So,
was I just
oblivious
(the answer is yes)
to the rate hike?
I thought it was in
June.
Not on Sunday.
Thank god I just bought my
Unlimited.
God bless the unlimited card,
and it making life be great in
18 minute intervals.
I'm gonna ride the trains
all Sunday
to watch people through fits.
Mmmm.
Sounds like fun.
(again, from Monday, when this was fresh and relevant)
Hey, people of
Anywho.
But the best part - no more Oscar speculation and people thinking that well...read the first part of this. Hooray movies!
Now I will sit at home and enjoy my "Viva Pedro" collection I bought on DVD. Sweeeeeet.
(last three posts were created on Monday, but I forgot to actually post them)
Okay, the mean bigiated side comes out. I'm in painful shoes today so my mood is not being enhanced by blistered feet (but that's part of life, eh?).
Another subway, WTF? Why do the little middle aged Chinese women with eight bags of groceries at 8:30 in the morning take one step into the subway car and just stop. They just stand there, facing the inside, right in the middle of the doorway and only an inch from the door.
What the hell is this? What is this? When and where is that acceptable? Not even in China. Maybe you are so amazed of the space left in the subway car compared to the meat packed conditions of Chinese public transportation, but I don't care. Move! Again, I'm in four inch heels. I can't just stand there with a foot between the car and platform. Have you seen those platforms, they're made of flimsy wood. Just move and don't look surprised when people are passing by you.
What is this?!?! Why does this happen all the time?
(PS: I know you speak English, I heard you! Don't play that card!)
I find the idea that
Broadway
isn't a street, or an avenue
or anything,
unsettling
(like wet toast and small mariachi band)
It's just
Broadway.
One of myI predict.
And admittedly,
I'm good at this stuff,
Obama is going to be like good old #10
Eli Manning in the 4th quarter.
At the last minute
when you think the team will go down
you have 30 seconds left.
They're gonna try and grab onto Obama,
his gonna wiggle his way out of a bad grip on his shirt
and he's gonna make it.
Not gonna get tackled,
but rather
win the game at the last minute.
And with 1 second left on the clock,
Clinton's gonna demand a final gasp
and it will be pointless.
She's grumble
and groan.
But nothing will stop the parade.
VOTE OBAMA '08
(I waited 4 years to vote for him and I can't wait to do it again in November)
Apparently
and I think these reports are
wildly
exaggerated,
about 3 million people
were at the ticker tap parade for
the New York Giants
in downtown Manhattan
(which is a relatively small area).
That's about the
entire population of
Manhattan and Queens
combined.
The atmosphere was like
a frat house,
of some accounts,
in the subways.
Still go glad I don't take the 6.
But what I found most interesting
was this article
about the term "ticker-tape parade".
It's easy to figure out,
but interesting nonetheless.
As you can see here
the ticker tape was flying.
Actually, it was just lazily ripped up office documents.
Doesn't seem
too smart
for the financial district and City Hall.
Most years I feel this category shows off the amazing achievements in international film making. Only one entry per country allows countries like France and Italy not to dominate the category. Past amazing winners have included The Barbarian Invasions (one of my favorite films, amazing since I thought The Decline of the American Empire was unbearable and obnoxious), No Man's Land (even though it won over Amelie), All About my Mother (via la Pedro!) and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (among many others obviously).
Dear People of America: Juno is good but horribly overrated! This category, I feel, is up for grabs. People will get their panties in a twist if Juno doesn't win and I wouldn't be surprised if Diablo Cody won (especially because she is an attractive ex-stripper with hipster tattoos and taste in music - wacky!). Ratatouille was good but not Oscar script worthy. Lars and the Real Girl hasn't been getting awards so, no on that one. Michael Clayton is too serious to win this category - the Oscar has recently been given to people like Charlie Kaufman, Pedro Almodóvar, Sophie Coppola, Alan Ball and Quentin Tarantino - all for scripts very unique and Sundance-y. Tamara Jenkins is nominated for the Savages and wrote and directed one of the my favorite film Slums of Beverly Hills. My vote = Tamara Jenkins, especially since the Academy loves anything with Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman (as do I) and with this film they get a double punch.
A woman playing a man?! Insane. Cate Blanchett is of course getting rave reviews for I'm Not There and the Academy loves gender benders. But Ruby Dee is old and has been acting since the '40s and the Academy loves giving people awards for just still be alive. Saoirse Ronan is too young and Tilda Swinton has done better work. Amy Ryan might steal the award because the Academy loves drug addicts and generally awful human beings. My prediction = actually no one really cares about this category because of the Supporting Actor category but I say Cate Blanchett and she will look fabulous accepting the award. cx
To be honest I find this category a little lackluster. I don't think there was one really amazing part for actresses this year. Cate Blanchett for The Golden Age - that's a joke right? Ellen Page - that's another joke. Have you ever seen her interviewed? She is Juno, she wasn't acting, she just wore a pregnant belly. Marion Cotillard - glad she was nominated, I feel she's been a little overlooked because she's not very well known stateside. My prediction = Julie Christie for Away from Her. The Academy loves Alzheimer's victims and come back actors (she won her first Oscar in 1966) and has generally been forgotten since then. However, I would love if Laura Linney or Cotillard took it instead.
