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May 31, 2003
rhett butler would say
frankly my dears it seems vaguely depressing to be on this thing on a friday night when you're young. wouldn't it be more fun to be out somewhere still doing something? perhaps with someone to someone by someone? and kristen thinks my self image isn't affected. piffle.
take your damn bowling pictures.
p.s. hella fun. and kati v--we are totally going mini golfing.
Posted by michele at 12:50 AM | Comments (7)
May 30, 2003
boy say ew
sometimes i marvel at the things i write about on this here blog. sometimes i'm shocked at how honest i can be to an internet full of strangers and also even to my own friends. i'm 24 years old and a couple days ago, for the first time in my menstruating life, i wore a tampon.
the whole day my entire body was concentrated on my vaginal passage. the whole day i was concerned that it was either falling out or the string was going to get sucked inside. i was convinced that it was going to cause toxic shock syndrome as the outside of the box promised it might. i had no idea what toxic shock would feel like but decided it might involve the cramping angryness of my pelvic muscles that wanted to push push push that cotton ball right out.
of course when i finally did take it out i came to the swift realization that nothing other than severe tugging of the safety line would dislodge it and that the inner shelf was just not big enough for it to pass through in comfort and ease. which i suppose really is the whole point.
how does the moronic adage that beauty is pain apply here? how can something so uncomfortable which didn't make me feel even slightly more beautiful really be considered an indispensable item to the women of today? fuck it for a lark anyway, give me an anal dildo a la 'carrie's story' any day. seriously though, i'm curious what THAT feels like now. it can't possibly be good.
Posted by michele at 12:15 PM | Comments (15)
poop!
less than cody cute.
Posted by michele at 08:36 AM | Comments (3)
May 29, 2003
tard baseball
there were hardly enough pictures of baseball from tuesday that came out to put up on eloise. but i decided that the one of jacob and dianna on the climbing jungle gym thing made it all worth while.
Posted by michele at 09:23 PM | Comments (0)
delta fun time
i managed to get the pictures of the delta up even with the issues of the power being out at ward st hampering my connection to eloise. i am still amazed at how well these pictures came out with such a shitty disposable camera. no pictures of baseball yet as it took fucking forever to scan all these and then i went to bed. but soon. soooooon....baseball.....baseball next week again on tuesday peeps? same time same place? new bats possibly for outfielding new rules? i'm all over that shit.
Posted by michele at 08:56 AM | Comments (2)
May 27, 2003
why michele should never have children or be around children
small. ridiculously cute girl with blond braids: why do you have mexican writing on your leg?
me: (stunned silence)....uhhh...what?
her: why do you have mexican writing on your leg?
me: i......don't.
erica off on the sidelines: michele! fer god's sake. tell her what language it is.
me: but did you hear what she SAID?
erica: (making shooing motions.)
me: it's actually in chinese.
little girl: i went to a chinese restaurant.
michele: oh yeah? what's your favorite kind of chinese food?
her: i like the beef.
me: beef is good.
her: and the broccili.
me: (stunned silence)...really? i don't much like vegetables. best to avoid them.
her: (small and confused pursed lips) my brother likes the same.
me: well all right then.
at this point i think she finally noticed my desperate need to escape before i said something else wrong and she wandered off. it's funny because i never know what to say to small people. i hate treating them like children even though they are. but you always get in trouble for treating them nonchalantly. except for how in my experience working in summer school programs they fucking love you and swarm you every goddamn day if you treat them with sarcasm and irony and backhanded joint giggling. of course that could have been due to the popsicles i was always giving them.
Posted by michele at 10:40 PM | Comments (6)
May 23, 2003
fuck with the system
this, i think we should do this, and super freaks it,
Television Producer
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reply to: lklein@nfcom.com
Date: 2003-05-23, 11:53AM
Internship for TV Producer available as soon as you can start. Produce a 13-session TV series (30 minute shows) on finances to air on public access television. You are the boss—hire interns (unpaid) to be camera people, lighting, and whatever else you need. You don’t need to know about finances—we will provide scripting. Do this project as quickly as you like—fixed fee $1,000. College seniors in film/tv production major okay. Location is Walnut Creek, California. Send resume to lk@nfcom.com
super freaks do finance. i think it has potential. i can just see jason on the slide now...
