, to 'All is Well." *sniffle*

But we're not there yet.

As one final note, the soundtrack nerd in me has to get a word in. I'm not a huge fan of Nicholas Hooper's work - (I'm actually a bit glad he's not scoring DH and hope with every fiber of my being that we get John Williams back). His music is just a bit on the 'meh' side. It's beautiful, don't get me wrong... But unlike some movies, in which the music blends in effortlessly yet stands alone beautifully, it's not as melodic and theme-heavy as I'd like to see. The Weasley and Slughorn themes are great, as is the track "In Noctem," but what does this guy have against Hedwig's Theme? That's one beautiful piece of music and I would have liked to hear it a bit more.

So, I think that's it from me. Without a doubt I will see the film again with my parents - we may wait to see it in 3D IMAX after July 29, if I have the patience, and we'll see how my opinion changes with a second or third viewing. Perhaps the next time I re-read the book, I'll find other issues or be disappointed by something that didn't make it in the film, but for now, I'm pretty satisfied and hope HBP KICKS ASS in the box office this week. (It did $22 million in midnight releases, beating The Dark Knight!) Other than that, I want to ask for comments! If you saw the movie, tell me what you think below! What did you like? Not like? Feel free to agree or disagree with anything i said!

Cheers! <3

Michael Bay, take a chill pill...

2009-07-01T18:31:00.015-06:00

Okay, I am going to fully admit that I should have written this last weekend, shortly after seeing the movie. My mind was whirring with blog thoughts as soon as I walked out of the theater. But, alas, here I am, a week later. So, here goes.

Before I say anything, I must defer to, reference, and worship two epic pieces of writing by critic Roger Ebert. Both refer to Transformers, so I'm not sending you off on a wild goose chase, and I highly recommend you take a moment to read. (You will laugh, I promise you).
His official review, and His more general blog about the film

Now, first off, I did not hate the second Transformers film the way Ebert did. Although, I don't think it's possible to hate it as much as he did. Overall, I thought it was fun, loud, probably a bit much but an overall "okay/pretty good" movie. I do recognize several points of Ebert's as highly valid - but I'll come back to this.

I've said this before with another movie, but I'm going to reiterate the point. Transformers is the kind of movie where you have to know what you're walking into. Don't expect more than you're going to get... this is an action film, designed around a TOY (Hasbro is listed with the production companies, for Pete's sake), with CGI Robots as many of the main characters, and a simple melodramatic plot to fill out the rest. It is full of action sequences, explosions, loud noises, and thumping music. This movie is not about PLOT or emotions. If you saw and liked the first Transformers film, you will probably enjoy this one as well. It will not be life-changing (and I would definitely say it's not as good as the first, which I really thought was fairly good), but overall, it was a pretty fun way to spend two and half hours.

One thing I highly admire is the increasingly accurate ability to give non-human, computerized characters a great deal of "realness." While this movie doesn't come close to, say, WALL-E, (which was incredible...) I do feel somewhat attached to characters like Bumblebee and Optimus Prime, and even the little "dog" bot from this film. Additionally, I am of the opinion that Shia LaBeouf (whose name I always have difficulty spelling) is a gifted young actor with a long career ahead of him, and I have to say, is a guy whom I highly admire. I have a few pet peeves with Megan Fox in real life, but her character was just fine for a hot girl required to run around a lot and then look lusty.

So, I would say that this is a great FUN summer movie, which is clearly destined to make loads of money. If you want to see it, go for it! Don't let reviews like Ebert's scare you away. But make sure you're not holding any high (or even low) expectations for the film. Just go and enjoy the spectacle.

Now, to address a few of the points that Ebert makes, particularly in his more general blog post (this part may be more relevant if you've seen the movie already...) Michael Bay is a bit out of control. With the first film, at least he strung together the big action sequences with a fairly interesting plot. With this one, I'd say it was the other way around. Plot pieces were just thrown in there - some scenes, like Ebert says - could easily have come from another movie. However, I don't think this movie is the pinnacle of Hollywood's big overblown CGI phase. After all, just look at the trailer for 2012, a movie from Roland Emmerich, a man who is easily competing for the title of Hollywood's biggest computer-generated-pyromaniac... (Go on, take a look - I'll wait.)

Second, YES, this movie will make a LOT of money. I mean, it did $201 million in the first five days of release, a number that is only just shy of The Dark Knight (I'm still a bit peeved that a movie like Transformers could even come CLOSE to touching The Dark Knight, but oh well.) But, I'd like to point out that the movie likely (and with good reason) cost more than $200 to make.... so they're probably just starting to earn it back. Along that line, I was a bit stunned when watching the credits to see that the film had FOUR producers AND another FOUR executive producers (including Michael Bay himself and Steven Spielburg somewhere in that list). It's hard to believe how many people it took to fund this film. But, back to my point. This film will probably continue to keep making a lot of money. I mean, all the way to Harry Potter's release soon (wait for it - SQUEEEE!), it's one of the only big Blockbusters that will potentially reach a broad summer audience on the market right now. But, really, money doesn't tell you that much. After all, worse films (*cough*Spiderman3*cough*) have made oodles of cash.

Ebert discusses in detail the way this film "assaults the senses." In all honesty, this may be an age barrier. I found the booming sound effects and soundtrack to be exhilarating, to add to the adrenaline of the movie. Along these lines, I just want to address the structure of the film. YES, there are many action sequences, not just ONE climactic scene... And YES, it is awfully long. But, honestly, for me, it just kind of hit a plateau of action, keeping the level of excitement high, carrying you along to the end. I didn't notice time dragging at all, really.

So, this is becoming a ramble now and I will wrap it up. Yes, this movie is ACTION-PACKED (it may redefine that term). Yes, it is BIG and COMMERCIAL and BLOCKBUSTER-y. And, yes, critics are NOT going to like it. But, I saw it, liked it, and will probably see more Transformers flicks if (or should I say when?) they're released. I'm not going to say you "should" or "shouldn't" see this film, but it certainly started the big summer movie season off with a BANG.

Cheers. <3>

LeakyCon: Made of Awesome

2009-06-12T17:16:00.015-06:00

Okay. I'm going to do this. A blog about LeakyCon is in every way long overdue, but there's no time like the present, right? In all honesty, I think the time that has elapsed since that special weekend in Boston has not made the memories fade but instead has strengthened my overall impression - the impression that will stay with me into the future. It's this impression that I hope to convey to you.

But where to even START to begin? A definition, I suppose:

LeakyCon: (n) A conference put on by the staff members of the Leaky community (the hundreds of staff members and thousands of members that discuss news and ideas about the Harry Potter books and films on the Leaky Cauldron or the Leaky Lounge). The first of, hopefully, several LeakyCons took place at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel on the weekend of May 21-24, 2009 and was, in every possible way, a made-of-awesome weekend and a wild success. The second LeakyCon is scheduled for July 2011, in Orlando, Florida.

May 21-24, you might say if you know me... wasn't that the date of your high school graduation? Why, yes, I would answer, it was; a realization that came to me with a sudden burst of horror in December of 2008. I checked, re-checked, and probably triple-checked calendars and dates, but there was no way around it: I was faced with a big decision. I won't go through all the details or the whys and hows of what I chose what I did... I'll just make a long story short and tell you that I chose LeakyCon. With a hint of foreshadowing for what I hope to express in this blog post, I don't regret this decision AT ALL.

I very well could spend thousands of words breaking down everything I said, saw, heard, or did during the entire weekend in an attempt to SHOW you what made LeakyCon amazing, but I still doubt that would cover it. Instead, I'm going to break down exactly what made the weekend special into a few manageable pieces.

The conference itself: I haven't been to any other Harry Potter conferences, but I'm pretty darn sure it's safe to say that this one blew the others out of the water. From the people who were there - all the PotterCasters, the Wrockers, the VlogBrothers, Maureen Johnson, Michael Goldenburg - to the programming, to the details like the drool-worthy decorations in the Castle... the LeakyCon staff simply thought of everything. It was so very cool (in a nerdy way) to turn around at any point during the weekend and see Dumbledore buying a drink for John Green, John Noe filming for his documentary (which looks amazing, by the way), or Melissa Anelli and Hank Green dancing like maniacs.

It was incredible to hear the thoughts of a *real* Hollywood screenwriter in an intimate luncheon setting. It was SO much fun to see the vlogbrothers off a computer screen and to see PotterCast to come to life. It was fabulous to be introduced to wizard rock through live performances of the groups themselves. (I'm now an avid Ministry of Magic fan, thanks to their show). It was AMAZING beyond words to hold a real life Lily and Stag Inn discussion of Order of the Phoenix. It was surreal to casually grab lunch with Maureen Johnson, and come home to find that she had twittered a photo of ME. Every moment of the programmed weekend was special in its own way. And it didn't end when the Registration Booth closed... every moment spent with LeakyCon staff, even just hanging out, was a moment I will treasure.

That brings me to the staff: This is probably the coolest group of people on the planet, if you ask me. Leaky staff is one big family, devoted to making the world a bit better through promoting fun, acceptance, love, and diversity. The staff members I met are of all ages, backgrounds, nationalities. These are people who spend their spare time volunteering for a community, pouring hours of effort into projects, interactions, discussions, and ideas just because THEY CAN.

I had a bit of a fear walking into Leaky that I didn't wouldn't know anyone. I mean, wouldn't have anyone who knew me. But I got there and... Man, there were the L&S Staffers that I have worked with, and it was bizarre and wonderful to put faces and personalities to the screen names and typed words on a screen. And then there were all the other staffers that I have bizarre pseudo-relationships with through Twitter. I'll say again that I had a moment's fear of walking into a strange crowd, of people with pre-formed friendhsips, of being out-of-place... but I can't tell you how wrong that was. If acceptance can happen in a millisecond, walking into a group of Leaky staffers erases doubts just like that As screen names, twitter names, pictures, and faces came together, this group of people - this family - came to life before me... And this, I will always remember.

Ideologically: There are a lot of things that the Harry Potter books and - by proxy - this conference stood for that made me proud to be there. Of course, this is simply due to the nature of the books, but also to the wonderful participation of the Harry Potter Alliance, a group that takes the messages in these popular books and uses them to fight for causes in the real world. One of the reasons I find these books so powerful is the promotion of LOVE as the strongest power of all. This idea extends to the need for acceptance... and this positively permeated the entire weekend. Andrew Slack's sweet opening speech invited all LeakyCon participants to open their hearts and minds to each other, to welcome strangers into your life for a weekend, to suspend judgement or fear of being judged.

I cannot tell you how liberating this was. To let the "nerdy" or "geeky" facade fall away... To be able to show passion for something that may earn you weird looks in the "real world"... To discuss fictional characters that mean the world to you with someone else who knows how you feel... To honor the message Harry stands for and the lessons Dumbledore taught... this was quite powerful and inspiring.

Personally: Yes, I'm getting to a personal, going-to-tear-up train of thought now... One of the reasons I chose LeakyCon over graduation was that it was all about looking forward. Graduating is about celebrating past accomplishments, saying goodbyes, preparing to move onto the next chapter of your life... But when it came to Leaky, this is a community that I hope to continue being a part of, friendships I wanted to cultivate even more. It was, all in all, about the future. In a lot of ways, this became a self-fulfilling prophecy. As soon as I had this goal in mind, it was sure to come true. Through LeakyCon, I delved deeper into the fandom. I finally expanded my repertoire to include wrock, I got to know various fan"celebrities" in the HP world, I met people who are also in this community for the long-run, and I became invested in looking forward to the next LeakyCon in 2011.

I guess what I'm starting to say is that LeakyCon changed me... It helped me accept this part of who I am, to not want to hide it in college as something people will judge me for. It gave me a community to nestle into when the new world of college is scary. It gave me something to do - I hope to participate in the planning of the next conference - that feels bigger than myself.

So, on a deeply personal note, this weekend moved me. I can't even begin to explain my shock and gratitude for the beautiful surprise graduation party that my lovely L&S friends threw me. I want to thank anyone who welcomed me as someone they already knew, who congratulated me on graduating, who shared a laugh or a story or a moment of fun. I want to thank LeakyCon staff for even thinking of this conference, let alone making it happen.

Above all, I just want to thank the universe for somehow allowing me to go be a part of this weekend... because in so many ways, this was an experience I will never forget.

DFTBA. <3

Summer Time and the Living Is NOT SO Easy

2009-06-10T17:00:00.006-06:00

Can it be that this is my first blog post of the summer? That's hard to believe... especially because I've been off school now for exactly 19 full days. (Wow.) To say I have a lot to talk about would be a bit of an understatement. I'm a bit afraid of talking about anything that will feel like "old news" - but perhaps I'll get over that, write the entries that have been floating around in my head for weeks, and then move on to blogging more regularly. That is, after all, one of my goals this summer.

First, though, let me take a step back and do a little bit of maintenance here. This summer, I do not have a job or very many fixed plans. I have a few little things littering my time here and there (CU Orientation in July, Marie's wedding in August, etc)... but overall, I am FREE. My overall goal this summer is to rest, relax, recharge, to do the things I want to do, and beyond that, to be creative. Let me take that a bit at a time...

When I picture an ideal summer day, it involves sitting at our neighborhood pool with a cool drink and a good book. Classic, right? It involves me, a person who sleeps in until a reasonable hour, reads a lot, sees a great number of movies (in and out of theaters), exercises regularly, and floats through days - being productive where I need to be, and someone who is, overall, very happy.

This plan has hit a few snags. SNAG #1: The weather. It hasn't reached above 70 in the past few weeks here. The last two days, we have had INSANE torrential rain storms in the afternoons, with clouds the rest of the time. In short, sitting at the pool sounds a long way away. I know that as soon as hot weather hits, I'll be lusting after this cool weather once again, but right now it feels rather depressing. SNAG #2: [I need to preface this by saying that I am not complaining, merely stating the factual evidence of events.] My mother had a hip replacement surgery two days after I returned from LeakyCon. The recovery has been harder than expected and, most recently, I have been doing enough work for several people in this house... Myself (live my life), what my mom usually does around the house (namely clean), what my mom usually does for herself (like get dressed, shower), and what my dad should be contributing to helping with my mom (he's out of town). Needless to say, I'm a bit burned out. I do not want to complain - my mom needs help and I see no reason why I should not have to give it to her - but this is A LOT right now.

And so I find myself stuck in an odd limbo... What I'm waiting for, I don't quite know, but I feel like my summer has yet to begin. Maybe when my mom gets better, maybe when the weather improves, maybe when I get the first round of "tasks" done to begin the summer... Maybe then I'll settle in. But for now, honestly, life seems kind of blah.

I mean, I'm reading and watching movies - certainly. I'm enjoying my new camera, my photos and memories of LeakyCon, my graduation gifts, THE IPHONE I JUST FRIKKIN ORDERED. Life is by no means BAD... it just hasn't hit the high note I was expecting as soon as the chains of high school were lifted.

So, now that I've talked myself into this dark hole of what very nearly sounds like a bit of depression, let me back up and flip on the optimism switch. More importantly, let me do what I do well: make some goals, plan some ideas... And maybe, just maybe, I can still turn my blah summer into a fabulous one.

BOOKS: I'd love to read 52 books in 2009. A book a week sounds pretty darn impressive and with all this time this summer to skew the average, I bet I could do it. Going into the summer, I had read 14 books. Since getting back from Boston, I have turned that into 18. (For comparison, there have been 23 weeks so far, I think). Not too bad for little over two weeks. I'm currently making my way through all of Maureen Johnson's books - Right now I'm reading 13 Little Blue Envelopes, and then all I have left is Devilish. But, I have so much more I want to read, including (but not limited to):

- Seer, Wizard, and Hunt Quest by Lisa DeGroodt

- Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion by Jane Austen

- The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

- The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

- Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

- Dracula by Bram Stoker

- 1001 Arabian Nights

- The Illiad

- Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce;

And that's just what is literally sitting on my shelf right now.

MOVIES (and TV on DVD): I have a rather succinct and current list on my wall right now, and I'd like to make my way through it. Recently, I have crossed off four films from it: Happy-Go-Lucky (cute), Flashbacks of a Fool (very good and interesting - I highly recommend it), When Did You Last See Your Father? (sweet, well acted), and Elegy (sexy and thoughtful). Next up on the radar is the HBO Mini-Series John Adams. I've heard great things about it and my mom and I are really looking forward to it. I haven't had a chance to hit the theaters recently - I still want to see UP... but the next big film I'm counting down until is Johnny Depp's Public Enemies (July 1). I've already made my mom promise to be ready to see this one with me. :)

BLOG: I want to keep talking on here frequently. There are a lot of topics that I've been meaning to write about... Season Finales of some of my favorite TV shows and LeakyCon are at the forefront of this list. I'm having a bit of a hard time feeling like it's "too late" to write about these things, but I think I just need to get them down on *ahem* paper. Other than that, I'd like to keep talking about my life, quite simply, what I'm up to and what I'm thinking about. I'll probably keep reviewing movies, books, and even music. On top of this, if you don't already know, I'm writing a blog about the experience of starting college, a project which is sponsored by the CU Book Store. I'd love for you to follow along with this blog - you can find it here.

CREATIVE: Originally, I had several main ideas for how I would stay creatively busy this summer. The first was writing - aka blogging - as I just mentioned. I also would like to learn a bit about photography, especially now that I have a nice new camera which has an optional manual mode. I'd like to re-learn a bit of piano and maybe learn how to play basic guitar. On top of all this, I'd LOVE to finish a painting of Jack Sparrow that I started in freshman year. But that sounds like a lot... I'll have to see what I can actually accomplish.

OTHER: And on top of all that, I'll have some activities like Leaky - we start our reading of Order of the Phoenix on June 20 and I'm working with my friend Daniel to bring some new technological uses to the Lily and Stag Inn. I'll still be doing my Jane Austen book group - we're finishing Northanger Abbey this weekend by watching the BBC film. I'm going to try to be a bit more active socially in preparation for the fall... I hope to meet with some people who are going to CU next year (mainly people I've already "met" on Facebook) if they come to Boulder. I did mention exercise earlier - and I hope to get back into a routine. Right now, though, I can't quite get my self to just GO TO THE GYM. Again, maybe when it's sunny(?)

But right in front of my feet are a couple of exciting things... I'm going to see RENT in Denver this week with a friend from Leaky who happens to be in town. (OMG!! SQUEE!) I'm getting a brand new set of RAM and a new HD installed in my computer to boost up its speed and size. I'm getting my hair cut and straightened (EEK!) And that's all just this week.

... Well, I actually do feel in a better mood. I have a lot of time ahead of me, but I have even more activities to occupy that time. So, perhaps, if I stay the course, get a bit more focused, and let the sun shine in (even when it's cloudy), this summer will turn out just as fantastic as I imagined it would be.

So, I'll see you very soon, hopefully.

Cheers, <3

Star Trek is cool again!

2009-05-11T17:27:00.006-06:00

<-- In my opinion, this is still the best poster. I just can't wrap my head around the gray abstract swooshiness in the official one they decided to go with. Too hard to tell what it is.

Okay, I'm sick and supposed to be doing homework but finding myself unable to really think. Voila, I'm turning to blogging. Maybe this will get my brain warmed up and allow me to study next. But let me get to the point. This past weekend, I went to see the new Star Trek as planned... and I really only have one word:

AWESOME.

But one lonesome word would make a boring blog, wouldn't it? Hmm... Let me see if I can scrounge up a few more words about this fantastic revival/sequel/origin flick.

I knew nothing going into this movie. Well, not nothing - but pretty darn close to it. I had heard of Spock and Kirk... I knew that Kling'ons, well, existed (though I couldn't have told you what/who they were), and I had probably heard of the USS Enterprise somewhere along the line. But, SERIOUSLY, my Star Trek knowledge was limited to a few jokes about the redshirts (who always get killed), my crazy history teacher from 10th grade who was certifiably obsessed with it, and a few moments of flipping on the TV on Saturday nights and noticing the original series was on, before switching over to watching Legend of the Seeker.

