More Reviews

I checked metacritic for film reviewers' takes on Black Snake Moan. Metacritic's total review score is 53. I did this mostly in response to the comment that feministing's review was "knee jerk." Some excerpts:

From Premiere Mag's Glenn Kenny:

Perpetually wide-eyed and mega-snarly bedraggled, Christina Ricci prowls through Black Snake Moan looking like something the cat dragged in.If you're anything like me, you'll be very grateful to the cat. (Whoza good kitty? Boo zha zha zha . . . )

Now, these days, chaining a woman to a radiator — even if it's for her own good! — is all kinds of unacceptable. And Brewer's self-imposed mission is not just to make you accept it but to make you like it.

From New York Magazine's David Edelstein:

At bottom, Black Snake Moan is an old-fashioned feel-good, Sunday-schoolish kind of parable about a broken, bitter ex-alcoholic who’s spiritually reborn by, uh, chaining a little white nympho in shorty-cutoffs to his radiator. But it’s not how you think! Wouldn’t you have chained Anna Nicole to your radiator if you could have saved her? Wouldn’t you chain Britney to your radiator?

Okay, it is pretty sexist. But Ricci’s character, Rae, isn’t a predatory she-devil. She’s an abused and profoundly damaged young woman. She needs therapy—or an exorcism.

It's unclear if he saw the film or not, but check out his awesome sexist comments. Yeah I'd totally chain someone to a radiator. Right...

From Rolling Stone's Peter Travers

Offensive on multiple levels -- if only the plot had any levels at all -- Black Snake Moan leaves no Tobacco Road cliche unsmoked. Ricci gives it her all, and then some, but even her body and Jackson's blues can't heal a movie that rockets plum off its nut.

From the Holly Wood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt:

Certainly the image of Ricci wearing panties and a peek-a-boo top getting dragged around by Jackson tugging on a chain wrapped around her tiny waist is one any publisher of '50s dime novels would have loved for a book cover if only he dared....Seems she gets these spells that start in her head and work their way down to her crotch. When she goes into heat like this, only intercourse with the nearest male can relieve her suffering.

For some reason this reminds me of a time when people believed a woman's uterus could float into her brain and make her insane. The combination of sexuality and mental health (with some hints towards witchcraft) is pretty sweet huh.

Rob Nelson with the Village Voice views the film as an exploitation film, but considers this not bad. He then writes his review, admittedly, as an exploitation. I don't even know where to begin with his review.

There were NO female reviewers of this film, at least not yet. It comes out Friday, so hopefully some bloggers or female reviewers pop up.

I'm still not convinced there is ever a time or place to be portraying or supporting this, as a satire, social commentary, purposeful exploitation, entertainment, whatever. Especially in a society where sexism, sex violence, and women hating is prevalent enough, why make it worse by creating a film like this, marketing it as some near-comedy about a slutty white girl enslaved by a scary black man, and then leave it to the viewer's own devices to come up with an educated conclusion. I guess I have no faith in my fellow Americans.

Still, I'd really like to read other feminists opinions on the film when they've seen it.

Deal Breakers

No question. I cannot be friends with someone who pays money to see Black Snake Moan.



From Feministing:

The creepiest thing about the movie, or at least its marketing, is that it's not only about selling Ricci's body. It's about selling the idea of sex with a girl who's been abused and who's clearly got a lot of problems. There's even an interactive feature (if you click on "experience" in the upper left corner -- click here for a screenshot) that allows you to drag two pills across the screen and then watch a video of Ricci collapsing. Now she's yours for the violating! Plus, the "page loading" graphics that appear every time you click feature her silhouette struggling against the chain. A recurring image in the film as well, I'd imagine.

I've seen the trailer a few times - the one where Ricci, wearing a tank and white undies, runs chained outdoors until Jackson forcefully tugs her back inside. I was really hoping that the movie was pulp or satire or something but no. And even if it's some sort of "social commentary on the South" as one IMDB discussion board poster wrote, is it acceptable to be clearly advertising the near naked enslaved Ricci? Is there ever an acceptable situation to mass market sexual abuse as entertainment? And how about that racism in the poster? The gruff African-American man holding a feeble white woman in chains...African-American as monster, one who should be feared by all whites. The whole concept of this film makes me sick.

No wonder its from the Hustle and Flow guys - that movie was shit on fire on a front porch.

