Randomness

-THE most random survey you'll take, ever. (I don't buy this at all)
-I doubt you've been asked these questions before. (Try me)
-Don't lie, and don't get offended. (I won't)

1. What's the color of the soap in your bathroom? white, the color of fresh and clean!

2. Do you like cola? sure

3. What's the 15th contact in your phone? Holy hell, hang on while I look it up. It's Brendan.

4. Are you on IM right now? Nope

5. What's your opinion on Alvin & the Chipmunks? Well, I loved the cartoon when I was a kid and even had their records like A Chipmunks Christmas and a Country Music one where they sang "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys (Chipmunks)" but I'm a little leery of this live action movie coming out. What the fuck has happened to Jason Lee? First "My Name is Earl" (ugh) then "Underdog" and now this???

6. Ever said the n-word to a black person? no, only to red ones

7. What are you doing tomorrow around 10:00 a.m.? Working - boo

8. Do you like writing in cursive or print, better? I'm a printer. My cursive is atrocious.

9. What are you listening to right now? Rilo Kiley's new album. I'm still trying to decide if I like it. Some of the songs are growing on me and some of them I really hate.

10. What's the most annoying noise in the world? That funky feedbacky noise my computer speakers make when my cell phone rings. I HATE THAT!

11. Do the speakers on your computer work? Yes, but sometimes they make that awful noise from above.

12. Have you ever written in wet cement? When I was a kid I did write my name in a sidewalk panel on my block.

13. Ever worn your underwear backwards? Inside out maybe, but not backwards.

15. Anyone in your family died from lung cancer? No, thank goodness.

16. Favorite Jelly Belly flavor? Cinnamon

17. Ever shopped for shoes online? Yes, I'm a girl, we shop for everything online.

18. How are your grades? This question makes me feel old.

19.What's always on your mind? Chocolate - it's a sickness seriously.

20. Don't you just HATE George Bush? Absolutely.

21. Do you follow your horoscope religiously? Not a whit.

22. How often do you go running? What is this "running" you speak of?

23. Are You Thirsty? Nah

24. Ever played Grand Theft Auto? Never, but I've watched it being played.

25. Do you like the person you copied this survey from? Yes, Ben's cool. He spins good music in bars that I like to drink in. And he always has a smile and a hug for me.

26. Do you get an allowance? Yes, I'm "allowed" to waste my time doing this shit.

27. Are you a bitch? Sometimes. Everyone is a bitch sometimes.

28. 50 Cent shows up at your door, what do you do? Ask him what he wants.

29. Last time you killed a bug? Yesterday, a gnat.

31. Where is your pet? Don't have one.

32. Favorite childhood game? Freeze tag!

34. When's the last time you had a slurpee? It's been awhile. I'm more partial to Slushes from Sonic.

35. Do you look through your old yearbooks a lot? No, but now I'm thinking about it.

36. What are you dreading right now? Cleaning the bathroom.

37. Have you ever painted a room in your house? I don't have a house.

38. Keeping any secrets right now? Off the top of my head, no.

39. What CD's in your stereo right now? I'm an iPod user so there is never a CD in my stereo anymore. I mean, I still buy CDs but then I download them and they sit on my CD rack. Right now I'm listening to the new Okkervil River album (Rilo Kiley is over).

40. Who comments you the most? Dang is that a myspace related question or what??? No one really, my comments are pretty varied.

41. Is your basement dusty? HA! That's a euphemism if I ever heard one! And no, it's not.

42. Ever witnessed a hit & run? Yes, I was the hittee. I was riding in Cameron's car down Maryland Pkwy from UNLV where we had just seen a performance of "As You Like It" which coincidentally starred a boy I had crushed on majorly in high school. We were on our way to get a late night bite to eat at Denny's, it was raining slightly and this guy just totally rear ended us while we were stopped at a light, then put it in reverse and drove off! To our amazement, the jackass' front license plate was stuck to Cam's car!

43. What do you do when you're bored at school? Hmmm, another question that makes me feel old. I would daydream.

44. What's the last household object you broke? Probably a wine glass.

45. Does whatever happen in Vegas... really stay in Vegas? God, I'm so over this marketing campaign. When will it end??? NO! "WHATEVER HAPPENS" WILL FOLLOW YOU THE FUCK HOME AND RUIN YOUR LIFE!

