New Year's Eve with Harry and Sally

My sister used to play this clip at my grandmother's house every New Year's Eve, so even though it's incredibly sappy, it always makes me think of my family and of my childhood :)




Celebrate New Year's on YouTube!
And do everything else on YouTube, too - just like I do!!

New Year's Rockin'Eve
Dick Clark will NEVER, EVER die. He's amazing.

Celebrity New Year's Parties
Hmm... Does Weird Al Yankovich throw a party? I'd go to that.

Escape From Christmas!

Yesterday, I escaped from Christmas for a few moments and sped off in my brother's car (if you're reading this, Steven, I didn't really speed ... really) while listening to Beethoven's 9th Symphony. I rolled all the windows down and blasted the stereo, and my hair whirled around in the wind and the music, and it was. just. wonderful.



I'm very conscious of what I'm eating today, since yesterday I gorged, of course, on tamales, Spanish rice and my father's amazing homeade bread. But we ordered Sonic at work today, and I had to do some research to avoid getting any fatter than I already am. If you're interested, here's some calorie info :) ... Not that I'm counting calories or anything like that (ahem).

Jalapeño Cheeseburger
610 calories 280 from fat

Jr. Cheesburger
380 calories 180 from fat

Grilled Chicken Sandwich
420 calories 180 from fat

Grilled Chicken Salad (no dressing)
300 calories 120 from fat

And save yourself 270 calories - don't order the fries! I'm just sayin' ...

* * * * *

Más sleep = better heart!
I knew it!

Create your own stamps
My dream come true!

Wal-Mart to sell iPhone
I really don't care - I love my Centro!!

The Dingo Ate Your Baby!
Why are people so crazy???

Read The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Girl Talk
Most awesome awesomeness

Let's play some games!

And RIP Eartha Kitt and Harold Pinter.
We lost two legends in two days.

Kitt sings Santa Baby:


Pinter on the invasion of Iraq:
"an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law."

* * * * *

Listening to: Andre Rieu's Tuscany

I want an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle!

No! You'll shoot your eye out!

Merry Christmas!!!

Regarding the Precambrian :)

Kenton Stufflebeam ... what a name.

My fave story of the year:

Fifth Grader Corrects the Smithsonian!

You go, Kid.

Woo Hoo!!!

I am so incredibly excited. I need to take deep, long breaths to calm myself. After months of living as a recluse, my best friends are all in the city. AT THE SAME TIME. I barely know what to do with myself. I'm pacing and I just wolfed down a cheeseburger, and I don't know. I think I need a tranquilizer or something.

Anyway, in other news, I am thrilled about the holidays (have I mentioned this fact yet?) and that doesn't help any with my heart rate. Is it possible to be too happy? It worries me because I come from a long line of pessimists, who believe that when things are going very well, this means they are about to get very, very wrong. I hope that lifelong belief doesn't apply to my current situation.

www.savagechickens.com

* * * * *

Will Smith's New Movie is Lame

I dislike most Will Smith movies. Except Six Degrees of Separation; he was fantastic in that one.

Franke Potente on Soderbergh's Che

Love Franke.

Love Soderbergh.
Love Del Toro.

Pretty please, Santa, let it be good. I behaved this year ... mostly.

Sarah Palin Time Mag's Runner Up Person of the Year. Really? No, Really?

Iraqi Government Says 'Get Out'

At least they didn't throw any shoes.

Warner Music, You Bunch of Stupid Old Farts Remove your content from YouTube - fine. But realize that you are simply shooting yourselves in the foot (feet?). YouTube is a phenomenon, a vast sharing site that connects styles, tastes and interests all over the globe. I use the site often to listen to and discover new music - THEN I BUY IT. The audio quality is typically terrible, so I'm not going to use YouTube as a listening service or to steal your music or some such nonsense. I use it when I'm curious about an artist. God, Warner, GET WITH IT.

On a related note... Music Industry is Going to Stop Suing Small Children and Old Ladies.

