So long since posting!

It's true, there's been time to post before now....but I have turned into a lazy person with a boring life, haha!

Anywho, for the first time in a loooooong time, and actually, maybe the first time ever at Law School, I walked out of my dorm room and around campus in an outfit I wouldn't have thought twice about walking around in at Wellesley - dubious color coordination, overlarge sweatpants, no product in my hair or makeup on my face (don't worry crew! makeup is still not a staple in my day to day wear), sweatpants, and a faded tshirt. OH THE MEMORIES :)

Anywho, miss you all and hope you're well :)


Ronnie

Hallo, hallo!  Mz. Benson has called me out on never posting, which is true, but considering you're nearly the entirety of my audience, LB darling, what's a girl to do! 

Life has been TRES fab up here in Law School.  There has been some sleep deprivation, some ill advised play time instead of studying, and a shocking amount of uncooked pancake batter, but on the whole, I've been very happy.

In fact, if anyone wants to know exactly how I'm feeling right now, put on dar williams' "Party Generation."  No really, stop and listen to it right now and we will officially be occupying the same time and space.  That has been my soundtrack since last Friday (with a small exception today laying out on the grass enjoying Cat Stevens), when the weekend started off with awesomely good times in relay races and bday parties, and continued through Saturday night and my own bday, and through Sunday with more social fun.  I don't mind so much that I'm getting older because people aren't getting less fun to be with. :)  It was also beyond fabulous to have JessJess in town the other week, and to see Nell and Lesley and Ace and all of them, and it's been fun to be up here with former Wellesley friends.

This is not to say it's all been kicks and giggles, but on the whole, life's been all right :)

I have also started handstand practice.  If anyone reading this can do a handstand, please send me a picture of it!  preferably with your smiling face in it.

Most Sincerely and much love,

yours, etc

There's nothing like a long list of chores and a weekend of Ultimate to inspire me to post another entry. 

This entry will not focus on the scores of movie I've seen and have yet to report on, but on Ultimate.  What can I say - the few people who read this blog are almost exclusively ultimate players, and most of those served as either my captain (I like friends in high places! :)) or were, at the very least, present during my formative years of playerhood.  Basically, I like them to know that their tireless efforts to shape me into a decent player were not always in vain. :)

That said, this weekend was the End of Season tournament for Atlanta League play.  As usual, the weather was scorching (literally! standing in the sun was akin to lying on a dry frying pan), and the polo fields were in less-than-ideal-shape.  For the second year in a row, the team went to the finals (!!! hooray!!!) and came away with second place.  While this team (Cheap Trick) had a few overlapping players from last year's Banditos - notably our noble Ca-pi-tan - it was still quite different; for example, the captain who beat us last year in the finals was on our team.  Despite roster differences, our defeat in the finals boiled down to the same thing again this year: too few subs.  We had a core of amazing players who played amazingly, fought til the very end, and completely defied everybody's expectations as to how well we would do.  There were moments of sheer athleticism and effort yesterday that I could really only describe as ridiculously gorgeous, and evidence as to how amazing the human body really is, especially with the right practice, willpower, and determination.  But cramping, asthma, and being outnumbered brought on our defeat, at long last.  Still, we went home with a great deal of satisfaction.

On personal performance, Saturday and Sunday for me were as different as night and day.  Saturday afternoon I realized two things:

1) I was almost completely focused on off-field personal matters and not on our games.  I don't think I need to go further on how this can seriously FSU, or relive the disc bobble or two that physically manifested my distraction and insecurity.  Insecurity leads me to my second point.

2) Somewhere along the way, I have stopped playing Ultimate.  Hahaha, literally, in the middle of a point, I suddenly realized I was on the field doing nothing, and I asked myself out loud, "When did I stop playing Ultimate?"  I mean, I still play decently on defense, but on offense, my status quo has become to stay out of the way while the better players do the work and the scoring, both because I don't want to interfere and because I feel like I'll probably bobble the disc if I get it anyways. There have been a few performance exceptions here or there.  Obviously, this has seriously hurt my play the last three or more years, and I further realized that the times in the past when I have been particularly proud of my own performance were in random tournaments or games where I either didn't know the team well, or there was no overtly fixed hierarchy of players and play level, or we had nothing at all to lose.  My lack of participation is, obviously, a somewhat self-fulfilling cycle, as never being called in a pull play on this team, for example (which other than the one or two super serious and totally awesome club girls on our team, *none* of the girls ever were), lead me to feel like I should or could do even less, and not doing anything further hurt my chances of ever being called into play.

