Sunday, January 31, 2010

The Romantics

The Romantics screened at Sundance Film Festival last week. I haven't seen the film yet (obviously), and I'll be the first to admit that regrettably, I did not follow the festival very closely this year.

But this interview with The Romantics director Galt Niederhoffer makes me wish I'd gone to the festival. And had gotten to meet her.

In addition to showing how incredibly articulate and intelligent she is, Niederhoffer talks about the difficulties of making a film in the Romantic Movie genre, like how to steer clear of the cliché while being truly sincere.

My favorite quotes from her include:
" . . . I mean [romantic movies] have a purpose — they make us feel good, and they remind us of the universal fact that we all are pitting this enormity of emotion against the question of that emotion’s validity in real life."
"Sincerity goes very easily to the point of sentimentality, and I wanted to ride that line, which is a hard thing to do. Emotions are as tricky in stories as they are in the real world. They’re big and unruly and often the very unattractive sign of absurd and compulsive narcissism, you know? That quality is so true of young people and their emotions that you really have to navigate it with some care. The question kind of becomes: are young people fools, or are young people honest?"

Where I want to be right now...

Adventure

"The core of mans' spirit comes from new experiences."— Chris McCandless

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Doppelgänger Week

There's this thing going around Facebook where everyone is changing their profile picture to a famous celebrity and calling it Doppelgänger Week, posting this in their status:

It's Doppelgänger week. Change your profile picture to someone famous you have been told you look like. After you update your profile with your twin or switched at birth photo then cut/paste this to your status.

I didn't get the Doppelgänger reference, so the first thing I did was look it up on the Internet.

Doppelgänger-- noun-- the ghostly counterpart of a living person; any double or look-alike of a person.

Well, that seemed fair enough. Nothing surprising there. Then I wikipedia'd it (I like how that word has become a verb in popular vernacular now), and I found this:

Doppelgänger-- The word is also used to describe the sensation of having glimpsed oneself in peripheral vision, in a position where there is no chance that it could have been a reflection. They are generally regarded as harbingers of bad luck. In some traditions, a doppelgänger seen by a person's friends or relatives portends illness or danger, while seeing one's own doppelgänger is an omen of death.

Everyone on Facebook is embracing bad luck, eh?

Well, not to be left out, I decided to look up what celebrity I look like. Of course, I will forgo posting it on FB and will instead indulge you, dear readers, by sharing with which famous individual I share a similar facial structure.

Sadly, with the first photo I uploaded, I was told that I look like no one famous. A disappointment (or not?). But then I just chose another picture. Apparently, according to MyHeritage.com, I look like:

Helen Hunt (72%)


Emmy Rossum (62%)


Kristin Davis (61%)


Enid Blyton (61%)


That last one is probably my favorite. And she's an author. Rather fitting, I suppose.

You Make My Dreams

Currently Listening To:
Song-- You Make My Dreams (Album Version)

Artist -- Hall & Oates

From-- (500) Days of Summer soundtrack


This song makes me want to prance down the sidewalk snapping my fingers in a chorus line. Or, like in the movie, join a giant spontaneous dance number in the park. It's such a fun song.

. . .

"Fear the time when the strikes stop while the great owners live - for every little beaten strike is proof that the step is being taken … fear the time when Manself will not suffer and die for a concept, for this one quality is the foundation of Manself, and this one quality is man, distinctive in the universe." -Steinbeck

To Live...

"Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem." -Whitman

Love

"The world we live in will either be better or worse, depending on whether we become better or worse. And that's where the power of love comes in. Because when we love, we always strive to become better than we are."
- The Alchemist

Friday, January 29, 2010

Epic Snow Day


The Greek community at OU is split up into North and South Greek (according to where our houses are located in respect to campus), and today we had an epic North Greek v.s. South Greek snowball fight.

Well, first it started as a snowball fight between the SigEps (a N. Greek fraternity), Theta, and Chi O (both N. Greek sororities).

Hence, the SigEps (note the flag) laying siege on our house...

Then they ran off to lay siege on Theta down the street...

Of course, that was short lived, and the group (pretty much led by the guys) ran on down to South Greek, crossing busy streets en masse and banging on the doors of all the sorority houses along the way.


After our saunter around South Greek, banging on doors and throwing snow at the passing cars (again, I'll blame this on the guys), we headed back up to North Greek. Just as we arrived, we noticed that a few from South Greek had assembled and followed us back, taking up our previously-broadcasted challenge.

We totally won.

Tired, cold, and happy, we returned home.

(I'm in the yellow boots.)

We de-layered out of our snow-caked clothing...

(This was supposed to be a "Look at all our stuff!" picture.)

(Please admire our leggings and tough faces.)

... and rewarded ourselves for all the hard work with hot chocolate. And extra mini-marshmallows.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

My Home



Pretty, isn't it?

Well-Spoken

“Among other things, you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behaviour. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them—if you want to. Just as some day, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry.” - J.D. Salinger

J.D. Salinger Passes

“I hope to hell that when I do die somebody has the sense to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetary. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody.”-J.D. Salinger

-------> I wonder if they'll honor his wishes...?

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Morgan Freeman on Racism

I have a lot of respect for Morgan Freeman. Here is a segment from an interview where he discusses racism and Black History Month.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO214IFRW1M&feature=player_embedded

Friday, January 22, 2010

A "Plumper" Golden Globes

After the Golden Globes, articles sprang up everywhere (as they do every year) to discuss who wore what on the red carpet. One particular article on a New York Times blog stirred up a lot of controversy by discussing how some actresses looked like they had put on a little more weight and how the new curves looked sexy (also implied: more healthy).