Thank God.

* * * * *

www.leeds.ac.uk

The Man Who Invented Christmas

Standiford's good at finding the small detail, the bit of color that a substantial Dickens biography might overlook. He catalogs how Scrooge has become "common cultural property" and how "Carol" is so thoroughly embedded in our collective mind that, were all copies destroyed, the story "could be written again."

Listening to: Los Campesinos

Gold Diggers of 1933

1:49 - 2:30 specifically. This is one of the greatest things I've seen on film, and I can't quite explain why. Ginger Rogers' face is just remarkable - I love it.

I can't wait for Christmas!!

And to celebrate I force upon you the Star Wars Holiday special.



My brother Dean sent me the link to it - I LOVE IT. Almost as much as my Centro.

* * * * *

Someone finally threw a shoe at Bush.

Obama appoints yet another member to the DC Justice League!

Caroline Kennedy seeks Senate seat.

The biggest fraud in history?
Bernard L. Madoff's billion dollar scam.

From Russia with love.
Russia's Miss Consitution Pageant is a hit!

Susan Sontag's journals.
Can they possibly be as spicy as Anais Nin's?

Phone, you are my monolith.

Look at me, gaze upon my awesomeness!

So I have a new phone, and I am completely, irrevocably in love with it. I haven't been so much in love with an inatimate object since I purchased my laptop at Best Buy with 6 months no interest. When I look it at it I hear 2001's Thus Spake Zarathustra pulsating in my head. It's magic ... and this probably means I'm more of a materialistic person than I once thought.

In other news,

Tonight ABC airs the documentary Drama High: The making of a high school musical.
Wherein kids fight over roles in The Wiz. I have a feeling this will bring back memories.

Then Tuesday night, ABC airs A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Click Here to listen to Vince Guaraldi's amazing score.
and here to read or listen to NPR's great 2006 commentary on it.

Wednesday, NBC airs A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa.
I will watch anything involving Kermit the Frog. ANYTHING.

I've put together a list of movies I really want to see in the next few months (if I can get my lazy arse out to the theatre):

1. Milk

2. Rachel Getting Married

3. Synecdoche, New York

4. The Wrestler

5. Cadillac Records

6. Slumdog Millionaire

7. Australia

7. Wall-E

8. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist ...

Wait, some of these aren't even in theatres anymore, are they?? {Groan} I'm so out of it.

* * * * *

Oh, and this is my favorite blog of the day - well, my favorite thing today period .. next to my phone: Citizen Kane posted an event ... and nobody came.

Listening to: Vampire Weekend

My High-School English Teacher Lied to Me

I learned some new things today!

Surprisingly, Albert Camus was NOT an existentialist - this surprised me immensely.

“No, I am not an existentialist. Sartre and I are always surprised to see our names linked. We have even thought of publishing a short statement in which the undersigned declare that they have nothing in common with each other and refuse to be held responsible for the debts they might respectively incur. It’s a joke actually. Sartre and I published our books without exception before we had ever met. When we did get to know each other, it was to realise how much we differed. Sartre is an existentialist, and the only book of ideas that I have published, The Myth of Sisyphus, was directed against the so-called existentialist philosophers.”
From An interview with Jeanine Delpech, in Les Nouvelles Littéraires, (1945). Cited in Albert Camus: Lyrical and Critical Essays, Vintage (1970)

So now I have a beef with my 12th grade English teacher, who seriously misinformed me for an entire year. Why did you lie to me, Ms. Arnold, WHY??

I've always loved Camus. He wrote “You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of." So I'm imagining the happiness is just the NOW. That every little thing we did previously is unimportant, the past a series of disposable moments. Is the simplicity of my happiness enough? That these little present moments are enough to carry me through? I think Camus was a bit more optimistic than Satre, but maybe that's just because of my favorite line from the desolate No Exit: "Hell is other people."