Ok, I may be an idiot, but I don't like to be an idiot who KEEPS effing stuff up.  So, Saturday night I straightened out the personal stuff, and Sunday morning decided if I was going to keep showing up and spending money on Ultimate, I was going to frickin cut for the disc every once in a while.  So, I didn't become a super rockstar worlds player or anything, but I dramatically improved, and scored six points (man I wish you guys could have been there to see how beautifully the people on my team can put it, seriously, I can't go on enough about the quality of player on that summer league team, both male and female) and kicked up my defensive play.  One of my regrets in college is being too much of a nancy to put myself in the cup, which I almost always get assigned to do in league play.  It was so satisfying, both in the two and three person cup, to force crap throws and turns.  I only wish I had been in better shape so I could have REALLY kicked some ass when we converted to O. 

It is so funny no matter how many years go by, scenes from Whiptail practice and games will flash through my head, both as related to rules and plays, and off the field stuff.  Sometimes, it's idiot stuff where I relive an old mistake while I watch myself make it again.  But a lot are postiive!  For example, Nell, the portapotties were so hot this weekend I assigned my teammate Maryann the job of making sure if I disappeared she would make sure I hadn't passed out and died of heat stroke while going pee.  I thought about how one of the days during club regionals 07 in MA was so cold I literally took shelter in a portapot before you loaned me your lucky green fleece and saved me from hypothermia :).  Or, on a less hilarious, technical note, one of my scores on Sunday was a textbook turn the page.  Right before my decision to execute, I had a sudden vision of Purple Valley senior year, and it wasn't the guy on my team making the put for the score on a scorching hot day in Georgia, but Ralph, blonde and serious, on a damp fall day in New England, waiting for me to turn the page like we had just shown the rookies in practice.  It is this kind of memory that appears to me the most while playing - laser sharp images of teammates and friends, either teaching me something, or being hilarious, or doing something astonishingly beautiful on the field. 

To wrap up, this weekend was extremely satisfying.  In three weeks since last playing I had nearly forgotten the absolute marvelous feeling of running as fast as you can with six other people down a field toward other people doing the exact same thing, and unfortunately for my focus, it nearly always, even when I'm exhausted, makes me want to laugh, especially when I've been assigned to cup with some guy smoking my ass - because I'm just so happy to be alive and running, and am further amused at my own limitations.  Furthermore, I love how I continually learn things in Ultimate, and I love how guys and girls from all interests and walks of life continue to take the time to teach me things to improve, even when it's because they just want to win already.  You can tell a lot about a person in how they act when teaching or correcting you - and this weekend I once again found myself surrounded by genuinely good people!  

Ok, I need to pull up this entry and end it, because seriously, no one needs to waste any more time listening to me wax poetic about Ultimate, when it's just preaching to the choir (and a highly skilled choir, at that!).  I can only hope that I don't forget to actually play Ultimate the next time I do, and stop being an insecure wallflower already!

It makes me sad to be leaving the insanely gynormous and friendly Ultimate community that is Atlanta, trading oppressively hot days for soggy freezing ones; but on the other hand, I'm returning to New England, the birthplace of my lovely infatuation with the sport and its players.   Inspiration to stay in shape during Law School.

Turns out - life's not so bad, after all :)

Well my dearest, if very small number, of readers - much things have happened of late!  Lots of movies - Up and The Hangover and Gran Torino, and Wall-E and so on and so forth, and also, vacation!!!  I went to Murphys, California to visit my former cello teacher and her husband, and we did lots of fun things!  We went to Mono Lake and Yosemite, Big Trees National Park, Bear Valley, and to Alpine lake to kayak!!!  We ate good food, drank good wine, and Alice even taught me a meal to fix :).  I also saw two - count em, TWO - whiptails in San Fran!  On the very last day we met up with Langdon for lunch in Japantown and then for dinner we met Kate Derrick at an Indian Buffet (food at both of these places was frickin' DELISH!).  Then I took the redeye home to Atlanta and 18 hours later, Caitie showed up from Tallahassee.  We of course, spent the next day touring around the city, and saw such places as the World of Coke and ate at Fellini's and went to the Laser Show with Tabitha!  (where it threatened to, but did not actually, rain).  Sadly the operatic version of the National Anthem still ends the show.  It's even more ridiculous than I remembered.  We spent the weekend at my friend's lakehouse and nearly got our arms ripped off attempting to wakeboard and tube.  I was better at tubing, though Caitie nearly left the earth's atmosphere on one particularly fierce wave.   THEN this past Monday, who should show up in town for a work meeting but Ashleigh Baldwin (bringing Wellesley alum totals to three!), and so I ferried her from her meeting to the airport with a stop at the Casa de Gosselin and Willy's in between :)  There's been a sprinkling of Ultimate throughout above adventures as I stalk the people from my previous summer league team to their new team.

Whew!  Pictures along sometime or 'nother.  And potentially more fun, fleshed out adventures!

I hope your birthday is as good as a Reese's Pieces break while trespassing on private property!

Sending you all the best and most wonderful wishes on this, your 19th B'day :)  You just look younger and younger every year!



Most most MOST sincerely,

Ronnie :)

I READ THIS BOOK TODAY AND AM NOW RUNNING IN CIRCLES SCREAMING AROUND MY APARTMENT.


