breakdown

so, i watched taking woodstock a few days ago. it was pretty good. there was a tripping scene that was way to long. ang lee is all about not saying what you mean. at least the ice storm and brokeback mountain are. this movie had a lot of that. i guess it was nice because there were the hippies who said everything they meant and the parents and son who don't know each other. demetri martin sure has an amazing nose.

yesterday my sister and i watched spring breakdown. i read an interview between amy poehler and rachel dratch in bust magazine in the record store the other day and they made that movie together. they said the staff of bust are all in love with that movie, so i wanted to check it out. it was funny but not mind blowingly funny. liz at one point that they were us in a few more years, which might be right. i love lady comedy, but it's so hard to find.

hill of oblivion

gosh, it's so warm in portland right now. even in buffalo it was warm and rainy. global warming blah blah, but you've had some weather over there, huh? anyway, i've got some sleepy tea and herbal cigarettes so i'm ready to talk about what i've seen over the past few days, as i descend into herbal overload.

so, on xmas morning, my father, brother and I went to see avatar in 3d. you know, everyone's talking about avatar cos it's so expensive and amazing or whatever but i might not have gone had my dad not been so gung ho. he's a very, very mellow person, so for him to be gung ho about something is a big deal. so we went. it was nearly three hours long and totally beautiful. the fakeness of it was really smooth and i do love odd plantlife and make believe animals and matriarchal, peaceful societies, so even though the story was pretty lame, i really enjoyed it. i don't think my dad hits the movies that often, and he's either going deaf or losing all tendency to give a crap when in public, but he kept leaning over to me and loudly verbalizing his plot predictions which were almost always wrong (he got the end right) but actually way more interesting than what actually happened.

then for xmas my brother pulled a total miracle. when we were little we were obsessed with this movie that played on the disney channel but as far as finding it as adults, we didn't have a title or really more to go on except some vague images like block people and an evil magician that may or may not have been a ball of angry light. these are some images i've been asking people about every few years with no results. anyway, he somehow figured it out and bought me the dvd for xmas. it's called unico and it's an adorable japanese thing from the 70s about a baby unicorn thing whose superpower is to make everyone he comes in contact with happy which pisses off the gods (and now i'm just plagiarizing the youtube description) so they banish him to the hill of oblivion (so great!) until the west wind lady decides that's too cruel a fate and whisks him off to different places where he gets into different adventures. here's a taste:


so it's totally exciting and mindblowing to watch this! it's been 22 years! it looks like you can watch the whole thing on youtube. it's pretty sweet.

lastly, my mom is obsessed with bored to death and was extremely disappointed that it was no longer available on hbo ondemand so she couldn't play me her favorite episode. but she kind of described it to me and that was good too.

blogging from an airport like a good blogger

the secret of roan inish (1994) is the secret of this blog post. folksy irish stories of seals, selkies, babies and cradles as vessels are some things you will find in this movie. also, fish guts. and crazy cousins. but if you're looking for a cute, precocious kid movie with some neat myths and long narrated stories that take you out of but give you some kind of background on the actual story, you might consider watching the secret of roan inish. basically what happens is, in ireland, on an island called roan inish where the people and the seals lived in harmony together, the people who lived there had to leave, i don't think i heard why, and the main character's little baby brother was put in his cradle on the shore while everyone loaded up boats with furniture and relatives, anyway, the sea took the baby, presumably because it was pissy for the people to leave. i mean, it didn't want the people to leave. but word is this baby possibly has some seal blood anyway since he is the one in his generation born with dark hair and eyes (aka a dark one--- the rest of em are blondish and there's a dark one in every litter, we learn) and their great-grandmother (i think) was a selkie (aka half woman half seal, and this i know for sure, that they have a selkie in the family's not too distant past, and anyway, it's ireland so sometimes it's hard to tell what period we're really talking about since they're on sort of a different plane. i guess every country is on a different plane. i'm not trying to be a jerk to ireland, i really like ireland.) so the little girl keeps sneaking back to roan inish with the help of her cousin and they notice that their old house is lived in and one day they see the baby brother (it's been a few years, so he's a toddler) having tea with a seal, which the cousin and girl know their grandparents will never believe because there are just too many superstitions and stories about the sea and about roan inish for the grandmother to bear, but you can tell the grandfather believes them all. would you believe, then, that when the little girl gets her defiant face on and tells the elders, the grandmother packs them all up toooot sweeeeet and off to the island they go in search of that baby toddler pouring tea for two with water mammals! in what i think is supposed to be a really poignant scene, the seals bring the baby back and chase him onto land. he really wants to be a seal, i mean, who wouldn't? but he has to live with his human family for now. i think if he stayed a part of both worlds that would've been a better ending but then again when i think about a baby living as a seal, it does seem morbid. i'll trust the mythmakers.