win because no one wants to hear another fucking smug speech - I could live without) but they have a snowball's chance in hell on winning although I think it's great that they nominated because they are great actors. But Daniel Day Lewis made There Will be Blood. I just saw it last night - in Times Square which equals idiots everywhere but that's another story. Although Anderson's movie is great Daniel Day Lewis is almost too good an actor. Paul Dano, Dillon Freasier and Ciaran Hinds are all amazing yet unfortunately overlooked, although they shouldn't considering they all held their own opposite Day Lewis (or is it just Lewis? Mmmmm...?) On a side note: prediction for future - give Paul Dano one more amazing role and he will be nominated for an Oscar. He's an amazing actor who is almost there. Day Lewis is best when Daniel Plainview is on the edge of extreme violence. I'll write more about it later. But yes - My prediction = Daniel Day Lewis (and the true love of my mother's life) will get his much deserved second Oscar this year.
I love the Cohen brothers. I really do. I'm glad No Country was good because I thought The Ladykiller, Intolerable Cruelty and The Man Who Wasn't There were just unbearably forgettable. They have been getting a lot of press for having the best film of the year but P. T. Anderson, as I mentioned before is overlooked for no reason whatsoever. He is an amazing director. Julian Schnabel is showing himself to be a great director with Basquiat (which a lot of people didn't think but take Courtney Love out and it would have been perfect) and Before Night Falls. Anything that takes him away from throwing porcelain plates on a canvas is good in my book. My prediction = In an upset Schnabel will win. But if Anderson won, I would be very happy as well.
ImprovEverwhere
Are the most genius,
subversive
and
generally amazing
people in New York.
My favorites:
'Meet a Black Guy'
and their most recent
'Frozen Grand Central'
These people are the
reason
the people on the subway
in Borat
don't really looked
that
surprised.
A belated
Thank you
to Florida
for kicking out
Rudy.
That was mighty sweet of y'all.
Not many updates.
No subways tales.
Just new pjs
and bread.
Yes, bread.
It's very good.
I'm eating it now at work.
Can you tell I'm bored?
I'm being paid for this?
We'll see tomorrow.
I'm going to be posting my
favorite
New York movies.
One at a time.
'Cause they just keep
coming.
Side note
(not really)....
Funniest movie of 2007:
Planet Terror.
Fabulously funny.
I thought Josh Brolin was
pretty bangin' it in.
(Brad from the Goonies is a good actor now! I love when random stuff like that happens. Like how Anthony Michael Hall is now really buff and the Dead Zone didn't suck)
More on movies later.
"Back to work"
And also from
New York Magazine
this:
(from one of my favorites,
Aasif Mandvi from
the Daily Show)
It’s a challenge putting together The Daily Show when no one working there is allowed to write. “We just sit around a table all day, telling stories and not writing,” correspondent Aasif Mandvi said last week at Sundance, where he was promoting his film Pretty Bird. But, he said, they’ve figured out a way of getting around the Writers’ Guild rules. “Actually, you can write. But you can’t think,” he said. “Not many people know this, but it’s just the thinking and writing at the same time that they object to. You can put pen to paper as long as there is absolutely no coherent thought. You can draw pictures, you can write words, but it can’t make any sense to anyone who has a basic education.” He hasn’t had any ugly confrontations with the striking writers, who might not appreciate his parsing of the WGA’s strictures. “I don’t cross picket lines,” he said. “Because they don’t start picketing until, like, way in the afternoon, and I’m home by then.”
And just yesterday I posted about people complaining about Cloverfield when I open my New York Magazine and see this:
On the Despicable/Lowbrow area of the Approval Matrix. Just as a general observation: I think the Approval Matrix is a weekly dose of amazing thanks to the fine people at New York Magazine. I have always loved it, purely because I almost always agree with it. So. There.
(subtitled: another review)
For once I saw a movie in the last six months that honestly was as good as I pumped it up in my head and yes, that was Cloverfield, which I was written about probably more than I'd live to admit. Politics? Eh. Giant monster movie? Yes!
I read or heard a review that mentioned what they loved about it that the audience is never explained what is exactly happening. There is never a person/scientist who sits the main characters down and says, yes, this is what's happening and this is what it is and this is how it became that way and this is how we are going to kill it. You never know. What is it? We never know, we are left guessing and panicking just as everyone else is. But if you've followed the websites and theorist sites (just as complex and deep as JJ Abrams's Lost sites), you get the impression this is a very deep sea creature that has been living under our waters and has been mutated by the people in Japan who make the Slusho drink and use a secret deep sea ingredient. Why doesn't it attack Tokyo? Who knows; Godzilla destroyed most of it? All you know its virtually indestructible and isn't stopping.
