Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 1960's fashion, Almost Strangers, AMC, Are You There God? It's Me Margaret, Can't Let Go, Christian Northeast, dress up, Dyna Moe, fame, hair, Jamie Campbell Bower, Jimmy Kimmel, Judy Blume, Landon Pigg, Mad Men, Matthew Macfadyen, Michael Gambon, Michael Sheen, Mika, New Moon, period, Six Degrees, Sweeney Todd, Timothy Spall, Twilight, weather, Whip It, Will Arnett
July 29, 2009
Hey buddies,
The weather is cooler than usual today – perfect. For those of you who don’t live in Southern California, that means that it’s sunny not sweltering, and that I haven’t turned on the fan all day.
My Internet is also cooperating somewhat. My day has turned around just as I promised. Which means that I can share a few things that cheered me up today.
You remember when I fell in love with the show “Mad Men” a while back? Dyna Moe has been drawing the most prominent fanart of “Mad Men” and AMC asked her to create a game to promote Mad Men Season 3. You make a character, basically. Just like dressupgames.com. Oops. Did I just reveal one of my old pastimes? dressupgames.com is a good waste of time too, but many of the good games have died. It’s great because it’s 1960’s fashion, hair, etc.
I also discovered a really good artist today, Christian Northeast. I’ll let the work describe itself. I’ve been looking at his website all day and it’s not because my computer is slow. At first, yes. But that soon changed.
I’ll definitely be looking out for his work in magazines from now on.
This one I’ve been holding on to for a while, but check out Will Arnett’s reading of Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret on the Jimmy Kimmel Show. I don’t have a link so you’ll have to do a bit of treasure-hunting, but trust me it is rewarding, even if only for 41 seconds.
Let me make it clear that Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret is one of the most hilariously ridiculous books I have ever read. And no disrespect to Judy Blume, because I grew up reading her books, but Margaret is the personification of why I hated girliness.
She must increase her busts? Writing down cute boys’ names in a book? Ridiculous. Why doesn’t Margaret think about other things? Does she have interests besides breast exercises and males? I don’t recall. Most of all, desperate for her period? The book ended before Margaret experienced her first cramps, before worrying about whether she was leaking or not, before all her friends went swimming and SHE COULDN’T GO. Every little girl who read that had been led to believe that your period is a happy experience. LIEEEESSSSS.
There you have it, awesomeness to last you through tomorrow, granted you have a slow Internet connection and fragile computer. As for me, I’m off to procrastinate on psych homework by watching “Almost Strangers” starring many awesome British actors like Timothy Spall, Matthew MacFadyen, and Michael Gambon. Awesome here meaning they are closely six degreed to Johnny Depp. Huzzah.
Sayonara,
Grapes
P.S. Jamie Campbell Bower, Antony from “Sweeney Todd”, will be in “New Moon”. I don’t know what to say, because I’m disappointed but people have to do what they have to to continue their careers, right? I really doubt he’s in “New Moon” because he’s a “Twilight” fangirl. Boy.
What’s even more confusing is what Michael Sheen’s doing in “New Moon”. He’s an excellent actor, and this seems out-of-character. Not that I know what his character is, but again, somewhat disappointed.
P.P.S. I’m excited for Landon Pigg for being in “Whip It”. He plays a musician, not a far stretch but you’ve got to start somewhere. I was a fan when no one had heard of him and all he had was his EP “Can’t Let Go” (I was addicted to that song for a while) and it’s really cool when you can watch someone move forward in their career like this. It was exciting seeing MIKA get famous, even if it means that 30 years from now when Miya and I go to see his show during the Great California Earthquake it will be expensive.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Angela, beaurocracy, Ben Stiller, bloopers, books, CD, cheesy, cleaning, cliche, deleted scenes, Disney, epilogue, Ernest, escapist, hobo, India, intelligence, Jack Sparrow, LA Film Festival, La Poo Poo, MovieCube, music, Pineapple Express, premiere, Public Enemies, Ralph's, RedBox, soundtrack, stopmotion, summer, Sundays at Tiffany's, Sushi, taboo, Tropic Thunder, Twilight, Wal-Mart, walking, wizard costume
Hola, it is summer! Hola hola hola. Tomorrow I’m going to the LA Film Festival avec mine journalism internship. Excited? Actually, not that much, despite the fact that I asked for us to go. To be honest, I asked because “Public Enemies” is premiering there – but the $100 ticket price soon dampened my dreams.
I’d like to direct you all to Ernest and La Poo Poo’s blogs, where updates have been posted for you.
Every morning, I wake up and feel like something’s off. Something is off – I should be at school. It’s going to take me a bit of time to get used to this freedom. Usually I’m take no time in adjusting, and it’s at the middle of summer that I start missing school. Oh vell.
Next week I plan to go stake out the “Public Enemies” premiere with some friends. For now I’ll be content with finally doing some reading I never had time for during the school year. I went to Costco and bought three books, two of which are going to be returned tomorrow. The one remaining book is Public Enemies“, I’m almost ashamed to admit. Okay, Johnny Depp did inevitably factor into my reasoning, but I really am interested in reading about gangsters in the 30’s.
