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[20 Jan 2010|05:28pm] |
its just another wednesday
nothing good is going on
skipped all my classes
cuz i dont wanna go out in the rain
woke up with my throat burning
and a headache
let the cantaloupe become encased in mold
due to my laziness and negligence
more canned food for me
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[16 Jan 2010|02:00am] |
I am EMOTIONAL because I just watched a movie I fucking love called "Twin Falls Idaho," and I have the urge to write about it.
I first saw this movie a few years ago randomly on HBO. The sound was very quiet so I had trouble making out all the dialogue but the imagery was so evocative that it had me hooked.
Since that first viewing, the movie would come into my head at times, and I caught myself thinking about it so much recently that I caved in and bought the DVD.
It was everything I remembered and more. I don't even want to discuss what it is about because it is so powerful that I don't want to lessen it. Too bad it is an independent, humble movie that no one has heard of, while bombastic bloated films like you know what are polluting the public consciousness.
Anyway, I am so glad I watched this movie again. I feel entranced and almost like I need to watch it again right away. I would love to share this movie with somebody.
In fact, I should have a double feature of this movie and "My Own Private Idaho," haha.
In other movie viewing news, I have continued my quest of watching dystopian movies. I saw "The Running Man," which is a solid Schwarzenegger flick, the overrated "Escape from New York," and rewatched "Children of Men," which I find unbearable as it manages to be both mumbly and ear-splittingly loud at the same time. I only watched it because my dad really wanted to see it, and it was amusing how he took the anti-immigrant stance while watching it... not that I disagree. Additionally, I watched "Serenity," which I liked but didn't love. I unconsciously resist the "Firefly" world even though I love a lot of Joss Whedon's work. Am I put off by the Western aspects or the hype? Tell me.
And since I'm listing all the movies I've seen recently, I also watched "Big Fan" since I am a Patton Oswalt freak. A really good, solid, small scale film.
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[15 Jan 2010|03:36pm] |
i feel really jittery from drinking coffee... usually im ok but for some reason it really got me this time.. so i'll update. sorry for the scattershot feel of this post ugh
i bought some stuff online recently, and it is so fun when it finally arrives. i bought andy warhol's popism, a love and rockets comic anthology, and the dvd of twin falls idaho, a movie i could not get out of my head since i saw it on hbo years ago. i bought this stuff partially to get myself off the computer, but thats only worked to mild success right now. i bought love and rockets because i want to read more comics and i want to be inspired to draw more. i bought one of jamie's books because jamie's style is cuter (very reminiscent of archie which i love). for those who don't know, love and rockets is a long running underground comic series about a barrio, written by brothers jamie and gilbert hernandez. i think most people think of jamie's work when they think of love and rockets; that could just be me but i dunno. i don't know much about gilbert's work but i think there are fantasy elements to it... it seems more out there. i havent read too much of the book i bought yet; i bought the second anthology of jamie's work since that was what i saw recommended as a starting point. i like it a lot so far, if i like this whole book i'll probably buy another one.
and it did get my drawing a bit, i started drawing but then got tired of it quickly. back when i liked manga and when i was in middle school/high school i used to enjyo drawing a lot but then mostly stopped which is pretty sad. i tend to have the most success drawing from photographs so i have a realistic basis, but the whole endeavor seems somewhat futile to me... i dunno why. i should do it for the love of it, not for some means to an end. it's quite sad actually.
if i were a good artist i would draw a graphic novel based either on edie sedgwick's life or something based on andy warhol's factory... i think edie's life would make a really compelling story because of the tragic deaths of her and her siblings like minty and the one whose name i forgot ><;; a story of the three untimely deaths of the sedgwick kids would be awesome to write and draw... too bad i don't feel my talent could do the story justice ;_;
the popism book might be further inspiration though... i read part of it in a library once, and anything having to do with andy or his superstars is immediately fascinating to me.
blah blah blah blah blah... im boring
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| 100 points for people over 75 |
[30 Dec 2009|05:09am] |
My sleeping schedule is SO. FUCKED. UP. It's almost 5 AM and I'm wide awake. I swear I keep vampire hours, it's really bad because I'm gunna be a mess when school starts.
Anyway, since I can't sleep, I've decided to update. I recently watched "Rollerball" and "Death Race 2000," two movies which are fraternal twins. Both were made in 1975, both are in the dystopian genre, both are centered around deadly sports wildly adored by the masses, and both were remade into horrible (I've heard) films earlier this decade. I really enjoyed "Rollerball." The society in that movie is completely controlled by a group of corporations (New World Order allusion?)and the titular game is used to convey to the viewers the futility of individual effort (media to suppress the working class). I liked the execution of the movie; the main character's search for answers; the action of the rollerball games and the like was quite good.
