Let's call it a night

switched

2010-11-26T18:32:00.002-05:00

over to tumblr
http://relax-play.tumblr.com/

spaces

2010-11-12T16:56:00.002-05:00

2010-10-17T23:00:00.002-04:00

2010-10-15T14:29:00.000-04:00

late night cravings

2010-10-14T18:47:00.000-04:00

performance anxiety

2010-10-10T23:27:00.000-04:00

I need to write a paper by Wednesday (what? you say, that's so far away!) and I'm getting the jitters over writing this. I have the rudimentary fragments of an outline, but I'm waffling on putting any thoughts down on paper. who actually gets nervous over writing a paper that's due in three days? I should be studying for that stat midterm, instead, for which I'm also in deep shit. drowning in poop, almost.

stepping back just a little -- this semester has been so busy for me. I'm making more money than ever, but holding down these two jobs is seriously cramping everything else. I'm struggling to get schoolwork done and also with everything else. add to that the fact that (and I hate using that term, it's so unnecessary but I'm too lazy to reconfigure my sentence to void it) I have no idea what I want to do this summer or even this winter. yes, I know, my life sucks. /sarcasm Okay. Time to stop worrying about Harvard things and time to get back to this paper. I can do it.

warning

2010-10-08T07:26:00.001-04:00

flattened

2010-10-07T00:26:00.002-04:00

another year

2010-08-25T10:00:00.001-04:00

Since today I fly back to Cambridge for another year of learning (we'll see how that goes), I figured I'd share a reminder of what my room looked like last year. Maybe I should attempt to grow in maturity level as well, and keep things a little neater. Hm. yeah. nah.

triplett, mo

2010-08-18T18:48:00.000-04:00

end of the roll
also end of any series of photos from the winter. that's it!

columbia, mo

2010-08-18T18:09:00.001-04:00

one last addendum--

2010-08-18T13:33:00.000-04:00

--to my visit to Pittsburg, KS

here's another look at the abandoned apartments:

Just say yes / just say there's nothing holding you back

2010-08-18T13:22:00.000-04:00

When I traveled to Pittsburg, KS in the winter, I saw this abandoned greyhound racetrack from the side of the highway. It looks like Camptown won't be reopened.

This roll wasn't rolled tightly (my fault!), so you can see the light spilling in around the edges.

top of the stretch
you can see the track is completely overgrown

the finish line

and it's so, it's so sad that she don't see what I see

2010-08-17T21:59:00.001-04:00

obsessed with this song right now. so catchy!

I just got back 6 rolls of film that I shot back in January. It's been a long time coming. They were the first few rolls I shot with my Hasselblad. it's been so long that I almost forgot to get them developed. More coming soon, but here's one:

movies to watch

2010-08-17T19:34:00.001-04:00

--at least, ones that I'm excited to watch, no matter the ticket prices in Boston! After a pretty empty summer of films, I have a pretty long list of enticing movies (and two documentaries!) to close out 2010.

BLACK SWAN

Trailer released today. Looks amazing. Natalie Portman and Vincent Cassel, with whom I fell in love in Eastern Promises. And of course, Darren Aronofsky is one of my favorite directors. I was surprised to see Mila Kunis opposing Portman in the trailer--I thought she was the most interesting thing about The Book of Eli.

NEVER LET ME GO

Other than the most beautiful three co-stars ever assembled--Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, and Kiera Knightley--the atmosphere looks haunting and seeks to pull at all the right heartstrings. I didn't adore the book like most people did, but it was good and I'm excited for the movie.

THE TOWN

Other than the fact that I saw part of this being filmed, and so desperately want to watch to see if I can see those scenes in the final cut, I enjoyed Ben Affleck's directorial debut (Gone Baby Gone) enough to watch The Town based on his involvement alone. Plus, I love most of the cast assembled.

WAITING FOR 'SUPERMAN'

Ever since I read Jonathan Kozol's The Shame of the Nation as a junior in high school (more than three years ago now!) I've been interested in education reform in the US. Can't wait to see what this (very lauded) documentary says about the current system.

THE SOCIAL NETWORK

I got a copy of this movie's script last year, when it was widely leaked on the net. Since this movie is about my school, after all, I was immediately intrigued and hooked. It's a great story. And the trailer rocks. Also--Andrew Garfield again. You can never get too much of the next Spiderman, can you? And another up and coming actor--Rooney Mara, aka (just announced!) Lisbeth Salander, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I remember her from Youth in Revolt.

MAO'S LAST DANCER

Despite their depressing nature, I can't get enough of Cultural Revolution China-era films. One of my favorite movies of all time is Farewell My Concubine, if that tells you anything. I'm skeptical of the romance in this trailer, but everything else looks beautifully done, and reviews have been generally positive.

CONVICTION

Hilary Swank, Minnie Driver, Mellisa Leo, Juliette Lewis, Peter Gallagher. (Gallagher has been cast as James' father in the film adaptation of Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You, which I loved. I can't express how much I anticipate that movie...) And Sam Rockwell, who I thought was so powerful in Moon. More: this trailer uses the "I'm Lincoln" track from Steve Jablonsky's score of The Island! That is one of my favorite movie soundtracks ever. (To be fair, though, many trailers and ads use that piece. See Avatar.)

LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS

Director Edward Zwick's follow up to Defiance, Blood Diamond, and The Last Samurai looks to be the fall's best romantic comedy. I guess he's drawing on his Legend of the Fall roots. In any case, Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway reunite (Brokeback Mountain).

SECRETARIAT

Anyone who's known me since I was little knows how much I am in love with Thoroughbred horse racing. Thus I thought it fitting to end with this Penny Chenery biography, which assembles a fantastic cast and features the story of one of my favorite horses of all time. Secretariat was the first Triple Crown winner in what was then the longest period between winners (25 years--second only to right now! It's been 32 years since Affirmed in 1978).

I wonder how much of Calumet Farm and Sham are going to be included in this biopic. Secretariat set and holds the record still in the Derby (and perhaps the Preakness) and the Belmont, the latter of which he won by a stunning, breathtaking, overpowering 31 lengths. (You can see footage of the real Penny Chenery. He is moving like a tremendous machine! This is a record which may never be broken!)

Anyway, this movie is my childhood dream come true. It's a story of impending doom, bluebood and royalty, celebrity (Who is the only celebrity to have appeared on the covers of TIME, Newsweek, and Sports Illustrated at the same time?), dominance, and heart.