What a TWIST!  Man, now on to waiting another year for the sequel. 


I recommend it, and JessJess, I highly envy your current stay in London, as that's where all the fun release parties are, and I like the UK cover art better.

This is the author, whose blog I've been following for years: http://sarahtales.livejournal.com/



This story will leave you wanting moooooooooooooooooooore.



also, have baked cookies for the kids and am behind on all things of import I should have been doing.  more later!

1) I have finally watched Milk!  gaaaaah.  Will maybe have more coherent review soon.

2) generally content with life (except for during and post Milk).

I know that I am lucky in my friends every week, but this week I definitely have to give thanks for wonderful friends!!!

This week I was showered both physically and socially with friend gifts, from that little black sheep pictured (thanks Lesley!) to postcards from the Grand Canyon and Greenwich (thank you Sarah and Jess!), to Benjamin Button, comedians and chaos theory, and tons and tons of music from D. Rubin and a whole season of FX's Damages from my TMasters friend Ryan, who will probably never read this, to a trip to the beach and the pool with Caitie (who is even MORE into talking to strangers than I am), and countless minutes of phone time with still more of you (Nell-Nell and LB, I'm lookin at you!), and I am feeling wonderfully and completely undeservedly showered with love (heeheehee, even if some of you didn't intend to do so).  THANK YOU, and I hope I can give back half as much as you all have given me.  (Lesley, I found your shark fingerpuppet.  TODAY.)  


These last few weeks in Tallahassee have been busy and fun, with last week bringing fun times out in Tallahassee and a visit with my wonderful cello teacher and friend, Alice, in Panama City (who I'm visiting in June!).  My parents visited last weekend and brought up some of the aforementioned booty, making yet another hilarious Gosselin Family adventure even more fun.  After spending the last year moving around from pillar to post, I know that I wouldn't be a fraction as happy without all the really really really SWEETAWESEOME people I know, young and old, family, friend and stranger.  The presents are an added bonus: I do so greatly enjoy our friendships in all the time in between :)

All right, you guys can get back to your non shmoopy days, but once again:


THANKS!!! :)

Tilda Swinton, you say?!  But she was barely in the movie!

Hear me out, fair Reader!
1)    It’s been a while since I’ve seen Tilda Swinton in a movie where she was both A) nice looking and B) not a bitch or the bad person. (Ok, I’ll be honest here, I’m really only thinking about Narnia (in which I find her hypnotically fabulous but still, well, a bitch) and Burn after Reading (a role I consider second only in scariness to a velocirapter in league with a tiny maniacal clown*).  Moral of the story is, she makes a great redhead.
2)    Her character undergoes the most change/has the biggest character arc, and ends up being the biggest badass of the whole movie.

I rest my case!  But on to the rest of the movie…

Finally, I have seen the Curious Case of Benjamin Button.  While I felt fairly confident I had the gist of the storyline from the previews – and for the most part was proven right – I can now from a technical and story standpoint understand why it was nominated for so many Oscars and then received so few.  Overall I did enjoy it, I loved the cast, and of course, I have thoughts, comments, and critiques.

The inspiration for BB comes from an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story of the same name, which can be found here: http://www.readbookonline.net/read/690/10628/.  Much is different, of course: everything from tone and style to actual events.  In the Fitzgerald story, Button is not abandoned as a child, for example, to live in an old folks home.  Another major difference between the story and the movie is that in the Fitzgerald story, Button’s physical body and his mind are the same age at all stages.  That is, when he’s an old man, his mind is that of an old man’s.  He’s not interested in doing kid things.  When he’s young, his mind is that of a child.  In the movie, this is reversed.  Button is a kid trapped in an old body when he’s born, and then a senior suffering from dementia as he grows younger.  This choice was probably made in order to more easily facilitate the movie love story.  In Fitzgerald’s story, there is nowhere near the epic love of the movie, and Fitzgerald’s Button struggles with a lessening attraction to his wife.  In the movie, the director wanted to show a lifelong love, which could really only work if the two have a reason to relate to each other early on in the movie, aka, mentally, they’re both kids.  If Button was an old man in an old man’s body playing around with an eight year old, that would be really creepy.

It would be hard to argue the point that this movie is aesthetically beautiful, and I wouldn’t even want to.  The scenes, the music, the special effects, and the dreamlike quality of it all.  On paper, everything about this movie screams poetry: the clock that runs backwards; the love that spans time, distance, and age; the worldwide adventure.  I notice that lots of people have compared this movie to Forrest Gump.  To which I say, I don’t even think so.  Forrest Gump has humor, and the protagonist is constantly in motion, a man of action, testing himself against the world!  Benjamin Button has little humor, and the protagonist is mostly an observer of life, always a bit isolated.  Forrest Gump leaves us with the idea that even the most ordinary life can be extraordinary, whereas the main point of Benjamin Button seems to be that time will always roll on, and we will always lose to it.  I do not think Benjamin Button should try to be Forrest Gump, but I think through this breakdown we can start to see why viewers relate so much to the one, and think of the other as a bit more removed.