New New Template

Yup. Looks like someone got bored over here tonight. Been messing with the last.fm song tracker forever. It doesn't let you do the html on your own, so I'm having issues with their EZedit (my trademark) setting the correct width. Amazing that you can customize your last.fm trackers though.

Table Games

ignore the flash spot - don't have photoshop at home and it was bad lighting in the apartment

Nate kicked my ass in scrabble on Sunday night - 369 to 214. I was so excited to start the game off with "Labia," but he then flipped the script and plopped down all 7 letters with "agitate"! Blam, 69 points just on round one. I gave up and went for goof words like "gnu" from then on. This is what I get for not studying, then playing someone who has memorized all 92 two letter word combinations.

In puzzle news, we are almost done with the puzzle (you can see it under the scrabble board). The pieces are together, we just have to figure out their order so the maze drawn into it works. The puzzle has been on time-out since I got scrabble a few weeks ago.

This post brought to you by the age 65.

3 different cities, 1 Chicago

This weekend I got out of all my normal neighborhoods, and ended up all over town. And all without a car! First I went south to Pilsen for my friend VA's birthday. I was particularly excited about this trip as I wanted to see her new apartment. I'm considering moving down there when my lease is up - the rent is insanely cheap! She had a really nice place for way less than I am paying now. All I have to do now is consider how "worth it" it is to live moderately far away from my friends.

One funny thing happened while I was at the party. Some girl I have never met or seen before overheard someone call my name. This girl then says to me: "Wait are you the good [insert my name here] or the bad [insert my name here]?" (there is another person with my name associated with my group of friends - she no longer lives here). I had no idea how to respond to that. Made me a bit paranoid that people were spreading trash about me, especially considering who this was coming from and who she is friends with. And if it wasn't about me, then I felt bad for the other person. Oh well. I know who's in my corner.

Saturday I slept with Audrey for most of the day, then trekked north to Lincoln Square to attend a coworker's Chinese New Year party. I brought Nate along so he could meet some of the people I'm always talking about. The weather was atrocious, so getting there and back sort of sucked. The food at the party was awesome, and they had a very nice house. We were the youngest people there by far, so I felt sort of stupid and hyper-aware of my age all night. We stuck to my coworkers for most of the evening, then headed home around 9:30.

Sunday I went way south to the Bradley's house to meet their newest addition, Charlotte. She is about 6 weeks old, and is so adorable. I had never held a baby that little before, but it was really easy. Charlotte just passed out in my arms the whole time. Their other child, Oliver, was really putting on a show for me. He is a year and half old, and was bringing me all his toys, pointing at everything for me, and being a goofball. It was adorable. I had a nice day relaxing there and it was great to see Mommy doing well with her new tot.

The best part of the weekend was it cost me nothing except the 11 dollars I spent at dinner Friday night.

sometimes living alone sucks

I need a hobby.

or I need summer to get here now.

vapor action

I came down with a cold the past few days, so today all I want to do is curl back up in my bed. Work has been really busy and my cold has made me brain-dead at night, so I don't have much to report. I keep forgetting to mention that in March my best friends from high school and I are taking a vacation together. We are going to Gulf Shores, Alabama and staying in a condo/resort at Gulf Shores Plantation! We will be driving down together, watching oodles of Golden Girls, being jerks, assaulting Nashville, and listening to tons of bad music. Once there, we will sit, swim, drink, hike, and share one last bonding moment before Matt and Kristin finish their fancy JD and PhDs and enter the workforce. It'll be the spring break I never had! Unfortunately I'm totally not in shape for a swimsuit and my pastiness will cause me to be camouflaged with the white sand. Oh well, I'm so excited to spend some quality time with these people that it doesn't matter.

Nate will be dog sitting and house sitting for me while I'm gone, which makes me really happy. It means that not only do I not have to worry about my belongings getting robbed, but that Audrey gets to stay in her normal routine and environment with someone she really likes taking care of her. I couldn't ask for a better situation.

What did I ever do to you karma?

In the past 24 hours I:

Fell down outside TWICE - once due to ice and once due to this big difference between the sidewalk and this metal cover thingy near work. Both times on my right side. I can't move my right arm.

Got stuck on a broken train, without power, for 40 minutes underground. I was going to be on time to work, but no. The world hates me.

