Film Club

Our next film club will be posted on Monday, November 9th - that gives you two weekends to go and see the film.

This month's film selection is An Education, starring Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard.

See the film, then come back here on the 9th to read my thoughts and to leave your own in the comments.

Until then!

Blue Bag

This is my new bag. I got it at Target. You can get it here.

I needed a new bag for two reasons (not that I need reasons, but I DID shell out $24.99 or something) - 1) the strap on my old bag was breaking and 2) I need a bag big enough to hold a book in.

This is not a huge bag, but it is definitely big. I just have a flat wallet, a lip gloss, a pen, keys, iPhone, and sunglasses. Even with a book, this bag still has a lot of room left. I could put a scarf, hat, and gloves in it if I still lived somewhere that ever got remotely cold.

Why don't I get a nice bag that costs more that 25 dollars? Because I will lose it or get it dirty or ruin it. Why don't I go eco friendly and buy something that is recycled or saves the Earth in some way? Because my friends already have the seatbelt bag, the license plate bag isn't big enough for a book, and the bag I got from ebay had a lining that appeared to be made out of an old swimming pool. Why don't I buy a cruelty free purse that doesn't use leather? I did - this is plastic. :)

Target also has the cutest wear-to-work dresses - they even inspired me to change my Halloween costume! I'll post more on this later!

Bangin'

Here's a look at my new haircut. Bangs!

For my inspiration, see this post.

- - - - -

Everyone says it looks like this, though:

I think I'll start wearing my bangs to the side.

Something Random I Posted on Facebook

...is eating pumpkin seeds.

Calorie Counter

This is a picture of the calorie counter - it's not mine, I'm a vegetarian!

Did you know that Google has a free calorie counter? You can find it (here). I love that whenever I go to search for something on Google (which is often several times a day) I'm reminded of it and I can add what I ate.

Here are some fast food items that I eat occasionally and what they add up to calorie-wise:

Qdoba Naked Vegetarian Burrito (Cilantro-lime rice, pinto beans, pico de gallo, cheese, quacamole): 830 (but I can't eat ALL of it).

Subway Veggie 6" Sub (Pepperjack cheese, mustard, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, bell peppers, olives, cucumbers, oil and vinegar): 325.

Pick Up Stix Buddha's Feast with light sauce, white rice, and a vegetable egg roll (I actually don't like this, but I ate it today, so I looked it up): 370.

Jack in the Box breakfast burrito (tortilla, eggs, cheese, hashbrowns): 622 (again, I don't eat the whole thing).

Yikes on the breakfast burrito, right?? A favorite homemade breakfast of mine, in comparison, is an omelette made of two egg whites, chopped bell peppers, and a chopped up veggie sausage patty with black coffee for only 177 calories! That's almost as much as one 8" flour tortilla by itself. Calories are weird.

Speaking of coffee... at Starbucks a grande (who gets a tall?) brewed black coffee is a yummy 5 calories. A grande caramel Frappuccino with easy whip is 325 calories.

Some good low-cal snacks include fruit, of course (tangerines are 40 calories, bananas are 62), and those 100 calorie snack packs that are so popular at grocery stores now (I prefer Nabisco Oreo thin crisps for something sweet and Ritz Snack Mix for a salty snack).

Ebates.com Glee

The Internet is missing this, and so I shall provide.

Does anyone else think the woman in the ebates.com commerical looks like Emma Pilsbury from Glee?

I'm just saying.

Haircut?

Right now I have long, straight hair with no bangs. I'm thinking about getting a haircut. I was inspired by this photo from the Urban Outfitters late fall catalogue.

I know I'm not a model, and so there is no way I would actually look like this, but the cut looks kind of cute, no? Plus, it seems like it would be easy to style and take care of. I had short hair like this in college, but not with bangs and I had long hair with bangs in high school.

This is what I DO NOT want to end up with:

What do you think?

Halloween Costume 2009!

So, my friend is having a Halloween party and I'm supposed to dress relatively sexy (aren't we all?). With some help from my friends over the Angels game last night I whittled my choices down to half a dozen choices. Here they are:

Goddess

I would actually make my own costume (I can sew a little) but here is one you can buy so you can get the idea.

Cute Ninja Girl

Again, this one looks cheap. I would take one of my old yukatas and cut is shorter, then bring a sword or something.

Leprechan

I would have to buy this - I can't make a leprechan costume. This looks a bit short, though!

Gypsy

I actually think this looks kind of terrible, but my friends were for it. The general concensus was that if I made it myself it would be cute - but that would be a lot of work.