Another article (on CNN) takes the position that readers misunderstood the message of the blog (that a little bit curvier looks a lot better than stick thin), saying that many got up in arms about the semantics of the story.

The end of that article has a very interesting-- and VALID-- point about actresses.

Although she makes a living on watching the industry, Harrington believes that we're missing the point on why the actresses were at the Globes in the first place.

"They're no longer about who wins what; they're about the two-hour pre-show. When you go online, you want to look for who wore what and how they look in it," she said.

Part of the problem, she said, is that we've gotten used to the idea that actresses should look like models -- to the point that actresses, and not models, are prominently featured on magazine covers.

"[The media have] realized how marketable Jennifer Aniston's face is," she said, "and it's overwhelmed what they actually do, which is acting."

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Truth, Gentle Sister

This is a really interesting quote that was attached to the bottom of an email someone sent me (in their automatic signature section).

"Beware of the truth, gentle Sister. Although much sought after, truth can be dangerous to the seeker. Myths and reassuring lies are much easier to find and believe. If you find a truth, even a temporary one, it can demand that you make painful changes. Conceal your truths within words. Natural ambiguity will protect you then. Words are much easier to absorb than are the sharp Delphic stabs of wordless portent. With words you can cry out in the chorus: 'Why didn't someone warn me?' But I did warn you, I warned by example, not with words." -Leto Atreides II, God Emperor of Dune

Thrifty Shopper

So y'all will be very proud of me.

After much internet searching (and one recon mission to the bookstore), I have purchased all my books for the semester.

You roll your eyes. Not a big deal, you say.

Au contraire, my friend. Au contraire.

That is because Virginia Duke officially spent a mere $158 on a colossal eleven textbooks (insert triumphant trumpeting). And considering that only two of her larger textbooks would have totaled a whopping $327 at the University Bookstore, this is a feat indeed.

And pray, how was such a thing accomplished?

By the amazing power of the internet, channeled through such auspicious sites as Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, and chegg.com. For those of you not familiar with Chegg, it's an online textbook rental company. You rent the book for a fraction of the price and at the end of the semester you mail it back to them. Simple. Beautiful.

Of course, the tiny spot of inconvenience that flecks my otherwise buoyant elation is that these cheaply obtained nuggets of knowledge will take an unfortunate 4-7 days to arrive at my doorstep. An inconvenience, to be sure.

But an inconvenience most sweetly born, as I now have over $200 more in my bank account than I would have otherwise. I feel a celebratory trip to the nearest Maggie Moos is in order... followed by a prompt visit to the Bursars Office of course.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Film Technology

"Technology does release you to do new shots, angles & movements, but you have to decide why you are doing them. You don't do them because you can; you do them because you should. That is the key to technology." -Oliver Curtis, BSC

At the Box Office: Titanic v.s. Avatar

Sure, Avatar is set to pass Titanic's international revenue record ($1.24 billion), but it still has a long way to go to match the huge attendance record set by director James Cameron's first epic.

Eleven years ago, of course, ticket prices were a lot cheaper -- the most recent estimated average ticket price was $7.46, compared with $4.69 in 1998. And most people are seeing "Avatar" in 3-D, where ticket prices are several dollars higher. The result: Far fewer people have seen "Avatar" than "Titanic" so far. "Avatar" has sold fewer than 70 million tickets in the U.S. and Canada; "Titanic" sold more than 125 million.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Avatar = Pocahontas

I read an article the other day that criticized the blockbuster smash Avatar for just being the story of Pocahontas with a few name changes. And it's funny, because before reading that, I did not even notice. I mean, I've seen the movie twice in theaters already, and I didn't notice it.

It's not like I didn't notice that the overall theme of the film was "Western society comes to 'uninhabited' land, exploits it for resources, and then tries to kill the natives who get in their way." But at the same time, I didn't see it immediately as Pocahontas II. When I left the theater, I was thinking more along the lines of... well, the history of the United States in general (and our tendency to think that we can control other countries and exploit their resources).

Either way, it's a great film. If for nothing else, it's an incredible example of where technology is taking the movie industry. Just think of all the new stories that we can tell of alternate/parallel universes, etc.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Getting Set Up

I am back in Norman now, getting ready for classes to start tomorrow. I spent the entire day yesterday bringing all my stuff up three flights of stairs (from the basement to the third floor) and setting up my new bedroom. I have the same roommate as the last two semesters (Allie, who is tiny and barely clears five feet tall) and we have pretty much the same decorations as last year. But thankfully we have enough closet space, shelf space and drawer space to contain the massive amounts of clothing and accessories that two girls will inevitably accumulate.

I also spent the day looking up/purchasing all the books I will be needing for the semester. And I looked up all my classrooms on the campus map to make sure I knew where all the buildings were. So I feel pretty set!

Friday, January 15, 2010

Listless Day

Today has been a listless (and list-less) day. In fact, the whole week has been like this. In the last four or five days, since arriving in Tucson, I have done nothing but lounge around and read tons of online articles (ranging from the worthless "Fashion Sense" stuff to the more interesting "The Art of the Shoot").

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Be an Organ Donor




http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/lego.png

100 Years

Currently Listening To:
Song-- 100 Years
Artist -- Five for Fighting

It's songs like these that make me wonder what the artist was thinking when he composed it. When John Ondrasik wrote the lyrics for 100 Years, what was he feeling? It's such a melancholy, beautiful song about growing up and the panic that comes at all ages when you are afraid life has passed without having accomplished something meaningful. What inspired this?

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

New Layout-- Again!

I feel like it's time for change... again. So I'm starting with the template for this blog. It needed something new and different. I'm not sure if I'm sold on this new one, but we'll use it for now.

About Me

... A few thoughts to pass the time...