Busted my iRiver. Well I think it busted itself. It won't plug into any computer and I can't even put a new firmware update onto it because it won't open on a computer. This means that although I can listen to it when I'm out and about, I can never change out the music on it. This also means I lose all music on it that I didn't have backed up. I use this thing 12 hours a day so I'm really pissed off. And if you read my debt blog, you obviously know that there's no luxury spending on stuff like this. Ugh.

I don't get it - I feel like I've been abiding by some serious Golden Rule action lately, and no good is comin' my way. At least I have my Super 'Tation Vacation to look forward to! More on that later...

Spazz Nostalgia

I've been getting randomly music-nostalgic on Monday nights recently. I think it is because I'm pretty much guaranteed to be alone Monday nights. It's winter so nobody is going out, it's a Monday, and Nate has band practice. So I usually come home, clean up from the weekend and sit. There's never anything on TV and I get bored from reading more than half an hour. So I spend my evenings on youtube hunts for live sets I've seen, or on myspace digging up old bands. I'm all stuck on 90s hardcore bands lately. Tonight I spent time searching for michiganfest 2000 and 2002 and columbusfest 2000 and 2002 videos. Here's a few I found (man remember when I used to go to these things? and run wild and drink jugs of carlo rossi? who was I?):

Rye Coalition at MF 2002 (whose lead singer reminds me more and more of Ken from Freaks and Geeks):

(for fun, compare this to their set in 1995's Michigan Fest here. Man their old stuff was so great)

Small Brown Bike at MF 2000:
I forgot what a dudefest hardcore shit is. Dudes abound! Smelly dudes!


I can't find any more than music/columbusfest videos on YouTube, damn! I did find this guy whilst looking, who apparently has every 90s hardcore band ever videotaped (ok, a bit of an exaggeration). You know you wanna watch old Neil Perry, Clikatat, Shotmaker, etc videos!

Oh, to be young again!

Weekend Update

Friday I went to Miskas with the MOMN kids, JP, Nick, Nate, Tyler, and Bunge. Got pretty drunk, enjoyed myself. Woke up hungover, and spent Saturday hanging out with Nate. We played scrabble (I won by 11 points), watched 2 episodes of Big Love, watched Idiocracy, got some seriously good chicken pita sandwiches, watched the Movie Myths episode of Mythbusters, watched Reno 911....yeah we watched like 8 hours of tv. I was in heaven. Then Sunday I had to work, so we got an early brunch and I trucked off to my job.

In the evening I helped Nate pick up CD shelving from Natalie and Matt's house, and then we watched Battlestar (boring episode). Fell asleep by 11. I had bad nightmares all night, the kind where I knew if I just woke up it would stop but I couldn't wake up. I hate that.

Today I'm going to go to the gym after work. I'm in desperate need of some exercise, and running sounds nice. It's finally not so cold out that all I want to do is curl up on the couch and never move again.

debt

I just spent two hours making this post: Causing DEBTcidents premiers

Yup, my debt blog. Airing my dirty laundry to shame myself into paying my debt off like a good person. Feel free to look at it, point and laugh at me, empathize, share stories of how you got into or out of debt, make your on debt blog, etc etc.

Tag Yer It

Lo-Zone tagged me. First meme I've put on here in a long time. Isn't that what my unused VOX account is for? Regardless...

The game is to post 6 "weird" things about yourself and then "tag" other "people." It's like one of those annoying chain letters. Without further ado:

1. I gag at the sight of wet paper products. Many of you already knew this, but I pretty much want to vomit when I see or touch wet paper towels, wet napkins, wet anything made of dead trees.

2. I was second place in the NE state debate tournament junior year of high school. Don't even try to fight with me. SECOND PLACE.

3. I create fake stories/narratives about people when I see them eating alone in fast food establishments.

4. I got ran over by a rolling outhouse at Peony Park when I was 2. Yes, in Omaha they do things like race outhouses down hills for fun.

5. I count how many different letters there are in words using my fingers when I'm bored. So a word like banana I would tap each finger whenever a new letter is given. So my thumb and two fingers would be used for banana. It's like twiddling my thumbs. Nervous habit.

6. I hate eating the last bit of cereal in a cereal box. Instead of just throwing it out, I feel guilty and leave it on the shelf until I've amassed a dozen boxes of nothing but crumbs of cereal.