Posted by michele at 12:36 PM | Comments (5)
May 21, 2003
john = gross
my cousin john has a sick sense of humor, just so we're clear. you know how i often take the joke one step too far? he always tops me on that. so anyway, john sent me this forward having to do with instant messaging cybersex. it's partially funny and then partially gross i'm only posting two of them because it went downhill from there, but if you really care i can send you the other ones--just ask. (note: out of repercussion-fear, i just went and changed all the user names.)
BN: Baby, I been havin a tough night so treat me nice aight?
BS: Aight.
BN: Slip out of those pants baby, yeah.
BS: I slip out of my pants, just for you, BN.
BN: Oh yeah, aight. Aight, I put on my robe and wizard hat.
BS: Oh, I like to play dress up.
BN: Me too baby.
BS: I kiss you softly on your chest.
BN: I cast Lvl. 3 Eroticism. You turn into a real beautiful woman.
BS: Hey...
BN: I meditate to regain my mana, before casting Lvl. 8 Cock of the Infinite.
BS: Funny I still don't see it.
BN: I spend my mana reserves to cast Mighty Fuck of the Beyondness.
BS: You are the worst cyber partner ever. This is ridiculous.
BN: Don't fuck with me bitch, I'm the mightiest sorcerer of the lands.
BN: I steal yo soul and cast Lightning Lvl. 1,000,000 Your body explodes into a fine bloody mist, because you are only a Lvl. 2 Druid.
BS: Don't ever message me again you piece of shit.
BN: Robots are trying to drill my brain but my lightning shield inflicts DOA attack, leaving the robots as flaming piles of metal.
BN: King Arthur congratulates me for destroying Dr. Robotnik's evil army of Robot Socialist Republics. The cold war ends. Reagan steals my accomplishments and makes like it was cause of him.
BN: You still there baby? I think it's getting hard now.
BN: Baby?
-------------------
BN: Ok baby, we got to hurry, I don't know how long I can keep it ready for you.
JG: thats ok. ok i'm a japanese schoolgirl, what r u.
BN: A Rhinocerus. Well, hung like one, thats for sure.
JG: haha, ok lets go.
JG: i put my hand through ur hair, and kiss u on the neck.
BN: I stomp the ground, and snort, to alert you that you are in my
breeding territory.
JG: haha, ok, u know that turns me on.
JG: i start unbuttoning ur shirt.
BN: Rhinoceruses don't wear shirts.
JG: No, ur not really a Rhinocerus silly, it's just part of the game.
BN: Rhinoceruses don't play games. They fucking charge your ass.
JG: stop, cmon be serious.
BN: It doesn't get any more serious than a Rhinocerus about to charge your ass.
BN: I stomp my feet, the dust stirs around my tough skinned feet.
JG: thats it.
BN: Nostrils flaring, I lower my head. My horn, like some phallic symbol of my potent virility, is the last thing you see as skulls collide and mine remains the victor. You are now a bloody red ragdoll suspended in the air on my mighty horn.
BN: Goddam am I hard now.
Posted by michele at 11:02 AM | Comments (3)
May 20, 2003
only a measly 3
not terribly exciting but i put up my pictures from the matrix premiere. there's only 3. however one of them is this:
oh yes. that is my hand strung matrix beaded underwear. i can spell, you know.
Posted by michele at 10:30 PM | Comments (2)
on cowslips and meadow muffins
dear joss whedon,
thank you for bringing back the funny. you could have done that favor for us months ago, but i will defer from casting stones at this time.
furthermore, thank you for your jackass ending. poop on you for not campaigning till you won a 2 hour finale. i think that is shit. this one hour nonsense is fuck. possibly it's not though as i am willing to admit: what else could you do? banter more? kill more people needlessly? fight longer? maybe the one hour was a blessing. certainly hearing giles utter the phrase, "now i'm a wounded dwarf with the mystical strength of a doiley," ranks right up there with, "put your back into it! a watcher scoffs at gravity." (from the cheese episode).