46. Ever been to a football game? This is a dumb and boring question. Yes.

47. What's your most played band in iTunes? How the hell should I know?

48. Old ladies...? The Golden Girls.

50. When's the last time you looked in the dictionary? Aw hell. During this damn survey! I looked up leery on Dictionary.com to make sure it wasn't spelled "leary" which I totally knew was just Timothy Leary residual memory, but I had to check anyway!

Dang thunderstorms. . .

I was woken up at 4:15 this am by an enormous clap of thunder that set off about a dozen car alarms in the parking lot of my apartment complex. HA! For two seconds I almost typed "a thunderous clap of thunder" instead of enormous! That would have been pretty stupid, huh?

This storm meant business. I was sleeping with earplugs in and still woke up - it was that loud! Of course my eyes blinked awake and I wanted to just roll over and go back to sleep, but the clock on my bedside was flashing. The power had gone out at one point so now I had to reset my clock and reset my alarm for my normal 6:22 am, a mere two hours away.

Yeah, don't ask why I set it for 6:22. Seems like a pretty random number you say? Ok, fine I'll tell you my reason for it. My local Channel 3 News has "Traffic & Weather on the 3s" so I set my alarm for 6:22 so I can immediately flip on the TV and get the report at 6:23. By the time the report is over I am awake enough to get in the shower. Sufficiently oddball enough for you?

Now back to the thunderstorm. All this getting out of bed to find out the time to reset my alarm and then appeasing my curiosity by checking out the downpour by standing on our balcony and witnessing the consequential river of water running through the parking lot, all while flashes of lightning and more thunderous claps of thunder (ha!) occurred with frightening speed, meant that I had a hard time falling back to sleep.

Normally I love a good thunderstorm. But I love them in the afternoon, on a Saturday, when I can curl up on the couch with a book, The Sundays playing on the stereo (this is a rule: The Sundays must always be playing when it rains), and watch the raindrops fall outside the window. These middle of the night, wake me up, keep me up during my last two hours of sleep kind of thunderstorms just make me a sad panda and a grumpy girl all day.

Becoming Jane - A Review

It is a truth universally (well at least within my inner circle of friends and relations) acknowledged that I was going to hate this movie. Indeed. Well, there were some things in it that I quite enjoyed. Like the cast (except for Anne Hathaway, but I'll get to her later), the cricket scene, the portrayal of Henry & Eliza, and the scenes of Cassandra's loss which did make my eyes sufficiently well up. But overall I am quite disappointed in the film. I tried my damnedest, really I did, to watch it objectively, but then the filmmakers would do something that would get my Janeite brain going and dampen my spirits. For example, early on when Jane overhears Mr. Lefroy's dismissal of her writing and proceeds to go upstairs, rip up what she had just written as an engagement present to her beloved sister, and then go through all her other writing that she has hidden away in a trunk and question them too??? Give me a freaking break! Jane Austen would not have given a whit about what a latecoming, rude, stranger thought about her writing! Even if he was as cute as James McAvoy. And then later when she excuses herself quite rudely in front of Lady Gresham and her nephew in order to plop down on a bench and quickly jot down some notes for later use?? Um, no. Jane was a private writer. She wrote at her desk in her room and left the door to said room with a squeak in it so she would know when someone was coming in and could hide her pages away! And the idea that Lefroy widens Jane's horizons by giving her Tom Jones to read? I'm sorry but if you read the letters where Jane Austen actually mentions Tom Lefroy on which supposedly this film is based she compares the color of Lefroy's coat to that of one worn by Tom Jones in the book! Which would mean she had already read the novel before she even met Lefroy, not at all suprising since her entire family were avid readers and Tom Jones was one of the most popular novels of its day.

