wish list

Beach House--Teen Dream

Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand (or Beach House) released their new album “Teen Dream” this month. The sound is more mature and polished than their previous two albums, Victoria becomes more confident with her vocals. Many credit the cleaner sound with the album’s release on Sub-Pop and fear that Beach House is selling out. In fact, the album doesn’t lose the dazed quality BH is loved for, it refines it. Teen Dream is all at once sorrowful, delightful, mesmerizing, but modest. This is a triumph of an album, and shows a clear progression from Devotion.

Favorite Tracks

silver soul

Silver Soul is a sad song. It opens with birds chirping , slides into a slow, soulful verse and settles into a devastating chorus. Victoria chants, almost sobs “it is happening again” over and over. The second verse is angrier, the percussion gets stronger and Legrand screams “it’s a sickness, embedded quickness”. The song builds; Scally’s vocals are added as additional rhythm and the song really sweeps you up. You can feel the despair itSilver Soul.

_norway

Norway is the first single off “Teen Dream”. It’s a perfect song for winter. Legrand’s breathy vocals are sampled softly as part of the rhythm section in the chorus. These laid over her soulful, warm voice creates a rich feeling. The song wraps you up in its long sad tones, but delights with its twinkling guitars and upbeat tempo. Norway is a standout track that defines BH”s new, cleaner sound and assures fans they’re not abandoning their dreamy aesthetic.

lover of mine

For me, Lover of Mine is the best track on Teen Dream. It has that haunting quality I love about BH. It begins with a fun sounding 80s synth line. Once the echoy vocals kick in the synth is faded out leaving you alone with Victoria’s tortured voice. The verses sound like fairy tales, lyrics about a dark forest and the contrast of this fantasy with the bleak quality of the vocals and melody makes the song all the more unsettling in the best way, like you’re dreading something, but you don't know what.

Twilight: New Moon

Somehow I've managed to put down the glitter I was adhering to my "Future Twi-MILF" shirt, and stop furiously clicking "TEAM EDWARD" in online polls long enough to write down some of my thoughts on the second film (?) in the Twilight saga. I haven't read the second book so this movie is all new to me, and riveting.

Except that it isn't. As far as I can tell New Moon is about getting the audience to invest in a relationship between Bella and Edward, revealing that he's a werewolf, Bella accepting him for the monster than he is, and then totally fucking him over because Edward is still super hot. Pretty much. And they still haven't refined the sparkle feature in ProTools. Hate this movie.

The problem with the first movie was that they ruined a potentially compelling love story with terrible acting, and spinning camera angles, and Muse songs. They fixed all that for New Moon, firing Hardwicke was a great decision, and the acting was pretty decent, mostly because Robert Pattinson only had to appear in like two scenes. Kirsten Stewart was mostly believable, I really want to like her, you can tell she hates every moment of these movies and just wants to be smoking a bowl on the public sidewalk the day after the movie she stars in breaks records . Love you Kirsten! Anyway, Taylor Lautner's not bad either. The only cringe worthy thing production wise was the ghost-like version of Edward warning Bella against doing dangerous things, but how are you supposed to make that look good.

The blame for this movie falls squarely on Stephanie Meyer's shoulders. The implausibilities are endless. The movie begins with Edward leaving Bella to give her a chance at a normal life, he says he will never see him again and we believe him. Later, when he comes to believe that Bella has died he decides he cannot go on in a world without her and decides to commit suicide. OK, I know that's romantic and all but, Ed, if you're as serious about this as your exaggerated pouting in every scene suggests, shouldn't not being able to be with her be enough to drive you to suicide. Also, a round of applause to the filmmakers for having the audacity to make Robert Pattinson recite lines from Romeo & Juliet at the beginning of the movie because WE DIDN'T GET IT WITHOUT THAT FLASHING SIGN.