7 years and a lot of good lines later, i just want to say good-bye. i was vaguely troubled earlier this evening as i felt you were going out in my immediate vicinity not with a party or a bang but a quiet whisper as i watched alone in my room. but now i am neither happy nor sad to be left. merely satisfied and complete with your very non-conclusionary conclusion, you bastard. i reserve the right to be angry later when i change my mind and decide you're a tricky fellow with hidden depths of pure sneakery. after all, who made you the king of bob?
bring on your next show and try to make it last longer than firefly. and when it doesn't, please do not again disperse the characters to play the evil nemesiseseseses on any of your other shows. that just ain't right. expand those horizons, joss--hire me. all right, not really. but hire me anyway.
love,
michele
Posted by michele at 10:25 PM | Comments (1)
May 19, 2003
frosh
poor jacob and his ennui. i feel sad, since i did semi-cool things this weekend and then did not blog about it so how would he know i had done it? admittedly it's not that cool. it's just the UPS entire freshman history in pictures has been uploaded to eloise. and that took some doing, let me tell you. sooo many pictures.
you have to be a member to view them though because i put them in 1998, so sign in and view away if you so wish. and admittedly most of you prob don't care not having going to UPS, but whatever. suck it i say. it's not all about you. apparently it's all about me.
i actually mostly did these for jason's sake because he doesn't really own any pictures from our entire UPS experience other than the ones i gave him and he likes to save all of these on his computer (why he doesn't just shutterfly them is beyond me). anyway, speaking of jason so there's this one picture on one of the yearbook pages that is so brilliant i almost wet myself upon viewing it again.
in said picture jason was attempting to tell his brother josh how to tie a tie over the phone. as the conversation progressed jason became more and more laughing-irritated, as we all surreptitiously listened in from the other room and attempted to control the erupting giggles. constant repetition of, "no! the shiny side! shiny! fold the shiny side! no, goddammit! shiny!"
if memory serves jason's dad came home at that point and helped fix the tie. but possibly he was there all along and also didn't know how to create a proper shiny side fold. whatever, the point is--here's looking at the male contingent of jason's family. the dad for producing jason, one of the best people i know, and josh, the worst filmographer i've ever had the pleasure of never viewing anything by. one of whom can't tie a tie and one of whom can't explain how to tie a tie. but they all muddle through in the end. and that's what counts.
Posted by michele at 08:48 AM | Comments (7)
May 16, 2003
goats goats goats GOATS!
the berkeley hill grass and garbage eating goats are back!
i love those goats. there seems to be more of them in more colors than i remember from last year. oh goats. wacky goats.
it's weird to think that it's been a whole year since the last time the goats started appearing in the hills. where does the time go? i measure it in goats.
Posted by michele at 08:59 AM | Comments (4)
May 14, 2003
ix!
at this point i'm basically incoherent from internally screaming matrix! all day but here goes.
at this time at this time at THIS TIME right now! i'm going to go to the theatre and sit around for 4.5 hours JUST TO BE IN LINE to see the MATRIX. and you know what? waiting in line is a huge part of the experience and my experience is going to be HUGE! plus i have matrix underwear! yes!
ix ix! ma! tr! ix! matrix, matrix! WHOOOOOOO!!!!
Posted by michele at 05:58 PM | Comments (17)
tr!
this time tomorrow i will have already seen matrix2 and will be complaining about how tired i am!
Posted by michele at 08:36 AM | Comments (1)
May 13, 2003
ma!
this time tomorrow i will be waiting in line to see matrix2!
Posted by michele at 09:55 PM | Comments (0)
May 12, 2003
mooooooo
mainly i just like the cow who goes "moo."
(click to enlarge)
Posted by michele at 05:02 PM | Comments (8)
May 11, 2003
animatrix
did you all know about this already? cause i certainly didn't. but it looks fucking sweet, i have to say. comes out june 3rd and can be pre-ordered at amazon.
Posted by michele at 11:39 AM | Comments (9)
May 09, 2003
crimps and cramps
"i think what you have is allergy induced asthma,...probably."
by far not the most comforting thing you want your doctor to mumble at you in a tone of unconcern and insincerity. godfuckingdammit.
so i went to the doctor this morning. had an 8:30am appt. what time was i seen? 9:15? oh yes, i think so. fuckers.
and then and THEN she wouldn't believe that i cough wet. she said my lungs were clear. CLEAR. MY lungs. load of SHIT.
allergy induced asthma, my ASS.
on the other hand i got what is quite possibly the most spiffed out inhaler ever. also extremely aerodynamic.
i'm thinking i could use it as a mini space ship or skipping stone. both of which start SS. i think i might be onto something there,...probably.