2010-08-15T04:05:00.000-04:00

I am lost, in our rainbow, now our rainbow has gone,
Overcast, by your shadow, as our worlds move on,
But in this shirt, I can be you, to be near you for a while

Toy Story 3 and duty

2010-08-05T00:44:00.004-04:00

I saw Toy Story 3 (finally!) on Tuesday.

What a thrilling, emotionally satisfying, beautifully rendered, human film. The conflict that struck me the most was that of duty. (spoilers ahead) In the middle of the film, Woody has to choose between duty to his owner or duty to his friends--duty to the system and tradition versus his duty to the relationships in his life. He can go back to Andy's house to go to college with him, and a life that's safe although useless but to be displayed, as if on a pedestal, or he can attempt to save his friends from certain harm but risk being press-ganged and trapped in the process. If he tries and fails, he is unable to return to Andy, lacking the ways and means to move about and get things done that Andy does.

The similarities between Woody's struggle and the choices that women make in navigating their lives, their politics, and (sometimes) husbands made me sit up and watch this movie with fascination. As the end approached: what would the toys do? To where would they go? And the choice they made in the end--Bonnie's versus Sunnyside, where Barbie stayed! What does that say?

To answer those questions, a little background is in order. As I was a radical, socialist, red state high school feminist, Andrea Dworkin was formative in my thinking. In particular, Right-Wing Women asks the questions: Why do right-wing women agitate for their own subordination? How does the Right, controlled by men, enlist their participation and loyalty? And why do right-wing women truly hate the feminist struggle for equality? Those questions were crowding at my consciousness, and even now, their derivatives come up daily in my thinking. The answer that Dworkin supplies:

Right-wing women understand that their behavior hurt other women, but most importantly, places them on a pedestal for the admiration of one man in particular: their husband. This choice, whether conscious or subconscious, is actually the safe, intelligent choice.

We as an audience are given a look at life with Bonnie that is simple, generous, kind, and loved--her toys adore her, and she clearly has a good heart, having rescued Chuckles (and Woody, too). Having found this paradise once, it should be no surprise that Woody chooses to spirit himself and his friends off to this owner, to this "husband." It's Woody's devotion to Andy, his performance of and commitment to being the perfect toy (the perfect wife) that leads him away from Sunnyside and into Bonnie's home in the first place. And having found the perfect "husband," why waste something good for something that has a reality of being nasty and only the slight potential of reform (Sunnyside)? Rejecting Bonnie is dangerous. It places the toys at the mercy of a larger mechanism than themselves. Sunnyside renders a lot of agency useless, even if there is no master whose every demand needs to be met.

Here, we can look at Sunnyside as a wider society. More specifically, the ease with which it slides into horror and oppression is perfectly represented in the Caterpillar Room, a state which is reinforced not only by Lotso but also a host of other enforcers, all comfortable in their privilege of the Butterfly Room. A woman who rejects the protection of a potential or real husband by refusing to perform the roles of the perfect wife--the cautionary tale of Sunnyside and the Caterpillar Room is her lot.

The reform at the end of Toy Story 3 is really intriguing. It seems that Barbie is able to inspire Ken to give up parts of his privilege in favor of some nebulous form of (more) equality. Barbie seems to be some sort of antebellum social reformer, in the lines of prison reform, temperance, women's suffrage, and abolitionism. Indeed, Sunnyside is a prison, so what she does is nothing other than prison reform. But without Ken's support, his ways and means derived from his authority as a former enforcer, I don't see Barbie accomplishing what she did. Indeed, she would not have been safe enough to implement a lot of these changes if Ken had not defied Lotso--in Barbie's case, then, Ken has taken over part of her ownership in protecting her.

This scenario then calls into question the role of the oppressor in progressive movements and in reform; Toy Story 3 says it can be for the greater good both of a society and to the individuals who find a good, decent protector (or protectress, for Bonnie).

We get the best of both worlds in this movie. Woody's two duties, to his owner(s) and to his friends (the group grows to include the rest of the toys at Sunnyside, with whom Woody and Co. do feel some sort of solidarity), are both fulfilled. Woody and Co. become useful again to Andy by allowing him to pass his beloved toys on, they find a new owner and make themselves fundamentally useful again as toys to be enjoyed, and Barbie stays behind to make sure the Sunnyside toys also get to experience some of the same joy and security that comes from being owned and wanted, but institutionalized.

This ending is why Toy Story 3 remains a children's movie.

Here's what some other people thought this movie said about society (emphasis mine):

The film begins with Woody trying to defend a crumbling system of communism (presumably the Soviet Union). Toys have a duty to their owners, he argues. The owner is a personified totalitarian state (Stalin?) — he decides what the toys do and the toys are not permitted to escape....Communism having collapsed, the toys emigrate to Sunnyside (the US, that nation of immigrants), which leader Lotso depicts as a libertarian paradise. In his introductory he speech, he touts the joys of self-ownership and interacting with children through the market (new children are constantly replacing old ones, maximizing the efficiency of the toys), as well as the improved material comforts his system brings (the repair depot, the dream house)....Ken and Barbie now lead Sunnyside, making it a “fun and groovy” socialist utopia. --The Political Philosophy of Toy Story 3

As social commentary, Toy Story 3 is provocative but vague, even unrealized. Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear's torment of Woody's friends by locking them in with the daycare's younger and considerably less kind children suggests something of a slave trade. Their nightmare imprisonment is practically a statement on gentrification, as you get a sense of the rich life Lots-o'-Huggin' and his cronies enjoy being impossible without other, less fortunate toys wasting away in less desirable, impoverished conditions. (There's no "in" for the undesirables, just one way "out": the trash.) The scenario is evocative, suggestive of a New York City street with a Whole Foods and expensive luxury rentals on one side and the projects on the other, but the correlation the film makes to real-life urban gentrification ultimately feels tacky because the way justice comes to Sunnyside has no correlative in Harlem. (slant mag)

But the movie is all about identity and what do you become when everything you knew is gone?....I could go all day about the prison metaphors, the fact that Woody himself was always kind of obsolete as far as toys go, or entertain excessive discourses about Big Baby, the scariest toy in all three Toy Story movies. And then there’s the fact that the Ken doll (Michael Keaton) is one thousand percent gay and no one in the movie (and probably, a good chunk of the audience) has any idea. So I suppose you can add mob mentalities, closet cases, and the like to the list of Pixar’s storytelling devices. (The Faster Times)

The shocking parallels to the Holocaust in Toy Story 3 begin just moments after the opening playtime set piece. Andy is seventeen and about to leave for college. These toys are left behind, just as host nations left behind the Jews as the Third Reich conquered Europe. --Toy Story 3 as Zionist Text

---------------------------

Here's a thought and a lovely photo of the day to end this giant post:

What are the nature of my duties?

