Yippie kai yay

I'm going cowgirl a la Zooey Deschanel via The Go Getter.

The movie felt like it really started during the second half. If you only count that part, it was a good sweet movie. Interesting, but not trying too hard to be so. If you count the beginning too then it was only mediocre. Left me wondering what the hellw as going on more often than not. But we all know I secretly have an indie crush on zooey deschanel. It was all after the horrible remake of the Wizard of Oz, Tin Man. Anyone who plays dorothy gets insta-points from me.

Anyone who dresses like a cowboy/cowgirl gets even more. Especially when they pull it off so cute as she does.

(I still can't WAIT to see 500 days of summer)

UPDATE APPROXIMATELY 10 MINS LATER:

P.S. Zooey deschanel, I was browsing internet pictures of you and apparently you were blonde at one point. Don't do that. ever. again. seriously. Not only do you look horrendous but you lose SERIOUS points for it. SERIOUSLY.

500 Days of Summer

Inspired by the heat wave that's been baking everything out here I want to take this opportunity to gush about this movie I've been DYING to see.

500 days of summer.



Practically everyone I know doesn't like Zooey Deschanel but I can't help let my feelings for her grow. Maybe it's the fact that her name is Zooey. That was enough to win me over. And everyone thinks her dead pan, barely acting performances and irritating and horrible. To me they're quirky and her bad acting is somewhat endearing. Also, she is a spitting image of Katy Perry but she can sing better! Maybe it's cause she was "Dorothy" in that sci-fi channel remake of the wizard of Oz. Either way, I like her and I'm excited to see this movie.

Not just for her, mind you but Joseph Gorden-Levitt who is totally cute. Who most will remember from Angels in the outfield.

And the trailer looks totally cute. And I love movies about sunshine and love and complications and if there's at least one choreographed dance scene I'm sold!

Side note: I sat out in the sun basking in the heat for over an hour. It gave me a headache, made me sweat all over, but effectively made me browner. :) <--- unneccessary smiley.
More here: 500 Days of Summer

Be Careful What You Wish For...

Oh, so, what'd I do this weeked?

Jet-style blasted through the Asian Art Museum. And me being be, first thing I thought was, "you could have weddings here!" Very few places make that my first thought... Loved the Indian sculptures, I always love ceramics, the scrolls and other such inked things were pretty cool. But above all, my favorite was the building itself... Even the escalators were somehow really awesome. Seriously. Maybe I'd have a more comprehensive review if we spent more time...

Other hands?

We watched Pink Panther 2 (swear, I didn't pick it). It was... to expectations, which says a lot. I didn't expect it to be a moving, jaw dropping, film. It wasn't. I expected a light-hearted, mostly non-sensical, silly movie. Indeed, that is what was received. I will admit though, that Aishwariya Rai Bachchan knocks my freakin' socks off. She's such a fox. Not only a fox but an all around stunner: in interviews, in pictures, in bollywood, in her few american movies, and probably in life. She waaaaaas Miss Universe after all. And I'm probably just complaining and being sensitive... But why's the ONLY brown person in the movie gotta be the bad guy? But I guess if she was the other girl in the movie, I'd complain why does she have to be the helpless, idiotic one? Or maybe that's less something to do with race and more to do with sex.... Why are the women either idiots or bitches? Strange...

Also watched Coraline...

I have much less to say about that given it scared my goddamned pants off. Every second of that godforsaken movie twisted my stomach and made me to want to throw up and/or cry. I don't watch scary movies in general, and somehow the (amazing) visuals were more twisted, creepier, and altogether more frightening than some ridiculous porn and gore flic. I wasn't SCREAMING in fear or anything, but then entire time I was somehow whimpering with discomfort and fear. Yea, yea, yea, maybe that's what it was SUPPOSED to be. But seriously, don't take any kids to that one. Scary, scary, scary. Pink Panther was the kind of movie you could enjoy while you watch it and get all you need to get. Coraline? I think one could watch it a million times and still pull amazing observations. My first watch? Too terrified to begin to see ANYTHING. Seriously. So maybe I could watch it again and tell you what I think about the politics it conveys, or how the popcorn trees looked, or the stunning-ness of every second of the movie, or even how much I loved the cute little pink house. But for now? All I can say is that the second it started, I was turned into a quivering child, and the second it ended I could only dread the nightmares it would give me.

