Moving, book clumps for sale, and 127 Hours

Moving is not a very fun experience. Sure, the thought of arranging your stuff in a new place is nice but the reality of having 20 boxes filled with books and movies and having to unpack them all isn't that great. It's made me accept the fact that I need to quit keeping books after I've read them. Unless they're old or outstanding, I have giving them up after I read them. This is going to be tough and I already know I won't be giving up certain authors, but some I can certainly part with. At a certain point, I feel like keeping them around is purely so other people can see that I read, which is absolutely absurd because once you've talked to me for more than twenty minutes it is pretty obvious that I'm a dork that feels the need to smell books (oh but some just smell so amazing). I'm thinking about clumping books together, once I'm done with them, and selling them to people. I don't know if I should do this via ebay or craigslist or what. But I think it would be neat to do a sort of surprise! book clumping. Never know what you're going to get. Maybe five books for ten dollars. I don't know. I'll probably put far too much thought into what I send people. I also thought about giving them as Christmas presents but not everyone I know is into reading. I plan on making gifts anyway. I'm broke so this is going to be a crafty Christmas.

On another note, "127 Hours" is so damn good that it took me two weeks to write the darn review for it (which I think was terrible because I couldn't write it without feeling like a pathetic fan-girl). So, anyone reading this should make a very serious effort to see this film. Danny Boyle shows that the more he seems to limit himself, the farther and deeper his talent stretches. It's astounding. And James Franco, if he doesn't get an Oscar nod for this I'll be shocked. His best role to date, in my opinion.

Aron Ralston's story is beyond beflief. I really want to read his autobiography. It'll be my next library visit. Need to finish "Shantaram" first. Have had it for years and am finally reading it. I need to get back to reading. I found that as a Literature major, I quit reading for fun. When you have, maybe 12-15 books to read and analyze, it sort of cut out anything else. Sure, some of those books that I studied are favorites now ("Cane" by Jean Toomer) but after awhile, you don't want to study them anymore. I got a little burned out. So I'm excited to get back to reading for purely pleasure.

Meaning, any book suggestions?

Party Hard!

Do you know what to do when you need a last minute costume to see Creepy Creeps at Tower bar? You prepare to party hard Andrew W.K. style.

Sometimes it's not for the best

Have you ever been told something by someone that made you wish so desperately that you never knew? That they had just carried on with that terrible secret bottled up within them? It's not because you don't want to support them or that you don't love them, but now you have to carry that secret with them and the weight is just too much. You have images that you can't get out of your mind now.

In some ways my life is moving forward. I'm moving to the perfect location and at the end of this semester I will have finally graduated college. But I'm still hopelessly smitten with a man that it's a disaster to feel something for. And I'm constantly reminded of this fact. Thankfully, he has nothing to do with the above secret. Although I find myself wanting to talk with him about it. Why? It doesn't make sense. I find myself finding excuses to stop by his house because I know that if I do, I'll end up sleeping over. Now I'm borrowing something of his for my Halloween costume and am supposed to pick it up from him at work tonight. I don't want to go in there alone. How pathetic is that? I don't know how to talk to him outside of his bedroom. Sounds different than it is.

And why is it that straight men have no real interest in me? Gay men think I'm gorgeous and tell me every single time they see me. Why don't straight men have the same response? Or if they do, why don't they talk to me? Hanging out with my friend and his newest circle of friends (mostly gay men) is the biggest confidence boost. And my friend tells me everything they say about me and it's all positive and so sweet. So where do you meet straight men that are worth your time? I missed that class.

On a different note, San Francisco this weekend to stay with one of my very best friends. We have a Florence and the Machine show to go to and the night after that is a Billy Bragg show, which I am crazy excited for because I haven't seen him in so long. It couldn't be a worse week due to the moving to a new place and not having money for even the BART but the tickets have been bought for a while and we both need this visit.

And now, I sneeze.