(via)

Prop 8 declared unconstitutional

2010-08-04T17:05:00.004-04:00

From prop 8 trial tracker (emphasis mine):

CONCLUSION

Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples. Because California has no interest in discriminating against gay men and lesbians, and because Proposition 8 prevents California from fulfilling its constitutional obligation to provide marriages on an equal basis,the court concludes that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.

REMEDIES

Plaintiffs have demonstrated by overwhelming evidence that Proposition 8 violates their due process and equal protection rights and that they will continue to suffer these constitutional violations until state officials cease enforcement of Proposition 8. California is able to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, as it has already issued 18,000 marriage licenses to same-sex couples and has not suffered any demonstrated harm as a result, see FF 64-66; moreover, California officials have chosen not to defend Proposition 8 in these proceedings.

Because Proposition 8 is unconstitutional under both the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses, the court orders entry of judgment permanently enjoining its enforcement; prohibiting the official defendants from applying or enforcing Proposition 8 and directing the official defendants that all persons under their control or supervision shall not apply or enforce Proposition 8. The clerk is DIRECTED to enter judgment without bond in favor of plaintiffs and plaintiff-intervenors and against defendants anddefendant-intervenors pursuant to FRCP 58.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

(Go West) Life is peaceful there
(Go West) In the open air
(Go West) Where the skies are blue
(Go West) This is what we're gonna do

you need to breakthrough/ and then get wise to/ all that is taboo/ then you'll be something to see

2010-08-04T11:04:00.006-04:00

Shanghai, July 2010

this photo is from the Japanese Industry Pavilion at the 2010 World Expo-- growing a tree without soil.

hometown glory

2010-07-28T20:04:00.000-04:00

Sarin Finkelstein was born in Columbia, MO. She's been published in many national magazines and newspapers such as the New York Post, Time Out NY, the Telegraph, and TIME. Her most recent body of work focuses on prospectors. On "The New 49ers," she writes:

In the midst of the recession, I have been driven to document the struggles of ordinary people against extraordinary odds. They are the new wave of gold prospectors that have re-emerged in California, 150 years since the original Gold Rush, united by a passionate and desperate search for gold to support them until the job market improves. The miners here—recent layoffs, veterans, retirees, ex-convicts and freelancers—are dependent on the income they derive from prospecting. Selling an ounce of gold at its now all-time high market rate of $1200+/oz. provides them with hope for survival.

fiction online

2010-06-03T23:31:00.000-04:00

So many of the non-novel Hugo nominations are online for free reading? Of course it would be scifi. But awesome anyway.

jumping off the weeks bridge

2010-05-15T21:19:00.000-04:00

and we all fall down

2010-05-15T21:16:00.002-04:00

before

after

an afternoon

2010-05-14T20:56:00.002-04:00

thoughts from today's conference

2010-05-04T00:46:00.001-04:00

from the Rethinking Virginity conference:

Should we focus on having religious communities become stakeholders in the conversation about sex education, abstinence, and abortion? How can we create a discourse that places an emphasis on this?

The role of religious communities in progressive movements has concerned me of late.

2010-05-03T21:10:00.002-04:00

2010-05-02T13:24:00.000-04:00

the golden afternoon light is the most beautiful.

more photos!

2010-04-20T01:46:00.000-04:00

Harvard buildings. Let's start with the postcard tourist shot:

and dance with me/There is beauty in the world/So much beauty in the world/Always beauty in the world

2010-04-20T01:42:00.000-04:00

Portfolio update here.

Meanwhile...
a photoessay for The Voice!

Saw the final few episodes of Ugly Betty yesterday. Loved it. All the ends for the Suarez family came together so beautifully, and I absolutely loved the music (Macy Gray!) in the final ep. Just so well done.

dum dum dum da dum dum

2010-04-01T22:04:00.001-04:00

Rap music video with Lil wayne and eminem that does not sexualize women?

for those days we felt like a mistake/those times when love's what you hate

2010-03-21T14:16:00.000-04:00

we are young/we are strong/we're not looking for where we belong

2010-03-20T18:15:00.000-04:00

spring break is over. Time for another week of school. Meanwhile, here are some photos I took for a friend's article in a campus publication.

a time for war, and a time for peace

2010-03-08T23:08:00.000-05:00

1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6 a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; 7 a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 8 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

today was
FEMINIST COMING OUT DAY

in all your silver rings and all your silken things

2010-02-16T01:32:00.000-05:00

abandoned apartment building

I need another story / Something to get off my chest / My life gets kinda boring / Need something that I can confess

2010-02-12T13:32:00.000-05:00

Power
Adrienne Rich

Living in the earth-deposits of our history

Today a backhoe divulged out of a crumbling flank of earth
one bottle amber perfect a hundred-year-old
cure for fever or melancholy a tonic
for living on this earth in the winters of this climate.

Today I was reading about Marie Curie:
she must have known she suffered from radiation sickness
her body bombarded for years by the element
she had purified
It seems she denied to the end
the source of the cataracts on her eyes
the cracked and suppurating skin of her finger-ends
till she could no longer hold a test-tube or a pencil

She died a famous woman denying
her wounds
denying
her wounds came from the same source as her power.

hold on one more time with feeling

2010-02-11T16:49:00.001-05:00

e.e. cummings

i like my body when it is with your
body. It is so quite a new thing.
Muscles better and nerves more.
i like your body. i like what it does,
i like its hows. i like to feel the spine
of your body and its bones, and the trembling
-firm-smooth ness and which i will
again and again and again
kiss, i like kissing this and that of you,
i like, slowly stroking the, shocking fuzz
of your electric fur, and what-is-it comes
over parting flesh . . . . And eyes big love-crumbs,

and possibly i like the thrill

of under me you quite so new

april 8

2010-02-08T00:22:00.002-05:00

interesting things

2010-01-20T00:49:00.000-05:00

The Selby shows the process of making chocolate through a tour of the Mast Brothers chocolate factory.
The Seattle Weekly interviews Patti Smith on her new auto/biography on her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe, Just Kids. Interesting gems include religion in The Factory, Mapplethorpe and AIDS, and the music she listens to at home (Glenn Gould! Does she listen to his sometimes-ridiculous-but-still-amazing recordings of Bach?).
The Atlantic publishes an article on what makes a good teacher, using data and information provided by Teach for America.

it's cloudy

2010-01-18T20:52:00.006-05:00

3 1/2 hrs between central MO and south western KS

incoming traffic...

Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more

2010-01-17T22:49:00.001-05:00

Urban decay in Pittsburg, KS

first up, literal decay

even better than platform 9 3/4

the miracle of The Blind Side

2010-01-12T21:34:00.000-05:00

Today I heard a made-for-tv movie being advertised as being "as inspirational as The Blind Side." Who would have imagined that this football movie would become the highest grossing sports movie ever, along with the highest grossing movie with a female lead?

voyeurism

2010-01-11T20:42:00.000-05:00

In the US, there's a sort of shame surrounding voyeurism. Peeping toms are creepy for invading the private (sex) lives of others. Yet there's absolutely no shame in (heterosexual) displays of affection in public.

When I was working in the photo lab last semester, an older friend told me about voyeurism in Japan. Not only are there tv shows that serve only to titillate (which is not so different from reality tv shows here, but those are focused more on relationship drama than solely sex) but apparently men will go to parks where young couples have sex, in public, and sometimes even touch the girls during copulation. There also are vending machines that sell used panties. How strange, especially in a culture without any display of affection between couples and where laughing is considered obscene! Perhaps, though, it is not so strange after all.

on why "I would go gay for her" as a compliment bothers me

2010-01-10T19:50:00.001-05:00

It is because the highest compliment you can pay a woman is to proclaim that you find her fuckable.

Always and forever and as simple as that.

If you admire a woman and like her, if you find her witty and attractive, if you like the way she thinks, well obviously, you want to fuck her. Because if you were a straight man, that’s where that would lead. But if you’re someone who isn’t sexually attracted to women, you might think you are feeling that too, you might even feel that you are insulting that woman if you don’t want to sleep with her (dishing out the ultimate insult by calling her unfuckable). (via Bitchy Jones)

Of course, I'm not saying that sexuality isn't a complex matter. It's just that the casual off-handedness of these comments irks me.

the biological clock is ticking

2010-01-10T02:26:00.000-05:00

A former classmate of mine is getting married. E.T. told me about this two days ago but it didn't really hit me until I saw wedding dress photos on Facebook today. How strange to think that in a few years, many more of my classmates will be married or will have popped out or sired kids. There's a divide that comes heavily down between those with kids and those who are child-less. God forbid I ever fall into the first category.

It doesn't make me any less bewildered, however.

A Song of Ice and Fire serialization

2010-01-09T19:02:00.002-05:00

George R R Martin's epic is one of my favorite series, nevermind that it looks almost permanently stalled for now. Currently, the pilot episode of a proposed "Game of Thrones" tv show is going through post-production, after which HBO will decided whether or not to pick it up.

Today I found photos of the cast.

Sean Bean is playing Eddard Stark, which I feel is perfect casting. all the Stark kids are appropriately handsome, although the actor who plays Robb looks a bit like a thug in his photo on that site. I'm particularly pleased with Jon Snow's casting, as Jon is one of my favorite characters and Kit Harrington is a thespian who is switching over to TV for this series.

I was disappointed by the casting of Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister, however. I always thought of Cersei and Jaime as strikingly fair, classic beauties. Nikolaj is too rugged and much older than the Jaime I'd pictured in my head. After all, he is barely 30 at the beginning of Game of Thrones.

I'm curious now to see, if the show gets picked up, who will play Renly. Although his age is vague, I always thought he was in his early 20's and dashingly handsome. He couldn't have been that much older than Loras Tyrell, who probably yet 16 then.

Also, read on GRRM's not a blog that the Targaryen scenes were filmed in Morocco. The locations are going to be amazing.

hold it in

2010-01-09T18:27:00.000-05:00

stuck

2010-01-08T18:27:00.001-05:00

lens distortion

my job

2010-01-08T00:52:00.002-05:00

My job, which wasn't actually a job last semester but will be the next, has me touching and handling objects that are thousands of years old. Which is quite extraordinary, if you think about it -- who makes a basket and thinks, "800 years from now, a girl will take four photos of my basket to document it for all digital posterity"? Or, "Man, this glaze is going to last four-fucking-thousand years, and it's going to awesome and vibrant turquoise still"?

The Egyptians astound me with their glazes. Sadly, since Egyptian artifacts are classified as art pieces, I won't be photographing any more ancient Egyptian figurines and knick knacks any time soon.

somebody has got to sit out

2010-01-07T18:23:00.007-05:00

This is where the world's largest "pecan" is located.

[edit] Yes, I believe the tractor has eyes.

sometimes for fun

2010-01-06T01:46:00.000-05:00

I read craigslist ads. I found the saddest one today in the m4w section.

Hey, how’s it going? Well, you clicked on this, so that means you are interested, or at least curious, which is good, and I thank you. I guess I’ll start with telling a little about me. [stats here] So anyway, I think that I’m a fun guy to have around, I’m pretty laid back and I consider myself one of the “nice” guys. Anyway, why am I using craigslist? ... I guess you could say that lately I’ve been missing any sort of affection in my life. I would love to meet someone that I can connect with and be friends with, and possibly be “friends with benefits.” Now, I don’t want you to get the wrong idea here and think that I’m looking for sex, which I’m not. What I’m looking for someone to cuddle up with and watch a movie, or maybe make-out or stuff like that. I also have to admit that I’m not really all experienced when it comes to this area, but please don’t let that scare you off. I think I’m a great guy, but I just don’t have all that much experience when it comes to this stuff. So I’m hoping to find someone I can be a good friend with, but also be able to do other stuff with. ... Anyway, I hope you can see where I’m coming from and hopefully looking for the same thing. If we end up in a full-blown relationship, that’s also very good, I’m up for having a girlfriend. ... I would really like to have someone I can cuddle up with or give backrubs and such. If you’d like to know more, then please email me. I have yahoo messenger so we could chat some too. And I have more pics too if you’d like. I hope I have intrigued you and maybe this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. What do you say?