So, then there were a few more bits and pieces of info... Like the fact that Zachary Quinto, who has managed to make a psychotic serial killer vaguely likable on Heroes for several years, was in the film - not to mention a few other names I knew... Eric Bana, Karl Urban. Oh, and JJ Abrams, who made Lost sane (and AMAZING) for its first season, was directing. After this came the pre-relase buzz... the fact that, about a week before release, when early critical reviews came in, Star Trek had 100% on rotten tomatoes. (It still has a 95%). Then there was the growing buzz that Star Trek could possibly have a better first weekend than Wolverine (it didn't, fyi). Overall, it was slowly shaping up to be something SPECIAL.

Thus... [Yup, those IB Papers are still on my mind]... I went into Saturday's movie with a very optimistic mind. I was sick and mad about being sick, I had been studying all day, and I was ready to have some FUN. I was excited by the people who had already seen it on Thursday and Friday, and who had come out raving. I was ready for a great film. And that's what I got! Star Trek is an all around EXCELLENT film. Sure, the time traveling plot is a bit confusing (Damon Lindelof, one of the chief writers on Lost had something to do with the script, so what do you expect?)... but I think this film will perform MIRACLES for the franchise. As Matt Lewis (Harry Potter's Neville Longbottom) said excitedly on Twitter today, Star Trek is cool again. :)

One point I want to emphasize and paraphrase comes from a recent Entertainment Weekly that had a big Star Trek spread. It's clearly been necessary to kick-start a few old franchises lately. As shown by Casino Royale for Bond and Batman Begins for Bruce Wayne, studios are finding origin stories particularly useful for this... Going back to the beginning seems to be a successful way of getting a NEW audience involved in an OLD story. With the two examples I've already cited, darker and ediger seemed to be just what the audience ordered, but this wasn't an option for Star Trek. After all, isn't one of the pillars this franchise was formed on OPTIMISM? So, the true beauty of Star Trek 11 (though it's not being called that) is that it DID go back to the beginning, it DID renew the story for a new generation (while keeping old trekkies involved), and it DID utilize state-of-the-art CGI and new younger actors to make it accessable... but it didn't HAVE to be dark and full of deep investigations into human psychology.

Of course, people are already comparing the time Star Trek when was founded - under Kennedy - and our current time - under Obama. This is interesting, and there are a lot of points to be made here, but it's important to remember that this film was started 3 years ago, when there was very little HOPE or CHANGE to be found in our country. In many ways, doesn't this speak to Star Trek's strength? The ability to apply to over 40 years of contemporary issues! The ability to resonate with audiences from my age to younger viewers and up to people who can remember the show's beginning!

Now, I'm headed off into the land of tangents and generalized statements, but I just want to say clearly once and for all... THIS IS A MUST-SEE MOVIE. If you're an old fan, I'm pretty darn sure you'll appreciate a bit more screen-time with your favorite characters, and if you're new to the series, like me, you'll have a heck of a ride. This movie was solid and leaves me begging for more. I hope to see it again, hope they make more movies with this cast/director, and am currently considering going back to watch some of the older episodes just to get a bit more into it all.

Truthfuly... What else could filmmakers want than $72 million worth of fans with similar sentiments? Bravo!

Cheers. <3

Unleash the beast

2009-05-03T19:18:00.009-06:00

This is a few days late now, but I wanted to get in a blog with my own thoughts about Wolverine. After all, the summer movie season is almost as big as Oscar time (though very different in oh so many ways) and I'm planning on seeing - and blogging about - lots of films this summer.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is the type of film that is what you make of it. How you perceive it depends on the expectations you have riding on it, the veil of criticism you watch it through (or the ability to choose not to do this), the shield you can create to deflect the negativity coming from main-stream critics... In short, it can be as good as you want it to be. Wolverine is not going to win critical acclaim. People are not going to praise its mastery and analyze its every scene. No, they're going to see it, enjoy it, tell their friends, and - boom - one opening weekend and $87 million later, it will be yet another typical BIG summer film.

A quick bit of history. My dad and I love comic book movies; it's kind of our thing. My dad used to read a bunch of DC comics when he was younger and I think he enjoys the memories. Meanwhile, I just like the genre. It's a fabulous suspension of reality, a great setup for fun action, adventure, romance, and humor, and, in short, a good FUN movie. Now, like I said, my dad read DC - he doesn't know much about Marvel comics, of which X-Men is one. However, when I was younger and first venturing away from Arthur on PBS and onto Saturday morning cartoons, among other things, I began watching an X-Men show - I'm pretty sure it was X-Men: Evolution, though my memory is a bit fuzzy at this point. The animation in the main photo on that article looks right, but I certainly couldn't tell you a single thing about the plot. Anyway, somewhere along the line, my dad and I rented and really enjoyed the first two X-Men movies which were out on DVD (I really recommend these if you haven't seen them).

If you know anything about the series, you know that X-3 was a big disappointment. Much like Spiderman 3, the series changed directors and it ALL fell apart. The plot was scattered, confusing, and destructive (characters just DIED left and right - aggh!). I don't remember it all that well (I must have blocked it out, grr) but I remember that it was a mess. So, when I heard the rumor/news of another movie in the series - Wolverine - I took it with a grain of salt. It was getting to that "come on already" point in the series. Three, let alone four movies is risky territory. Now, that said, this long bit of rambling has been so you know where I'm coming from and where I WAS coming from when I walked into that theater last Saturday. I was excited for Wolverine, but I didn't have too many high hopes.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Hugh Jackman, especially as Wolverine. The character is sassy, bad-ass, and all around FUN to watch (notice that word coming up a lot?) I was expecting the BEST from him because I know that he always delivers above and beyond. So, when the movie leaked online about a month ago and everyone started trashing it, it didn't really alter my perception or expectations. I was still going to see it, no two ways about it, and I was either going to like it or not be crazy about it (the latter being less likely just because of the kind of movie watcher I am).

Thus... (I know that's a formal word but, heck, I've been writing a lot of formal IB essays lately - 42 pages handwritten, to be precise) ... you can see how I walked into this film. I had seen the explosion-after-explosion-after-fight-after-motorcycle-scene trailer, had seen Hugh's tree-trunk arms in Australia, and had seen him KICK ASS at the Oscars this year (please, oh please, bring him back again!). I wasn't expecting the Second Coming... I was expecting a FUN couple of hours.

And that's exactly what I got.

Wolverine left me grinning, what can I say? From the awesome character Gambit (whom I had never come across) to the (brief) appearance of Charlie (from Lost) aka Merry (from Lord of the Rings) aka Dominic Monaghan... and to, quite frankly, a pretty cool story of the evolution fo a superhero, it was a sweet movie. The explosions were crazy and loud, the fight scenes were intense, the romance was cheesy, the story/recurring metaphor was blatantly obvious... in short, it was a summer blockbuster that didn't even try to mask it's true nature. So, overall, I'd recommend the film, but only if you're willing to watch it for what it is.

A couple of more specific notes...

The soundtrack nerd in me is dying to say something about the music. Whereas the first three X-Men films were composed by Bourne alumn John Powell, this film was done by Harry Gregson-Williams, a man who is quick becoming one of my all time favorite artists. Second right now to, perhaps, only John Williams and Hans Zimmer, this man has a way with melodies. He's also done both Narnia films and the jaw-droppingly gorgeous Kingdom of Heaven soundtrack and I found myself itching to buy the Wolverine soundtrack when it was released yesterday. Nothing says summer like new soundtracks to listen to every week. [Next up, Star Trek by Lost composer Michael Giacchino, if I like the film, and Angels and Demons by Zimmer himself. Same order goes for movies - more on that in a minute!) I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the music from this film. It's so great, just beautiful and emotional, yet kind of mechanic... Williams really captured the true nature of the character and of the film.

About the ending... You heard me mention the online leak. Well, in an effort to still get nerdy fanboys to watch the movie more than once (or, I dunno, some other reason), Wolverine filmmakers tacked not one, nor two, but THREE endings on the movie, post-credits. The first is in all movie versions and [SPOILER] is the one with Stryker walking. The other two, however, are split... You'll only see one when you go. One is being called the "Deadpool" ending, in which Weapon XI sort of maybe might still be alive. (I didn't see this one). The other is the Asian bar scene, in which Hugh is drinking, not to forget, but to remember. I recently heard that this ending, while less "cool" than the one where the creepy bad guy blinks, may be setting up ANOTHER sequel... [END SPOILER]

But that brings me right into my next point... sequels. I've heard several rumors now. One is for another X-Men Origins film, but this time about Magneto (epic bad-ass played by Gandalf - I mean - Ian McKellen). As far as I can tell (IMDB here), this movie is being planned and is "in production," though there's currently not much being done. Now, more interestingly, recently, I began hearing rumors about a X-Men Origins: Wolverine sequel (What is that, X-Men Post-Origins?) This article can explain what I'm talking about much more than I could, but SPOILER ALERT if you haven't seen the film.

Anyway, that's the run-down. If you're reading this and you've seen it (or any of the other X-Men films), let me know what you think and which credit ending you got. While we're at it, let me know what you think of the comic book genre in general. :) Oh, and as a further question, what with Star Trek, Angels and Demons, and Terminator coming up in the next few weeks... the Summer Movie Madness is officially underway! What movie are you most looking forward to this summer? (Other than Harry Potter, because that's kind of a given with the people likely reading this).

That's it for me. I'm off to watch Lost - OMG only 3 more hours left this season!
Cheers. <3

I can haz ur attenshun?

2009-04-28T17:21:00.006-06:00

For this blog, I'm going to take a moment away from all the things I usually am - a nerdfighter, a Harry Potter fan, a (very) soon to be college student, an addict to technology - and I'm going to be something else entirely: A crazy cat lady. That's right: I am not in any way ashamed to admit that I absolutely LOVE cats. I always have. I still have my teddy bear - which is actually a cat - Milo to prove it to you. Dogs have always been "meh-yeah, cute, I guess" but cats can make my heart melt in a second. If you're a dog person or you hate hearing people go "aww" and gush about their pets, run for your life! (This blog post is definitely not for you).

I was lucky enough to get my own cat when I was 7 years old. My family had a rather traumatic experience trying to buy one at the Humane Society (the one we chose and put on hold was "accidentally" adopted by someone else) and we ended up getting a just eight week old little tabby from the pet shop that used to be in the nearby shopping center. If you know me at all, you've probably heard me talk about Molly ... I love this animal so much, and she's such an intricate part of my family and my life that I practically think about her as my quirky little sister (with a bit of a "furry little problem," if you will). If you've been to my house, you're probably thinking "Huh? The Devil Cat?" Let's just say Molly has a personality to be reckoned with. Around my family, she's as sweet as can be. (Well, she keeps her own counsel about when she likes to be held and all that, but she's talkative and cuddly and a great pet.
Around others, however, she tends to get a bit, well, on-edge. She's not a big fan of strangers. I don't know if this is because the pet store we got her from was traumatic - too many people, bad upbringing - if she was taken away from her mother to young... I don't know why, exactly, but she basically can't stand anyone but me and my parents. But, all that aside, she's hilarious. She's got her own language and way of talking to us - she knows how to say "hello" in her own funny little way, she understands "treat" and recognizes her own name. She's got rituals that only pertain to one specific person: with my dad, for example, she'll always hit him up for a massage on the way up the stairs. She'll curl up ON my mom more than she will with the rest of us. And, she has a certain playful energy whenever she's around me - as if she knows she's on equal footing. But I realize I'm really starting to sound like an overly-obsessive cat owner, here, so let me just wrap this up and get to the main point of this blog. For all that Molly's the most fantastically amazing friend and pet ever, she's certainly not the kind of cat to be held, to come cuddle with you when you're reading or watching TV... and these are just things I've accepted about her. I love her despite these things and I can say now that I'm going to miss her like crazy when I'm no longer living at home. Molly is my tabby-and-white, green-eyed, pink-nosed (marked by a bee sting from when she was little), fluffy, sweet little sister.

The whole reason I'm blogging about this now - out of any time - is because I've been hit with an onslaught of cat-sitting this week. First came a set of neighbors who I babysat for a few weeks ago, who happened to have new young-ish cats, and who happened to see how absolutely in love I was with the cats by the time my evening there was up. They went out of town this past weekend as our school district is having a five day weekend and they asked me to watch their kitties while they were gone.
So, all weekend, twice a day, I've been trekking over there to play, feed, and amuse Oreo and DoubleStuff (I believe it's Oreo on the right, and DoubleStuff on the left). In so many ways, these cats are the POLAR opposite to Molly. They are both extremely affectionate, ready to be held (ESPECIALLY Oreo), and unafraid of strangers. Oreo will literally melt into your arms purring and will just stay there - he doesn't really seem to know the concept of resistance, so you can't even really tell if he doesn't want to be picked up... he just folds himself away in your arms and seems content. DoubleStuff has a bit of his own mind, but will still curl up on you and consent to being held for a few minutes. Both are extremely playful - they have this little play structure that's adorable, and they love going inside it and then jumping out at you (or each other). They have that kitten energy that's so much fun - they'll try to play with your shoes, your camera cord, your hair... anything, really. The other day I was sitting with them both on the couch and, man, it was STEREO SOUND purring. They're just as cute as can be.

AND THEN today, I started cat-sitting for another set of neighbors... a couple who goes out of town a lot and whose cat I have been watching on and off for over a year now. Since I've known them, the cats in this family have changed - it started out Reggie and Riley, then Riley and Bennie, and now it's just Bennie... But Bennie's really cute. He was a one-year old when they got him and, though he's grown up (and out - he's getting a bit pudgy), he's still playful and loving.
He loves playing with these little foam balls - he'll chase them up the stairs and down again like crazy. AND he's the only cat I've ever met who plays fetch. As in throw the ball, bring it back, fetch. When I first figured this out, it totally cracked me up.

So, there you have it, cats have really been on my mind lately - and all over my clothes. Every time I go visit ANY of the cats now, they all have to sniff me endlessly to try to figure out what (or who) they're smelling. I suppose it's not a bad way to make money (in fact, I'm just kind of excited that people will pay me for something I find so much fun). Anyway, there you have it, the four crazy kitties currently in my life.

Cheers. <3

P.S. I found out a few things when trying to take photos of all these cats this afternoon. Firstly, cats move a lot. Seriously. It must be some sort of law of the universe that as soon as your camera decides to focus, the cat - who was just holding perfectly still - decides to move and you get pictures that look like the Tasmanian Devil. I threw out about 100 of these kinds of pictures.
And secondly, cats often find the whirring of the camera lens AND the cord that dangles from the end of the camera fascinating and will abandon any attempts of being cute for the photo in favor of batting and sniffing said fun objects. I'm working on buying a new camera and - hopefully - with one that focuses quickly, takes photos well, and has some good automatic settings, this will be easier in the future, but let me just tell you that these three photos were basically the only good ones to come out of a batch of 130. *Whew*

Take Two

2009-04-24T17:30:00.005-06:00

Okay, that certainly did not come out right. I am certainly not advocating a return to the slightly progressed Victorian age, the time of the tet-a-tet and rules for how to sit, stand, smile, or frown... the days when women would sit at home making small talk over tea and embroidery, waiting for the slight excitement of a hopefully-not-horribly-boring male suitor. I stand by what I had to say about those two passages and about the underlying morality I admire in the society of the early 1800's but need to amend and add a few more thoughts.

As fellow blogger and twitterer Gina commented on my past post (I hope you don't mind me bringing this up in another post - it's an excellent point), this is roughly what I seemed to be saying. That blog post felt a bit muddled and confused as I wrote it - apparently with good reason. Let me see if I can take a step back and clarify.

The rules of Jane Austen's time were painful. You couldn't speak to someone unless you'd first been introduced, there were certain things you could read - as I was discussing with that passage from Northanger Abbey about novels. Everyone knew their place in society relative to everyone else - and the slightest change in dress, behavior, or speech could send someone into a tizzy.

So, yes, I agree Gina - I couldn't possible tolerate these rules either - but why I LOVE Austen novels is that they show us how things were then and allow us to appreciate how things are now. Like it or not, this was how women DID live and I think it's important to keep this picture in mind when walking to school in jeans and flip flops, hugging guy-friends and being able to openly say what you're thinking.

Before I go more into detail - or rather, more into generalities - let me just say that Mansfield Park bored me out of my mind and I'd be perfectly happy if I never heard another word about Fanny Price again. Some people can be TOO good and she was one of them. Grow a spine, girl. Also, I haven't had the chance yet to read Persuasion or Sense and Sensability, though I know the story of the latter from the BBC series.

When it really comes down to it, what I admire most about Jane Austen's novels is Jane Austen herself. This woman managed not only to write novels when no one - let alone a woman - was supposed to do that ... and she managed to write novels that I think are still prevalent in the 21st Century (hence the lovely picture I included above, found via a quick Google search). Catherine Morland is a rather boring character, true, who's head was full of silliness and who sat around waiting for Henry to decide if he liked her or not. But, this was how it was - a woman couldn't show feeling unless the man showed it first. Like I've said, these rules were stupid, but they were there.

But, consider two other characters: Emma and Elizabeth. These girls acted - true, one was misguided, and a bit snobby, but I still think Emma had good intentions as she tried to help Harriet. And Elizabeth, well, that gal knew how to speak her mind! She stood up for what she wanted and believed in - the right to marry for love despite her poor financial situations, the right to an opinion, to have her family and herself respected - and it's for these reasons that I think Pride and Prejudice is such a timeless novel.

Rather than spend all day extoling the virtues of P&P, which I will defend with my dying breath against anyone but guys who irrationally hate it because it's a "chick book" (they just don't get it), let me go back to Austen. The fact that we are still talking about these books, still reading them and admiring (or disliking) the heroines is amazing to me! The fact that we can hear Jane Austen's voice standing up for what she believes in, in the novels she wrote with fervor... well, I guess that fills the role of the strong woman, taking the place of a strong female narrator or weak female heroines.

And, Gina, do not mean to go after your point of view at all - I agree that many of the women in these stories simply sit around waiting for husbands... and I haven't read Bleak House (though now I want to!), but I guess what I'm trying to say is that these aspects of Austen's books are like having a flawed character - like Harry Potter, even. If the books depicted society as perfect back then, I can't help but think they'd be a lot less interesting.

Bottom line: What jars me so much whenever I read Austen is how much our society has changed since that point in time. Since ANY point in time. If you've read this blog, you know I'm constantly fascinated by technology - the newest Twitter Applcation (Tweetie, in case your wondering... it's totally awesome), or the 1 billionth App sold on the Apple Store (the grand prize went to a 13 year old). But, what I love about these books is that they make me take a step back from the minute-by-minute, blow-by-blow observations of how far we've progressed since... last week. They make me look at the big picture: Of how far we've come in the last 200 years. And through it all, I can't help loving Austen for managing to preserve that time in history for us to read and attempt to understand.

Lighthearded Misunderstandings

2009-04-24T13:53:00.006-06:00

I wanted to take a momentary break from studying today (I'm home for a glorious five day weekend) to review a book I finished reading last weekend and greatly enjoyed. The book I'm thinking of is Northanger Abbey, one of Jane Austen's shorter, lighter, and lesser-known works. I decided to read it now - of all times - because it is the current topic of discussion in the Austen group I participate in every Sunday night. I'm sure my opinion of it will morph and change as we discuss it - in fact, I think it already has since the time of our first meeting - but I still wanted to share a few thoughts.

Since you probably don't know unless you've read it, Northanger Abbey tells the story of the young and innocent Catherine Morland who is invited to Bath by her family's friends, the Allens. In Bath, Catherine meets the Thorpe family - befriending the girl of her same age, Isabella. She also meets a young Mr. Henry Tilney, later befriending Tilney and his sister Eleanor. The plot heats up when General Tilney, Henry's father, invites Catherine to stay with them at their Abbey home - for a reason that causes much distress and confusion by the end of the novel. Because Catherine had been reading the type of Gothic romances that were oh-so common in Austen's era, she expects (but does not find) a dark and ancient home, full of fantastical mystery. The novel was one of the first Austen wrote, but also one of the last that was published after her death.

The character Catherine is a tricky one to interpret. She's not as easily likable as Elizabeth Bennet, nor easy to immediately dislike like Fanny Price, and still not as flawed as Emma. In many ways, her naivete was what really frustrated me - the same dramatic irony that led me to call the story's end three chapters end annoyed me beyond end when the story's heroine couldn't seem to understand what was going on. That said, being a simpleton is not the greatest fault and, overall, I liked the heroine and the story.