I am so excited for Black Swan. Darren Aronofsky is a genius. That man can do anything and I'll be on board.

Banksy's in Springfield

Here's the Simpsons intro that Banksy directed. Amazing.

Negative, Ghost Rider.

Today has been an epic fail on so many levels. First, apartment hunting was a bust. Why is it so difficult to find a one-bedroom in my price range? No one calls back and the one place I adore is $925 and that's just too much. Second, lunch turned out to be a bad choice. Getting veggie friendly rolls at a sushi place, which is usually a favorite place of mine, turned out to kill my stomach. I don't know if it was the driving around afterwards or just the food but I feel like dying. Third, still have no idea what to be for Halloween and even worse, no clue what to do for my Birthday (which is the week before Halloween). And to make the entire day one for the 'woe is me' books, I cannot stop thinking about the only guy I have ever been sexually and intellectually attracted to. A guy who doesn't share the same feelings and is completely unrealistic as dating material. I know all this, but it does nothing to get him out of my head. And I swear to everything that is good in this world, if he posts one more ambiguous Facebook update about some person whom he can't stop thinking about...my mind may explode. Either that or he's in store for a very awkward conversation tomorrow night when I see him.

And, I'm trying to take a nap...well, I will once I get off the computer, but I keep getting text messages and my saddened state forces me to continually see who wants what because what if, just what if, it's the guy (which it would never in a thousand worlds be). Sigh.

So, yes. Woe is me day. Join me, won't you?

Side effects of being sick

I missed my only class this morning (a French class) even though there was a quiz. I felt horrid but not it's not as bad. I missed a lot of things today but am determined tomorrow will go as planned: go to the see a doctor's assistant to demand antibiotics, pick up portfolio materials at Blick, visit the Viva la Revolución art exhibit to get a bit more meat for my street art article, go apartment hunting, and see Case 39 (finally a flick I don't have to review) with some friends. I'm fairly certain I won't get around to apartment hunting though.

There is a perk of being sick though. I always feel creative. I finally started up my Little Prince painting again. I want a series of brightly colored paintings that may or may not show the same scene. It's going to take me forever though at this point. I have a long ways to go on the stars and planet texture.

The aftermath.

The other one is a different color. It's a grayish blue that is a lot lighter than the one in the photo. I'm probably going to do the planet a more vibrant color to contrast with this more brown one. I don't know in which one the Prince or his flower will be. Maybe neither.

My cat, Gandhi, just walked across the canvas so now it's got some unique topography.

On an unrelated, but always needed, note:
Roxy Music - "Do the Strand"

Oh, Beck. Why have you left my dreams?

For maybe a month Beck was always in my dreams. He's left me though and now my dreams are a darker place.

Here's the video for "The Golden Age" from the "Sea Change" album.

"The Social Network" and the emptiness within a desperate attempt at communication

I really didn't want to like it, not really sure why, but I really didn't want to jump on board. However, I liked it. "The Social Network" won me over within the first ten minutes. It's a fantastic film. David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin really manage to capture the desperation behind Facebook.com in a very real film that manages to define my generation (whether or not we like it). I'm finding it oddly difficult to write the review though. Having troubles arranging my thoughts in a fairly intelligent manner. I have 288 poorly written words and I feel like a twelve-year-old trying to appear adult. Actually, now that I think about it, I've felt that way for the past two weeks. Looking for an affordable place to live while trying to build a decent writing portfolio, dangerously close to actually getting my diploma and being faced with Graduate School, I have no idea what I should be doing with myself. I suppose that's where we all are though; in a place of strangely contented confusion. At least I'm not alone.

Continuing my current obsession with The National and the always-current Muse (what I wouldn't give to run my fingers through Bellamy's hair...maybe some of his musical genius would rub off), here's some videos.

