coretta scott. ntozake shange. (95)

i am disappointed with myself for posting this today, i should have posted it two weeks ago when i checked it out. but in my defense, i had a sub job for three weeks and forgot about my plan to check out books in honor of black history month. i promise i will do better next year. (i even missed lincoln's birthday, i wanted to read "abraham lincoln: vampire slayer" but alas, next year.)

this is a poem written about coretta scott, dr. martin luther king, jr.'s wife. it is written by ntozake shange, who also wrote the play "for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf". it opened with how as a child coretta had to walk to the colored school while white children took a bus to theirs. it shared her dream for equality and how she met martin luther king jr. and their shared dreams for a better world resulted in their marriage. they then started their mission for equal rights based on the teaching of ghandi (which MLK jr. introduced her to). the poem covered the sit-ins, bus boycotts, and million man march. and its show how they never gave up and always had faith in their cause.

the poem is lovely but what caught my attention was the cover and it is filled with more beautiful paintings. the paintings are by kadir nelson and here are my favorites:

beautiful, right?

the book is absolutely lovely and i recommend it for mlk jr. day or for black history month reading.

2001: space odyssey

what does it all mean?!?!? this was my initial thought i had at the end of stanley kubrick's "2001:  a space odyssey".  my second thought was what was with the weird baby in the sphere?  that was creepy.  i of course googled and it turns out (according to my favorite, wikipedia) kubrick didn't want there to be a meaning.  he wanted it to be open to interpretation.  so here is mine:

god is not like the judeo christain god.  also heaven is not some spirit realm but simply jupiter.  on jupiter, time faster than on earth, an earth year the same as like a 15 jupiter minutes.  this is why bowman ages so quickly after he lands on jupiter.  the home that looks like a persian home (if you have persian friends you know what i mean) that bowman enters is god's home.  god collects souls from earth and puts them on jupiter and then sends them back to earth as spirits as creepy babies. a little part hinduism and a whole lot of sci-fi.  also those black monoliths.  god throws them down whenever he needs life to accelerate aka creatures are lagging, so life can advance within a time frame he deems appropriate.   

so that is my explanation of "2001 space odyssey", please share yours in the comments!

continuing with my interpretation, the first monolith appeared because the prehistoric primates were not working at the pace god need them to.  at the rate they were going, we would have never became humans.  but what i really enjoyed that portion because it demonstrated what was needed in order for man to progress.  and that is meat. i read at the natural history museum of los angeles that the introduction of meat into prehistoric man's diet caused for their brains to grow.  and of course brain growth is important in the development of any species.  so meat actually is very important.  all vegans and vegetarians you should reconsider your current diets.  and of course this was seen in the film, first they discovered tools to help with hunting.  then with meat being their primary source of food, they became stronger and then ruled that little area!

ps one of my teachers had us watch the above clip.  it may have been mr. myovich.  i remember being like what, are we watching?  but now it makes sense.

and yes that cut from the bone floating in the air to the spaceship floating in space was spectacular.

sadly, kubrick's vision of 2001 was a lot better than actual 2001 did not include commercial space trips to the moon, or even spaceships that looked cool like his sets.  but there were some things that we now have in 2013, so we aren't that pathetic in terms of our technology.  though we didn't have any of this stuff in 2001.  first of all, skype/facetime!  seeing people facetime today is amazing, i can only imagine how amazed audiences were back in '68 when dr. floyd had a video phone chat with his daughter.  another thing is navigation, though not in spaceships but in cars.  i mean honestly imagine having to get directions from a map?  how tedious and confusing, navigation has seriously changed the world and how we drive.  last but not least on board the spaceship, i noticed that astronauts watched the news on tablets.  and i mean we kinda beat 2001 in terms of this, their astronauts had them but today our average joe has one, well if he can afford it.  the last thing i noticed, though it wasn't too technological was the food service for the flight to the moon.  it was juice. and oddly, enough juice is quite a trendy thing right now. with the diet crowd, juicing is the way of the future.  i think of all of the juiceries in la right now.  it might only be a fad but when you are drinking it, ti's kinda like the future.