the thing is, though, about this scene, the seals got pretty far onto the shore so they had to sort of hop/bounce back to the sea and it wasn't sad at all anymore, it looked really silly. maybe that's sealophobic. have you seen the bridge? the one about people jumping off the golden gate bridge? there's a story about a guy not dying when he hits the water and some seals keeping him afloat and kind of warm until the coast guard or a barge or something notices him. seals are so amazing for that, right? so i was thinking maybe it's behavior like that that makes selkie myths. and then what about the way they get those seals in the first place? it's terrible. have you seen the cove or heard about it on npr? it's terrible. i can't watch it, i don't think.

i'm in logan airport, the jetblue terminal, and thinking about all the good junkfood that you can only get in western new york and maybe parts of ohio, pennsylvannia and canada that i'm gonna eat.

bored to death and in love

so, i've been having really strong fantasy feelings. i mean, strong for feelings about people on the tv. but, jason schwartzman has my heart. he always plays the same person, but i'm in love with that person. and, he's group coconut records is pretty cute too. they do the theme song for bored to death.

i don't want to talk about the plot the show because it's not the important. what is important is that it made me laugh several times. and, ted danson is so funny. he does this thing where he's jealous of what other people are doing. "i want a colonic." "i want to go to brighton beach." but, it's not in an annoying way. it's not like they didn't invite him because he's no fun. basically it's about three very different guys who are good friends and it's nice to see.

this business is on the fringes

now I watched Saleman, the Maysles documentary about the bible salemen in the 60s. they follow four around: the gipper, the badger, the rabbit and the bull. the badger seems to be the loser but he's also sort of the narrator, and he's got the best sense of humor and he's the least jerky to the other guys, of course he is the one who sells the least and i don't like how they're all so pushy trying to get people to buy things. i hate sales. what bullshit. especially when people say they don't have any money, and the salester keeps pushing. yuck! but maybe that's the point. actually, i'm not sure what the point is. are we supposed to be sad for these guys and this dying business? are we supposed to be appalled at the commercialization of religion? or admire the man out on his own type of thing? i know the Maysles do good work so maybe they're not really pushing anything. i think i'm just really crabby and tired today and i feel like my heart, body and soul and mind are all pounding fists and demanding answers. pretty silly, right?

anyway, the copy i have of this freezes sometimes and it's b&w so it's nice when it freezes cos then it's a nice little b&w photo. i'm not done with it yet but i wanted to write in the blog cos i love to. and that's all! i think you should watch this. i wonder what you'd think about it.

so magnificent

liz and i watched the magnificent seven. i've always been meaning to see it, although westerns are tied with horror for my least favorite. but, i love steve mcqueen and wanted to see yul brynner in something other then the king and i. and, we saw a preview for one of the sequels on tv, so that got us interested.

it did not disappoint. those mens are totally hot and awesome and bad ass. the plot is there is a town in mexico that keeps having all their crops and food stolen by bandits. three men come up to the boarder town to buy guns so they can fight. they see yul brynner and steve mcqueen drive a hurst with an indian up a hill. see, everyone are asshole racists, so they didn't want to bury the indian in the white cemetery. the three mexicans pretty much fall in love with yul after that and ask him to help buy guns. he says it would be better to buy men and they set about rounding guys up.

everyone buy three of the seven die, everyone gets their moment of truth and their i-have-a-soul speech. it was good, although i don't think you have to die a hero to be a hero, or something.

i had to look up all these guys while i was watching and i learned to yul is russian, maybe 1/8 mongolian and total beefcake.