I think perhaps we live in a contact- and touch-starved society.

my final collection

2010-01-05T04:15:00.000-05:00

2010-01-05T01:37:00.000-05:00

I'm so obsessed
My heart is bound to beat right out my untrimmed chest
I believe in you
Like a virgin
You're Madonna
And I'm always gonna want to blow your mind

I resolve to

2010-01-01T10:46:00.000-05:00

Start math psets on Thursday
Read one novel for leisure a month
Not eat if I'm not hungry
Lay off the cheese
Cut down on wasting time on the internet by
Making to-do lists and
Actually sticking to them before watching tv/reading blogs

to dress like a girl

2009-12-30T21:12:00.002-05:00

my backyard

2009-12-29T16:06:00.001-05:00

lady gaga covers

2009-12-28T16:05:00.008-05:00

and from the lady herself

insomnia

2009-12-28T03:57:00.002-05:00

So I couldn't fall asleep and so opened my laptop and found Joel Derfner's blog on the interwebz, which he has been keeping since 2002. I first read about him in the Harvard Voice's gayest issue ever, and thought, "cool, I'll get to read about the experiences he wrote about in Swish, but in real-time, so to speak." well, turns out this is the most hilarious thing I've seen all day, and it's a fascinatingly weird blog to read because I'm reading about all this casual sex done in the context of searching for love.

What? you say. Yeah, he has a great comedic voice. And a great sense of irony and his place in the world. Self-awareness. And he redacts identifying information and identifies people only by initials - I'm saying this because I started reading the most recent posts first, in which he mentions an E.S. as the boyfriend, and the first posts have an E.S. as well, but one with whom he broke up and about whom he constantly complained of being fat. Naturally, the question that follows: is this the same E.S.? I've only gotten about a year into the 7-year-old archives, so we'll see!

Well, anyway, the original point of this post was to complain about this smell in my room. It's been driving me crazy this last hour. My mom poured me some whiskey while we were watching The Lives of Others and I didn't finish it because she gave me a ton which is cool but not when I'm trying to watch a dialogue-heavy movie. so I finished it after the movie, but I carried the glass (yes, my mom gave me whiskey in a wine glass - what is wrong with my family?) up to my room and put it on the nightstand by my bed. And for all the people who have been to my house - I have my little brother's room now so the ventilation isn't as good, and this information probably plays a roll in this anecdote or maybe not, I'm just complaining here for a bit. Anyway, even though the glass the empty, I can still smell the whiskey, and it's driving me crazy. at least it isn't Jack. In that case, I may be reminded of a dashing Italian and burning popcorn and then my unfortunate night-before-Veteran's-Day.

[edit] an hour later, I'm still up and can't fall asleep, and I'm still smelling the whiskey. It's got to be in my mind at this point. In any case, I found out that E.S. is one and the same. Ha! I think my roving mind can let me sleep now. In any case, I have to be up in 7 hours, so I should get cracking on that zzzzzz.

Movie recap for this year

2009-12-27T17:25:00.000-05:00

The only new release I'm likely to see before the new year is Emily Blunt's The Young Victoria. with that out of the way, here's a look at which movies I finally did get around to seeing this year, compared to the ones I wanted to see early in the summer...

Ones that I saw:
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
I adored this movie! Was suitably impressed by Tom Felton as a conflicted Draco Malfoy, and loved Alan Rickman and Helen McCrory as Snape and Narcissa, respectively. the bathroom fight scene was visually great as well.
The Hurt Locker
loved, loved, loved this movie. Emotions were really strong all throughout, and the level of tension in the action scenes was incredible.
Sherlock Holmes
Saw it last night - was entertained very much. however, I found the story to be extremely lacking, although the humor and character interactions hit a very special place in my heart. in addition, the movie, although obviously computer generated (especially after viewing Avatar), had some great atmosphere in the settings of 1800s London.
Moon
Was so amazing. Perhaps my favorite movie that I saw in theaters this year. the plot, music, and set were so incredible and clever. the plot, especially, I couldn't stop talking about with the friend who saw the movie with me. in addition, I've been listening to Clint Mansell's masterful score on and off since this summer.
Where the Wild Things Are
Didn't like this as much as others - this movie was scary! Plus I didn't like the kid.
Little Ashes
This was a piece of shit but I had to watch and laugh at Robert Pattinson's moustache.
Terminator Salvation
I actually liked and enjoyed this movie. it was entertaining! and had Anton Yelchin and Sam Worthington...
Up
wrote about my thoughts here.
Public Enemies
see here.

Movies that I didn't see but will at some point:
Bright Star
Missed this one in theaters in Boston, and now it's not playing in Columbia. will find it somehow! I just love the poetry of John Keats and the trailer was so well done. I've heard good things about Abbie Cornish's acting, also.
An Education
Same as above, just missed this in theaters, but I want to see it so very much still!
Precious
Looks like awards-recognition is fading, although I'd still like to see this movie sometime - perhaps not in theaters, though.
Agora
FINALLY has a release date! Hooray!
Dead Snow
Have not seen this in theaters anywhere, maybe not looking hard enough...
I Love You Phillip Morris
Its release has been pushed back AGAIN from Valentine's Day 2010 to March 26, 2010. ah, can't wait.
500 Days of Summer
Will see this at some point, especially since my roommates have recommended it so enthusiastically.

Movies that have fallen off my radar:
Amelia
Apparently was one boring movie.
Taking Woodstock
Same thing as above.
Bruno
Hasn't fallen off my radar as much as I was disgusted with it.

In addition, I'm really bugged by the awards-hoopla that Up in the Air is getting. wtf? why do people like to hear and watch an entire movie about upper middle class white people getting laid off and making fun of their misfortunes, besides?

blame aphrodite

2009-12-27T12:03:00.002-05:00

Blame Aphrodite
Sappho

It's no use
Mother dear, I
can't finish my
weaving
You may
blame Aphrodite

soft as she is

she has almost
killed me with
love for that boy

everybody everybody wants to love/ everybody everybody wants to be loved

2009-12-26T16:03:00.002-05:00

here's a memory of the old futon:

i like to feel the spine of your body and its bones

2009-12-26T11:56:00.006-05:00

i like my body when it is with your
e. e. cummings

i like my body when it is with your
body. It is so quite a new thing.
Muscles better and nerves more.
i like your body. i like what it does,
i like its hows. i like to feel the spine
of your body and its bones, and the trembling
-firm-smooth ness and which i will
again and again and again
kiss, i like kissing this and that of you,
i like, slowly stroking the, shocking fuzz
of your electric fur, and what-is-it comes
over parting flesh . . . . And eyes big love-crumbs,

and possibly i like the thrill

of under me you quite so new

merry christmas

2009-12-25T02:07:00.000-05:00

May it be dandy!