* * * * *


I just finished reading W. Somerset Maugham's The Painted Veil. Oh, it was so frustrating. The writing was beautiful and precise; but the content disturbed me. I don't know - one could argue that in the novel she finds her own sense of compassion and independence, but her notions about love bother me. The Walter Fanes of the world, who are kind and noble, though awkward and serious, are overlooked for the charming and insatiably cruel Charlie Townsends. The central character reflects about a thousand times that Fane is 'unloveable' because 'he's a bore.' It drives me crazy, because women (myself included) are so foolish - suckered in by flash, glitter, and overt surface beauty. But I suppose that can be said for both sexes. Kindness and the capacity to love are more important than the meaningless banter and inane teasing of ambivalent lovers; I'm finally learning this, though it took me long enough!


* * * * *


I've nothing to add so far, except:


Obama is a smoker!
So is Sparkly Cheekbones. I don't give a damn.







More later ...


Listening to: Department of Eagles

Hitler's Testicle(s?) and Other Stories

My brother gave me the most awesome, beautiful 'Best of 2008' collection (his own picks). I listened to it all day today and it was restorative, powerful, and it made me feel alive. I'm feeling lately like re-surfacing, but I also feel that I must not force anything right now. The time of healing is done, and it's time now to celebrate and to offer myself up to the universe. I'm really happy right now in my life, and serene. So much of my life has been a series of self-inflicted struggles, fighting against myself and fighting against the world, and fighting for the Wrong Things. I was very stressed in November, but the happy realization that came out of that was this: "I haven't felt stress in AGES! I forgot what this felt like!" I'm finally at peace. And here I was thinking that wouldn't happen until I was dead {awkward laughter fading into silence}

* * * * *

Let's see ... what's happening today? Let me look in my crystal ball, and - oh no -

Say It Ain't So Jesse Jackson (Jr.) And it just has to originate in Illinois, doesn't it? As if Obama doesn't have a difficult enough job without having to answer to questions about this mess.

Did Hitler Have One Testicle? Because this is the question that keeps me up at night.

Vampire Myths Broken And here you thought it was only Twilight that mangled the genre.

I May Start Watching That Crap Gossip Girl Just For Wallace Shawn Inconceivable!!!

Lindsay Lohan, Leave Stevie Nicks Alone!!! You are Kali, Destroyer of Worlds. Just stop it already.

And for no good reason:



* * * * *

oh, oh, oh - I just had to add this; it's too priceless!

"I don't believe there's any cloud that hangs over me. I think there's nothing but sunshine hanging over me."
Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, the day before his arrest

Reading: The Painted Veil
Listening to: Steve's awesome mix CD

I forgive you, Mitzi Gaynor!

I forgive you, Mitzi Gaynor. I gave Anything Goes another view, just because. And I still didn't like it. Except ... the above sequence is just magical. I've decided it's one of my favorite all-time movie scenes hands down.

I started watching George Cukor's A Star is Born a week ago, and I was initially immensely impressed. But I continued watching it last night and initially it was still great but THEN, endless dance numbers to terrible songs. These words flashed across my squishy brain: WHEN IS THIS MOVIE GOING TO END??? It didn't help when my father entered the room and after a brief silence (and during one of the worst numbers), noted, "You know all those people are dead now." Greeeaaat. There was also some embarrasingly hammy acting from Garland; it's a pity because she was an actress capable of such depth and raw energy, but I don't think she ever in her career truly utilized those acting gifts (other than through song).

I started to get annoyed, when suddenly after two hours of praying for it to end, James Mason completely broke my heart. My God. I have rarely seen an actor so realistically and agonizingly portray such pain onscreen. It was at that moment that I realized Mason made the film, and that I realized he had been consistent and authentic throughout the entire picture, even when everything around him was glitz and cheese. A Star is Born is not a movie about the travails of fame; it is a film about the self-destructive trauma of alcoholism. See it for Judy singing The Man That Got Away, but mostly see it for James Mason's performance.