30 and lost

i got julie and julia because my sister hadn't seen it. it's really great. julie's annoying, but i can relate. but julia is simply amazing. it's not just that meryl stripe really brings it, but taht julia child is such an inspiring person. i like to be inspired some times. now i'm watching the ugly truth because i love romantic comedy. we'll see how that goes.

long in austen

i was all headachetastic last night so i took an allergy pill around 9:30 and called it a night. i wanted something good to watch in bed and i settled on lost in austen (2008) without realizing that it was a miniseries, so i fell asleep and had to finish it up this morning. the plot is that a modern londoner who loves pride and prejudice is visited by elizabeth bennet through a surprise door in her bathroom. they trade places and amanda preceded to fuck everything up by trying to force it. everyone married the wrong people, mr. darcy falls in love with her, all kinds of stuff.

i've read pride and prejudice and seen the colin firth mini series, but it was all for school and i don't love jane austen. but, this was pretty good. i liked it because you can't force things and when you try, the don't really work out the way you wanted.

and, she discovered new things about the characters. there's this guy who is a cad and maybe raped mr. darcy's little sister and stuff. but, he ends up because really helpful and kind and not a rapist at all. i really loved him. i would have gone with him, fuck mr. darcy. although darcy was charming in his way and a total fox.

get ready to rock

so, i watched the rock tonight. did you know it's a criterion collection? i'm so excited for the entire second disc of extra features, including breakdowns of the craziest scenes and lots of talk about what makes a good action movie. i love the rock so much! i can't tell if it's one of those ones that everyone's obviously seen or not, but anyway, ed harris plays a pissed off marine who decided he hates the military cos they never acknowledge the dudes under his command who die on secret missions so he gets some really ugly lethal skin-melting gas and takes it to alcatraz, where he holds a bunch of tourists hostage and threatens to launch rockets with the yuck gas onto San Fran. he wants money i think, and he's not alone, he has a whole crew. so nick cage is an fbi biochemist who knows about the gas, and sean connery is a superspy who's been locked away in jail forever because he knows all the u.s. secrets but he's also the only dude to ever escape from the rock aka alcatraz (what a sweet nickname) so the gov needs his help getting nick cage in so he can make the yuck gas go away. he and nick cage get pretty tight so it's a buddy movie with a lot of beautifully done action scenes. pretty bloody and sometimes the dialogue is cheesy but maybe when i was getting bored with other stuff i should've turned to action sooner.

anyway, i recommend it. the music is a total up-pumper, too.

hitchhiker's guide to the world's greatest godfather always rings twice

Well, I haven't been to the movie theater in quite a while. This is partly because I got too poor even for $5 Tuesdays and partly because I saw FMF twice and maybe that was too much. Also, could partly be because there's nothing up I really want to see. I can't wait to see Precious. I am so ready for Mariah Carey to play a social worker. But I miss the summer/fall version of myself that would go see anything on $5 tuesday that started as close to 4:30pm as possible b/c that's when my workday ended and I worked just down the street. I did go to the real theater last weekend to see the Portland Ballet perform the Nutcracker. It was sweet but really sloppy and hard to believe it's a company that dances together regularly. But yeah, it was great cos it was Xmas-y and I got dressed up in a clingy vintage red sweater dress that made my body look like one of those sexy 1950s bosomy bodies with the stomach pooch and the round butt.

As for actual things worth talking about, I've been into the British Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy TV show, which I mentioned to you on text, right? What it has in it's corner as far as I'm concerned is that it's low-fi sci-fi and good British humor: snark and nonsense and terrible special effects. Did you ever read the books? I never did. I'm glad too cos I prefer having discovered this great format. I did see a few minutes of the Zooey Deschanel one that came out a few years ago and that was alright but maybe too slick. What have I got against slick? Maybe I'm cranky cos I want baked eggs without talking to anyone and the path to the kitchen is littered with bodies.

I also watched The Godfather last night with someone who has never seen it. Of course, it's one of my favorites and just the theme song brings up a lot of excitement for me. But the first timer was not a fan, judging it too confusing and that was disappointing but I can sort of see that point, but mostly I just think that sometimes with older movies you need to pay more attention and it's easy to forget that. I love it though. I think it's aged really well and is a beautiful looking movie. Diane Keaton looks like a kid. Marlon Brando might be the most masculine dude ever. And all the other stuff, like take the gun, leave the cannoli, it drives me kooky, it's great.

