and for once I'm almost completely done with Christmas shopping! Horray for that. Much thanks to the internet as well since I hate going into stores during this hectic season/never seem to find what I'm looking for when I go in. Only a few more things to get and I should be all set.

Still trying to figure out one (as always) hard gift for my aunts. They are continuously generous to both me and my sister but I never know what they want that they can't get on their own. My Aunt Sallie was seriously ill/recovering from surgery last year so we got her things to keep her occupied during her long recoup. Now she's doing much better, so I'm again stuck without any solid ideas.

Aunt Ginny is also hard to buy for so we often get her gift certificates but those seem so impersonal. It's not like she needs a gift. I WANT to give her a gift. And therein lies the issue I guess.

Still narrowing down the charities I plan to give to this year as well. I usually like to pick one local one and one larger more nationally based one. I never like to give to the organization I work for since a) my salary is almost like a donation there with how they paygrade us and b) I am not convinced money is used to its maximum benefit in the shelter unless I were to assign my donation to a specific fund

There are a couple local environmental education ones I'm looking into.

On the larger scale it's kind of a toss up between donating to free health clinics in the US or to an overseas charity that builds schools in Africa. All are worthy charities with high ratings on charitynavigator...but giving a little to each as a friend pointed out will mean less of a donation because of individual processing fees per donation. It's more cost effective and will do the most good if I give more to just a few charities versus a little to a lot.

A weird mix of things I liked a lot and films I thought I would enjoy and ended up really disliking.

Kordavision



You've seen this photo everywhere for years. It's considered to be one of the most reproduced photos of all time. This documentary examines Korda's life and work, from his 10 years as Castro's own photographer to his iconic photo of Che Guevara. I was unexpectedly amazed by how interested I was in this. The filmmaking is not anything to write home about...in particular a lot of the transitions are clunky. But the way this man talks about making photos is inspiring. His hand in shaping history is something you might never expect.

The Place Promised in Our Early Days

Despite the beautiful colors and sky here there wasn't much in this story worth investigating. I think it might have been trying to make a more ambitious statement that was never really articulated. Too many ideas, not many of them explored fully or even enough to make sense. Main characters are not very compelling and you never really know exactly how they get to where they are in the story. I'll admit that I stopped this because I was falling asleep and went back to it the next day.

Is Walmart Good for America? Frontline

A more balanced look than Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price. Citing experts and looking at the issues created with the trade agreements between China and the US. Frontline is well known for its information first opinion second formula and it serves this well. It gives me an even more fact based ground to oppose Walmart (I've never been inside a Walmart in my entire life and I plan to keep it that way).

Gabriel

I'll blame this season of SPN for my actually sitting through this horrible film on instant view. Cliche in EVERY possible way it could be I wanted to just kind of sit back and try to enjoy this for what it was. I have a soft spot for Gabriel/the Trickster on SPN and I really enjoy where they might take him as a character on that show. My lack of Bible knowledge contributed to me not really know what was going on either. I know the basics...just not enough of the context to help put this story in perspective.

Dim Sum Funeral

The acting in this was TERRIBLE. And that was probably what made this so painful to get through. My interest in Asian culture probably swayed me to try this...which was listed as a comedy but wasn't funny at all. A big disappointment.

So a friend of mine introduced me to this Fellowship of the Ring trailer cut like a Wes Anderson piece which is brilliant! Why was I never alerted to it?!? I love the colors in Wes Anderson work and his incredibly chosen music.



Also a brilliant Cohen Brothers cut of the Wizard of Oz:



And two of my old favorites...I watched back to the future as a child like most people memorized the princess bride. This trailer highlighted context I never saw in my original viewings but also solidified how much I really loved the quasi uncle/son relationship Doc and Marty had. Reminded me how much agape is the kind of love I adore the most.



This is just a world class recut of Star Wars to the new Star Trek trailer. Nearly a perfect shot for shot remake of it which is impressive.

So my sister is in a post bac program right now for fashion at Parsons in NYC. It's a demanding program and she's working hard to take classes and to make enough to pay her half of the rent for the cute apartment she lives in. Took out loans etc.