And so there’s a change, in your emotions / And all these memories come rushing like feral waves to your mind

2009-12-25T01:59:00.003-05:00

Straight people are encouraged by culture and society to believe that their sexual impulses are the norm, and therefore when their affairs of the heart and loins go wrong (as they certainly will), when they are flummoxed, distraught and defeated by love, they are forced to believe that it must be their fault. We gay people at least have the advantage of being brought up to expect the world of love to be imponderably and unmanageably difficult, for we are perverted freaks and sick aberrations of nature.

- Stephen Fry's letter to himself: Dearest absurd child

2009-12-23T18:27:00.000-05:00

impending doom

2009-12-20T15:59:00.001-05:00

Tomorrow is my last (and hardest) exam. then I'm free!! But in the meantime, I'm really struggling with the material. I really should have started studying earlier, but the amount I have to learn and review didn't really hit me until yesterday...

P.S. the snow has finally stopped. Everything looks so serene.

If it was so fine, it was so good

2009-12-16T01:49:00.000-05:00

ghost town?

2009-12-08T01:50:00.003-05:00

Supposedly Triplett, Missouri is a ghost town, in the sense that many people used to live there and now very few do. A place for photography during my long winter break?

Didn't even know that love was bigger

2009-12-06T02:03:00.000-05:00

back at harvard

2009-11-29T21:53:00.002-05:00

If anything should happen, I guess I wish you well

2009-11-28T00:07:00.001-05:00

Yay Black Friday!
This is what I came home to find on the kitchen counter:

You could say my family heartily endorses recreational drinking.

I didn't plan on spending money, but did anyway. I even bought a skirt from Wal-mart, from their Miley Cyrus/Max Azria collaboration. the quality of the stuff is (surprisingly, to me) pretty good. I found the skirt that I'd been looking for. I don't discriminate when it comes to clothes!

and now I kiss I kiss the earth

2009-11-24T12:30:00.000-05:00

harvard vs yale 14-10
saturday was an awesome day, in many senses of the word

When you're happy like a fool / Let it take you over / When everything is out / You gotta take it in

2009-11-23T21:34:00.000-05:00

from september

I lost my hard drive so all the digital scans of photos from sept-oct are lost...

Sometimes there's airplanes I can't jump out / Sometimes there's bullshit that don't work now / We out of stories but please tell me what's there to complain about?

2009-11-23T21:32:00.000-05:00

from october

Day turns to night, night turns to whatever we want / We're young enough to say / Oh this has gotta be the good life

2009-11-21T21:54:00.000-05:00

Magpie, was it you who stole the wedding ring? Or what other thieving bird would steal such hope away?

2009-11-14T16:17:00.000-05:00

fifteen

2009-11-10T03:30:00.000-05:00

Taylor Swift - New Music - More Music Videos

So I admit it, I've been listening to Taylor Swift. This song reminded me of Don Bachardy and Christopher Isherwood. I'm going to get Isherwood's A Single Man soon and read it before Dec. 11, when Tom Ford's adaptation comes out. (Tom Ford, another person with whom I have a love/hate relationship.)

via

Come and open up your folding chair next to me

2009-11-02T20:05:00.000-05:00

desert sampler from finale

making veritaffles

Skiffle and ride, shuffle and walk

2009-10-29T12:15:00.000-04:00

raw scans:

step out the door and it feels like rain

2009-10-21T22:11:00.000-04:00

it was snowing on Sunday

head of the charles regatta

2009-10-17T15:19:00.000-04:00

it's Head of the Charles weekend at Harvard

it's a cloudy day, but beautiful still

this is the charles river

alumni village

spectators along the charles river. you can see the leverett towers in the background

walking back. I think this is old quincy

even the ivy leaves turn colors in the fall

Dear, I fear we're facing a problem / you love me no longer, I know

2009-07-25T01:59:00.000-04:00

okay, so I'm giving in

2009-07-20T01:05:00.000-04:00

Here's the newest one, just because of the surprise at the end, which makes sense really if you watch the whole thing...

Ambition to Create Novel Expression Underwear Autumn/Winter 2009:

I think it's interesting to note that Acne Underwear only produces underwear for men. now, there's a flip-flop on the lingerie business if there ever was one, seeing how there's a very limited market for fancy underwear for men. Time magazine even called it "weird." But some people are even starting whole lines surrounded by that concept, so there must be something to it...

I was going to post the new Acne underwear campaign

2009-07-20T00:58:00.000-04:00

Remember the Spring/Summer 2009 campaign?

But then I found this one from Fall/Winter 2008.

It's Freddie Stroma:

(via)

AKA Cormac McLaggen:

(via)

Whodathunkit?

You think that my feet could muster up a little soft shoe gentle sway / but I don't feel like dancin', no sir, no dancin' today

2009-07-18T23:40:00.000-04:00

I always wonder about fashion's obsession with bondage.

Is it the lure of something taboo and forbidden? Something dirty and rife with ritual? Maybe it's just the draw of like to like - the craftsmanship and details in bondage gear is breathtaking if seen objectively.

This photo is from the digital home of fashion mag Dazed & Confused:

(via)

and this one is from luxury sex toy store Coco de mer.

(via)
It really is beautiful, even considering its purpose.

Hedi Slimane shoots Josh Beech for Vogue Hommes International:

(via)
I love the metal vs. the suit and crisp shirt.

And Dazed & Confused again, an editorial shot by Karim Sadli:

(via)

Maybe bondage is valued for its shock value, for how much it is hardcore...

they should just ask me to do it

2009-07-17T18:04:00.000-04:00

when I was doing my latest movie post, I couldn't find a movie poster for An Education, so I just picked out my favorite movie still. Guess what? They made that still into the movie poster!

(via)

I think they did a great job with the poster. particularly love the cutouts at the bottom. however. is that a weird-ass photoshop job I see? Did they remove Peter Sarsgaard's hand through photoshop? jesus, people. his hand's not THAT ugly. compare:

great interview with John Cho

2009-07-10T00:41:00.000-04:00

"The Game-Changer: An Interview with John Cho"

It's almost perverse how much I've thought about my Asian American audience, and my whole career, every job -- every audition -- that I've ever been offered, I think about how it will serve the community or not. If people will appreciate it or find it offensive, and it's almost the single factor by which I take jobs or not. Because as soon as I started, I realized it was so important to people. From my experiences as a boy, I realized that those images meant something to me. Mostly, it's not grandiose to where I thought I could affect positive change. I was really just trying to avoid doing damage to the Asian American psyche. I just figured, I don't need to contribute to that.