There were two particular passages in the novel that I just knew I had to share as soon as I read them. They're in so many ways the epitome of Austen - funny, witty, and full of voice and social commentary. Northanger Abbey has a much stronger authorial voice than the other novels - it's pervasive throughout almost the entire novel, compared to simple passages here and there like Pride and Prejudice. Perhaps this is because Austen was less practiced as an author and had not yet found her true style, or maybe it's just how she wanted to write this story, but because of the shortness and sweetness of the novel, it works.

Any-who, there is one passage when the reader learns that - gasp - Catherine enjoys reading novels. I'm not sure what it was that girls during this time were supposed to be reading, but it's clear that Austen didn't agree with the societal disdain for the type of writing she was endeavoring to create:

[Catherine and Isabella would] shut themselves up, to read novels together. Yes, novels; - for I will not adopt that ungenerous and impolitic custom so common with novel writers, of degrading by their contemptuous censure the very performances of which they are themselves adding - joining with their greatest enemies in bestowing the harshest epithets on such works, and scarcely ever permitting them to be read by their own heroine, who, if she accidentally takes up a novel, is sure to turn over its insipid pages with disgust. Alas! if the heroine of our novel be not patronized by the heroine of another, from whom can she expect protection and regard? I cannot approve of it. Let us leave it to the Reviewers to abuse such effusions of fancy at their leisure and over every new novel to talk in threadbare strains of the trash with which the press now groans.

Now, at the risk of this turning into an English essay, I do want to talk about this passage! It's hard to explain why I'm so drawn to it, but reading these few sentences absolutely makes me grin. It's SO Austen. Her voice - though part of a story, wrapped up in a character - is so strong. You feel as if she's in the room with you, reading passages like these. You can hear her disdain for hypocritical authors dripping from each word. The power of writing like this - to come alive before you - is phenomenal... and all done in a time when women weren't even supposed to be writing at all!

One more, and then I promise I'll go back to my usual college chit-chat, my professions of Harry Potter love, and my blathering about movies. As the story progresses, we see the usual rituals that mark Austen's novels and bring her time period to life. The societal traditions, the "dos and do NOTs" of being proper, the balls, dances, and propriety. Northanger Abbey has a particularly interesting take on all this as Austen focuses her lens on Bath - a bit of a more public and social setting than the usual small villages of Meryfield or Highbury. At once of the dances, when Mr. Tilney and Miss Morland finally make it to dancing, Henry begins to compare dancing and marriage, exclaiming how very alike they are:

"We have entered into a contract of mutual agreeableness for the space of an evening, and all our agreeableness belong solely to each other for that time. Nobody can fasten themselves on the notice of one, without injuring the rights of the other. I consider a country-dance as an emblem of marriage. Fidelity and complaisance are the principal duties of both; and those men who do not chuse to dance or marry themselves, have no business with the partners or wives of their neighbours."
[...]
"Taken in that light certainly, their resemblance is not striking; but I think I could place them in such a view. - You will allow, that in both, man has the advantage of choice, woman only the power of refusal; that in both, it is an engagement between a man and woman, formed for the advantage of each; and that when once entered into, they belong exclusively to each other till the moment of its dissolution; that it is their duty, each to endeavor to give the other no cause for wishing that he or she had bestowed themselves elsewhere, and their best interest to keep their own imaginations from wandering towards the perfections of their neighbors, or fancying that they should have been better off with anyone else."

Okay, if talk of dancing and marriage made you cringe away from the entry, that's fine. In fact, you probably didn't even make it past the mention of Austen at the beginning, but I simply had to shout out to the world what a wonderful bit of writing this is. Did you notice that the second part of the quote is almost entirely ONE sentence? Seriously.

But what gets me most about this is the difference between this society and ours. Theirs, rules meant something. None of this "the government says we don't use torture, but lookie here, I guess we do" back-handedness. (Okay, there was some back-handedness in Austen's time, but it was different). There was a basic morality - something that could unite even things as dissimilar as dancing and marriage - that protected everyone from each other and kept the wheels on the bus going round and round.

I've often lamented this tradition of dance dying out - and I still think it's a phenomenal tradition, but more importantly, I like the base principle that kept this society together. Even young people - I believe Catherine is still a teen in this novel - is raised with a basic idea of what's right and wrong. I think this is fading from our society now; being mixed up by warring factions of religious, political, or ethnic beliefs. I think it's time we returned to a simpler time - yes, in many ways this rigidly governed society was simpler - when a dance could be compared to marriage, when people would have a "contract of mutual agreeableness" and be happy with each other for an evening.

Anyway, I found this a very interesting Austen novel - quite different from the other "high-profile" ones I've been reading so far. I'd best get back to studying - IB and AP tests begin in a little over a week, and I've got knowledge to cram into my brain. Cheers! <3

YOUR Planet?!?

2009-04-19T10:46:00.008-06:00

This Friday's movie night brought a vision of the planet's destruction - not by nuclear means, nor by global warming, but by aliens. As the second end-of-the-world AND alien-type movie I had seen recently (Knowing, being the first), my mind was busy with comparisons. Of course, the films are very different - one being a scattered mix of genres with few goals and little morals and the other being the remake of a campy 1950's flick... but, regardless, even without the similarities that did exist, I found The Day the Earth Stood Still to be a far better movie.

The movie centers around a scientist (played by Jennifer Connolly), who is dragged off in the middle of the night by government agents. She arrives at a Fort something-or-other, where she is put in a briefing room with lots of other scientists, and told of the fast approach of an Earth-destroying asteroid of some sort. They are given 1 hour as a countdown, and Manhattan as a target. While they fly out to the city, bracing for impact, nothing hits, until they start to see a glowing orb flying towards them, slowing down. The orb, a planet-like object, that seems to be roughly the size of a skyscraper, lands in Central park. Out of it comes - you guessed it - Alien Keanu Reeves. Long story short, Reeves has come to A) attempt to talk to us humans and B) judge if we (as a species) are worthy of remaining on the planet. He decides we aren't, and begins to initiate D-Day Armageddon. Now, I won't go much further than that in the off chance that you decide to actually see this movie - which I more or less recommend.

A few things struck me about this movie. First off, it was comfortable in its own skin. It knew it was an alien movie, and it didn't try to hide that fact. Sure, at some points, they took themselves too seriously (such as when Connolly's character emphatically states "Well, he must have had another body before he came to Earth.") But, more or less, they didn't try to hide that they were dealing with aliens invading and destroying the human race. In all, it was rather cool to have such a campy story done with such AWESOME CGI. I mean, though I haven't seen the 1950 version of the film, I can imagine how corny it would have been - strings still attached to the UFO, and all that. But to have something that requires such suspension of reality done in a way that actually makes it seem real... well, that just shows you how far filmmaking techniques have come in recent years.

Next off, it's interesting to consider WHY this film was made - both in its original day and age, and now. The basic premise of the destruction of the human race is that the Earth is a very valuable and fragile planet - one of the few (or only) in the universe that can support complex life forms. And yet, the human race has become so destructive that it doesn't deserve to remain in control of Earth. Thus, said alien civilization steps in and removes the parasitic humans. (I'm getting Matrix undertones, here, but more on that in a minute). I'm not sure if the 1950's version of the movie was the original time it was written, but if so, let's take a moment to consider history at the time. Nuclear destruction was on the forefront of everyone's minds and - with the Cold War really getting going - the destructive capabilities of humans were, indeed, starting to feel quite fearsome. Fastforward to the 21st century... mutual destruction is in the back of our minds, but not an open threat. Instead, global warming is hitting us at every angle. Worrysome weather, fearsome planetary changes... are we finally seeing the fruits of our destructive capabilities? In all, I'm surprised this movie got panned so much by critics and viewers because, though it doesn't have a driven plot with wit and twists, as we may look for in the creme-of-the-crop kind of films, it is EXTREMELY resonant for the day and age we are living in.

This said, since so many people did NOT see this film, I think it's important to reinforce the message it bore - for it's an important one to remember. The movie stressed that humans needed to CHANGE if we were to keep our planet and our lives. However, as John Cleese's character said so clearly, it is often on the brink of destruction that the full capacity for change is realized. I agree with this in many ways. But, in the world we're living it, what's the brink? Is it when the Hurricanes get so bad that they wipe out entire cities? When fires rage for weeks, taking homes and burning forests? When the very ozone layer we depend on to continue living starts disappearing? Because it's starting to look like we've hit that brink to me. So, in all, I thought this was an admirable film. It bore an important idea that I think we need to continue hitting people over the head with. It's a pity it got so little attention because I thought it was an overall fun ride (with cool CGI), and with a solid core idea.

Just for one last moment, I do have to comment on Keanu Reeves. As Craig Ferguson (who my mom and I watch a lot) is often pointing out, Keanu doesn't do much in the way of acting... In fact, between this film and his other famous roles - Speed and The Matrix, I'm not sure he does much more than look solemnly at the camera/villain/love interest for the entire movie.

<-- Keanu Reeves as Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still and Neo in The Matrix.

That said, he worked in this role. He was an alien who was sent to destroy an entire species, only to have his eyes opened by the compassion that humans can show. Did he need to act much for that? Probably not.

Technology-ology

2009-04-18T12:10:00.011-06:00

<--Image borrowed from the Onion's website.

Back again to round out a few more thoughts on technology. I think I've done Twitter justice, but there are a few more thoughts I want to begin with there.

In regards to Ashton Kutcher (who won in a race with CNN on Twitter to see who would get to 1 million followers first) and his declarations that we are revolutionizing media - in addition to my own comments in my last post that Twitter and other social networks are becoming our sources of news, I want to comment and amend these thoughts.

In my own world view, there will always be journalism. We will always need a network of news agencies to get interviews, crack stories, report, investigate, film, photograph, and write about. Now, I think the purpose of the news agencies and manner with which they communicate with the mass population IS changing. These agencies will no longer be responsible for breaking the news - I think the rush to get the "true story" FIRST is long past. Twitter and Facebook and the internet in general continues to make this side of journalism obsolete. However, this can only extend so far. Journalists are the one who can get inside the true story - to score key interviews, photograph events, investigate deeper with a multitude of resources. Just because microwavable frozen dinners made it quick and easy to eat at home, that doesn't mean that chefs and restaurants went out of business. These are two sides of the same coin.

Okay, so, that said, I wanted to move on to a couple other social networks/technologies and just discuss them a bit more...

My latest toy has been a fun and slightly silly site called DailyBooth. (The picture on the left side of my blog page will take you to my DailyBooth account). Basically, Dailybooth is like twitter except instead of using 140 characters, you use photos. The idea is that you take photos of yourself with your webcam (or upload them from elsewhere) and thus show people little bits and pieces of your life. Part of what I find fun about this site is that it makes you more accustomed to cameras. Let me explain... while I've never been the kind of person who feels extremely awkward in front of cameras (or who can't smile in front of them - *cough*Dad*cough*), I still freeze up a bit when someone whips out a camera and say "Say cheese!" For the most part, at family gatherings and such, I'm usually the one holding the camera, so I have managed to avoid this in the past. But, what with a family wedding and, erm, COLLEGE coming up next year, I want to get over thus. Voila - DailyBooth.

As you can tell, I've linked my account to my blog for one (it lightens up the page a bit) - but if you click on the photo on the left, you'll see all the photos I've taken, their captions (which are really important to understanding random images), how to join DailyBooth if you're interested, where to comment on my photos (which you can do with text or a photo of your own). You only really need a webcam, but if you put in the patience, I think you could upload photos from a regular camera as well.

Next up, I want to talk about a site that you probably haven't heard about, but that I really think is very cool. It's called Sazze (and don't ask me how to pronounce it, cause I have no idea). Sazze, found here, is a website of Consumer reviews. Everyday people like you and me can sit down and do one of two things - review something you've bought and know something about; or read reviews of something you're considering buying. Now, the coolest part about it, in my opinion, is that it's not limited to just media, like Amazon, or to any other kind of product - it's a mix of EVERYTHING... technology, media, food, household items, clothes, makeup. You name it, you can either find a review or review it yourself. The site also has a community feature - with a chat and polls and such and this can be fun as well, but as for it's main use, I think it's very revolutionary, useful, and all around very cool. If you have a iPhone or smartphone of any type, Sazze also has a mobile version so you can look up reviews while you're in a store!

I have to, of course, mention Leaky in the course of all of this. But, I could never do it justice in such a short space, so I'll have to save it for another time and post. Let me just say that the Leaky Cauldron and the Leaky Lounge are some of the coolest places online.

Now, I don't know what planet you'd have to be living on, but perhaps you haven't heard of one of the coolest sites around right now, Hulu. Hulu, started by NBC and Fox, is a TV watching site. It streams videos with limited commercials, in high quality, and with an extremely user-friendly interface... and the best part is that it combines all your favorite channels in one (Well, except CBS and ABC, though that might change soon). You can go from watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central) to 30 Rock (NBC) to 24 (FOX)... all within a few clicks. Plus, with the recent rumors of an iPhone/iTouch version of Hulu, this site is one to watch, and one to use regularly.

Hmm, what next? Let me tackle YouTube. I know, I know - everyone knows about that viral website, but aside from being able to watch babies chortle and squirrels acting weird, there's a lot more going on there than you might know. Starting (I think) with the VlogBrothers (John and Hank Green), YouTube grew into a community. Now, the number of people vlogging, discussing life, creating collab channels, and supporting each other is phenomenal! One of my favorite YouTube people right now is a guy by the name of Alex Day, aka Nerimon. Alex is participating in VEDA (Vlog Every Day April) and so has been putting up videos quite frequently. He has a light touch at conversation, is quite funny, and is also a brilliant songwriter and musician. (See here for an example). Imagine my surprise when I find out Alex is coming to LeakyCon? Turns out this community - made up of groups like the fiveawesomeguys, fiveawesomegirls, and such, not only overlaps with the vlogbrothers, but also with the HP fandom! Small technological world!

Now, the YouTube community has been a-buzz with what they're calling the "hulufication of YouTube." Basically, YouTube has a very difficult time supporting itself. It takes a lot of infrastructure to allow 25 million people to watch Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent (amazing, by the way), and, as John Green has been showing us, it's pretty difficult to sell Lucky Charms on YouTube (see here if you want to know what the heck I'm talking about). Well, basically, YouTube reorganized so that user-based content is only a fraction of the site. Honestly, in my humble, limited-user opinion... this isn't that big a deal. All these people who are worried about the "little guy" who made YouTube what it is being ignored? They can spare the worry. I, for one, will continue watching their videos.

Okay, this is getting long, but I have three more things to talk about. The first, and last obvious one, is Facebook. Now, Facebook is insanely popular, and equal parts awesome and annoying. It's become the source of a lot of disgruntlement (is that a word?) on the part of its users due to a recent redesign, which people are saying has made it extremely "stalker friendly." I, for one, still don't like it - I wish they'd bring the live feed back and get rid of all the Quizzes and such in the main feed, but I've kind of resigned myself to them not changing it. People are still using it, and will keep on doing so until something better and more popular comes along.

Second to last is the phenomenon of captioning photos, as seen on ICanHasCheezburger, Failblog, and others. These sites are HILARIOUS. Some of my favorites. I have RSS feed subscriptions to a lot of them - including also PunditKitchen, TotallyLooksLike, and Celebrity Captions. Basically, the main premise of these sites is to put funny captions on funny pictures. Things like this or this. I really recommend checking these sites regularly, because they keep me constantly laughing and never fail to lighten up my day.

Okay, last, this is not really a site, but a collection of sites. From someone's tweet recently (don't recall whose it was), I found this list... it's a list of the 99 Things You Should Have Already Seen On The Internet. Basically, it's a collection of really funny videos and links that have been highly viral. Some are weird, like the Numa Numa video, or the Diet Coke and Mentos experiment, but for whatever reason, they're all really popular. I haven't seen or known about everything on the list, but I've been going through it bit by bit. I recently came across one of the coolest things ever...

It's called George Lucas in Love and it is a professionally made short film that combines Star Wars and Shakespeare in Love. It's brilliant and just plain hilarious - I've seen it almost five times now and can't stop laughing at it. So, if you take one thing away from this crazy long encyclopedia of my favorite internet sites, it should be this video. I've embedded it below for easy viewing - so watch, and enjoy!

Well, that's it from me, for now. Last night my family watched The Day The Earth Stood Still (the recent remake) and I think I'll review it - probably tomorrow.

Cheers! <3

You say you want a revolution...

2009-04-13T20:09:00.010-06:00

Well, you know we all wanna change the world. You tell me that it's evolution!

I'm here tonight with a blog that is neither up close and personal nor entertainment oriented... It's merely a few musings I've been meaning to put down on paper (so to speak). In truth, after a detour from homework which led to a bit of time on BlogTV with author Maureen Johnson (founder of the epic Blog Every Day April - see my earlier post), I was simply inspired to keep blogging!

Now, if my efforts to be a frequent blogger or the sidebar littered with social networks is any indication, I'm highly interested in technological (aka online) trends. I've participated in an online forum - The Leaky Lounge - for almost 2 years now, and I'm now on staff one of the sections of the site, in addition to being a moderator. I'm regularly on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, BlogTV and Ustream, here (Blogger), and most recently, also a fun little site called DailyBooth - in addition to my efforts with a start up company and Beta website called Sazze.com (it's a really cool site - you should check it out! ) I love finding out and keeping track of about trends like This Is Not Tom (is it really all John Green?!), all the crazy Nings, BEDA, FML.com, failblog... etc. It's such a cool part of our generation and our society.But let me backtrack. I don't have forever to rant about this tonight - this might just be part one - but I want to start with TWITTER.

Picture this: average family dinner, homemade meal (delicious, by the way, Mom), chatter about "how was your day" and "did you hear what Obama did," etc - stereotypical, if you will. Now add in a full out description of Twitter, tweets, followers, time lines, hashtag searches... the full works. This was my family's dinner tonight.

In case you don't know what twitter is, well, you're silly. I'm not about to explain - you should just go find out. Or, better yet, go set up an account and get addicted with the rest of us. Twitter is social networking at the max. It's random strangers following each other (or better yet, celebrities) in their attempts to make 140 characters of text worthwhile and interesting (or mundane, inane, frustrating... choose an adjective).

So, you might have caught a key word in that last paragraph... celebrity. In my opinion, this is one of the absolute coolest parts of Twitter. Sure, hearing little bits and pieces about your friends' days is fun (and, no, it's not all "X is going to the bathroom" as some people seem to think)... but that's not exactly, well, what's the word? - Revolutionary. No, to me, the really fantastic part of Twitter is being able to hear and see bits of lives from people like Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, Stephen Fry and John Cleese, John Mayer and Hugh Jackman, Tom Felton and Matt Lewis, Greg Grunburg and Brea Grant... I could go on and on. Pick a reason - gossip, curiosity, getting back at the paparazzi, feeling special - whichever. Hearing 140 characters at a time, seeing "twitpic" photos, being linked to videos and articles, all from people that are supposedly "out of reach" and famous is just plain cool.

Now, for my next argument in favor of Twitter (not that I'm particularly arguing with anyone - although if you want to disagree with me, feel free to speak up in the comments!), I wanted to first share with you something that Ashton Kutcher recently posted:

My dad always said that "I'll believe it when I hear it from the horse's mouth." Twitter is the horse's mouth. No more "well, the news said..."

Did you know that the story about the plane landing in the Hudson river broke on Twitter? That the first photograph came not from a news network, but from someone on the scene, posting from their iPhone? Did you know that Demi Moore recently saved a woman's life when she posted about a seemingly suicidal comment the woman made and thousands of her followers responded? Did you know that the Amazon-Fail story is powered by Twitter? (If you don't know what I'm talking about with this last one, look it up - it's stupid and ridiculous!)

Twitter is the new CNN and the new nightly news. Sure, newspapers are failing and companies are busy figuring out how to boost online news reading, but what they aren't realizing is that it's not how they do it, it's the simple fact that they're being replaced. We are evolving to the next level of news-getting... of society itself, I'd even venture. We are achieving (and have achieved already) a new type of global community, including an ongoing global dialogue, in which people can talk instantly around the world. Of course, this is a basic part of the Internet as a whole and as such, this is a fact of life that is now generally accepted. But, with the invent of Facebook statuses and then, now, Twitter, this is happening in a live and constant way as it never has before.