this film was great because its a psychological thriller.  i mean HAL is scarier than that any villain, monster or killer.  it's a machine and when it kills, it has absolutely no remorse, cos it's a machine.  the scene where it kills the astronauts that were hibernating was simple yet brilliant.  all we watched were their vital signs diminishing but it scared me.  imagine being murdered while hibernating, you have no knowledge of your death.  you have no idea you are dying, how scary is that.  it's a lot when you think about it.  or when it killed the other astronaut that went to fix that battery thingy.  i mean i think that is the scariest death, floating out in space for all eternity.  can you imagine that?  it's endless, you just have to float.  i would hate to end up like that.  again too much to think about.  this is what i enjoyed most about HAL and his evil, was that on the surface it was weird but when you think about it, it's seriously frightening.

i am often told that this movie is boring but i thought it was brilliant.  and that is just the content.  visually and musically, this movie was amazing.  all of the scenes in space soundtracked by waltz are perfection.  i mean even with it being referenced so many time in pop culture, i still got chills when i listened to the music and watched the spaceships float through space.  it was just beautiful.

all in all, an extremely enjoyable film. and i look forward to seeing the "2001: space odyssey" portion of the lacma exhibit.

the killing.

currently, the lacma has a stanley kubrick exhibit.  i heard it's amazing but i haven't seen it, the reason being that i haven't seen all of his films.  i've seen "the shining", "a clockwork orange", "full metal jacket" and "dr. strangelove" but figured the exhibit would be pointless if i haven't seen them all.  now i am on a personal mission to see all of his films before the end of june (when the exhibit closes). 

to start my mission, i typed "stanley kubrick" into the catalog search engine and "the killing" was one of the first to come up, so i decided to check it out.  i wasn't sure what to expect.  considering the "ultra violence" of kubrick's films i have seen, i imagined that this movie was going to be quite gruesome.  but in fact it wasn't.  without giving too much away, there is some killing but nothing horrible.

"the killing" is the story of johnny clay, who is fresh out of jail and planning a heist.  sounds like "ocean's 11", the premises are the same but this is darker and better, but with less attractive men of course.  johnny plans on stealing money at the peak of a pony race.  i know, a pony race?  but he got 1.2 million which back in 1953 was a lot of dough.  the movie is how the heist goes down.  i don't want to ruin it for those of you who haven't seen it but let's say the ending was surprising, great, very clever and well done.

at the risk of sounding dumb, at first i thought the movie was a nod to the noir films of the 50's, kinda like "chinatown".  i loved that it was in black and white and the narrator's voice was perfect, very gumshoey.  however, it turns out that kubrick made movies for a time and that "the killing" was made in 1953.  and though i'm not an expert, it seems to embody film noir perfectly.  i took a history of los angeles course at ucla and film noir was covered in it. from what i can remember, film noir always has a femme fatale.  "the killing" continued with this traditon of women as evil, the heist goes awry because of woman, (played by marie windsor, who i thought was perfect and lovely).  

the dialogue and narrator definitely gave it that gumshoe, film noir vibe.  it was quick paced and clever and filled with great lines.

my favorites:

johnny to sherry: "you like money.  you've got a great big dollar sign there where most women have a heart."

sherry:  "it isn't fair. i never had anybody but you. mot a real husband. not even a man. just a bad joke without a punch line."

the film is really well done.  visually it is stunning, there are so many great scenes.  SPOILER WARNING:  STOP READING WILL RUIN THE TWIST IN THE MOVIE FOR YOU.

for example, when george shot sherry and he stands there with the birdcage next to him.  i also love when george falls and the birdcage does too and they lie side by side. that would make a lovely picture

or when clay changes into his outfit for the heist and he takes his time to make sure that the flower box is covered properly and placed carefully into the locker.

and of course the last scene with all of the money whirling around the airport.  amazing.  i have to add, i knew something was up, i wasn't sure why we watched that silly woman and her stupid dog at the counter, but then it all came together.

also the music was great, added an element of suspense and drama.  it made the most mundane scene interesting, like when johnny left his jacket and guitar case in the motel room.

i highly recommend it, especially if you plan on seeing the kubrick exhibit.  and if you hate it, it's fine, it's only 84 mintues so not that long of your life wasted. 

the edition i checked out also had "the killer's kiss" on it, i tried to watch but sadly had to return the dvd before i could.  (i had the dvd for two weeks, and didn't feel like checking it out for the third time.)

i watched like half of it.  i'm not sure the premise, i think it's about a boxer who falls in love with his neighbor.  i will say that it looked good.  the visuals were great, especially the b-roll around new york, like the store windows, especially the one with the doll swimming in the bowl of water. that series of scenes could be a collection for art gallery.