( Seems fine to me...responsible even. Something my sister can tend not to be. )

Stupid commuter rail. I had to sit for an hour today waiting for a train that should have shown up ten minutes after I got there. Horray for inexplicably canceling the train I was going to take and then delaying the next one by almost 40 minutes. Spectacular start to the week let me tell you.

Trouble the Water

I am always really interested in accounts of Katrina. This particular one is from a ground zero resident of the 9th Ward who lived just blocks from one of the levees. Unique to this particular film is actual video footage, taken during the storm and the immediate aftermath by the woman whom this film is centered on. The filmmakers don't apologize for their subject's questionable history, but don't linger on it either. One of the most compelling characters is a friend of the main couple, who was living in a halfway house with no way to prove his residence etc. Each of these films feels so important to keeping the story of Katrina's aftermath relevant.

Nerdcore Rising
So I watched this...partially because I have a few nerdcore things kicking around my itunes and partly because I've met MC Frontalot (who is really nice) who is featured in this documentary. He's come to play at Anime Boston, and I've caught him at a few clubs in Boston. One of the other rappers in this (STD Schaeffer the Darklord) opened for a band I was helping with a few years ago as well. It approaches some of the issues with hip hop appropriation by persons not of an african american descent. Nothing too deep though...especially when you're rapping about D&D.

The Last Emperor
So maybe I've been spoiled by the current trends in film that really strive to incorporate other languages/subtitling instead of dubbing everything into English. Perhaps that was why this film really bothered me. The English just DOESN'T work in a story set entirely in China with a 99% Chinese cast and very little interaction with the West. Following the last Emperor of China through his life was something I didn't have much real knowledge about so that was worth the time. But I didn't get as emotionally involved as I thought I might get.

Lost Boys of Sudan
I highly recommend David Eggers 'What is the What' as a companion piece to this documentary. It helps to flesh this out even further as a humanitarian piece. Both follow the young men who were selected to leave the impoverished refugee camps they've lived in most of their lives to go to America. While they struggle with so many things we take for granted it's eye opening about what we need to do for everyone. It's hard to watch and worth it too.

Etre et Avoir (To Be and To Have)
A one room school in rural France seems to be where old style teaching still happens. Multiple grades are taught by one teacher in the same room. I didn't think that was a part of how teaching still went anywhere. Apparently there is rampant overcrowding in the French school system, though that isn't evident here. And this documentary doesn't address any of those issues. Rather this quiet little film is much more about one teacher and his efforts to get through to a group of youngsters.

Push
I too can need mindless action films, and this fit the bill. Some really pretty filming actually, with either portions shot in 16mm or made to look like that. Also some really nice montage shots that worked well. The story has holes in every direction so put on your goggles of disbelief suspension and try not to yell at the TV/computer too much.

So I have a bunch of backlog to work through (and interesting SPN plot point discussions to have) but this almost cold/possibility of flu has kept me run down and sleeping lots.

While a weekend dogsitting gig has pretty much guaranteed that I will make a horribly non-essential purchase within a few weeks.

All in the name of a single series.

The PS3. I try to convince myself I want a cheap blu-ray player and that getting a gaming system would be a bonus/will get way more use. But realistically this is all so I can play the Ratchet and Clank games.

I mean how the hell can you not be wowed by the pretty here:



And the fact that Dr. Nefarious (probably the BEST villian EVER) is making a return trip?!?



But I am finding a few games I'm interested in picking up particularly through the PSN, and I'm sure the guys will find some new series to suck our time away...which always happens. The price drop made this much more appealing. I know so many people who will swear up and down that xbox is the way to go but I have yet to find a series I'm interested in getting into on that game. And all the Hero games, while fun for a little while are not things I'm interested in playing all the time.

Meme from lliva:

Write down every alphabet of your name. Then, type a song that pops up in your mind in each alphabet of your name as the first alphabet. Count the number of letters and tag that many people in your friends list. Do it if you want to.