I know, I know, here is me nitpicking right? Ok, I'll try to leave the historical inaccuracies aside. How about Anne Hathaway's acting? Does she really think a furrowed brow is all the acting necessary to get across every emotion? Oh, in this scene I'm angry, I better furrow my brow. Now I'm sad, a furrowed brow will do nicely. Oh now I'm worried, again a furrow of the brow should suffice! Her accent was perfectly fine, I just wish she had a little more depth. I did love James Cromwell and Julie Walters as Reverand and Mrs. Austen. Perfect casting. I additionally enjoyed the actress who played Cassandra although I felt her and Jane's relationship was kind of put to the side. In real life these two sisters were inseperable when together and when apart, wrote to each other constantly. The filmmakers could have made that more evident. And don't get me started on the so-called Jane is an older woman epilogue!

I've decided in this review not to go into the particulars of the Jane Austen/Tom Lefroy flirtation that suddenly became a full blown romance full of secret rendezvous and near elopments. Obviously this was the route the filmmakers decided to take in order to give us Jane's story. I don't agree with this decision, but it's understandable that they would want to give the author of some of the greatest romances of all time a romance of her very own. I just hope that those that do not know Jane's real story will go in search of it now. Because it is a story worth telling without all the filler. Maybe someday Hollywood will do it justice. Now, I know what you are all thinking: I went in already predisposed to hate the film, right? Of course I wasn't going to like it with this attitude, right? Well, yes that's true! I can't help it! Jane Austen is my favorite author and dear to my heart! I admire her as one of my ultimate heroes! To see her portrayed inaccurately and with little of the wit and vivacity she herself wrote with pains me! So sue me.

Mikhail Baryshnikov

I'm not sure exactly when my obsession with Mikhail Baryshnikov started but I'm pretty sure it was sometime in high school. I took ballet classes very briefly as a small child, as most little girls do, but that was it. I was not and am not a dancer myself, but I have always loved everything about the dance world: its grace, its beauty, its strength, its magic. The classical ballets were my favorites: Giselle, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker. I fell for Baryshnikov after discovering the movie The Turning Point. He was just so gorgeous and no one danced like him: great flying leaps where he seemed to hang in the air longer then seemed natural like some freaky ballet superhero!

My dream of seeing Baryshnikov dance live came true when I was nineteen. He was peforming with his White Oak Dance Project at UNLV's Ham Hall. The day before the show I got horribly sick with a virus, and ended up at the performance with a high fever. My boyfriend at the time went with me to the show and he was actually very sweet and took care of me during the performance, making sure I was awake whenever Misha was on stage, because I was so sick with fever I would kind of doze off in my seat. Suffice to say, I don't remember that much about it. I do remember Misha doing this little like golf routine, very cute and quite funny.

Anyway, I was so excited when I saw that Baryshnikov's new Hell's Kitchen Dance Project would be performing in Reno as part of their month long arts festival Artown. My dear friend Amy, who lives in Reno, was a ballet dancer when she was young and I knew she'd be thrilled if I came up so we could go to the show together. It was incredible. The Pioneer Center in downtown Reno is quite small, and we had amazing seats about 10 rows back from the stage so could see everything perfectly. The minute Baryshnikov walked out on stage the entire room kind of gasped and then held it's breath in anticipatory unison. The first dance was called “Years Later” and on a huge screen at the back of the stage they showed footage of a very young dancing Baryshnikov and then our present day live Baryshnikov danced along with the footage. There was a light in the very front of the stage so that it projected his shadow on the screen, and he could move up or downstage to make the shadow bigger or smaller so that there were sometimes three Baryshnikovs dancing: the young one onscreen, the 59 year old live one, and his shadow. It was quite touching, and even a little bit sad. The onscreen Baryshnikov was the young strong dancer, doing all his great jumps and leaps that the now older Baryshnikov has a hard time doing. He would even make fun of himself and laugh along with the audience as he bent over holding his back like an old man, throwing his hands up in the air like he won’t even try to keep up with his young self anymore. Baryshnikov is so humorous and down to Earth - it's really refreshing and interesting considering how superhuman he truly is. The final dance featured Baryshnikov again along with the dozen or so young dancers in his hand picked company. It was wonderful but again quite touching and sad, a passing of the torch kind of thing. He would dance with them, but also watch them in amazement and with a bit of nostalgia and regret in his posture and demeanor. You knew he was envying their youth. And then it's not like Baryshnikov blends in with these dancers. It's very obvious: there's freaking Mikhail Baryshnikov dancing onstage, 30 years older than all of the other dancers, and although some of them are excellent, they will never be as good as he was and still is. But this dance titled “Come In” was like Baryshnikov inviting them to give it a damn good try. All in all, it was a great experience getting to see him before he stops dancing altogether, something I will always cherish. Clumsy old desert rat me got to experience the greatest dancer that ever lived, Mikhail Baryshnikov, live in person, not once, but twice.