Jacob's character is kind of disturbing too. I mean, in that there were several scenes that made a point of making you think about his age (16!). Bella even has to buy his ticket to get into an R rater movie--cringe. Then in the next scene he tears off his shirt to literal SCREAMS from the middle aged women in the audience, skeevesville. There's also seriously a scene where hes chopping wood shirtless in the rain. Congrats producers, you are the worst! I can't wait for Eclipse!!!

Movie Roundup

Paranormal Activity--

This isn't, as some people have suggested, the scariest movie of all time. It is, however, pretty damn scary. I did love how slowly it builds, it takes its time and doesn't get bogged down in some convoluted mythology or real

story. It plays on little s

cares, exaggerating things that really happen to not allow for alternative explanations. Perhaps the best way it scares you is to suggest that things could be happening to you without you knowing it (I'm thinking mostly about the sleepwalking segment, which really shook me). I love that the movie which uses all practical effects, and was made in a weekend f

or $11,000 has managed to make $20 million this weekend! Good to see the little guys succeed, especially when it's a decent movie, like this one. It won't be your favorite movie, but it's a fun one to see in a crowded theater!

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilco

I've been on a Wilco kick lately so I decided to check

out this doc about the making of their album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. It's a bit of a behind the scenes look into the making of the album, their conflict with each other and with the label releasing the album.

It's entertaining, thanks in huge part to the music included just being SO GOOD, but really theres not enough material here to construct a whole movie. There's glimpses of meetings, interviews explaining who's mad at who and minor drama, but you never get to see any of the creative process which is what I was most interested in. It's worth watching if you're already a fan of Wilco, because there are a lot of really beautiful, stripped down versions of the songs on Yankee Hotel, but it's pretty skipable otherwise.

Mutual Appreciation--

Mutual Appreciation is another mumble-core type movie from Andrew Bujalski--director of Funny Ha Ha. It's largely improvised, lacking in plot and kind of meanders around characters. It really gets the rhythm of everyday life right. It's biggest strength is how characters constantly diffuse tension, refusing to present the audience with that cinematic romantic moment, or that gaze that lingers too long. The characters are all a bit uncomfortable in their skin, and theres a lot of cringing that goes along with watching them. Unlike Puffy Chair, which reveled in the mundane, purposely making you suffer through watching people literally talk about nothing, Mutual Appreciation follows a romance, it just follows it in a real way. No one's running to stop airplanes, or appearing in suits at the top of escalators, they're pretending they need rides home, or forgot their coats to get a couple more minutes alone with the one they're interested in. Definitely worth watching-- it's available on Netflix Watch Instantly!

Where The Wild Things Are

Spike Jonze's "Where The Wild Things Are" isn't going to save movies or be the best thing anyone has seen or change anyones life. It's flawed, in a lot of ways, but the emotional resonance of the whole thing more than made up for it in my eyes.

THE GOOD

• Max--Max is absolutely expertly cast. I can't imagine anyone else in the role. He's totally free of precociousness, but still has the weight to deliver on the emotional moments. Think the absolute opposite of Abigal (awful) Breslin in "Little Miss Sunshine".
• Sets and Costumes--The Henson Company suits fit in so well to the atmosphere the film created. Just whimsical enough, it was refreshing to not be bombarded with CGI neon creatures in a kids (to the extent to which it is, which is not at all) movie. The sand dunes, the secret fort, and the forest were totally breathtaking too.
• Music--Obviously I love Karen O's soundtrack and thought that they blended in really well to the movie and lent it some tonal cohesion (with the exception of Worried Shoes which is an awful song and was distracting).
• Emotional Payoff--So many little scenes were totally devastating. Max and Carol's friendship is developed beautifully and in an understated way. Many little moments hit you hard, Carol and Max talking about the sun on the dunes, Max seeing Carol's model for the first time, the rumpus. It's bound to get a little dusty in the theater at some point.