So, still doubt me? I could go on... But, it's really best if you try it yourself to see what I'm talking about. You may be left rolling on the floor in laughter at Stephen Colbert's inane comments like "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Just make sure to stab with an upward motion;" or you might be amazed by the upclose photos from the set of Heroes, provided by makeup artist "WendyLynMakeup." Whatever puts a smile on you're face, well, frankly, you're sure to find on Twitter... 140 characters at a time.

Survival, 3.14159-Style

2009-04-12T15:04:00.010-06:00

<--It was particularly difficult to choose a photo for this blog entry as there are many beautiful covers and illustrations online. To do them all justice, take a look here and here.

Well, I've been thinking and talking about my intention of reviewing my recent read Life of Pi for a fair amount of time now, so let's have at it.

First, a bit of background on the book itself. Life of Pi was published in 2001 - fairly recently - and became a bestseller in 2004. This was one of those books that a huge number of people heard about and or read. I received it as a Christmas gift in 2005 (I believe) and far from NOT wanting to read it, I simply didn't get around to it. It was the kind of book that was on my "list" but never made it to the absolute top priority. This book is already considered among many other works of "great literature" - it was even featured on an IB test a few years ago. In other words, it really is truly something special.

I picked up Life of Pi shortly after returning to school following Spring Break. My vacation was occupied by Wizard's First Rule, an 800 page epic with wizards, prophecies, and the like. In other words, I was coming off very light and fast reading fare. As I was none-too-pleased about returning to school, I was searching my bookcases for something mellow, maybe even melancholy, and certainly beautiful, to get me through the first week back. Life of Pi is all these things, and more.

Before I go further, let me just say that I highly recommend this book to ANYONE and everyone and that it is best read without knowing anything - not a summary, not a whiff of info off the back cover. So, if anything I've said so far has sounded interesting, I suggest you stop reading this little blog and pick up the book right now. I won't mind, really! If, however, you're okay with hearing more - or better yet, you've already read it, then by all means, continue...

Very basically, Life of Pi tells the story of a young boy, Pi (short for Piscine) whose family owns a zoo in India. As a child, Pi is deeply attracted to religion, in the end finding joy in being a Hindu, a Christian, and a Muslim. Pi's family decides to move to Canada, and so set sail on a boat with some of their animals. But, the boat sinks - with all its crew and Pi's family, leaving the poor boy trapped in a life raft with none other than an Orangutan, Zebra, Hyena, and Bengal Tiger. The tiger - named Richard Parker - is key to the story, as Pi must learn to survive with the monstrous beast on board his floating home. Now, without giving anything away, all I have left to say here is that the ending is stupendous. The final part of the book - volume 3 - throws a curve ball of sorts at the reader, which makes every bit of tedium on the life raft completely worth reading.

Now, I've found reading this book to be a highly personal experience. The emotions, ideas, and roller coaster of events can be read at different symbolic levels depending on your own situation in life. The story will resonate at different amounts depending on what you look for. A friend of mine from school, Greg Watson, has a wonderful essay on his blog about the religious metaphor that appears in the latter part of the book. (Click here if this sounds interesting).

For me, I found the story inspiring. I don't deal with religion to a great degree in my own life (my mom and I were just discussing this topic on this lovely Easter morning), but I found myself admiring and empathizing with the highly religious Pi. And, as an average high school student, survival in the middle of the ocean - alone with nothing but a great carnivorous companion - almost as far from my own place in life as imagining living on the moon. However, I found my heart tugged by the character's base desire to survive - above anything else. Finally, when faced with the knowledge that not only is this a true story, but that's it's difficult (or perhaps impossible) to know what truly happened in this fantastical tale, I was hit again with how subjective reality is. My life experience is completely dependent on me - as yours is on you and the places, people, and ideas that surround you.

See my Sazze.com review here:

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It's Good to Be King

2009-04-11T15:21:00.010-06:00

I wanted to take a moment to go back to the usual topic I choose to write about... entertainment, in whatever form it tends to enter my life in. Right now, the media form of choice that's populating my life is TV, as I haven't come across any stupendous movies recently, and, though I still mean to talk about Life of Pi, something else is simply on my mind MORE. (Maybe Pi tomorrow?)

The last few nights, I've been digging into the second season of The Tudors, the Showtime masterpiece that tells the tale of grand ol' Henry VIII. Of course, as soon as my dad hits the tarmac to fly out to North Caroline, my mom and I jumped back into this fabulous (and slightly girl-oriented) show. Though it's been quite some time since I saw the first season, it didn't take much to get me hooked again.

Now, I hardly need to explain, I'm guessing, but The Tudors tells the tale of Henry VIII. More specifically, it is currently focusing on his relationship with Anne Boleyn, and the upheaval of the Church of England that resulted from his efforts to annul his first marriage.

(*I'm guessing I don't have to warn about spoilers since this is all historical, but I will be talking about the events of the first two seasons in this post, FYI.*)

In our current season, so far, Henry succeeded in naming himself the head of the Church of England - over the Pope and the church in Rome. He has officially declared his marriage to Catherine of Aragon null and void (though she will not accept this), banished Catherine to a dingy and cold castle, and finally married Anne, making her queen. As the season has progressed, Anne became pregnant, but failed to give birth to a son, instead bringing the future Queen Elizabeth into the world. Things are becoming strained between Henry and Anne and he is beginning to turn to mistresses again. Surely (as history dictates), it is only a matter of time before he turns to a more lasting relationship, in the form of Jane Seymore. On a more political note, Henry has demanded that everyone in England swear an oath that states they accept Anne as his wife and their queen, and that they recognize him as head of the church. Notably, Henry's good friend Sir Thomas Moore refused this oath (the second part, in particular), and was killed for this.

So, that's where we stand. The show has been faulted on and off for historical inaccuraces, but overall, it gets the picture across. This season has some new faces - with Cardinal Wolsey's large role gone, someone(s) had to fill the vaccuum. So far, I'm intrigued by the characters of Oliver Cromwell, Bishop Cranmar, and the poet (and former lover to Anne) Wyatt. Oh, and I am absolutely loving Peter O'Toole's stint as Pope. Now, on a more opinion-y note, I just wnat to start by saying that I absolutely LOVE this period of history, and have for many years. I have always been fascinated by Queen Elizabeth and, indirectly, Henry VIII, though I had never learned quite so much in detail about the political and religious sides of the story. This show does an excellent job balancing the sexy intrigue and court politics with the power plays and religious upheaval of the time.

In the same way I loved Cate Blanchett's Queen Elizabeth films and Helen Mirren's Queen Elizabeth miniseries, I love to see this period come to life. Though, chronologically, 500 years back in history is not that long (compared to, say, cave men), it is a very distant time from our own advanced technological age. It's always been hard to imagine people like King Henry and Anne Boleyn as real because the images we have of them are so odd, and thus, they are hard to imagineas real. Paintings like this (of Anne) or this (of Henry) make it hard to imagine real people, though evolutionarily, 500 years would not have made much of a difference from us and they probably would have looked like someone who got lost at a Renaissance Fair. As I was discussing with my mom last night, the artists and art during this time did not capture what a person really looked like, so I value the ability of The Tudors to bring it all to life.

It's easy to imagine that our world of financial collapse, corrupt CEOs, political charisma is complex and dramatic, but, really, consider England during the 1500's. The king had near absolute power (Parliament was really a puppet group), he married and divorced (or beheaded) SIX women (gasp!), war with France or Spain was a near constant threat, and a man's conscience was one of the strongest powers in the world. Mistresses were accepted, if not expected, and women were most often seen as pawns... political bargaining chips, if you will. Dress and costumes were elaborate in courts - jewels adorned nearly everyone, and dances, customs, and manners were complex beyond imagining. 500 years may not be that far back in our Earth's past, but from my point of view, it's a world away.

Also reviewed at Sazze.com:

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Choosing Ralphie

2009-04-07T17:40:00.010-06:00

Nothing is official until blogged - isn't that the mantra of the technological age? Well, let's make this nice and official, then...

I have officially chosen to attend CU this fall. It won out most directly over Ithaca College, but in the long run, also over Colorado College. I'm not going to go into the why of the decision, but I'd be happy to explain to any curious individual.

Just to get the details out of the way, I will be in the School of Arts and Sciences, majoring in Film Studies (more specifically, hoping to get a BFA in film production, with a narrative concentration) along with a minor in literature. I will be participating in the Honors Program, more specifically, the Kittredge Honors Program (the honors RAP), so I will be living in Arnett Hall. I will also be a Norlin Scholar (which won out over the President's Leadership Class). Oh, and finally, I hope to study abroad at some point.

So, there's my upcoming four years in a nutshell, but in a greater sense of the term, this all boils down to one thing for me right now: excitement. I am absolutely bounce-in-my-chair excited for college. Sure, it has something to do with finishing off the 27-odd days left of school, and maybe it also relates to the 43 mere days until Boston and all the LeakyCon madness, but in general, I am really looking forward to college.

I can't wait for the freedom. I'm feel ecstatic at the thought of not being confined to a concrete building with no windows from 7:30 AM until 2 (or 3) PM every day. I know I've been even more trapped at Fairview - particularly this year - due to my lack of un coche, but more than that, I'm sick of the regularity, the monotony, the similarity of every day. I can't wait to have a schedule I can choose, to have classes at sane hours of the day (which does not include getting up anytime before the sun is high in the sky), and to have variety - some classes M-W-F, some T-Th; some discussion based, other lecture style... all that.

I can't wait for the change! While at first I was terrified of leaving home and being on my own, the comfort of staying in the Boulder has allowed me to feel intrigued at the thought of dorm life, of managing a budget, of managing my own meals and schedule. I'm looking forward to the change of pace, to the opportunity to grow, to feel like a grown-up, to be living my own life (in that cheesy Teen chick flick film kind of way).

This is definitely nerdy (hooh-hah... Nerdfighters!) but I can't wait for the classes. I'm so excited to leave the days of "World History in two semesters" behind, and enter the realm of "Society and Culture Under the Roman Empire" and "Good and Evil in Film." On this note, of course, I can't wait to explore my major, the subjects that really interest me, and to be able to choose my classes in more detail. CU's class catalog reads like a phone book, so I'm sure I'll have more classes than I can ever partake in to chose from.

So, this is reading like one of those teenage-girl-discovers-self-and-prepares-to-enter-real-world novels... but as I've been shopping (and re-shopping) for CU sweatshirts, selecting a date for orientation, taking placement tests... and seeing this all take shape, I finally understand why everyone would always say they were looking forward to college. This may be the late realization of a house-bound only child, but this is starting to look like more than a scary experience to deal with; and instead, a bountiful adventure ready to be undertaken.

I'm sure when I'm knee-deep in textbooks for my first round of finals, hearing these words parroted back will make me feel stupid, but as I head toward a MAJOR new chapter of my life, I have to take a moment to say... wow. I've come so far from the days of dreading Outdoor Ed and lounging on couches at Horizons. I've moved past the shock of 2,000 people in one high school. I'm leapt beyond the fear of leaving home, of being on my own, of not knowing what the future would bring when I stood on the stage at graduation (or at least, did so metaphorically).

So, maybe you've enjoyed this rambling and sporatic bolding, and maybe this wasn't a coherent or purposeful blog or review (remind me to tell you about Life of Pi!), but consider this a journal entry, a time stamp, a piece of a time capsule: I'm roughly 40 days and one SUPER summer away from something big...

And I couldn't be happier or more excited about it.

Now, bring me that horizon. :)
... Oh, and some scholarship money would be nice too.

BLOG EVERY DAY APRIL, sort of.

2009-04-05T12:30:00.006-06:00

(It's true! And I really can't resist starting blogs with a photo.)

Well, I sure haven't been blogging a lot. With only 3 posts in March, 1 tenth of the total month's days, I certainly can no longer say that I "regularly" keep a blog, as I often do, but I mean to change that. You see, I find it particularly easy to rant and ramble on here after I have watched a film of sorts - something that leaves me with a lot of thoughts and opinions. But when it comes to the chance to opine on a variety of other subjects (REAL LIFE, for example), I often don't make time to come in and record my very own two cents for view on the world wide web.

Recently, nerdfighter-associated author Maureen Johnson started a project that's floating through the blogosphere like a wildfire: Blog Every Day April (BEDA). She came to the realization (much like myself) that she had not, in fact, been a regular blogger, and she had the desire to change this. Many people are following suite, with the hopes of recording their own two cents for view on the world wide web every day of April's 30. Some brave and visual individuals are doing their own take on the project, Vlog Every Day April (VEDA).

Now, this is the kind of project that makes my fingers itch to start typing, my brain racing with sentences, and my to do list filled with homework to feel mundane and ANNOYING. But, alas, with a to do list that grows longer constantly (despite the fact that I've checked a half a dozen things off today alone) and a schedule that's filling up more and more... not to mention a handful of SCARY AP and IB tests that are looming over me, alas... I am fully aware that I cannot participate in this fun. Once again I find myself in the position of DYING to participate in something (NaNoWriMo, Hooter, Project for Awesome) but not being able to due to its timing. (Hell, if NaNoWriMo were in June, I'd have 50,000 words in a heartbeat... but in Novemember, I have finals to study for, a holiday to relax over, and I invariably get a tiny chicken in my brain at some point).

It's not that I strictly COULDN'T blog every day in April. I could. I could promise to try, and do pretty well, but I know better for myself. It's not smart to create another thing I feel like I HAVE to do at this point in time. So, I'm starting my own variation... BALA. Aka, Blog A Lot April. I want to Blog A Lot in April. I'm not going to even try to make a promise to do it every day, but since I really appreciate the general ENERGY, EFFORT, and IDEA behind BEDA, I want to participate in some way. Blogging is like keeping a public journal. It's a nice way to relax, unwind, take a break from studying, and get rid of Brain Crack (Ideas that stick in your brain but that you never act on). So, this is my announcement - not promise, commitment, or goal, but announcement - that I HOPE to blog a lot this month.

We'll see how it goes.

Forgetting "Knowing"

2009-03-29T10:38:00.011-06:00

***FYI, mild spoilers in here because it was the only way I could talk about this film. Don't read if you don't want to know. I don't give away everything, but a few tidbits of info.***

Yesterday afternoon, I topped off my spring break with one more jaunt to the theater. This time it was to see last weekend's box office hit Knowing, which stars Nicolas Cage. Now, if you read this blog or know me in any capacity, you'll know that I have a hard time saying that I didn't like something. Usually, I find enough nuggets of goodness (parts that I liked) to more or less enjoy a film (or book or experience... etc.). Not so with this film. I'm not going to say I hated it - because that isn't strictly true. But I wasn't a huge fan.

Let me start by saying what I did like so I don't just rip it apart all at once. First of all, I really do adore Nicolas Cage. He can do no wrong in my eyes. His presence on the screen made the film more or less workable. Second, I applaud the writers for the basic premise of the film - the idea of a sheet filled with numbers coming out of a time capsule, and having these numbers spell out all the natural disasters, etc etc... That is cool. Also, I like some of the ideas presented in the film. The presentation of science versus religion, determinism versus randomness, of the inevitability of our planet's destruction... those are a good set of ideas to build a film around. Particularly the last one. We're so worried about mutual destruction through nuclear power, about global warming, starvation, and wars (all things we could more or less try to change) that we don't realize that a simple burst of energy from our sun - a bit of radiation - could wipe us out before you can say "uh oh." All I'm saying is that if the end is going to come - in that big cataclysmic sense - we're probably not going to be able to do much about it.

Okay, now onto what didn't quite work. My main problem with this movie is that it had no genre. I expected it to be in the sci fi action adventure realm - and those elements are there... but there's also the haunted house angle, coupled with an undertone of child-devil or the exorcist, mixed in with a religious allegory, layered right on top of a Close Encounters-esque alien invasion story line. What the hell kind of audience is this film going to appeal to? It's too scary for the soft-weight, nerdy, sci fi types... too outlandish for the hardcore horror fans... and there's too much fiction for the intellectual scientific types. No matter who sees this film, it seems to me that there is going to be an element that just doesn't quite fit.

Next: there was no character development, relationships, or emotional attachments for the audience to latch onto, for the story to be more real. The relationship between Cage's character and his son Caleb was painful to watch - laden down with horrible cliche lines like "Don't make me ask you twice, Caleb!" and "Do your homework, no TV tonight." Additionally, Cage's character was supposed to be a hurting widower, slowly becoming a drunk - but even though he was downing massive amount of whiskey, it really only resulted in a few extra naps. The characters were all the epitome of flat and static. Backstory came in little bursts, but nothing ever truly came of it. Last but not least, there was no romance between Cage and his female counterpart Rose Byrne. I'm not saying that every good film has to have a romance - but this movie could have used one to lighten it up, make it more poignant.

Let me just take a moment to go back to one of the things I've already said: I liked the premise of the story. This wasn't even a case of "good idea, bad execution" (like the so-so film Vantage Point, for example)... I just would have taken this good idea in a completely different direction, and I probably wouldn't have taken it in the end-of-the-world direction at all. Allow my imagination to run free for a moment...If this had been a film I was making, here's what I would have done. Keep the beginning the same all the way through when Nicolas Cage gets the sheet of numbers. Keep the woman who wrote the numbers alive and bring her back into the story somehow - not quite sure what I'd do there yet. Anyway, Cage's character figures out what the numbers mean - matches them up with history... but instead of seeing only 3 future dates, there are more. Maybe 10. He and his buddies at MIT start working with the numbers after the plane crash - when they start to believe him. They finally figure out a formula that makes sense - that generates the future numbers, etc. They start looking at the components of the formula, and maybe find that the time and scale of these disasters are directly proportional to negativity poured into the universe - people killed, corruption, human destruction, etc. Something to do with a natural balance of positive and negative energy. Kind of like positive and dark matter. Conservation of Energy or something like that. They figure out that there's a way to balance these things out, and though they're not able to stop all the bad things from happening, they lessen them. Nice happy ending where father realizes that the negative feelings over his wife's death has been hurting his son and he has to make up for it. Voila! Feel good film.

This is getting quite long so I'll be sure to wrap it up now. I want to stress that I didn't hate the film - it just wasn't quite "for me." Nicolas Cage was fun to watch for 2 hours and the CGI (particularly at the end) was kind of cool. It was an interesting mix of ideas and elements, and a good end-of-the-world film. You'd have to watch it to know your own opinion - others I've spoken with liked it, while some hated it. As a complex film, it's going to be very dependent on the person seeing it. But, hey, you can't have an ace in the hole with every film you see, right?

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Time goes by...

2009-03-08T21:03:00.004-06:00

I've been singing the beginning of Madonna's song "Hang Up" all night long... "Time goes by, so slowly... time goes by, so slowly." I guess it's just been on my mind today, what with having my schedule thrown off at school because of CSAP testing at school these two weeks, having a relaxing weekend (aka lots of time on my hands), and of course, having that mysterious and unfathomable force, Daylight Savings Time, throwing everything off today.

Time's one of those things... one of those topics that you could easily spend hours contemplating, thinking through, and attempting to figure out, (kinda like what happens after death or the Stock Market). It's a silly concept really - little numbers that add up to other numbers, that add up to our days, our weeks, our years... that add up to all our moments spent on Earth - yet it's amazing how much it governs our lives. I've always been fascinated by how arbitrary it is... how not-rigid it is, when we make it seem all-powerful.

Have you ever had a moment where it feels like time must be wrong, must be some how befuddled? For example, I typically get home from school at 2 or 3 in the afternoon, and feel like my day is over, like it's already the evening. But on weekend, that's usually the time my day is truly beginning, when I've gotten through sleeping in, eating breakfast, reading, or messing around online, puttering around the house... and finally sit down to do homework or scholarships or something productive. How can those be the same times?

The same feeling - the thought that one moment that is mathematically the same as the day before could feel so radically different - occurs everwhere. How is it that a morning of block classes feels like ages, while I can sit through a 2 or 3 hour movie and still not want it to end?