"Death Race 2000" was also fun, but pretty minor and underdeveloped story wise. It's an exploitation movie though, so what would one expect anyway? I liked the different personae and costumes the racers wore, but the concept of the game didn't make much sense. Basically, the racers collect points by mowing over pedestrians, but since everybody knows the race is going on, they all stay inside to avoid getting killed... Would the game really be that popular with such minimal carnage? The remake changed it so that the competitors are prisoners on a prison island who have to destroy the other racers, which makes much more sense, but other parts of the plot (Jason Statham's false imprisonment, other dumb ass modern action movie trappings) don't really work. I think the concept of the death race would be more interesting if they didn't feel the need to force a sympathetic protagonist into the movie; just have the competitors try to destroy each other to see who is the last one standing, forget the prison island (it's more interesting with volunteers), make killing pedestrians a bonus or a side effect and not really worry about that part either way, since it is amusing.
I'd still recommend both movies. B-movie vixen and Warhol superstar Mary Woronov plays Calamity Jane in "Death Race 2000," which is awesome in and of itself. It was also David Carradine's break-out movie role.
Another dystopian movie I saw but don't have much to say about is Woody Allen's "Sleeper." Amusing, but also minor.
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| Back again |
[23 Dec 2009|04:37am] |
...I still want to start a new blog, but registering for sites is so annoying so I'm back for now.
As part of my dystopia movie kick, I finally watched "The Matrix" tonight. First thing I did was look at the tiny font runtime on the bottom of the box and moaned. I have a firm belief that any length over two hours for a movie is pure self-indulgence on the part of the director. But that's a theory for another time. Anyway, I sat down to watch the movie, and I wasn't very impressed. I'm a Keanu lover and apologist so that's not the reason why; however none of the performances blew me away now that I think about it. The kung fu action is of course enjoyable but I hate gun violence. The real reason I didn't like the movie was because it basically played out as Metaphysics/Philosophy 101, which is like, I already had this conversation when I was 17 and thought I was deep. Or whatever. I'd probably give it a B-; there is no way in hell I'm watching the sequels.
Here is the rundown of my genre specific watching, semi guided by this list. Compiling this list made me think about the fact that a person's idea and definition of a dystopia and what they hope to see in a dystopia movie can vary greatly, which is why I think a lot of the movies on this list are iffy... To me a dystopia is a highly dysfunctional society characterized by inequality and oppression, with either a government with too much control, anarchy, or extremely powerful corporations. Inequality can be economic inequality, caste systems, and the like, and oppression can be oppression of the individual or censorship, etc. When I watch a dystopian movie, I want to gain a clear feeling of what it would be like to inhabit said society and of what makes that society so dysfunctional. Dystopian movies often take place after an apocalypse, but I separate post-apocalyptic movies from dystopian movies because I feel the society in a dystopian movie should be more fully formed to suit my first preference. I also love the sense of dread instilled by watching how the characters are trapped in the society, often with no way out, as it often reminds me of our own society. This is why I love evocative movies like "Blade Runner", which has influenced every noirishly styled sci-fi to come after it, or the insane mind-fuck of "Brazil". Of the ones I've seen, "They Live" is most like our society (except for...uh...one detail... Just watch it).
Previously seen dystopia movies (That I can remember):
A Boy and His Dog (more post-apocalyptic than dystopian...?), Alphaville (sexy French noir dystopia!), A Scanner Darkly (which made my mind explode due to Keanu, Winona Ryder, and RDJ all being in a movie together), Artificial Intelligence: AI (horrible movie, and I don't consider it a dystopia, just a Blade Runner wanna-be), Blade Runner, Brazil, Children of Men (well half), Dark City (debatable...?), Delicatessen, Gattaca (more of an anti-utopia than dystopia), Idiocracy (my dad and I argue the most over whether this is a dystopia or not; he says it isn't because there is no class stratification and no one is oppressed, but I say it is because it is still a dysfunctional society and they are inherently oppressed by their idiocy), The Matrix, Minority Report, Robocop (I want to say this movie reminds me of Judge Dredd, which is a fucking awesome comic book dystopia), Soylent Green, They Live (why I wear sunglasses), Total Recall (three boobed lady!), Twelve Monkeys (um... more like pre-post-apocalyptic?), V for Vendetta
Okay if that looks like a jumbled mess it's because it is. And not all of my above statements were written very clearly but I'm just trying to get them out for now... Many more movie ruminations to come
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[14 Dec 2009|01:22pm] |
Going to a Coen Bros triple feature tonight~
i really need to start blogging more, keep writing more... i dunno if im gunna keep it here or get a new blog though, like my blogspot one
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[25 Nov 2009|02:51pm] |
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I loooove Thanksgiving week. Glory Glory
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[22 Oct 2009|01:14pm] |
i had the best dream ever...
i went with my dad and god parents to some swanky music festival featuring ray davies, the white stripes, and some other artists i don't remember. at one point i see ray sitting on a couch before the show and two girls talking to him being annoying, so i go over and start talking to him and being cool because i actually know who he is and all about his work. so then him and i start hanging out and lazing around and stuff but then i get worried that my dad is gunna find us and get pissed because ray is a lot older than me... at one point ray and i start kissing and then my dad finds us and gets pissed but i defend my right to do what i want... and thats all i really remember.
oh yeah and meg white was really bitchy and jack had a goatee XDD;;;
all this after i decided im prob not going to ray's concert... i just dont want to get raped by ticketmaster
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[18 Oct 2009|03:22am] |
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there was a spider in my bed and now its 330 am and im hungry >
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| I wish! |
[15 Jun 2009|01:36am] |
Someone told me I kinda look like Penelope Cruz. I usually never get people telling me I look like someone... I forgot the ones that I've gotten before since they are so few and far between. The guy told me I look like Penelope said one time a woman followed him off a BART to ask him if he was Bobby Lee XDDD; poor Asian-Americans.