I think part of this perceived distance stems from things like slow pacing and narration choice.  Benjamin Button, in this movie, is an observer.  His status as a person who is de-aging means that he is somewhat removed from the events around him, both because he does not relate to the normal human experience and because most people would find it odd if he stuck around for too long.  At no point do we see him using his unique experiences, or the vast expanse of his experience by the time he’s a young man, to make a difference or enact change or anything of the sort.  The fact that the story is told through his diary and lover and daughter means that the viewer is observing Benjamin, who in turn is observing life.  Two passive acts combined.  Furthermore, the narration pulls back during Button’s last years, where potentially the most fascinating aspects of his de-aging process occur.  After all, what would it be like to be a youth with no future of old age ahead?  Is part of the excellence of youth the reassurance that we have more time ahead of us?  What kinds of challenges confront him?  Not only is this potential for further exploration lost, it pulls us away from Benjamin, distancing us from him during the last portion of the movie.  I don't think that the movie ultimately allows us to live through Benjamin's experiences, to really be different with him and learn from him.

Aside from this, a couple of other things stuck out to me as points of interest:

The decision to place the present-day during Hurricane Katrina, and treatment of the mother-daughter storyline.  On the one hand, I can sort of see that Katrina’s purpose might be to generate suspense, and to underscore one of the themes of the movie: you never know what’s going to happen, or that things are not always what they seem. But I think it’s an odd way to end the movie.  Is the intention to end it in tragedy?  To leave everyone in a life threatening situation to reemphasize our own mortality?  Or is it that everything in the end is washed away?  I’m still a bit puzzled, really.  Furthermore, I find the relationship between the mother and daughter on the whole unsatisfactory (it’s hinted at that they haven’t spent that much time together – why?  Not covered.  It turns out this is the first time the daughter learns that B. Button is her dad – passed over in seconds). It’s hard to emotionally connect with them or their pain. 

The use of the backwards running clock as plot device.  In theory, this sounds fabulous.  A clockmaker making a statement in his sorrow over the loss of his son, wishing time would turn back.  The catch is, of course, that people don’t actually want time to turn back to its beginning, just far enough so they can restart it again and do something different.  Benjamin is a perfect example of how turning the clock back is just as devastating as the regular march of time forward: people grow old and die, you lose the ones you love, and eventually you lose that prime of life that is so enjoyable.  The only weird thing about it is I think it might have been slightly confusing to the audience, as it was kind of presented as maybe the potential enchanted reason for Benjamin Button’s affliction.  Except…that it doesn’t match up as one, and Button’s case is never explained.  A more direct linkage, maybe, might have been better?  Or a clearer distinction between the two stories?  Not sure, but somehow, this didn’t quite work for me, even though again!: in theory, I love it.

Ok, this is probably filled with lots of flaws and could have been more cohesive, but once again I find myself typing late at night.  As always, there are a ton more things that could be discussed!  On the whole, I thought it was an enjoyable movie that just missed the mark of being extraordinary.



*did you know velociraptors were only, like, the size of a turkey?  thanks a lot, jurassic park!

Wow, three posts in two days!  Hmmm, can anyone tell that I have other work I should be doing? :)

Moral of the story is, because I've been seeing movies in the actual theatre, I've been seeing previews.  There are four comedies that I thoroughly enjoy seeing the previews for, and I readily admit that these are four comedies that could all go terribly, terribly wrong.  But again, the previews crack me up, and make me happy.

THE MONTH OF JUNE WILL GIVE US:

1.  YEAR ONE
Right, I know, totally stupid.  I have no justification.  Except for the stoning scene (OMG HILARIOUS, hahaha).  I can also picture one of my friends laughing at every single joke, which kind of makes it better.
http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/yearone/

2. THE PROPOSAL
I love the two leads here.  I hope this is a hit because I want Sandra Bullock to do well.  They're also playing a behind the scenesy kind of thing in some theaters which is really cute and really makes me predisposed to like it.
http://www.apple.com/trailers/touchstone/theproposal/

3. THE HANGOVER
Er, there's a group of guys I know (and that I hung out with actually in Vegas) who I could insert perfectly into this movie.  Also, the running baby shtick gets me every time.
http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/thehangover/

THE MONTH OF DECEMBER WILL GIVE US:

1. SHERLOCK HOLMES
A couple of things are at play here.  One, I adore Robert Downey, Jr, and have ever since I was a little kid watching Chaplin.  The action/adventure/mystery plot is always super fun when done well AND (wait for it), there is a clear friendship/gayish-in-good-fun dynamic between Holmes/Downey, JR and Watson/Law that I am the biggest sucker in the world for.
http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/sherlockholmes/

Again, these could all bomb horribly.  But until then, I welcome their presence in the preview lineup :)

Ok, so I’ve taken a break since seeing this movie and writing a review about it, mostly because 1) it wasn’t my fave, 2) I’ve been hella busy, and 3) I already yacked two or three people’s ears off with everything I thought was wrong with this movie.  But now it is time for an official post, so I can cross it off the list and move on with my life.