THE BAD

• The Handy Cam--For some reason nearly every shot in this movie is done with a shaky handy cam, I guess this is supposed to put you in the moment and give some frenetic energy to the film, but in almost all cases it turns out looking sloppy and seems as if the choice was made for the sake of doing something different. So many times I found myself wishing that shots would just be opened up to a wide lens and held steady, they created such a beautiful world that it was a shame not to be able to see all of it.
• The Marketing--I really think a lot of the reason this movie isn't being as well received as people anticipated it to be is due to the marketing. The trailers mislead viewers into thinking they'd be seeing a whimsical, inspiring tale about imagination and friendship (I'm thinking mostly about the tagline "Inside all of us is hope, adventure, a wild thing"). The movie, in actuality, is BLEAK. The wild things are kind of horrible, and theres the fear that they'll kill Max looming throughout the whole movie. There's a lot of devastation and not much redemption, which could be really off-putting were you not prepared for it.

Opening Ceremony--Where The Wild Things Are

As the release of Spike Jonze's Where The Wild Things Are draws closer, Opening Ceremony has put out a small collection inspired by the film. The collection includes fur coats, mini-skirts and full body suits. It's really fun and playful, and overall cute as nearly everything Opening Ceremony has a hand in is.

Movie Roundup

Jennifer's Body--

I actually had expectations for Jennifer's Body, the trailers made it look like it could be a fun campy, maybe scary movie, similar in tone to this year's "Drag Me To Hell". However, Diablo Cody

is no Sam Raimi, and Jennifer's Body was short on both thrills, and laughs. Megan Fox did the best she could I suppose, deliv

ering lines like, "you're so lime green Jell-o and you don't even know it". Ugh. There was a fair amount of Veronica Mars crossover in this, and it was sad to see their talent wasted. We didn't see the movie in a full-enough theater to yell at the screen and have a good time, so Jennifer's Body was ultimately totally boring.

Final Verdict: Skip it

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs--

I haven't been impressed with many non-Pixar animated films lately (Bolt came about the closest and it was just OK), but Cloudy

With A Chance took me by surprise. Cloudy is HILARIOUS, it's written and directed by the sa

me guys responsible for Clone High so it's no surprise that the humor was right up my alley. What I liked most is that the humor was funny enough to make my sides hurt, but it wasn't stuff that would go over the kid's heads. It's just funny, character based humor, without shoe-horning cultural references in a-la Shrek. Beyond being HILARIOUS (seriously, one of the funniest movies of '09) it's visually stunning, it's so fun to be transported to this food land. The film had a lot of emotional resonance too. The main character's relationship with his father was real and beautiful and made me cry. The voice work was great too, Anna Faris, Bill Hader, and Mr. T were all highlights. It's a seriously fun, sweet, well-paced moive.

Final Verdict: See it! (In 3-d!)

Word Wars

Word Wars is a really cool documentary about competitive Scrabble playing. Word Wars focuses on 4 competitors, going to the Nationals. They players

are all unemployed, living in squalor, and not anyone that you would aspire to be. These players gamble their money away on high stakes games of Scrabble, and obsess about anagrams all the time. Many of them claim to have the dictionary memorized. The documentary is depressing, it's hard to see people with such a specific, well-developed skill set suffer so much in the real world. Totally worth watching though, stomach-churning as it is.

Final Verdict: Rent It

The Squid and the Whale--

I revisited this movie finally. I saw it in theaters and loved it when it came out, I was 15 at the time. I was worried that like many indie type movies I saw at that age the cool factor would have worn off and I would be embarassed to have liked it. However, The Squid and the Whale held up. It's not often in movies that people who like to think of themselves as intellectuals are criticized, and Jeff Daniels' character is one of the more realistic professor types ever, and he sucks. Everyone in the movie is kind of miserable, and it's hard to watch, but totally enjoyable to revel in on a grey day.

Final Verdict: See it!

Wavves

Wavves played a free show last night in Grinell, IA. They took the stage 2 hours late and the sound in the venue was horrible. Wavves still put on a great, ridiculously energetic set, the highlight of which was definitely No Hope Kids. No one in the crowd knew the songs or who was preforming but they were won over pretty quickly. Great show all around! Also, Nathan Williams was really sweet, polite and mild mannered, which shocked me.