As in the now mocked Blair Witch Project (and come on, lets be honest, that scared you when you saw it and you never saw anything like it before, don't pretend that isn't true) the entire film is shown via a hand held camera. You are told the story of a small group of people and them trying to escape. But alas, it is never that easy. They live in downtown Manhattan. The scariest part is that you realize just what Manhattan is. It is a small island. The only ways in are by tunnels or bridges. And if you think the bridges survived the attack, no, they did not and in an amazing sequence the Brooklyn Bridge is destroyed (as it, the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty are always the first to be destroyed - see any destruction film, especially Independence Day). Of course, all these "sequences" are scattered (much like this review). The person holding the camera, the amazingly lovable Hud (while walking down the subway tunnel he has a fear he describes that I can't put here only to make you want to go see the movie - it might be the funniest line I've ever heard in a movie), is running away from it most of the time and usually has to pull himself together to show/look at the monster (and eventually monsters - yeah, it spawns) attacking him and his friends.
What I thought was really amazing was how it felt exactly how I think it would be like in if this very implausible situation were ever to arise. At first people are screaming that its another terrorist attack. Then what the media reports isn't correct and not even close. When the amazing shot of the Statue of Liberty's head comes rolling down the street, yes people scream and panic but afterwards they whip out their camera phones and immediately start snapping pictures. What else would you expect? There is looting and panic and people running, not knowing where to go. People are shuffled around by the military only to be thwarted by the monster and shuffled somewhere else. Department stores are turned into military stations and yet it seems to take forever for the government to taken any real measures. One of the eeriest parts for me is a general tells this group that at 6am, the military is essentially going to abandon Manhattan, leaving everything behind, it is a lost cause. This gave me chills - I can't exactly explain why. I live on this island and there are 1.5 million people who permanently live here and to think that with tunnels and bridges cut off that it would be abandoned and taken as a lost cause scares me.
The end, for me is utterly heartbreaking. I can't stop thinking about it. It replays in my head over and over again and I thought it turned the whole monster, blockbuster, city destroying genre on its head. The hammered in the point that the story is being told by real people with real lives who are scared out of their minds. They have lost hope and seen death. No, its not some Oscar worthy emotional powerhouse, but it makes it the ever more real.
The person I saw it with thought it was unbearably implausible but I found the horror so real even though the creature was very unreal (you know you see it and you still don't know what it is) and that what the characters did wouldn't be what she would do. But thought it was and if they did what they were really suppose to do then there wouldn't be much of a movie would there. If Seth Rogen had put on the condom like he should have, there wouldn't have been Knocked Up, or would have been extremely unfunny and illtitled.
The biggest peeve that I head from people was that a) god, why do we have to watch a movie about rich 26 year old yuppie types. I guess they wanted Brooklynites (hey, there was extreme yuppie types in Brooklyn) who were poor and lived in boring apartments. Whatever. There was b) how in God's name did they walk from Spring Street to Columbus Circle (about 4 miles) in a descent amount of time and although walking through subway stations, not ever realize they were close? Um, yeah, I have to agree with that. That would honestly take over 2 hours and if you were injured you would be in so much pain that it would probably take you much longer. And then there was c) "God why did they all have to be like young attractive people?" I don't know what movies you've been going to for, oh the last 100 years, but movies usually feature very attractive people. Sometimes they are called movie stars and get their photo taken a lot and get paid a lot of money to be....attractive. Barbers in London don't look like Johnny Deep, killers don't look like Javier Bardem or Viggo Mortesen and the people who buy Real Girls do not look like Ryan Gosling.
So just relax. It's only a movie. The Brooklyn Bridge will not be taken down by a large tentacle, people in most of lower Manhattan will always be rich and Slusho will always be made out of a delicious mystery substance.
So,
I'm not much of a
football fan
(they're a little
....
weird)
But I am totally
excited
for the Super Bowl.
What an awesome
match up,
Giants and Patriots.
That's pretty sweet,
come on.
I'm cheering for the Patriots
(totally perfect season,
a Capricorn
has to love that).
And Tom Brady is
like
so
like
cute.
No, I don't
think
I'll be going outside
today.
Damn, I'm out of
toothpaste!
Momma's not too big on
this cold.
From last night.
I was walking home down Bowery when I came across this billboard at Bowery & Delancey.
I have no idea how long this how been up and have seen photos posted that indicates it's some sort of calling card for the Village Voice - which is only good for it's photographs and pimping Brooklyn hipsters (I'll bet you at least $100 that in the next few years it'll move from Cooper Square to Brooklyn because of "rent costs" but we'll all know that isn't true).
First, yes the area is gentrified - have you seen the Bowery Hotel? But the area where the billboard is still has all those random kitchen stores and Chinese restaurants. There's a Starbucks near there that I never seen anyone go into (maybe just wishful thinking).
You want junkies? Go to North Avenue in Baltimore or anywhere really. Cause man, there is nothing I miss more than junkies.
LINK: Another take on the subject
)