The End.

PS, how was everyone else's weekends?

Cora-love?

I admit, I was originally a little skeptical of the new movie, given that I usually dislike Tim Burton. And while that comment alone usually elicits a ridiculous amount of groans, moans, and death threats, I just can't seem to like him. He butchered Charlie and the Chocolate factory (I also hate Johnny Depp, which causes more bad news my way), Edward scissorhands was too whiney for me, and The Night Before Christmas? Come on. Maybe what I don't like more is the crowd that usually idolizes him. The "I'm so creepy and weird and no one understands me wanna be goth wanna be emo wanna fit it but don't fit in so I say I'm deep cause weird and creepy means deep" crowd. Anything Tim Burton is practically produced JUST to make it into a million Hot Topic products... Shoelaces, stickers, lunch boxes, hair clips, even hair dye. Seriously, straight to Hot Topic.

But that aside, this picture that I found via DesignSponge, allows me to appreciate it more. Possibly makes me NOT dread the movie (cause we all know even with my complaining and hatred of Burton I would have gone to see it in theaters anyway). This and all the "press packages" they've been sending to anyone who is anyone in the online blogging community (ie, not me). I got a first glimpse of them from NotCot.

They're super cool:

Over the Rainbow

Last night we finally got to watch Australia. And while I never thought I would, I think I have a favorite director... Baz L....lurhman? Luhrman? How do you spell it... let me check... Baz Luhrmann. Moulin Rouge won me over. It was unavoidable. So I finally dragged Adam to see it.

I don't usually like Nicole Kidman, but I don't ALWAYS hate her like Claire Danes or anything. She's just so... so... pale and fragile seeming. Which I guess worked for her benefit as a strange crazy white lady in Oz.


Hugh Jackman aka wolverine was .... muscular, to say the least. He evn poured water over his glistening muscle mass of over tanned meat he calls his body. ala herbal essences in the shower wet hair tossing. It was ridiculous and hilariously wonderful allll at the same time.



But what I can say? I always love a good love story, especially an epic one. I loved the movie. I left feeling happy and warm and like I could fly.

But enough o' dem white fella.

My faaaaavorite part.... was the magic.

Adam said that he understood why the movie wasn't well received by audiences. Because people don't like hocusypocusy magic like especially next to some silly european "epic" love story. That they seem silly and unbelievable in the same movie. 

But that's just my favorite kind of thing... Magic Realism.

   That's where it's at.  That's where I fall in love.

This guy was so bad ass it was 5 stages of ridiculous. Look at him in this picture. He alone was epic.

Now I'm torn, don't get me wrong, I saw the perpetuation of stereotypes as the non whites as crazy bush people. And a little bit of that white man's burden thing. They want to gloss over the atrocity of Australia's Stolen Generations. I heard an interview with Luhrmann and this was his way of playing ode to those ripped from their cultures. case studies: I don't think it was played like savages v. whites. It didn't play out like that. It was more of the racist whites v. everyone else. It was how does someone who doesn't belong to white or black find a place to belong somewhere in between. That had more resonance than the negative with me.

I could see why a lot of people won't like it. But me? I love it.

Something was missing... Like salt.

Uhm....  Dear Adam,

Maybe you should buy me a home like this one:

02-northeast-corner.jpg

19-view-from-east-end-of-pr.jpg

By architect Rachel Allen (S.L.A.) as found through designspongeonline.com (my newest linking fave)

Ughhkkkkk. Beautiful houses make my stomach hurt. I love the idea of sun and open windows and open homes and clean line. :sigh:

Has anyone watched Vicky Cristina Barcelona yet? It came out yesterday. I disapprove.

Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz were undeniably sexy. Rachel hall gave me the feeling of an American poor man's Kate beckinsale. And Scar.Jo. is the same as ALWAYS.

