Category : Movies, Music

in Life of Giang, Movies, Music, Things That Are Awesome

La semaine derniere

7/11/2009 Yes, but can he moonwalk?

The Vietnamese passage goes okay, my sister forgets her garter and we buy a replacement in a goth store across the street from the restaurant. It is black with a skull-like cameo on it: fitting for the horde. My new brother-in-law performs what is quite possibly the most amazing groom dance EVAR. It’s a great wedding. :) More photos here.

7/12/2009 I can’t has okapi?

(See above!)

Curt, Ai, and I go to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. The heat nearly melts our brains. Ai pokes a lion in the butt, I feed some lorikeets, and have a hyrax sit on my shoulder. We rock out to Def Leppard and REO Speedwagon. More photos here!

7/13/2009 The truth is out there

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We go to the pet store and buy a cat fountain. Curt puts our money where his mouth is and we buy some dog-biscuit cookies and perform a blind taste test. Curt is only able to tell the difference between the dog-biscuit cookies and the generic Stater Brother’s cookies half the time. The lesson here is that Stater Brothers sells dog-biscuit cookie-a-likes. You’ve been warned.

7/15/2009 Harry Potter and the Filler Plot Between #5 and #7

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Ai and I go see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I find it lackluster, and Ai is disappointed. Very little sparkle. Hopefully the 7s are better. Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs looks fun, though! I start doing my 10-Minute Trainer. Tony Horton is kicking my ass, but he’s surprisingly likeable.

7/16/2009 Go 66ers!

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Curt and I go see the Inland Empire 66-ers, the Dodger’s A affiliate. Bernie the mascot beast is a poor man’s Philliy’s Phanatic, but it’s a good time. I learn how to keep score at a baseball game.

7/17/2009 So long, farewell

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Clyde goes to his new home and I’m a little sad. I talk Curt into letting me keep Clementine on an outdoor-cat basis. Now only to talk him into letting me keep the other two…

Happy weekend! ;)

in Movies, Music

WATCHMEN on Yahoo! Movies

WATCHMEN on Yahoo! Movies.

I was dragged to this by Curt. I mean, it’s three hours on a week night, plus it had only gotten mediocre reviews from the media (haha) and family members.

And then I loved it.

Because you know, that Nite Owl II? WHAT A FREAKIN’ HOT SON OF A BITCH. I was getting all into that little make-out scene on the couch he was having with Silk Spectre II, when Curt hisses behind us to some asshole kids to be quiet, and then I’m like, “DUDE YOU JUST GRANNIED ME OUT OF MY ENJOYMENT OF THIS!”

Grrr.

Anyway, it was good. Go see! ;)

in Movies, Music

20 21 Comfort Movies (created while shirking)

I have homework to do, which means it’s the perfect time to wile away the hours making useless lists! Yay!

2021 Comfort Movies In No Particular Order

  1. Misery (1990). Because he didn’t jump out of the COCKADOODY CAR! ;)
  2. Little Miss Sunshine (2006). Because there is something truly comforting about the comic desperation of this family that manages to hit that cathartic sweet spot between angst and banality.
  3. Shop Girl (2005). Because this movie accurately portrays loneliness and the everyday trappings of relationships, while still saving a bit of the fantasy. (Who knew Steve Martin had it in him?)
  4. Best Years of Our Lives (1946). Because I have to see it turn out all right for all of them.
  5. Brief Encounter (1945). Because they’re all so very proper and English, and it still manages to be heart-breaking.
  6. The Last Starfighter (1984). Because ALEX ROGAN IS MY HERO.
  7. Persuasion (1995). Because of Captain Wentworth’s letter.
  8. Wives and Daughters (1999). Because of the heroine, really.
  9. State Fair (1945). Because you can’t be blue when people dance around and say, “Yay, Io-way!”
  10. Psycho (1960). Because we all go a little mad sometimes.
  11. Random Harvest (1942). Because it’s so damned sad.
  12. Immortal Beloved (1994). Because I absolutely cannot bear to watch the last fifteen minutes of it without sobbing uncontrollably.
  13. Dawn of the Dead (2004). Because all my troubles seem relatively trivial in the face of ZOMBIE ARMAGEDDON!1!!
  14. The Wedding Singer (1998). Because the 80′s were great, and so colorful!
  15. The Mummy (1999). Because it’s everything a goofy mummy movie should be. (Say it with me now, and it’ll be true: “The sequels never happened, the sequels never happened, the sequels never happened…”)
  16. Eat Drink Man Woman (1994). Why else? Because of the food, man!
  17. Jane Eyre (1983). Because gothic romances rock.
  18. Little Women (1949). Because if the March girls can get through it, so can I!
  19. Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead (1991). Because I like makeover movies.
  20. Speed (1994). Because we all love the part when the bus jumps the huge gap in the freeway.
  21. Margie (1946). Because she’s hot for teacher! ;)
in Movies, Music