Gossip Girl Season 3 Premiere

The biggest surprise of Gossip Girl season 3 so far is that I'm still watching because I'm pretty sure I hate this show. Anyway the premiere, exciting stuff! Third season! New drama! Wrong, this episode is such a snooze fest.

At least the show leads with its best foot forward and the episode opens with Chuck and Blair the only characters I can imagine viewers like. Because it's impossible to be genuinely invested in the struggles of these impossibly, rich, attractive and creepily mature teens, so why not just show us exaggerated fun well dressed stereotypes with catchphrases. I'm bored, and you've ruined my pants. Yes! This is what we want. Anyway we don't get it. Blair and Chuck are playing a game in which Chuck seduces girls, and Blair walks in, pretending to be a woman scorned. This is to prevent their relationship from becoming stale because you know, they're 17 and MID LIFE CRISIS IMPENDING. Anyway they're still in love and this makes them so zzzzzz. Thank God Chuck is gorgeous otherwise this may dip to Vanessa

levels of boring.

Nate is sleeping with some girl from a rival family. Hearts are breaking, forbidden love, scorned grandparents. It's Shakespeare over on the CW guys, tune in. If it ends in a double suicide you'll be sorry you missed it.

Across town Vanessa is mad at Dan for owning a designer wallet because authentic people with morals only shop at Urban Outfitters, obviously. Didn't she date an Archibald last year though? Vanessa's moral high ground act is getting SO TIRED .

Finally, there's Serena's baffling plot line. I seriously have NO IDEA what's going on. She faked being on a spiritual journey for the summer while she was really in Europe trying best she could to get into all the papers. She continues to try to make a scene in New York by losing her top (isn't she supposed to be 17, this show is so ew sometimes) and leaving some Polo match in Connecticut on a horse, who knows? Anyway we're all hating Serena for being some attention whore, but then her voice over let's us know that there's a reason. She wants her father to see he in the pages of the magazines so that he will come back into her life or contact her or something. OK we all sigh in relief together, she wasn't publicly flashing because she's a whore, she only wanted her dad to see!

The only silver lining of this show is that Dan and Serena's step brother is way overly interested in Dan, and I'm really hoping this leads to some gay incest. Also, Georgina next week.

Team Kanye

I know, you're sick of it, I'm sick of it, we're sick of it, there's wars going on, health care etc. Everyone is fatigued on Kanye-Taylorgate '09, but this cultural fixation is only making me more interested. I love that our cuture still isn't saturated with celebrity culture enough to realize that this is 100% a publicity stunt and benefits EVERYONE! Taylor Swift isn't crying because she didn't get to thank Carson Daly for awarding her best female video (do we know what video it was)? And Kanye isn't apologetic because the crazier he looks, the more stunts he pulls, he becomes less of a person and more of a brand. Need proof that Kanye values being distinguishable over dignity?

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury his hair, his leather shirt, and his girlfriend. Kanye the-crazy-George-Bush-doesn't-care-about-black-people-stupid-sunglasses-wearing-I-am-the-king-of-pop controversy monger eclipsed Kanye West the rapper, and certainly Kanye West the person. Which is why his apology on the Jay Leno (who is so ugh) was so interesting.

I may be naive (I am being naive)but I think that Kanye was genuinely upset when Leno asked him how his dead mother would feel about his "outbreak". And I don't know how it's more socially acceptable to scold a grown man by making him imagine his recently deceased mother's disapointment than to momentarily interrupt a speech at an award show at which Fartman makes frequent appearances. Also Taylor Swift is kind of the worst, in her View interview this week she whined about not getting to thank the fans, and having to pull herself together to preform like a professional 5 min later. I'm sorry but your lipsyncing on the subway was not preforming like a professional. This is preforming like a professional (except for the whole 'I'm beasting, of this riesling' line. Cringe.) take notes.