Tagged: Soup (you've now been DOUBLE TAGGED), Alycia, LQP, Scrvnr, Lil G

I got a present!

Totally Sweet Valentines Day Gift:



Prepare to get your ass kicked.

A card for you

*click to view full size*

Photos will make me happy

*Click on photos to see them large size*

Audrey is giving me the "bitch, it is negative ten degrees and you think I want to crap? Well I don't. No fuckin' around mom, take me in." Did I just make my dog speak? CA U DID THAT!



The puzzle we've been working on, back on the first day. It's probably 3/4ths of the way done now. Not my hands:

As if I needed even more reasons to despise the Christian Right...

Edwards' blogger resigns

The site is overloaded, but the text remains on the page. Long story short: John Edwards' presidential campaign hired two women bloggers to be on his Campaign Blog. Some far right Christians found out and got pissed because the woman had made some comments about how they disagree with the Catholic Church on their PERSONAL blogs (yet again what you put on your personal blog will come back to bite you). The Christians demanded they get fired. Edwards did the right thing and kept them on, and the two women apologized for any offense they may have caused.

But the far right didn't stop there, and continued to send some of the filthiest emails to these poor women. The emails make me so sick, and remind me how f-ing disgusting I find most "Christians" and how much I absolutely abhor Conservatives. The hypocrisy is so blatant that it's almost unbelievable. A few of the worst are copy and pasted here, if only for the purpose of getting you to read the link I posted and to get as pissed off as I am so that you'll go do something for the 08 Election. Bold emphasis added by me. All grammar and typing done by them.

YOU RACIST WHORE. FAT UGLY BITCH. SUCK MY LONG COCK ASSHOLE I HOPE YOU KIDS NEVER LIVE AND YOUR PARENTS DIE A TRAGIC DEATH YOU ASSHOLE BITCH!
I HOPE YOUR WOMB IS BARREN AND YOUR CAREER PLUMMETS TO HELL YOU BITCH

i like the way you trash talk i don't particularly want to have sex with you but i would like a blow job.

It's just too bad your mother didn't abort you. You are nothing more than a filthy mouth slut. I bet a couple of years in Iraq being raped and beaten daily would help you appreciate America a little. Need a plane ticket ?

Problem with women like you, you just need a good fucking from a real man! Living in Texas myself, I know you haven't found that real Texan yet. But once your liberal pro feminist ass gets a real good fucking, you might see the light. Until then, enjoy your battery operated toys b/c most real men wouldn't want to give you the fucking you deserve b/c the shit that would come out of you ears.

after reading your vile screed against Catholics and the Holy Spirit, I just had to see what you looked like. (I envisioned you eyebrow-less, with no visible pupils, and a blank, dead stare.) I see I was correct about the blank, dead stare, but other than that you're not too bad. I then thought maybe you were mad at God (and by proxy Catholics) for making you ugly, but now I'm figuring you're just mad at him for making you a woman.

How many times in one day can I be reminded of just how much hatred towards women there is out there? It seems that as soon as I start to maybe feel good about the world, or meet someone (particularly male) who actually respects females and doesn't use their sex or sexuality against them as punishment for their beliefs, shit like this happens and I go back into my little corner of anger.

Does CA have to choke a bitch?

I missed you blog. Busted for a few days due to either my domain name service, hosting service, or blogger, we will never know. Regardless, my amazing skills have fixed it, hopefully permanently. I can avoid what Ed calls the "angelfire" of the millennium: a blogspot.com address. I was pretty irritated all weekend as a result of my temporary loss. It's like that old song, "don't know what you've got till its gone" right?

Speaking of that song, wow! I had no idea what a bitch it would be to not have a debit card. The replacement card they sent me got lost in the mail. Let's look at a list of other things that have been lost in the mail since I moved here: a paycheck, a Christmas card from my grandparents with a fatty check inside it, various bills, and now a debit card. And half my Christmas cards didn't make it to their destinations either. What's up Chicago mail? Anyway, my life has somewhat stopped without my debit card. I'm hoping this second replacement doesn't get lost.

And in more bitchitude, my landlords called me last week to tell me they'd be at my apartment from 9-5 today to do a total overhaul of the place, including fixing the dishwasher that has been broken since SEPTEMBER and filled with RANCID WATER. This meant I had to leave Audrey in her cage all day, which is sad and stressful for both of us. I get home, after yet another 90 minute commute, and NOBODY was here. They will feel my wrath tomorrow. And did I mention that they think they can raise my rent 55 dollars a month when I renew my lease? Yeah not happening, I'm outta this hell hole come April 30th. See ya MBW Realty.