CMT

8:32 AM on a Saturday and I find myself watching the Country Music Television station. You know what these videos remind me of? They’re like the twangy, white version of all those Asian karaoke videos my parents own where the woman are traipsing around public parks, looking wistful for the love they’ve lost, ha ha.

I do have a soft spot for Randy Travis, though. ;)

in Games, Life of Giang, Movies, Music, RANT

Here’s what I did this weekend:

This is someone else’s video of X2. I actually went on this ride. Of course, this video was the first time I saw what was happening to me since I shut my eyes at about the 1:10 point and didn’t open them again until I knew for sure I wasn’t going to die.

Of course, Paula and Curt had a great time on all the scary rides, and I looked very much forward to my obligatory amusement park churro. It was a great time, though! Next time I have been promised a churro + stunt show. That’s my speed, baby. ;)

viper

Curt brought me flowers today, too. :) Besides being sweet, it gave me the chance to continue practicing with the macro lens my dad gave me a few weeks ago. Whee!

daisy

in Books, Poetry, Movies, Music

MUST HAVE EET

Turner Classic Movies has been running their annual Summer-Under-The-Stars film fest, and I’m obsessed with recording movies. So far, I’ve recorded 20+ movies, not counting the 24 straight hours of Laurel and Hardy movies and shorts (I love them). Twice now I’ve set the alarm off at 3:00 AM to get up and switch out discs to record movies. Of course, I’m not watching any of them up – I’m storing them up like precious gems for rainy days when nothing will do but an old black and white. Curt thinks I’m crazy, but he just doesn’t understand the kind of love that exists between a packrat and her packrattage.

Tonight, I watched On the Waterfront for the first time ever. Batman: Dark Knight has been routed. I held my breath, I cried, I ached for Marlon Brando to be alright in the end. What a beauty of a performance, truly. And you can’t go wrong using Lee J. Cobb as as an mean and angry white guy. (Has he ever not played a mean and angry white guy?)

I’m also listening to 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill. I normally do not trust anthologies by just one author (unless it’s Stephen King, but Stephens are a rare breed), as most writers do not have enough steam in them to chug through an entire book of short stories without veering off track. So far, so good with this one though – he’s got a delicate touch that I appreciate, while still having the power to disturb.

I did not watch the Olympics. I was indifferent, for the most part. I wonder why it is that people are excited about the Olympics, and I am not? What caused me to be indifferent to them? What causes others not to be? Hm.

I find both presidential candidates to be deplorable shysters blowing bilious smoke up everyone’s ass. I don’t believe it is really a personal thing with either of them; if they were not politicians, they might be decent people. It makes me sad, and angry. What a crap world we create with our crap rules.

Ah well. At least we all die some day, and are rid of all the dirtiness and confounded idiocy.

That’s cheery.

I shall now watch Laurel and Hardy to detox. Yay long weekend! ;)

in Movies, Music

Batman!

Batman has ousted Wall-E as my favorite movie of the year. I went in thinking I could have waited until it came out on DVD to watch, but it did impress me. The first movie is all about hot-ass (oh, forgive me, but he so is) Christian Bale turning into Batman, kicking ass, etc.: typical superhero fare. This second movie was different: fearless in execution, with a surprising depth to it. The cast was superb. Christian Bale was hot, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine were nice and steady, Gary Oldman (whom I love) is a great supporter, Maggie Gyllenhaal was so much better than Katie Holmes it made me want to cry, Heath was great as the Joker, and Aaron Eckhart (who is runner up to Patrick in the title of Hotty McHotterson) – well, my cup just runneth over.

…the only thing that consistently bothered me was how Batman – who has a Knight Rider car, and access to cutting edge technology and can pretty much take over the world from his cave – can only disguise his voice by dropping it like nine octaves and talking like he just broke a bottle in his neck. And like any red-blooded woman on the face of this planet wouldn’t recognize those uber-pouty lips of Christian Bale’s/Bruce Wayne’s underneath that black mask. Please.

Yeah, but other than that, it was good. Go see! Go see!