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January 29, 2003
dear nuala:
turkeys! turkeys! TURKEYS!
heh heh heee hoo...
TURKEYS!!!
please to see nuala's page: "michele screamed turkeys!"
Posted by michele at 07:53 PM | Comments (6)
fats waller strikes it in memoriam
so recently (a week or two ago or something) i got a double cat scratch on my left arm from the fats waller. (he didn't mean it, really.) instead of immediately cleaning out the bleeding wounds i just kind of watched them for a while. a couple days later one of them was kind of infected. at no point had i really scrubbed with soap or used any type of antibacterial disinfectant. and now it's a noticeable scar.
the thing is. i did this ON PURPOSE.
i have no idea why i suddenly decided that body mutilation and the risk of horrible infections was ok. i mean, sure i have 3 tattoos now but at least i kept them clean during the healing process. not bothering to wash the injured area except during vague early morning bathing ministrations indicates a bizarre lack of respect to self-body-image. but my thought process at the time went along the lines of, "hmm maybe that would look kind of cool next to the tattoo for cat right there. fitting anyway." i think there's something wrong with me.
i have another one from jesus christo on my other hand now and even though i have washed it, it's still vaguely infected and puffing up in scar form. heh.
Posted by michele at 12:52 PM | Comments (4)
January 28, 2003
coachella 2003
my curiosity spurred on again by nuala's mention that the webpage has more up to date info for 2003 sent me into tizzies of excitements. but then i went to the webpage and it's still just the same old from last year. so then i checked out the bulletin board and this is what i've found out:
band list out second week in february
concert on april 26-27
someone named ben kweller will be there
there is a potential for beastie boys and hole
hotels are already filling up in indio
"April 26-27 – Fourth Annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Performers have yet to be announced for this super-successful festival, but judging from last year’s line-up (Pink, Oasis, Björk, Chemical Brothers, Siouxsie & the Banshees and the Foo Fighters), expect the best. Empire Polo Grounds, 81-800 Avenue 51, Indio. Tickets will be available through TicketMaster." (pink wasn't there so i am not sure if this website is all that valid.
anyway, i panicked at the idea of having to stay an hour away again, even though super 8 is hecka great. so i made a reservation (which i can cancel. nobody call me crazy yet.) for this hotel for the 25-27th. i got a 3 doubles room. so logistically it could fit 6 people, (even though i only said 4 would be there). who i am thinking will be: me, kristen, nuala, erica, jolie, marina. but then i think jenny might come and maybe kim? and then i know jacob? dianna? gene i think is not coming. sean? jason will be in jersey. emily? marina's mark? our marc? ian and tracy? maybe we need more rooms! maybe i need to panic! eeeep! hee hee hee hee. oh man. i love myself.
Posted by michele at 10:39 AM | Comments (28)
lucky surprise-o!
to: kristen, erica, nuala, kim, gene, tracy, ian, sean, jolie, jason, emily, and jacob:
thank you to everbody for the wonderful surprise party that i knew nothing about last night! you are all so fully of tricksys. it was so much fun! and dioramas are great! (even when one indian giver pilfers back from the diorama she gave away). i've never had a surprise party before. once i planned one for kristen in middle school. but then i had to go to a funeral. that kind of sucked. hmm have i done other surprise parties? i think i have. i can't remember now. but i won't soon forget the duplicity of riding on the coat-tails of my evite to jason's surprise party to create a dual party for me too. grin.
love,
michele
Posted by michele at 08:44 AM | Comments (4)
January 25, 2003
breathing
last night hanging out in the city with the "rice," she and her jason we're telling the rest of us a story about this kid named brian who fancies himself a wine connoisseur. apparently he goes around talking about wine constantly and very pompously and (shock) bought a wine rack. one story involved him knowledgeably relaying the breathing needs of a good bottle of red. white wine having less surface area (note unfounded fact here) than red doesn't need to breathe. but red wine should be uncorked prior to drinking and allowed a little space to clear the lungs.
this story reminded me of the christmas that i spent in london in 1998. my father spent most of the morning convincing whitlow that the can of cranberry spherical jell-o thing needed to be opened a good thirty minutes before dinner was served so that it could take in sufficient air to be edible. whitlow fell for this. but then proceeded to forget the crucial task when the time was upon him. so we all sat down to dinner. and my father let out a bellow about the missing ingredient of the spread. whitlow immediately panicked and apologized profusely and felt awful about spoiling the entire proceeding due to the grossly out of breath cranberry blob. the rest of us, unaware that such wacky falsehoods were being propagated on this day of our lord and savior were a trifle confused. but once the situation was explained we laughed like hyenas at the dumb wit of our friend whitlow. and then we exploded all our crackers and wore our paper crowns and had a jolly pudding. good times.
Posted by michele at 10:57 PM | Comments (8)
a conversation between mini jason and the sex-ed docent
mini jason and mini compatriots: but how exactly does the man do it?
docent: you just insert it.
Posted by michele at 01:23 PM | Comments (1)
January 24, 2003
buffy musical quiz!
props to nuala for finding this.
Which Buffy Musical Song Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
ha! i'm sexually frustrated!
wait...that's not funny.
Posted by michele at 02:43 PM | Comments (4)
feb 03 buffy episodes
fyi for anyone who cares (me. erica. nuala. kristen. jolie.)
New Buffy episodes all February long!
Tuesday, February 4, 8PM ET/PT:
"The Killer in Me"
When Willow starts to give in to romantic feelings for Kennedy, (eeeee!) her guilty conscience causes her to turn into Warren, Tara's killer. (oooo....) Also, the gang gets clues that lead them to believe Giles may be The First, (see! i bet he did get killed!) and Buffy helps Spike with what seems to be his malfunctioning chip, ultimately leaving Buffy with a shocking choice.