I should have known Sundays at Tiffany’s was going to be one big cheesy romance. The title indicates something that runs throughout the book – good writing exchanged for a quick and clever joke that is really just a cliche with a twist. Basically, every character says something clever every time they speak. The book, I’m sorry to say, reads like a mediocre fanfiction. At times I thought I was reading Twilight. The tenses kept switching back and forth. I could forgive the writer if the girl had actually died, but no. It turns out it was her mother, and so the girl’s mysterious vomiting is laid aside. Did I forget to mention there’s an epilogue? A bad sign. Harry Potter 7 had an epilogue, and that book may have been the worst out of the series. Well yes, in this book they have children too.
I’m willing to like a cheesy book if it’s somewhat well-written, even if it’s escapist and romantic. But this book was just a huge disappointment. The premise lures you in. Don’t be lured in.
Okay, book review’s over.
I’m doing my summer cleaning right now. Gah, it is a big fat hassle. I spent today cleaning to the tune of all my old CD’s. Embarassing Disney/nonDisney stuff, to say the least. Whatever, it’s a part of me I guess.
On the last day of school, we walked over to Towne Center and had lunch. Now I know what it feels like to be a hobo, because I only had three bucks on me so I had two things from the dollar menu at McDonald’s. Anyway, we saw a lot of old elementary school buddies, and not so buddies. I’ll just say that I’m grateful for being at my high school rather than the normal one. No matter how weird some of us get, we’re all guaranteed to be somewhat intelligent and sensible.
Then we walked to Sushi’s house and sat with her. Oh, wow. She’s in India right now. She was leaving midnight that day, but we just…walked into her house. And borrowed her wizard costume, huzzah! I hope Jonathan fits into it. Then Angela decided to go home because it was way too hot, so she left and we followed.
Oh yesh, Sushi’s keyboard makes the perfect noises for our soundtrack.
At Angela’s house, we ate her food, as usual. And played Taboo. I’ve decided – we will play at my birthday. Huzzah. Except that everyone kept using me as an example.
Amanda: Katherine is weird, right? So you would tell her to see a…
The answer is shrink, and yes, I got that one. Afterwards we went upstairs and Sunyoung had to go home. Amanda fell asleep for half an hour, Angela watched 90210 on her computer and played facebook games. I read H&M magazine. Did you know you can hire your own paparazzi for a day? Um…it’s the worst part of being a celebrity. But okay, if it floats your boat.
Finally Angela had to return her DVD’s to Ralph’s moviecube box, so off we went to borrow some more. Stupid box wouldn’t work. That’s the second time it hasn’t worked for me. We asked the cashier but she said, “We’re not associated with the box, but if you have any question you can call this number.” Beaurocratic much. I gave her much subtle attitude. Hahaha passive aggressive. No matter, we drove to Wal-Mart, with the much better Redbox, and rented “Tropic Thunder”. Of course we were sad that Redbox did not have “Pineapple Express”, which MovieCube did.
“Tropic Thunder”, as you may have heard, is one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen. Ben Stiller, you have redeemed your entire career with one movie.
Thinking of holding a meeting next week with everyone involved in the stopmotion. “Thinking…of putting in French doors actually.” Oh Jack Sparrow, why is your voice so strange in that deleted scene/blooper?
That is all. Goodnight and goodluck, everyone.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Arthur, Bella, Blondie, Buster, By the Sea, Chiranjeevi, cubicle, directing, Donald Trump, dorks, edward, elections, ex boyfriends, French, geeks, idea, James bond, Jean-Baptiste Maunier, Johnny Depp, Johnny Depp's children, La Nuit, Les Choristes, men's wearhouse, Mr. Gibbs, nerds, night janitor, oprah, PBS, phoenix, Pop-eye, Postcards from Buster, Sushi, Sweeney Todd, Twilight, wonder child
That’s all that’s in my head. Ever since we watched Les Choristes in French, Jean-Baptiste Maunier singing La Nuit has been stuck. And since I’ve been too lazy to look up the words, he just says “Au nuuuuuiiiiit” over and over.
Life? It’s still dull, but getting slightly better. Today was the first episode of “Buster in the Career Development Class” and it cheered me up while depressing me extremely by the thought that maybe directing isn’t for me. But if it isn’t, what is? Will I be stuck in a cubicle forever!? I have nothing against cubicles, in fact, I would like one just to decorate, but cubicle definitely loses in cubicle vs. directing wars.
People expect that I’m blinded by the glamour of such a career. I know it’s not glamorous, and I’ve already arranged for Sushi to bring me sandwiches daily when she stops at Union Station to get to her psychology clinic. Knowing her, I’ll probably starve. Hopefully, her superhero child will save me, and we’ll eat chicken not of the sea by the sea. “…Mr. Todd, that’s the life I covet, by the sea Mr. Todd, oh, I know you’ll love it.”