And how is it that an idea that turned into a governmental decision, which in turn was passed into law, causes us to jump up one morning (or evening,if you think ahead), and suddenly change this concept of time, the time-space contiuum, the all-powerful force that we have created to govern our days? How is it that 8pm can suddenly be 9pm, that we can just lose an hour - lose a bit of time - then and there?

Well, this is turning into quite the philosophical waxing, but I find time really odd... I mean, it's like looking at English grammar or the metric system. (Why the heck through ever be prounounced throo? Why are there 5280 feet in a mile?) Why do some months have 30 days, some have 31, and that silly random February is stuck there with 28 - wait, wait - sometimes, 29? It's just weird.

And so I know many of you woke up today bemoaning the lost hour - I was one of you last night, watching my reasonable 11:15pm bedtime turn into past-midnight with the click of a clock button. But this evening when the sun was in full swing at 6:45pm, when I wasn't eating dinner with the moon beaming through the window, well, that was kind of cool.

Although, come to think of it, I'm not looking forward to getting up in the dark tomorrow. It was just getting light at 6:30 in the morning. Ah, well... That's time for you, always changing its mind.

P.S. Though I usually hate the spring side of DST, just for the record, it was pretty darn easy to just flip the hour up one on the clocks, rather than having to go all the way through the cycle to go back an hour. =P

Beating the System

2009-03-02T18:17:00.015-07:00

Book Review: Bringing Down the House

I thought I'd try something different today... meaning I'm planning on not talking about movies (for once, right?). I recently had the chance to read a book truly for myself. While I admit I did enjoy re-reading Pride and Prejudice and really loved The Great Gatsby, these books were assignments, and, as such, not as enjoyable as a book I picked for myself and decided to read for fun. With a bit of time finally on my hands the other day, I selected a book that had been on my "list" and my shelf for quite some time, a work of non-fiction entitled Bringing Down the House by author Ben Mezrich .

This book, a New York Times Bestseller, was the inspiration for the Columbia Pictures film 21, released in 2008 (Okay, I guess I will still be talking about movies). Roughly speaking, the book and film tell the story of the M.I.T. Blackjack team - particularly one student, Kevin Lewis - who learned to "beat" the game of blackjack using card counting techniques, thus winning millions from Vegas and other Casinos around the country. Interestingly, card counting is not strictly illegal... as long as you are not using machines or tampering with the casino's equipment, you're merely using your brain to enhance your chances of winning. However, this is not to say the casinos are going to be particularly thrilled if they catch you at it; quite the contrary. The book continually reinforces the message that if they catch you, you're basically toast.

The book was very refreshing for me, not only because I hadn't read something for myself in a while, but because it had been a while since I'd read a fast-paced and non-fiction book like this one. In fact, the last one I can remember was the novel that inspired Catch Me If You Can, by the real Frank Abagnale. The narrative style of the story is very interesting; it's written from the first person P.O.V. of the author, yet it tells Kevin's story from a nearly omniscient perspective. In addition to the straightforward storytelling of the events, Mezrich also interrupts the almost fiction-like narrative with depictions of scenes from the interviews he did as research for the novel, describing in detail the hooker named April he met in a smoky Vegas club, the solitary technology and security designer for Vegas casinos, and the ex-Blackjack club member Jill, still going for a few rounds of cards before the meeting.

As I had seen the movie when it first came out, the typical experience of book-then-movie that is often disappointing was somewhat reversed. Instead, I was simply left noting the differences, non-judmentally. This was refreshing also; I'm sick of trying to keep myself from asking "how dare they change ___?" or "why'd they leave out ___?" For those of you who may have seen the movie, there are a few things to keep an eye out for. First, the casting in the movie was, honestly, despicable - especially since it was based on not only a book but a real-life story. Almost all the members on the blackjack team are asian, part of the typical genius M.I.T. student body. While I absolutely adore Jim Sturgess (Gaaaaaahhhh, *drool* <--Clicky) and have nothing against Kate Bosworth, it's amazing that only one asian actor made it into the film. As for plot, there are two major deviations. The wonderfully acted and murky Cole Williams (yay Lawrence Fishburn!) basically doesn't exist in the book. While there is a similar character, a man who works for a PI firm employed by casinos to catch cheaters and card counters, he has a much smaller role and the reader learns very little about him. He's more of a presence that the main characters feel and one whom they know little about. Second, all that kitschy Hollywood romance between Bosworth and Sturgess, as well as the big climactic finale (which I only vaguely remember now - someone fools someone else and walks away with millions?), that isn't really in the book either. In plain ol' English, the book is more real - there's no climax right at the 1:45 minute mark... we merely get a snapshot of these people's incredible lives and experiences. In all, I really enjoyed this book. It's a fun and fast read. While I felt confused by the flashy card counting in the movie, I actually learned a lot about it... and while I wouldn't be prepared to try it in a casino any time soon, I definitely feel like I understand the principle. If Catch Me If You Can, Rain Man, Good Will Hunting, Ocean's 11, or the film 21 itself floated your boat, I'd say you'd enjoy this book too. It's an amazing story - and all true!

P.S. I also reviewed this on Sazze.com, here. Similar thoughts, but slightly different!

Read more on Sazze

Jai Ho! Cheers for Oscar 81!

2009-02-23T14:51:00.012-07:00

I'm going to join in the chorus of voices clamoring to discuss last night's Oscar Ceremony not because I have anything particularly original to say, but because, for myself, I want to remember last night in the years to come.

I firmly believe last night's Oscars were the best I had ever seen. Now, I can't speak to the first, oh, approximately 70 years of ceremonies, but I've been watching for a few years now, and nothing even compares. I'll break it down, but overall, bravo!

Overall, this was a particularly exciting year for me because I had seen so many of the nominated films - I had seen all of the Best Picture noms, most of the acting nominees, a great deal of the technical categories' films, one of the documentaries, and even some of the short and animate short films. So, not only could I root for the films I liked, I could do so with conviction and my own personal opinions backing it up.

92,000! The Ceremony Itself:
Some Oscar Ceremonies have just not worked. Take, for example, the year when they thought they'd try moving some of the awards around - putting some of the smaller categories back in the audience, and so forth. That didn't work. Some years have been simply blah... They drag on, go way over the 3 1/2 hour marker, or just don't stand out in particular. Some years have had outstanding moments - Will Ferrel and Jack Black singing the "You're Boring" song particularly stays in my head... but I don't think I've ever seen a year like this one, where everything just worked.

Let me start with the stage, the set, the host - the basics of the show. Few stages will stay in my mind - from the Oscars, or any other show, for that matter - like this one. Check out the design art:I could see some crazy internet Blogger banging away on their keyboard right now, screaming overdone! boring! too glitzy! But, you know what, they're wrong. The 92,000 Swarovski crystals employed to glisten away all night long were absolutely stunning. The patterned floor which changed lighting with the lights hung above was beautiful. The inspiring ideas of moving the orchestra out of the pit, and sticking the audience up nice and close was brilliant.

And then there was Hugh. At first, I admit, I was slightly disappointed to hear there wouldn't be a funny man ala Jon Stewart, Billy Crystal hosting the Oscars. All the shows I can remember have had comedians (Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams, Billy Crystal x2, Chris Rock, Ellen DeGeneres, Jon Stewart x2), so when I heard Sexiest Man Alive/ Wolverine/Cowboy Hugh Jackman was hosting, there was a "huh?" moment. But, he redeemed himself fully, proved himself completely, and wowed totally last night.

It was refreshing not to have some man (or woman) in a tux scrambling out from backstage to crack jokes at every scene change; it was great to not have to worry if you were supposed to laugh or feel bad for the victim of a not-so-great joke; and it was great to have someone who was really an entertainer, not a comic, as a host.

Now, scrolling back through my twitter timeline shows quite a few people of my acquaintance not so thrilled with the night's musical numbers - which numbered two total on the part of Hugh Jackman, assisted by Anne Hathaway, then later Beyonce, Amanda Seyfried/ Dominic Cooper, and Vanessa Hudgens/Zac Efron. Now, sure, these were a bit flamboyant as far as Oscar acts go, but may I respectfully point out that, well, we're talking about frikkin Hollywood!?! And, Jackman is right - the musical is back, and it's darn well very entertaining! I thought both numbers were great.

Fa-fa-fa-fassssshion!
Okay, I gotta do it, I gotta talk about those gorgeous leading ladies. The fashion this year was very interesting... and I have to say, I was most impressed by some of Hollywood's younger stars, more than the older ones. Take a look:
(Fyi, that's Natalie Portman and Kate Winslet )
I couldn't find or photos of all my favorites - Slumdog's Freida Pinto, Anne Hathaway, and Jennifer Aniston also made my list - but for the most part, I was very much in awe this year. One thing that struck me was that everyone dressed in character - Kate was elegant, she looks like an actress from the 30s; Angelina Jolie was black and brooding, with that gorgeous jewelry; Amy Adams stood out with a statement; and Sarah Jessica Parker, Miley Cyrus, and Vanessa Hudgens (who I'm not crazy about) were either blah or ick. (I'm sorry, Miley, but your dress looked like it was a barnacle scraped off the bottom of a boat. Also, why were you at the Oscars?)

And the Oscar goes to...
Okay, the awards themselves. First of all, let me go back to the ceremony again - the format of the awards.
1. I loved the way the acting awards were presented, with five previous winners talking directly to the nominees. It was so personal, so touching, and just flat out sweet. I hope they keep this up next year.
2. The Oscars themself "told a story." Yes, we were taunted by that quote a few days before the ceremony, but I see what they mean... The presentation of the awards in the order of making a movie was brilliant. It made the whole show flow very nicely, and it was interesting to this young soon-to-be film student!
3. The presenters were great. Except for Sarah Jessica Parker and Daniel Craig, which was an odd pair, I really liked the presenters. Tina Fey and Steve Martin were hilarious ("Oh, Steve, they don't want to hear about the secret religion which we made up."); Jack Black and Jennifer Aniston were cute together; and Natalie Portman and Joaquin Pheonix - I mean Ben Stiller were mean, yes, but very funny. As for the solo acts, let me just say that Will Smith rocks.
4. They didn't play people off! For once, they didn't rudely music people off the stage, interrupting one of the biggest moments of their lives. I'm pretty sure only one pair/person got music-ed off, and I can live with that.

Okay, and now for the actual awards. While I know Oscar predictions are no longer interesting after the fact, can I just say that I did pretty darn well predicting who would win? I was so pleased to see Slumdog do so well (if you haven't see that film, shame on you!)... and I was very glad for all the acting categores - Heath's family's speech definitely made me tear up, and I was happy Sean Penn beat out Mickey Rourke. Also, while it was a bit sad that only 3 songs were nominated (they cut it down from five), I thought they did a great job with the Slumdog songs, even thought it was a bit weird to throw the Wall-E one right in the middle.

So there you have it, my blow by blow. I've probably ranted on it long enough, so, in short, I thought it was great. Can't wait for next year! =P

Hollywood Insider

2009-02-07T11:21:00.005-07:00

So, for a while now, I've been regularly following several of the Blogs and sections of the Entertainment Weekly website (EW.com). One of the sections I follow is called the Hollywood Insider, and it covers various parts of Hollywood - movies, TV, awards, actor/actress deals, etc. A recent article was about the Director's Guild Awards which just took place. While the big news of the evening was Slumdog Millionaire's win (a DGA win is usually a very sure sign of an Oscar win), another important part was the award of Honorary Lifetime Membership to film critic Roger Ebert. Part of the article was so sweet, and the sentiments by Ebert, then later Danny Boyle, were so resonant for me, that I just want to save them. And where's a better place to keep then accessible than this archived blog. So, without any further ado, here it is:

The highlight of the evening, meanwhile, came when DGA president Michael Apted bestowed Roger Ebert with an Honorary Lifetime Membership in the guild. The irony of filmmakers making a critic one of their own was not lost on anyone: The presentation opened with clips of Ebert's positive TV review for Apted's 1994 film Nell...and then his excoriating review for Apted's 2002 film Enough. Then Apted cued up a film of directors Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone, Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood and Patty Jenkins (Ebert named her film Monster the best movie of 2003) talking about why Ebert's criticism has meant so much to cinema. "When he reviews [my films] negatively," joked Eastwood, "I feel he's slipping a little."

When Ebert took to the stage, the crowd immediately took to their feet. It was a bittersweet moment, to be sure; complications from cancer surgery in 2006 left Ebert with a damaged lower jaw and the inability to speak, so after a brief message using the computerized voice that's been speaking for Ebert since, his wife Chaz read an eloquent prepared speech from her husband. "The movies come closer than any other art form in giving us the experience of walking in someone else's shoes," it concluded. "They expand us, they improve us, and sometimes they ennoble us. They also thrill us and make us laugh and cry, and for that gift, and for this honor tonight, I am very grateful." The audience broke into another standing ovation.

When it came time for 2007 DGA winners Joel and Ethan Coen to announce director Danny Boyle's win, it seemed like Ebert's words were still ringing in the ears of the man who had transported audiences into the shoes of a Mumbai slumdog. "For those of you who haven't made a film," said Boyle, "dream kind, and dream hard."

That quote by Ebert really summarizes why I love movies, and why I think they're important. They're not just a couch potato pastime for me, as is clear to anyone who knows me, they're a vital part of connecting to the larger world. And, as far as Boyle's words go, all I can say is... I am dreaming. I really hope Boyle and Slumdog win Oscars because, heck, they sure deserve it.

Going 'Bananas' in 'Barcelona'!

2009-02-05T16:07:00.013-07:00

<--Who gave this guy a camera? Seriously!?

I recently saw two distinctly different Woody Allen films. The first, entitled Bananas, is one of his older projects (cerca 1971), and one which he wrote, directed, and starred in. The second was Vicky Christina Barcelona, which was just released on DVD, currently has a pending Oscar nomination, and was written and direct by Allen. Now, these are two VERY different films, but I wanted to spend a moment reflecting on each of them, and on the pictured man himself.

Bananas:
This film was shown in my history class on Wednesday for basically no reason whatsoever. It really has no educational value and only marginally relates to the subject we're currently studying (Latin American-US relations in the 20th Century)... but that doesn't matter, I found out. I suppose this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to second-semester-senior pastimes. Bananas is paraphrased wonderfully by IMDb, much more succinctly than I could manage:

When a bumbling New Yorker is dumped by his activist girlfriend, he travels to a tiny Latin American nation and becomes involved in its latest rebellion.

But, see, that doesn't even really cover it. The film is in Allen's classical "What did I just see?" style. It's funny, to be sure, but in a way that makes you wonder if Candid Cameras are filming you as you watch. Case in point: amidst a classically set up court room scene, the camera pans across the jury, passing normal suited men and women, only to glance over one man who happens to be drinking out of a fishbowl. Waa-huh? Weird, right?

Other than a few not-so-hidden message about the US government and some wonderfully dysfunctional relationship scenes (SO hilarious, by the way), the film is entertaining, but not much more. Still, it was a fun way to spend an entire block period at school! Overall, I thought it was a classic example of Allen's quirky and off-the-beaten-path style, one which I recognized from other films of his, such as Annie Hall.

Vicky Christina Barcelona:
As this film shows, Allen has really mellowed out in the last thirty years. This film, like other more recent projects (such as Match Point, Scoop, Cassandra's Dream) still has its funny moments, but is more focused on the drama. Perhaps it's because Allen is no longer starring in his own films as much (can he not get anyone to be as silly as him on camera? O.o), or perhaps he's simply found a more serious edge with age - the guy is over 70!

Vicky Christina Barcelona tells the story of two friends (named Vicky and Christina, whatddyaknow?) who travel to, you guessed it, Barcelona. There, they become - ahem - involved with a man named Juan Antonio. I'll just let IMDb explain it, because I'm already feeling myself getting wordy with a synopsis:

Two girlfriends on a summer holiday in Spain become enamored with the same painter, unaware that his ex-wife, with whom he has a tempestuous relationship, is about to re-enter the picture.

Okay, that sounds like a fine and dandy plot, but it's the actors who really made it come to life. Picture Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, Javier Bardem, and Penelope Cruz all being equal parts charming and neurotic. Now that's entertainment.

As I was sitting down under the impression that I was about to watch a charming film about people in Spain (not knowing or forgetting that it was a Woody Allen project), I was jarringly surprised as it begun. As with all his films, Allen takes the casual filmmaker, and shakes him/her awake. The film is narrated by a nasal-y bland male voice, more like an audiobook than anything else. At first, my mind was saying "wtf?" - it's not at all what I was used to in a film. But as I let myself go, telling myself, "Dude, it's Woody Allen, just see where it goes," I began to enjoy the film more and more.

The dialogue was extremely interesting. It was an odd mix of extremely fakey and a little too real. Something about the way characters would keep talking or say a bit too much was, first of all, not at all like a typical screenplay, and second, possibly more like we talk in real life? Whichever, Woody Allen seemed to be taking the age old addage "Show, don't tell," and shoving his middle finger in its face. Almost everything happened through dialogue, and the settings - despite being absolutely beautiful shots of Spain - became mere backdrops.

And then there's the content. The tagline for the film is "Life is the ultimate work of art," which, aside from being something I really like, gives you an idea of Allen's next iconic influence. It was filmed with musings and attempts to definte life, love, happiness, relationships, and any other "big idea" ideas he could possibly come up with. Unlike Bananas, this felt like a film that had a lot more in it than I could grasp in one viewing.

So, there you have it, very different films, which brings me to a few thoughts on the man himself...

Mister Woody Allen: (born as Allan Stewart Konigsberg, I just found out. *strokes beard* that's interesting...)
Though many of his films are not only "love 'em or hate 'em" but rather "Um, wtf?" I really admire Allen as a filmmaker. (Not so much as a person - the guy married his adopted daughter; that's just messed up). He's not afraid to have his own very distinct voice, and to constantly let it permeate absolutely everything he does. You never walk out of a Woody Allen film wondering who directed it. And that drive to let your true voice shows through takes gumption. So, hats off to you, sir - keep making those uniquely interesting/funny/strange/dramatic films of yours.

P.S. It's a new month - the second of the not-so-new year! I blogged 13 times in January. While that's good, I hope to keep it up and even find time for more! Thanks for reading!

We Take A Break From Our Usual Programming....

2009-01-26T19:08:00.011-07:00

For today's blog, I'm going to take a moment to answer the 25 Random's Things challenge (game?) on Facebook, after I was tagged by Wendy yesterday. I couldn't resist doubling this up as a blog so I hope it still works. Here's how it goes...

Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

(To do this, go to "notes" under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)

1.) I'm a serious Anglophile. I've always thought the Brits were just kind of the best. I love their accents, their history, their Queen, their tea, their country... Yeah. I've been there twice, and I must say, it doesn't disappoint. If I could ever choose to be of another nationality (or gain citizenship in another country), it would probably be England.
2.) I'm a teenager, but I don't hate my parents. I actually get along very well with them. I've never gone through that whole, "get the hell out of my life" stage, and since I've hit 17, I think I've probably avoided that stage for the most part.
3.) I don't hate school completely, nor do I never do my homework, or resent all books we've ever been "made" to read for English. I actually do complete basically all of my homework and I even sometimes think ahead about it. I don't mind it - I'm a student and it's what we do. I am a bit tired of high school - it's starting to feel a bit redundant, but it's not the worst thing in the world. Oh, and though I haven't liked all books we've been assigned (*cough-1984-cough*), I have liked a fair few of them, The Odyssey and Pride and Prejudice coming in as books I genuinely enjoyed.
4.) I am a liberal, tree-hugging Boulderite, to the core. I eat granola and Tofu, avoid beef, care about the Ozone layer, and couldn't be happier that Obama is President.
5.) I don't really pay attention to mainstream music. For many years, my main source of auditory entertainment has been soundtracks (aka scores) to movies. I can list off a dozen composers in a heartbeat who I love, and I've never found anything more beautiful or enjoyable to listen to. Now, that's not to say I don't like Coldplay, for example, but don't expect me to know the current hit tunes or artists.
6.) I always have to know the full storyline. I cannot just watch a TV for the sake of zoning out, or just start watching in the middle of a season - or worse, a few season's in. When I watch a show, I'm committed - to the characters, the plot, the storyline. I always have to go back to the beginning and see it all. The same goes any movie or book series.
7.) I think people who don't read are stupid. I'm sorry, I'm not going to lie or tone it down on this one. There's so much richness in books, you're lame if you're not partaking in their wisdom. TV and movies are awesome, but nothing will ever trump the written word.
8.) I am hopelessly addicted to the Internet. It freaks me out if I go a day or more without checking my email, reading the news on my favorite sites, logging on to Skype or Twitter... gack. When my computer breaks, I feel like a piece of my brain is missing. So, yes *raises hand* "I am a hopeless addict when it comes to my Macbook."
9.) This list of 25 Things feels rather long, possibly because I don't often actually do things like this very often. You know all those email chains people were really obsessed with several years ago? Yeah, I deleted pretty much all of them.
10.) Now that I've subscribed to Entertainment Weekly for a while, I don't think I'll ever want to stop. I so enjoy seeing who makes the cover each week, reading the Must List, laughing at the cynical reviews, and having something tactile to page through every week. The same goes for TiVo - or DVR's in general. It's one thing that has managed to integrate itself into my life so thoroghly that I can't imagine ever letting it go.
11.) I'm almost always way too wordy. I like lists of things, I'll often use two or three words when one will do, and if left to myself, my word counts will shoot through the roof. Take me, baby, or leave me. Oh, and I care about grammar. "Funner" is not a word, people!
12.) I think vlogging is cool - and I wish I could do it, but I'm one of those people who feels so incredibly awkward in front of a camera. That's why I want to direct or produce or write... I could never act. It seems to me the most slippery slope when it comes to self-confidence... YOU, trapped on film, forever!
13.) My cat is so much more than "just" a pet. She's been my friend, my sister, and my companion for, holy carp, 11 years, going on 12, now. Going away to college - if that happens - will be oh so hard because I don't know how I'll go to not seeing her every day. Now, that might sound like the kind of sentimentality that comes from a 4-year-old, but Molly's always been special to me.
14.) I'm shamelessly obsessed with Pirates of the Caribbean. Yes, true obsession. I can quote it, I know the music, and I've analyzed the plot. Scary, isn't it?
15.) I have pondered the meaning of life. I've tried to figure out why I'm here, what I'm meant for, and what will happen when I'm gone. Sadly, I've reached nothing more meaningful than "42."
16.) I believe in the power of positive thinking. While I don't believe in God, per se, I do believe that willing something to happen has some effect on the outcome. So, as long as you don't mind, I'm going to keep willing there to be a snow day.
17.) I've always wanted to be fluent in a cool language that not a whole lot of people know, and then to be able to speak it with A) My mom B) My best friend or C) (in the future) my spouse.
18.) I get emails from The Universe. I know, I'm special like that. (See here for more information. They're awesome!)
19.) I firmly believe that TV peaked when it reached Friends. Nothing will ever ever been funnier, more creative, or more brilliant or timeless than that glorious 10-season show. I love other series, but Friends is the one and only.
20.) When I was little, I wasn't really allowed to watch TV. I never knew Nickelodeon or Disney. PBS was it - Arthur was my favorite. Even into middle school, I wasn't allowed to watch anything during the weekdays, so I worked out an elaborate system of video cassette tapes and recording timers (ick, the days before TiVo!). Until very recently, I've always felt something holding me back - and I'll always do homework before TV. At first, I resented my parents for it but now I see the blessing that it was. I grew up reading, not being a couch-potato.
21.) I don't really like eating out in restaurants. I can never make up my mind about what to order, it's always super expensive, there's a long wait, and I always get stuck with too much food. Although, breakfast out is an exception to the rule - THAT, I love.
22.) I used to HATE exercising with a vengeance. I was seriously a very stangant kid. I'm actually kind of surprised I didn't turn out quite fat. Nowadays, I long to get to the gym and relax whenever I have the chance, but I used to run the other way. Well, not run, but you know.
23.) I'm a total night owl. Heart and soul. I feel tired if I have to get up anywhere before 8, or at least 7:30. I usually get creative bursts late at night, so, yeah, definitely not an early bird.
24.) I could care less about anything designer. It's hard enough to find jeans that fit me, let alone jeans that fit with a nice looking label? Why spend $200 just for a word?
25.) I pay attention to celebrities. Not in the "Ohmygod, Britney, look over here!" TMZ kind of way... just in a, "Ohmygod, Johnny Depp, look over here!" kind of way. I've gotten autographs (and pictures) from four Harry Potter actors so far, and I really treasure the autographs.

So, that's me. Sorry if that was crazy long, but you did as for a heck of a lot of random things. Off to tag someone else!

73 ... And Definitely Counting

2009-01-25T14:43:00.007-07:00

Well, for once, I don't have a specific movie to review, TV show to rant about, or actor to applaud. That's not to say I couldn't spend a blog discussing Grey's Anatomy, which I haven't talked about, or Crusoe and Legend of the Seeker, which I've recently really begun enjoying, or the lack of Life and Heroes, or the amount of Private Practice I have to watch, or even more time about 24 or Lost... that's just not what I'm feeling up to today. Although, now that I see that list, I should probably get on that. Maybe in the coming week.

And, while I could talk about going to the gym and Fitting It In, the Oscars, the snow (and the approximate 0.0% chance of us getting a Snow Day even if there's a freaking blizzard), the books I want to read, the books I'm reading, or any of a myriad of things, instead, I'm going to talk about 73 particular, intriguing, and increasingly painful days.

That's the magic number. I went through the school calendar and, as of right now, I have only 73 days left of high school. Forever. And Ever. So, yeah, for once, I'm going to blog about real life.

For a while, that elusive May 23rd Graduation Date was scary. It was like I was cruising along comfortably in a convertible, on a sunny day, with the top down, accustomed to high school (okay, I guess it wouldn't be a convertible on a sunny day... more like driving on a rainy day). It wasn't the best, but it was familiar, and then all of a sudden, I was hurtling toward the brick wall of real life, of college, of a possibly $40,000 education, of living on my own... and that was scary.

But now? Not so much. Now that I've been accepted to my schools and am able to see how this is going to happen, it's more like I can see that the road is going to change direction, but I know that it's going to change direction, and I'm okay with the change.

Still, those 73 days are staring me in the face. Sure, they're broken up by Mondays of no school, of CSAP days (haha!), and spring break, and April break... but that still seems like a long time. Particularly if I have this much work. Don't teachers know that math worksheets are usually annoying, but when they're grouped with the 73 days, standing in your way of freedom, they're excruciating? Don't teachers know that wasting your time in class is just plain cruel?

Now, everyone's going to say, oh, don't worry, it's just senioritis. And I know it is... heck, I knew it was coming, but that doesn't change the fact that it's here, it's real, and it's making school kind of annoying.

However, those 73 days, I can deal with them. They're not only counting down to a summer of freedom - of absolutely no summer reading (hopefully), and of hours of lounging, reading, movies... Ahh, bliss. Nope, they're also counting down to LeakyCon, something that is shaping up to possibly be one of the best experiences of my life to date.

So, if 73 days is the price I have to pay for that, well, maybe I can manage. Okay, now, back to homework!

LOST?

2009-01-22T18:33:00.008-07:00

Yeah, me too. I love this show with a fervent passion - it's "I Do," in sickness and in health, (its driving me crazy, hence the sickness), for richer and for poorer (heck, there's an economic downturn), and all that. But, man, this television show is insane!

(Disclaimer: if you're a fan and haven't seen any or all of the episodes up to the two from the season 5 premiere, so help you, god, if you keep reading. Arr, matey, spoilers be ahead!)

Okay, I have been a fan of Lost since approximately the third season - my mother and I started catching up via the DVDs in a mad rush of fervent watching and we were hooked. Now, if you know anything about the show, you'll know that it's only gotten nerdier, more confusing, and more complex over the past few seasons. Now, this isn't bad or good, it simply is how the show is.

Being someone who's fully committed to seeing this thing through all six seasons, I've long been interested in noting its progress. Lost started out as a very real and fairly classic television drama - it was about people and their interactions. It was still quite a ground-breaking show, with the flashbacks and the six degrees of separation elements, but it was, at the core, about people. It simply was telling people's stories, while using the setting - a plane crash on an island - as a backdrop.

But it started getting weirder. Trees would move in the forest, polar bears would appear, a french woman showed up, and we learned about the numbers, the button, Dharma... then Ben showed up and all hell broke loose. We got into time-traveling, a fake Oceanic 815, a creepy Charles Widmore and.... AHH! So much. So many webs and layers, plots and sub-plots, hints and references! Who could possible keep track of it all?

I'll tell you who. Doc Jenson. Aka Jeff Jenson. Aka the main Lost columnist for the magazine Entertainment Weekly. Since last year, I've been reading his blogs - he writes at least one per episode - and things have finally started coming together. Through him, I've begun to see the subtle shaping of the series. I've always wondered, though, how much is really in there, and how much is us the viewers making a mountain out of a mole-hill. Much the same as my study of the Harry Potter books, I really wonder... did Jo really put in all the stages of Alchemy, purposefully? Or are we just finding that? Did the Lost creators really link everything together, place stuff in season 2 that they're using now, and name everybody as part of a grander scheme? The more I think about it, the more I realize that they must've!

In this last week, I've finally realized that Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse (the writers/creators minus JJ Abrams) maybe sort of know where they're going. They clearly seem to know that they're down to the hard-core fans... that anyone who's still watching is going to keep watching, till death do we part. All this time travel madness that permeated the last two episodes... that's the peak of Lost's nerdiness. This is where we're heading, how it connects, and hopefully, what will finally make it all come together.

Now, this has been rambly and scattered, a product of writing a blog over the course of several days, and of attempting to talk about the elusive shadow that is this television show, but I can only end by saying that I sure am glad that Lost is back, and that it's headed toward it's last two seasons. Maybe the pieces - much like our work with the Lost puzzles - will finally come together. Maybe, someday, we will no longer be Lost.

No way to avoid being cliché: YES WE DID!

2009-01-22T17:07:00.010-07:00

This guy is our President?!?!?!

My friends, welcome to a new America! I can't saw how totally thrilled, how tear-evokingly happy, how gleeful and proud I am to be able to say President Obama.

It has been said, re-said, and re-re-said, but this was definitely an Election for the history books. Personally, it became real for me when Obama spoke in Denver. That was probably the first time he brought tears to my eyes with one of his speeches. I will also carry with me the memory of Election Night; the feeling of walking on water as everything went right, all the pieces fell into places, and this lovely well-spoken man glided toward the presidency.

So now having Obama around is not something we have to fight for, hope for, or work towards - it's real. He's ours, he and his lovely family are sitting in the White House, and he is changing our country. I still can't shake the feeling that it's real - it's like that moment when you first wake up, hoping your last dream won't fade away... except that it's not a dream, it's reality, and he's not going anywhere.

Now, I'm not going to argue politics. I'm not going to say to the grumbling conservatives that they had their damn 8-years in power, and look where they left us. I'm not going to hope the door kicks Bush and Cheney on their way out. I'm not going to do any of that. I'm going to look to the future.

In history class this week, my teacher, in his classic attempt to be thought-provoking asked us if we're really headed toward something new, toward a change or a new era. Some nay-sayers in the class said no, some who wouldn't have voted for Obama grumbled, and some were too sleepy to even acknowledge the question, but I'm not going to have my bubble burst.

Because whatever Obama has to fight... whatever Washington D.C. corruption and lobbying that comes his way and stays the same... whatever he's up against, I truly feel like this time, this round of the fight against it all, is going to be different. Why? Because we're all with him. We've joined the fight.

Some say that Obama is only going to disappoint because he can't exact all the change he's promised. But see, that's just it! Sure, maybe he can't, but WE can. If there's anything this election proved, it's that when people come together - when those darn community organizers (*sticks tongue out at Sarah Palin*) come together and do their job, well, that's pretty darn powerful.

Now, I don't know what the future holds; what Obama will or won't do, or where we'll be in four years when we go through all this election-madness again, but I know where we are now. We're one step closer to closing Gitmo. We're moving toward a policy of openness. We. We are doing it. We are in power again. And Obama is leading us forward.

And I also know what I saw on the day of the Inauguration. I know that my entire school ceased to function, as what seemed like every student in the school crowded around the TV in the Senior Lounge, and occupied literally every surface in the Student Center where they were also broadcasting the day's events. I know that people laughed and cried. I know that millions stood in the cold simply to be there. I know what Obama said, I know that we seem to have Camelot 2.0 in the absolutely gorgeous Michelle and the phenomenally cute Melia and Sashaaaa (*cue the jazz hands*), and god damn, I know that our President can dance.

But most of all, I know that we have hope again. We the people of the United States of America have been empowered, and we have been given a unique opportunity. Yes, this was an Election for the history books, but I think this is also a moment, a president, and above all, a united generation of individuals headed straight for those history books.

Now, I'm not religious, but for right now, I mean it when I proudly say, God Bless our President, and God Bless America.

Defiance: A Film of Contrasts

2009-01-18T18:56:00.007-07:00

Yesterday afternoon, I had the pleasure of seeing a truly great film. Defiance was one of those movies you come across that has everything. It's based on a true story, deals with a tough subject, and tells the timeless tale of fighting all odds. It had emotions, heroism, and the harsh reality of truth and death. It's also one of those films that I knew I was going to like, I sat there watching it thinking "I really like this film," and I walk out of the theater thinking "Wow, that was a really great film." It's simply the kind of story that draws me in; and they would have really had to have done a horrible job of it to disappoint me.

Defiance tells the story of the Bielski brothers who lived in Belorussia during WW2. (Yes, another Nazi movie. What can I say, they're good - albeit hard to watch - films). After their family is murdered, the brothers (Tuvia, Zus, Asael, and Aron, by decreasing age) go to the forest that they know quite well to hide. Other persecuted Jews follow them, and they begin building what is essentially a colony, living and hiding in the forests. Tuvia becomes the leader, as Zus joins another group of Russian fighters, and they continue to move and survive. They defy odds, make it through winter and sickness, fight off the Germans, find love, disagree, join together, but most importantly, simply survive. By the end of the film, we are told they ultimately saved 1200 people, and that upwards of tens of thousands of individuals owe their lives to the brothers today.

As an action, defiance is not easy. It takes courage and resolve; you must fight the odds and fight to stay strong. As a film, Defiance was not easy to watch. It depicted the harsh truths of the Holocaust; the brutality of it all. It begins with stock footage of a village of Jews being raided by the SS policemen and soliders. Children are ripped screaming from their parents arms, and men are shot right and left for sport or trying to escape. But this is not R-rated brutality for the sake of it - it shows what it was like. As in any WW2-related film I've seen (the first I was was It's a Beautiful Life; the most recent was The Reader), I'm left questioning HOW could this have ever happened in our world.

So as a story, Defiance was truly remarkable. As the trailer says, it's a "story that's never been told," which surprises me, as it's a wonderful tale to tell. From that alone, the film had a strong foundation. I also liked the acting. Daniel Craig, of course, can do no wrong in my eyes. When I said I enjoyed Defiance yesterday, a friend mentioned to me that it was hard to imagine Bond as anything other than Bond, but that was the last thing from my mind. Sans the tuxedo and the I'm-better-than-everyone look, and with the ruggedness of war-time, grunginess of living in the forest, and a harsh Russian accent... I promise you, James Bond is nowhere to be scene. The film's other primary actors: Liev Schrieber, Jamie Bell, Alexa Davalos, etc were also worth of their roles. Each brought depth and energy to their characters.

From an analytical film perspective, I also found a lot to look at in this film. My experience with the director, Edward Zwick, lies in a similarly difficult film, Blood Diamond, which depicts the terrible atrocities occuring in Africa over the Diamond Trade. Zwick seems to have a real talent for taking a real-life tragedy, one that is hard to watch, yet riveting, and spinning a masterful web of emotions and strong characters.

But I was most struck by the use of contrasts in the film, and I found these contrasts everywhere. They were in the dialogue, as when Tuvia gives a rousing speech to the survivors in the forest, explaining that "If we must die trying to live, at least we will die as human beings." (paraphrased). Or when Lilka attempts to get him to allow a baby in the camp, pointing out the urgency of bringing life into the world when there is so much death. They were in the plot, as when the brothers go on a rampage of revenge shortly after their family was killed, threatening to become much like the Nazi's they were fighting. They were in the editing, the filmmaking, as when Asael's wedding was juxtaposed over Zus' first main military engagement after joining with the Russian fighters. The riveting horror and beauty of the wedding celebrations, then the fighting and shooting, then the wedding, back and forth, was powerful. They were even in the scenery, as the green of the forest was lost to the winter white, then melted through the yellow sunlight.

Defiance was a powerful film. One that I'd highly recommend.

The Clock is STILL Ticking... (24, Part Two)

2009-01-17T14:04:00.009-07:00

Okay, I'm back, and here to dig into Season 7 of 24, which premiered last Sunday and Monday. I've got my cup of coffee and 24 music playing in the background, so I'm ready to think this through. I tried summarizing the episodes at one point, but it was so long that I won't bother. If you don't know what happened, go watch. That's all I have to say. I'm going to focus on opinions about the new series, assuming you the reader know what I'm talking about. Now, I'm going to break this down so as to not be quite as scattered and summation-al as I was in the last blog. Now, let's see...

(Like yesterday, all this is up Spoiler-Alley, so watch out if you don't want to know!)

New Location, New Agency:
As you can (maybe) tell from the official Season 7 poster above, 24 is no longer in Los Angeles. It's been relocated to none other than our nation's grand capital - D.C. itself. Personally, I really like the change. As the EW blogger pointed out last week, there's only so many bad things that can happen in L.A., it's time to move on. Plus, it puts Jack closer to the President (I wonder if that will come into play...?), allows for new plot options, and makes for some really cool scenery, like when the First Gentlemen met up with Samantha and they sat right in front of the water, with the Jefferson Memorial behind them ... really pretty.

Also, with the new local, comes the news that CTU was disbanded and that the main agency we'll be dealing with in this season will be the FBI. Hmm... This one disappointed me at first. I mean, 24 without CTU is like Lost without The Island. But, it makes sense. CTU was going overboard, and they could only push it so far. I like that the FBI is more restricted - and I'm particularly enjoying all the audience intended jokes like "We're the FBI, we obey the law!" Sure, *rolls eyes* we'll see how long that lasts.

In fact, this leads into one of the questions that 24 raises... when you boil it down, this season is really asking Do the Ends Justify the Means? Sure, Jack Bauer went overboard in every season so far, torturing people and getting that vein in his forehead to stick out, but we were there - we all saw that it was necessary. Now, Jack's being brought to trial for it - he doesn't regret it, and neither do I (don't know about you). Meanwhile, there's the FBI saying they're not going to sink to their limits, but as soon as the pressure's on, Agent Walker is already doing just that. Innntteerrressting!

Jack is Back:
Hell yeah, he is. Jack is so cool, can I just say that? Last season he felt a bit "do I really have to do this?" but now he feels like he's back in it with more energy. Maybe it was the time of for Kiefer Sutherland, or maybe traveling around the world for a year did the guy some good... but I feel like he's more energized, readier to do what it takes to save the world, yet again.

Damn, this hacker is good:
They couldn't have possibly considered getting rid of Chloe, but I was still so happy to actually see her back. The face-off with Janis the FBI equivalent of Chloe was totally hilarious, and I loved when Chloe mentioned Jack's Senate hearing and ended with "By the way, you looked really good." I truly love this character, she's good writing and acting in action. I can't wait to see where they take her in the next 20 episodes.

Undead, or Not Dead TONY!!! Squee!:
Okay, I admit, when the info first leaked that Tony was back - and bad - I couldn't wrap my head around it. First of all, we saw him die in Jack's arms! As much as this show enjoys ignoring reality, it isn't LOST!? People who die stay dead. But the way that they explained it actually worked. Plus, I recently read a bit of trivia that said that they didn't use a silent clock for the commercial break after Tony died - which they always do for characters who die, so they've probably been planning this all along.

