Ignorance Is Bliss

There some singers and actors that I loathe to know about their private lives. It's like Corinne Bailey Rae's "Put Your Records On" is such a simple, sweet song. But every time I listen to it, I start thinking about Rae's overdosed husband, how is she coping with his death? The sweetness of the song just emphasizes the cruelty of the situation. She probably doesn't need my pity and yet there it is.
Same with actors, it's very hard to watch a movie with Tom Cruise and not see "Tom Cruise" instead of the character his playing.

NOW WE DANCE

Sometimes when you can do anything, there is only the monkey and the urge to dance. I always think of this when I need rouse my lazy bum and do something!

New Tools

Lately I have been obsessed with making Peter's apartment our home. I'm looking at a bunch of websites in order to figure out how to arrange our little studio to both give us privacy, comfort, enough space to do what we like, and to occasionally make room for a guest or two who might want to visit us. It's fun but a little daunting...since Peter's idea of a budget for the new stuff is a bit lower than mine and because we have somewhat a different sense of aesthetic (I'm modern, he's more classic/authentic). However, I've discovered this little cool tool from Raymour and Flanigan Furniture that lets you plan your room right there on the web page. I'm excited to use it. In the mean time we are looking at this little sleeper for guests. I just wish there were more color options.

Ginlicious

Esquire covers a few variations on my favorite drink, gin & tonic.

Gin:

"Thanks to an herbaceous and floral nature primarily lent by juniper, gin's piney complexity mixes well with citrus, fruit, and herbs, making it the ideal base for steamy weather. Though its origins lie in Dutch genever (a juniper-flavored malt-wine spirit), historically, gin is the drink of the English"

Yeeeeaaaah!

This made me laugh. It's completely untimely and irrelevant, except that bad puns is what I do and making fun of CSI:Miami is always fun. Also, taking off glasses to reveal another pair. Plain awesome.

On the internet they have everything

Even heavy metal covers of music from Studio Ghibli. Here's a cover of My Neighbor Totoro theme.

Reminders From The Past

So I decided a while ago not to watch anymore Holocaust related movies whethere fiction or documentaries, for my well being. I just can't handle the subject matter, in the past it has left me incapacitated - and yet, because this is the history of my people I am drawn to. Thus I recently found myself watching A Film Unfinished, a documentary about the Nazis attempt to create a movie of the Warsaw ghetto, a propaganda film to show the inhumanity of Jews. Posing "wealthy" Jews with malnourished ones, juxtaposing the corpses with a dance in the cafe by those care free Jews in the ghetto - never mind that all the gay scenes were staged.

There are many images that have stayed with me from the movie, so much sorrow, humiliatoion, and loss. And yet the image I comeback to is a staged scene of a woman putting on her lipstick. She put it on exactly the way my grandmother did. Such a simple thing and yet it finds a way to become completely personal, to connect you to the people who are through the tiny details of life. Arresting image for me.

Catz Video

Apparently the Japanese do everything better than others. Even cat videos. Seriously, I sat through the whole thing and smiled almost the whole time. Who am I? I also enjoyed a small part of the video where the cat licks the finger. Seriously, when I had my adopted cat, it was the best feeling when she licked my fingers or toes. #nonpevertedwayofcourse



P.S. Sometimes I wish I was born Japanese, just so I can have everything fucking super cute. Cute stuff is my Kryptonite. I have a small Japanese calendar book, and I loathe to write in it because the little whimsical drawings in it are so darn cute.

What I've Been Watching - Quickies

I'm not sure if it's Stephane's influence or what, but I've been watching a lot of movies lately. Actually to a movie or two in a theater. Something I haven't done in quite a long while.

Source Code
It all started innocently enough with Peter suggesting to see Atlas Shrugged, Yaron and Lee also were in the mood for some light Ayn Rand's propaganda, thus joined us on a very rainy night in Manhattan. Anyhoo, we get to the theater where the movie was supposedly playing, only to find out someone messed up or was playing a cruel joke on the 7 Libertarians in the Tri-State area, and the movie was being shown at another AMC. Apparently, we weren't the only schmucks who fell for the listing, an incredibly angry man (from NJ?! maybe) was giving all Rand fans a bad name by throwing a first rate tantrum at the ticket counter, demanding not only to be repaid for the tickets he bought online but, his dinner and transportation costs (I hope someone punched him, because I think we all had the urge as we walked away).