'N ew People' Blue Scholars (I warn that I tried a new conversion trick I read about since this was actually purchased off Itunes...consequently it may not play if you download it)
'S aeglopur' Sigur Ros
'I Can Get Back Up' You, Me and Everyone We Know
'L isten!!!' Talib Kweli
'V lajero' Toque Profundo
'E ye of the Hurricane, The' Herbie Hancock
'R ound and Round' Bob Schnieder
'W avin' Flag' K'naan (I warn that I tried a new conversion trick I read about since this was actually purchased off Itunes...consequently it may not play if you download it)
'O bokuri~Eeumi (Obtain Bearing)' Ikue Akazaki
'L ost Precursor City' Mutato Muzika
'F irebird Suite' Stravinsky

http://lifehacker.com/5387180/flickr-adds-people-tagging--la-facebook/

Finally! I really like the way flickr works but the fact that it lacked tagging was a major setback to using it regularly for at least pictures of family and friends. I'm hoping it will help in connecting people and in particular connect some of the artists I've photographed with their fanbase.

(Lifehacker is also a really cool blog overall if you are a bit of a nerd like me)

http://www.brothers-brick.com/

So I grew up a Lego fiend. When my parents took us to Europe every year as kids (mom worked for Swissair which equaled basically free flights to Switzerland) we used to go to the Lego store in Zurich where we picked up all these really cool little sets that were just not existent in the US. Legos in Switzerland were for girls and boys not just for guys like they were marketed in the US. It was a big childhood thing and it kind of fell by the wayside as I grew up...which is sad. These are the people who never forgot about the wonderfulness of legos. And their creations are both beautiful, creative and at times engineering marvels.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/imaginebrickzone/

One of the cooler setups...a huge Howl's Moving Castle!

http://sisinmaru.blog17.fc2.com/

And hey, how can you not link up to the adorable cat blog from Japan? This is Maru who has been featured a few times on cuteoverload.com. He's cute and bonus, the blogger has a way better command of English than I have of Japanese.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/themenwhostareatgoats/

Besides being a huge Ewan McGregor fan...I'm about 8th in line to get this at Boston Public Library. This sounds like awesome gonzo journalism and completely crazy weird too. The book is likely to be much more compelling than the film, but I definitely laughed when George Clooney was talking to Ewan's character about Jedi mind tricks.

http://freeclinics.us/

So Keith Olbermann has been raising money for this particular NPO lately. Did some research on them and they are a good org to go with. Providing free health care clinics in particular in cities/states without strong health care coverage.

but this was pretty awesome! Forwarded from good friends Brooke and Jessica...

Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright (the people behind/staring in Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead) talking about slash Hot Fuzz fanfic. These are all from their official twitter feeds and somehow ended up having weird conversations about slashers.

http://edgarwrighthere.com/2009/10/the-steamy-hot-fuzz-slash-fiction-tweets-october-19th-2009/

This makes me insanely curious how many other celebrities out there troll such things, fascinated by the subcultures of fandom. I've heard of it from time to time but never seen tweeting on the matter for instance...

...so it was snow/sleet/raining most of yesterday and has probably contributed to the beginnings of the cold I now have. It was worth it though since we caught 'Where the Wild Things Are' and I was transported completely by Spike Jonze's vision. While it's a story you can certainly take children to, the narrative in my mind was aimed squarely at the 20 and up crowd. The emotions in it were raw and real so much like the children's story it's based on. Captures the immediacy of childhood's emotions.

Max does things in the moment only...regret coming only when your actions can't be taken back.

I remember those moments from my own childhood.

And in that sense, the fact that a writer completely captured my emotion without knowing me was remarkable.

I read a review that criticized the amount of time they spent featuring the landscape of the Australian island where the film was shot. Quite the opposite of that for me at least. They could have spent more time lingering in those moments and it would have been totally worth that time. The color script and sets were beautiful (that incredible nest thing inspired me like no tomorrow).

Thursday evening we went to see Al Green at the House of Blues. He was great live, ended with a 20 minute jam to 'Love and Happiness' that is my favorite song by him. The set was pretty short but since the show started late and we had work in the morning...it was probably for the best.

Took two pictures I'm super proud of from the show.