Muse - "Space Dementia"


The National - "Slow Show"

Grinderman 2

The new Grinderman album (Grinderman 2) was released today! Pick up a copy and enjoy some amazing music by a group of guys who continually prove that they are still way ahead of the game. Check out their MySpace page to listen to the album for free. I cannot wait to see them in San Diego.

Party on, Garth.

Why must I continually fail to save a story/paper after I have been working on it for more than an hour? I'm trying to go back through this short story and get it to where it was but it's not happening. It just seems lacking now. Is there any way I can get Microsoft Word to automatically save my progress as a backup file every ten minutes or so? That would be pretty amazing.

On a different note that doesn't make me want to weep...for my friend's sister's 21st Birthday I shall be dressing as Garth Algar from Wayne's World. She's celebrating her Birthday over three days and the first day consists of a costume party. What better costume than Garth?

So far I have myself the glasses and a wig. Sadly, the wig is pretty pathetic. It just doesn't look right. I'm going to try and...well, destroy it a bit to try and get it to look as haggard as Garth's hair. The clothes will be a snap. My friend has agreed to be Wayne so she better not back out. Although if she does, I guess I'll be Garth sans Wayne. I'll just look gloomy as I morosely chew on red vines, giving a sad little "schwing" to passing ladies.

I still don't know what I am going to be for Halloween so if anyone has any neat ideas, throw them my way. Please.

Back to trying to bring my story back to life.



Oh, and who else is obsessed with this song by Florence + the Machine?

Maybe, possibly...bad call?

Have you ever gotten home after doing something and be forced to wonder if the actions you partook in will turn out to be a bad decision and only keep you from what you actually want? Today has been one of those days. To fight it, here's some Jeff Buckley.

She said, "Don't ring while he's here."

Whenever I'm doing something at a leisurely pace (like checking messages or putting lotion on), I very often find myself singing this Billy Bragg song to myself and it is always this lowkey version.

Machete don't text.

Just saw this tonight and it was pretty enjoyable. Fantastic for what it is. I just finished a rough draft of my review for it for my college paper. I'm too tired to complete it. Tomorrow's a new day, as they say.

Cineaction

A couple months or so ago I discovered Cineaction, which is a film studies journal based in Canada. I am completely in love with it and fully plan on sprucing up an analysis I wrote on three Western films in terms of how the films follow and stray from Western tradition (Fistful of Dollars, Rio Bravo, and The Proposition) and submitting it for consideration. If you love reading about films, you should certainly check this journal out.

If anyone knows of any other amazing film/music/literature journals or blogs (anything really), let me know!

We're the young ones...

I've been on a Young Ones kick. Out of all of my BBC obsessions, Young Ones is certainly the most...intelligently juvenile. If that makes sense. I just love the characters, especially those of Rick and Vyvyan. It was hard to decide on a clip so I went with a scene from Rick's party.

Do androids dream of electric sheep?

My current obsessive genre is science-fiction. For all of you who enjoy some fiction that exposes some key elements of human nature through imagining future possibilities of where human beings end up, you should check out Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (the book Blade Runner is based on, which happens to be one of my all-time favorites films and if you haven't seen it, just go buy a copy. Enjoy the long discussions over whether or not Deckard is a replicant and pay attention to that last scene of Rutger Hauer's because he adlibbed it. I've heard he came up with the tears in rain portion and I've also heard that he came up with most of it. Either way, it's an iconic scene for a reason) or Neuromancer by William Gibson. Well, there are tons but those two are my current reading choices. I have read the first one but I never got around to reading Neuromancer for whatever reason. I was thrilled when I found it tucked away in one of my bookcases, just waiting for me to notice it. And really, anything by those authors is going to be good.

Here's that final scene of Hauer's in Blade Runner. If you haven't seen the flick and plan to, you may not want to watch this scene. It does happen near the very end of the film, after all.

Maybe I was born to hold you in these arms...