Thus we were left with few good choices, I made an executive decision and went with the (then) new Jake Gylkmdslkfmhal movie, Source Code - a thriller about Jake going back in time to solve train being blown up. Trusting my friend from FilmSoc, via his facebook, reviews that the movie was good I urged the group to see this piece of crap train wreck (no pun intended, really). Basically any movie involving time travel and Jake Gylkmdslkfmhal, will evidently make no real sense (see Donnie Darko). Not only was the story weak, the ending made no logical sense at all, BUT it had the fake out plot with a nice Muslim dude, just being a nice Muslim dude! Arrrgh! I felt dumber having seen that movie. Although we went out for Mexican food after and most things were made better by Sangria.

Jane Eyre
Mia Wasikowska from In Therapy, stars as Jane. There was something incredibly visceral about this film. Even if you aren't a big fan of Jane Eyre (like me), or into Gothic chick movies, this is well done - and worth renting. The film emphasizes the physical and the emotional struggle Jane undergoes, more so than any other version I have seen. The romance is quite muted, instead the film over and over emphasizes Jane's incredible obstacles and strength. The film is beautifully shot, but feels too modern at times, I was reminded of those moody hipsterish videos.

Bridesmaids
So apparently this movie is not all gross out humor or the female version of Hangover (although the script for this movie was written before Hangover script, but I digress). I actually really loved the gross out part(s) - and I'm usually the one who is easily grossed out and skips that part of the movie. The great acting by Kristen Wiig and the other cast members, especially the versatile Melissa McCarthy (Snookie from Gilmore Girls), is refreshing and lands the film a certain gravitas it otherwise would lack and thus make it too ridiculous to connect with. I know I'm probably the only person to mention Bridesmaids and gravitas together but this movie made me care about the characters and identify with more than one, while still making me laugh - a not so easy feat in today cardboard, PC, world of "chick flicks". So in the end, I laughed, I cried, and I would see it again.
Go see it if:
If you recently got married.
If you had a friend recently get married.
If your dreams are in the trash.
If you feel sorry for yourself.
If you are dead broke.
If you like to laugh.

The Backup Plan
Not sure if you should trust my judgment, since I kind of didn't hate this movie. Mostly this is due to Jennifer Lopez not being vomit inducing. Is this a total ridiculous fairytale, where an good looking, somewhat successful guy decides after basically one date to raise children with his new hot girlfriend? The movie kind of drums up a conflict, but it's so flimsy that even people who have never seen a chick flick would be yelling at how utterly ridiculous the premise of the conflict is. And yet I still kind of liked the movie. Lopez was funny, endearing, silly, and cute at times. She wasn't "Jenny from the Block" she was just a woman having a baby trying hard not screw it up with the sexy guy she really liked. So rent it, if you are in the mood for some feel good, girly experience.

13 Conversations About One Thing
Supposedly it was about happiness. I really can't recall since I found the movie incredibly boring and heavy handed. Although Alan Arkin does a great job, Matthew McConaughey too.


Easy A
Cute, funny, I really like Emma Stone. Kind of a typical teenage comedy, but the lovebale, easygoing parents played by Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci, steal the show. I kind hated the stereotypical jab at Bible-belt type kids. But this is made in Hollywood so the lack of three dimensional characters wasn't a huge surprise. Did I mention Emma Stone is incredibly cute.

Hot Tub Machine
Should have watched it when I was drunk. It's funny at times and there is a lot of 80's nostalgia. But yeah, it's a movie about time travel in a hot tub with Chevy Chase appearing sporadically. Also, Craig Robinson is awesome.

That's all for now.

On Having More Than One

If we get to be parents, this is precisely the reason I want to have more than one child. It might be selfish, but I'm a (future) Jewish mother and the idea of losing a child feels me with dread and I don't even have one.

The last few paragraphs made me a little weepy, from John Hodgman's, "Apologia to My Second Child":

And so you see, I cannot take the risk. Like a farmer who needs children to till the soil and cannot risk having but one, so I need more than one child to lower my risk of absolute awful heartache.

To be honest, I do not know how this will work out. I, the only child, find it difficult to understand how love can be dispersed between two children. And there will be other shortages. There will be no perfect triangle. There will be alliances and counteralliances. There will be no short stories written near a fern. The stories that you write will be those you conspire out of nighttime conversation with Hodgmina [older sister - Pdov]. For, yes, you will live in an apartment, and you will have to share a room.

But you will be freer to fail, as your errors will be outshadowed by Hodgmina's and vice versa. And thus you will free yourselves of the unfair burden to avoid death at all costs. By having you, unnamed male child, I have chosen to give you both less so that at the end, as point by point, the shape of our family disappears, you will not have lost everything.

Also, I love my big sister. We have (had) differences, but she means the world to me and I feel so happy our parents decided to have more than just her. :P