Last night I made the mistake of falling asleep with the TV on and now I’m worried it may have screwed with my head.
I had a DVD playing (Season 2 of Arrested Development) and it has one of those “looping scenes” in their main menu where they play clips from the show over and over unless you do something about it.
Anyway, I remember dreaming about specific lines from the show…and people saying them over and over again (Imagine a world where you try and speak to someone and they only repeat the same sentence over and over again; it’s hauntingly terrifying).
When I woke up, I realized this was due to the fact that I had the TV on so loud that I could hear those lines in my sleep….and that they were influencing my dreams.
Now I’m a little worried about how *else* those looped scenes might have affected my sub consciousness.
This is your brain on TV media
If I start acting funny, get me professional help, okay?
So Camp Hollywood – the annual swing dance camp I journey to every year for 3 non-stop days/nights of dancing – has come and gone….and there’s not much to say other than MAN, WHAT A GREAT TIME I HAD!
Pretty sure I lost a couple pounds due to all the sweating (I sweated through 12 T-shirts) and a lot of people have said my form has improved since last weekend.
Other than that, not much to say – but here’s a performance from the Showcase competition that I think you should all watch:
Hard to believe they only placed 4th in the contest (I guess it didn’t have as much actual ‘dancing’ as the other showcase performances did); but anyway…..!
I hung out with my friend (and fellow ECLS major), Susan, the other day to catch up on what’s been going on in our lives. I told her about Camp Hollywood & my trip to New York last month and she told me she was traveling to Italy soon for a friend’s wedding. (Rich friends, amIrite?) And while we initially planned to see a movie as our scheduled “friend activity” (aka ‘excuse to hang out’), we couldn’t decide on what to watch.
(See, Susan was also a film major and has a huge pet peeve about movies being original – everything in the theatres was either a remake, a sequel, or based on some book / graphic novel franchise and she wasn’t about to pay good money to see those)
So we ended up going to Barnes & Nobles and browsed their “summer & back to school reading” sections to see how many we’ve read /what we *really* thought of them. It’s actually a pretty fun way for English Majors to pass the time!
But getting back to Susan’s pet peeve: I’ve heard this gripe before from a lot of other film buffs and I got to wondering when this started. I mean, aren’t all stories derived from previous ones that came out before them? And those that aren’t based on stories are based on real life experiences instead, so they’re not truly original either. So were there ever any original ideas?
If not, where did the idea of “there were original ideas before” come from?
Maybe *that’s* the only true original idea……..!
Or not.
Sorry - it’s late and I’m rambling, trying to get ‘inspired’ to write a blog post.
I dreamed that I was out in the ocean by some harbor and casually swam into the open mouth of a Blue whale that came up to the surface.
The inside of the whale mouth was furnished with nice couches and tables, etc. but flooded waist-deep with water. Also - the inside of the whale’s mouth was transparent (like glass) so I had a really nice view of the ocean from the whale’s perspective.
My first thought upon seeing this - “what’s the rent on a whale like this, and can I afford it?”
Then I noticed this girl floating / sleeping / drifting next to me. She was a girl I knew from college. On the far side of the whale, I saw a guy I went to high school with doing the same thing (floating).
The whale then dived down back into the ocean and only then did I start panicking:
“How the hell am I going to get out of here??”
I grudgingly woke up the girl floating next to me and explained to her my problem and she casually explained to me that the whale goes back to the surface for air every few hours or so and that I could probably leave then.
Now calmer (but still a little freaked out), I swam over to the “window” of the whale and admired the view of the ocean.
And then I woke up.
ANY PSYCHO-ANALYSTS WANNA TELL ME WHAT MY DREAM MEANS?
(Don’t say “I have a whale fetish” cuz it’s not true)
So by now you all know that I got a promotion at work and have this new job with all these cool & crazy responsibilities; I’m totally an essential part of my department and contribute to the growth of the company, blah, blah, blah…..!
And while that’s really great – something I felt was really missing in my last position – it means that I can’t afford to take as many vacations as I used to.
……which really sucks, because I feel the need to take more of them now since this job is kind of stressful.
The reason I’m bringing this up is because I might not be able to fly home for Christmas this year. My vacation time was cut down significantly by my recent trip to New York and I’m not sure I’ll be able to accrue the needed days-off for a Christmas vacation this year.
It gets even trickier this year because half of my current department consists of L.A. transplants - people originally from the South, the East Coast, Scotland,…..and now Hawaii.
My old department consisted of people whose families lived in Los Angeles and could afford to work during the Christmas holidays. Christmas vacation was never really an issue back then.
But now….I’ve heard it can get kind of vicious around the holidays when it comes to asking for time off – begging, bargaining, lots and lots of toadying to the boss, etc. etc.
I don’t even want to think about what I’ll have to go through to get time-off approved for Evan & Mahea’s wedding in Hawaii next year.
Ah well, working up the nerve to ask today – wish me luck!
So by now you’ve probably all seen X-Men: First Class (and loved it) or decided that it’s not really worth seeing. I’m counting on this being “a given” so I can rant about this movie without any guilt about spoiling for anybody, but in case there are some of you who are waiting for it to come out on DVD…….!