Rhymefest

I was introduced to Chicago rapper Rhymefest this summer, I liked what I heard, but didn't bother to look for more until this week. And now it's all I've been playing; his studio album Blue Collar, and two mixtapes--The Manual, and Man In The Mirror (a Mark Ronson produced Michael Jackson tribute). Rhymefest's raps are wonderful. Clever, fast, vicious at times and a breath of fresh air.

Rhymefest has the ability to make me laugh and tell a real story in his rhymes as well as create some seriously catchy tunes. I think his stuff is pretty accessible too, he uses a lot of mainstream tunes as his beats, especially on Man In The Mirror, on which virtually every backtrack is a Jackson hit. He's signed to ark Ronson's label, and co-wrote Kanye West's "Jesus Walks".

Essential Tracks: Every track on Blue Collar, seriously they're all great, especially: More, Sister, Tell A Story.

From Man In The Mirror: Breakadawn, Never Can Say Goodbye

From The Manual: RNQ

Spring 2010 RTW Faves So Far

Clockwise from top left: Alexander Wang, Lacoste, Boy by Band Of Outsiders, Rag & Bone, Organic by John Patrick

VMAs 2009

This year was the first year I watched the VMA's with "normal" people, and let me tell you it's THE BEST. The questions, the confused look, the disgust. It's so great.

Anyay first things first, the pre-show, the Twitter Tracker, UGH. Repulsive, micro-blogging rules, and don't get me wrong, I was refreshing my TweetDeck on the minute, but the correspondence on Twitter, the technology that looked more advanced than the election trackers, ew. Also, 2/3 out of the girls I watched with had no idea what Twitter was. Normal people, what a life. Other than the tweet coverage, Pink arrived in a fire truck (ugh), Taylor Swift arrived in a clear carriage drawn by white horses (double ugh) and Lady GaGa arrived with Kermit The Frog in a feather neckpiece and a gold mask (YES YES YES!). The normal's reaction to GaGa's get-up was SO AWESOME a lot of overwhelmed faces, and "Wait so is she like, a dude or what?".

So finally (?) the show begins with Madonna giving some weird tribute to Michael Jackson, and having everyone in the audience yell "LONG LIVE THE KING". I like Michael's music, and I have no problem with the musical memorial Janet put on, but if we could refrain from celebrating the character of someone who we all know was a child molester.

Next came the best moment of the night, Kanye West running on stage to tell Taylor Swift that Beyonce deserved the award. That in and of itself wasn't that great, Kanye does this ALL THE TIME, he's not really a loose cannon, he's a calculated cannon and he knows what nerves to hit to make your mom call you and ask you if you heard about what that Kane West said. And he does a great job because people FREAKED OUT. The girls I watched with were beside themselves "OMG I love Taylor! She's so cute! Kanye's such a jerk omg, he has no heart". I didn't bother trying to say that Taylor Swift is 19 and can handle being interrupted and these are the VMA's not the Grammy's or her High School graduation and who even fucking votes for the winners of these things because I really think it's just Kurt Loder, and that really Kanye was right Taylor didn't deserve the award, I mean did you see her performance moments after?

Holy shit, the subway, the dress, the teens singing along, it's all too much. But still:

GaGa was my other highlight of the night, just her attempts to be as bat shit crazy as possible, and the normal people in my room were freaking out.

There was this:

and this

and especially this:

The night closed with Jay-Z and Alica Keys, and Jay-Z KILLED IT. Then Lil' Mama ran on stage and started nodding at Jay-Z really hard and it was all kinds of awesome


In closing this sums up my feelings on the VMA's this year:

Degrassi: The Next Generation Seasons 1-3

Degrassi has been my latest obsession. Seasons 2-3 are available to watch instantly and having always been curious about the show I decided to check it out. I finished 2 and 3 in a week. The show isn't great, the acting is stilted, the scripts are Lifetime movie quality and the clothes are particularly painful (exhibit A Emma's linen pants painted with dolphins--puke). However Degrassi has some magical Boy Meets World quality that makes me feel like everything is going to be OK when I watch it. I know that at the end of the 22 min episodes everything is going to be OK. There's no problem to big to be wrapped up in a bow by Degrassi (although teen pregnancy, child abuse and rape did require 44 min double episodes). And I have no problem with this being trite, or unrealistic (for the record IT IS), but it's so ridiculously comforting that I'm totally OK with it. Sign me up for Degrassi High, Class of 2006.