Beer Garden Girl

This is kind of cute. Again, I would probably have to buy it, though I might be able to put something together out of my Red Riding Hood costume from two years ago.

Flasher Chick

You wear a trench coat over a flesh-colored tank top and little shorts. This would be too hot, though. Plus, I would have to buy a trench coat.

Right now, I'm leaning toward the ninja as that would take the least amount of money and effort.

What do you think? What are you wearing for Halloween this year? Leave your thoughts in the comments. I'll be sure to put up a picture of the final choice!

Netflix

Do you have Netflix? These are the top 20 DVDs in my queue right now.

1. Every Little Step (Short Wait)

2. Orphan (releases 10/27/09)

3. X-Men Origins: Wolverine

4. That Hamilton Woman

5. Land of the Lost (Short Wait)

6. Anvil: The Story of Anvil

7. Dexter: Season 3: Disc 3

8. Dexter: Season 3: Disc 4

9. Away We Go

10. The Proposal

11. Grey Gardens

12. Sophie's Choice

13. What Dreams May Come

14. Get Smart

15. Waltz with Bashir

16-20. Big Love: Season 1

I have 142 total. Is that too many?

What's in your queue?

Random Pictures Taken by Me

Just to balance things out, here are six random pictures that were taken by me.

I didn't say they were the six greatest pictures ever taken by me.

This is a little funny because I don't eat ice cream or meat anymore or take milk in my coffee. When my relatives come to visit, I'll go to Sweet Tomatoes/Soup Plantation unless they really want to go to Ho own Buffet. ;)

Book Club Books for November and December

If you would like to join the book club for this blog, here are the books for November and December. On the following dates I will post my thoughts on the book - feel free to leave comments of your own!

November 8th: Death with Interruptions by Jose Saramago.

December 6th: The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.

Also, Sophie's World has been changed to December 1st.

Happy reading!

An Open Letter to Jim Carrey

Dear Jim Carrey,

Please stop ruining Christmas.

America

Update: Bon Iver

I recently wrote about a song from Bon Iver here.

Well, it seems that Bon Iver may be no more. Justin Vernon and the Bon-tourage announced last night in Milwaukee that they are going to take an indefinite amount of time off - or at least about a year.

You can read about it at The Trip Wire.

MASH

Remember the MASH game from elementary school? It's the game where you write down lists of (seemingly) random things like "types of cars," "numbers," and "people you have a crush on" then pick a number and it tells your future! For a walk down nostalgia lane, you can play it online here:

My results tell me that I am..

• Going to marry my current crush
• Going to settle down in my hometown in a cozy shack (ick)
• Going to be an actor and
• Going to drive my two kids around town in a blue convertible

I guess I can live with that.

What does the future have in store for you (be sure to leave your results in the comments)?

Paranormal Activity

I saw this much-talked-about horror flick today. I was totally freaked out about going because my friend said she had nightmares for two days. Apparently what is really scary about the film is when nothing is happening, but you are scared because you think something is going to happen! That doesn't sound scary to you? That's because it isn't. It was pretty ho-hum.

Here is Roger Ebert's review (he seemed to like it).

I did have a nightmare once after watching something scary, but it wasn't a movie. It was a TV show I used to watch in Japan - a sort of children's show called Honto ni atta Kowai Hanashi or Scary Stories that Really Happened. I know it was a kids show, but it was the best!

The show was hosted by Inagaki Goro and was about a group of children who investigate paranormal phenomena (actually, they just sat in a room reading letters, so "investigate" may not be the right word...). Most of the show consisted of reenactments of supposedly "real" letters sent in by viewers who had had contact with ghosts, etc. But the best part was when they showed Shinrei Shashin (Ghost Pictures)!

SRS are creepy photographs (most of which, I'm guessing, are just photoshopped or are double exposures, etc.) that have ghosts in them or where people are mysteriously missing limbs or something. It sounds lame, but it is really scary. They show the photograph first and you don't notice anything, then they zoom in on the part with the ghost and you think... but wait... Oh! Creepy!! Anyway, it's way more scary than anything in Paranormal Activity.

There is a pretty good site with mostly American ghost pictures (here) but they are a lot less creepy than the Japanese kids show nightmare-inducing variety.

I wanted to find a video that showed the ghost pictures, but all I could find was reenactment videos. This is from an episode that I remember! Also, it has English subtitles! Enjoy.

And here is part two...

