The incoherent bloggings of a die-hard Star Wars fan.
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons - Grease
Over the weekend, Sam and I saw Eternal Sunshine and Jersey Girl, and last night we saw Dawn of the Dead with Tim, Kailey, and her friend Bryan (yes, with a "y," which automatically makes him awesome). I recommend them all, but I still feel like reviewing these flicks. IMHO of course. Say what you will about my opinions.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind This movie has been getting a lot of flak from cranky moviegoers who feel that Jim Carrey should stick to comedy and stop trying to get credit from his fellow dramatic actors, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The story seemed a tad convoluted at first, and it took me a while to figure out what the hell was going on. Just when you think you have it all down, they throw something else in your face. However, despite the initial confusion, the plot is incredibly ingenious and novel. Kate Winslet and Elijah Wood were fantastic. Though it was a bit depressing in the end, it was a fun movie. 8/10
Jersey Girl Ah yes, the long-awaited new Kevin Smith epic. Now, lemme put it this way... if you're expecting to see a stoned Jay and Silent Bob running amok with snootchie bootchies up their asses as well as references to or even characters from Smith's previous films, save your money. This movie is nothing like his other movies, not even Chasing Amy. And I know what you're thinking: Ben Affleck in the lead role of a movie that co-stars J. Lo (it's a small role)? Why the hell would I want to see another Gigli? Trust me. Kevin Smith pulled it off. This is a great movie, as great as or even better than Dogma. The plot isn't all that creative (it seems to jump right off the script of The Family Man), but it's still highly enjoyable. Great acting from Liv Tyler and George Carlin, and even little Raquel Castro, who is quite possibly the most adorably cute actress in the world. Keep an eye out for some funny-ass cameos. 9/10
Dawn of the Dead I'm gonna keep this review short. Lots of zombies, lots of blood, lots of biting and chainsawing and impaling and exploding and dead babies and no scientific explanations in sight. The kind of movie Maddox would love. Scary? Not really. Creepy? Yes. Entertaining? Definitely. The movie starts off with two shakes of a lamb's tail and faster than you can say "blueberry pancakes." God I love Pulp Fiction. Where was I? 7/10
Happy 18th birthday, Kailey, and happy Cesar Chavez Day! Yeah, that's right all you people who got Presidents' Day off. Who's laughing now, bitch? Bwahahahaha...
Bash kept rejecting it for some reason, so I decided to post it here. I figure, if the world can't read it, I suppose the people who read my blog will suffice.
HitokiriVader: but otherwise the class is fun; we go on field trips to buddhist temples
caroluna7: that's cool
caroluna7: we each had to go to any other religion's services
caroluna7: but on our own time
HitokiriVader: yeah we have to do that too lol
HitokiriVader: i have no idea where to go though
caroluna7: ironically i went to a moron church
caroluna7: mormon
HitokiriVader: hahaha
caroluna7: ooop
caroluna7: oh shit
HitokiriVader: niiice
HitokiriVader: :)
caroluna7: don't tell tim
And I didn't tell Tim. ;)
Shattered Glass just came out on DVD, so I nabbed myself a copy. Seeing it a second time was a totally different experience, now that I know what was truth and what was a lie. But I suppose that's how you're supposed to see it for the first time. I guess I was just oblivious back in '98 when it all really happened. Anyways, go check it out and see for yourself... Hayden can act.
Lodger's official site has some pretty creative flash animation. Check out the audio samples they have, and definitely watch the two videos, done entirely out of Flash. It's a pity that none of their music can be found on iTunes. I'm gonna have to find... alternative methods. >:)
(Props to the Liz, but not for the site. It's not even hers. She's insane.)
Astrology is bullshit! Who's with me? I'm a Libra so apparently I'm gonna kill you. Sweet.
The Bobby Fuller Four - I Fought the Law (And the Law Won)
I finally won an iTunes song off of a Slurpee cup, so the first song to have ever been legally downloaded by me is none other than Green Day's cover of "I Fought the Law," the song they recorded specifically for the iTunes/Pepsi ad promoting their new campaign. This is probably the first good song they've done since the few that made Nimrod still great (although "Warning" was ok). I heard some of their songs off of Shenanigans and was immediately unimpressed.