Tuesday, February 11, 8PM ET/PT:
"First Date"
Buffy goes on a date with Principal Wood, (ahhhh!!! dating the black man! who called it?!) while Xander goes on date with an enigmatic woman. Multi-Grammy nominee Ashanti guest stars.
Posted by michele at 02:17 PM | Comments (0)
mk/a o 2
holy shit. ok so i just found this.
which led me to finding this:
AHHH!!!! how cute is that?! (click on the picture for link to the article about alyson.)
Posted by michele at 10:33 AM | Comments (0)
teen queens = scream!
perhaps i should explain my mary kate and ashley olsen fascination a little. (no you shouldn't! just back away from the subject! this idea is a bad idea and bad ideas lead to bad things! ahhh! bad bad bad!)
i don't really know why it came about that i even ordered 'so little time' vol 1. from netflix. i think i was vaguely interested. and i think i was sparked on by just the huge conglomeration those two little girls have created. and i said to myself, "self, see what it's all about. watch a little mk/a o. don't live in the horrific darkness of ignorance." little did i know at the time how much darker my life would become after seeing them act. plus the whole shitty dialogue thing. and the enormously stereotypical latin american maid-man. but oh doods. the clothes and the hair and the silly stupidity soooo almost made up for it. certainly those shallow 15 year olds convinced me to sit in front of the television for 5 whole epsisodes until 3 in the morning. (marina only made it thru 2. yes i forced the visiting marina to watch some of it with me. i think she was permanently scarred for life.)
a couple of weeks later i was feeling kind of nostalgic about the whole experience. and so i RENTED ANOTHER ONE. only this one was a feature length movie and they are pitifully younger and thus much less interesting to watch. plus it had the little moments of fading in and out where television commercials were originally. that is low, my friends. i mean. you know you're pathetic when you're watching made for tv movies with former cast members of full house starring as soccer athletes in a twin-switcheroo plot.
maybe i need an intervention. i don't know. all i know is that i'm getting a third one from netflix. and i think it's become an addiction.
believe me when i say that i am well aware that they are awful. but...just look at them... the looking at them part is so much fun....
i am sick and wrong. just so we're all clear. sick and wrong.
Posted by michele at 10:17 AM | Comments (7)
January 23, 2003
about schmidt
honestly. i would never call myself a fan of the mid-west expose on lower middle class america. in, let me stress it again, the MID-WEST. doldrums are boring. motor homes are passe. i think you get my point. however, other than the typically slow pace and close revelations of what it means to be retired, middle class, white american male, the movie has some stunning good points.
1) kathy bates. naked. in a hot tub. i am giving that secret away right here and now. you have not LIVED till you see an old, unattractive, sagging boobs actress bare it all for the camera. right there in front of you. larger than life. and with the potential of water buoyancy. i was aghast. but in a good way. a way that screamed internally, "right on, sista!" fight back against the anemic naked models. fuck 'em anyway.
2) ndugu. the first letter-sheer brilliance. the second letter-still good. the third letter-wearing a trifle thin. the fourth letter-shit, give it a rest already, willya? see, jack nicholson's character adopts this african boy named ndugu, who draws him pictures and benefits from the $22 a month or whatever it is. and in return schmidt writes him these horrific letters detailing all his petty and personal miseries. hates his wife. hates his daughter's fiancee. loves his daughter. still a part of his job (lie). his wife died. he's going to stop the wedding. he "found" himself. and so on. and then because of this letter he gets from the sister of mercy on behalf of ndugu, his life suddenly acquires meaning. even though all along he has been nothing more than a poor sap who can't even make a fucking sandwich for himself or do his laundry. and who tried to ruin his daughter's only happiness. and never appreciated his wife. right. but $22/month makes his life have meaning because SOMEONE is going to remember him when he dies. and that someone is an african kid with lice and plentiful diseases on the other side of the globe who probably doesn't even read the letters or know anything about it. riiiiiiight. perhaps my common sense and bitter cynicism is cutting a little too deeply into the awe-inspiring life changing moment they were trying to convey. but no no i think really they were trying to be ironic themselves but failed miserably.
3) the high point of this movie is in the details. little things. like how schmidt always sleeps with one leg outside the covers, trapping them down on top of the other leg. and how his coat sleeves were always too big for him, making him look continually awkward and childish in his own clothing. the speech patterns of dermot mulroney as the daughter's fiancee. and his ponytail. oh lordy. plus schmidt's walk. feet pointed outwards and slightly to the side. verra verra slowly. with the equally too big pants.
i don't think i really recommend this movie. unless, like jason who i saw it with, you LIKE mid-west irony-dramas. in which case--wholewhearted approval of you seeing this movie is what i've got. but if you're more like me...eh....see ummm...maybe some mary kate and ashley olsen action. shut up! it's a sickness!
Posted by michele at 09:25 PM | Comments (0)
January 18, 2003
middle school
i was like, "you could just go to bed, michele. they don't really need middle school pictures right this second." but then i decided it wouldn't do to deny my avid fans, right? the bad thing about these pictures is that i look awful in each of them. the good thing about these pictures, well the b&w ones anyway is the fun game you get to play of figuring out how many of those little munchkins YOU KNOW. the very least amount of people any of you should know is 4. i think. but maybe 6. you let me know. finally all those years working on the yearbook staff and being able to steal fun extra-curricular group photos like these pays off.
Posted by michele at 12:09 AM | Comments (18)
January 17, 2003
hoi paloi
it's amazing, frankly amazing, how quickly i can become fascinated by something.
yesterday in the car jacob was telling kristen and i about how he and dianna are looking for new room-mates for the apartment they are hoping to move into. and he was talking about the croatian dance instructor and the libyan bible thumper and the atlantean sheep-herder, and then he was like,
"and there's this guy, goes by the name of hoi. he's from austrialia."