As excited as I to see John Cho's analysis of Asian-Americans in media and Hollywood, I'm almost sad that he invests so much into the AA community. It's admirable what he does, but it's sad that he has to be aware of so much that a hetero white male actor does not.

[On Harold and Kumar] There was all this racial humor in the movie, and the advertising department wanted to say "Starring the Asian guy in American Pie, and the Indian guy from Van Wilder..." and they did go with that, and they submitted that to me for approval, and I said, "I don't like it." They asked me why, and I explain it to them, and that was tricky because it's difficult explaining to my own representatives, why that didn't jibe with me, because everyone kind of felt like it was keeping in tone with the movie. And I said, "I don't like it. We're poking fun at racism in the movie all the time, but it puts the audience on the wrong side of the racism joke." So they were playing with the wording a little bit in the edits, and they kept coming up with versions to make me happy, but they were essentially the same thing [....] And eventually they went with it, and it's one of those things where I look back and I've very proud of the movie, but that's the thing I remember.

Why it is so difficult to market satire or irony. Some people don't understand that it's poking fun of the Asian stereotypes, instead of pandering to the stereotypes.

My career has been mostly movies that I couldn't see when I was a child, and I think maybe that was part of why I liked Star Trek. It was about pleasing the kid, the young John Cho. And I'd always wanted to do something set in space and it was a childhood fantasy but it was also one of my political goals as an Asian American actor, to do something set in space, because I couldn't do a Western as an Asian American, and the Western was a real cinematic goal for me. So Star Trek was perfect -- the frontier.

Okay, so I love how he's very realistic about never getting that Western (I think Jackie Chan's turn in Shanghai Noon doesn't really work with Cho's film career) but is so happy with the space western.

It's just an intensive, interesting interview with a fascinating person.

APA: Last question...for Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay, Viva La Union recorded a song for the soundtrack with the line, "I want my own Chinese baby" -- what's that about?

JC: When I was thinking about it, I thought of a literal baby. There's a kind of lack that children fill, that's just the dark side of being a parent, I think. And there's an accessory quality to Chinese babies in America, and I just think it's funny. I just liked it. And you know, I would know people who would fawn over Asian babies more, and it got me to thinking, there's this belief that Asian babies are really cute, and it got me thinking that our whole race is infantilized to some degree, and it manifests itself in different ways. You infantilize a woman, and she becomes eroticized. You infantilize a man, and he becomes emasculated. You infantilize a baby [laughs] -- and it's possible, it appears that you can infantilize a baby even more. [laughs] The babies need to be cuter than white babies. And it's just a weird thing that I felt like said something about mainstream America's relationship to Asians in general. So that's where it came from.

You talk about life and talk about death / and everything in between / like it's nothing and the words are easy

2009-07-07T01:48:00.000-04:00

Saw Public Enemies over the weekend. liked it. my mom and I talked about how it was a troubling movie because (SPOILER) Dillinger is betrayed by a close friend, and the net closes in on him in sharp detail.

What intrigued me just as much as the movie itself were the previews. Previews for Shutter Island, Bruno, and Amelia. An odd mixture for sure.

Shutter Island: did not expect a horror movie. Not sure if I'm interested anymore.

Bruno: definitely not interested anymore. Humpday, though, after reading about it, is sounding more and more appealing. IMDB calls it "indie couter-programming" to Bruno. sounds about right.

Amelia: looks amazing. So excited!

summer hums heavy now

2009-07-02T15:55:00.000-04:00

and when it's time for leavin, I hope you'll understand that I was born a ramblin' man

2009-07-02T00:57:00.000-04:00

Something finished last week...

And finally, a teaser for something coming very soon:

movies I want to see (book-adaptations and a tip of the hat to the ladies edition)

2009-06-17T16:34:00.000-04:00

Draco gets expanded characterization compared to previous books and movies. Snape gets screentime. The only book with better news for Slytherins is the seventh. I can't wait to see Narcissa's scenes, for the record. I hope she gets to keep them from the book.

-------

Ben Whishaw, who is exclusively doing period pieces it seems, and Abbie Cornish star as John Keats and Fanny Brawne in Bright Star. and Paul Schneider, Gus from Lars and the Real Girl, plays Charles Brown, the thorny third angle to Keats' and Brawne's romance. He resents Brawne because he regards love as being detrimental to poetry. Drama ensues.

Jane Campion remains the only female director to have won the Palme d'Or (with The Piano - and off the top of my head, I think she actually shared that one in a tie with Kaige Chen for Farewell, My Concubine, which was the first mainland Chinese film to win the Palme d'Or), but she was definitely in contention this year with Bright Star. Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon took the prize, but Campion's film is probably going to be easier to find in the US. Haneke's worldview is just too depressing for US audiences.

--------

So this one is a little older than the others, but it still hasn't been released anywhere near where I live. Kathryn Bigelow directs. She's an oddity in the action genre, but one which I heartily endorse.

--------

An Education premiered at Sundance. I've loved Peter Sarsgaard since I saw him in Kinsey. The premise of this movie is nothing special - a teenage girl falls in love with a much older playboy in 1960's London. But the acting promises to be great. Carey Mulligan plays protagonist Jenny, and she was plucked from acting on Broadway. (The Seagull opposite Kristin Scott Thomas!)

--------

Not your father's Star Trek? Not anybody's Sherlock Holmes, either!

Distribution is ambitious. Christmas Day. I'm sad Jude Law isn't on the movie poster. I'd think that his name is just as large as Robert Downey Jr's.

But I, for one, am insanely happy that Watson is being fairly represented. Jude Law is actually a little too skinny for my tastes, but I can finally envision Watson as (a very slight) rugby player, fit from serving in Afghanistan and faithful follower of Sherlock Holmes.

-------

A different kind of directorial triumph if this movie is recognized. In any case, this looks like a very powerful movie.

Taste these teeth please/And undress me from these sweaters better hurry/Cause I'm keeping upward bound now/Oh maybe I'll build my house on your cloud

2009-06-10T22:29:00.000-04:00

Today, I drive my mom's car to where I volunteer. I lock the car, file, sort, and organize for 3 hours, and then happily go back to the parking lot (via the BACK DOOR today, since I finally got the code to unlock it) to drive home. Too bad the car alarms start blaring. I quickly look around the parking lot. Didn't anyone hear this and want to come out and investigate? The alarm dies after about 60 seconds of chaos. I cautiously try again. The alarm starts up. This cycle repeats about two more times.

At this point most people probably would have given up. But I soldier on through. And finally start the car without all hell breaking loose.