Please believe me that I did not go see this movie so that I could be disappointed in it.  Despite an utter lack of love for The DaVinci Code, I do have love for Tom Hanks, Art (omg, especially Renaissance Art *drool *), Italy, and an interest in Religion both as an institution and as a philosophical discussion.  Basically, I went in with low expectations, but prepared to be extremely generous with my affection should it turn out to be an ok movie.

But then this movie made a combo of errors that I cannot forgive.  It started when a gouged out eyeball showed up on somebody’s floor and kicked off a little series of horrible killings.  While I already find lustful violence in movies to be distasteful, it wasn’t their brutality alone that caused my deep and utter dislike of the movie (after all, I do have fairly violent favorite movies): it was the predictability of those killings.  The movie adopts a repetitive structure where our heroes arrive just a little too late each time to save the victim from dying horribly at fairly regular intervals throughout the movie.  NOT ONLY did the heroes fail to prevent the killings, each killing added nothing to the plot nor added new clues to the mystery, other than to let the Viewer and our Heroes know that this bad guy should be taken Really Seriously.  We already knew those guys were going to die within like, oh, 20 minutes of the opening of the movie; why waste screen time glorying in the brutality of their deaths?

I expected 20 times the level of intrigue, and if not that, at least the campiness of a Mummy movie or the first National Treasure – aka something harmlessly entertaining or so stupid it can still be fun.  Instead, we had dear Tom Hanks – who the director had swimming laps in his entrance scene, probably to provide the viewer with the idea that he's an action-oriented guy despite his research-nut tendancies, but instead should have tipped us all off to the repetitive rat race we were about to endure – running around and pointing at statues and screaming that their index fingers would lead us to the answer!  There came to be a point when it sounded less like sleuthing and more like crazytalk.  Ewan MacGregor did a decent job playing a young Carlemengo, though even his forlorn and empathetic face isn’t quite enough to convince the viewer that we should actually care about this age-old battle between the Church and the Illuminati. 

There were a few small moments that I did appreciate – the politics of Vatican security, the small jabs the filmmakers took at journalism – but the whole mystery thing fell flat, and the reveal was not only obvious, but disappointing in it’s lack of complexity.

I won’t say it was a horrible film, just not my cup of tea.  Coming up next: an interlude on the previews of upcoming flicks that I’m Really, Really, excited about!

This movie screams “FIRST OF A TRILOGY!” as loud as any film starring a beefed up Christian Bale can.  I’ve seen the first two Terminator movies – years ago, and the second one is especially fuzzy – and though I’ve only Wikipedia’d the third, I was reasonably entertained by the previous chapters.

This latest installment is nearly flawless in effects and aesthetics. The camera leaches the color from the sky, and the smashed, hollowed-out buildings of L.A. have all the color variation of the dust cloud at Ground Zero.  This is a future where the viewer knows it’s hopeless to wish for a beautiful day.  Nonetheless, it is a black and white visual feast: the motorcycles are ballin’, and even a CG cameo is awesome in its near realism.  The twin leads, Bale and Sam Worthington, are both hulking and restrained, visions of confident masculinity and tortured inner conflict.  How the vision of an action figure has changed since the 1980s!  Unfortunately, neither inner conflict receives the attention or depth it deserves.  In fact, I wonder what new element this movie brings to the tale, other than 1) a visualization of the infamous future, 2) how John Connor and his father meet, and 3) maybe setting up the idea that cyborgs/machines can be used as a tool for good.  All of these things, in my opinion, are relatively minor and have already been covered (though props to Anton Yelchin for being in back-to-back summer blockbusters that also happen to be visions of the future so at odds with each other that there’s barely room enough in the galaxy for both of them.  He’s less squeaky clean here, but it’s hard to disguise the adorable bone structure.  He pulls off the young Kyle Reese rather well, hinting at the resolved combatant he’ll become.  And of course there’s a cute little kid with him who exists almost entirely as a plot device to make all of her protectors look good and to help save the day).  The point is – did we really need to flesh these things out?  Couldn’t we have skipped ahead to stuff we didn’t know (aka the ability to time travel already!)?

But returning to what plot there is…the action, thankfully, gives way occasionally to the odd humorous moment, but the infallibility of the machines becomes a bit tiresome.  In fact, the dominance of Skynet/machines is so great that it’s hard to imagine how the humans might actually win.  At the same time, it makes you wonder at the holes that have allowed humans to continue eeking out a resistance; Skynet’s power makes it seem unrealistic that the machines haven’t already killed everyone.  How is everyone staying alive?  Where does everyone in the resistance go shopping for clothes and airplanes?  To account for this, I have decided to consider the humans to be a flea infestation – no matter how many times you bomb the crap out of them, they just won’t die! 