in other news. i might be laid off this summer due to the complete lack of money gray davis has allocated for education in this state. yup. laid off. gone are my worries over how to say i want to quit. i can now look for a new job under the full grace of authority based on my soon to be lack of job.
this does however put a crimp in my whole possibly moving to berkeley plans. should i move to berkeley without a sure job? will erica wait much longer before taking a 1 bedroom place somewhere? it's a dilemma. i kind of want to move to berkeley. i hate commuting. i make enough money to pay rent somewhere pretty nice. it's not a bad plan to move there. but now i need to find a new job IN berkeley for it to make sense. i want to live here. or here. or here
Posted by michele at 07:12 PM | Comments (0)
May 06, 2003
college and the like
that picture/story of doug's of anderson made me long for pictures of anderson on my page. aside from the one already here. so i went and looked thru all my college photos and only found like 2 of anderson. i thought i had more than that. but then i became so fascinated by all the other pictures that i thought i would offer a sampling. i would do more but it's fucking late and i'm tired. so you get a whirlwind tour of the college years of me, erica, jacob, doug, jason, and a lot of people you don't know. although you know some of the other ones maybe (jolie, marina, jenny, etc. some of you.) but there aren't pictures of them yet. i'll get there. and i put them all in 2003 because people can't view the older stuff if they aren't signed in. and also then i'd have to separate the four years into single years and that's too difficult for me to do this late at night. (but i can fix it if you want, gene. later. after sleeping.)
the five pictures you can look at now:
#1 for some reason, possibly because i had this huge stereo, people were always in my room lip synching freshman year. mainly sam and i would sing along to aqua's barbie girl. no joke. but please notice jacob's beard. good memories.
#2 so young! and i had permed hair! doug took this picture. you can tell because it's black and white. and he had the nicest camera out of all us little wee freshpeople.
#3 ha ha ha! first off, erica and i are good and bad angels and we made our own wings. i did awful things to my hair, but hey, what else is new. it hasn't all fallen out yet. pretty much every article of clothing doug is wearing was mine. that's not true. just the jacket and the pants. the pants which were then given to gene. and i have no idea where they are now. and i think kristen owns the jacket now. and jacob's ninja costume was brought back by me from hong kong. really it's just pajamas, but shh don't tell.
#4 that pippi longstocking hair was some of my finest work i tell you. i have no idea what the name of the band was at this point. but it was junior year at the on campus concert. and anderson is back there playing drums even though you can't see him.
#5 the man, the marvel himself. well....after some slight tampering by erica and i. the poor boy. somehow he walked in the door and we immediately covered him in pink things. he then ate some cake and left. possibly this was the last time i saw him. i can't remember. but if so, no wonder he refuses to come visit us.
Posted by michele at 11:07 PM | Comments (3)
gene, you dirty rotten bastard
i could cheerfully kill you. now if for any reason you die in the immediate future, say at your weird little brain donation test today on the 5th floor, then i retract that statement. but as it stands right this second, you are my new personal nightmare.
let me explain to all of you viewers at home.
today i waited till THREE 'O CLOCK so i could have lunch with gene before his volunteer scalping. i was starving and miserable. and then he WALKED RIGHT INTO MY OFFICE IN FRONT OF THE CO-BOSS. inhuman shriek! i was so embarrassed because i knew that as soon as i came back from eating, the probing questions would descend. but flustered and blushing i dragged gene out into the hallway and ran away. he was mondo disappointed that i wasn't wearing a button up shirt that we could carefully misalign one button and send me back to work in. i cursed his name and his parentage.
coming back to my office after the 25 minutes spent outdoors in the freezing cold. i managed to convince him to let me walk back in by myself and cautiously i went back to my office where the co-boss was lying in wait. before i even managed to set my stuff back down, gene pops his head in the door and says, "you know what, how about i call you before monday?" and i, furiously shooting eyeball daggers said, "sure," underneath my breath adding several screaming insults. co-boss snickered at me and then asked, "how good of a friend is he? like a friend or a friend?" what is this, middle school?
at the same time delightful and horrifying, such went my afternoon. all of this compounded by the fact that my dating habits were apparently discussed at a keg party in concord last night. while i wonder why on earth this would be a topic of discussion as it's quite possibly one of the most boring subject matters with a serious lack of examples on which to pull from, i am at turns fascinated, appalled, and rabidly curious.