* * * * *

And....

OMG! Corrupt Politician Alert I have my surprised face on. Not really.

We Need A Cure

Dark Knight DVD as Disappointing As the Movie Was No Heath Ledger extras. And he was the best thing about the film.

The Mouse is 40!

Greedy Fannie

NYT on Kate Winslet's The Reader

John Lennon The Rolling Stone interview "I always wrote about me when I could. I didn't really enjoy writing third person songs about people who lived in concrete flats and things like that. I like first person music."

Flor, You Can't Have Ed Norton, He and I Are in Love

fix the country and stuff

Today, Obama announced his new secretary of veterans affairs, and promised us a whole bunch of stuff. I frigging love that man.

New York Times Online article

This afternoon, MSNBC noted, "It seems as if he's already taken office!" It's surprising (well, not so surprising actually) that Bush has done much to assist ailing big business, but little to ease the pain of individual home owners. Obama indicates his 'team' will change that.

I don't know if Obama will be able to handle all this, or if he will be a great president; but I have a sense of hope for the first time in a long while.

* * * *

I've been reading Cleolinda's blog, Occupation Girl over on livejournal, and I love it.

She writes an online series called "Movies in Fifteen Minutes." She's pithy, she's funny, she's brilliant - love her.

Here's her Twilight in 15 minutes.

Bush is like that awesome Ladytron song.

Re: Scary Boob

http://www.oilempire.us/bush.html

Ladytron

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtqGoHouoE0

Okay, so I'm not going to say that Bush destroyed the country, but I will say he maimed it. Americans are a
resilient (though sometimes brutish) breed, and will probably rebuild, but we all know how gloomy things are. Or do we? I don't think we've really had to bear the brunt yet of the madness, war, and excessive spending that the now 'lame-duck' administration has borne. It's all kicking in, and it's kicking in Hard.

The Wall Street Journal informs us that "the U.S. lost half a million jobs in November, the largest one-month drop since 1974, as employers brace for a recession that's expected to stretch through much of 2009," though they do conscend that, "the overall labor market is about 75% larger today, so the job cuts now represent a smaller share of the work force." The article also suggests that the way to resolve the national problem is to stabilize the housing market, and to heal the crippled credit system, which if you ask me sounds incredibly vague. It reminds me of Keenan's Weekend Update character yelling out, "Fix it!"

They also note that, "The tally of 1.9 million jobs pared thus far in 2008 surpasses the losses of the past two recessions, signaling that the current downturn could be the worst since the years immediately following World War II."

I just keep repeating to myself, "I love my job, I love my job, I love my job."

Yup.

Listening to: Lips Like Sugar
Words cannot describe how much I love this song.

Kings of Leon

I am this moment downloading Kings of Leon's 2001 album Aha Shake Heartbreak. How did it take me so long to discover this band?? I mean, they've been everywhere, yes? Weren't they on SNL a while back? I usually fast-forward through the musical acts when I watch it, though. Probably just skimmed right by them to the next lame comedy sketch. Anyway, they're wonderful. I'm listening to Taper Jean Girl on repeat right now. I have some catching up to do, don't I?

I finally saw Milos Forman's Goya's Ghosts. I enjoyed Stellan Skarsgard's performance, but the movie felt kind of pointless. Bardem was at his creepy best, and Natalie Portman's make-up in the latter half of the movie terrified me, but there was something missing. The film just felt incoherent and totally devoid of heart or humor. The final credits were my favorite part of the film, simply because we then see a slideshow of Goya's work. Dark, horrendous, beautiful. If only the movie could have captured the art and the artist.

* * * *

In other news ...

O.J. is finally going to serve his time.

Strangers can make you happy!
Guess this means I'll have to stop ignoring all the people around me.

Joe Satriani is suing Coldplay.
You know you're gay when you're suing Coldplay.

And I can't wait to see this movie.

But for now, I'm pouring myself a hot cup of tea and I'm going to bed. Mmm, sleep.