What differentiates this movie, for me, from a generic mediocre action movie (see Angels and Demons, the review of which I might get around to one of these days ☺) is that it at least provides tons of food for thought.  The gaping holes – I mean – the unanswered questions – provide ample room for discussion and exploration.  Take the time travel theme,  which is really getting a workout this summer!  This is not the nice, easy, parallel universe time travel of Star Trek.  Rather, I'm assuming the moviemakers are working within the confines of a mutable time-line.  There must have been an original time-line that kicked off the whole spiel, or otherwise we’ll be trapped in a loop of Sarah Connor’s tapes guiding John Connor’s future actions which in turn guide Sarah Connor’s tapes and so on.  This would severely detract from the legitimacy of John Connor’s position as leader of the resistance, since he would only be leader because his mama told him so cause he told his mama and so on.  There is potentially one other time travel theory I can think of that might apply but I'm too tired to flesh it out.  Also ambiguous is what the heck Skynet’s motivation is.  Why does it want to survive?  Why does it want to kill every single thing ever?  The premise is that it became self-aware.  Can we just assign it normal human motives?  Would that work in the context of…cyberspace?  Would it be more reasonable to consider it a corrupt code that propagates itself?  Once it kills everyone will it just be content to buzz along happy and quiet?

I cannot say that this movie made any kind of new statement – either for movies at large, or for the Terminator series.  Even the homage to the line, “I’ll be back,” came off a little dead.  But I do think it left room for more exciting sequels, though I was put off by a scene near the end: **MAJOR SPOILERS IN WHITE**  Given all that we know about John Connor, would he REALLY have accepted the heart with not even an attempt at saying, “no really, you don’t have to?”  Would it REALLY be more beneficial to trade a VERY valuable resource in the form of a “good” machine to save John Connor?  But seriously…uuuuh, not a single protest after all his work to keep that guy alive?  I’m chalking it up to being on some major drugs and almost dead.  Otherwise, he becomes exactly the cold calculating machine he raves against, and at the very least is not more than a little self-serving (not an unusual trait, just one we don’t like to see in our heroes).

Hopefully the next Terminator will have a little more emotional depth to go with it's actiony bad-assedness, and make it a little more believable that the humans might actually win.  Let's meet back here in 2011 to discuss! 


:)

So, I have seen four movies in the last couple of weeks and will be seeing more, but so far only two of these have been out on the big screen.  I shall review these first.

I will start off with my favorite, and therefore the easiest to talk about – Star Trek.  It's been over a week and I am more than ready to give a calm, after-the-fact review.  Believe it or not, this entry is a million words long and I still don’t talk about everything I could easily talk about.  BUT, I shall shake it up a little bit by starting with what I consider to be the movies’ weaknesses (hey, just because I fanatically love something doesn’t mean I don’t think it couldn’t have been better!).

( MAIN MOVIE WEAKNESS (spoilery): )



Why Ultimately I Can Sort of Forgive This Movie Weakness: Star Trek (the reboot) is a lot like Batman Begins.  Different, of course, in that Batman Begins is rewriting original canon, while Star Trek is allowing the original canon to be preserved while restarting our characters from scratch.  However, it’s similar in that a large portion of the movie has to be devoted to introducing characters to the audience and to each other, and getting everybody all revved up and ready to go.  Now, one of my main complaints about Batman Begins was that it was long and didn’t do a great job of settling on a particular movie genre and sticking with that the whole time.   In my opinion, the bad-guy plot in that movie was just…fail.  I mean, beyond the fact that Liam Neesom was a bad guy who trained Bruce and then was going to kill everyone, can anyone even recap it for me?   I just attempted Wikipedia and am hardly better off for it.  Moral of the story is, I think if they’d tried to stick a more complicated plot in here (and I have read of scenes and complications originally added that failed with test audiences) most likely we all would have been crying out for mercy trying to keep track of everything.  However, I’m not saying they COULDN’T have jazzed it up and that’s why I still consider the plot a weakness, because we should all strive for better!

MINOR MOVIE WEAKNESS: Wynona Ryder as Spock’s mom?  Really??