On March 15, 2004, astronomers from Caltech, Gemini Observatory, and Yale University announced the discovery of the coldest, most distant object known to orbit the sun, tentatively named after the Inuit goddess Sedna, raising controversy over whether or not Sedna is in fact the tenth planet in the solar system and challenging the conventional definition of what a "planet" truly is. But clearly more important than the discovery of a possible new planet:
September 21, 2004!!!
Arguably THE most anticipated event in DVD history. Two days before my 19th. Hint? :)
I'm still growing!
Yeah, I know, I was surprised too. I thought that for the past several years I'd settled in just a smidgen shy of 5'11", but three months ago I measured myself again and found I was a smidgen higher. And since then, a mere three months, I've grown another quarter inch. At this rate, I may end up breaking 6'. Woah.
On a different note, yesterday's World Religions mid-term turned out to be alright. My studying had paid off, and I know for certain that I got enough right to pull off at least a low A. What pisses me off is that the questions that I later found I'd got wrong weren't about the social heirarchy of vaishya farmers in the Hindu caste system. They weren't about the controversy regarding the lack of bhikshuni in Theravada Buddhism or the rituals of Japanese Shinto misogi purification techniques. No, I forgot what monistic meant and accidentally switched it with nontheistic. In a college level course about religion. That's like taking a Calculus 3 exam and forgetting what seven times five is. ARGH. Oh well.
Here's Karl. I amped up the brightness and contrast on this one cuz the original was a tad dark, so... objects in image are less terrifying than they appear.
Oh, and btw, seeing as Woohu will be shutting down by the end of this month, Mike has decided to join the über-cool Blogspot masses. w00t! We've been needing a new recruit ever since Jennifer Kim defected to... *shudders* ...LiveJournal. ;)
Saturday I got to see the highly anticipated and scrutinized Mel Gibson film The Passion of the Christ at the Pacific Winnetka with June (come to think of it, I haven't seen a movie in the SCV in a looong time). And I'm sure you're all wondering what an atheist thought of this film.
Well let's get the obvious stuff aside. This movie is quite possibly the most graphically violent film I've ever seen. The whipping scene after Jesus is taken in by Pontius Pilate was so unnervingly vicious and realistic, I was almost taken to tears. As Gibson is a Catholic, it was understandable that his film is focused on the suffering that Christ undertook. But then again, this is the "passion" of the Christ. Now I know "The Passion" refers to the Four Gospels, but where is the passion in torture? Intermittently throughout the process of the crucifixion, an object would visually lead into a flashback scene of Jesus' life, those of which include the Last Supper, Palm Sunday, the washing of the disciples' feet, and even an amusing scene between Jesus and Mary as they debate the height of a table he'd just constructed. I felt it was these flashbacks that brought strength to the movie, as these were the scenes that conveyed Jesus' profound message of love, not the excruciating crucifuxion. Ultimately, the movie failed to get that message across.
Aside from that, the acting was phenomenal. Jim Caviezel gives a surprisingly convincing performance as Christ. The actors who portrayed Mary, Mary Magdalene, Peter, and Pontius Pilate could convey emotions entirely without words. And the actress who played Satan was reeeaaally fucking creepy. Seriously, Satan gave me the chills.
So there you have it, my objectively atheist review. This movie isn't gonna convert me or anything, but simply as an artistic film, it was good.
A recent Fark Photoshop contest was to make a surprise ending to The Passion. I thought this one was a particularly funny one. :)
Anyway, I have a World Religions mid-term in two days, so I shant be talking about Christianity. That's a later chapter. For the next 48 hours, my life must circulate around the tenets of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Taoism, Confucianism, Shintoism, and sacred indigenous religions. Do you have any idea how many gods that is (at least in Hinduism)?!