Posted by michele at 03:55 PM | Comments (4)
May 05, 2003
the lizzie mcguire movie
commence scoffing. i can so see all of you going to yourselves, "oh no. did she really go to see that? shit no, say it ain't so. who would pay to watch a movie with hilary duff. i don't even know the name of that girl but because i am michele's interior self-projection monologue onto all her friends, i know the name because _I_ saw the movie. oh shit no, say it ain't so."
totally saw that movie. i said to myself, "self, cut out your jibber jabbering. so what that both nuala and erica, your only two hopes for company on this fool expedition, denied you. stridently. so what? don't let them get you down, self. let's go! hey ho!" and then i went to see it. not only that but due to my mother's desire to procrastinate doing her homework, i got her to go AND pay for it. sch-weet. she then got completely busted by a fifth grade BOY who she used to teach at hidden valley. color her mondo-embarressed. it was adorable. he came up all shy and was like, "hi mrs. G." and then ran away again. i laughed so hard i busted a gut. i then attempted to steal the plastic sticky ad for xmen 2 off the window. failure. defeat. sad.
but enough about me. this movie sucked ass. i can't even tell you. wait, yes i can. there was this little cartoon feature. interspersed at all the important moments. to highlight stupid lizzie mcguire's state of mind. it was awful.
second, you know how in the previews, the italian singer boy seems all great and hot stuff. THIS IS NOT SO. he is, in fact, a skeezy lying sleazebag. within 5 minutes of meeting him it is PATENTLY obvious that he is lying thru his teeth. but does lizzie mcguire notice this? oh nooooooooo. plus within 5 minutes of watching her best friend, gordon, you are clear on the fact that he is a stand up kind of fellow of the best sort and completely in love with her while being utterly adorable. for an 8th grader. a-hem.
everything ends up all right in the end, there's a concert. the bad boy gets his flat singing voice due. lizzie mcguire and the italian singing girl who looks exactly like her but with brown hair wow the crowds. the parents cheer along. even the little snake in the grass brother has an all right time. and then fireworks and she kisses the best friend. ONCE. NOT ENOUGH. and he says, HE SAYS, "thanks..." and she says, 'you're welcome." and michele the 24 year old gives up on pretending to be 8, stands up in the audience and demands some serious making out and slow fade on the two of them alone in bed. come ON people. kiddie porn, please. corn pone. sheesh.
the one highlight for me, (it's going to come back to the family guy, wait for it. wait for it), is that alex borstein who does a lot of the writing and a LOT of the female voices on family guy plays lizzie's mom. i enjoyed that.
yes that is a large wheel of cheese.
my advice? don't see this movie. not that any of you were going to. as was made obvious when no one would go see it with me. =P
Posted by michele at 10:17 AM | Comments (55)
May 03, 2003
kristen's pictures
kristen's coachella pictures are now up on eloise.
Posted by michele at 09:49 PM | Comments (2)
misterrogers
somehow, someway, this asteroid is going to divert from its orbit and crash into california. damn you, you scary ass sick and twisted man!
there's a clip in family guy (i know it's all i watch lately) where mr. rogers is peering thru binoculars into the house next door and this woman is undressing and he says, "hellloooo neighbor. oooooh uhhhhhhhh ooooh..." at this moment all my fears are justified. even though i'm pretty sure that it's seth green (darling) doing the voice.
Posted by michele at 11:03 AM | Comments (1)
May 02, 2003
body language
do words have power?
i have this huge mental disorder against writing anything in free air because of the possibility of some authority being able to see it, track it to me, and hurt me in some unimaginably painful way. so i have to quickly erase anything i write with my finger in the air or on a surface with the flat of my palm. fear lingers, but it's slightly more manageable.
which makes it strange that i feel writing with a pen is perfectly ok.
tonight i went to the movies and saw xmen and wrote notes all over my left arm, hand, and right leg. my body is crawling with information and quotes. but rather than fear at the apparent blatancy of it as a provocative act to the unknown, unnamed authority; i view it as something beautiful. something which grants me power because it is my words on my body and i control them.
i used to believe in a lot of things that i no longer express; but memory awakens and lingers. i question now whether in some small measure my tattoos of neko and mizu are part of a will i can now impose. if i cover the rest of my body in the writing of symbols, what could they/i not become? will the words twine and curve with the essence of the power they cannot help but express? how is it that the blurred and scribbled, barely legible, word images and associations on my arm make it so much more magnetically intricate?
my eye is drawn in and i can feel myself falling.
