Every summer I travel down south to Austin, Texas to visit with my extended family. My cousin Katy is 14 and reads more than I ever have. Two years ago she suggested the book Will Grayson, Will Grayson. So, naturally, I checked it out from the library and never read it. And now, two years later, I remembered the name and picked it up. And it's so good! Two different kids with the same name. And how they meet and interact. I'm pretty excited, to say the least.
I talked about my cynical nature in my last post and I'd like to add a book that contrasts Pride and Prejudice by encouraging my pessimism. Catcher in the Rye is one of my favorite novels of all time. Part of that is due to the unbelievable truthfulness Salinger incorporates through Holden Caufield. Whom I love. Seriously, I had this ongoing debate with someone last year about whether Caufield was a "good guy" or a "bad guy". Which, when you think about it, is ridiculous. Because in real life (and in this novel) good and bad guys don't exist. There are just people who make decisions...some good, some bad. Anyway, we argued his credentials for the entire year. And the thing about debates is that people just get entrenched in their own view...so I believed Holden to be perfect, due to his imperfections, and the opposing viewpoint just kept trying to point out how delusional that is. But I wouldn't change my mind...I was a woman in love with a fictional character.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Friday, September 14, 2012
Off the Shelf
Listening
I’m back to listening to quality music, after my half a week
of binging on Britney. Death Cab is mostly the playlist for this week. I hate
when people are like “Oh, I love Death Cab for Cutie!” when they’ve only heard
like one song. I own every single track that Ben Gibbard has anything to do
with, including his personal band the Postal Service. Here’s a foolproof way to
weed out posers and the fake-fans:
1.
Have you heard of I Will Follow you Into the Dark?
Yes? Good. How about Bixby Canyon Bridge? No Sunlight? Marching Bands of
Manhattan? Pity and Fear? No? That’s a shame.
2.
Who is Ben Gibbard? WRONG. Sorry, he’s the lead
singer and writer of all Death Cab songs.
3.
Who’s Death Cab? Seriously? Oh…you got confused
because I didn’t have the words “for Cutie” after it.
After administering all of these tests and realizing that
most likely Death Cab’s “biggest fan” isn’t a fan at all, sigh and shake your
head a bunch so they know you’re disappointed.
Reading
I’m honestly the least romantic person I know, I’d rather
hang out with friends than go on a date, I don’t ever want to get married, and
I don’t really believe true love is a thing. Of course, I have almost no
experience and can (and probably will) accept that I’m wrong at some point in
my life. But when I read Pride and
Prejudice I forget all my cynical thoughts and fall in love with Mr. Darcy.
In “You’ve got Mail” Meg Ryan’s character talks about Pride and prejudice and
how she gets caught up in the language (“with words like thither”) and how she’s
“always in agony about whether Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy will get together” no
matter how many times she reads it. I’m that way. Every time I start it I think
they’re too different! There’s no way! She might as well of married Mr.
Collins! Why won’t she just kiss him already! But then I get goose bumps when
they finally end up together (I’ve read this a few times and don’t get tired of
it).I get furious when Mr. Wickham is revealed for what he truly is. I get so
excited for Jane when Mr. Bingley returns to ask her to marry him. I don’t
think I’ll ever get tired of Pride and
Prejudice; it let’s me take a break from my pessimistic attitude and enjoy
a good love story.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Donald McKinely Glover
Donald Glover is the perfect example of the whole package in a man (singer, actor, writer, cutie). So I've decided to devote an entire post just for him.
If you've ever seen Community, you'll recognize Glover immediately. He wrote for 30 Rock, one of the funniest, edgiest prime-time TV show, for three years. Besides Community, most of the roles he's played are small, obscure roles in shorts no one has ever heard of. My personal favorite, Black Peter Pan, tells the story of Wendy, John, and Michael, when Peter comes back with a few changes. It's not cry-from-laughing funny, but it's still clever and witty, like everything Glover has written.
Three people tried to tell me about Childish Gambino in the past week. I hate rap, but I've basically fallen in love. I highly recommend Bonfire and Heartbeat, if you're not offended by cursing. Or anything. His raps really cover a lot of non-school appropriate subjects. The first time I listened to his raps, I just thought he was vulgar. And he is extremely vulgar. But when the third person who told me about him showed me his photo, I freaked out. I squeal an awful lot on a regular basis, but this was an all time high note. I didn't realize the man writing the witty, inappropriate raps was none other than Donald Glover:
If you've ever seen Community, you'll recognize Glover immediately. He wrote for 30 Rock, one of the funniest, edgiest prime-time TV show, for three years. Besides Community, most of the roles he's played are small, obscure roles in shorts no one has ever heard of. My personal favorite, Black Peter Pan, tells the story of Wendy, John, and Michael, when Peter comes back with a few changes. It's not cry-from-laughing funny, but it's still clever and witty, like everything Glover has written.
Three people tried to tell me about Childish Gambino in the past week. I hate rap, but I've basically fallen in love. I highly recommend Bonfire and Heartbeat, if you're not offended by cursing. Or anything. His raps really cover a lot of non-school appropriate subjects. The first time I listened to his raps, I just thought he was vulgar. And he is extremely vulgar. But when the third person who told me about him showed me his photo, I freaked out. I squeal an awful lot on a regular basis, but this was an all time high note. I didn't realize the man writing the witty, inappropriate raps was none other than Donald Glover:
That fact literally makes me love his raps. So for at least this week, he is my favorite human being.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Off the Shelf
Eating:
As food is one of the most important things in my life, I decided to place it first. I have pizza about three times a week, which sounds unhealthy. But at 800 Degrees, it's actually not bad. I mean, a lot of carbs. But I am not that girl who is worried about that kind of stuff. Tonight I got a verdure for the first time. It is delicious, let me tell all of you out in cyber-space. Being in Indiana, when people call in and ask for this pizza, they often say "I would like a ver-dur." I stifle my giggles and type it into the computer system. Today, I bought one and typed it out as verdur. Both the pizza and the chuckles from the cooks were thoroughly enjoyable.