The blue line will also feel my rage. I'm so over blue. Whatever construction they are doing between the Division and Jackson stops is so horrific it is at times doubling and tripling the time it takes me to get anywhere. I'm going to suck it up, walk the extra two blocks to Fullerton, take the crappy Fullerton bus, and brave the red line south instead. F U Blue Line. You're dead to me for the time being.

And the final thing that needs to be choked is snow. It's cold. It makes my floor a mess. It makes Audrey insane. It needs to be summer soon. I forgot what cabin fever feels like.

Anger over: Onto the goods/weekend update

What the hell did I do for four days with no blog? Good question. I hibernated with Nate I guess. Friday we went to Tecalitlan for Mexican food after he had band practice, then we watched Army of Darkness (which I totally hated). Saturday we got brunch at the Windy City Diner (or was it Cafe?), some diner at the Chicago blue line stop neither of us had been to. We both gave it two thumbs up, and were pretty stupidly excited to find a new diner brunch spot that is easy to get to.

Saturday night we watched the White Diamond because it's basically a rule that if you want to date me you better watch every Herzog movie and at least pretend to like it. Then we watched the Science of Sleep, which was...cute. Gael Garcia Bernal is super hot, but overall the movie was just cute and quaint. Not sure I'd watch it again.

Sunday was a marathon day of being Real Old Adults. We got coffee and bagels, read the New York Times, worked on the puzzle, watched Mythbusters, ordered Chinese, watched two episodes of Big Love (my first time seeing it - it rules), and then watched BSG with JP and Nick like normal.

I would have liked to have seen some friends, but whatever. There's always next weekend.

January Round-Up

Man, half-way through February and I haven't yet done a January recap! I'm a worthless blogger, and am making it worse by referencing this in my personal blog. (And doesn't that sentence make it even worse?) (and that sidenote in parenthesis?) (I'm dying!!!)

Stuck at work late. No better time than to read my January posts and see what the hell I did all month:

January was freezing. Butt-ass-freezing cold. Except for new years eve when it was nearly 50 outside, allowing me to hooch it up a bit and go rather bare. I had a great time on that night, went to a fancy shin-dig, went to a fun after-party, didn't quite make it home...the rest is blog history. I went to Evanston for work (wow they sure let us travel in these parts). I got an All Access pass at the DPC show at the metro, which doesn't mean too much other than I got to see some dressing rooms and feel special-er than I really am. I then got to dance to Peter Hook blasting the beats. Saw my Madison friend, Helen. Watched a lot of Freaks and Geeks, Battlestar, and Herzog. Didn't see my dog as much as I wanted, but at the same time felt like I saw her a ton. An old coworker/friend died, and I wasn't in SF to help. Went to a Smooth Music Night, and visited the Art Institute. Saw David Lynch and his awesome new movie, Inland Empire.

Then the awesomeness of January came to an abrupt halt the last week, where I broke my CTA card and lost my debit card and the crushing cold came down in a not fun way.

All this past month I thought I didn't do a whole lot, but looking back maybe I did. This blog works wonders!

Rise of Christian Fascism

Great article on alternet today:

The radical Christian right, calling for a "Christian state" -- where whole segments of American society, from gays and lesbians to liberals to immigrants to artists to intellectuals, will have no legitimacy and be reduced, at best, to second-class citizens -- awaits a crisis, an economic meltdown, another catastrophic terrorist strike or a series of environmental disasters. A period of instability will permit them to push through their radical agenda, one that will be sold to a frightened American public as a return to security and law and order, as well as moral purity and prosperity. This movement -- the most dangerous mass movement in American history -- will not be blunted until the growing social and economic inequities that blight this nation are addressed, until tens of millions of Americans, now locked in hermetic systems of indoctrination through Christian television and radio, as well as Christian schools, are reincorporated into American society and given a future, one with hope, adequate wages, job security and generous federal and state assistance.

The unchecked rape of America, which continues with the blessing of both political parties, heralds not only the empowerment of this American oligarchy but the eventual death of the democratic state and birth of American fascism.