Why yes I totally wanted to get up very early to go to a work conference that's supposed to last all day on customer service... -_-

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We're with you man!

Mon Oncle
This very minimalistic, almost slapstick French comedy won an academy award for Foreign Film back in the 50's is not for everyone. There's almost no dialogue. Very little story. And some really weird commentary. That said, I really enjoyed those things about it. The France aspects were wonderful and got my imagination going in so many ways. One of the shots of the main character as he goes through his home is amazing for how it's edited too.

Young @ Heart
I may never listen to Coldplay's 'Fix You' quite the same way ever again. There is some real sadness in this story...inevitable when your main characters are all in the over 80 crowd. But it's still uplifting in a wonderfully bright way. Helps that I've been by a great deal of the places these singers have been working in. Recommended.

The Fall
I think the rating may have seriously hurt this one. It's too simplistic to be an adult fairy tale but realistically violent enough to have got it an R. But the story feels much more like 'The Little Princess' or a bit like the softer parts of 'Pan's Labyrinth' (maybe not that knife thing for instance). There aren't enough layers to make it an adult fairy tale, but it fits into a childs story well. Visually I loved the wide expanses of color with motion and details in corners. The exotic locales and the way the little girl interpreted the story teller's words were more imaginative than you would have expected.

Paprika
I have such issues with Satoshi Kon pieces. While he creates incredible visual works, his stories are not engaging to me. Law & Order episode like perhaps? But in all the uninteresting ways. He's playing with psychology but not in an innovative manner or in a way I find particularly interesting.

Man on Wire
So a documentary about the man who tight-roped across the World Trade Center back in the seventies? Way to make a film that was completely suspenseful despite the fact that you knew what the outcome was! I was unexpectedly a little upset watching the Trade Center being built, looking at all those iconic lines that I used to look at during lunch or in the morning on the way to the office I worked in for a summer (the last summer the towers were around). How weird it was to see them, before so much was associated with them that was tragic. I still highly recommend this film...all the things the critics said about it were completely right! (100% rating on the tomatoer for instance)

Planet B-Boy
So the B-Boy movement has expanded beyond it's American roots that's for sure. This is a pretty standard sports documentary so it doesn't push the horizons much in that sense. We follow a bunch of teams to the world championships, the underdogs even win...pretty standard stuff. I did like the transitions/lower thirds they used which were made up of animated graffiti. It worked really well.

Sore as crap but happy too...yesterday I hiked up Mt. Monadnock in New Hampshire with current roommate Mike and one of my former roommates David who just got engaged over the last week. It was crowded (apparently this is the second most hiked mountain after Mt. Fuji) but we had a great time. Couldn't have asked for better weather.

( Lots of pictures... )

Melissa made me do it? Don't if you don't want to, I was bored.

01) Are you currently in a serious relationship?

02) What was your dream growing up?

03) What talent do you wish you had?

04) If I bought you a drink what would it be?

05) Favorite vegetable?

06) What was the last book you read?

07) What zodiac sign are you?

08) Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? Explain where.

09) Worst Habit?

10) If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride?

11) What is your favorite sport?

12) Do you have a Pessimistic or Optimistic attitude?

13) What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?

14) Worst thing to ever happen to you?

15) Tell me one weird fact about you.

16) Do you have any pets?

17) What if I showed up at your house unexpectedly?

18) What was your first impression of me?

19) Do you think clowns are cute or scary?

20) If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?

21) Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?

22) What color eyes do you have?

23) Ever been arrested?

24) Bottle or can soda?

25) If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?

26) What's your favorite place to hang out at?

27) Do you believe in ghosts?

28) Favorite thing to do in your spare time?

29) Do you swear a lot?

30) Biggest pet peeve?

31) In one word, how would you describe yourself?

32) Do you believe/appreciate romance?

33) Favorite and least favorite food?

34) Do you believe in God?

35) Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?.