I know directors work very very hard, and I know that you have to be knowledgeable in every aspect of filmmaking. I’m not an ignorant kid who just wants fame; if I wanted that I would be aspiring to be an actor. Or the nanny of Johnny Depp’s children and get in the news by stalking and attacking Oprah at random intervals. Of course I wouldn’t hurt Johnny Depp’s children, his son sings the “Pop-eye” theme song so well. Almost as well as Jean-Baptiste Maunier sings “Au nuuuuuiiiiiiiiit…”
After the class Angela brought up a fantastico idea. Tee hee, I can’t wait – although the self-appointed leaders of our class might destroy it and it would die of being so ugly and horrific. In such a case, I would present it to Oprah and try getting a car out of pity. I say “self-appointed” because even though we had elections, they are sort of one entity, aren’t they? And then, on the side, are the dorks and geeks and nerds. I’m on the side. Hence my many failures at winning school elections. Although, that’s good stuff to use when they ask me how I learned from failure.
Let me talk about Sushi’s future wonder-child. And then perhaps I will rant passive aggressively about a certain man in our class – okay, several. Sushi’s wonder-child will have all the traits of her ex-boyfriends. What can I say, she gets around – and in my life as Edward, I know to expect crazy spawn. Heck, my own child tried to claw its way out of Bella’s belly. Say that ten times fast. Bella’s belly. Bella’s belly. Bella’s belly. Bella’s belly. Bella’s belly. Bella’s belly. Bella’s belly. Bella’s belly. Bella’s belly. Bella’s belly. Who’s to say Sushi’s kid hasn’t been waiting to be fertilized by EVERY one of her mother’s…encounters…imagine it. Intense eyeballs and facial muscles like Chiranjeevi, charismatically lethal like James B0nd, a toupee and hand twitch like Donald Trump, the night janitor’s love of Blondie, Mr. Gibb’s glorious sideburns, and Uday’s magnificent nose. When Sushi finally settles down, her husband will ask, “What? Those aren’t my intense eyeballs!” and their marriage will be destroyed in ruins. But Sushi will rise up like a phoenix and soar to become the most independent woman the world has ever known.
The Men’s Wearhouse. I guarrantee it.
This episode of “Buster in Tokyo” has been brought to you by: viewers like you. Thank you.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Belgium, Dakota Fanning, Frozen River, grapes, happy-go-lucky, In Bruges, Little Bobby, mature, Milk, movies, original screenplay, Oscars, Poppy and Rye, season, stealthy, The Littles, Twilight, WALL-E
It’s Oscar season, similar to Open season, harvest season, and holiday season. It’s the season where my mom pokes me as we watch awards shows and whispers, “Next time I’ll hear, ‘And the winner is…Grapes!’” She doesn’t say “Grapes” but for Internet safety, you understand. And it all gets very awkward but you know that secretly, under my Little Bobby exterior, I am secretly thrilled to be mentioned in such circumstances.
You can say you don’t want to act or direct for fame, but no one can deny fame has its benefits, along with all the paparazzi and fan mobs and massive amounts of fanmail and extreme scrutiny.
Since this year’s award shows promise to be quite the slight bore because of all the unknowns and the lack of a Johnny Depp movie to root for, (they could save it with some very good jokes and many appearances of Johnny Depp and/or Geoffrey Rush and/or some other PotC dude – not Keira Knightley/Orlando Bloom) I cannot post reviews about each aspect and say who I want to or stealthily know will win.
Also: Dakota Fanning is going to maybe be in the “Twilight” sequel!?!?!?!??! I don’t know whether to not care or slightly cry. Why would you be excited about that? She is. What slightly bothers me more is Yahoo’s use of “Dakota’s New Grownup Role” as the title. Yes, because “Twilight” is so mature.
I’ve got half a mind to tell you an informed post about each of these movies, but I’m feeling lazy and you can get that elsewhere. Starting with Original Screenplay. I haven’t seen any of these movies except WALL-E, so I’m just going to write about whatever comes to mind.
The nominees are: Frozen River, Happy-Go-Lucky, In Bruges, Milk, and WALL-E.
Let’s begin with “Frozen River”. Here’s the synopsis on oscar.com:
“Abandoned by her husband, Ray is left to raise their two sons in a broken-down trailer. When her efforts to buy a new home for her boys lead her to the brink of financial ruin, she allows herself to be drawn into a dangerous smuggling ring operating across the U.S.-Canadian border.”
For some reason, the combination of “Frozen River” and “Milk” in the same list reminds me of a frozen river of milk. Smacking myself now for such a stupid observation. I’ve never heard of this movie and have no idea what it’s about. If I made a movie called “Frozen River”, it would be either a horrific drama about a little girl frozen in the river of a small town, or about someone who is emotionally frozen. See how unoriginal I am. By golly, is that an Asian woman in that picture? Huzzah.
When I first heard of “Happy-Go-Lucky”, I really really wanted to see it. That was the beginning last year, and I sensed that it wouldn’t be released where I could see it. But then the Golden Globes came around and the leading actress kind of drunkenly thanked people, and I lost much interest. Still…it’s interesting.
“Poppy, a London schoolteacher, lives her life with a cheerful optimism that never wavers in the face of problems or setbacks. When her bicycle is stolen, she begins driving lessons with the angry, fiercely repressed Scott, while her concerns for the welfare of a young boy in her class lead to her meeting with a likeable social worker who is drawn to her open-hearted approach to the world.”
