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Word Salad Jazzmatron  If someone asks you to do something kind of amazing and a bit daunting - like, I don't know, help them write a play - they probably didn't ask you because they don't think you can do it. They probably asked because they think you CAN. So maybe you should just trust them and do it. Try to remember this. Current mood:  contemplative.Current music: Battleship Pretension. I visited Sakari in Kansas City two weekends ago, for the fourth and probably last time. (I guess I might drive down with her mom to see their final show in the spring, so it may be the penultimate time.) Here is a list of the cool things I did: Recorded a voice-over for Sakari's thesis film in an actual studio, with headphones and foam-covered walls and everything. This is the second time we have thus collaborated. (The second time I've done a voice-over for her, that is. This was the first time I'd been in a studio. I recorded myself in my basement last time, but this is a senior thesis film, and my basement was not going to cut it.) Here's the result of that first collaboration, by the way. Other things: Got blissfully drunk two nights in a row, which, believe it or not, I don't think I'd ever done before. Went to a drag show. Went to what looked to me like an eminently hip thrift store (like I would know), where Sakari convinced me to buy this awesome dress.  Wore awesome dress to a fashion show/dance party. Met and talked to more cute boys than I ever even see in my everyday life. Took this photo, in which Sakari's friend Jack and I are totally indistinguishable from one another, and I look sort of unhappy about it (which I wasn't).  We did other cool things, but these were the highlights. Mostly, I just can't believe that Sakari will be graduating soon. Weird. Current mood:  accomplished.Current music: Ingrid Michaelson - Be OK (Acoustic). Dave Chapelle. The Lonely Island. Short clips/montages of short clips from notoriously bad movies. "30 Rock". "Saturday Night Live". Animals cleverly escaping from that which was meant to contain them. "Bananas In Pajamas". Werewolves. Maria Bamford. Music videos. Other countries' versions of "American Idol". It also recommended this to me, and I have absolutely no idea why. I watched the whole thing, though, which is probably the cause of most of my problems in life. Next time: A list of the coolest things that happened while visiting Sakari in Kansas City last weekend. It's actually a pretty long list, at least for me. Current mood:  lazy.Current music: Mirah - Mt. St. Helens. The second boy I ever had a crush on (fifth grade) works at the SuperAmerica eight blocks from my house. He has no idea who I am, so I didn't talk to him, but I'm sure it's the same guy. We didn't have any classes together or anything - he was two years older than me, and had the locker across the hall from mine. I saw him between classes once, was enthralled, and looked him up in the yearbook, which is the only reason I even know his name. Yes, I was kind of a creepy fifth grader. (Have I gotten better since then? Only kind of.) In my defense, I went to a tiny school, so it's not like finding someone's face in the yearbook was a lot of work. Also, I was eleven. I had a lot of time on my hands. Meanwhile, the first boy I ever had a crush on (third grade) is Facebook friends with a guy I met last summer and developed a crush on. I have no idea how they know each other, but again, I'm fairly sure the guy from third grade doesn't remember me, so I'm not going to ask anyone and try to find out. The guy from third grade rode the same school bus as me, and once dyed his hair blue, which I thought was the coolest thing ever. He was also really into Magic: The Gathering, which I begged him to teach me to play, but he always insisted that the game was far too complicated, and that trying to learn it would only frustrate me. I now have a mental image of all the guys I've ever had an unrequited crush on meeting in a warehouse somewhere, like Batman villains, except in instead of how to take over Gotham City, they're discussing how to get me to leave them alone. Current mood:  restless.Current music: David Bowie - Soul Love. I ran across a piece of "Inglourious Basterds" fanfiction today whose author described it thus: "NC-17 slash. They kill someone, but nothing kinky." It's because of sentences like that one that I think the "Inglourious Basterds" fandom might be the greatest one I've ever encountered. Current mood:  sick.Current music: Cyndi Lauper - Stay. This video is my new favorite thing, and I can't explain why. Or maybe I just don't want to. Current mood:  enthralled.Current music: Loudon Wainwright III - I'm Not Gonna Cry. Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen movies you've seen that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes, then tag fifteen friends. (I cheated spectacularly on this. I did not fill it out in 15 minutes. I thought about it on and off for about two weeks before typing a word. I tag whoever cares to fill it out.) The movies: 1. Heathers - I'm sure there are probably better examples of female empowerment in film than Veronica Sawyer, but when I was twelve, I could not think of one. Considering how many stories there are where a girl gets involved with the wrong guy and then gets pregnant or smacked around or killed or something equally horrible and damning, I thought it was so cool (and still do) that Veronica is not only allowed to get into trouble, but that she's also allowed to get herself out of it with equal effectiveness. This was also one of my first exposures to dark comedy and stylized dialogue - I don't remember previously thinking that a character dying could be funny, or that they could say things like "Fuck me gently with a chainsaw." 