My question is as follows: What the hell are car alarms for if not to tell people that THIS CAR IS BEING TAMPERED WITH, here? Everyone is so immune to them that I could have actually been breaking in, and nobody would have cared. In fact, a man came out of the office across the street, saw me trying in vain to stop this alarm, and all he did was smile at me and then drive off in his own car.

We are the people that rule the world /

2009-06-06T20:14:00.000-04:00

-------

I saw Up yesterday. It made me laugh and cry, but I was still bitterly disappointed.

Carl and Ellie's story, told as it is mostly in images and without words, had me bawling. I don't even know why, as it's a fairly typical story of two people growing old together.

Dug made me laugh. The Cone of Shame, in particular, was a nice touch and its use at the very end is a nice illustration of how the circumstance can influence a person's identity.

But holy crap. The Wilderness Explorer (a Boy Scout parody) kid, Russell, was beyond annoying. It got to the point where I was groaning every time he came on screen, which was basically every minute of the last 3/4ths of the movie. His existence just reaffirmed my opinion that kids suck. Every minute on screen he was whining, pouting, or arguing. Or looking "sad." I put sad in quotation marks because that kind of "ohhhh poor me I'm a puppy don't kick me" look doesn't work well unless it's on a puppy's face (read: Dug).

The part that angered me, though, was the ageism against Carl. Oh, sure, he's 70+ and the real hero of the movie, but that doesn't stop the old-people jokes from flying fast and furious. My question: What's the point of making a character a hero if the movie just makes fun of said character the entire time?

-------

Today I read Someday This Pain Will Be Useful, by Peter Cameron. It's about an 18-year-old boy, James Sveck. He has gotten into Brown but is thinking about abandoning college to live in a no-name town in the Midwest and pick up a trade, all because he hates people his own age and would much rather be a loner. He is the quintessential rich white city boy. He doesn't fit in anywhere. He spends his time thinking about the past, and hates pop culture but is at the same time very aware of the culture. He's able to pinpoint a Marimekko dress that is worn backwards, and identify a Comme des garcons shirt. Those are pretty obscure high fashion brands!

The one part that stood out the most to me was when James is attending the American Classroom, one of those week-long camp things run by conservatives that supposedly give you experience in civics and government. Actually, James is telling the reader what happened during his stay with the American Classroom, which happens several months prior to the present of the book. James likes to sit alone at the tables because he is acutely aware of his own uncomfortableness with other kids and also disdains the rules that govern their (and his) lives, such as having the back of the bus reserved for the "cool kids." (Oh, how I remember that the cool kids were always in the back, and you really wanted the back seat, and how this one bus driver would reserve the back seat for the birthday kid.)

During the intermission of a dinner theater performance, another girl invites James to sit with her table. James is disgusted because he recognizes that she thinks she is doing him a favor, and is trying to be nice, but he doesn't think that it's nice at all. He would much rather be alone.

And so I find this a really strange book to put in the young adult section of a bookstore or a library, but that's where this book is classified. I suppose it's for all the loners of the world, but I can't say if this is an optimistic book or not. James finds that not even his dream of living in a beautiful old home in the Midwest can stand up to scrutiny. He ends up attending Brown, but it's not an active decision.

This worldview is so completely from all the other books and movies out there. this one says it's okay to feel like James does, although it probably won't make you happy.

When I read this book, I ended up just feeling sad. I recognized all the social awkwardness in myself, but I was also too cowardly to buck the silly rules that James disregards.

movies I want to see 2 (fall/winter/beyond edition)

2009-06-05T01:17:00.000-04:00

As I have previously mentioned, I really want to see this movie. Alejandro Amenábar, Rachel Weisz. Atheism and Christianity during a troubled Rome.

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This looks like a scifi movie along the lines of Gattaca, not really Rendezvous with Rama hard scifi but also not Serenity or the new Star Trek cowboy space opera fun. BUT. It's only playing in NY or LA? Kill me dead.

Also, Kevin Spacey voices GERTY, the on-board computer.

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European zombie horror flick.

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Okay, so this one is coming out in the summer, not in the fall/winter/beyond.

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One of my favorite books as a child, and I reread it a lot at work.

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Okay, so I couldn't find a movie poster for this movie, even though it's been completed for months and is being set up for a Best Picture Oscar run.

it has Hilary Swank and Ewan McGregor, and if you know me, you know I love Ewan McGregor. What else? Richard Gere is also in this baby, and it's directed by Mira Nair. I may be wrong, but I think this is the first movie directed by a woman to appear on these lists. There is such a shortage of directors who are female.

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I really hate the movie poster for this movie. I suppose it's better than not having one, though. But in any case, that's why it's not here.

Guess what? It's Ewan McGregor again. And apparently Jim Carrey in a The Truman Show-like performance, and not like his recent comedies. This movie was apparently banned to NC-17-land for a moment there, but I think it's back to R. It looks like a Catch Me If You Can-type con movie, which tickles me greatly.

For small creatures such as we

2009-06-03T00:48:00.000-04:00

"For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love." --Carl Sagan, Contact

Can't leave it, the game needs him / Plus the people need someone to believe in

2009-05-31T01:46:00.000-04:00

And I was your silver lining as the story goes

2009-05-30T22:39:00.000-04:00

lunch today. how cheap can I go? beer and mac n cheese. oh, you're seeing all right. I put the beer into a tea bottle.

Chain gleaming, switching lanes, two-seating / hate him or love him for the same reason

2009-05-30T13:06:00.000-04:00

this is the way that we love / like it's forever / then live the rest of our life / but not together

2009-05-30T01:26:00.000-04:00

if anything should happen
I guess I wish you well
ooh a little bit of heaven
or a little bit of hell

All around me are familiar faces / worn out places, worn out faces

2009-05-25T21:30:00.000-04:00

last night

2009-05-25T18:16:00.000-04:00

was awesome.

Thanks to those of you who gave me a memorable night. okay food, passable movie, great music, amazing people.

and about the movie - oh, it was better than Wolverine. But still, once special effects get so cheap to make that every summer movie contains such a huge dose of CHEESE factor that I can feel myself metaphorically gagging with the onslaught of cheese oozing from the plot holes of the movie, that is enough. I don't want to start laughing in the movie theater because some stunt was so absurd that the director saw fit to repeat it again, and again. Cars blowing up? That's cool. Cars blowing up because of some warped notion of physics and half-way believable special effects? Not cool, Terminator Salvation, not cool.