By the way, Poppy is the name of that mouse in the book “Poppy and Rye”, which I used to love because I liked that kind of thing. “The Littles”, stories about ants, pretending to be small and living in little crevices of human dwellings fascinated me.
“In Bruges” is another one that I was interested in, around the same time.
“Two Irish hitmen find themselves with time on their hands in the Belgian city of Bruges. Ken and Ray have been ordered to the medieval town to await a phone call from their boss, Harry, following a botched hit, and while the inexperienced Ray chafes at the inactivity, Ken takes advantage of the situation to play tourist.”
It seemed like it would be a really good insight into Bruges, like one of those movies that are more fangirl displays to cities than storytelling. Which I don’t mind. If I made a movie about Belgium, it would include as many shots of the peeing boy fountain as possible. Amanda can testify to my fascination with him. Our sixth grade Belgium project was covered with him. I stealthily snuck him into every aspect, our postcards, travel brochures, tickets. Probably the beginning of stealthily sneaking references into English essays.
“Milk”.
“As the emerging Gay Pride movement gathers force in the 1970s, it finds a champion and a public face in San Francisco camera store owner Harvey Milk. Leaving his closeted life in New York behind, Milk moves to California with his lover and soon turns his efforts to politics, campaigning for a spot on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors–a quest that will make him the country’s first openly gay man to be elected to public office.”
This movie, I strongly suspect, is one of those movies where the director wants to raise awareness for a cause, most likely through telling a historical inspirational story. It’s not that interesting in terms of being different, but I guess I could give it a try. Sean Penn looks awesomely unlike himself, bordering on what the Joker might look like w/out makeup and with a narrower jaw.
I saw WALL-E with Amanda’s family sans Amanda this summer. Afterwards we went to Coldstones and ate ice cream that was too big. I failed at ordering there too, taking almost half an hour to decide. It was cute, but it was way too long ago for me to gush. Thinking back, it was one cute movie building up to a greatly propagandish ending.
“Several centuries in the future, when human beings have abandoned the earth for a series of orbiting spaceships, the lone remaining being on the planet is a solar-powered robot named WALL-E. As he continues to carry out his trash compacting duties, he gathers up unexpected treasures…including a tiny green plant that has somehow reappeared on the earth’s heavily polluted landscape.”
Taking WALL-E’s lead,
SAVE THE POLAR BEARS.
No, seriously.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Arizona Dream, blasphemy, Borders, college, conservatism, deep, director, doctors, fail, fansite, generation gap, Jack Sparrow, Johnny Depp, lawyers, movie, music, New Zealand, Pirates of the Caribbean, Pirates of the Caribbean 4, Robert Pattinson, Russell Brand, scandalous, shun, Stranger than Fiction, Twilight, Wonder Pets
I knew it would happen but still I opened the thread.
It’s almost 11 and there’s nothing to do except the slightly annoying College Research Project. I feel like an idiot turning in something to Whitney High School, where most people end up as doctors or lawyers, that says I want to be a director. Die……
So. I was on a Robert Pattinson fansite and I saw a thread about him being in PotC 4. There I read blasphemy such as “Russell Brand would be better as Jack Sparrow’s brother” and “PotC (obviously I have abbreviated it because non-fans usually write it out or write POC) sucks” and “Johnny Depp became a sell-out” and “Oh, darn now I would have to watch those movies” or even the most sacriligious of all: “Robert Pattinson would out-do Johnny Depp”
Yes, I know what I’ve been saying. But the old defensiveness rereared its ugly head. But he would not, out-do Johnny Depp. I’ve seen “Twilight”, so I’m not ignorant of his acting skills. He wasn’t bad. But CJS was a total surprise, they turned the whole series’s plot around for him. And then for #3 they put the focus back on Elizabeth which killed it. She is not interesting!!!
Okay whatever. No one cares.
My sisters tried to borrow “Wonder Pets” but my dad wouldn’t let them because he didn’t want to watch “the singing ones”. Instead we suffered with “Tinkerbell”. I thought they fired that department years ago.
Then we watched “Stranger than Fiction” and there was one scene where Harold and Ana are in bed. They’re not doing anything, they just happen to be in a bed. And my dad goes, “scandalous!” Not really, but you get the gist. In that moment I realized that if I became a director I could never have two people in the same bed in a movie.
Obviously I would break out of the conservatism that this incident reveals, but it just reminded me of all the differences between me and my parents. They’re so typical of movie-goers. They don’t understand the greatness of Wonder Pets, and a scandalous scene is automatically bad just because it’s scandalous. Even if they’re just talking. Even if it has meaning and is really sweet and pertains to the plot. I bet if they watched “Arizona Dream” they would shun it. Remind me never to bring it up in front of them. I may have to go “Little Bobby” on them, nervous breakdown and everything.
Oh well. It’s late and my dad threatened to wake everyone up at 8 tomorrow morning.
Life just reminded me of my shopping fail today and thus my ineptness at daily life. I asked the cashier at Borders if he was keeping the second receipt and then we had a moment of fumbling with it. Although, the lady in front of me was from New Zealand. I was almost born there. I want to go there. Tee hee.