"oooo austrailia," went kristen and i.
"well...that is he was just going to school there, but he was born in hong kong."
kristen turns to me at this point, "it's like your DREAM. asian AND austrialian cock."
at which i, of course, laughed nervously.
but honestly speaking...i mean she's kind of right.
so anyway, we are trying to convince jacob that he NEEDS to live with this hoi paloi fellow. but we are suspicious that he is not really listening to us seriously enough.
i wonder what it is about me that makes me so quick to latch onto people's names and make up whole stories about them and fantasy type things. ok actually i know what is about me: overactive imagination, boredom, and plain loneliness. it accounts for the bit before college with the fascination of sam and then the strange dwarf karl (hoffman) fetish of sophomore - senior years.
that's a dare right there. i wonder how long it will take SDK all the way to randomly be searching his own name and find this page. i mean adam f. found it. adam f. whose last name can't be revealed for random (in)security reasons. (go all the way down to the bottom to see the comments from adam and this next one.) the guy looking for porn in middle european countries found me. and the sugar shoe fanatics who have made me the highest search result for ss's, over and above the ss broken webpage found me most of all.
hmm i'm not sure i have the guts to let SDK find me. although...i mean...what the fuck does it matter now i guess? welll....there's my reputation (what reputation?) and my self-respect (what? me?) and uh....my desire for people not to know that 1) i was stalking them and 2) the things i did while stalking them. which is not to say that everyone else i know doesn't already know. since i wrote about it before while very carefully leaving out the last name. i've got to say i'm torn on this one. i think i will let it stand for like an hour and then panic and take it down.
Posted by michele at 12:00 PM | Comments (15)
January 15, 2003
patrick nagel
yesterday i went to this little sandwich place called raps off shattuck for lunch. and on the walls were patrick nagel prints. like 3 of them.
but here you get like 11 of them or something. (click for more).
i was immediately transported back to the day that i found that huge nagel poster, (in a fucking frame no less) in the proo' * house sophomore year. there was this weird closet by the stairs wherein there was a second hidden closet and me being inquisitve was trying to clean the place out from the stupid subletters and the renters from the year before. and i found this poster. and i was so thrilled. i don't know what the appeal was/is. i think it was the gigantic size and the tackiness and the white white skin. (cough racist cough). so i showed it to everybody and was like, "yeah! poster! this is awesome!" and everyone was horrified and concerned about why they agreed to live with me and internally debating how they could possibly circumvent me mounting this poster on the wall. ** i think there was a mass action taken. because i have no idea what happened to that poster but it disappeared and i never got to put it up. i was distraught, believe you me. but now that i know where the crazy lady who makes the tasty sandwiches is, i can go look at her obsessively bad patrick nagel taste whenever i like or whenever i'm hungry. and you know what? that is a good, good thing.
*proo' does in fact, contrary to popular gene belief, spell his name with two o's and an apostrophe. why the ' i don't know. however it appears to be an integral part of the name. along with the necessary accessories that make up the proo' himself: the alligator shoes, the light rock music, the solid, solid round belly, the half open button down shirt, the large gold chain, the huge tinted sunglasses, the elderly single cruises, and the fishing off the coast of florida. all things that i gleaned during my one year long association with the man. oh and the fighter pilot early years of the man. oh yes. jason and i heard all about that one day, alone in the house, trapped and scared with our illegal kittens upstairs bound to start making noise any minute.
** which is funny that THIS (notice the poster behind us and who's in it), got to go on the wall but a little patrick nagel somethin' somethin', did not. base and unfair people.
Posted by michele at 08:37 AM | Comments (8)
January 14, 2003
movie/tv related trivia
"Singing sensation Charlotte Church has landed her first film role - loosely based on actress Liv Tyler's teenage life.
The Welsh diva, 16, will star in a comedy musical The Family Business, where a musically talented girl discovers her real father is a has-been eighties pop star.
Comedian Craig Ferguson who will play Church's father in the movie, says he wrote it with the Voice of an Angel songstress in mind.
The plot is said to be loosely based on the real-life story of the stunning Lord of the Rings star - who discovered her father was Aerosmith frontman Steve Tyler, after being brought up to believe it was rocker Todd Rungren."
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...........i don't think this can be as "good" as mandy (ass)moore's trip to movieland in "a walk to remember."
"Buffy Faces Axe
Press Association
TV bosses plan to kill off cult show Buffy the Vampire Slayer following lacklustre ratings.
American station CBS says the long-running series, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, is not expected to return for an eighth run.
"I wouldn't bet that it comes back," network chief Leslie Moonves told the Hollywood Reporter.
Gellar, who is married to her Scooby-Doo co-star Freddie Prinze Jr, is said to want to concentrate on her film career.
But Mr Moonves said the 25-year-old actress still "hasn't said no" to reprising her role as the vampire killer.
There may also be a spin-off series featuring some of the other Buffy characters, he said."
another spin off? holy shit don't do this to us, joss whedon you two-timing bastard. and kill off dawn! argh!
"Angel Star Pregnant
World Entertainment News Network
Charisma Carpenter is to have a baby - and her on-screen character will follow suit.
The Angel actress is due to give birth in March, though she kept the secret - and her shot gun wedding to Damien Hardy - from television bosses. Now they have been forced to re-write the script, incorporating a naughty night of nookie for Cordelia with Angel's teenage son Connor.
She says, "I am due to film on through March but I don't know if I will be able to... my waters might break on set! So far they have been camouflaging my condition by putting me in long coats."
you've got to be shitting me. that's the reason for the shit they pulled last episode? these people. dude, they are fucking with my will to continue watching.
