Melmac

Even the kid actors can barely bring themselves to laugh.

I loved it.

Bloscars

The Oscars were fun. Jon Stewart is so chill and funny. Daniel Day-Lewis is absolutely deserving. I did well on the family Oscar predictions - 2nd only to Whitby. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova are the best. I was so glad they brought Marketa back out to give her heartfelt acceptance speech, "The fact that we're standing here tonight, the fact that we're able to hold this, it's just proof that no matter how far out your dreams are, it's possible, and, you know, fair play to those who dare to dream, and don't give up. This song was written from the perspective of hope, and hope, at the end of the day, connects us all, no matter how different we are." And as Glen said, "Make art. Make art."

You can take this job and . . .

I'm sort of sad right now. As I've mentioned before, I work for a lurpy little company in Burbank - which has been good to me, it's stable, the people are nice, I can walk to work, but I have been wanting a new job for some time now. I want to work for a company I am excited about, where I want to contribute to what the company is producing and frankly my passion doesn't get ignited by selling copy machines. I was assigned to represent our company for the BTMO(Burbank Transportation Management Organization) and today I went to a meeting about emergency preparedness (wow, this blog is really exciting, huh?). The meeting was held at Warner Bros. and the members of the commmittee were from Warner, Disney, NBC and SAG . . . and then there was me from Image IV Systems. I felt like the weird step-child. It was actually helpful, we're trying to get plans in place in case of emergencies. The point I'm trying to get to is that walking into Warner Bros. was so rad. The energy there is so cool. Walking through the offices and seeing all the people coming and going is so nice. I want a job there - or another rad studio! I wouldn't care if I was still doing office work, I just want to be part of something larger, something I can get excited about. I had been valiantly trying to get a job at a studio or with a production company for some time, but it is nearly impossible to even get an interview at any of these places unless you have a personal introduction from someone you know. I don't have film experience on my resume, but I know I am smart and capable of so much if just given the chance. I am doing a play this Summer, but when I get back I am going to be more driven than ever to get a job I am excited about. Anyone out there have any connections? I am not too proud to ask for help. Sigh.

Bobbi Lynne

Basketball is cute

He's funny and environmentally conscious.

Celine

The other night there was a Celine Dion concert on t.v. which Whit and I had on out of morbid curiosity and boy, was it worth it, she is the weirdest human being and that thing was chok full of unintentional comedy gold. This clip is her duet with Josh Groban, skip ahead to the end, at about 6:45, after they've finished the song, the last like 15 seconds they both just keep talking over one another, it's like they're not even in the same room, it's so funny to me. Whit and I were sobbing, we were laughing so hard, maybe it's just us, but watch that ending a couple of times, it is so weird.

Cupcakes + Basketball = Rad

Two households both alike in dignity...

So weird. So funny. A documentary about monkeys in a Thai city was filmed and the filmmakers shaped it into the story of Romeo and Juliet. The Capulets live a leisurely life on the grounds of a temple and the Montagues are street monkeys, theiving and creating mischief amongst the dirty market streets. But two monkeys defy their boundaries and well, you know the rest. There's a long sequence of them falling in love and, whoah, I'm watching it right now and they just showed the monkeys french kissing, I'm not kidding, it was in slow motion, creepy. There are hundreds of wild monkeys just crawling the streets of this city, one lady had to swat one of them off with her purse. It's like a nightmare, you don't mess with insane, wild monkeys, just give him the purse! All right, enough of this, I want to give this movie my full attention. It was funny to me at first, but it's actually taken a turn for the worse, Romeo was just banished by his ghetto family, sad. He just climbed onto a train.

Happy Valentine's Day

For Valentine's day I thought I'd remember some of my favorite romances from film and television. I'm sure I'll leave several out, but these are just the ones that sprang to mind:


-Love Actually is chok full of love, obviously. My favorite romantic moments: when Jamie (Colin Firth) proposes to Aurelia in Portuguese and we realize with her English response that she has learned English for him as well, and the scene where Mark professes his love to Keira Knightley's character with posters and then "Enough." walks away. Oh, and the dance with Laura Linney and her long-time crush to Norah Jones' Turn Me On.


-Bridget Jones' Diary: maybe my favorite onscreen kiss. Bridget running through the streets in her underwear finds Mark and he wraps her in his coat and as the snow lightly falls they share a bombastic kiss.


-Thorn Birds: Ralph and Meggie. It's just so forbidden and great. Love the book as well.


-BBC's The Office: Dawn and Tim. They receive the It's About Time award for their joyous kiss in the Christmas special. It was such a sweet, real, wonderful relationship. And one reason the American Office's Pam and Jim can suck it - maybe that's harsh, but seriously, they pale in comparison.


-Truly, Madly, Deeply: I've got to include it, I mean it is my favorite movie and shows the process of letting go of the past and being able to embrace new love and life.


-The Philadelphia Story: Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn are fantastic partners, but the late night meeting between Hepburn and Jimmie Stewart is scintillating.


-Gone With the Wind:It's just a great sweeping romantic movie. Everyone but Scarlett can see that Rhett is perfect for her. Rhett is charming, funny, honest and sexy, but the allure of the virtuous Ashley is strong. Love the book too.