The college research project has forced me to have another deep “what is my future” thinking session. And honestly, I’m questioning the point of college, and the point of other things like why some names are acceptable. Who made it so that John was normal? Blasphemy! Maybe I’ll outgrow it. Anyways, so I was wondering if I wanted to get away from California. I do, but there’s an advantage to staying here if I want to make movies. Gahhhhhhhh. Why couldn’t I have been born in New Zealand? Then I could have moved here later when it would be of more benefit and experienced two places.
So…once again, it is late. I shall be going to bed. Goodnight. Sayonara, Japanese goodbye.
PS. I’m still desperate for new music, although I have found some.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: American Eagle, beaver, Benjamin Button, big girl, Billy Brown, busy beaver, Douglas Adams, Ernest, fails, film, Forever 21, Frisky the Squirrel, I Am, imposter, La Poo Poo, Lollipop Girl, love affairs, Macbeth, Mika, Miya, music, notcot.org, old soul, perverse, presents, Public Enemies, release date, Santa Baby, scandalous, shopping, shun, Sushi, teenagers, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, The Tao of Pooh, Twilight, Winnie the Pooh, Wisconsin, Wonder Pets, Wonder Pets Save the Beetles
I saw this on notcot and laughed.
It’s a beaver trying to be as awesome as La Poo Poo. I’m sure that wasn’t the intention of the artists but that’s the way I see it.
Actually, the whole ski thing is Miya’s version of La Poo Poo. For me, he just is. Kind of like the way they describe Winnie the Pooh on the back cover of The Tao of Pooh. Which my dad thinks is imposterful because it is Western trying to be Chinese philosophical. Shun shun shun, apparently. I read a bit of it on the Amazon sample thingy and twas interesting.
I borrowed The Restaurant at the End of the Universe today. I know it’s online, but I wanted to read a version without typos so that my OCD could rest a bit. You can’t skim through Douglas Adams stuff. Whenever I start skimming, the mass of words contains so much sciency/fake vocab that I just give up skimming and read it word for word. And if you skim you miss jokes so huzzah.
Yes, I borrowed “Wonder Pets Save the Beetles” today. After ten minutes of staring at the cover and telling my sister that no, we shouldn’t borrow the new Tinkerbell movie, I realized that the Wonder Pets were dressed up as Beatles imposters. I was wondering if I should also borrow the CD but I decided it was too much at one time to be considered sane by the librarian who checks out the books.
Also today, I got my shopping revenge. Huzzah. Now I’m just too scared to wear it to school. Countless years of t-shirt and jeans is hard to “eraaaaaaaaase”. I realized sitting at my desk doing nothing that 2nd period is like a great parade of what you’re wearing, if you’re late, and if you slept the night before. No one’s late to class except to the first one in the morning. Coincidentally, I have almost no friends in that class. I have nice friends in English. The ones you talk to but by no means joke about “Santa Baby” with. Or Sushi’s love affairs.
Buying presents for teenagers is so freaking hard. Haha, you’re laughing with your finger pointed in that annoying way. Either you can bend only your pinky finger down or you realize that I’m a teenager too. Silence, that is beyond the point. My mom says I was born a grandma and I think I’m living Benjamin Button style. I am confused.
Speaking of which, the PE trailer has disappointed me. Where isss it!?!?!?!
Back on topic, it’s really easy to buy Miya things because I can just go get her Disney princesses or whatever. But some of my other friends want new perfect things with no Engrish on them. Ugh. What’s the fun in nonugly typoless merchandise? Because of people’s birthday’s coming up I had to venture into the Twilight section of Border’s and risk being taken for a Twilight fan!! Gaspethy scandal!
I think one of the greatest fails of my life is my “I Am” poem from 2nd grade. I put “I am a frisky funny girl…blah blah blah blah…etc…”
First of all, I was not perverted. Katherine means pure, okay?! Not that I believe it anymore, thanks to Miya telling me the meaning of “beaver”, among other things. The reason I put frisky was I read this poem in my orange storybook called “Frisky the squirrel”. Interpret that how you want but he basically ran “up and down the treetop”. God, the perversity never ends, does it? It was about nature! No, that’s not right either. I’m just going to shut up and pretend I never leaked this fail to the world.
Both Mika and Johnny Depp are in that middle stage when they’re not promoting anything. Quel boring for me. It’s quite exciting when ten new interviews pop up in a day. Except when they were filming “Public Enemies” and everyone in Wisconsin filmed grainy videos of Johnny Depp walking across the street. Better yet, extras waiting around for their cues. Huzzah. Yes, we really wanted to see that.
Shopping sucks sometimes. Like when you walk into a store like Forever 21 dressed in a monochrome t-shirt, jeans, humongous brown jacket that’s leaking feathers, and your old old old fob sneakers from Taiwan. It’s like you shouldn’t really be shopping there, and everybody knows that it’s not your style. And they shun you.
The other day this Asian lady dressed in a pj-ish white shirt that was a tad crookedly too short for her and some loose leggings (the kind little Asian children like myself wore in 1st grade) shunned me and my mother in her shoe store. She said hello to all the white people but not me. I even looked her in the eye and she still didn’t say anything until my mom picked up a shoe and looked like she was going to buy it.