This is one of those double edged swords. I love working with animals. I love working for an organization that is dedicated to animal welfare. The particular organization I work for is one of the better ones out there. That's where the love ends. My bosses are inept and terrible managers who change policies without telling the whole staff, do no support staff when clients accuse us of doing something we did not do, and discourage speaking out (in an organization this small...it's guaranteed that your suggestions or criticisms even anonymous versions will get back to the people they shouldn't/be used against you). Right now I've achieved the highest level of authority and pay grade I can attain without obtaining my doctorate. All of the positions above my current one are held by people who won't leave until they die...which is a LONG way off. While I'm working towards that doctorate goal, at times it seems like all I do is backslide. There are dream jobs out there for me, I just haven't found them yet. Or created them I suppose might be a different way to look at it.

Then there is the issue of the fact that I would love to work in film but I'm in the wrong city to really aggressively pursue editing as a career. Or maybe it's that I've fallen into the complacent position of someone who has health benefits and vacation time. Perhaps it's time to shake something up like that...

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This makes me ridiculously happy!

...it took three years but I finally got myself a paid account. Shiny use of icons hopefully in the future...argh my lack o will power.

Productive Sunday was productive, not really looking forward to the Monday. I forgot how awesome kimchi is. For shame.

Why yes it is Saturday evening...and yes I'm happily spending it indoors. Also cucumber dill yogurt I made to go with my falafel tonight came out REALLY good!

It's been a rainy, RAINY saturday here in Boston and I spent most of it flopping around and doing very little. Originally I was supposed to be pooch sitting but since Kasja's parents-in-law were at the hospital they decided to postpone their trip and so no hanging with Lisi, Rhubarb and Raisin.

Last night since Mike got paid he was eager to go out and spend a bit of it. So we dragged David (who was hiding from a party at his house he didn't want to attend) and headed to local bar Galway House. We even managed to pull Joey out of his hole to come along. It's one of those old school dive bars, quiet and where the wait staff is all locals with heavy accents. Only in Jamaica Plain can you find that paired with a local adult soccer team who speak mainly spanish, hipsters, little kids and art kids (that would be us by the way) all happily and weirdly coexisting.

Not a bad way to salvage an evening I had been planning to spend catching up on netflix and belly rubbing with a potential walk or three in the cards. Of course since I had gotten up early to pack/get to work by 7:30 to start an overbooked surgery schedule on time...by midnight I was pretty much asleep on my feet.

Ducked out of the second bar we ended up at which is conveniently less than a block from the apartment around 12:30 and was asleep less than 20 minutes later.

Today was nice though...it's been a while since I had a quiet day off. I also love DVR by the way.

Managed to remember to start the series record for Star Wars: Clone Wars right before new episodes started airing. While my heart will always lean to eps IV-VI and the original Taratovsky Clone Wars...this one comes right after. I'll admit to being skeptical at first...but I've been won over. There's such a rich opportunity here to explore the visual and character development of the Star Wars universe and I somehow think this was the medium Lucas always wanted to be exploring. Thus far it isn't disappointing and hasn't seriously pulled punches on the audience yet either. (You could argue this of course since it is a kids show...but I don't remember seeing a cartoon as a kid where they killed off a character on screen).

After that, I did sit down to catch up on Supernatural. The most recent episode actually has some real nice visual stuff going on that might be a little overdone but which I still like. Plot holes are still kind of there but I'm learning to jump over them in service of the larger story arc. Also this episode reset some really out of character stuff that happened to the end of the previous episode that both took me directly out of the story/didn't make much sense. Which is good because if they were going storywise to take such a left turn I'm not sure I would have been interested in sticking around.

Choice best lines goes to Castiel towards the very end...it's great to see the writers letting him do a bit more than be angry, confused, hurried and rushed all the time. While he always seems to be the one farthest behind socially as a character, the way his lines are delivered here proved to me what I always suspected. He's WAY ahead of the guys that's for sure on the important stuff.

It's been a while since I've really enjoyed a story show like this. Looking back it's probably the first storyline based TV show I've seriously watched in SEVERAL years.

Project Runway, Top Chef and Anthony Bourdain don't count because their either reality TV or nonfiction in the case of Mr. Bourdain's stuff. Hooking my mom on the last one now too...

Gonna try out one of the netflix instant pics again...they set out a new silverlight recently and it's solved some of the previous incarnation's problems.