Posted by michele at 09:58 PM | Comments (0)
x-men 2 or x2
xmenxmenxmen! how do i love thee? they art innumerable.
fyi: do not read this if you have not seen the movie and don't want anything spoiled. i'm serious. i am going to give away shit like you wouldn't believe. i want to say too here at the start that i am lackluster fan of the comics. i would like to be more of a fan, but i never read them as a kid. i admit that. there's TONS of shit that i know nothing about and if any of my comments offend on the basis of against the holy bible of the original comics, i apologize. know that i am basing pretty much everything i say solely on my enjoyment of the movies as entities unto themselves.
this movie fucking rocks my world. the joy of watching it is incalculable. you know how the first one is really good and enjoyable and funny and action-packed? this one surpasses it in every single way imaginable. well except for the opening credits. they suck.
i wrote notes all over my body, so here are my impressions of the movie.
snafu pluralized:
why does nightcrawler go from being pale skinned to his normal blue color in the beginning? how does that work? totally unexplained.
why do they not state who he is sooner. it was vaguely confusing. perhaps it wouldn't be for someone who's read all the comics or was more prepped before seeing the movie. but i thought for a while he was supposed to be beast which made me really mad since he wasn't covered in fur. and some guy next to me thought so too. but maybe we are just dumb. certainly his introduction of himself (alan cumming with his beautiful faked german accent) "my name is kurt wagner. but in the munich circus i was known as the incredible nightcrawler!" wolverine: "save it." curt, as always. ah hugh jackman.
what the fuck is up with wolverine's hair? i feel it should stay in the wolverine style no matter what he is doing or even if he is soaking wet (which he isn't at any point, although wouldn't it be nice if he was?) but instead it's only perfect at the very beginning and then at the very end. the rest of the time it's all messed. people use more styling products. live up to your image. you've got a reputation to maintain here.
the folder given to the president at the end by rogue/xavier is not the same in two shots. first it's opened and has merely a white paper on top and a staple in the corner. next it is closed and has a blue cover but no one closed it. heh. a small point but still.
in the cartoon i accepted the fact that storm and jean gray were just as good/powerful/able to take care of themselves as the men. in the movie versions i have a harder time of believing it, even though the two of them are the main heros in this movie. at the very beginning when they're sent off by themselves in the jet to retrieve the assassin (nightcrawler). i'm like, 'what are you doing? they can't handle this by themselves. they're just little girls!' and true, they do handle it. but it seems slightly less plausible. as if they just got lucky or something. wierd.
cyclops is hardly in this movie. and when he is in it. all he does is cry like a baby because jean left him and he didn't protect her, she protected him. baby. but seriously. he gets captured and isn't seen for like an hour and a half. it's impressive how little of a role he has. same goes for rogue. though she's visible in the movie more. iceman (bobbie drake) has a larger role. and speaking of him.
what the fuck is up with the drake family? i'm sure, mind you, that this is drawn on some comic book plot line or what have you. but they're his parents and his brother. who DOES that? who turns in family to the cops like that just because they're mutants? that's just plain silly. that kind of attitude is so prevalent in xmen but at the same time it seems just so unrealistic.
the movie starts off with professor xavier's voice, "sharing the world has never been one of humanity's defining characteristics." apropo for this juncture in world history, perhaps. but also just a good line.
other good lines:
"we love what you've done to your hair." magneto to rogue (allusion to first xmen movie).
"that's one dorky looking helmet." pyro to magneto (allusion to what everyone was thinking in first movie).
"when will these people learn to fly?" magneto to mystique while controlling the jet.
"again you think it's all about you." magneto to wolverine (allusion to first xmen movie).
"i did not mean to snoop." nightcrawler to jean grey. it's in the way he says "snoop." good stuff.