Why are graphic t’s so expensive?!?! Gah.
I used to feel bad walking into Forever 21 because I wasn’t 21 yet. Fail fail fail.
So much fail in the post. In general on this blog. What is unfail? I don’t know. Seriously, I’m not as sarcastic as I sound. My angry Asian face doesn’t help the matter.
Here we go, some happiness to balance it all out: I love life! Tee hee hee hee! Unicorns and ponies! Love your life!
Isn’t that what they put on tote bags, especially at American Eagle? That and “Live. Laugh. Love.” It’s one of those sayings that sounds really nice and inspirational but you don’t think about it. And if you did there would be nothing there behind it. I need a bit of a longer, more specific quote to be inspired, unfortunately.
Ooh! “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus” will be released Sep. 24. Huzzah huzzah huzzah.
After listening to many Mika interviews, I have concluded that what I’m doing with Ernest and La Poo Poo is very much like the whole idea behind “Billy Brown”, “Lollipop Girl”, and “Big Girl”. He says their living these soap operas – grounded in reality but completely surreal. Is not Ernest and La Poo Poo’s life well summed up in that statement?
Tomorrow is Sunday. The day I get to force feed my family my music on the drive to church. I’m particularly excited because of the Mika demos I downloaded yesterday.
Sorry if I sounded especially weird in this post, I don’t know what’s wrong with my English. It’s probably a mix of a Mika overdose/reading The Restaurant at the End of the Universe/those Scottish people in the “Macbeth” recording staying in my head.
We film tomorrow! Huzzah huzzah huzzah.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Pirates of the Caribbean, angst, Johnny Depp, Six Degrees, Youtube, fanfiction, Public Enemies, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Mika, stealthy, Simple Plan, shopping, winter, Twilight, imposter, Hollywood, trailer, angry asian face, Erase, Love Today, lies, Donnie Brasco, gimmick, Stephanie Meyers, Cloverfield, Nick of Time, 24, phone, colorful, teenage, passive agression, speech class, Nordstroms, Wonder Pets, Mr. Tambourine Man, Family Feud, celebrity lookalike, 20 questions
No sign of the “Public Enemies” trailer.
This can only mean one thing: lies.
Yeah, I don’t really know where I’m going with this.
Anyway, I decorated my planner for nothing. I should have put a crapload of Mika stuff in this week instead. It would have personified this particular winter break much more better than Johnny Depp in a Santa hat in “Donnie Brasco”.
poignant pause in which an epiphany occurs.
It’s working. I’m drifting away from PotC…yet still stuck with it because of my fanfiction. I’m determined not to be one of those authors who leave their readers hanging. I’m looking at you Stephanie Meyers (actually, I wasn’t. But I just wanted to make a jab at Twilight. Because I scoured bookstores for Angela’s birthday present and had to wash my eyes out afterwards). What a clever gimmick that was at the end…but I resisted. It’s okay…”Cloverfield” was a gimmick. “Nick of Time” was a gimmick. Yeah okay, obviously it didn’t work for “Nick of Time” because unless you are a Johnny Depp fan or know me very well you have a very confused expression on your face. Or a stone face. I never laugh at things on the computer. I just sit with my angry Asian face. Like right now because it’s cold.
Several bazillion years later, “24″ took the “Nick of Time” gimmick and turned it into a successful TV show. Ah, Hollywood.
I said all this to tell you that I’ve just finished Mikafying my phone and now I feel much more colorful and am very happy. All that’s missing is the laugh ringtone. I can’t wait to show Miya. That’s Miya, not Mika. I did a double take when I went through my post to add tags.
Today I went shopping with my family, mostly my mom. ‘Twas a fiasco. But of course I just made many angry noises and exaggerated my angry Asian face instead of lashing out in typical teenage fashion. I remember that guy who came to talk to us in 7th grade Speech class. Excuse me, old guy. Description is good. He said “You think that passive agression is the right way? WRONG.” Or something like that. I don’t really remember because he kind of annoyed me. He was supposed to be really important but of course no one had ever heard of him except Mr. Raabe.
Whatever. Passive agression is very stealthy. And stealthiness is key. Cue Mrs. Beauregard’s affirmative nod to Violet.
Basically, I think my mom’s subconscious was stealthily preventing me from buying anything. Oh well. My subconscious is getting revenge because we’re going shopping again tomorrow – just for me. As my dad put it, “I guess we’ll have to accompany you tomorrow.” Accompany. Huzzah.
I realized beside the necklaces at Nordstroms that I’m a pretty calm teenager. I don’t mean comatose. I had my teenage angst (“Eraaaaaaaaase”)phase in 5th grade. Which would make it preteen angst…how I wish the Simple Plan days had never happened. So I’m pretty calm except when I yell at my dad. Hah. What a fail thing to say. Hypocrite much.
I watched some “Wonder Pets” today on Youtube. Youtube is not kind to “Wonder Pets”. Yes…I watched it because of Mika. It’s kind of sad that most of my discoveries and likes come from random obsessions. It’s the only way to explain my tolerance of “Mr. Tambourine Man”. It’s not a bad song, but I’m biased.
I feel like an imposter.