It felt stagnant. The characters were relatively flat to me. It tried to be comedic... I think.

It was a well developed character study, I will say. Although maybe not enough to make a movie. 5 or so relatively good characters, everyone thought out. But so little story element.

The narration became SO overplayed.

It made me walk away wishing I were filthy rich and could waste my life away on vacation. Oh spain, how you pull upon my heartstrings.

Tropic Thunder

Uhm....

First of all: Go watch the trailed for Tropic Thunder. Look it up on youtube or something...

Then go humor me and google "Blackface."

I'm relatively super tired, the sun wears me down (how fucking wonderful has this heat wave been? ok, so like borderline cool and sometimes horrible. But you can't blame me for lovin' the sunshine). But I digress... Because I'm so tired let me put this in list form.

I will be referring to this article off and on: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20182058,00.html

1. First of all (and my first reaction upon seeing the trailer) Uhm... whhhaatt?????
2. Please let me know if I'm getting this right... Robert Downy Jr is playing the role of a black man in order to... what?... Be politically correct?!
3. And... They couldn't make the character white? And the black actor dropped out? So they thought, "don't worry, lets paint a white guy?"
4. Was I the only one in the theater who remembers the racism of our country's history (I'll ballpark it and say the mid 1800's) where white people would paint their faces black and put on little shows for white people. And at the shows they'd prance around and pretend to be Black, acting like idiots, not knowing how to talk English properly, and singing silly songs? I know we didn't learn much about it in my high school but I'm pretty sure its a pretty big representation to the very prevalent racism in America at the time.
5. In discussion I compared this with joking with the symbol of a noose or a burning cross in someones yard. I was told that it was far too extreme of a comparison and I was being ridiculous. And I know that it WAS very different to be made fun of and to be threatened. But I would like to clarify that the products of Blackface Minstrels is still present today and the image of this sort of black man has damaged general public view in a very important way. People are STILL trying to break the stereotypes established in those "funny" little shows! There was and continues to be a very strong emotional, psychological, and representational violence here. And that violence cannot be ignored.
6. The EW articles states, "And then there's that little issue of a white guy playing a black guy. Stiller says that he and Downey always stayed focused on the fact that they were skewering insufferable actors, not African-Americans." So... This means... In a nutshell, because they were focused on making fun of one kind of person everyone else doesn't matter? Because they were poking around at actors, and that's what they WANTED, they shouldn't care about implications and other side effects? Does that mean, if I intend to slap my friend and instead slap a stranger I shouldn't worry about the consequences? Does that mean, with their same line of thinking, that we shouldn't be accountable or responsible for the unintended harms we do onto others? And to take it the opposite direction, for instance, if I was playing a game of chess and I meant to take a pawn and inadvertently got a check mate. It wasn't my intention to do so well, so should I not claim it? Would I throw it aside and say "wait, that was an accident, let me go back so I can lose it?" I think most of us wouldn't. If there are unintended POSITIVE consequences then we take them without questioning. The negative ones we will also take, sometimes hesitatingly, because we know we deserve them. Just because the MAIN intent was making fun of actors and not for them to injure the image of any individual Black American, it doesn't mean it's OK. It doesn't mean they're somehow free from any criticism.
7. It's generally held that if anyone says "No offense but..." or "I don't intend to offend you but..." it means they're about to say something pretty goddamned rude. And they KNOW it. And they think their little precursory warning excuses it. People think it means they aren't rude, just what they're about to say is. "No offense but you're gaining SO much weight" or "I don't mean to offend you but I think you're SO Asian." This just in: It *is* rude, it *isn't* excusable, and it's *not* OK.