Posted by michele at 08:24 AM | Comments (10)
January 13, 2003
my brother, in his infinite wisdom
today apparently, my brother disobeyed the law. and not in the sense of rolling thru a stop sign or ripping the tags off mattresses at the store. oh no. he brought down the ENTIRE martinez police force on himself and his young, stupid, pot-smoking friend bobby. and how did he do this?, you might very well ask. the answer--fireworks. illegal. oh yes.
i just got an email from my mother that says:
Just had a cop here to see if Adam was my son. He and Bobby set off some fireworks earlier and didn't get out of town fast enough. There were about 4 cops out on the street talking with them, but they let them go. Seems lots of people called including another cop who said they sounded just like gunshots. The one talking with me wanted me to know that all martinez cops were in the neighborhood NONE WERE ANYWHERE ELSE! because of my son. Doesn't that make you feel proud?
end email.
it makes you wonder how many cops there really are in martinez. 5? it makes you wonder what happened to the apathetic draw of the donut shop. jared? it makes you wonder when my brother is going to learn not to pull this stupid shit. never.
you wanna know how he got the fireworks? he gave some free wood to a guy who came to big b. and in exchange the guy gave him a couple hundred dollars worth of fireworks. we set off a whole bunch on the fairway at sunset river resort over christmas. even blew the head off a snowman for the hell of it. so...really who am i to talk? i even advocated the insertion of multiple bombs in the set-off-tube for the grand finale christmas show. dangerous? oh yes. admittedly it didn't work. but still. there was the potential that instead of firing upwards it could fire sideways into one of the small watching children who didn't have the sense to back up as far as i did. stupid children.
in a weird way i AM kind of proud of him. i mean, maybe it's a special skill type feat to get the whole police force out in blue waylaying him on the sidewalk, lighter in hand. oh wait...that wasn't as cool the last time that happened when mark luna threw the bong AT the police cruiser. well but fireworks are cooler. i do like fireworks. during the day though? what's he thinking? that's not cool. hmmm all of a sudden this entire endeavor is seeming more and more stupid.
Posted by michele at 03:52 PM | Comments (8)
January 11, 2003
eloise
i love eloise! no really i do. she is the fucking greatest to ever hit the ball right out of the park. and of course i love gene for making eloise possible. here's looking at you, kid.
dinner party at my house albums.
thanksgiving 2002 at kristen's house.
and then of course the main page of eloise, which i'm sure you don't need this link to get to what with the other links but whatever.
today i called my mother from inside the house twice. once i called because a cat was sitting on my lap and i didn't want to disturb her urinating highness for fear of reprisals in the form of warm yellow liquid. so it makes perfect sense that i used the cell to call the house phone to make my mother get out of her chair where she was probably suffering from the same restraining fear as myself, right? and all to ask if there was anything to eat and then to gratefully acquiese when she offered to make me a BLT. which within 15 minutes she had deposited on my, thankfully, cat free lap. delicious. and all the more so for how little effort i put into it.
secondly, i was taking a three hour long bubble bath per usual weekend fare, (don't ask anymore why i had "water" tattooed to my arm. i am a fucking prune-skin fish i tell you), when jason called. having talked to jason while in the tub before i decided that it was no big deal to do so now. and figured if i kept all movement to a minimum he wouldn't hear the water lapping at the edge of the tub and know i was in there anyway. the conversation went a little something like this:
"hi!"
"helloooo."
"what's up?"
"are you in the bathtub?"
"shit! how did you know that! i didn't move!"
"you sound like you're on a speaker phone. which is what it always sounds like when you're in the bathroom and on the phone."
(much laughter and vague embarressment on my part.)
plan thwarted. anyway so he called to see if i wanted to go to the movies because apparently it is lonely in the city when everyone has gone off to tahoe, a fact of which i of course was unaware. anyway so we're trying decide on a movie which takes some doing as we both have to list and enumerate the points of the ones we want to see. him-intacto (some spanish thing with people blindfolded and thier hands tied running thru a forest), about schmidt (you know), and adaptation (postmodern bullshit with fucking nicolas cage). mine-just married (ha ha ha ha!!!) just kidding. well not kidding about the fact that i want to see it*, but about it's being the only one i currently want to see. anyway so we decide on about schmidt and he's going to come out and we'll eat some dinner or something and go be entertained by jack nicholson. it was at this point in the conversation that i remembered i promised my mom i'd be home for dinner tonight since i wasn't home once all week long (fuck was i ever tired).
so i'm like, "jason! mom's cooking something and i bet some of it's not meat so we could eat here and it'll be tasty and free!"
and he, of course, being retiring and non-imposing is like, "uh, well if you think it's all right."
"sure it is! i'll see you soon!"
i'm sitting there in the bathtub going, "hmm...maybe it's time to shower and get out now so i can tell mom jason's coming. and be ready and stuff..." but then i'm like, "shit dood i've got the phone RIGHT HERE. i could just call and tell her." and so i did. and now she's making chicken (uneatable by jason), mashed potatos, salad, and corn bread. but more importantly she laughed heartily and was disgusted by the fact that 1) i was calling from the bathtub and 2) i was still in the bathtub, having been in there for a good 2.5 hours.
this story serves to illustrate the fact that i am a lazy ingrate with fingers and toes indistinguishable from prunes and that my mom is a fucking saint to put up with me and my friends and cook pure tastiness all the time. but don't look too harshly on me because i'm taking her to see lord of the rings tomorrow, and that's got to be worth something, right?
*note: erica. dude. where's my ashton kutcher watching friend when i need her? where's your chicken farm, dude? dude, where's your squishy boob?