i also loved how when the neighbor shared her story (which was sad and beautiful) it was a voice over while the audience watched her sister, who was a ballerina dance.

i will prolly look for it online to watch and see it before the exhibit, so if you get the criterion version, please watch the second dvd.

fairy tales from the grimm brothers. philip pullman. (94)

a while back, i remember learning that the fairy tales, we all loved as kids and prolly still love as adults are not as sweet or lovely as disney made them out to be. for example, cinderella wore a fur shoe instead of a glass slipper. due to this i have always wanted to read the "original" stories. and just like the issues i have had with translations, i wanted to find the most "authentic". so when i read about philip pullman's "fairy tales from the brothers grimm", i had to check it out! (note: i want to say all of the authentic fairy tale talk mentioned before was due to that brothers grimm movie with matt damon and heath ledger. i always wanted to see it to learn about the "true" tales but never did).

before i go on, how great is that cover?!?!? it's an illustration called "the children in the woods" by c. lucy. i love that it has this sinister vibe with the blackbirds. i also enjoy that is retro looking.

so philip pullman did all of this research to present his version of the brother grimm's fairy tales. he shared 50 fairy tales and at the end of each section shared: the tale type, what similar stories there are in other countries or within the grimm canon, the source the grimms got the story from, and then his quick analyze of it. it's interesting how countries share similar stories, i think that would make for an interesting book, to know what in human nature causes us to create similar folk tales or how those folk tales spread. (i should google. this book prolly already existed.)

and as much as i would loved to share my analyze of all 50 fairy tales in the book, i thought i would share the "real" version of disney classics and also my favorites fairy tales.

some of our beloved disney classics were in this but sadly the best parts were taken out to make the stories more kid friendly.

cinderella-
in this version the evil stepmother had the stepsisters cut their feet to make the shoe fit. one stepsister cut her heel and the other her toe! also during the wedding ceremony, each of the stepsisters get an eye pecked out by the turtlesdoves that helped cinderella go to the ball.

snow white-
instead of just taking snow white's heart, the huntsman was to cut out her lungs and liver as proof that snow white was dead. in addition to that the evil queen ate her lungs and liver! (more cannibalism is to come) also the evil queen came around, a handful of times to try to kill snow white when she lived with the dwarves. also the dwarves had no names (but if you saw that one "saved by the bell" episode, you already knew that.) finally, the poisoned apple worked. the dwarves put snow in a glass coffin. one day a prince came and asked to buy snow because he had fallen in love with her and would treat her with honor and respect as if she were alive. (creepy, right?!?!) the dwarves gave snow to prince and as his servants carried her down, one tripped which shook the coffin and dislodged the apple and snow white came to life! they then marry. at the wedding, snow white's evil stepmother showed up and they put her in hot iron shoes in which she danced until she died.

rapunzel-
tangled was definitely the g-rated version. so rapunzel's birth mother wanted some rapunzel from a witch's garden so her birth father stole some. he was caught and as a result he had to give up their daughter. (this seems horrible but really he shouldn't have been stealing in the first place!)

so the witch put rapunzel in the tower and had her put down her hair so she could climb up. a prince discovered rapunzel in the tower and they fall in love.

however in this version, the prince knocked her up! pullman lets us know because rapunzel's clothes became
tighter. the witch was outraged and banished rapunzel and her two children (she has twins) to a strange land. the witch then waited for the prince and threw him from the tower. he landed in a thorn bush and is blinded. he wandered the earth and miraculously finds rapunzel and the children. her tears cured his blindness and they live happily ever after.

oddly the premarital sex thing is not an issue. though she was banished for a while so that could have been it. ps rapunzel is an abortifacient. so odd that rapuznel's mom was craving it while she was pregnant.

briar rose-
the main difference was that the spell was for a hundred years, not just the short time in the disney movie. (i will add i do love the disney version more because of maleficent!)

but i wanted to give this story to discuss, as pullman did, about bruno bettelheim's
theory that "the sleep of a hundred years that follows the unexpected loss of blood 'is nothing but a time of quiet growth and preparation, from which the person will awake mature, ready for sexual union'". that is a interesting take on this fairy tale, it being a hidden moral that one should wait for both mind and body to be mature before being come sexually active and not assuming the body is ready because it has it's period.

my favorites:

"the juniper tree"-
this is the story of a man and a woman had a son but the wife died and was buried under a juniper tree. he remarried and has a daughter. the stepmother hated the son and one day killed him but chopping off his head. she did it by slamming the lid of a chest on his neck when he was looking in it to get an apple. then she tied the head back on and acted like nothing happen. then the sister goes to the brother and when he didn't respond the stepmom told her to hit him and his head fell off! (how horrifying!!!) then the mom chopped up his body and put it in a stew. when the father came home, she told him the son went to visit his family and then fed him the little boy stew!! the little sister gathered his bones and buried them under the juniper tree. the boy's spirit than became a bird and he had a beautiful song about his fate. using his song he had a goldsmith give him a necklace, a shoemaker give him shoes, and an apprentice give him a millstone. he then went home and sang his song. when his sister came out, he gave her the chain, then the father the shoes and finally the stepmother, the millstone. the millstone crushed her to death and the boy magically appeared to live happily ever after.

seriously a fairy tale with cannibalism?!?!? but surprisingly not the only one, in "the robber bridgegroom", a bride discovered her husband belonged to a band of robbers that ate young girls. and of course there is hansel and gretel's child eating-witch. (which i never got until i started subbing, seriously kids can be so frustrating that one could eat them out of anger. though they are usually gross and germ-y so i could not imagine them
tasting good). random sidenote: everyone knows the tale of hansel and gretel but i had forgotten why they were lost in the forest. it turns out because their family was so poor and the stepmother got rid of them so she wouldn't have to feed them. plus there would be more food for her! parenting at its finest!

thousandfurs-
this story is a little different because instead of an evil stepmother as the villain it's a disgusting father. there once was a king and when his wife died she had him promise that he would not marry someone less beautiful or with less golden hair than hers. he promised and as a result could not find anyone to marry. until his daughter came of age, she looked just like her mother. he decided to marry her. the daughter was horrified and told her father that she would marry him if he made her three dresses, one golden like the sun, one silver like the moon, and one glittery as the stars. she also wanted a coat made of a thousand different furs (she thought this would take him a while . . . but it didn't). the day before they were to be marry she took the dresses and put on the coat and ran away.

she was hiding in a tree when the king and his huntsmen came across her. they thought she was a beast because of her coat but when they discovered she was a girl they took her set her to work in the kitchen. she started to cook for the king and leave random items in his food like a ring.

the king would hold balls and thousandsfur would sneak into them after cleaning up (of course) and wearing one of the dresses her father made for her. of course, the king fell in love with her but she always ran away early before he could find out who she was. on the last night as she left, he slipped a gold ring on her finger.

the next day when he found a gold bobbin in his food, he called for thousandfurs and saw the ring on her finger and proposed to her. they lived happily ever after!

gambling hans-
what i enjoyed about this story is that it treated the lord, st. peter, death and the devil like regular people. to the point where it was almost like a bad joke, think "the lord, st. peter, and the devil walk into a bar . . "

so gambling hans is a gambler. and one day the lord and st. peter come to him because they need a place to stay. of course hans, screws up and gambles the money they give him for bread. but being the lord he forgives.

after their stay, the lord decided to give hans three rewards for his hospitality. hans asked for a deck of cards this always won, a pair of dice that always won, and a fruit tree in which if anyone climbed it they need hans permission to get down.

hans began to gamble and won everything. st. peter was worried he would own the world so he sent death for him. when death arrived, hans asked him to get some fruit for their trip. of course, death was stuck in the tree for seven years and during that time no one died! so the lord intervened and death came down from the tree and strangled hans.

so hans ended up in hell. hans gambled with the devil and won all of his ugly devils. he took them to hohenfurt where they grew hops they climbed the hop poles to heaven. but that caused trouble in heaven so they kicked him out and hurled him to earth. his soul was smashed into pieces and went everywhere. there is a piece in every gambler that is alive today!

i realize the rehashing of these tales will take to long and really you should just pick it up, so will share the titles of my favorites:

"the boy who left home to find out about the shivers"
"little brother and little sister"
"the girl with no hands"
"bearskin"
"the moon"

as i was reading, i realized that these fairy tales were not for children. most of them
involved an evil stepmother that was trying into kill a child or ruin a child's life. there was a lot of deceit and ghosts had to help uncover the truth. and the villains all ended up with some grotesque and horrible death. also life was pretty easy for one if they were beautiful because some king would come by and see your beauty and save you from your miserable life. not exactly the best model for life for little kids. but then again fairy tales today aren't just for kids but kids of all ages. and i think these version are better then the sugar and spice and everything nice wholesome stuff we spoon feed kids today. i definitely will still let my future little kids know the disney versions of these tales but when they hit the double digits, i will have them read this book.