8. Article also states, "He recently screened a rough cut of the film and it scored high with African-Americans. He was relieved at the reaction. ''It seems people really embrace it,'' he says." Because it receives general approval of a SMALL demographic of people doesn't mean it can be accepted as OK. First of all, I'd like to state, that how many people, whether black or white or yellow, red, blue, or brown have truly taken the time to educate themselves about race politics? How many of those who watched the screening or the American public in general have CRITICALLY looked at ANY piece of media to point out the perpetuation of cruel stereotypes? How many have had the good grace, luck, and ability to truly educate themselves about challenging the institutions that we find ourselves in and the patriarchal, racist, heteronormative system we find ourselves in? I can easily say, very few. And this part is harder for me to explain cause I'm still in the process of learning it and it has taken hours of reading, discussion, lectures, and deep-rooted, life changing thinking to begin to comprehend it, and it may be really controversial. But, when life gives a person a role, a status, a way TO BE... It is very hard to break out of it. If a people have been suppressed for generations and generations with violence, bias, laws, and public opinion: many of that people will begin to follow suit. I don't know if you've heard about or read the sociological study they did I don't know when... Where they gave a bunch of little girls dolls. And the black girls preferred the white dolls. It was this study that helped break down the idea that segregated schools weren't a good idea. Because it showed that there was some sort of psychological impression being made on so young of children that what they were: black, wasn't as good, wasn't as pretty, wasn't as desirable. I feel like all of this general line of thinking is something like the approval of this movie. The public has been very strongly been told how to act, how to think, and how to form the conceptions they have of a certain kind of people. Rather than go through the hardship and discomfort of questioning what's going on and the implications, it's much easier and happier and acceptable to just laugh along with everyone else. This is possibly the most long term damaging effect.
9. Of course, we can bring up the racism and stereotypes of ALL kinds of people in the media: Gays, women, whites, blacks, Asians, native Americans, and any whosits, whatsits you can possibly think up that differentiates people. It's in video games (see Jake or Danielle), movies, magazines, advertisements, TV shows, and even the much beloved novel. You can go barely anywhere and escape some form or other of prejudice. Because we are inundated with it, and are powerless to stop it doesn't mean we shouldn't continue fighting it. Because we know one day we might die doesn't mean we shouldn't live. Because love ends doesn't mean we shouldn't fall. There's the possibility that this fight is a losing one, but for the sake of the future, for the sake of humanity, for the sake of the present, and even for the sake of the past: we must continue fighting. We have to attempt to question and criticize and sometimes outright reject the things we see that perpetuate such unfair harmful thinking. The first step to victory is realizing there's a fight at all, it's opening your eyes to see the battlefield before you.
10. I've gotten VERY far off topic
11. But I supposed it's the actual topic I've been meaning all along.
12. We cannot say we are anywhere near free from racism when we along something like a comedy movie portray and continue something that is so awful.
13. All of this is, granted, and perhaps unfairly assumed, without seeing the movie yet. I reject it on pure principles. There's a SMALL chance that it could be taken a completely different direction than I anticipate. And the entire 2 hours of the movie will be spent deconstructing the meaning of Blackface minstrels and the legacy we are left with today. Hey, Robert Downey Jr. could end up being an upstanding black citizen of America that proves all stereotypes very wrong. I somehow doubt that.
14. And believe me, I do understand that it's a comedy and they ARE doing more than making fun of African-Americans. They're making fun of Americans, Vietnamese, film makers, movie stars, and even the audience watching. I know that maybe I need to lighten up, its just a joke...
15. But I never know, when has a joke crossed the line? When is something downright inappropriate? Maybe you can fill me in. Cause I think I'm missin' it...

Memorial Day Weekend

Weekend was good:

• watched Indiana Jones:

I thought it was quite horrible. I think some part of me wanted to like it very much. And maybe I even enjoyed it.... But it was definately awful. It was completely implausible (even when allowed the suspension of disbelief because it was an action/comedy/fantasy movie... even given those, it somehow didn't follow its own logic) and implicitly racist. I'm given the understanding that all the Indy movies are... Bt I don't think I was ready for it. I'm too testy lately to accept stupid shit like that. And, I always seems to like Harrison Ford, he's got a rom-com ex heart-throb soft spot with me... BUt this time he was just so ungracefully old. Granted, he did well being so old. But... it was painful