All right, on to the MOVIE STRENGTHS:

-    PLOT STRENGTH Which Pretty Much Makes Up for Weak Bad-Guy Plot and Is Very Impressive: The movie manages to keep the plot (aka, the time travel) legit within the previous Star Trek Universe.  Ok, so JJ Abrams loves this time travel gig – hello, Lost? – but time travel also shows up periodically in Star Trek as both plot device and point of theoretical discussion.  So, while time traveling seems like kind of a cop out way to start over, it’s weirdly…absolutely the perfect and forgivable thing to do here.  It beautifully allows the trekkie universe and fandom to stay in tact.  Everything that’s happened before, from The Original Series through Voyager and all of the movies, is completely legit and still proper canon according to this movie.  It still exists in another universe.  Whereas this won’t matter to some people (like I could care less about what the new Batman series does to original Batman canon), it does matter to me because frankly, I’ve spent a lot of hours with those other Star Trek incarnations, and I would hate for this movie that I love and those series that I loved to be incompatible.  It also allows new fans to go watch that other stuff without worrying about the ol’ “But this is all negated by the new movie.  Crap,” scenario.

-    GREAT TAKE ON THE ORIGINAL CHARACTERS.  Seriously.  It’s a masterstroke that they pulled this off.  There are some changes (Kirk’s new storyline has some effects on his personality), but the movie is so “The Gang’s All Here!” that I spent most of it grinning like an idiot.  In introducing us to these characters, JJ Abrams and company wrote them in such away as to be completely accessible to the new audience, but also layered them with jokes and references that keep the trekkie crowd feeling like we’ve met up with our old and dearest friends (who now are just younger and hotter than they ever were before!)

-    THE MOVIE IS FUNNY.  No really, you will laugh.  If you don’t, your heart is stone.

-    ERIC BANA has so much make up on he doesn’t look like Eric Bana, which effectively saves this movie from any kind of Eric Bana curse.

-    SPECIAL EFFECTS are good.  This actually had to be pointed out to me by non trekkie people and…other trekkies who are more aware.  I’ve been willing to suspend my disbelief for Star Trek’s (and actually, Star Wars’ as well) special effects for so long, that whatever they throw up on the screen I assume is real and mostly don’t care if it’s hoaky.  But looking back…they ARE really good.

-    THE STYLE OF FILMING AND DIRECTORIAL CHOICES made the movie less stately and removed (like a lot of other Trek ventures) and more personal and accessible to the audience. While I love the stately diplomatic and old man stuff in the other series, making it grittier opens it up to new fans, and heck, I like it, too!

Ok, there are other things I could hash out here, but they’re all minor and really just up for discussion with other trekkies.  I will add that this movie is fabulously refreshing for being a fun, optimistic action movie (I’m not saying people/other life forms don’t get killed, because technically…a lot DO), but frankly I am a bit weary of all the “I am special and therefore must carry a heavy burden that furrows my brow and heavies my heart” apocalyptic action movies.  And I don’t mean optimism in the happy ending sort of sense.  Star Trek, in whatever it’s incarnation, is always about a cast of characters bringing their strengths together to kick some butt.  It’s about people bettering themselves, and working for a better tomorrow.  When Sulu whips out his sword to deliver hell, when Uhura intercepts transmissions that are crucial to saving the day, when Kirk jumps off of a super high altitude thingy-mabob to save a falling Sulu – these are all moments that show people – mostly normal, average humans that could be us in the 23rd century – at their best.  Frankly, in these depressing times, I think that’s exactly what the doctor ordered.  I’m only sorry we don’t get to see these characters grow and develop on a weekly TV series.  It is an agonizingly long wait for the sequel.  The movie ends right as everybody’s gotten to know everyone else and you get the feeling like there’s about to be some seriously redic adventures going down, and the tentative friendships and overcoming of prejudices are just really getting rolling.  But alas.  I can only hope the next movie gives us some juicy plot depth and exciting adventure.  In the meantime, I’ll just have to re-watch episodes of The Original Series and wait.


UP NEXT: Angels and Demons: A movie you wish had stayed in Limbo!

Hello Ye Faithful Followers of the Flea Bitten Saga!


Deliverance has finally come in the form of a luxury condo/hotel.  That's right, I am now living in a beautiful complex in downtown Tallahassee, in a cozy little studio apartment that I never want to leave.  There's hardwood floors, a balcony from which I watch sunsets and moonrises, vending machines and a fitness room.  I can walk to the library, cross the street to the post office, linger at the coffee shop downstairs, and safely park my car in a lot that more resembles the US treasury reserve than a parking deck.  Best of all?  There's been no sign of my little nippy friends!  Let's hope this luck keeps up and none of them stowed away in my stuff!  However, I could almost write those little buggers a thank you note for landing me in such sweet digs.  I considered maybe going to the pet store and buying a little hamster I could throw in the old apartment as a thank you...and then decided that would be the most evil thing I could do to a poor unsuspecting little hamster.  So, the fleas will just have to feel my gratitude from afar!  Furthermore, I have sort of made friends with one of the girls at the front desk and we walked over to a nearby restaurant for lunch and stuffed our faces with some tasty fried fish and garlic butter.  Yumyumyum. :)

In a nice change of events, the woman we are leasing from has decided to forgive TestMasters the May rent after A) she realized I actually wasn't living there anymore and B) I let her into the apartment so she could get her ipod, and she came out with her feet covered in fleas.  Can't say I didn't warn her!