The nightmare I had was after watching one of these shows. I had a dream that my friend's grandmother had passed away and I went with her and her sister to their grandmother's now empty house to clean it out. I was on the floor on a futon getting ready to go to sleep and my friend and her sister were going through their grandmother's closet, drawers, etc. when her sister started to say, "Maybe we shouldn't be messing with her stuff..." when suddenly a totally scary Japanese ghost old grandmother popped up right in front of my face and screamed "Don't touch my stuff" in Japanese! I jumped right out of bed in real life. That was scary.

As you can see, I am a wimp who is scared by children's TV shows. Paranormal Activity, however, I really just found annoying.

Random Pictures Not Taken by Me

I recently found a group of about eighteen or so random pictures on my computer that were not taken by me. I assume I got them off the internet somewhere to use for a project that never happened. I honestly can't remember, which makes them kind of interesting. Anyway, here are six of them. If one of them belongs to you and is not creative commons, I will take it down.

I'm just saying.

Flume

This is the sixth in a series of blog entries about songs picked at random from my itunes library. For the post on the last song, "Ras Trent" go (here). For "Hole to Feed" go (here). For "Every Little Thing" go (here). For "No Surprises" go (here). For "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (Love Version)" go (here).

"Flume" is the first track off of Bon Iver's debut album For Emma, Forever Ago released in 2007. Those who are lucky enough to know about this album know that it was recorded by singer-songwriter Justin Vernon during a three-month stay in a cabin in Wisconsin.

This was one of the first records I got when I bought my record player. It was basically second on the list of "Records You Must Buy if You Listen to Records" (After Neutral Milk Hotel's In an Aeroplane Over the Sea which I also own). And within 10 seconds I knew why. I don't think I can explain in words what it is like to put the needle to the vinyl, wait a moment for this song to begin, and then hear the first chords from the acoustic guitar reverberating off the cabin walls. The real kicker, however, is (what I guess would be) the chorus.

Resist the urge to look up the lyrics and just listen.

******

On a personal note, after almost exactly six months, this is officially the 50th entry for this blog. I've been rolling my heart to you since April 19th, 2009 when I just had to share with everyone my experience from the front row of Paul McCartney at Coachella.

Thanks for reading!

Meetup.com

If you have not yet discovered meetup.com, you will now - and it will change your life!

I discovered it when I was looking to join a book club and I found not only a really cool book club that meets once a month (and chooses books democratically that are NOT on the Oprah list) but also a film club (once a month we go to the local independant/foreign film art house theatre) a ladies' social club (we're going to a haunted house!) and a yoga-in-the-park class!

Meetup.com is a website where you can search for local special interest groups and activities based on interests or location (I searched only for groups within 10 miles of my city). If you live in Jacksonville Florida (zip code 32241), for example, you can join:

The Jacksonville Shetland Dog Meetup Group

The "Going Green" Small Business Forum

The Jacksonville Single Moms Support Group

Argentine Tango Group Classes

The Jacksonville Horror Movies Fan Group

The Florida Xtreme Racing Club

and more... all within 5.5 miles of the city center!

So go there now, join the local book club and get started! There's no book club near your city? Start one yourself! I'm thinking of starting a Meat Free Monday dining club!

A Painting of Your Personality

It's Sunday, OK? So don't blame me for wasting time on the internet.

I looked up the origin of my last name here (we come from Liverpool).

Then I found this site where you can take a short personality test and they make a picture of it. Above is my personality. Apparently, my personality is a 12-year-old girl from 1985 who likes Jazzercise.

If you make a painting of your personality, please post it in the comments.

Bridesmaids' Speech

Last year I was a bridesmaid for my good friend Becky. My two fellow bridesmaids and I all went to high school with Becky and we were all roommates with her at some point in our lives. We all love Becky, but we had some trouble with our bridesmaids' speech.

At first, we thought we weren't supposed to give a speech - that it was just the best man (the groom's brother - who did a really great job, by the way) so I gave a speech (after a few glasses of champagne) at the bachelorette party (which was on a four-day cruise to Mexico, which was really cool).

When we discovered we would have to come up with a funny but sweet speech that would not embarass the bride too much, we were stumped for a while. While we were mulling it over, I typed up this list and sent it out to the girls. Some of the ideas (ie: numbers 16-19, 25, and 27) are Becky-specific, but others might be useful for current and future bridesmaids. By the way, here is our dress.