truth in advertising. john kenney. (93)

i can't remember how i found out about "truth in advertising", i want to say it was featured in a barnes and noble email or maybe a goodreads one. but i do remember that nick hornby was referenced in one of the reviews. (its actually a publishers weekly quote, i found it on the back cover: "a comic tour de force; fans of nick hornby and jonathan tropper will have a new author to watch for.") since i love, nick hornby, i had to check it out. figured it would be the "high fidelity" of advertising. and it kinda was.

*this entry will contain some spoilers. if you plan on reading the book, read it first than read this blog.

"the truth in advertising" is the story of finbar dolan, the name is odd but i like it, though he goes by fin (love the nickname too, reminds me of "adventure time" . . . and i just realized . . . "glee", hmm maybe not so cute, after all).  fin works in advertising (duh?) and is going through a mid-life crisis.  though mid-life crisis seems like a misnomer, he is only 40, but if you think about it, if the average man lives til 80, than 40 is mid-life.  it's weird because when i think mid-life crisis, i think kevin spacey "american beauty", but i didn't think of fin as that old.  it could be that i was in high school when i first saw "american beauty" and far from 40 and now that i'm a closer to it, think of it as young.  i imagined fin as someone younger, like a not-as-hot-bradley-cooper (though i just googled and cooper is only 38). 

anyway, back to fin's mid-life crisis.  it's not so much a mid-life crisis, but a "what i'm a doing with my life" funk, which i feel is not a product of age, but a side effect of being born after 1970.  i feel like my friends and i are constantly in this funk, not so much because of how old we are, but because we are part of that "everyone gets a gold star" generation.  (this is what klosterman discussed in "the visible man" if you read that entry.)  as kids we were never really awarded for hard work but were constantly given positive reinforcement, as a result our work ethic isn't the greatest.  plus we have always been taught that work should make us happy but the fact of the matter work should just pays the bills.  as a result we end up on this search for work that makes us happy but this search is frivolous because work is never fun no matter how much you think you love your job.  so though fin is in advertising, he is questioning, "is advertising really for me?"

so normally if your work life isn't stellar, it's okay because you can fault your home life.  however, fin's home life is non-existent.  he was engaged but he got cold feet.  about eight months prior to when we meet him in the novel, he had just called off his wedding.  it's kinda sad but really not that horrible because better cold feet than a nasty divorce.  there is also a beautiful story about him calling off his wedding and a gravy boat.  it was sad and lovely and could be a great short story on its own.

so this is fin when we meet him.  i would like to say that things get better for him, but since this is a novel, it gets worse before it all sorts out in the end.

lets start with the advertising, because the title includes the word advertising. fin is a copywriter and his big account is diapers, think huggies but not cos kenney prolly couldn't get the rights to use their name so came up with "snugglies" to use.  so the big news is that snugglies designed the first flushable, biodegradable diaper and decided to launch this new product with . . . a SUPERBOWL COMMERICAL!!!!  this is exciting for fin, cos it is the superbowl.  however, he has a family emergency that makes this even more of a challenge. but before that, a word on superbowl commercials.

superbowl commercials used to be great but now they kinda suck.    they used to be clever and funny and now they are just lame.  in the novel, they came up with two pitches.  the pitch i liked most was based on "an inconvenient truth".  the commercial would show babies being born all over the world but with al gore heads, to show how green they were.  i thought that was clever.  the other commerical, the one they went with, i thought was a horrible idea and would have never worked in real life.  it was based on the apple 1984 ad.  i mean why even try to mess with that?  that ad is classic and any kind of spoof or parody would be bad and should never be attempted.  i know this was novel but still no one in their right mind fictional or non-fictional would ever give this commerical the green light.  (do you green light commericals, like show?)

back to fin's family emergency, sadly his father dies.  well not really that sad because fin hadn't spoken to his father for about 28 years.  without giving too much away, the father was abusive and there was an incident with his mother.  but the bottom line is that fin does not view his father as his father.  to add to this, fin and his siblings are not that close.  this actually broke my heart, i have my ups and downs with  my family but i can't imagine being in contact with none of my family members.  it must be really lonely.