The skull that makes me smile in Frames familiarity makes is appearance in this gorgeous black and white   Swell Season music video for "In These Arms." Glen Hansard's voice fills me up with this blinding feeling of indescribable emotion. It's like there's this knot of excited pleasure within my stomach that only ever gets tighter, causing my entire body to tense while a sigh is lulled up through my chest. There are no words to describe it.



I cannot wait to see them live again and at a venue that is General Admission. I cannot stand to be seated far from the stage, especially when I see musicians such as these. I need to be in the front, awkwardly avoiding eye contact and hating myself for that missed opportunity to tell Hansard just how much I adore his words.

Banksy, Shepard, Invader...

So, instead of posting about my Comic Con day yesterday (which I had all typed up and ready to post last night when my computer died on me due to a current virus) I will finally post about the street artists in San Diego. If you happen to live here, it is nearly impossible not to notice that amazing art has happened all over the place. It is due to the fact that an exhibit opened at The Museum of Contemporary Art called Viva La Revolucion: A Dialogue with the Urban Landscape. The exhibit features 20 contemporary artists from 10 different countries, all artists who work with city landscapes. Artists included are Bansky, Shepard Fairey, Dr. Lakra, Invader, Vhils, et cetera. While half of the exhibit is inside the museum, the other half is spread out across San Diego adorning choice walls. Nine of the artists (Shepard Fairey, Invader, Barry McGee, JR, Dr. Lankra, Swoon, Os Gemeos, Stephan Doitschinoff, and Vhils) came to make art on San Diego buildings, causing many to go on street art treasure hunts with cameras.

My friend and I went to the opening night of the exhibit and it ended up being one of the best nights of my life. The reason for this: Shepard Fairey. He was there, acting as DJ for half the night while generally just being amazing. My friend and I acted like complete idiots upon meeting him but it is definitely a photograph that I am printing out and pinning up next to the time I met Billy Bragg. I don't often care if I meet a famous person but people like that? I care.

That night was interesting in a lot of ways actually but those stories have nothing to do with art.

Shepard Fairey

I'll Be Your Man

I woke up this morning with "I'll Be Your Man" stuck in my head and I had a feeling last night that it was going to happen. The reason is because a certain bartender continued to sing it, lodging it in my brain. Not a bad thing, of course, because the song is fantastic. It's just amusing how predictable my unconscious state is at times. There were so many songs that could have made their way in there while sleeping (the bar that I am at every week just so happens to be a karaoke bar) but the song that gets in there isn't one sung with a microphone, it's just sung behind the bar. Now, whether or not the song is to blame or the man singing it while making eye contact, who knows and I suppose it doesn't matter. Enjoy the fantastic Black Keys song, which you'll recognize if you watch Hung. I hope that it makes it's way into your dreams.



And real quick. Memo to Christopher Nolan: Thank you for writing intelligent films that make me smile. Let's snuggle. I smell incredibly nice.

I have now seen Inception twice and plan on at least once more. New things to look for every time. I have my theories and I can't wait for the director's commentary and the "making of" those amazingly well choreographed fight scenes that Joseph Gordon-Levitt did (sans stunt double I hear) on the DVD.

On a side note. I love how my childhood crushes (the ones who were actually around my age and not years older like Rik Mayall, Johnny Depp, Gary Oldman, or John Cleese) are now incredibly foxy. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ben Foster, Jason Segel...

Salvador Dali Is My Leading Man

Music That Makes My Heart Swell In Obsession

A month ago I burned a mass amount of Billy Bragg CDs for one of my oldest and dearest friends and I haven't yet gotten around to actually mailing them to her in San Francisco. Now, I have to because I am including in the package my handy travel pouch deal that you store your money and passport within while traveling. She is about to venture off to Europe for a month, without me, so I am lending this travel accessory to her. An accessory which I didn't exactly use properly while I was in Ireland because I was never once worried for a moment that I would get mugged so it pretty much acted as a wallet with a strap. It lived in my shoulder bag.