Joseph Cornell archive

It's Archives like these that make me regret not getting an archives job. I have the concentration in it, but alas my financial state and unwillingness to move to the east coast or DC to work in archives prohibits me. I just love finding aids though.

So far today has sucked: Audrey refused to crap this morning, so I stood outside with her in below zero temps with no socks on (yes I'm stupid) and finally gave up. She'll be really upset all day until Andrew Dog Walker comes. Then my train was mega delayed because a train ahead of us broke. And I had to beg for a roll of quarters from the bursars office this morning. Life could be worse, I could be one of the bums under the bridge near my house.

I live here on magic mountain

I haven't been able to stop listening to Blonde Redhead's "Misery is a Butterfly" album. I decided this morning that if someone were for some reason to decide I got to do the soundtrack for the non-existent movie version of Kafka on the Shore, that I would have "Magic Mountain" be one of the main songs in the film. The music and lyrics all work really well with the book.

This is what I do on my way to work: have grandiose visions of me doing something amazing.

On another music note: Nate burned me the new Arcade Fire album. It's pretty "epic" as in the songs are pretty intense, and somewhat Bruce Springsteeny (if I knew more about Bruce, I'd say some of them are covers). What's up AF? Whats up Church Organ???

And finally in media news: Lost returns tonight, which means all my 'programs' are now back on air. The rest of winter is suddenly looking a-ok. A pizza will be ordered and consumed, and Lost will be viewed. Looking forward to it.

"I guess everyone kinda has a Janelle" (Hard Candy Review)

*Warning!* Spoilers! I watched Hard Candy tonight. The film starts off as a Lolita for the new millennium. A 14 year old girl chats up a 32 year old man online, and they decide to meet at a coffee shop. She teases him by showing herself only in a bra, writes sexually suggestive things online, asks him to bend over and beg her to come over, etc. The man is very attractive, not what you would consider a pedophile. He is a photographer, very hip looking. He seems slightly conflicted - he is definitely interested in the girl, Hayley, but knows he shouldn't do anything.

Hayley invites herself to his house to listen to some Goldfrapp bootlegs he has (lol). She convinces him to photograph her, and she blasts some beats from the stereo and starts dancing "like she is in one of those videos." The man, Jeff, gets dizzy and falls over. When he comes to, he is tied up to a chair. Turns out Hayley drugged his screwdriver. All of this happens within the first twenty minutes of the film.

The next hour and twenty minutes is her torturing Jeff. She is convinced he is a pedophile and tears up his house for the evidence. Eventually she finds a photo of a girl, whose name she knows (but I forget), inside a secret safe. The girl has been missing, and this is probably the last photo taken of her. Hayley flips and begins the process of prepping to castrate Jeff. The next half an hour is her talking to him about what a pervert he is and her teasing him with beginning to castrate and then stopping. Finally she does it. She cuts off his testicles. You don't see anything, but I still almost vomited.

At this point in the movie, you almost feel bad for the guy. I really didn't believe he was a pedophile. A questionable photographer, yes. Sort of creepy? Yes. But did he rape children? Not so sure. And Hayley surely seems psychotic. Hayley decides to shower after the castration, which gives Jeff some time to get out of the ropes with which he is tied. He looks down to find that she has merely pinched his testicles with some sort of thick paper clip/holder to cut off the feeling. He is relieved, and is ready to attack Hayley. He goes to the shower, where she surprises him and electrocutes him.

So more violence ensues, more struggle. She gets him onto the roof and tells him he can either hang himself or have his long lost love (Janelle) find out that he is a pedophile. (She had called Janelle and acted like a police officer to get her to race over to the house.) Jeff asks her who she is, really. She says: "I am every little girl you’ve ever watched, hurt, touched, screwed, killed." Jeff responds, "I didn't kill her, I only watched" and instantly you get spooked. He says, "I can tell you his name" but Hayley says she already knows it, and that "he said the exact same thing." The implied is obvious - she killed Jeff's conspirator, the man who was with Jeff when that girl from the earlier photo died. She then hands Jeff the rope, and he hangs himself off the side of the roof as Janelle is calling his name looking for him.

The film ends, and I am left disturbed. For most of the film I hated the girl. Torture isn't acceptable, ever. But then I thought about the film as a rape revenge film, and found myself much more able to stomach what just happened. By the end of the closing scene, which ends with one of my favorite Blonde Redhead songs, I felt really neutral towards the girl. I sympathized with her, yet continued to think she was insane. In the end, I think I was just glad the movie was over.