so fin's father's dying request was to have his ashes spread in pearl harbor, near the spot where he was when the war ended.  fin's siblings nor fin himself,  want to do it because they all hate him.  and i hate to sound heartless, but i get it.  i found it odd how all of fin's friends kept telling him that he needed to do it because it was dad.  but the fact is, it wasn't his dad.  i think it's hard for people who grew up with both parents to grasp how it is to have an absent parent.  that person is a stranger.  the only connection you have to that person is your DNA and maybe some facial features.  that man is not your dad.  he didn't look under your bed for monsters, or taught you how to ride a bike or took you to your first baseball game.  he is not a dad that was there to help you when scraped your knee or had your heart broken.  he is not that dad from the google ad that always makes me cry, a dad who sends his daughter encouraging emails when times get tough. he is simply a man who helped create you but didn't really want much to do with you after, kinda like god in the old testament.  he is essentailly a stranger?  would you do it for stranger?  probably not.  or you would but not out of love but respect for a person's dying wish.  but you get my point.  (please note i'm not bitter about living in a single parent home, i think i'm better for it.  but i just feel it's unfair to assume that i owe my dad something when he was never really there for me.)

to not spoil one of the main themes of the book, i will not tell you what fin ends up doing.  you have to read to find out.  i'm also not going to tell you how the superbowl ad went.  you have to read that for yourself.

when i first started reading, i thought fin would become one of my book crushes. he is witty and has a great sense of humor. he also did this cute thing when he first moved to new york. he read "here is new york" and "traced the steps". he then "reread 'catcher in the rye' and did the same." this was kinda perfect cos the last time i went to new york i read books with famous new yorkers (i found a list online). i read "franny and zooey", "stuart little", and "from the mixed up files of mrs. basil e. frankweiler." i also read "extremely loud & incredibly close" because it was set in new york. so totally fell in love with him for that. (i plan on retracing "catcher" on my next nyc trip.). however i didn't fall complete. sure he was hip, he referenced a bunch of cool things but he was weird at times. like i hated his sarcasm. i was annoyed reading it so i could only imagine having to deal with it in real life. and i'm sure it was some defensive mechanism but still would be a dealbreaker for me. also his whole internal dialogues of convos with talk show host was not attractive either. though i loved how he framed life like a commercial and how he scanned through life. like on his first date he goes through a whole life with her. it's a lot to type out here but if you read it, i'm allison to page 145. he also flashbacks about his dad and sister, he sees them doing all of these mundane things but realizing the beauty and simplicity of each thing. it reminded me of charlie from "the perks of being a wallflower".

though those last two things just really mean that i enjoyed kenney's writing. how he captured life in an instant  he was clever and had excellent pop culture references.  i mean he called gwyneth paltrow, mrs. coldplay, kinda cool.  he also quoted f. scott fitzgerald. there were some other references that made me smile but didn't mark them so can't share them but i am sure kenney and i could be friends in real life.

also if you are in advertising you should read this. you will prolly get a kick out of the rundown of fin's agency.

oh last but not least, in the story there is a character keita, who i adore. he is the son of this super rich japanese shipping company owner and in charge of fin's agency. he was sweet and kind and for some odd reason i pictured him in my head as PSY. lol

valentine poems. myra cohn livingston. (92)

in honor of valentine's day, i decided to
check out some v-day kids books. though i am not a huge fan of poetry, i decided to check out this book of poems.

and instead of getting sappy about my feelings on each poem, i decided to share the ones that made my heart smile, the ones that confused me, and one that creeped me out.

the heart smile-ers:

the cabbage analogy is super cute. i also love the play on heart. (cute pinterest type suggestion for next year, this poem with a packet of cabbage seeds! awwwwwww!)

maybe it's the fat kid in me but loving these foodie puns! if i ever elope, i want my bf to propose with this poem. lol

conversations hearts are my favorite, especially the yellow ones. my love is due to their cheekiness so i love the line "each one like a reckless wink".

at first i was like what? a poem about being out at sea?!?!? but then the story of the make out session with the octopi reminded me of one of my favorite
photos, well photographic collage, at the getty. it's by timothy hawkinson. it's an octopus and it's suction thingys are people's lips. the first time i saw it, i must admit i was tipsy (it was 'saturdays off the 405'), i was just in awe. it was like this great giant kiss. so this is what i pictured as i read this poem:

now for the headscratchers:

so not sure why hempseed would be helpful when finding a hubby. but his could just be due to the fact that in my old age, being a pothead is a total dealbreaker. (i explained my views on pot smokers in "i just want my pants back" via a "clueless" quote). i should google to see the reason for this tradition. i should also google to see what hempseed is exactly.