Anyhow. The point to this. While I was bagging the CDs up I decided that I should finally put together the mix CD I have been thinking about making for people I love (maybe it's for the arrogance of it all). The only thing the songs have in common is that I am currently obsessed with them. Some of them, I am often obsessed with, and some are fairly new to my obsession and probably temporary. So I shall share it with anyone reading (just saw that I actually have a follower now [Triana, I adore you] so maybe I'm just sharing it with her which would make this a lot more intimate. Let's act as if there is a roaring fire and figs between us).

So, it's in alphabetical order by song title. I can't be showing special treatment but those songs know who they are anyhow.

1. Ain't That A Shame - Fats Domino

This is definitely a song that gets my shoulders dancing in the best way possible. The lyrics are sweetly simple and all the better for it. Something about the way he croons, "Oh well goodbye/Although I'll cry," gets me every time. Fantastic song for singing along. I would karaoke it if I had the nerve.
Video Performance



2. Better Than You - New York Dolls
Probably not a song that many people think of when they think of New York Dolls but for some reason I've been in love with this song ever since I first heard them play it live. It latched on to me. And I adore the lyrics, "My baby/Got mystical frenzy/Tempered by an irony/Verging on blasphemy." I wouldn't mind having a mystical frenzy.
Look at those hips sway.

3. Cacurica Dances - Taraf de Haïdouks
Honestly, this choice was decided for me because of the very short song length. I wanted to have Taraf on the mix because when you need some amazing soulful music, this Romanian band of all ages never disappoints. If you have see the film The Man Who Cried, you have seen and heard Taraf. The band played the family of Johnny Depp's character (Depp is a friend and fan).

4. Carmensita - Devendra Banhart

I think I jumped onto the Devendra train fairly late. I honestly had no idea who he was, not really, until I went to a show of his with my friend. I made my decision to go based on his short-shorts in the video for I Feel Just Like A Child and it was one of the best random choices that I have ever made. He's fantastic fun and even sexier when singing in Spanish. Yeah, he's not completely unique but he nicely captures the feel of Haight-Ashbury in the 60s and you will enjoy his simple and Beatles-ish lyrics.
Music Video with Natalie Portman.

5. The Curse - Josh Ritter

If you don't know Ritter and consider yourself a fan of folk music, just go buy a CD of his. He's amazingly self-assured in his music for someone so young. He comes across much more seasoned but he's all smiles, like the biggest dork you could ever imagine. Seeing him live is pure joy. You could have your cat run over right before the show but his smiling face will allow you to transcend whatever pains you may have. This song is off his newest record which came out in May. It's a song about a mummy who falls in love with a woman. It has the ability to make my eyes well up and my chest grow tight because it brings forth so many emotions that you would never thought related. It's incredibly sweet and a bit heartbreaking.
Live Performance and sweet Puppet Video by Liam Hurley.

6. Down At The Cafe - C.R. Avery
Avery speaks to the Beat poet within me. Listening to him, seeing him live, makes me feel like maybe, just maybe, the intelligent beauty of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, Gregory Corso, Charles Bukowski, Patti Smith, James Dead, Tom Waits, etc, thrives in the form of this man from Canada. He's a poet, a songwriter, beat boxer, harmonica player, pianist, and singer, somehow pulling it all with incredible style. I read in an interview with him somehow that he wanted to write poems that wouldn't make Bukowski want to beat him with a beer bottle and I think he's succeeding. I'd pick a line or two from this song but I can't bear to fragment it.
Sadly there's not much of him on YouTube but here's the song.

7. Further On (Up The Road) - Johnny Cash
From his last released record, after death, filled mostly with songs written by other people, Cash promises to meet us further on up the road. He better.
Song

8. Goin' To Acapulco - Jim James & Calexico
I have three songs from the I'm Not There soundtrack on my mix but I'm okay with that. There are some amazingly well-done Bob Dylan covers in that film. I hate to say it, often I prefer this version of the song to Bob's.
Here's the scene in which the song is performed in I'm Not There.