Posted by michele at 07:19 PM | Comments (10)
January 10, 2003
gangs of new york
this movie is so great! i mean really great. let me list the two top contending reasons as to why it's so great so you can understand (maybe)
i had NO idea it was three hours long.
and
ellie almost wet herself she was so excited.
and now let me explain.
i didn't know going in it was three hours long. i sat thru the whole thing and at no point was i either bored or uninterested. it was only when it was over and i was leaving and ellie asked what time it was that i noticed three fucking hours had gone by. that's amazing in my opinion. i mean, 3 hours is a damn long time really to have been so captivated by one movie. which means that the story is incredible, the acting is good (well daniel day-lewis, admittedly is better than just "good." he's stupendous), and the cinematography is compelling.
as to ellie leaking a little pee. near the end of the movie there's this part where...someone...uh has a piece of shrapnel in them and pulls it out and the blood just goes WHOOSH onto the other person's face and chest. and it was a little shocking and ellie went, "whoa!" pretty loudly in the semi-filled theatre, at which point everyone in the audience who didn't already want to kill us for giggling at inappropriate tension release times, really wanted to lynch us. and she was so embarressed about having been loud that she couldn't stop snickering, besides the fact that the blood thing was pretty funny (though realistic i'll grant you that, mr. scorcese). anyway so it was great and good to watch and fun at the same time.
afterwards talking about it in the borders parking lot we were having to lean against walls we were laughing so hard and some 2.5 pocket linters started interrogating us about what was so funny. which was hella funny in itself and set us off again in fresh gales.
all in all a memorable evening at the theatres. plus being a truly great, semi-historically fudged epic film with the heros and the bloodshed and the triumphing and the moral uncertainity and the girl.
Posted by michele at 11:09 AM | Comments (0)
the dangerous lives of alter boys
I just wrote this huge thing for this movie and now its fucking lost it. argh!
so. dangerous lives of alter boys. i was expecting it to be bad, because marina said it was awful. but it's actually quite good. and even though they don't exactly follow the book, they hold true to the spirit of it and with the added inclusion of animated scenes by todd mcfarlane (blade/spawn guy), it's actually rather impressive. and kieren culkin who i had written off as a shit child actor culkin can actually act. and do it well. and i found myself *liking* him. amazing. wonders. never ceasing. you get the picture.
for those of you who have not read the book/seen the movie. short plot with differences highlighted:
the movie follows the lives of 4 (5 in the book) catholic school boys (i'd say 10th grade maybe?) who are aspiring comic bok artists. and they make the comic which has lots of despicable things being done to the nun teachers, as well as lots of naked pretty girls. and themselves in their alter ego superhero characters (brakken, the muscle, major screw, and ass kicker.) 2 of the boys are really kind of superflous, as the story mainly centers aroung francis and tim. francis is in love with margie flynn. and tim kind of seems to be occasionally in love with francis. but anyway, it's about them growing up and pulling crazy pranks, and drinking, and having rather horrible home lives (francis' is much worse in the book as his father is constantly beating him. but tim's is bad only in the movie as his parents are constantly screaming at one another. and he's a very troubled teen because of it--which was true anyway, but mostly because of his over-educated status, the son of a university history professor who doesn't seem to believe in god. but does believe in william blake.) they are mainly tyrannized over by sister assumpta, (played by jodie foster) who has a prosthetic leg. so they decide to capture this mountain lion from the wild animal habitat and release it in school to scare peg-leg and to get out of classes. in the meantime, shit is hitting the fan between francis and tim because of the girlfriend of francis and because of tim's home life and whatnot. and we learn some disturbing things about margie and her brother. but the boys all come back together and go to get the cougar and during the rather ill-planned capture tim gets savaged by a second one and dies. and that's the end of the book and the movie.
the truly inspired thing, in my opinion, was the animated sequences featuring the boy's alter egos trying to rescue the kingdom of sorcerella (voiced by margie) from the evil peg leg. the action in the live and animated versions mesh perfectly and the interspersed animation provides a poignant counterpart to what is going on in the "real" lives of the boys. plus, as i said, the artwork is pretty damn great.
this movie is out on video now and i highly recommend the rental of it.
the book is by chriss fuhrman, and can be found here at amazon.
Posted by michele at 10:28 AM | Comments (10)
drumline
going on the fact that most of you probably have no idea what the hell this movie is about, i am first going to give a short plot synopsis. and then some pictures. and then a very short review involving a lot of laughing.
there's this black kid (nick cannon) who plays the snare drum and he's good but doesn't follow orders well. he gets a full ride to some college. where he plays the drum well but doesn't follow orders. then it comes out that he can't read sheet music and he gets kicked off the marching band. orlando jones has a lot to say about "musicianship." the girlfriend (zoe saldana) seems to see something in the kid that i really didn't. then thru hard work and the help of the guy who ratted him out and some tapes from his estranged father, he writes some damn fine music and practices writing music and then gets back on orlando's good side, though not back in the band. and they play his music at the annual hug marching band competition and then there's a drumline showdown which he does get to play in. and that's the end.
soooooo much time watching marching bands. so confused as to why pretty girl is interested in cocky, younger, smarmy guy. but some of the music is good. and basically if you can suspend your awareness that you're watching a movie about marching band tribulations with some poor acting and horrible writing which harps on "musicianship" it's pretty entertaining. also as a culture facet it's fantastic. who knew people were so into marching while playing instruments? who knew they had drumline showdowns? who knew there were sexy dance routines that went along with the music? mostly though it was amusing that i watched this and like mike with marina while she was here and i had watched how high another time i was with her last, and we think it's now a trend that we have to watch at least one really bad black comedy when we get together.