GREAT scenes:
nightcrawler invading the white house in the very beginning. alan cumming is a fucking god. plus nightcrawler is a great character.
campfire powwow with magneto, mystique, wolverine, jean grey, and storm. it's so cute. it's like they're cooperating and at the same time sworn enemies. ahhh camp songs.
magneto's prison escape with the sucking out the blood of the guard to make the bullets of the excess iron in the blood stream and then the banging and the breaking and the flat floating disc across the space and the face and the arms. oh how i love ian mckellen.
mystique getting into the underground base of operations (BOO). with the kicking and the sliding thru flipping off movement and then the blowing of kisses.
jean grey at the end turning into pheonix while: starting the plane, holding off nightcrawler from using his power to save her, and stopping the huge wall of water.
the lady deathstrike and wolverine fight in the room of thier origination as adamantium beings. kelly hu is a whirling dervish of a fighting machine, plus her ability to punch with her fingernails should not be underestimated. but the clang when she hits the ground after being pumped full of metal is quite a crowd pleaser. also the silver streams that leak out of her facial orifices is a nice touch. and also in this scene the eyeball phenomenon is pretty clear.
i don't know if this holds true throughout the whole movie, but the people under the control of the secreted brain fluid from jason stryker have bright blue irises surrounding the pupil, but when they come off the drug, thier eyes return to normal color. this can be seen in nightcrawler until he gets hit by the bullet and then his eyes go back to being gold, magneto's change infintestimally since they're already pretty blue, cyclops' you can't see. but then lady deathstrike's are the most obvious because they are ice blue, but when she's near death they bleed back to brown and she looks really aware for the first time. jason stryker having the eys of two different colors was interesting. as if he was partially under the control, but a part of him was still free and able to choose. although since he didn't chooses anything for himself really at any point, i'm not sure how well that holds up.
the multiple storylines in this movie created a wonderful blend of interconnectedness while also remaining fun. this movie could not have been so good, i think, without the first one being out of the way, because now in this one they could have more fun. they really became thier characters and they were relaxed into thier roles which made it all the more convincing for the audience. plus there were more strong plotlines than the first so it seemed both more complete and more satisfying as a story in that we already knew most of the characters and could now see them be developed in interesting directions.
the storyline which i loved the most was the jean grey growing power one, because the pheonix saga is one of my favorite arcs in the cartoon. the fact that they did it now confused me a little but i'm willing to go with it. it was cool to see her wearing this huge phoenix pendent in the beginning and then to watch the play of light in the water of the lake at the end forming the wings of her to be reborn. the third movie (i'm assuming there will be one) is going to kick even more ass i hope than this one. and i have to say, it has a lot to live up too.
Posted by michele at 09:36 PM | Comments (23)
petard like retard like leotard
even thru the blistering pain of it all i've decided to do the aids walk again this summer. if you'd like to sponsor me, please go here:
Michele's Donation Page
you can also join the team and walk with (so far) me, kim, and gene. though i think kristen is joining too. you could also donate money to any of them if you like. but you all love me more, right?
let's all hope i get to see linda cardellini again. or someone equally cool.
p.s. going to see xmen 2 today!!!! wheeeeeeee!
Posted by michele at 08:33 AM | Comments (1)
May 01, 2003
secretary
i know everyone else saw this a long time ago, but no one saw it with me so i only just got it on netflix and watched it. holy crap. i can't believe you all weren't raving more about it when it was out. this is honestly one of my new favorite movies of all time (joining the mummy, the mummy returns, and the matrix. seriously, this does not make me look like much of a good movie buff, i know.)
for like 3 days afterward my brain constantly flashed back on scenes in this movie. the pool with the floaties, the first spanking, the work, her face in the chair at the end when she says, 'thank you, daddy.", when mr. gray carries her up the stairs and she's clinging to him and he washes her hair and lays her down on the grass....it's so freaking unbelievable gorgeous it makes my brain sob.
james spader is the fucking MAN. and i love maggie almost as much as i love her brother now. (i can't help it, i still love him more. bubble boy, fer fuck's sake.)
i want to own this movie and watch it all the time. that is how much i love it.
does anyone have any thoughts on the very last shot of the movie of her watching him drive away and than looking directly at the camera? obviously this meant something because it went on too long to not. but i can't decide really what that meaning was. my one thought is kind of a challenge to the audience who maybe was expecting something more or something else in conclusion. and instead the message of the film-maker is that this is it. she was incredibly brave and 'came out' as who she is and was unapologetically going to stare down any accusations on morality or against atypical relationship bullshit. my idea for this mainly comes from something the director says in the featurette on the dvd about how this is a landmark movie on sadomasochism and submissive/dominants because of how it shows them in a "this IS normal/OUR reality" light and that a lot of people won't be expecting that they can end happy as they are but will have to get over this "problem" of theirs and then go on to be fully-functional ordinary members of society with more acceptable sex drives.
i recommend this movie to anyone with an open mind who has yet to see it. because it is GREAT.