At the videostore the other day, I caught about 20 minutes of World's Greatest Dad with Robin Williams. It's supposed to be like the serious indie that rejuvenates or legitimizes his career or whatever. He plays a mousey English teacher whose son accidentally dies from autoerotic asphyxiation but he fusses with the scene to make it look like a suicide after the son is dead. And he goes through a lot of grief and is dating another really flakey teacher, is all I got. I can't wait to see the rest. It seems really sad but also the son was such a jerk to this guy and he seems so nice, I guess the whole thing is full of conflict and giving conflicting emotions.

And then tonight I saw about 8 minutes of The Postman Always Rings Twice before I started to feel sick for some reason and had to go to bed. I know I like it and I just read the book last weekend, and I love those looks people give each other in those noirs. So smoldery.

Now I'm up late and wanting baked eggs and waiting for people to settle in for the night and hoping that tomorrow is a nice day so that they won't call me in to work in the videostore due to shit weather. I love working at the videostore more than I love most things about living in Portland, and I know if I do go in, I'll be really psyched to be there, but it's hard to imagine being psyched about anything when yr anticipating being exhausted and sick.

stubborn heart

my sister and i just watched paper heart. it's kind of a documentary, but also not. it's by this performer charlyne yi and how she doesn't believe in love. but, while making the movie, she meets michael cera and starts dating him. it was a cute movie. charlyne's friend described her as really stubborn and i can see that. my friend emily is like that and she's kind of not in love, blah, blah, blah.

in the beginning, charlyne and the director go to a house party and there are all these fringe famous people there. all the cute indie boys. that's where she meets michael. it just made me wish that i went to parties like that. it looked like a normal party but filled with famous but regular boys.

cougartown for real

liz and i watched moonstruck on tv last night. i really love that movie. i saw it when i was young and it's stuck with me. because we love to know how old people are, we learned that cher was about 40 and nic cage was about 24. HOTTT! and, he looks hot. i hate all those haters who think that nic cage only makes the worst of the worst movies. moonstruck's a great example.

tonight was the biggest loser finale. i cried like crazy. it was amazing what some of the people look like. their faces look so different sometimes. the new season starts in january, which is crazy. i can't decide if it's crazy good or crazy bad. but, i'll have school on tuesday nights, so it won't be as easy for me to get involved.

the french sea

i learned from the diving bell and the butterfly that everyone has to reach a point when they decide to stop feeling sorry for themselves. have you seen it? it's the story of a writer who has a stroke and ends up only able to move one eye and eye lid. it made me want to read the book. and, i cried, which is good. liz and i had to decide whether we could handle a movie with subtitles, but i'm glad we did. it's always nice to see people who are worse shape than me.

no sleep till season 4

i've been up till 4am two nights in a row watching the second season of friday night lights. it's pretty awesome. seriously, i love it. i live how close the camera is and how cute everyone is. i'll have to reread your posts about them so i can see how our opinions line up. the mom is driving me totally nuts. she needs to chill the fuck out. and, i'm really glad that the coach is back. that guy is really awesome. i love listening to him talk and what he says.

but, as always, mostly i love the dudes with their hot bodies and sexy eyes

sleepy eyes watchin stuff sometimes

oh my gosh, i've had the sleepiest eyes lately. I've been watching stuff sometimes but very casually. More Art21. That's my new go-to-sleep show. At first I thought the listening with my eyes closed would be annoying and that I wouldn't be able to sleep at all, but it turns out that artists talking about their work is really soothing. I agree that art has it's own language and that it's hard to get back into it or want to, but I can say that once I did, I'm really hooked and now I want to talk about it all the time, which is great cos I was worried that part of my brain may have morphed into something else. But yeah, back and strong as ever.

The other night I brought home a video I found in the kids section. It's called Puppies! And it's footage of puppies! It must be from the 80s and the breeders they talk to are kind of creepy. I really hate that some dogs, like german shepherds, have their ears clipped or bound so they'll stand up straight instead of flop. So, puppies are cute and adorable but people forcing certain characteristics on them is gross and sad. My favorite might have been the Chinese crested:


Kind of ugly, or, at least punky, but what you can't see in this picture is that when they're in a puppy group, they run around and jump over each other like weird little acrobats, and the other puppies didn't do anything that cute.

I alway watched the first ten minutes of a movie called The Women, recommended to me after I whined about old movies being mostly about dudes. This one has Joan Crawford and someone else famous, and all the main characters are women. Snappy dialogue and all that good stuff.

And still with the Home Movies. Always with that.