The characters are (kind of) realistic in the sitcom High School stereotype way, there's Craig, sensitive heart-throb never seen without his acoustic guitar and camera. Paige, popular blonde cheerleader, complete with bedazzled "hottie" tank top. Manny, the younger girl attempting to make the transition from cute to sexy, and Mr. Simpson the sweet, awkwardly cute computer teacher going through chemotherapy. Degrassi's biggest strength is its ensemble cast. Each episode focuses on a different character and you really get a full view of the high school as a whole.

Check out Degrassi if you've got the stomach for it. I can't wait to start Season 4.

Kate Moss W Cover

There's really nothing to say. Kate Moss has still got it, her bone structure pains me, I'm obsessed. The cover is really fun too, I love the big hair, really different! Anyway pick this up, I know I will!

(500) Days Of Summer

I was really apprehensive about seeing this movie, I thought it could be a trying to hard to be quirky Juno-style disaster. Much to my surprise this move was delightful! It had it's moments that were pushing the quirk to hard (the precocious advice dispensing younger sister comes to mind), but most of the film was postitivley delightful, spending time with Summer and Tom was a lot of fun, and the unique directorial choices kept me engaged. A musical number, the split screen, the non-linear time line, the narration, somehow all these elements which can be obnoxious separately mesh together to paint a beautiful rich portrait of a relationship within Tom's mind.

Unlike traditional rom-coms (500) Days Of Summer doesn't pretend that it's giving you a mixed perspective, we only see Summer through Tom's eyes, we don't know about her childhood or what she does when she's not with Tom, or what she yearns to be in life. All we know is what she said to Tom, the limited amount of herself that she shared, and that, to me, was very interesting. This ambiguity allowed for a beautiful sequence in which the same montage of shots, when played twice with different music and at a different point in the film painted Summer as a beautiful to-good-to-be-true angel, and a selfish cold bitch.

Give (500) Days Of Summer a shot, it's a sweet August movie that will make you smile.

Brick

I watched Brick again tonight, it's a movie like Annie Hall that I just like the tone of so much. One that I could play in my house all the time just to have something on in the background. In Brick's case I think this has a lot to do with the excellent score.

Brick is a modern Noir set in a high school, Joseph Gordon Levitt's ex-girlfriend ends up dead two days after calling him asking for help with a bad brick, a tug, and a pin. We follow protagonist Levitt through his quest to figure out what happened to, and how to avenge the death of his ex. It's got a really interesting tone, kind of bittersweet. JGL gives a really great performance, he's so talented, re-watching Brick has made me even more anxious to get around to Mysterious Skin and 500 Days Of Summer. Another great surprise in this film is Nora Zehetner who plays femme fatale Laura. She's totally delightful and walks the line between temptress and evil incarnate really well.

The dialogue is what's most impressive in Brick. The first time I watched it I put subtitles on as to catch all the subtitles in the script. The talk is tight, and it doesn't slow down to make sure you understand, it's not all style either, missing one or two lines of dialog could mean the difference between following the mystery and being totally lost. This is all to say nothing of the ending scene which is breathtaking in its beauty. I want to move into this movie's world. Check it out immediatley if you haven't.

New Where The Wild Things Are Trailer

This movie cannot be as good as it looks. If it is I may be forced to set up shop in a theater and not leave until Christmas. The tone is so right on, theres moments of elation and fun, and delight and some truly heartwrenching scenes. I cannot wait. The kid playing Max looks and sounds so great, he's so little kid cute that he makes me want to get pregnant right now. Less than 2 months now and it's still too long.