I love these iPod shuffly survey thingees.

So, here's how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Limewire, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool...

Opening Credits:"Oh Very Young" by Cat Stevens

Waking Up:"The Basts/Spring Landscape" from the "Howards End" Soundtrack

First Day At School:"Return to Sender" by Elvis Presley

Falling In Love:"Soft" by Kings of Leon (this song is about impotence, so that SUCKS!)

Peaceful and/or Fight Song:"Here's Where the Story Ends" by The Sundays

Breaking Up:"Beautiful One" by The Cardigans

Prom:"The Absence of God" by Rilo Kiley

Sex Scene"Revolution" by The Beatles

Life:"It Don't Come Easy" by Ringo Starr (You can say that again!)

Mental Breakdown:"Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison (Nice!)

Driving:"Cut Your Hair" by Pavement (this is an appropriately bouncy song for a drive)

Flashback:"At My Window Sad and Lonely" by Billy Bragg and Wilco

Getting back together:"Free Man in Paris" by Joni Mitchell (Ha! No getting back together for me!)

Wedding:"Days That Are Over" by Sondre Lerche (that's kind of depressing)

Birth of Child:"Atomic" by Blondie (weird)

Final Battle:"Ocean of Noise" by Arcade Fire

Funeral Song:"The Bargain Store" by Dolly Parton

End Credits:"So Long, Marianne" by Leonard Cohen

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - A Spoiler Full Review!

Ok, now it's time for my spoiler-full, positive and negative rant on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Seriously, if you haven't finished the book yet, don't read this! By the way, sometimes in the following rant, I do talk directly to Jo Rowling. I completely understand that she will never read my blog, but it makes me feel better to address her just the same.

I'll start with the positives:

-Good triumphed over Evil! Hooray! And Harry didn't have to die for it to happen. I know that Rowling has gotten some flack over the years for always having some kind of loophole for Harry, but thank God, cause I would have been crushed by his death even though I would have accepted it. Ditto for the survival of Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny, and Luna.
-Dumbledore ain't perfect. I loved that Dumbledore was shown to have some major flaws of character. The wizened old wizard, perfect in every way was boring. Selfish, neglectful and glory seeking was more honest, makes him a well rounded character and greater for having overcome those flaws.
-I KNEW SNAPE WAS GOOD! The Borders Books where I bought my copy was handing out stickers that said "Snape is a friend" or "Snape is a foe." This was a huge debate in the fan Universe and I must say: how could you possibly doubt it? Once it was revealed his love for Lily was what turned him to the good side forever, it was like duh, of course, that makes so much sense! Apparently many people figured that out halfway through, but I'm a little slow. I knew he was good, but hadn't even considered it was love for Lily.
-You go Molly! To paraphrase something my friend Tim said: after 6 books spent cooking and making Christmas sweaters, Molly Weasley finally got to kick some ass! "NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!" That was fantastic!
-Ron and Hermione finally snogged! Too bad it was in the middle of the biggest battle of their lives. Geez, how long had that been building??? About halfway through this book, I was beginning to despair that Rowling was just teasing us this whole time and was never going to let them consummate their "sexual tension." How freaking awkward is it going to be for Rupert Grint and Emma Watson when they finally have to film it?!
-Rowling is a Tolkien fan. I'm sure there are plenty of other things she stole from like ancient myths and Roald Dahl but I noticed the Lord of the Rings parallels the most. The one locket weighing down the wearer and making everyone mean? The myriad magical creatures coming to the aid of the good side towards the end of the last battle? I almost put this under the negatives, but realized, hell I'm a Tolkien fan myself and this kind of "stealing" happens all the time in literature. Plenty of writers will go on to steal from Rowling.
-Harry is a freaking man! I was monstrously proud of Harry as he walked into the Forbidden Forest all ready to sacrifice his own life for his friends and the world at large. That's a lot of pressure for a 17 year old, even if he is a wizard.