Still, Tony, evil? Nuh uh. I was so glad (literally yelling at the TV) when they revealed that he was undercover. I do really like the writing here - Tony did go back. That is, I guess, believable. He lost everything at the expense of the government and was angry. But he wouldn't go against everything he believes in - hurting innocent Americans in a terrorist plot. Too much of a change. So, I was glad to see he was good, and am really enjoying the Jack/Tony team-up. Can't wait to see where it leads.

Of Presidents and Plots:
I like the new President, for the most part. On a side note for a moment, I wonder what sort of real life political ramifications this will have. After all, David Palmer (and later Wayne) were the first mega-example of a black president, and now 7 years later, look who we've elected? I'm not the first to say it, but I really wonder if this will lead us to a female Commander-in-Chief in the next 4 or 8 years. (Just, dear god, don't let it be Sarah Palin!)

Back to the show. We haven't seen too much of Taylor in action yet, but she seems to be very noble and upstanding - in a way we haven't seen since David Palmer himself. I'm really starting to suspect that the big bad rat in the whitehouse is either Ethan, the chief of staff, or the slightly awkward Secretary of State. They're the only characters that have been really set up so far.

I think the issue of African lives vs. American lives is very interesting. It has a lot to do with the topic of National Interest, which interestingly enough (har har) we were just talking about in my history class. As horrible as it is, I believe that American lives should come first. But I bet they'll find a way to work around it.

Basically, I think the plot is really charged in this season. The only major issue I've had so far is that they've been talking down to the audience too much. You know, like taking extra time to explain what's going on, or always saying "Damnit, this is our only lead. Without it we have nothing!" That kind of thing. We get it, 24 writers. We're smart people! Don't waste our time.

But yes, the plot is good so far. I like the idea of not being able to trust anyone and I think, overall, they're doing a good job balancing plots and subplots. There's a new episode tomorrow night, and I can't wait!

That's it for me for now! We're off to see Defiance this afternoon, so my next blog will probably be on that!

The Clock Is Ticking.... (Part One)

2009-01-17T13:32:00.011-07:00

Jack Bauer is back, baby! I finally finished Season 6 of 24, back when I was still on Winter Break. Very soon after that, we watched 24: Redemption, the made-for-TV movie that bridges the gap between Season 6 and Season 7. THEN, last Sunday and Monday night, we leapt full-throttle into the new season, with a four-hour premiere over two nights. I'm so excited for the direction this show is taking - but more on that in a moment.

(By the way, this blog is full of SPOILERS. It's pretty much all spoilers, so if you haven't seen what I'm talking about and don't want to know, now's a good time to close your internet browser).

Season 6: I don't remember exactly what detail I went into when I talked about this last time. I can see why Season 6 got a great deal of criticism. It was much more scattered than any of the other seasons. It had too many plot lines and twists, it was full of gimmicks (the kind of moments that look good on a commercial for the show, but aren't really that great when you get there), and Jack seemed kind of, well, not as cool as usual.

My main problem was that they just couldn't settle on one plot. First Assad was a bad guy, then Fayid, then Fayid with nuclear weapons, then there was Graem Bauer, then Jack's father, then Fayid working with the Russians, then the Russian, Gredenko, working with the consulate, then the Chinese, then Jack's dad again..... Get the idea? Waaaay too much. I like it when the bad guys are harder to capture - when (and I never thought I'd say this), the plot drags on a bit more. It's more suspenseful when it takes more than just a few episodes for Jack to capture all the nuclear bombs.

Plus, everyone just felt whiney and mad at each other! I love these characters but, gosh darn, let them be likable! Jack didn't want to be doing CTU work, but went along with it anyway. Chloe was pissed at Morris, then lovey dovey, then hurt by the breakup, then pissed again. Let her be her quirky self! Morris was the injured guy, then the angry boyfriend... It felt like they were trying to make us hate them! We're supposed to like the protagonists!

Anyway, it wasn't totally flawed. I liked how they balanced the different plot lines - the white house, the terrorists, all that. They always do a good job with editing and split screens. That stayed the same. Chloe was still her funny self sometimes, and the characters who died were just as poingant and heart wrenching as ever.

But they can do better.

24: Redemption: This was interesting. Basically, the makers of 24 had filmed only 8 episodes when the Hollywood writers went on strike early last year. Rather than air those, then get stuck for god-knows-how-long (like most shows did), they decided to push Season 7 to this year, 2009. That gave them time to work extra hard to make it extra better, as they've all said countless times in interviews. But, in their spare time, they also decided to film a made-for-TV movie in South Africa. It's basically a 2 hour 24, with Jack, that reminded people of the show in November, and got them all excited for the January premiere that happened last week. Also, I'm pretty sure it's serving the purpose of a screen-test to see if a 24 movie would be a good idea - but more on that in a minute.

24: Redemption fits into the story thus: Jack Bauer ran away to find himself and avoid everything after Season 6. He traveled all around the world (they mentioned India, I believe) and then ended up with an old army/special-ops pal who has a school going in Sangala, Africa. Jack's been receiving subpoenas to appear before the U.S. Court, but of course, like a true bad-ass, he's been ignoring them. Meanwhile, there's the makings of a military coup going on, and Jack gets all tangled up with it, (cue the heart-wrenching scenes of child soldiers, and the boys that Jack must save). Long story short, he ends up having to turn himself in to save the kids, and thus gets sent back to the U.S.

Meanwhile, the creepy VP from Season 6, who became a less creepy President, has now lost the office to one Allison Taylor, the first female president on the show. This 2 hour segment takes place right before and during the inaguration.... and there are some great scenes of her speaking with the outgoing Daniels that really echo the current administrative shift in the real world. Also, her inaguration speech is really cool.

Finally, there's a subplot that ties this all together, one that we don't know much about. We meet a guy (who's name I've totally forgotten) who works at a financial office of some sort. Several things happen here. 1) Jon Voight (who I think is going to be a great addition to the show) is a client of this firm, and he's somehow funding the war in Sangala. A.k.a., he's a very bad guy! Our guy-who's-name-I've-forgotten somehow probes the files and figures this out. He warns his friend Roger, who also works at the firm, and just happens to be the son of the incoming president, about what he's discovered, but before he can fork over the proof, our guy gets killed. Aww. However, Roger now knows about it, which is important to Season 7.

And that's where they leave us! I KNOW! Just from this little 2-hour snippet (less, when you subtract the commercials), it was clear that the new season was going to be awesome. So, now....

This blog is getting way too long to go into Season 7 details right now. I'll have to come back later this weekend to get into that all, but that's where we stood on 24 up until last week's premiere. So, let me just wrap this up for now....

As you can tell, Redemption really caught my attention. Finishing Season 6 was almost like a chore - I just wanted to get caught up so that I did. But it wasn't great. It wasn't OMGod I have to keep watching this second. However, Redemption was great, and it turns out it was a great indicator of what Season 7 was like.

To be continued! Haha, it's just like the show! The clock keeps ticking, but you have to wait for the next episode!

Reading between the lines

2009-01-07T22:23:00.005-07:00

Okay, no image on today's blog because it's too darn hard to find. It's been a few days now since I saw the film I'm about to talk about, but hopefully I'll still be able to get my point across.

The last movie of Winter Break ended up being The Reader, a lesser known film starring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes. I first heard about it because it's generating some Oscar buzz for Kate, and then the trailer for it was shown in one of the films we saw earlier - probably Milk or Frost/Nixon.

I thought The Reader was an incredible, beautiful film. It's a bit hard to describe - one of those 'go see it if it sounds good to you'-type movies. Basically, it's about a teenage boy who has an affair with a woman, who then (a bit later) disappears. (During the affair, he reads to her a lot - hence the title). Years later, he finds her again, but it's in a courtroom and she's a convicted SS guard, being held for war crimes (as I understood it). The story movies into his later life, and hers, and follows their respective stories.

It's basically a look at post-WW2 in Germany, and it reminded me a great deal of the Dutch novel we read for IB English last year, The Assault, by Harry Mulisch. (True, different country, but similar theme). Incidentally, The Reader is based on a book as well.

The time after the war was a horrible time in Germany, it seems to me. Everyone was faced with the question of guilt. Am I guilty? Even if I just went along with everything for my own self-protection, am I guilty? Who can I blame? In the Assault, there's a phrase at one point: "Was everyone both guilty and not guilty? Was guilt innocent and innocence guilty?" This pretty well summarizes The Reader.

See, it's clear that the woman (Hannah, I believe her name was) did horrible things to Jewish prisoners. But early on, she's painted as a good person - she's kind, and the main character, Michael, really loves her. She took a job as a guard for the SS because she needed a job... so is she a guilty person of the horrible things she did? Or is she a victim or circumstance?

During the trial, one of Michael's fellow law students begins asking questions as to the fairness of trying Hannah and the five other guards she was convicted with. If these women were convicted, he argued, they were just being made into scapegoats. If not, however, they were letting crimes go unpunished.

I'd very much like to see the film again to see what else I could get out of it. It raised many questions about the value of justice and the law, the true meaning of guilt and innocence, and the nature of the post-WW2 recovery for citizens involved. I'd also like to read the book that this was adapted from, mainly because it was a bit hard to follow Hannah's motivations in the movie, and I wonder if the book reveals more.

Well, I'm sure I had more to say about this film originally, but it's escaped me now, so I'd best move on with my evening.

DFTBA!!

2009-01-05T16:23:00.006-07:00

Okay, I just have to take a moment to write about the Vlogbrothers aka Nerdfighters aka John and Hank Green (even though I really should keep working right now. Heck, it's still winter break until Wednesday. A little procrastination won't kill me.)

Basically, in 2007, two brothers, John and Hank Green, decided to start a project called Brotherhood 2.0. They decided that they would partake in no form a textual communication for a year, but instead would release a video blog every week day (switching off days) for a year. They had rules, did challenges for fun, and even got into funny punishments (if they failed to put up a video). Punishments include waxing a leg, dying hair green, and eating a blenderized happy meal. (Just watched that one... disgusting but hilarious).

But the project evolved. One day, when John was in an airport (he's an author, so he travels a lot), and he found a video game called Nerdfighters, and he and Hank got to talking about nerdfighters - people who are made of awesome and fight with their intelligence to decrease World Suck (their brilliant words, not mine). So, then B2.0 ended at the end of 2007, but they kept online communities going, and kept putting up videos.

Even though this was a few years ago now (that still sounds weird), I recently got into watching their new videos, but couldn't get enough, so I've been watching all the old videos also. I'm currently up to August 2007, and I'm having so much fun. I'm sure my parents are getting tired of hearing about them, so I'll probably be talking about them on here whenever I have something to share.

Basically, I really admire their outlook on life. They're both what you would call "nerds" - one's a writer, and the other is a blogger for a website about green technology. They both have glasses, spend lots of time reading and on the internet, and have gloriously nerdy photos from high school that they've shown on their videos. And, did I mention they started a project where they decided to vlog every day for a year? Yeah. But the way they put it, being nerdy is not a bad thing. Nerdfighters (the group of people who has risen around them) are "made of awesome," and when you spend time with them (okay, it's on the interenet and it's kind of one way through a video), you don't feel bad if you're a little nerdy (which I am). Heck, having more and more people form a group around being awesome is not a bad thing, and being nerdy certainly isn't!

Plus, to me, they represent everything that I love about the internet. They rallied a group of people from all across the globe around them. They're raised money for numerous charities just by suggesting it in their videos. They've built a global community, and made the big wide world a little less scary.

And finally, they're just plain hilarious. Really. Just take Hank's Christmas Song, all about how Jesus never gets anything for Christmas. (Check it out here). They have this joke that they always bring up about "In My Pants." For example, there's the In My Pants rule: that adding "in my pants" to any book title inevitably makes it better. (Just think about it: The Stranger... In My Pants. Yeah. Funny.) They're both very intelligent, talented, and funny, so it's a real delight to watch them.

Now, as I mentioned, Brotherhood 2.0 was in 2007. During 2008, as I understand it, they were basically uploading videos when they had time. But just recently, they announced Brotherhood 2.0.0.9, which is their project for this year. Basically, they have certain days where they will put up certain types of videos. News videos, question and answer videos, songs from Hank, etc.

Yesterday was the first video, and since it was a Sunday, it was John's day to talk about some sort of news. Now, he chose to talk about the situation in Israel/Palestine right now, which is pretty heavy, but he did so while showing pictures of his absolutely adorable puppy. I don't know about you, but it's pretty impressive! John doesn't just blather on about it either - he knows quite a bit about it! I'll share it with you, for reference:

(By the way, isn't Willy (the dog) adorable? I love how he keeps turning his head back and forth! Oh, and John's mismatched socks are hilarious!)

So that's what's occupying my time in cyberspace right now. I'm guessing that the nerdfighters are going to stay quite popular, and I know that they're certainly a part of my life now.

As they say, then, DFTBA! (Don't forget to be awesome!) <--Best sign out ever.

P.S. I mentioned that John is an author, and he's quite a good one. I've recently finished his second novel, An Abundance of Katherines, and I'm now reading his first, Looking for Alaska. I next want to read his most recent, Paper Towns, and then I'll probably blog on them all together. Long story short, they're very good.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

2009-01-03T21:49:00.006-07:00

This afternoon, I finally had the chance to see Australia, which has been out since Thanksgiving. I had been really wanting to see it in theaters because I knew its scenery and epic-nature would be better witnessed on the big silver screen... And I'm so glad I did.

Quite simply, Australia blew me away. It is, to me, everything a movie should be. Baz Lurhmann really knows how to construct a beautiful, moving, and entertaining work of cinema.

Let me back track for a moment. A while ago - back in 2008 (still sound weird to say that), the educational section of Apple started a program called Set to Screen for young filmmakers. It was basically a video podcast, and it focused on Baz Lurhmann creating Australia. (It also consisted of a contest, but it was too advanced for me.) Baz (I really just love his name) had 10 episodes in which he illustrated the most important roles in making a film, such as director, production designer, sound editor... etc. In doing so, he also showed bits and pieces of Australia, so I had seen some fragments of it.

But I didn't really know the full story. I just knew that most of my friends who saw it generally liked it, and that critics regarded it as too long (it's about two and a half hours). In case you don't know, Baz Lurhmann previously directed the Red Curtain trilogy: Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet, and Moulin Rouge (swoon). So, suffice it to say that the guy knows a few things about cinematic expression and love.

I mentioned that it's over the 2 hour mark. However, unlike Benjamin Button, it didn't feel painfully long. In fact, it didn't feel long at a all... Truthfully, I didn't want it to end. This is an example, as I was saying earlier, of a film that is perfectly okay running long.

Something I've noticed about him is that he likes to have a particular outlet for expressing his story. In the Red Curtain trilogy, this was clearly defined: he used dance in Ballroom, Shakesperean language in R + J, and music in Moulin Rouge. In Australia, this seemed to simply be the setting (although truthfully, there's nothing simple about it). Whether through the beauty of his filming, or through the grace of some higher power, the Australian outback is gosh darn gorgeous. In every way, just as the outlets from his other films, this setting was a character in and of itself, acting right along with Sarah Ashley, the Drover, Nullah, and King George.

Another thing about Lurhmann: he really seems to like Nicole Kidman, and knows how to get a great performance out of her. She had a wonderful character, although a bit uptight and staunchly British. She acted wonderfully along Hugh Jackman (who oh-my-god-is-so-smoking-hot! Sexiest man alive, heck yes!)

The movie had everything. You laugh, you fall in love, you're wowed by gorgeous camera work (or at least I am) and beautiful settings, you're afraid for the characters, intimidated by scenes of the Japanese bombing of Darwin (the film is set during WW2), you cry, you fall in love again, you smile, you sigh, and then you walk out of the theater feeling very happy.

That's what a film should do, right? I know that the Oscar people like "issue" movies that are intense and make you think, that test the limits and try your patience, but this was simply a gorgeous movie.

P.S. I really tried to fit all the wonderful "character" posters in here, but couldn't get it to work. They're really beautiful, though, so check them out here. Also, the same website has a beautiful gallery of images from the film... it really gives you a sense of the way the movie was filmed. (Plus you might catch a glimpse of gorgeous Jackman, all muscle-y and tan... *sigh*) Check the gallery out here.

-Gate, the suffix of shame

2009-01-02T18:54:00.007-07:00

So, this time yesterday, I was walking out of a restaurant after eating dinner after walking on the mall after seeing Frost/Nixon! If I sound a bit, you know, not like myself and maybe like I'm rambling today... it's because I've been watching video upon video from the older Brotherhood 2.0 blogs from 2007 and that's kind of how they talk. (I'll talk more about B2.0 some other time.)

So, Frost/Nixon, directed by Ron Howard, starring Michael Sheen and Frank Langella, based on a play, based on the interviews that occurred between British journalist/talk-show host David Frost and First-to-Resign-the-Presidency Ex-President Nixon.

Frost/Nixon is an excellent story, just maybe not such a totally phenomenal movie. Don't get me wrong, it was a very good movie. Well made, excellent acting, and beautiful film-work... But it didn't have that total WOW effect that totally phenomenal AND well-made movies like Slumdog Millionaire have.

But back to my first point for a moment. It's an amazing story - and it's all true. Now, I didn't live during that time, so I can't speak to the emotions of dealing with Watergate and Nixon for those who did, but it was definitely a major part of our country's history. Richard Nixon seems like a fascinating history - all wit and no empathy. The movie had many great one liners, most of which leave you chuckling nervously, thinking, "did he really just say that?" (take, for example "I'd hate to be a Russian leader... They never know when they're being taped.")

I mentioned that it's a true story. I don't know how accurate it was, or how many of the lines in the movie Nixon might have actually said, but I'm guessing they captured the essence of his character. Frank Langella, the actor who portrayed Nixon, was incredible. He looked and sound like him, and really managed to highlight the situation Richard Nixon was in (particularly in the scenes following the interviews).

Additionally, the Frost that puts the Frost in "Frost/Nixon," acted by Michael Sheen, is quite an interesting character in and of himself. A popular British talk show host (though I just read today that he considers himself more of a serious journalist) and sort of playboy bighead... Frost didn't seem to be the natural "adversary" to Nixon. He couldn't get any networks behind the project, and ended up borrowing and paying out of his own pocket for the project. He basically staked everything, after losing his other job due to the media chatter about his ridiculous goal.

But I'm losing my point here, if I have one. It's a fabulous story. Nixon was so delusional, it seems to me, about what he did... That the interviews and the conversations were simply riveting.

And Ron Howard did a great job directing. I was particularly struck by the lighting, which seemed to have a story to tell in and of itself. In many of the scenes, not only were there two kinds of light (light and shadow), but sometimes there were three kinds, like light from a lamp, shadow, and moonlight (Exibhit A: the telephone conversation scene). And then, during the interviews, they were constantly changing types of light - they had certain spotlights to make the film look good, and then the lights in the room. These were slightly different "shades" of light, and aimed in different ways.

It seems to me that as light versus dark fundamentally represents black versus white that these lighting decisions might be symbolic. However, many of the scenes, as I just said, didn't have clear light versus dark... It was a mix of kinds of light and kinds of dark... Almost like there's black and white, but there's also gray. Could this be speaking to the "gray" area of Nixon's decisions, how everything around the Watergate scandel seemed wrapped in gray, instead of being simply black and white/ right and wrong? Or I've just spent too much of the day writing an analyticial paper and am now waaaay over-analyzing this.

So, those parts I liked. My only criticism (and it's not really a criticism, just an observation) is that the movie is basically a glorified documentary, and thus is not a truly masterful work of storytelling. This is true with any true story turned play turned movie, I'd imagine.

Wrap-up: I'd recommend Frost/Nixon. It's extremely well acted and will probably be showing up on the Oscar nominee list. I'm sure it would also be very powerful for anyone who had lived during the time (as I gathered from the conversations between my parents and the stranger sitting next to them and virtually any other older adult couples in the theater as the film ended).

Right, well, I feel like I had more to say about this yesterday, but didn't get around to writing before the thoughts slipped my mind, so that will have to do. Off to watch another movie! XD I'm sure I'll be back soon!

Peering Back and Gazing Forward:

2009-01-02T10:56:00.006-07:00

2008 -> 2009

Okay, so yesterday, I made a few resolutions. I laid down the rules for the upcoming 2009... But I wanted to take a moment to look back at 2008 before it's faded completely into the background. 2008 was an odd year, I admit. It seemed like a lot of work and overall quite tumultuous. I just want to highlight some of the parts that stand out most in my mind.