50 Ways to Spice-up Our Bridesmaids' Speech

1. Puppet show

2. Interpretive dance

3. Multimedia presentation

4. Adam Sandler-esque song parody

5. Dramatic monologue

6. One word: impressions

7. Give speech in a foreign language (provide subtitles)

8. Do "on-the-street" type interviews with other wedding guests

9. Vaudville-esque comedy routine

10. Mime

11. Pre-record speech on video and hand out cards with the YouTube link

12. Perform a skit (ala fifth grade environmental camp)

13. Do the speech as a TV Game show

14. Give a serious speech while dressed in Star Wars costumes. Never mention Star Wars.

15. Two words: Bicycle shorts

16. Becky likes Opera. Learn and perform the "Voi, che sapete che cosa é amor" aria from Act II of The Marriage of Figaro (or any other aria, I'm open to suggestions)

17. Becky likes Jane Austen, I thought we could all... sit around discussing our lack of fortune? Do a country dance? Decorate bonnets?

18. Becky likes The Princess Bride, I thought we could... swordfight? Wrestle? Poison each other?

19. Becky likes teacups, I thought we could give a speech on the theme: "Marriage is a lot like a teacup"

20. The reception IS by the seaside... would a Esther Williams-esque synchronized swimming routine to the tune of "Going to the Chapel" be too over-the-top?

21. Three words: Toiletpaper wedding gowns (wait, is toilet paper two words?)

22. Scavenger hunt

23. Do the whole speech ala Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" music video

24. Did I already say song parody?

25. Carve the speech onto the crust of a "toasted cheese" sandwich

26. Unicycles!!

27. Becky's favorite movie is Strictly Ballroom - we could do our speech in Australian accents and wear bolero jackets

28. Type up a beautiful speech, but don't read it! Just put it in a balloon and release it!! So poetic!!!

29. Bridesmaids speech in a bottle - throw it into the ocean for some Hawaiian bridesmaids to find!

30. Skywriting

31. Get the phone numbers of all of the guests in advance. Just text them the speech.

32. We could each write an ode to Becky in the form of one of the three different types of sonnet - I call dibs on Spencerian!

33. Bridesmaid Idol - We would each give a speech, then the guests would score us. The bridesmaid with the lowest score must leave the wedding. The winner gets to take back her gift!

34. Do the speech Conan O'Brien style, complete with monologue, state quarters, if-they-made-it pictures, and a dog puppet that says the cake is for him to "poop on"

35. Suck on helium before giving the speech. Awesome!!

36. Wear hillbilly teeth/vampire fangs

37. Make balloon animals to commemorate different events in Becky's life

38. Juggling

39. I'm pretty sure Heather said she could do fire-breathing

40. Spontaneously bursting into song like in a musical. (Only works if random old lady relative and/or janitor is involved)

41. "Freezing" (check youtube)

42. Buy a parrot. Teach it to give our speech for us.

43. Kids are cute. Puppies go over well, too.

44. Wedding cake eating contest

45. Four words: Diet coke and mentos

46. Photoshop and display pictures of Becky with her past boyfriends (Carrot Top, Andy Dick, Marilyn Manson...)

47. Display the "B&R 4-EVER" tattoos we got on our posteriors

48. Get out our high school yearbooks and read aloud the (fake or real) messages Becky wrote to us

49. Five words: Hire a professional speech writer

50. After the best man gives his speech, we all stand up and say, "Ditto."

All of this was BEFORE that dancing-down-the-aisles video showed up on YouTube...

I'm just saying.

Fated to Love MGMT

I just want to say that I love MGMT and I will love them until I choke on my vomit.

I realize that sounds gross. Sorry.

Book Club #1: Erased

Welcome to my first-ever book club blog! The book for this blog is Erased by Jim Krusoe. Didn't read it? You still have time for next week's selection: Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder.

Erased by Jim Krusoe

This book is apparently the second in a trilogy of fantasy-of-sorts novels by Krusoe, a teacher at Santa Monica College.

Because I'll be talking about the plot, this post contains spoilers.

* * * * * * * * * * * * SPOILERS * * * * * * * * * * * * *

This book started out well. I liked the framing device where every other chapter was an interview transcription (because the main character's mom worked as a transcriber). The book kept getting increasingly weird, however.

When he moved to another city after people started committing crimes with his garden tools I thought that was strange. He moved into an apartment - how long was he planning to stay? If he wanted to find his mother (who was supposedly dead) why didn't he go to the coroner or the cemetery? I thought his new employee was going to embezzle money or something. He didn't. I thought something was going to happen with the garden implement murders. Nothing did.

When they went on a city-wide rat hunt with baseball bats and garbage can lids, I thought that was a little strange. Then his friend killed a big rat that looked like a dog - because it actually WAS a dog. She killed a dog! Then they just went to the bar at 9:30 in the morning, where they met a guy called Yellow Horse who used his magical Native American powers to try to find the guy's (supposedly dead) mother, "I see a hot place, pitchforks... fumes, mist... the word devil comes to mind" he then adds, "I hope this is not bad news." No, my mother is in hell, that's just fine!