Posted by michele at 08:38 AM | Comments (3)
January 08, 2003
miki miki
if i say it twice it's like the chinese pandas which are always given the same name twice because apparently for pandas it's a sign of reverence and not stupidity. but for me, even with my vague connection thru chinese storytelling, really i'm just still stupid. dammit. why am i even still awake? (shut up, i know it's only 10.) look at that i'm a belligerent tired person. heh.
so. there's this thing called the miki scholarship which my alma mater gives out to people who want to go and study in japan for 9-12 months on any subject, with any sort of directional help that can be imagined and gotten, and with a stipend of what it would cost to attend UPS for the year. the trick is to 1)come up with something good and 2)apply. because no one applies. no one. it's fucking amazing. my senior year they were holding applications and they were lowering the standards and encouraging almost anyone to apply. did i apply? no. but i am thinking about applying now. it's my last chance to apply (you can only do it up to three years out of school, and since it's only an every other year thing, this is my last chance.) the thing is...i want to go to grad school. i do. but i also want to go to japan. and i also want to study something. and i want money. and i want...i want lots of things right. but let's be honest here, if i can come up with something really fucking good, and go to japan and complete an amazing research article, than my chances of getting into a good grad school are theoretically going to be exponentially increased, right? admittedly i don't think it will be that hard in the first place to get into the schools i was going to apply for. you only need a 2.0 for sfstate. and the university of london doesn't seem like the toughest nut to crack, or the only monkey in the barrel with an eyepatch and a cutlass. so i shouldn't have that many obstacles facing me. but still....japan...with money...and the support of the miki foundation (sizeable monetary and political backing)....
the reason i am writing about this at all is because i think i came up with a relatively good idea and i was going to ask for opinions. canvas my readers as it were, garner the poll. ahem.
you can do research in conjunction with the shikoku university in tokushima, which has a literature department with japanese lit studies and english lit studies. and what i was thinking was that i could gain access to some classrooms in order to see what the difference is in the two programs/how the lit stacks up against one another/what texts are considered the most important. in order to compare that against whether or not there has been a change(/how big the change is) since the american occupation of japan since the 40's. specifically though, i want to look into the propaganda writings pre-war and post-war aimed at children. because some of the stuff that i have read that was written pre-war is amazing. but then some of the stuff written post-war, in particular i am thinking of a tract leaflet handed out to visiting school children at this one temple in hiroshima that talks about the graves of the soldiers, women, and children (i wish i had it in front of me right now) is equally amazing. and i'm really more interested in the children's perspective on the war advocacy movement in conjunction with the post-war defeat-debris sweeping under the rug movement, while also being clear to look at both sides putting forth "informational" literature and what exactly each one is saying or what they are not saying. but i could tie it in with the university teachings and work, perhaps, under the tutelage/with the help of a professor. while also maybe visiting some elementary schools and the temples and such-like.
eh? mind you, obviously i would say it better than that. with more big words. and real words. and an impressive preliminary bibliography. and with the proper things capitalized.
Posted by michele at 10:16 PM | Comments (17)
January 07, 2003
atrophied brain/livid brain
the rest of my new year's pictures are now up on eloise. so you can go check them out. and i spent beaucoups amount of time on the phone yesterday with gene wherein i was most definitely not ooey gooey listening to the mellifluous and refusing to allow him to get back to his funner activities. in point of fact i had to wait like half hour for him to call me back when i first contacted him when he was busy being a host. sigh. (don't make sad face, gene! i'm not complaining, i really didn't care. =) uhhh yeah so i got neck cricks yesterday attempting to learn how to upload pictures myself directly to eloise and when that failed i got inducted into fun computer nerd realm where gene told me what to type in creepy black screen with the weird words and the symbols and i sent pictures thru the ether (who knows how *that* works) to CH for him to get to and put up for me. so cool! i felt, briefly, like a hacker. with absolutely, mind you, no idea what i was hacking or how i was doing it. prompt! hash! mput! hmmm don't laugh. i know i wasn't actually haxoring. you know how i can tell? i can't even write 4aXor correctly. i am in fact merely a sad loser whose brief brush with glory and fame on the start: run: command menu of ms dos prompt (old skool) created delusions of grandeur with johnny lee miller/angelina jolie epic showdown type action. ha ha ha! supposedly *real* hackers hate that movie. jacob told me that once. than again, other than all the cool things i know of that jacob has done, i've never really thought of him as a hacker. and those things, secret things, which he has done...dunno if those really count. maybe jacob is a fraud like me? j/k jacob. i'm sure you're the og gangsta of the underground code world.
sooooo i've been wondering. which as you can tell, takes up all my time and makes it impossible for me to create actual posts cause the brain is too busy being with the thinking instead of the type-gushing. you know how i've got all these weird idiosyncratic paranoias about posting? the whole counter thing? and the irritation at sean's blog being funnier than mine? and the possibility of kristen appreciating someone else's blog and finding it more interesting than mine? right well. ok. due to the fact that locust is still on a different fucking time zone, i've almost gotten over the counter thing. and due to kristen ego-pumping me today i know that i am the bestest funniest cutest thing ever. and so my issue now is: if sean's blog was funniest cause it didn't have all the in-jokes and it was updated so infrequently--now that he updates all the time and has more in-jokes and i have been a lousy updater with, uh, still primarily texts composed of in-jokes--could it be true that now i am funnier than sean? was that question in itself really funny? oh ho ho ho ho, i think it was. goddammit. sean is still way funnier than me. and i hate that counter! and kristen is full of ego boosting manure! huff huff huff.
(and michele slides back into inert self-disgust.)