Ok, now time for the negatives:

-The death of Lupin and Tonks. Ok Rowling. I get it. Since you weren't going to kill off any of the main three, you had to find some other beloved characters to bite it. But it really bugs me that you did it to these two just when they had finally resolved all their issues and had a baby!!! What? It continues the whole Godfatherly theme? Fine, but then why did you have to kill them off stage? If they had to die I wanted to SEE IT HAPPEN! Who did they fight? What kind of battle was it? Did they die in each other's arms? Come on!
-The whole Elder Wand thing confused the hell out of me. Just reading 7 was not enough for me to get the Draco connection. I literally had to reread parts in 6 to realize that Draco disarmed Dumbledore before Snape killed him. I think Rowling could have done a better job of making that all clear.
-I missed Hogwarts. Now I know that the story is told from Harry's POV so it has to stay with Harry, but I really missed Hogwarts. Especially once we learn that Neville and Ginny were getting up to all kinds of DA shenanigans during the year. Rowling, you could totally write a whole book that parallels this one from the Hogwarts student's POV. That'd be awesome.
-Gryffindor's sword. This was something that was pointed out to me by Tim and my sister too and I went, "Huh, yeah, you're right!" I think this might be the biggest plot hole in the entire book. If the goblins got the sword back after the Gringotts debacle, how was Neville still able to pull it out of the Sorting Hat at the end to kill Nagini? I guess it just had that much magic associated with it, you know?
-Dragged in the middle. Was it just me or did the story drag a bit in the middle? All that hopping from one forest to the next got old. I was totally ready for some freaking action!
-The Epilogue. Now I am all for epilogues. They usually make me very happy. But this one did not give us enough information. Rowling, if you're going to write an epilogue, then freaking write an epilogue woman! Ok, so Neville's the Herbology professor, but what does Harry do? Did he follow his dreams and become an auror? And what about Luna? Did she by any chance marry Dean Thomas? I had a feeling you were leaning that way. I know I shouldn't complain, but I'm selfish. I wanted more.

Ok, I'm done. I'll think of more I'm sure, but this is plenty for now. All in all I really enjoyed the book and I'm sad that there will be no more Harry Potter. I'd love for Rowling to go back and do a whole series of prequels about the first war, James and Lily, Sirius, Lupin, Arthur and Molly, etc. That would be totally cool. Oh, and I hope Emma Watson gets some serious acting training before they start filming this one, because as Hermione she's going to be in a majority of the scenes and has a big emotional journey to go on. HA! I'm so mean.

Come on all you readers of Harry, what did you all think?

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Well, this isn't going to be a serious full blown review, just my thoughts and ideas on it really. First off, I must say that I will be required to see it again do to the incredible rudeness of a woman in my theater who let her two year old child run free and then continually left the theater to get said child more soda, popcorn, and candy and basically was a distracting nightmare throughout. Why didn't I move you ask? Well, the theater was packed so there wasn't anywhere to really go and I was with 4 other people including my 11 year old niece. I feel sometimes like I have bad movie theater karma because it seems like I always get a loser like this sitting near me. It has to be punishment for something.

Anyway on to the movie. This new director David Yates did a great job with the look, tone, and feel. The kids are becoming better and better actors, except for maybe Emma Watson who has a delivery that for some reason just gets on my nerves. Daniel Radclifffe especially is really connected to Harry now so that he can totally get across the angst and vulnerablility of the character. Imelda Staunton was absolutely brilliant as Umbridge. Such evil underneath a perfectly perky demeanor. My favorite touch about her characterization were the precious decorative plates with kittens on them that adorned the walls of her Defense Against the Dark Arts office. So as she is essentially torturing our hero Harry, in the background and coming from the Dolby digital sound system all around you are these little sweet innocent purrs and meows. Awesome. I checked the book and the decorative plates are mentioned but Rowling did not write that the kittens moved and purred and meowed. So, well done on that filmmakers!