Hikaru Utada featuring Foxy Brown - Blow My Whistle
For the first time in weeks, I just had myself a fabulous day. Completely non-sleep-deprived, I got up early without aid of an alarm clock, went to school briefly carpooling with the temporarily vehicle-less Sam, gloated in pride as I found out that I was the only one in my 80+ student Psychology class who got a perfect score on the exam and thus set the curve, found out our Philosophy homework due-date was postponed, sat through a confusing Zen Buddhism lecture from a Zen Dharma teacher who ironically kept stressing the "simplicity" of Zen Buddhism, went to lunch with Mike, picked up Sam, and then went home and didn't do anything school-related because I have Fridays off! Hot damn.
Andrew "Lesbians are great" Danowitz sent me this hilarious ad while I was engaging in one of the most satisfying slumbers of my life.
Lastly, who in the world goes to 7-11 and buys Rugrats fruit snacks and "Her Pleasure" Trojans at the same time? Talk about looking like a dork. :)
And for what it's worth, the fruit snacks were NASTY. I mean really horrid.
I have so much homework to do tonight it's not even funny. And yet I sit here, blogging an atrociously incoherent entry.
Yesterday I went to see The Triplets of Belleville at Laemmle Sunset 5 with the Liz. A surprisingly humorous and cute little dialogue-less movie with a lot of classic moments. I loved Bruno the overweight dog and his silly fixation with the man on the train, as well as the silly portrayal of Americans as grotesquely fat hamburger-eaters. And the look on Champion's face when he first got his tricycle was really sweet. Definitely a recommendation to go see it, as long as you can stomach all the frog-eating scenes. Ick.
Then last night I got to meet Caroline for a second time. She still hasn't forgiven me for trying to eat Lizzie, heh heh.
On a side note, what is up with this goddamn weather? Last week we were getting flood warnings, and today we get a 90+ heat wave. It's still technically winter, too.
Regardless, it's come to my attention that a case of my unintentionally casual prevaricating has resulted in somewhat disastrous consequences. Sorry about that Jen and Kristal. But for what it's worth, the key word is prevaricating.
Anyhoo, I'd better go now. I have a psychology exam on sensory perception, consciousness, and classical conditioning tomorrow morning, not to mention a paper on Pure Land Buddhism that's also due.
Happy 7th birthday, Chloe!
-Good Brin :)
Nice to finally hear "Never There" in 320 kbps quality double bass cranked up all the way. Shit yeah.
2.) Eve 6 - self-titled
3.) Cake - Prolonging the Magic
4.) Goldfinger - self-titled
For centuries, mankind has relentlessly strived and endlessly sought out the answer to one of the most universal of questions: what is the meaning of life? It is inherently true that life inevitably involves suffering. But if suffering and unhappiness is inherent in what defines life, then what, I dare inquire, do we have to cling onto in our lives? Many would like to imagine that there is indeed a purpose to our individual existence. Aside from the infinitesimal minority of individuals who are forever remembered for their mostly serendipitous accomplishments, mankind consists of billions upon billions of people who've lived out their lives in oblivion, finding happiness in trivial matters, and suffered. Quite often I look around and see that people (and I among them) persistently search for temporary happiness in material possessions and secular entertainment in a viciously time-consuming cycle. Though it is a terrifying notion, perhaps the very idea of purpose is utter nonsense and is in fact a fruitless hope concocted by our flamboyant imaginations that we all refuse to let go of.
"Everyone's fascinated by their emotions because we think that's who we are. We're afraid that if we let our attachment to them go, we'll be nobody. Which of course we are! When you wander into your ideas, your hopes, your dreams, turn back--not just once but ten thousand times if need be, a milllion times if need be." -Theravada Buddhist dharma teacher Joko Beck
This weekend was interesting... I got to see Tim again after having not seen him since I left for Japan. We went and saw The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King on IMAX. Speaking of which, the 76th Academy Awards took place just last night. ROTK, which was nominated for 11 Oscars, won in every category, including Best Picture. I kinda expected Pirates of the Caribbean to win for visual effects though. Mystic River nabbed both of the actor Oscars (Sean Penn and Tim Robbins), Finding Nemo the Best Animated Feature Film, and Lost in Translation the Best Original Screenplay. w00t! I didn't really care about any of the other movies or categories.
Anyway, I've taken yet another quiz to fill in my otherwise uneventful existence. This one was really interesting though. Those of you who've had their doubts about the big guy in the sky, try it.