Rodarte to do a line for Target

Kind of surreal. The infamously unwearable Rodarte is planning a 55 piece line to be sold at Target stores all for under $80. It seems kind of risky for Target, and for Rodarte. There's nothing in my eyes about the brand that screams everyday woman, I feel an Alexander Wang for Target line would have made a lot more sense, but we'll see what the pieces are like. If they manage to keep the feeling of the original line I can see myself picking a good portion of the 55 pieces up.

Funny People

Funny People was probably my most anticipated movie of the summer. I'm a total Apatow fan-girl, Knocked Up, Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared are among my favorite comedies, I've loved nearly everything Seth Rogen has done, and I think Adam Sandler does a great job in more serious roles, his performance in Punch-Drunk Love is especially memorable.

Funny People, is Apatow's third film, and maybe my favorite so far. I suppose it's not as laugh out loud funny as Knocked Up (which is not to say it doesn't have its moments) but the emotional pay-off is greater here, and the characters are more varied and interesting. Sandler's character George is totally miserable, and kind of an awful person, the dynamics between him and Rogen's Ira (playing the lovable nice guy once again) are so fun to watch. You find some part of each of them to relate to, and to hate. There are some really emotionally arresting scenes having to do with Sandler's illness, one of my favorites being the moments after the diagnosis, which in another movie would have been slow motion, close up on his face, sad music being reflective. In Apatow's world, life goes on, fans still ask for pictures, he still has to wait for stop lights etc. Really this is kind of what the movie is about, through the darkest moments in this film, Apatow never shies away from cutting the tension with a dick joke. And for some reason this speaks to me.

The only thing that doesn't work about Funny People is the last act love triangle bit, I see what they were going for, and parts of it are genuinley funny, but in the end the payoff isn't big enough to justify adding another hour to the film (which clocks in at 2.5 hrs). I would have rather seen that time spent with Sandler, Rogen and RZA. Yeah RZA! He's in this! Aces! See it now.

Fall Wish List

Fall 2009 by mrsshawnhunter featuring Furla bags

I'm leaving for South Dakota for a week and when I get back I need to get my ass in gear fall shopping wise. Above is my wish list/plan/bargain guide. I'm thinking about springing for the Alexander Wang tank, but $74 seems steep. We will see.

Fantastic Mr. Fox Trailer

Yes! The trailer for The Fantastic Mr. Fox looks great! I love the style of stop motion, it's a lot less fluid that a lot of the modern stop motion latley, which makes it look so fun and homemade and just CHARMING. The thing that really freaks me out is that every single frame screams Wes Anderson, his direction shines through the animation, and it looks so cinematic. The costumes are notable too, they're absolutley beautiful. This may be a return to form for Anderson after Darjeeling. I am worried about the cast though, George Clooney is really distracting. But I have faith, this trailer looks awesome.

The Real World Cancun: Episode 6

This season officially sucks. I ask for human drama and real emotion and this is what I get. Joey misses work because he drank all day and had sex with some random chick on the beach and is too hungover to make it to his 6 PM shift. He has a series of meetings with bosses to talk about what the consequences will be. He is rude in all of the meetings, he feels as though his time is being wasted and everyone should cut to the chase. He's got bandannas to tie, presumably. Everyone's scared that he will be fired and sent home, except no one cares because he is really a douche. In the confessional Joey reminds us what a rebel he is in case we cant tell from his lip ring, or gauged ears, or that bandanna. Ugh. "I just have such a problem with fucking authority, its just the worst". Joey actually just has a problem with having to be to work on time since he is in arrested development and can't manage a job hosting parties on the beach. Miserable. I think Ayiiia said it best when she said "he's just so low....like a piece of poop". Ayiiia is 24, using poop in a simile and she is still kind of right.

Jonna is kind of a trick and borderline cheats on her boyfriend (who is genuinely sweet and totally likeable). Miserable.

The only person in the house who ISN'T miserable is my ray of sunshine Bronne. Bronne appears in the episode for a total of 45 seconds and he still manages to say "dom" 3 times. My favortie exchange:

Boss: Bronne, how's being single?

Bronne: You know, it's pretty dom.