The next movie I watch needs to be fluffy. This was rough.

Re-cap

I'm working from home today. First time I've ever done that! I have some research and writing to get done, and its -16 (no joke) outside so I decided the office got the boot for the day.

It's Monday, which I believe means its the weekend re-cap edition of Causing Accidents. Friday was freezing cold. Nate and I got some home-cookin' at the Silver Cloud and watched Thursday's sit-coms. Staying in felt great. Saturday was Amanda's birthday party at Black Rock, and despite the below freezing temps, everyone made it out for it. JP and I decided that running to Black Rock was a better idea than walking, and in many ways it was until I couldn't stop coughing all night.

Sunday I wanted to get some stuff done, but ended up sleeping until 1:30. Nate and I worked on the PUZZLE we bought Saturday. Yes, we bought a totally dorky puzzle and are putting it together. It's actually really hard (read the description on the link). After we got most of the edges done (ok, after Nate got most of the edges done), we went to Ed and Soup's Super Bowl Party. I ate like and asshole the entire time. Tons of Hooter's Chicken Wings, brownies, tater tots, Natalie's cookies, artichoke dip, lil' smokies (lol), jalepeno poppers, pizza rolls, bacon wrapped dates, all the typical football food. The game was sort of fun, until that whole Bears Lose bit. The party was a good time - we deep fried a White Castle hamburger, and have that on tape. I foresee some YouTube viral action going on with that recording. My clothes stink of deep fryer, but the fried pickles, and fried everything else we ate were great. I'm pretty sure I can't eat for the next four days to make up for how bad I was. Then we got home around 10 and for some reason I was so tired I couldn't function. I fell asleep on the couch and it took a lot of work for me to make it over to the bed for sleepy time.

This week will be quiet, as its still insanely cold out. I'll watch Lost, but other than that I have no plans.

a little librarian humor for the losers

Books On Wheels:

“Look down there—at the sunlight gleaming on the library—that’s where I’m to begin my career. But it won’t end there; I’m going places—as far as any librarian can go.”

“Librarian!” Dave’s tone was incredulous. “You a librarian! Huh! You’re no more the type to be a librarian than I am; and it’s a fine career for a wide-awake girl who loves the outdoors—shut up with a lot of musty books. You’re too afraid of people, too.”

“That’s all you know about it. And what if I am shy with strangers? Can’t I overcome that? And suppose I can’t; there’s work with children, and I’d soon forget myself if I were doing things for a lot of youngsters—scout work taught me that. And all library work isn’t being ‘shut up with a lot of musty books,’ either—it’s doing things for people—all sorts of things, that often take the librarians outside their libraries. Miss Thacker has a friend on a state library commission who has had thrilling experiences traveling around the country—out in your great open spaces. Why, there’s a book called The Library Without the Walls—does that sound ‘shut up’?”

Today I'm thinking, "as far as a librarian can go" is NOT FAR.

Film Announcement

Woot! Herzog retrospective all this February in Chicago! I've seen all these already, but it can't hurt to see them on a big screen. Let me know if you are interested in any of them. Last week's screening of Inland Empire has revitalized my obsession with film, so I'm pretty excited about this.

This weekend is packed with events, so tonight I'm going to stay home and re-watch The Office, 30 Rock, and the Sarah Silverman Program. Oh and eat at the Silver Cloud. And hopefully watch the White Diamond. And sleep a lot. And stay warm with Audrey.

there will be no search party for us

I've had a bit too much coffee today, and am having difficulty paying attention. Therefore, I figured I may as well write some boring blog post. Last night I went to the Map Room for beer with Nate. It's four blocks from my house, yet I have never been there. The place was really cool. It had all these old national geographics everywhere, and over 200 beers. Some of the beers were super expensive. Not being a big beer person, I went with the beer of the month. Then we read books like old people.

Tonight Driftless Pony Club is playing the Note, so I'll be there. I also really need to spend some quality time with the pup.

I've been really into finding music videos on YouTube lately, and listening to bands' songs on MySpace. It's weird...reminds me of being in high school and reading web sites to learn about new bands, then having to go to the Antiquarium, buy the cd, and hope I liked the band. Now I can just sit and listen to it online. Welcome to the 21st Century.