• Made of Honor

I knew it would be dumb and dissapointing... and it was. Patrick Demp. didn't even give what I call "The Look." The Look is what Patrick Demp. does in all his roles. It's like the puppy "Baroo." Head slightly tilted, but not noticably so, it's just... relaxed in inquisitiveness. And his eyes soften, his brow beseeches, and his breath, some how, when he breathes, wraps around your very heart and pulls you in. And you know, through the TV tubes and non-HD (or low def) screen and the thousands of miles (and his wife, and his elevated status, and your status as dating someone else), through all this you know that he's completely sincere, completely loves you (no, me) with all of his heart and won't ever stop because the thought of life without you utterly crushes his soul. Nope, this movie, he steered clear from The Look, or maybe he didn't do it cause it's too exhausting to be so goddamned heartbreakingly true to his heart and his passion for me to do it one more time in a movie (cause he has o do it so often in a TVshow). and he didn't stay away in a good way, like how Will Smith lost his will-isms when doing that one movie... about his kid... what was it called? Happyness something or other... i remember the mispelled happiness (happyness). And in The Made of Honor, there was also no moment, that I find crucial to the overdone Rom-Com, where your heart just BROKE. where all of your insides come cryingweepingcrashing down in empathysympathyheartbrokensadness for whoever just got screwed. I go to those kind of movies for that moment. Call it catharsis, call it release, call it emotional orgasm... I like it. I like the ouchy heart breaky make me wanna die moments cause I get to walk away. I live for that horrible romantic break apart where I don't have to be apart of the drama. there's no friends I have to worry about, or sticky situations I have to pick my way out of... It's utterly string free heart breaking delightment. It didn't have that... So it was your stereotypical, relatvely shallow, non groundbreaking, cookie cutter rom-com without the best part. LAME

• Went to pescadero (strange, i know) for lunch, a drive, and to get away a little...

There are pictures that I hope to post eventually... We ran into two of the coolest, bad ass-iest sheep EVER. They were like... wool blankets rolled in the mud and pushin' the goats around. Had Artichoke soup which was relatively mediocre, didn't get to go to any antique stores, and got relatively mediocre artichoke bread. Oh, and I slipped convo topics and made my self an asshole. In my defense, I didn't know any better! and it's totally not my fault!

• went to a graduation party

For a cousin that I'm not close to, at a place that wasn't close, for food that made me REALLY sick, a drive that made me REALLY sick, and family interactions that just made me irritable. Oh, the things we do for no apparently worthwhile reasons...

• Finished a 10 pg paper

On... What was it on? Oh yea, Native American Boarding schools and their affects on modern native american life. Boy... that sure wasn't exciting. It could have been, yes, but it wasn't. Cause my class isn't, and therefore the actual assignments are not.

• Had ice cream

Two bad ice cream experiences:

1. Yogurtuille in San Mateo, a new place downtown that I think they want to be the new "it" thing. I had one spoon and wanted to throw up. You'd think a name like Yogurtuille would hint to me that in fact, it was made with yogurt... But I try it and am still surprised to find that it tastes like nasty ass cold yogurt. If you didn't know... I fucking hate yogurt. I have never once had a spoon of yogurt cause 1) the texture makes me want to vomit 2) the smell makes me want to vomit and 3) i licked a yogurt spoon once and the taste made me want to vomit. I don't like yogurt. I never have and I never will and I never want to. I hate yogurt. I could say it a million times. Yet, I'm the idiot who thought, "oh, I'll get like a huge ass cup of frozen yogurt and share with everyone since everyone is pissy as hell." Everyone was too pissy to have any... So Ihad a whole thing to myself, which I didn't consume. I threw away like 4 dollars on 1 spoon and no happiness.
2. Fentons in Oakland, it was a long wait, super busy, and i was feeling incredibly horribly ill. It wasn't bad, they had good french fries, but i was so sick that the texture of perfectly normal ice cream made me incredibly grossed out. The dairy, I couldn't take the taste of milk. And the Coffee was VERY strong coffee. Which I didn't enjoy at all.

• Spend a lot of time being sick
• watching a lot of TV
• and sleeping... A LOT.