Who do people say you look like?
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[31 May 2009|12:22am] |
i keep coming here wanting to update but then i dont, because my life is just pretty lame and i realize i dont have anything to say.
ive been cramingish for my industrial econ midterm... i put off studying because it's hard/i don't like it/i'm lazy/the library is too hot/it's boring/oh look tv is on etc etc but i studied a bit today... i still want to read 2 or three more chapters today but it takes me hours to read a chapter and i don't know how good my retention is anyway...honestly sometimes i get irrationally pissed because i feel like im one of the only students taking hard classes and everyone else is lame. well everyone else is lame anyway, i just have to come up with more arbitrary reasons to dislike them i suppose
my life has been so dreary recently... interesting things in my life: i volunteered in the tokyo pride festival for independent study field work/addicted to john entwistle and lady gaga/downloading the big lebowski/on a diet again... that's it. only one of those is actually legit interesting too. the list of shit things in my life would be longer but i don't think anyone wants to know or cares
i want to go shopping/clubbing... i want to go clubbing this weekend maybe, i haven't been in so long and it's usually a positive thing for me to do although it's so tiring to be out all night. i just want to get out of my room and live a normal life again
somebody entertain me
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| housing hell |
[09 May 2009|07:33pm] |
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ugh. i am having a bitch of a time finding a place to live next year. I just answered 12 ads, so hopefully i'll have some responses by tomorrow... it's gettin harder and harder to find places that are walking distance to campus but that is really important to me and i just dont fucking know what i'm going to do. i hope i can find a decent fucking place so i wont be fucking homeless
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[05 Mar 2009|09:36pm] |
Well I'm off to Australia tomorrow!
I'm nervous but obviously excited as well, and I hope I can learn a lot about OZ while I'm there!
See you in a month!
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[24 Dec 2008|11:49pm] |
im sick again... i feel okay when im lying in bed with my electric blanket but going outside kinda killed me. right now my throat still fucking hurts though.
i went out all day yesterday with my friend even though i was sick... i really wanted to see the illuminations. it was worth it, but i had to skip all my classes today because i wasn't up to go to them...
...so i've been in bed pretty much all day, watching tv and movies. at least i got to watch some really amazing shit. i finally finished paranoid park, which would have been better if it didnt take me three days to watch it. i think i've been through all the late period van sant i want to see though, which is sad, because watching his stuff is so relaxing. i then watched memento, which was awesome. i thought it was going to be a lot more violent than it actually was, so i was pleasantly surprised by that. it was really clever and the ending was crazy. but the best thing i watched today was the fall, which came out earlier this year. it's stunningly beautiful and extremely dark and emotional. lee pace also looks super fucking hot in it. he doesn't look very hot on pushing daisies (which i just started) but he was way hotter in this movie. hmm. he looks too emaciated on pushing daisies. my korean friend here loves that show and she thinks lee pace is hot too, haha.
oh my fucking god it's midnight and i've been up since 8:30am... dont think i can sleep though, i'm still in pain and i had a lot of caffeine... i really hate sleeping when i'm sick... well i kind of hate sleeping no matter what but its even worse when i'm sick... it's just like feverish pain... i think i'll stay up and just be like whatever...
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[21 Dec 2008|09:47pm] |
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don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter t be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter don't be bitter
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| weird overactive subconscious |
[23 Nov 2008|05:43pm] |
I had way too many dreams last night.
In the first one, I was in some office, and someone in the building had plans to kill some people in my office. I found a note detailing his plan as proof, but one of the guys in my office wouldn't listen to me. Two ladies working there believed me though and looked at the note, and we wanted to find a way out of the office without getting killed. Then my dad came and I felt relieved because I thought he could stop them from killing me.
Then my dream changed.
Now, out and about, and for some reason, met OBAMA. Yeah. And so I told him my theory of how he is more of a celebrity than a politician, and people care less about what he says than the way he says it. He didn't seem to appreciate my theory. I then wanted to tell him about the problems in America he needs to fix, and I can't remember the first one I said but the second one was about the wage gap between males and females. I went on and on about how women only receive 70% of what men make, and when I asked Obama if he would fix it, he didn't really care and he brushed it off. I felt really upset and I think I was crying in the dream XD;; I guess this labor economics stuff is really getting to me. Then...
The third dream I was in a competition very similar to the CW show "Stylista," which I watched a ton of yesterday. We were in an impossibly large craft store and I don't really remember anything beyond that.
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[18 Nov 2008|07:54pm] |
life sucks.
i wouldn't be surprised to fail my classes.
but i have betty page bangs and electrified hair
and i feel pretty
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