Listening:
Every few months I have a few days where I listen to the worst quality of music ever. This week it's Britney Spears. I listen to the classics, when she was fifteen, as well as the post-bald phase of Britney. Radar is my complete favorite even though the entire three minutes is one auto-tuned note after another. The synthesizer leads into the bass bumping enough to shake the entire car. Then comes the nasal, completely fake voice, with rhyme after rhyme. So awful, but so catchy.
Watching:
After reading Mindy Kaling's book, I decided to watch Goodwill Hunting, written and staring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. I was talking to my brother as it started and he said, "I'm glad you're watching it; it's the only thing that doesn't make me want to punch Ben Affleck in the face." Nathan is not Ben's biggest fan. Robin Williams is so often in comedies that it felt strange to see him yelling at a young-man, as his therapist. The professor who is pushing Damon's character the entire time reminded me of a more abrasive version of my father. The guy who pushes people in the direction he wants them, even if it's not what they want. I cried when Damon's character broke up with his girlfriend and again when he's fighting with Williams. Quality film right there.
Reading:
Flannery O'Connor. I know she's a respected American author. But I just hate her short stories. I've read three and all three have just confirmed and reconfirmed my opinion of her. Being super catholic all of her stories are considered rather gruesome and graphic. A lot of religious motif's are brought up. And I just don't enjoy reading about that stuff. They seem too common to me. Repetitive.
Watching Two:
Watching the Office is a pretty bad habit for me. I watch episode after episode everyday. And after watching Goodwill Hunting, I finally get a reference Michael makes. The office workers go down to the warehouse to have a "guys day." Michael is explaining himself to the warehouse workers and says "It's a Goodwill Hunting situation. I have to make sure there's nobody down here that shouldn't be." Now I understand it! That's why I can watch the same episode 100 times, I learn something new every time.
As food is one of the most important things in my life, I decided to place it first. I have pizza about three times a week, which sounds unhealthy. But at 800 Degrees, it's actually not bad. I mean, a lot of carbs. But I am not that girl who is worried about that kind of stuff. Tonight I got a verdure for the first time. It is delicious, let me tell all of you out in cyber-space. Being in Indiana, when people call in and ask for this pizza, they often say "I would like a ver-dur." I stifle my giggles and type it into the computer system. Today, I bought one and typed it out as verdur. Both the pizza and the chuckles from the cooks were thoroughly enjoyable.
Listening:
Every few months I have a few days where I listen to the worst quality of music ever. This week it's Britney Spears. I listen to the classics, when she was fifteen, as well as the post-bald phase of Britney. Radar is my complete favorite even though the entire three minutes is one auto-tuned note after another. The synthesizer leads into the bass bumping enough to shake the entire car. Then comes the nasal, completely fake voice, with rhyme after rhyme. So awful, but so catchy.
Watching:
After reading Mindy Kaling's book, I decided to watch Goodwill Hunting, written and staring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. I was talking to my brother as it started and he said, "I'm glad you're watching it; it's the only thing that doesn't make me want to punch Ben Affleck in the face." Nathan is not Ben's biggest fan. Robin Williams is so often in comedies that it felt strange to see him yelling at a young-man, as his therapist. The professor who is pushing Damon's character the entire time reminded me of a more abrasive version of my father. The guy who pushes people in the direction he wants them, even if it's not what they want. I cried when Damon's character broke up with his girlfriend and again when he's fighting with Williams. Quality film right there.
Reading:
Flannery O'Connor. I know she's a respected American author. But I just hate her short stories. I've read three and all three have just confirmed and reconfirmed my opinion of her. Being super catholic all of her stories are considered rather gruesome and graphic. A lot of religious motif's are brought up. And I just don't enjoy reading about that stuff. They seem too common to me. Repetitive.
Watching Two:
Watching the Office is a pretty bad habit for me. I watch episode after episode everyday. And after watching Goodwill Hunting, I finally get a reference Michael makes. The office workers go down to the warehouse to have a "guys day." Michael is explaining himself to the warehouse workers and says "It's a Goodwill Hunting situation. I have to make sure there's nobody down here that shouldn't be." Now I understand it! That's why I can watch the same episode 100 times, I learn something new every time.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Moonrise Kingdom
My father arrived back from walking the pilgrimage in Spain this weekend. Being pretty condescending in his day to day life, after spending two months abroad surrounded by beautiful scenery and "basically no buildings built after the 14th century," my father reached an entire new level of Professor-ness. So for about one day all I heard were remarks about how much better is in Spain, about how much better Spanish is than English (pretty ironic, considering he's an English professor), and about how mass in much more meaningful over there across the ocean. After that he got back to his normal self, quoting Shakespeare and insisting he's right about everything. I take after my dad...anyway, his idea of spending labor day together was seeing "Moonrise Kingdom" which I did not dispute at all, hearing wonderful things about it.
I was disappointed. I mean, it was great and I loved the recreation of the sixties (it was all pretty accurate, according to my dad). It had good music, and the characters of Sam and Suzy were wonderfully portrayed. But with all the raving reviews, I expected something more. I guess that just goes to show how awful human nature is. I had built up this amazing movie in my head, that no real movie could compare to.
It was a quality film; much better than most I've seen in a while. Bill Murray was/is great. But the entire time, I just kept thinking...this kid looks like Dwight Schrute.
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