Proposition 8 and MUSIC!!

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Oh, this video is so hilarious. A friend of mine posted it on facebook, and I just about died laughing. Jack Black is perfect. Well, they all are actually. And, if he were not gay, I would marry Neil Patrick Harris if sparkly cheekbones won't have me.


* * * *



I’m not a big country fan, but I like bluegrass, and I really like what I’ve heard so far of Jack White’s band The Raconteurs. It feels natural and the sound is fluid. I’m enjoying it.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Abbey Road lately. That album is just so perfect; every moment of it is a joy. Ringo’s best drumming (his only drum solo in their catalogue) is in “The End” which may be The Beatles' most incredible piece of music. But the entire album really is just brilliant.

Go here to see live webcam images of Abbey Road, and it's famous crosswalk.
http://www.abbeyroad.com/visit/

I listened a bit to Jason Mraz’s new album and wasn’t that impressed; I like his voice but the whole album felt bland and sometimes reminded me of an 80s Basia album. It has all the cheese of Stevie Wonders "I Just Called to Say I Love You," without the cred. His track “A Beautiful Mess” was a shade lovely, though the lyrics were corny and disjointed.

* * * *


My brother turned me on to The Innocence Mission, and I’m officially in love with Karen Paris’ voice. I'd only heard one song from them in the past – "Bright As Yellow" off the Empire Records soundtrack, and liked it but didn’t love it. However, their lullaby album Now The Day Is Over is simply gorgeous. I highly recommend everyone own it; it’s that beautiful.

I’m also in love with this little-known Austin band called Belaire (flor, I sent you a song on itunes – you’d better redeem that sucker!) They’re very Stereolab, light pop wonderful, but they can still rock out. I’d love to see them live.

I’m already wishing Interpol, Fiona Apple, and Radiohead would release new albums. I know the creative process takes time, but I need more!! I can only listen to Our Love to Admire, Extraordinary Machine, and In Rainbows so many hundreds of times. I got this snarky little comment off of Rolling Stone's website:

"It’s nice to know some of the U.S. budget might not going to the Iraq War: A few key members of the White House, namely deputy press Tony Fratto, downloaded copies of Radiohead’s In Rainbows."

Rivers Cuomo’s cover of "Don’t Worry Baby" is darling; I adore it. Really the whole album is great – he’s released two discs of the album Alone: The Home recordings of Rivers Cuomo 1992-2007. It’s Weezer heaven, especially for fans of their older work. I am upset that their Christmas songs are exclusively being released on Iphone - it's such corporate BS.


Oh, on a totally different note, read this great article by Denis Leary. It’s so incredibly sweet and surprisingly lyrical – makes me hope I’ll find this kind of connection someday:

Denis Leary on Love at First Sight

Ah, love, and/or the promise of love ...

I'm signing out with Nick Drake :)

Stellllaaa!!!!

Today in history, Joseph Conrad was born and Streetcar Named Desire Marlon Brando premiered on Broadway. Let's face it, Tennessee Williams is a lyrical genius, but that play is melodramatic beyond belief. It's Brando's broken, fierce performance that made the play and the 1951 film. We had never seen an actor like him onstage before, raw and painfully real. As for Conrad, his life reads like an adventure story - makes one ponder the question: Does one have to travel, to experience, to explore in order to write about the human condition? You could offer Emily Dickinson as a counter to that - a woman who lived a sheltered existence and never really traveled anywhere of note. Speaking of Brando, I'm dying to see Last Tango in Paris. It was featured on the IFC network the other night - brilliant series about sex on film. The episode was called Indie Sex:Censored, and it's available on Netflix and on Amazon.com. It was extremely educational (and why do I feel naughty just writing that - seriously, I don't mean it that way... really).

I had a steroid shot (yay! I mean, ouch!), and am recovering speedily. I keep thinking of that line from Dune: "Fear is the mind-killer" and if that is so, then stress is surely the body killer! I need to stress less and live better. God, I'm sounding like a self-help book.