Okay, I am. But not like those people who went on Family Feud dressed as celebrities. Here’s looking at you, short balding hunchbacked man who only DRESSED exactly like Johnny Depp but did not sound like him. Shun. Shuuuuuuun. Shuuuuun.
Ooh. Another fail. I just glanced at the title and remembered my sisters’ current obsession with 20 questions. Today Jocelyn discovered the wonder that is the 20 questions machine. You know, the little portable purple (huzzah!) game.
This morning my thing was “love” and the clue was “Everybody’s going to do this today”. No, it wasn’t too hard. My sisters live with me, they know references. But they failed me and answered things like, “wake up”, ”go shopping”, “sleep”, etc. I sighed and hummed it stealthily, and after a bit longer Shannon guessed it. Huzzah.
Oh yesh. Another six degrees I encountered today. I was eating at the Target food court thingy, and as I stood up to leave the lady sitting at the table behind us was staring up at me. And she looked like the lady in CatCF who offers Charlie $500 for his golden ticket.
My sister agreed. Huzzah.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Pirates of the Caribbean, Johnny Depp, China, Arizona Dream, funny, humor, fail, deep, Twilight, Strega Nona, Tomie DePaola, politics, old people, Taiwan, bathroom, Taiwanese Film Festival, Brava Strega Nona, Robert Sabuda, Matthew Reinhart, huzzah, Oasis, Fade Out, Freddie Highmore, accent, August Rush, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Robin Williams, hunger, McDonald's, directors, producers, Taiwanese cinema, Grandma's Hairpin, Viva Tonal, Cape No. 7, 1930's, songs, plot holes, Asian drama, Titanic, touching, Japanese singer, fob, language-genocide, UCLA
I don’t know about the rest of you, but for a while I wasn’t sure whether Tomie DePaola was still alive. I would have been very sad if he was dead, but here is proof. This is a newish book of Strega Nona! Huzzah!!!!!
And here’s what it looks like inside.
Can I say huzzah again?
Oh yesh, and I just realized I’m listening to that one Oasis song with Johnny Depp on guitar on it. Don’t look at me like that, I’ve never heard it before.
The Taiwanese Film Festival twas pretty good except that now I’ve got a horrible backache from sitting all day kind of close to the screen. I didn’t get to eat until I was going home, which was like…10 or 11 ish. So all I ate for the day was a slice of lemon cake (CRAVING SATISFIED) and a granola bar that I ate under the heat lamp. PS: the heat lamp doesn’t help me. Using such pity I got my dad to buy me some McDonald’s. Huzzah. Although I think they poured salt on it.
I get the feeling that I should probably write something serious about the Film Festival. Well I don’t really have any grievances, although I expected less scholars on the panel and more directors, producers, etc. I liked the point about how Taiwanese cinema is very free to do whatever. It made me want to move there to make movies. But then again, a slightly stupid idea. Well, actually I thought the people in charge of the event were a tad rude. Like the guy with the microphone who always tried to cut people off when there was almost no time left. He just cut them off, he didn’t even wait for an appopriate pause. Quel poopy. He pushed me and was like, “Can we moving please?” And that was fail but I was too angry to laugh at him. Plus I really had to pee and I was hungry.
The films shown were good. Seeing the first one made me realize that not all good movies have to have crystal clear sound. It was about Chinese veterans in Taiwan (Grandma’s Hairpin). My grandpa was one of them, not that he was in the movie, but it made me start thinking about how little I know about his past. He’s just all jolly and stuff and talks like Mao Ze Dong. Well, they’re from the same province. And the people in the movie were from there too…I started thinking about his family in China. Has he ever seen them again? And omg, that’s my family too. I thought it was cute though, that the hairpin, the title of the movie, had disappeared. Okay. Deepness galore. The next movie has less deep thought from me.
Mostly I got really excited from seeing my grandma’s neighborhood in the movie. I was like, “Hey…those signs look familiar…hey I know that Pizza Hut!!! And is that that drippy air conditioner that always leaks on me by the bus stop?!” It wasn’t, I’ve decided, but still, I’ve walked past that place so many times. And then I cringed because it was a movie about Taiwanese pop music in the 30’s (Viva Tonal) and most of the music were from records. On top of that the people blared it kind of loud in the theater so it was really really shrill. What was creepy though and yet kind of cute was that all the old people started singing along and tapping their feet.
And finally I watched Cape No. 7. Apparently it’s very famous but the first time I heard of it I was like, what? It wasn’t a great movie technically, it ran like an Asian drama, and there were plot holes galore, but the feeling was there, so it was touching. It’s kind of like Titanic. Not a great movie, but it’s got a premise that immediately touches you. I expected more of the historical aspect though. It was the touching part of this movie, but it wasn’t explored as much. And did they reuse the Japanese singer for the Japanese guy in the end?!
Anyways, it was very funny, unlike most Taiwanese things that try but aren’t to me. It’s a difference in humor, I think. Even in Cape No. 7 I thought some of the humor was so Taiwanese because it was like those weird comedies my family watches in Taiwan. It was a good movie though, overall. After we had a q&a with the director. He was funny and down to earth. Huzzah. And I got a lot of practice listening to Taiwanese yesterday. Tee hee.