My Year in Review:

~ My aunt was still living with us in January, and my dad was out of town for the New Year. Family life was a bit crazy on and off for the entire year.
~ In January the writer's strike started. Shortly after, the Golden Globes were canceled, most TV shows went off the air, and several movies were delayed. This felt fairly chaotic as it's usually a rather routine part of life.
~ Heath Ledger died in January, which struck me as an extremely tragic event. Every time I see him on screen now - I recently saw A Knight's Tale and The Dark Knight - I feel saddened that this young man didn't have more time to live up to his extreme potential.
~ February through May are vague in my mind; a period of insane over-working and a huge burden of school work, ACT and SAT prep, and attempting to find a summer job.
~ In March, I get my driver's license. I still remember the first time we needed to pick up dinner but mom was busy, and I was so excited to say "I'll go do it!"
~ In May my cousin died in a motorcycle accident, throwing that part of my family into hell.
~ June through August went quickly as I babysat like mad, worked at Boulder County Aging Services, and tried to avoid the big c word (college!).
~ In June, my aunt bought an apartment, moved out from our home, and moved in there.
~ In June and July, we (finally) bought new furniture and a new TV for our family room. We get HD quality TV with a ton of channels, including a free upgrade of HBO. My head practically explodes with excitement, and with not having to deal with our crappy furniture.
[Note that it's just about a year until I move out for good. XD]
~ In July, I went to Chicago for J Camp, which was a very good experience.
~ August marked the beginning of the Beijing Olympics, which were stunning and occupied most of my attention over their duration. Michael Phelps was phenomenal, the American gymnasts rocked, and the opening and closing ceremonies were scarily impressive.
~ In August, I did Link training, then arrived at school early (despite all their fears that they'd have to delay the start because the school wasn't finished) for the freshman orientation day.
~ August 15, I officially started school as a senior, sitting in the senior lounge and walking on the senior balcony. Hell yeah!
~ August 31: I turn 17. Holy moly.
~ September through December, I worked. Really, that's about all I remember.
~ November 4, we make history. Obama is elected. 'Nuff said.
~ Mom and I went away together! Squee! In mid-November, we travelled to NYC, saw everything (including Daniel Radcliffe, woot!), saw Bard (didn't like it), saw Ithaca (did like it). It was a blast! Easily one of my favorite parts of the year.
~ November and December were a mad rush to get ready for Christmas and finals. I had three secret santas plus a Christmas card exchange to take care of - Leaky made my Christmas awesome! - then studied like mad for a week solid, managing to avoid getting sick until the day after finals ended.
~ Christmas hit, and was totally awesome. I got the collector's Beedle the Bard, a lovely ring from my parents, a personalized recipe box, the mug I've been wanting, jewelry, books, clothes.... Wonderful holiday.
~ Then New Year's and here we are!
Oh, and somewhere in there, the stock market crashed and the economy went to pieces.

Wow, when I list it all off like that, there actually was a lot that happened last year. Now, other than things I want to change, there are many parts of 2009 that I look forward to, have hopes for, and sincerely hope for success in. Let me take a moment to gaze forward into the coming year.

Looking Ahead:

~ Obama: January 21, baby, that's when it all starts.
~ Oscars: I'm excited! I've actually seen a lot of the probably nominees this year!
~ College: Blah. Yeah. Covered that already. I've gotta decide some time though.
~ LeakyCon: It's so very annoying that it's on the same weekend as graduation, but I thought, I soul searched, and I'm going to be there. It just means so much to me.
~ HBP: Okay, now we're getting way ahead of ourselves, but they delayed the movie (and pissed us off), and now we can start counting down again. July's where the magic happens!

That's all I know, really. After the summer ends, my life is a big blank mystery. So, *raises a virtual, non-alchoholic glass* Here's to a year that's full of new beginnings!

I Resolutely Resolve, Solemnly Swear, and Hereby Declare...

2009-01-01T23:13:00.005-07:00

Happy New Year !!!

Welcome to 2009, my wandering peeps! I have to say, just by the nice round look of the way 2009 is written out, that I hope and think this will be a good year. Though it's late at night, I wanted to take a moment to get in a quick post before bed on this, the first day of a brand new year. I've got a ton of ideas for blogs over the next few days - so much so that I might have to do a couple in a day to fit them all in!

The New Year, for many people, means - of course - resolutions. People begin feeling down about a part of their lives, take the new year as a clean slate, and resolve to change. I believe it's a nice sentiment, so I'm here to share my main resolutions (or goals, if you will) for 2009. I'll list them off first, then take a moment to elaborate

1. Choose a college; Finish IB and high school.
2. Get to know more people from Leaky; Attend LeakyCon.
3. Watch films, make films.
4. Get and stay fit physically and mentally.

1) Okay, this is kind of a big one. Sometime before May I will have to choose from the three schools I have now applied to. This all hinges on financial aid and scholarship money, so a corollary to this resolution is to complete all necessary scholarship applications and, erm, hopefully get some of them. That's out of my hands though. Then, starting as soon as I get back to school and culminating in May, I will be facing the final stages of the IB program in English, History, and Spanish... I hope to do well in my certificates. Finally, I just hope to make it to that last week of May in one piece. This has been a long four years and it'd be a shame not to make it in the last few months. (Just kidding - I know I'll get there).

2) While I spend a lot of time on Leaky, Skype, YouTube, and now on Twitter (the latter mostly with people from Leaky), I hope to get to know some of these people better. I hope this will culminate in LeakyCon in the final weekend of May, which promises to be all kinds of awesome. (I'll know by the time I get back to school whether or not I can actually make it work - it requires skipping the last few days of school and graduation so, well, we'll see.) After that, I just have to book plane tickets, find a place to room, and scrounge up some money.

3) I watch a lot of films. So many, in fact, that I almost made it to 100 in 2008 (more on that another time). I'd like to continue to expand my horizons by watching well-made films in addition to the Blockbusters that I so enjoy. I want to crack the spine of 501 Must-See films, and maybe work on the AFI Top 100 list. Additionally, since I keep saying I want to make films, I want to - well, do just that. I'd like to write some part of a screenplay or film a short film. Anything to get me moving in that direction.

4a) This one has two parts. In accordance with the wonderful fantabulous project Fitting It In (very briefly, it's Melissa Anelli's goal to manage to "fit in" fitness sometime in the next year, and many people have joined the social community headed for the same goal), I want to fit fitness in. I want to make going to the gym easier and more possible - every Thursday during 4th would be a good place to start - and find a primary activity to do at home when I am not able to make it to the rec center. I would also like to stretch at least 5 days a week in my efforts to become more flexible.

4b) I'd also like to continue to stay healthy mentally. That includes continuing to write in this blog regularly - I'm now going to make my official goal 5 days a week, because I'm really starting to enjoy it. I'd also like to make more of an effort to quite simply be happy. I know that sounds obvious but there you have it. I'd like to make an effort to find a balance in sleep - it's tough when I have to get up at 6AM, but I basically manage to ruin my weekends by always having to sleep in. More caffeine, maybe? Just kidding. I'll keep thinking about this one.

So there you have it. Those are my 4 goals... Wish me luck!

Cute as a Button

2008-12-31T16:20:00.007-07:00

Okay, I've been writing all day AND it's been a few days now since I actually saw the film I am about to talk about, so I apologize if my thoughts seem rather fluid.

I thought The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was a delightfully creative film. Though it's based on a short story from F. Scott Fitzgerald, it takes a remarkable amount of ingenuity to actually attempt to create such a complicated movie.

The basic premise is this. Our hero, a Mr. Benjamin Button is born quite a different person from you or I. You see, he ages backwards - born as a withered old man, and growing younger until he dies as a baby. Throughout the film, he falls in love with Daisy who, as an old lady dying in a hospital, is the impetus for the telling of the tale, as her daughter reads it from Benjamin's diary.

Now, consider what this requires: the actor, Brad Pitt, must be an old, small man, and then gradually become a child. What this means is that the film shows the execution of some marvelous special effects. Think Robert Zemeckis CG, only more life-like. Of course, its hard for us to guess what an old man the size of a child would look like, so it's hard to say if this part was exactly "realistic," but I found the overall fact that Brad Pitt was aging younger to be generally believable.

The story itself is very sweet. Rather than fighting his fate, Benjamin seems to accept his condition, largely do to his upbringing by a wonderful African American woman named Queenie. (I hope this actress is at least nominated for an Oscar - but more on that in a moment). In the end, the film bears the message that you can't fight fate or death, that when the time comes, you must simply let go. I find this remarkably insightful and a lesson well worth learning.

I also really enjoyed the love story between Benjamin and Daisy (played by the fabulous Cate Blanchett who, in my mind, can do no wrong). I thought it was very sweet, though not meant to last, and had a star-crossed lovers feeling that is very powerful film material. Daisy, of course, had to age at the same time Benjamin got younger, and I thought the makeup on Blanchett was quite good.

There was one scene in the film that I regard with utter amazement and extreme admiration. (This has a slight spoiler in it, so if you're someone who doesn't want to know a single thing about a movie before you see it, these next three paragraphs aren't for you...) At one point in the movie, something happens that makes Benjamin go to Paris - the audience isn't told what immediately. Instead, we are presented with a chain of events. More specifically, it's a chain of changed events... events that would have normally happened one way, but for some reason, happened differently.

A woman, leaving her apartment, forgets her coat and goes back inside. There, she answers the phone. When she does leave, she catches a second cab because the first one had just left. This second cab driver had just recently stopped for coffee, making him arrive at the woman's apartment at the time that he did. Upon backing up, he almost hits a man who was crossing the street, but was doing so at a different time than he normally does because he didn't set his alarm clock. It goes on like that. Eventually, it begins to involve Daisy, leading up to the moment she led the theater and began to cross the street. Now, Benjamin goes back through the events, showing what it would have looked like if everything had gone normally, and on this train of events, the cab with the woman in it stops when they see Daisy crossing the street.

However, as you can tell, that's now how things happened. The cab actually hits Daisy, breaking her leg and forcing her to stop dancing. While this is clearly complicated to pull off, it's something I enjoy thinking about quite frequently. The point as I understood it is that every moment in our individual lives is a byproduct of hundreds of other moments. While each of these moments could happen a hundred different ways, they only happen one way, and when they intersect, they cause the moment that we personally experienced.

Now, there are a few gripes I have regarding Benjamin Button. I understand that the film attempts to incorporate the entirity of Benjamin's long life, but somehow the filmmakers managed to take a "short" story and create a nearly three-hour movie! Personally, I'm not against long movie... but I believe that the story should dictate the length. Films like The Dark Knight or Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, which were both over or around two and a half hours, did not feel long. The action near the end, the excitement, and the climactic energy led to a strong finish, one that made me (I don't know about anyone else) feel as if the extra length was well spent. However, Benjamin, I'm not going to lie... felt a tad too long. I began to notice time passing (something I believe I shouldn't do while in a movie) and felt that some parts could have been edited a bit more.

Additionally, well, there's Brad Pitt. Sure, he's a hottie (and is he EVER when he's on a motorcycle, wearing a leather jacket and aviators!) but I personally don't believe he did that much acting. He kind of just... was. Was in the scene, was in love. I didn't really believe that he was anyone other than Brad Pitt pretending to be named Benjamin. Cate, well, she was great... from her accent to her mixed feelings about loving Benjamin.

Now, last thought here... Oscars. I'm pretty sure the nominations are bound to be announced soon, and I expect Benjamin Button will figure in them. Some of the blogs I read seem to think it'll make Best Picture... I'm not sure what I think about that. I hope and believe that the actress who played Queenie will be nominated, and I'm sure it will get nominations for best makeup, best adapted screenplay, and maybe special effects. We'll have to see!

All in all, I would recommend seeing it because it's cute, uplifting, and makes you think. It also has some very cool effects, and very nice shot of Brad Pitt in aviators.

Food - er - Milk for Thought

2008-12-29T17:27:00.006-07:00

Wow, it's been a few days since I've gotten a post up. I've seen two very good, very blog-able (yes, I know that's not a word) movies since I last wrote, and I want to get to them each in turn. So, first up is...

The fantastically acted, very socially-poignant (and currently resonant) film, Milk. I'm going to take this in a few pieces.

The Story:
Okay, personally, this was one bit of history that never came to my attention. I had never heard the story of Harvey Milk, Proposition 6, Anita Bryant, or the "Twinkie defense." Background for anyone who doesn't know: Harvey Milk was the first openly gay man elected to public office, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. (More biographical information here). But what an interesting story. Harvey Milk really fought all the odds, running again and again, gaining momentum until he was finally elected. Then, he began to fight for gay rights. Battles were raging in many states, focusing around ordinances whether or not people could be discriminated against on the basis of their sexuality. The culmination was Proposition 6 in California, in which a senator attempted to fire all teachers who proved to be homosexual. Milk and his supporters, friends, and allies managed to... well, if you know history, you know how it goes. If not, I'll leave it to the movie to tell you what happened.

The Acting:
Wow. Seriously, what words can describe? I fully believed, for those two hours, that Sean Penn was Harvey Milk, a gay man fighting for what he believed in. The supporting actors - James Franco, Diego Luna, Emile Hirsche, Josh Brolin... were all equally believable. At the end of the film, before the credits, clips of the actual men were shown with clips of the actors. It was darn hard to tell them apart.

The Sentiments:
What really struck me about Milk was how it seems to resonate with the current events concerning gay marriage, particularly regarding Proposition 8 in California. We really are facing the same battle that Harvey Milk and everyone in his time fought 30 years ago. What led to this? Did our country take so many steps back to be facing this yet again?

On a personal note, I fully support gay rights. I believe that how someone lives his or her life - and particularly who they love - should not be the concern of anyone else, and should not be regulated. I feel disgusted when I hear Bible-clutching conservatives spouting off nonsense about how God hates homosexuality. Okay, that's a personal opinion, and one that Milk allows, but doesn't necessarily support. It takes the facts about Harvey Milk's life, about the battle against Proposition 6, and presents it for you to disgust as you will.

The Effect:
I walked out of the theater feeling inspired and saddened - an odd mix of emotions, I know. So much of the movie's message (if you believe in something, fight for it) felt strengthened by this past election. And yet, I come again to Proposition 8. My family and I were wondering on our way home whether this movie's release (if it had been released earlier) would have effected the outcome of Proposition 8 in California. I, personally, believe it might have. Though it wouldn't have reached people who are already close-minded on the subject, it might have reminded others of the past, and opened their eyes to think for themselves. Regardless, it was released afterwards. And, as it faces the future as a work of media, it's entirely possible it will win Oscars - I'd be willing to place money on actor nominations, if not screenplay as well... But I wonder how it will effect the next major battle of gay rights. Harvey Milk is definitely worth remembering.

One final note:
There was one part of the movie I wasn't a huge fan of. It's narrated in pieces by Milk, looking back on his life, recording a tape in case he is assasinated. Now, if this tape actually exists, more power to them... this is a brilliant addition. If not, it felt a bit choppy, as if they were in need of some narration to speed events along and explain things they didn't have time to show. Maybe if I saw it again, I'd like it, but the first time round, this interrupted the flow of the movie for me.

24/7

2008-12-26T15:38:00.004-07:00

(Don't worry; this is SPOILER FREE!)

Whew. I get exhausted just watching Jack Bauer. Poor guy - never drinks, eats, or goes to the bathroom, and he gets the pulp beaten out of him constantly throughout the hellish day we watch him go through.

Yes, I'm in the middle of Season 6 of 24. And, man, is it addicting! It's a bit curious, really, why something about terrorism and terrible horrible no-good, very bad days would make such a good television show, but I really do enjoy it, as do many people.

I think it's adrenaline. It's exciting and gives you a rush as you watch it. And, even though it depicts things that would be so horrible in real life, it's not real. It came a bit too close to reality on 9/11 (by coincidence, more or less), but other than that, it doesn't really depict reality. There is no CTU, and there's no miraculous agent Jack Bauer here to save the world. Seriously, each of those punches would do some serious damage.

But, it's amusing. I enjoy watching it with my family, enjoying our various response: My dad who pretends he's not interested ("it's too violent") then ends up joining us and asking to watch it; My mom, who gets annoyed at the medical innacuraces, and shrinks at any sign of needles or blood (we do watch Grey's Anatomy also, by the way); and me, who ends up shouting various vulgarities at evil Presidents, troublesome Jack, and stupid terrorists.

So, if you haven't already partaken in this blood-fest, spiraling body-count of a TV show, I recommend you do, because it's too much fun to miss out on.

I've got one note about this season that I find interesting. It is, of course, a necessity to keep changing the country from which the terrorists originate from. In 6 seasons, the writers have been creative: Russia, Mexico, and even pissed-off British Marine guys have come into play. However, in this season, we are dealing with some Middle Eastern country... trouble is, we don't know which one. They keep saying "go find the ambassador" not specifing his country, or "we must bomb the northern part of their country," again not being specific. It strikes me as a bit of a double standard to create a fictional terrorist group from Russia, and then one from some unnamed Middle Eastern country. I suppose it would be hitting a little too close to home if they were to specify which one.

So, anyway, we've got 6 episodes left and the clock is ticking (quite literally). While we know beloved Jack will continue muttering in his musky breath, breaking rules, shouting at bad guys, shooting and never missing, and above all, never taking a break, I can't wait to see what happens next!

Worth a Million Dollars. Or Rupees.

2008-12-23T13:38:00.006-07:00

Okay, I'm finally going to talk about Slumdog Millionaire. While it's true that the initial shine and glory of walking stunned and amazed out of the theater has worn off since Saturday, I still have a few thoughts about it.

Thought #1: Wow.

Yeah, that's it, really. It's an incredible film. Not only was it filmed on location in India, a feat in and of itself, but it seemed to capture some essential feeling of India... Even thought it was made by a non-Indian director - He's British, actually... I believe.

While I'm on the director - Whose name is Danny Boyle, I wanted to point out something I observed.

Thought #2: This guy is obsessed with millions of dollars.

I recognized his name from another film, which stayed with me for some reason: Millions. Millions was a small, generally un-noticed film about a young boy who found a great deal of money, and had to figure out what to do with it. It was also a beautiful, really sweet film... But I wonder what it is about millions of $ for this man Boyle. He seems transfixed about the effect winning or getting such an amount of money would have on a human. It's an interesting topic, I'll grant you that.

Okay, back to Slumdog. Really briefly, it's the tale of a boy (Jamal) and his brother (Salim) who are orphaned. Along the way, they meet a girl named Latika, who Jamal takes a liking to, in that really cute little kid kind of way. Chaos insues, and the boys are separated from Latika. The rest of the film is basically about Jamal fighting all the odds to get back to Latika. However, there's a catch, of sorts... It's not a linear story. The entire film also centers around Jamal being a contestant on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be A Millionaire. As each question comes up, it relates somehow to his life, and we learn a bit more about his story.

Now, it sounds simple - or maybe complicated - but what you can't get from a summary is that it's done beautifully. Everything ties together smoothly, flows completely congruently, and just basically combines to create a work of art. What really struck me, though. It's a really complicated way of telling a story, yet it came off quite naturally.

Thought #3: It doesn't take much.

We don't learn about Jamal's entire life, yet we feel like we do. Each question that is asked reveals a piece of his story, yet by the end, I feel like I traveled with Jamal along his entire life's journey.

Okay, final comment. As you can maybe tell by the poster, one of the movie's main ideas or themes is the idea of Destiny: "It is written."

Thought #4: Destiny rocks.

It's such a nice touch to make a movie seem as if it could have only happened one way. There are no alternate-scenarios, no "what-ifs"... That's how real life is. Life happens one way. You can't double back or second guess, and neither could a viewer of this film. Even the hard parts of the film - some of the more violent scenes - are acceptable because that's just how it is. It's how it is in India, and it's what the character would have faced had this been a real story. It isn't glossed over or made prettier than it actual is, which would have taken away some of the film's beauty and authenticity.

So there you have it. It's an amazing film and I truly and heartily recommend it. I hope it wins all sorts of awards, because I think it deserves it.