Next year, a movie premieres about the strange relationship between Federico García Lorca and Salvador Dalí called Little Ashes (with he of the mighty cheekbones as Dalí). This got me thinking about other literary or artistic figures I would love to see portrayed onscreen, so I started searching for something with a focus on Wordsworth and Coleridge. The film is Pandaemonium and it centers on the stormy relationship between the two men and on Coleridge's opium addiction. I've added it to my netflix queue, and I'm hoping it will be good. I'm also hoping Little Ashes will be poignant rather than laughable, but we'll see.

* * * * *

I finally saw Everyone Says I Love You (I'd previously only seen snippets), and I'm glad I did. It was so incredibly charming; I adored it. The cinematography is brilliant, those colors just pop out at you; it's so vivid and delightful. The actors (Ed Norton, Tim Roth, Goldie Hawn, Alan Alda, Natalie Portman, and that's only a fraction of the cast) give beautiful performances, specifically the hilarious Roth as convict Charles Ferry. Oh, and the songs... I think my favorite aspect of all Woody Allen movies is the music. The Dandridge's reminded me so much of my own large family, talking over each other with affable frustration, discussing everything from love to art to politics. I just wish Woody Allen would bring back Diane Keaton as a love interest (zero chemistry between his Joe Berlin and Julia Roberts' character Von). I forgive him, because before the dreaded entrance of Von, he ruefully sings "I'm Through With Love," which is another one of my all time favorite standards.

I love movies :)

My favorite thing about Christmas: All the lobbies in the world begin to play Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. Oh, and la flor and I make scary-looking cookies.

On Health Care (cue the violin)

Sick Girl

Mark Ryden

I'm so ridiculously sick. Hacking, coughing, wheezing sick. And yet here I am at work, spreading my germs and trying to keep the pile of tissues in check. It got me thinking about the health care situation in the country and the notion of sick leave (I say 'notion,' because in a lot of work environments, it's just that - a notion). My presence here has nothing to do with my bosses, who are incredible, but just in the system itself. When we are sick, we are expected to buck up, get in our cars, drive to our school/jobs and cough through the days, in the process (again) spreading our sickness to our fellow students and co-workers.

I watched Michael Moore's Sicko a while back, and while I know one must take any Moore documentary with a grain of salt, I found so much of what he had to say compelling. The film wasn't as bombastic and melodramatic as most of his work; it was sound and practical, specifically much of what he said regarding Canada and Europe and their respective systems. I found this great Business Week article to back up certain claims he makes:

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jun2007/gb20070613_921562.htm

The article examines France and Britain's health care approach and finds that Britain's is rather lacking, while France seems to have the right idea. It's 62 million citizens are healthier than Americans, and "per capita spending on health care is also roughly half as much." The U.S. ranked terribly in a Commonwealth Study assessing the health and quality of our lives.

Meanwhile, the John de Graaf article "Thinking Differently About Health Care" notes that "Americans rank 45th in life expectancy, right there with Albania."

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/008803.html

"Finally, and this is no small matter, every other industrial country guarantees its workers paid time off from work when they are sick; only the US does not. In many cases, as much as a month of leave is allowed. These countries know that without paid time off, workers will come to work sick, as many American workers do. They will get others sick and stay sick longer, often requiring more expensive treatment for their illnesses. This is not rocket science. Most Americans get this immediately. That is why more than 80 percent of them favor a law that would guarantee paid sick days for workers."

The article is fascinating because it focuses on preventative measures, and not just matters of cost and insurance. If we take care of ourselves in the first place, and if policies are implemented which ensure we are taken care of at our places of work when we are ill, billions of dollars may be saved in medicine and care. But thinking long-term is simply not our forte. We love our credit cards and we eat our hamburgers, and the debt, illness, and fatigue that may follow get little consideration.

{cough, cough}

I'm out.