On the student front, I've gotten to know a few of my students better and had some nice conversations over drinks!  The week got even better after I saw the new Star Trek, watched grey's anatomy with Mama, and got a great Harvard housing lottery number all in one day - yay!  I'll be living in a prison cell, but it'll be an affordable one! :)

All in all, a very good week :)

For Lesley's bday I tagged along to the new Star Trek (as she went with a bunch of her friends.)


Oh. MY. GOSH.  SO GOOD.  Really.  Even if you have previously hated star trek, go see it.  You have a good chance of liking it.

So good.  So action packed.  Such a good cast.  Kirk is the guy I'd sleep with in a heartbeat, but Spock would have my heart FOREVER.  OMG.  Those smarts! That cutie face! That reserve!  Logic is S-E-X-A-Y.  yum.

LOVED IT.  GAAAAH.  Will speak more soon when I can be coherent.

and happy bday again lesley, heehee :)

<3

r

Hallo Fair Readers!

So, as is hinted at in my subject line, my song of the week is TI's "Dead and Gone" featuring Justin Timberlake.  For some reason, while driving to Gainesville the song came on and just WOULDN'T LET ME GO, and I've been listening to it nonstop.  And read a lot about it online.  Meaning that I've been navigating through lots of pages about Rap and Hip Hop talking about lots of things I had no idea were going on.  I'm not quite sure what besides the melody really makes me like this.  I mean, sure all my homies are dead and in jail, and I'm headin for the slammer myself....ok, not quite, but it IS catchy.  I like the sober message, and yet funny parts like: Cuz I hit you , you sue me, I shoot you, get locked up, who me? (no really, I swear! that part is funny. kind of.  in a small way.).  And there are flashes of Atlanta in the music video.  And there's total bromance between Justin and TI.  And it's amusing to think of Justin as TI's little Jiminy Cricket deep inside or as the scruffy white version of TI continuing out into the world while the old one dies in the slammer.  Ok, I'm going to stop rewatching that music video any day now.  But the chorus is about driving.  Could I really turn the station on that?

In other news, I've been living in a hotel.  It's wonderful.  So far, no fleas.  There's a taco bell across the street next to a Walmart that has fried okra at the deli.  In other words, a honeymoon in Cancun couldn't top this. 

But.  There is still the matter of the apartment.  Which leads me to part II of the subject line. 


The pest control people came yesterday.  So, my mission today was to go by and check out the state of the apartment.  The girl we're leasing from does NOT want to compromise on the lease and let me out of it.  BUMMER.  So, wearing no bugspray, chacos, and some long pants just in case, I cracked open the door to the apartment.  All appeared quiet.  I could see the pest control notice on the kitchen table.  The air was stale and heavy with the smell of insecticide.  I tentatively ventured in and put my stuff on the kitchen table.  I checked over the living room, keeping my eyes open for little flea corpses.  I tiptoed into the bedroom, checked the closets, and started to relax.  This wasn't going to be so bad.  I'd work for a couple of hours, go back to the hotel for the night and move back in tomorrow. 

And then...what is that piece of lint on my pant leg?  I wander back into the other room and turn on the overhead light.  And look down. AND OHMYGOSH BOTH PANT LEGS ARE COVERED IN FLEAS!  Like, 15 fleas that I could see in the first instant.  Imagine what sound you will but know that I let out quite a shriek before darting from the apartment and stomping my legs on the patio, startling a man snoozing by the pool.  "Sorry" I said.  I then tried to brush the fleas off but they didn't let go like they normally do!  There was nothing for it.  At light speed I sprinted around the low fence and ran into the pool to above my knees, startling the three girls sunbathing.  Apparently, when fleas are dying, they are ravenous.  I had to get into the pool twice more to clean off clingers.  Complicating the issue was the number of dead bugs already in the pool.  I had to brush off other dead insects before getting back in my car and burning rubber to get out of there.

Also, class felt like crap last night, but a couple of telephonic tutoring students have saved the day today.  :)

Frickin lord!!!  From Britain's Got Talent:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY&feature=related

So.

On the drive home to Atlanta yesterday I find myself standing in a narrow median with three lanes of traffic going 80 on either side trying to convince two frightened puppies to come with me.  Mission: unsuccessful.  Instead, me and another woman who also pulled over, ended up scaring one of the puppies into a mad dash across the road to safety (an experience I hope never to have repeated, as I thought for sure we had just scared a puppy to its death and it would be squished horribly before our eyes, or at least cause a wreck.) and the other one was too scared to want anything to do with us, especially after I accidentally dropped it on the metal rail between sides when it tried to bite Colleen, my puppy-saving companion. 


I really hope that brown puppy made it across to its little white puppy friend and that we didn't do more harm than good.  Oh golly.