Posted by michele at 02:00 PM | Comments (27)
January 05, 2003
pizza rice...and baby?
i'm working on the pictures from the dinner party, more from new year's, and sat night at 26 mix. don't mind me. i collapsed from exhaustion after taking marina to the airport and so i didn't really manage to upload more pretty fun pictures. and anyway, most of you saw them yesterday. so whatever. in the meantime, here is a picture of a certain miss lindsay baynes which i received today (btw she will be visiting this month, bf in tow.) tagline is: "oops. we're getting behind. someone down here better start popping them out daaammmn quick."
and jacob. i'm sorry i changed the *mood* lighting to purple. i was enjoying myself to much. but it looked so purty. i couldn't help it.
Posted by michele at 10:19 PM | Comments (5)
January 02, 2003
NY'sE pictures
ok so i know gene wants to compile these all in one place...but i'm not sure how else to get them from me to you gene. so i'm putting them here and you can either snag them from here....or.....bring a zip disk and we can try to download my scans or something. i can't email them because the file would be too big for my puny little email to handle and sooooo anyway...i'm just putting them up here....for now...whatevs yo.
they're not in any particular order, and they're only half-assedly labeled. and there's also another half roll of them that i'm going to have later. plus nuala's pictures...maybe she'll give me some of those bad boys. =)
Jason and Marina
Jason and Kristen
attacking the fire chief
Nuala, Marina, Erica, Jolie
burning anakin
Brian, Kim, Marina
sigma nudes 1
sigma nudes 2
marina, brian, nuala
Dustin, Erica, and Jolie.
Erica, Jolie, and Emily
Gene and Marc
Kristen, Nuala, and Kim
Nuala, Marc, and Jason.
sex bed
sexbed 2
sexbed 3
preparing the conflagration.
conflagration.
crowd
Posted by michele at 10:07 PM | Comments (5)
like mike
ha! little bow wow! ah shit dood. i think this is worth watching just for the commentary featuring the director, "bow", and jonathan lipsinisskkkiiiwheee.
otherwise, it's just Bad. not even good bad really.
lot of kids who can't really act. lots of pro basketball players who can't really act.
cheesy ending. SUPER cheesy with the added addition of 2 for 1 special orphan adoption.
bad writing. stupid direction. no interesting filming techniques. too much basketball games.
why did i watch this? why not i say. and also i blame it on marina. though...it was admittedly me who said, "let's see like mike! hwee!" and her that said, "ah man."
Posted by michele at 12:13 PM | Comments (0)
maid in manhattan and two weeks notice
these two movies were practically the same movie which is why they are getting the same entry.
1) both set in manhattan
2) both with a really rich guy and a (relatively) poor woman
3) both women with "causes"
4) both movies featuring norah jones music (though two weeks notice actually had her cameoing)
5) both cheesy romances with really no redeeming qualities.
honestly i liked main in manhattan slightly more. it actually had more of a plot. sad, huh? and i don't even really like jlo whereas i do like sandra bullock. heh.
so these movies primarily sucked based on the fact that they were kind of degrading to women. though 2 weeks was also not very shining the light positive on men either when the example was just hugh grant's character (and his driver was pretty shitty too. being all with the speech about knowing how to work the women but then revealing that he still lived at home and was under his momma's thumb). maid was a little better since jlo's portrayal of a single mother was actually pretty good and her ability to cut ralph fiennes down on some racial issues was well delivered. and she had a job and was getting a promotion and kept and expanded the job even after marrying the rich guy so that was a little bit better at showing a positive role model i guess. 2 weeks on the other hand, even though bullock's character went to harvard law, she constantly needed saving. there's this one scene where she has to go to the bathroom (it's dumb, disgusting, and unnecessary) and he carries her to this mobile home (they're on the freeway) and convinces its occupants to let her use it. and then they lose thier car and he has to call for a helicopter to come pick them up.
the one thing i did like about 2 weeks (and this totally just makes me a romantic) was this one scene where they're in a restaurant and first hugh grant spoons all the ice out of his water and into her cup, then she takes all the wierd crunchy stuff off the top of his salad and puts it on hers and he takes all the radishes off her salad and puts them on his. they do all of this without even thinking about it. it's just something that has become ingrained because of how close they have become and it's adorable. and it's perfect. the timing is right on. and at the end her going, "radish! radish!" cause there's one left on the plate and him removing it for her is just so cute. oh man.
the one last thing that is the same about the movies is that it's the man who has to change for the woman. at the end of both, the men have screwed up thier chances for love (ralph fiennes for not accepting the maid when it's revealed that she isn't some high class society dame and hugh grant for going back on a promise not to destroy this landmark building) and the men have to find the woman again and grovel and be re-accepted. which....is all well and good i guess. except for how it's so unlikely and also so trite. what, it's always that the woman has some convictions or something and the man has to alter his perception of things to fall in line? or it just doesn't really show either party to be realistic or well-adjusted. why doesn't the guy just find some woman who hasn't lied to him about their status in society or some other woman who isn't so quirky and demanding? why don't the women find men who automatically accept them no matter what or who don't back out of promises or forget about trust?
romantic comedy, yes. fun, yes. good morals? noooooooo.
rentals. both of them. really.