*
* *
-- HERE BE SPOILERS---
* * * * * * * I just don’t get how this movie gets an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes. If the major demographic of this movie franchise is “comic book nerds” like me, then how the hell did everyone else love it? First of all, there are many, MANY, *MANY* discrepancies between the comics and this movie….as well as between the past 4 other movies! They include, but are not limited to, the following:
Moira McTaggart is an American CIA agent? (She’s supposed to be Irish, and was played by Olivia Williams in X3, and at least she sounds like she’s from the same continent!)
Alex Summers – aka “Havoc” - is (approximately) the same age as Professor X? (Alex is supposed to be Cyclop’s *younger* brother. If this movie takes place before the X-men were formed / born, why is Havoc here???)
Mystique & Professor X grew up together as ‘brother & sister’? - (They’re mortal enemies in the comics, and are pretty much complete strangers in the first 3 X-men movies. What, they just forgot about each other after being “brother/sister” for all those years?)
Secondly – the movie made some poor choices regarding what mutants / characters to portray in this movie. The biggest offender would be Angel Salvadore - the stripper with fairy wings who can spit fire. Were there not any other choices available? Since we’re throwing continuity out the window, did no one think of cannonball? Polaris? Sunfire? Marrow? (Not Pixie, though – she’s practically the same character)
Also, did it not occur to anyone else that the devil guy (Azazel) is just a red (& evil) carbon-copy of Nightcrawler?
And I just do not agree that Kevin Bacon was the best choice to play Sebastian Shaw….or that Sebastian was the original creator /owner of Magneto’s helmet. It didn’t look that great on Ian Mckellen and it looks plain idiotic on Kevin Bacon.
vs.
who wore it better?
And finally – the whole Mystique & Professor X vs Magneto fiasco; that whole plot arc / storyline just seemed to fizzle out halfway through the movie, only to suddenly snap into place so Mystique lines up with Magneto for the first X-men movie. Did anyone else notice that she comes to this decision for almost no reason while her supposed brother lies dying right next to her????
“Hey Mystique, I know you secretly want to join Magneto’s team, but you’re just too scared to tell me, but you can go with him. Don’t worry, I’m okay with it. I’ll just lie here now that I'm paralyzed. I’ll be fine. It’s not like we formed this really strong bond growing up together or anything.”
........I know, I know; I sound like a huge nerd, don't I?
BUT I DON'T CARE. THERE ARE DISCREPANCIES TO MY BELOVED GRAPHIC NOVEL SERIES & I WANT TO COMPLAIN ABOUT IT.
All right, just bear with me; this will be my last "pic post" entry about my New York vacation.
I'm not sure I should even bother writing this post, but I really want to take some time to tell you about one of the funnier things I experienced in New York during my visit to Wall Street - made famous by the New York Stock Exchange and that Oliver Stone movie starring Michael Douglas.
NYSE - wooo!
It's a very popular area for tourists - filled with a bunch of old statues. The one in particular I want to bring to your attention is a statue of a Golen Bull - probably built to symbolize the "Bull Market?"
It's a pretty popular statue, it seems. A *lot* of people were gathering around the statue, trying to get their picture taken next to it......specifically the back of it.
.....where the bull's balls are.
EVERYBODY WANTED TO GET THEIR PICTURE TAKEN TOUCHING THE BULL STATUE'S BALLS!
Pretty strange (and hilarious), right?
PROOF of this really strange & creepy phenomenom
So that's it, folks! Enough of my trip to NYC. I hope to have something else to post about real soon!
So here's the thing about my trip to New York City - I didn't go see the Empire State Building.
...or the Empire State Building. .........or the Chrysler Building.
I did go see the Statue of Liberty, but it was from a ferry going to & from Staten Island. Here's a picture showing the closest I got to it:
Objects in picture were actually closer than they appear
The reason I didn't see those things was that I only had a limited amount of time to see "everything" in New York and everyone I met there told me that the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty weren't really worth the time it takes to see them. (Seeing the Statue of Liberty can take a whole day!) So I decided to skip them in lieu of seeing everything else.
Like Times Square......
It's like being in the Future.
And Union Square.........
And Washington Square...........
They filmed a scene from Ghostbusters 2 here!
Even Madison Square..........!
(Sorry, no pictures of Madison Square....!)
Hey, there are a lot of "Squares" in New York City.....!
Anyway, I heard that what I really needed to do while I was in New York was try the food......so try the food I did!
One of the first places I went to was a place called Dumpling Man in the East Village area of New York. Like almost every restaurant in New York, it's a small, hole-in-the-wall place to eat that's locally owned....and it was one of the best places I ate at in New York.
Here's a picture of me in front of the (now-famous because I've blogged about it) Restaurant.
And here's a sample of what they have to offer - it was only $5.00!
So good....!
Another place that I remember with great food was a Cuban place called Cafe Habana. It was like a fancier version of really great Mexican food - I highly recommend coming here to eat if you ever get the chance to visit New York.
Good thing New York is such a "pedestrian" city that encourages walking. I think I would've gotten really fat if I wasn't forced to walk to get everywhere.....!
There was also some really great coffee in New York. Take a look at this cup of coffee from the Blue Bottle in Brooklyn, NY!
This is like....coffee art right here
Tastes good, too.
Although now that I'm back in Los Angeles, everyone's been asking me if I saw the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty, so maybe I should've? Ah well, maybe next time.....!
MORE PICTURES OF NEW YORK SIGHTS:
9/11 Memorial Site
Grand Central Terminal
New York Public Library - they filmed "Ghostbusters" here!
The World Trade Center Site - Construction in progress since 2002.