Now, of course the movie differentiated A LOT from the book. But granted the book is over 800 pages long so that was totally expected. But there were some things that were left out or changed that really irked me. Here is the short list:

1. They did not make Ron and Hermione prefects.

2. There is no Quidditch, so Ron does not become Keeper and Umbridge does not take it away from the students.

3. The Cho Chang storyline is completely changed in a way that kind of leaves a question mark as to the end of her and Harry's short lived romance.

4. Fred & George Weasley's exit from Hogwarts was kind of lame.

5. The confrontation at the Ministry between the students and the Death Eaters was not done in a way that made it feel like the kids were actually in mortal peril.

6. They let Sirius be all cuddly protective Godfather and did not reveal his reckless, petulant, immature side at all.

7. They did not reveal Neville's connection to the prophecy.

Well, geez, after reading that back to myself it sounds like I didn't like the movie at all but that's not the case. If you have never read the books and just seen the movies, it is a very good movie. And even though I have read the books, I still really enjoyed the movie. I just wish they could have made it six hours long and fit everything in! Is that so much to ask?

I will say though that one of my favorite things about this entire series is that from the lead characters down to the minor characters with the smallest screen time they have kept the same actors in every role throughout. Except of course for Dumbledore, who had to be replaced after Richard Harris' death. But I think that really sets these films apart and makes them completely believable as a world unto itself.
I can't wait for Half Blood Prince in November 2008.

Albert Finney

Another bizarro dream last night. I dreamt that I was at a black tie Hollywood event and was going to be introduced to Albert Finney and the minute he said hello to me I started crying like that little blonde, pig-tailed, Sanjaya worshiper on American Idol. I was like gushing, blubbering, hysterical while trying to talk to Finney and he was so touched by my show of emotion that he decided he wanted to do something special for me and offers to buy me a house. So we go to check out houses and in the dream the one I want is the house next door to my parent's house. What the hell?? Yes, in real life I do wish I could afford a house, but I would never move in next door to my parents!!! And then there's Finney. Now I do love me some Daddy Warbucks, but I don't love Finney this much. Why would I have a dream about him??? Ok, amateur psychiatrists and dream analyzers help me out here.

Weird man.

I had some freakishly bizarre dreams last night all involving Disney in some way.

First, you know how at the beginning of Disney movies there is the Buena Vista logo, where Tinkerbell like waves her wand and an arc of light flies from it and curves over Sleeping Beauty's castle? Well in this dream I was Tinkerbell and I was doing that, waving my wand to make the light around the castle glow, but I wasn't on TV or on a movie screen doing it - I was actually at Disneyland, flying over the actual Sleeping Beauty castle! And it was fun! Being Tinkerbell felt amazing!

Then I had another dream that I was Viggo Mortensen's daughter (wtf? I know!) and he was starring in some new Disney swashbuckling movie and we were at Disneyland for the launch of a whole line of product tie-ins. I was making fun of my "dad" because, well, you know those pens where there is a picture of say a pinup girl inside it and when you turn the pen upside down her clothes slide off? Or like I have a pen with Steve Irwin where when you turn the pen upside down a croc comes and swallows him alive (that's totally sick now considering his death, but I have it!) Well I was making fun of my "dad" Viggo because they had made a pen of his character where when you turned it upside down his shirt came off to reveal a toned upper bod. Not very Disney right? I can only put that down to my subconscious because in the real world I would totally do Viggo. He can take off his shirt for me anytime. So, how sick is this dream? In the real world I have the hots for Viggo, but in my dream he is my dad???? What the hell is wrong with me?

Really, what am I doing here?

I haven't decided yet what I am going to do with this blog. Why did I sign up for this? What do I want to say? It's not like I am an actual writer or creative person in any way. If I share anything it will probably just be silly pop culture laced ramblings. Can you handle that? You being the general World "you." I find when I do write these things I talk to "you" the World. As if you are going to actually find me in the middle of the millions of millions of other blogs out there that are so much more interesting than this one and want to read what I write. Truly, I have no delusions about that. But if you do find your way here by accident or on a dare, then welcome.