Boss: Look of confusion and disgust on his face

Embarassed roomate: Ugh, he means dom like, it dominates?

Boss: Mmmm.

I guess even Bronne is kind of miserable.

Leftovers

The Orphan

This may contain spoilers.

The reason I wanted to see The Orphan was for Peter Sarsgaard, who I have a huge crush on. The Orphan provided a fun creepy vehicle to watch him in for 2+ hours. The movie opens with a violent late term abortion, which ends up being a dream sequence, but is a really weird and unsettling way to open the film. After they adopt Esther from a home for girls she beings to act strange, she's always around when things go wrong. Concerns about Esther continue to escalate when someone winds up dead (we saw Esther beat her to death with a hammer) and she's weirdly attached to her adoptive father; played by my love Sarsgaard.

Things aren't too bad until you find out the twist, which is that this chick is really 33 with some rare condition that makes her look 9 and she is a serial family killer. She tries to seduce the fathers/husbands in families and when she can't (because she looks like shes 9, oh god ew) she kills them all. The scares there are pretty serious, and re-thinking scenes in the movie with the knowledge that shes 33 made me sleep with the lights on last night. There were quite a few unintentional laughs in the part where she was attempting to seduce Sarsgaard.

Orphan is by no means a great movie, but it's still kind of a fun thrill ride, worth a rental, I guess.

Still Suffering Through Entourage Season 6

Wow, so last week I was joking about Entourage being stuck in 2005 when it was relevant but this year they opened with a 5 minute bit on Knocked Up. Katherine Heigel is even over being offended by the misogny in Knocked Up because it's been out on DVD for like 3 years now. So the rest of this episode is about E and Sloan again. They go to a party as friends, but when the 17 year old girl from Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist shows up and hits on E, and he sleeps with her. Ack.

That was the entire episode really besides the running "would you sleep with Seth Rogen" gag. Remember that video "I'm Fucking Seth Rogen"? So do the writers on Entourage.

The next episode opens with Turtle's birthday. He gets two Ferraris and is really upset that hes a failure and can't get things for himself because of something 50 Cent said to him during a brief cameo. Really. Anyway I don't feel bad for Turtle with his two gifted Ferraris sleeping with the hot chick from the Sopranos and having no job but smoking weed. I'm pretty sure thats called LIVING THE DREAM. But apparently the audience is supposed to see the hidden potential in Turtle and root for him to succeed and make his own name for himself, so when he decided to go to college (studying sneakers or something?) I broke down in tears of joy.

The only other drama in this episode was what was going to happen to Lil' Bow Wow and E's pilot. If these are really the type of heartbreaking struggles people live through in Hollywood I'm dropping out of school and moving there right now.

This show is so miserable.

LOST Comic Con 2009 News--Mild Spoilers

Wow, so 815 never crashed! I know I'm in the minority but at this point this is really what I

want out of Season 6. Something entirely character focused. I would be ecstatic if the season

just focused on what would have happened to the main people had 815 never crashed, like an

alternate reality. I don't care about resolution with Dharma or the island mythology because

I've never really watched Lost for that, I just care about the characters, and speaking of characters--

Holy crap Juliet and Faraday and Charlie and Boone and Shannon?!? I am too excited for

words!

I kind of couldn't have asked for anything more from Lost this Comic Con, I am horribly excited

for Season 6 and will be starting my 1-5 re-watch soon enough!

Oh and Jacob never appeared as anyone else, which kills some cool, ultimate Jack-Locke showdown

theories but whatever! Alternate realities, you guys!

Hanne Gaby Odiele for Missoni's F/W '09 Campaign

It's kind of breathtaking really, Missoni's collection was one of my faves from this season, and Hanne is one of my new favorite girls. I have to say I really do not understand the thought behind setting the campaign on a truck, it's so disconnected from the clothes. I thought it would be more similar to the wheat field thing like we saw in Chloe's campaign this year. Anyway I'm really pleased with it, and I love the way the leggings look in the photo. I really hope people will take a cue and go for the more textured look this fall because it's absolutely beautiful..