I want to go to Taiwan now. Gah I sound like a fob. Hurry someone, give me cake.
Me and another intern expressed our dislike of Twilight, and that was fun. Huzzah. Yes, this was just put here to add Twilight to the tags and therefore attract more readers. The former paragraph would have been a pretty good ending.
But no, actually I want to address something else. I don’t know if this will affect my internship, but it shouldn’t if they’re fair. During the roundtable people had to bring in politics. I was like, we’re discussing film, for goodness sake. And it wasn’t any old politics, they were biased questions about the Taiwanese government. And then someone had to remind us that documentaries are paid by the government. Gee…okay. Suspicion and conspiracy theories galore? I mean, of course the government sponsors films, but can’t you give it a chance and not be biased against it before you watch?
And then some old guy brought up language-genocide, which was interesting but again really biased. He said something totally propaganda-like, like “I will ask this in Taiwanese because I feel it’s important to express my thoughts in my mother tongue”. I was like, okay, fine, but you don’t have to say it like that. And then he talked about language-genocide. Gah. I don’t mean it didn’t exist but just…you’re kind of extreme.
Personally, I acknowledge that Taiwan is much different from China. Duh, they’ve been separated for so long. But we are all still Chinese, genetically. Do we not share the same holidays? Can you just abandon 4000 years of shared history? I think not. And be realistic. Is the world going to communicate with you in Taiwanese? I love Taiwanese, I’ve listened to it forever, but what you need to speak is Chinese if you want to get anywhere these days. So when I learned that for a while they stopped teaching Chinese in Taiwan I was like…oh. my. god.
Please don’t fire me.
I saw all the posters in the film department of UCLA. PotC’s 1, 2, and 3. Huzzah! I mean…I don’t care…:)
A trip to another UCLA bathroom, however, dashed any 2nd thoughts I had about going there. Well, maybe. It wasn’t that bad, and it is a sacrifice I’m willing to make if their film program is tres tres good. Which it is. The toilet sprayed so much water when it flushed. It was gross, like a cold geyser.
Oh and I watched August Rush. Freddie Highmore, improve your American accent. The movie had good ideas, it just came off as too dreamy and strange sometimes. I know, this coming from someone who loves Arizona Dream? Yesh. There’s good dreamy and bad dreamy. And how did his dad know that he was his son? No one told him. I expect he’ll find out later and he was only staring at Freddie Highmore that way because he was wowed by his genius. This was nice role for Robin Williams. Different, and refreshing from his usual talk fast is not that funny anymore schtick. Not that he tries to be not funny.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: acne, blog, cockroach, dance class, edward, extracurriculurs, Faculty Follies, fail, film festival, food, funny, grapes, hero, high school, humanitarian, internship, Macbeth, martyr, math, murder, post, sleepy, smart, students, stupid, Sushi, Taiwanese Film Festival, taxi, Twilight, Whitney
“I haven’t posted in a while.” I hate when people say that in their returning post. I’ve just said it, so flog me now…
Actually, don’t. ‘Twould be painful.
Today there was a cockroach in dance class and Marivel freaking just picked it up. It was huge. And Sushi just ran around going, “Don’t kill it!” Now Marivel’s her hero. But Sushi wouldn’t pick up the cockroach either. What kind of martyr would she be?!
Why is Sushi so funny? She just is, she doesn’t do anything to be funny. Actually when she tries it’s kind of fail. Which in turn makes it funny.
I’m going to the Taiwanese Film Festival tomorrow. Huzzah for my first film fest ever. I hope it’ll be fun. At least my internship is paying for my food.
Sometimes I worry I don’t have enough extracurriculurs. Then I worry that I am stupid because who am I going to compare myself to? All the other smart people at Whitney? I wish I knew what most other high school students did to see if I’m just fail at Whitney or fail everywhere.
Our school keeps getting worse and worse, it seems. We’re still really good, but it seems each year the students get less smart and I doubt we are as good as we were before. Oxford is catching up, and they’re the imposters. How can the imposters beat the original? Anyway, someone told me it was because the district started picking the students for us. They have to be fair, so the smartest from each school gets in. That means some of the smart people don’t get in.
Yes, it’s more fair but do you know the consequences of this? Every year our grades go down, and some smart kids who don’t make it in start thinking their dumb. The good students from an okay school aren’t necessarily better than the bad kids at a better school. What I mean is that the top three from one school could be worse than the top ten at another school. And if we are supposed to take in the kids with potential, shouldn’t we take in the smartest of the total?
Why do I get so sleepy in math? It’s like the moment I walk in I’m sleepy. But I never fall asleep, my conscience doesn’t let me. Like Macbeth. Not that I killed anyone…
And it sucks because I want to pay attention but I just don’t get it. And Ms. Breik’s voice droning on makes me want to sleep.
Today was also Faculty Follies. Twas not so great as the ones in the past but there were still funny moments. When they were playing taxi and they said “OMG I haven’t seen Twilight yet” I said, “I’m right here.” And when they were looking for a crisis for the improv Miya said, “Grapes.” And we all laughed and disturbed the acne-happy people next to us. Huzzah!