-House MD: House and Cameron have fantastic chemistry. I love these two, I just hope the writers decide to keep the House/Cameron relationship alive instead of focusing on a new bombshell (who I don't buy is a doctor at all) and depleting Cameron's role on the show, but that's another rant for another day. I wanted to attach the video of the time House and Cameron kissed, but the only videos I could find of it were weird fan videos where people spliced in other dialogue or put crappy sappy songs over the scene. Oh, well. It was fantastic.
-And a few more: The Princess Bride(classic), Return To Me(rent it if you haven't seen it), Dirty Dancing(just fun), The Buccaneers(great Masterpiece Theatre extravaganza), Pride and Prejudice(I prefer the Colin Firth version, but the newest one is good too), Only You(Italy.),Mansfield Park(with Frances O'Connor-love it),When Harry Met Sally. Goodness, I better just force myself to stop, I could go on and on, but I'll save some for next Valentine's day, I suppose.
Where there is love, there if life. -Gandhi

Grotesque

This image will haunt your nightmares . . .


Carrot Top meets Michael Jackson?
I really shudder when I look at this picture and Broadway should be absolutely embarassed.

The King of Kong

We just watched a fantastic documentary, The King of Kong A Fistful of Quarters, about the world of competitive arcade gaming. It was amazing. Please please go rent this. I don't want to say too much, but it's an amazing story of good and evil. I was so excited, tense, angry and touched by this story, I didn't anticipate feeling so strongly in a documentary about trying to have the top score in Donkey Kong, but it will surprise you. Great characters, great story. Rent it.

Barbies

Oh, man. This is so fantastic. Someone has videos posted on youtube of Bangles music videos they made with their Barbies when they were kids. This is absolutely something my sister and I would do. Half of my childhood was spent playing with Barbies. We had a great collection.
My sister and I would start out and first decide what genre of Barbies we would play: adventure, space, old-fashioned, modern day... sometimes we'd take them on camping trips upstairs to the living room with our Barbie motorhome. Then we would decide who got to act which doll that day and then we would dress and style them.
They all had elaborate histories, some Barbies and Kens had better chemistry than others. One couple that was always great together were Stacey and Tom - otherwise known as Pretty in Pink Barbie and Western Ken - they had a long history - the funny thing about these two though is that they were older dolls so Stacey's scalp was coming off and you would have to hold her hair onto her head and Ken's hip was broken so you would have to hold his leg and groin together, but these problems didn't slow us down, they were still great together.
I still have vivid memories of glancing over at my sister across the room with her Ken and Barbie couple, while I was with my Ken and Barbie couple and seeing her mouthing their dialogue quietly to herself and then inevitably making them kiss. When you were in the midst of an intimate scene with your dolls it felt perfectly normal, but looking at it from a distance it was, and is, absurd. But my sisters and I did grow up watching All My Children which I am sure influenced our play time. We had our own intricate soap opera going on with the barbies in the basement.
I have so many Barbie stories, I could probably fill a book, but I'll spare you. These videos I have linked made me laugh so hard, they're actually pretty good. And I did think of my sister and I making our own music videos with Barbies, we just didn't have a video camera to capture any of it. It also reminded me of the time we acted out all of The Phantom of the Opera musical with Barbies - it was epic. I love my sisters and I love Barbies. I miss it.

Glitter Years is just great classic 80's Barbies:

Darling Ones, so serious and great:

What I Mean to Say, I just like this song, my sister had it on the B side of a Bangles cassette single:

On a lighter note . . .

Happy 34th Birthday Steven J. Nash!

Noor

One of my good friends at work found out he has cancer a couple of weeks ago. He has since started chemo and we hope for the best. But it is so scary. Really nothing is scarier than cancer. We all have the possibility of getting cancer and it just comes without warning. It just seems so unbelievable that we still don't have a cure for cancer - I think in this day and age we take medical knowledge for granted. We, or at least I, feel like if you get sick you can see a doctor and get fixed, but there is still so much we don't know and so many illnesses that we can't control. It also seems so unfair that someone like my friend who tries to live a good, healthy lifestyle should get struck, whereas others who have horrible health habits and choose to abuse their bodies can get by unaffected. I know that's not how life works, bad things do happen to good people, but it's hard not to get upset. My friend is a good man, he has a wife and young children. I'm writing this because he just came by the office to visit for the first time since his diagnosis. He is thinner, he is scared, but he is hopeful and just wants us to pray for him, which I have been doing and will continue to do.

Welcome Shaq

My Suns just made a huge trade, we lost Shawn Marion, which is sad, but we gained Shaquille O'Neal. Most people are doubting this decision, but I think this could be just what the Suns need to get over the hump and win a championship. I just watched the press conference with Shaq and I think he is ready to kill it. People say he's too big, can't run with the fast-paced Suns, but he was just with a team that had a very different style, he says that he loves to run and can't wait to play with Steve Nash. He had some injuries and wasn't playing up to par, but I think he is ready to give it his all again. He's going to take Amare Stoudemire under his wing, he's going to rebound like crazy. His experience and attitude are going to help motivate the team as well. I loved my team as it was, but I am tired of getting so close to the championship and not quite making it. Shaq might be the answer so we can face large teams and come out victorious. Am I a little nervous? Sure. But I've got a lot of hope. This is the year of the Sun!

"Live like a Super-Star"

I just heard such a weird commercial on the radio: there is a contest to win a loft home designed by the Anaheim Ducks goalie, Jiggy Giguere. Would I really want my home designed by a hockey player, much less a hockey player named Jiggy? Yes, obviously, I mean, his penalty box remodelling was so classy, and have you seen the Zamboni he tricked out? That boy has an eye for design. I know, stupid joke, but seriously what a weird contest.