Posted by michele at 12:08 PM | Comments (0)
(knock knock) SEX! come in.
so not once. NOT ONCE did i use the bathroom in the frat house. of this fact i am inordinately pleased. you have no idea. even though admittedly brian did clean the bathroom like a mofo and it looked hella better than the other time i spent time in the fratty frat, but still. frat pisser. not something i wanted to step into willingly. possibly now you are asking, "well michele if you didn't use the bathroom, where did you go?" but the thing is see that i didn't go at all. which comes, i think, from not drinking anything. and that is probably enough information about the michele bowel movements.
that party was really fun! i was kind of surprised honestly. considering how irritated i was both before the party and then at the beginning of the party with all the fucking wierdos that were there. but then things evened out. and i was like, hey naked hippies, all right. how ya doing, you goth people? ah, people with no fashion sense, what's up? it was like a bizarre mix that actually worked due in large part, perhaps, to the complete non-intermingling of groups. fascinating.
i actually took a shitload of pictures. but not with a digital camera, (gene), so i can't send them for eloise. and i am not at home (more sad for me) so i can't scan the ones i did take yet. but i will. oh yes. and then you can all see them. whether they are on eloise or here or both or something.
speaking of me being not at home. being at work FUCKING SUCKS. not only am i a)sick but b)i left marina at home alone and c)i'm tired! whine whine! shiiiiiit. and i have to be here tomorrow too?! suckity SUCKING.
heh. bah.
brian: thank you soooo SOOOOO much for letting us have the party there! you are so great! and i cannot believe i forgot to ask yesterday when i talked to you if you needed help cleaning up. i hope it wasn't too messy and everything was fine and umm yeah.
and thanks to gene too for the bonfire idea, which was fucking super sweet. and handling the music and making sure things ran smoothly. thank you thank you!
and thank you to everbody else for drinking the noxiousness and eating the fruit. in one fell swoop i cut my liquor collection in half there. hell yeah. good on me.
oh and thank you to erica, marina, kim, nuala, kristen, brian, and jason who i kissed at midnight because in one feel swoop you increased my kissing experience (able to count on one finger) by 7 (able to count on two hands!). even though, yeah it didn't really count. and doesn't seriously make me eligible for the incest court. which is fine since i worked really hard at never getting on that thing in high school and wouldn't particularly want to slip up now. =P
Posted by michele at 11:49 AM | Comments (4)
tracy, tracy
happy birthday, tracy!
(sorry for the lateness. i have totally not been updating here.)
i tried to find this picture i have of you from baseball (the one i sent you thru ucb mail). but i can't find my copy! sad. so....no picture for now. =( but happy birthday anyway! i hope you had fun at your party. i had fun. that sushi was good and vegan cake is fucking amazing for something with no butter or eggs. i was blown away. smileys.
love,
michele
Posted by michele at 12:07 AM | Comments (12)
January 01, 2003
christmas
i know it's taken me forever to write about this. but i've been sooo busy. christmas was good. there was a lot of shit going on while at the same time nothing was going on at all there was just so many people around constantly that it seemed like a constant chaos. so but what do i really have to talk about in relation to christmas?
welll.....candy cane communication devices for one. see one of my uncles (the eldest) got very drunk and decided that a candy cane hooked around his ear was really a walkie talkie and was contacting people left and right and hollering things like, "dave to adam! come in adam! can you hear me all right?" to which my brother would invariably reply something along the lines of, "what's that dave? you're breaking up. i think there may be a crack in your earpiece." and sure enough broken candy cane bits would in fact be causing some spillage for the cellophane wrapper.
my cousin kevin got lost, mainly based on the fact that WE LEFT HIM BEHIND at the ice rink. the guilt i felt at the moment when his mom said, "where's kevin?" while we were all sitting down for dinner....ah shit, dood. it was practically heart-wrenching. i was like, "ah kevin? he's .....he's.....oh holy crap. we forgot him." "you what?" she said. "we forgot him. at the ice rink.. uh....oops." 5 minutes later amidst the clatter of dishes and people laughing and talking and still no kevin in sight, i had to stand up, put all my outer garments back on and disappear back into the fucking blizzard (all right i'm exaggerating) with a muttered, "we left kevin!" i went to look for him for the next hour. admittedly, not without help. as i hadn't made it more then like 30 feet before katherine came running out behind me calling that mary was coming and we all walked all over sunriver yelling for kevin. my brother, (after eating dinner) came out and putted around on the motorbike on the golf course looking for him too. everytime katherine and i would be like, "well i bet he's made it back NOW." and we'd go back to the house and walk in and ask if he was back yet and they would all look at us and go "nope, haven't seen him." and we'd go "shit!" and go back outside. back and forth and thru the woods and down the fairway and back up the street and around the roundabout and to the village and back from the village spread out going different ways. i even went in the men's bathroom to check if he had fallen and hit his head on the edge of the urinal and was unconscious and bleeding or something. but no. no. just lost and wandering somewhere else. as we found out when we did eventually find his NINETEEN year old ass. sheesh. it's a sad day when someone who's almost 20 can't find their way in out of the cold.
we went drinking to the deschutes brewery in bend. where adam and jeff got some really cool growlers of mirror pond. and james once again brought up my webpage in ordinary conversation. james. you just....you just don't speak about the webpage. i don't know what it is. but...even though i write here and am all out in the open and the like. it's not as if i want people to be reading it necessarily. or....at least not people i don't know. though i was pretty pleased that katherine called it "funny." hee. katherine thinks i'm funny. but back to the james thing. ok once he was saying something to adam about the webpage and i was like, "aaaah shut up!" because adam doesn't read the webpage and i don't really want him reading it. i'm still not sure how i feel about you relatives reading it. especially porn. you shouldn't be reading porn. that just ain't right. i'm not really explaining myself very well here. it could be because i'm tired. blech. new year's sleepiness. but more about that later i guess cause i've got to go entertain the marina houseguest now. =)
quick things though:
i got this wobbly head piggy thing from jeff in my stocking. that was sweet.
i got the same necklace that doug gave me as a first year anniversary present from my mother for christmas. talk about ironic.
we played a drinking game with a christmas story. which would have been more fun if i was more awake at the time.
i was a fashion designer briefly.
i had a lot of fun.
i ice-skated.
i helped pick out the tree.
i watched bootmen. don't ask.
Posted by michele at 09:10 PM | Comments (3)