Posted by michele at 06:42 PM | Comments (2)
a mighty wind
(please note that i am catching up on movie reviews and hence can't really remember much since i saw all of these movies quite some time ago.)
genius. sheer genius. note that i really didn't like "best in show" all that much even though i was sincerely excited beforehand. but this one, i loved. it was great. really, really funny. and wonderful acting by eugene levy in particular. although my favorite characters were the bohners. with their color religion and her slutty, slutty pasts. hi-larious. the writing was brilliant, the shots were great. i wholeheartedly approve. and it's inside the dome in phill right now which makes it all the better.
Posted by michele at 06:31 PM | Comments (2)
bend it like beckham
(please note that i am catching up on movie reviews and hence can't really remember much since i saw all of these movies quite some time ago.)
there's this scene where jonathan rhys-meyer is at the door to jess' house and the dad opens the door and he has his back to it, but then he turns around and the light falls just right on his gorgeous fucking visage with the partially opened white t-shirt....oh man. i lose my breath everytime. i went and saw this movie in the dome JUST TO SEE HIM REALLY BIG on the screen. i paid less to buy this movie than i paid for my movie admission ticket and i just didn't care. oh JRM, you are so fucking hot.
the movie itself is good. i love the soundtrack. the plot is basically fluff, but does have some cultural (british, irish, and indian) subtexts which are interesting to watch out for. it's also interesting to listen to upper white middle class old people laugh at indian/british jokes.
if anyone wants to watch this movie, i do own it. you have to put up with chinese subtitles, but they're not so bad. and you can learn how certain kanji are written, most noticeably the one for "no". good times.
Posted by michele at 06:27 PM | Comments (0)
bulletproof monk
(please note that i am catching up on movie reviews and hence can't really remember much since i saw all of these movies quite some time ago.)
ha ha ha! i was soooo excited about this movie too. but, of course, as to be expected of anything starring seann william scott, this movie was shit. the acting, the dialogue, the PLOT. oh my god the plot. it was going all right. everything was fine. i was willing to believe this scroll which protects it's guardian and keeps them alive an extra 60 years looking young and the real nazis chasing it, whatever. but then....it just went all to hell. they tried at the end to salvage something with this prophecy deal but....it was kind of pathetic.
i felt so embarrassed and at the same time betrayed by chow yun fat. it was interesting to watch him act in english though because it appears to create this whole false person of a subservient in him. everytime he speaks or walks while speaking he kind of has this hunching "don't hit me, i am your humble servant" thing going on. it was kind of sad. i wasn't sure if it was a language inferiority thing or just his acting. either was it was bad. the walking shit-eater grin on legs named SWS was terrible. terrible. i can't even tell you. so full of shit. jamie king saved the movie in a fashion sense because all of her clothes were cool and she looked pretty. but on the whole, her plotline/lineage/reason for existing in the movie was just such a load of bullshit that it was hard to treat her character with any respect. and all the bad guys just sucked cock.
do not waste full admission price on this movie. seriously.
Posted by michele at 06:21 PM | Comments (0)
holes
(please note that i am catching up on movie reviews and hence can't really remember much since i saw all of these movies quite some time ago.)
holes was good! if you overlook the fact that the main character in the book (stanley yelnats) is supposed to be FAT and this kid in the movie is definitely not fat. there are a few other discrepancies, mainly at the end end with the completely random and totally unecessary plot twist concering mr. sir. but whatever.
mostly the way the book goes from time period to time period, is faithfully reproduced. and they all blend together smoothly and highlight a little more the tidbits of correlating info that one might have missed while reading the book.
zero, my favorite character in the book, is played with a startling degree of empathy by this khleo kid who little girls apparently rave over. if i was a little girl i would too. he is a damn cute kid.
other than all that, this movie was LOOOOONG. or possibly i was just really tired. but it's over 2 hours. so be aware. but it is good. and really a good book for educators.
Posted by michele at 06:14 PM | Comments (2)