Then the Nazis came.

Here is a sampling of comments I wrote in the margins of my book with a thin blue pen:

• This may be the point where I've given up hope on this book (this was even BEFORE the Nazis showed up).
• Wait. What? Did she just kill a dog with a club with a nail sticking out of it?
• OK, we get it.
• !
• OMG, who do you think you are, Professor? Charles Dickens? Cut it out with the descriptions.
• Oh.
• Because this is how all women think according to a guy who teaches at community college.
• Stupid.
• Because if you're not married, you must be crazy.
• It could be ANYBODY.
• Huh?
• Oh, good, because I was totally worried about that.
• Yeah, I think I saw that in the trailer for The Final Destination...
• So, Nazis?
• Shut up! :)

I wouldn't say this book was good, but I bet it will make for an interesting discussion at my first book club meeting!

Also, how common is the name "Sarge" anyway?

Happy Birthday to the Ground!

I love Sunday mornings! Getting up late, making brunch, and watching SNL on Tivo. Andy Samburg and the Lonely ISland guys have done it again - I love this week's Digital Short, "On the Ground."

Fight the system!

On a side note, happy birthday to my friend Carlos! I promise not to throw your cake on the ground.

Film Club #1: Bright Star

Our first film club film is director Jane Campion's Bright Star, the story of the last couple of years in the life of Romantic poet John Keats.

This post features my thoughts on the film, so it includes spoilers. Don't keep reading if you don't want to know what happens.

************Spoilers Follow************

Keats died at the age of 25, and the movie focuses on his ill-fated romance with (literally) the girl next door, Fanny Brawne.

The film makes use of letters actually written by Keats and Brawne, as well as a generous helping of his poetry, to tell their story. Apparently, the film was based heavily on poet Andrew Motion's biography of Keats (I ordered it on Amazon.com).

Here is the imdb page and here is the Wikipedia entry on the film. If you like reviews, here is Roger Ebert's and here is Rotten Tomatoes. Ebert, by the way gets some things wrong in his review. He says, for example, that Brown accompanies Keats to Italy, which he most certainly does not - in fact his not going is a pretty big plot point in the last third of the film. Will Joseph Severn get no credit? He also wonders is Brown is gay for Keats, which I didn't notice, but it's something to think about I guess. By the way, did you realize the guy playing Brown is the guy from that Parks and Recreation show?

I have to say that I found the fact that the film focused on the last two (or so) year of Keats' life refreshing. Usually these biopics spend the first forty minutes on the hero as a baby, a toddler (when he witnesses his parents fighting or his father leaving his mother or his mother dying - in Keats' case, it would have been the latter) then as a young man when his brother dies tragically (OK, that part was in) before they get to the part most of us care about.

For the first half of this film I kept thinking, "This is perfect! I'm going to buy this on DVD. I'm going to recommend that all of my friends who like costume drama, romance, Jane Austen, etc. rush to the theatre to see this." The first three fourths of the film were very enjoyable.

Now, for most people (apparently, not the woman sitting behind me) this film is a bit like Titanic, in that you know going in that Keats (played by the fantastic Ben Whishaw) is going to die. Keats' death in Italy is not shown, and rightly so. We are spared a tragic deathbed farewell, but as soon as Whishaw is gone, so is the fun in the film. When Abbie Cornish as Brawne fell to the floor crying and started pointing to her chest, it was a bit much. Instead of feeling her pain, I felt somewhat annoyed.

Similarly, how do you end such a film? Here, Campion gives us Fanny (who loves fashion and sews all her own clothes) sewing the lining into her black mourning clothes and walking through the woods in winter reciting the title sonnet, which Keats wrote for her. She cries while reciting it, which is also annoying.

The end is redeemed, however, with the return of Whishaw who reads the poem "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" over the closing credits. The audience in the theatre I went to was glued to the seats for all of the credits. Perfect!

Questions

Here are the questions with my answers, feel free to give your own in the comments!

What was your favorite scene?

I loved any scene that showed Keats and Brown sitting in their dark brown study "doing nothing." I also loved the beautiful visuals when Fanny sat reading Keats' letter in the field of blue flowers. I also loved the clothes!

Who was your favorite character?

I loved Fanny's brother and sister! They were so cute. The cat was also awesome.

What were you most surprised at?

I loved the butterfly farm!

What was your least favorite part?

The crying, chest pointing. We get it.

Will you see it again? But the DVD? Recommend it to friends?

I'll get the DVD. My friends can borrow it. :)