2. Annie Hall - My favorite movie of all time. Among many other things, it changed my mind about nonlinear storytelling. I used to not like it. I don't know why. It was a dark time in my life. 3. Zodiac - It mercilessly exploits both my love of a well-constructed screenplay and my probably inordinate fear of being a victim of random, violent crime. I made the mistake of watching it alone in my house at night. At one point I paused it and got up to do something, and when I came back into the room, my cat was sitting on the back of the couch - except she was curled up in a ball so that at first glance, from a distance, it looked like the hair on the back of a person's head. I was for one second completely sure that a stranger had snuck into my house and was sitting on my couch. I don't think I've ever been so terrified in my life. 4. Romeo + Juliet - It's big and crashing and epic and garish and fabulously melodramatic, and it fostered a lifelong love of other things that fit that description. I would still rather watch this than than the Zeffirelli version any day. 5. Fantasia - I don't see how anyone who loves music or art could have grown up without loving this movie. It is so awesome. 6. Crush On U - This is without question the worst movie I have ever seen. Yes, it is worse than "Plan 9 From Outer Space". If nothing else, there are individual frames of "Plan 9" that you could show to a person who hadn't seen the movie, and they might go, "Oh, well, that's kind of cool-looking." Nothing like this can be said about "Crush On U". An IMDb user described it as "truly dire," and they're right. It is baffling in its horribleness. It is for this reason that I think anyone who is any kind of artist who sometimes feels insecure in their talent should watch it. Even if your worst fears are true, and you really are a talentless, inept hack with nothing important to say, you are still capable of producing better work than "Crush On U". You have to be. And "Crush On U" was, a) completed, and b) distributed on DVD. So you have no reason whatsoever not to follow your dream. 7. Rashomon - I feel like the term "mind-blowing" gets thrown around too much, but it's the best way I can describe the effect that seeing this for the first time had on me. I remember thinking at the time that it may have been the best movie I'd ever seen. It felt like someone had thrown open doors inside my head that I didn't know were there. 8. The Truth About Cats and Dogs - An excellent movie for anyone who's felt like they were living in a world built for people more beautiful than them. Yes, the plot is kind of stupid. (If Ben Chaplin really can't figure out what's going on with these two women, then I'm surprised he hasn't drowned in the shower yet.) But it's funny and charming, and the friendship between Janeane Garofalo and Uma Thurman is actually one of the most well-developed female friendships I think I've seen in a romantic comedy. Also, any movie in which Garofalo asks a cosmetics saleswoman if she has any pore maximizers, because sometimes she just needs a place to stash her keys, is my kind of movie. 9. Hedwig and the Angry Inch - It was unlike anything I'd seen before, and I actually got in huge trouble with my mom for seeing it, because she thought it was horribly inappropriate. I saw it at Sakari's house, and she threatened to not let me go over there anymore because she was so angry. Awful at the time, but sort of funny to look back on now, and I think the sense of transgression only made me enjoy the movie more. It also jump started a period of weirdly intense infatuation with Michael Pitt. I still like him now, but for a while, I was REALLY into him. I may or may not have an autographed photo left over from this period. 10. Walking and Talking - If I ever make a movie, I'll basically be trying to make this one. And the way that Liev Schreiber says "Hello, cookies! Me likey!" is one of those things I can think about at any random moment and laugh out loud. 11. Pocahontas - The first time I remember crying in a movie theater. It also made me aware of the difference between seeing a movie on the big screen and watching it at home. I was ridiculously excited when my mom bought it for me on video, but was disappointed to find that it didn't move me as much in my living room as it had in the theater. 12. Grease - Like everyone else, I watched it over and over as a kid, and I'm still a little disappointed that high school wasn't actually like that. Luckily, I got to be in the play during my senior year, and that was almost as good. 13. Alive - I have never been someone who was afraid of flying. In fact, probably because I do it so infrequently (I haven't been on a plane since I was in eighth grade), I've always found it kind of fun. Well, "Alive" has made me afraid to fly. The plane crash sequence at the beginning is one of the most unsettling things I've ever seen in a movie, and I know that when I do set foot on a plane again, I will have a hard time not thinking about it. 14. Secretary - Causes you to find things sexy that you never thought you would. On a shallow note, I also really love and want all of Maggie Gyllenhaal's clothes. 15. The Rocky Horror Picture Show - Another movie I saw at Sakari's house that I felt cooler and more adult for watching. I still have my Columbia costume from when we used to go to midnight showings at the Riverview all the time. Sadly, I don't fit into it anymore, because I am no longer fourteen. Current mood:  satisfied.Current music: The Rolling Stones - Soul Survivor. Not fired! Current mood: full.Current music: Filmspotting. Jenny Slate accidentally said "fuck" during her first sketch ever on "Saturday Night Live". Wow. I. . . wow. I really hope she doesn't get fired. Granted, history is not on her side on this count, but head writer Seth Meyers gave her what looked like a supportive hug before the end credits, so. . . that might bode well. Right? She looks so upset in that second clip that it just makes my heart hurt. I really feel bad for her. Of course, I'm the kind of person who can't ever fully enjoy watching understudies in plays, because I spend the whole show feeling nervous for them. So I might be hypersensitive to this kind of thing. I thought the premiere itself was really lame, unfortunately. The accidental F-bomb was the most memorable part by far. Current mood: sympathetic.Current music: Filmspotting. I saw a guy on CNN today complaining about Obama "taxing us into Bolivian." Yes, really. I'm still not sure if he just misspoke, or if he really thinks this is a phrase people use. If it's the latter. . . what does he think it refers to? Current mood: impressed.Current music: Sarah McLachlan - Push. |
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