9. Hateful - The Clash
I've been on a Clash kick for a month now. Ever since that Buzzcocks show, I've been sticking my nose within my Buzzcocks and Clash collection. The ears want what they want, I suppose. Hateful has become my favorite Clash freeway driving song. This one and Janie Jones.
Song

10. I've Got A Thing About Seeing My Grandson Grow Old - Cat Stevens

The chorus is to die for: "But I've got no time for silly chitter chatter/I'm on my way/Cause while my blood's still warm and my mind doesn't matter/I'm hoping to stay/'Cause I've got a thing about seeing my grandson grow old." Plus, it's fucking Cat Stevens. Where could you ever go wrong?
Song

11. Lowlands Low - Bryan Ferry & Antony
Traditional pirate shanty. Hypnotizing. This is the Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music.
Song

12. Martha's Dream - Nick Cave & Warren Ellis
This is an instrumental from the film The Proposition. The whole score is gorgeous and is truly what a film score should be, an integral piece of the film it is representing. I love that Martha's song is so utterly haunting and almost threatening. There's a feeling on oncoming doom that cannot be avoided. It's certainly not a soft piece of music and works to give her character more agency within a male-dominated film. I could easily write a book on this film. I'm seriously contemplated writing my thesis on it.
Song

13. Me And Jane Doe - Charlotte Gainsbourg
I originally wasn't sure about this CD but upon discovering Beck's heavy involvement, I was completely and utterly sold. They work very well together. I'm not too fond of the softer songs on this record but this one works for me.
Performance

14. Monsieur Dupont - Sandie Shaw
A sweet song that will cause you to bring out the black eyeliner to try that cat-look for yourself. Try not to smile during this song, I doubledog dare you.
1969 TV Performance

15. Moonshiner - Bob Forrest
The second Bob Dylan cover and what I really love about these is that they aren't merely reproductions, they're fully-formed re-presentations - if that makes sense. It's like what Seu Jorge did with David Bowie; he took incredibly recognizable songs and transformed them into something sparkly new. Love it.
Song

16. Revelate - The Frames

What can I say about The Frames that won't cause me to spin out of control on a wild tangent? I love them. To the extent that I am planning a mini road trip up to Portland in August just to seem Swell Season. Don't judge me too harshly, I was planning to doing the drive anyhow, so what better reason? Okay, go ahead and judge. It's just such a pain in the ass to get tickets for them now. I'm now in danger of a 'those were the days' tirade about life before Once. Moving on.
Live Performance

17. Run Out Of Reasons - Billy Bragg
Beautifully honest song from someone whom I could never properly live without. Really nothing more to it. (By the way, he is an amazing hugger and when he calls you "love," you believe him)


18. Virginia Plain - Roxy Music
"You're so sheer you're so chic/Teenage rebel of the week." Your CD collection is severly lacking if it doesn't house Roxy Music. Trust me.
Live Performance

19. The Weary Kind - Ryan Bingham
For someone who is only 29, he has the voice of a 59 year-old who has spent his whole life chain-smoking and drinking alcholol with labels in Serbian, and that is not an insult. I, like the rest of America, fell in love with this song when the trailers for Crazy Heart came out. It's definitely one of those times where the fuss is completely warranted.
Live Performance

20. When The Ship Comes In - Marcus Carl Franklin

The last of the Bob Dylan covers and it is sung by a kid who was...I want to guess maybe fourteen when it was recorded. He played the Woody Guthrie character and was certainly one of my favorites of the film. I love the broken-down, bare-boned approach to the song. By the by, I am fairly certain that I heard The Pogues' version of this song before I even knew that it belonged to Bob Dylan.
Scene in which the song is performed in I'm Not There.

21. Where Do You Go To My Lovely - Peter Sarstedt
Want to feel like you're being romanced in a black and white film? This song may be for you.
1969 Live TV Performance