angry valentine was totally me in my early twenties. no wonder i was single cos i was crazy! just like this poem!

the creepier:

so before you get all awwwwww and gushy, let me repeat, in nine years, we'll be ninety-nine! so that is seriously creepy! i mean imagine spending your entire life with one person?!?!?! that is not romantic that is just sad! i mean who is making decisions like that had nine?!?!? i mean thank god i didn't end up with my fourth grade crush! i mean twenty-nine year old me is a mess when it comes to love! can you imagine nine year old me? i have no idea what love is. so yeah this poem is horrible!

there were other poems some that were just plain bad but gave you the creme de la creme. you're welcome and happy valentine's day!!

happy valentine's day, emma! james stevenson (91)

so i take the kids from the dance studio on "adventures" to the library on tuesdays. tuesdays are now known as adventure days.

so today, emma (who is a high schooler) were helping rylie (who is a 1st grader) look for books. i suggested a valentine's day book. and as we were looking we came across this gem. ry was not interested because it isn't halloween. bi emma was excited her name was in the title so we checked it out. and i am so glad we did!

last year at the studio we hosted our first annual anti-valentine's day potluck because darlene is not a fan and i am up for any kind random potluck/party. i had the teachers and TAs make anti-valentine gifts ie crossed out love on stuff animals and gave half eaten boxes of chocolate. I also made these amazing cookies:

anyway, so when emma started to read the first two pages, she began to laugh.  and then emma christened the two evil witches, darlene and krisha. based on their hate of valentine's day and our anti-valentine's day potluck:

hilarious, huh?  and just for the record, i actually do love valentine's day.  my auntie tracey always got us the cutest gifts for valentine's day.  also i'm a sucker for hearts being put on anything and everything.  also it's the only time i can get juju hearts, well find them in stores.

so for those of you interested in the story.  lavinia and dolores are haters and hate on poor emma who loves valentine's day.  emma decides to make valentines even though she and her owl and cat friends are sure they won't get any in return.  so lavinia and dolores, being the haters they are, give emma valentines but horrible gifts like chocolate-covered worms and flowers covered in sneezing powder.  since their pranks are so mean, the cat, owl and emma plan their revenge.  they send valentines to lavinia and dolores, who all of a sudden are excited for the holiday and get done up and bake cookies.  but emma and her pals make them think their valentines are a giant rat and a giant frog so lavinia and dolores run way.  then emma and her pals go home and find all of their valentines from their woodland friends.

cute, huh?  will definitely become a valentine's day staple for my family, if and when i have kids.

the visible man. chuck klosterman. (90)

i love chuck klosterman. i have loved him ever since he nailed my john cusack crush in "sex, drugs, and coco puffs". i, like many women, had a celebrity crush on john cusack, but as klosterman pointed out this was due to "the lloyd dobler effect". his theory was that women were really in love with that character from "say anything" than john cusack himself. sadly this is true, i have followed cusack on twitter and not sure if i truly love him. so my crush was no exception well except that it was more "the rob gordon effect" cos it was the result of the film "high fidelity". seriously, i read that book in cusack's voice, i love him as that character so much!

after reading that first book of klosterman, i became a fan and read all of his books. the man has some great essays, one of my favorites is his explanation of an archenemy versus a nemesis in "IV". also he is seriously the best writer when it comes to pop culture. so you could imagine my excitement when i discovered he had a new novel. btw, he's more of an essayist than a novelist. i read his first novel "downtown owl", it didn't change my life but read it cos i love him.

and i guess i should have known better and had not expected much because "the visible man" was not good. it was a fast read and thank goodness for that. i read it quickly just cos i wanted to get it over with. kinda like a band-aid. i mean i recommended it to my friend danny cos he studies psychology. but other that that i wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

the novel is written from the perspective of a psychiatrist, victoia vick, and it's about her patient Y______, who was crazy and had a suit that made him "invisible" though Y_______ hated the use of that word because no one can truly be invisible. and even worse its written as a manuscript for a potential book which was just too cheesy for me. its like commit to it being a book instead of being the idea of a book. the character Y_____ was horrible which i guess was be point but his personality did not make "the visible man" an enjoyable read. also the narrator, victoria vick was annoying and way too gullible.

and i know from his other works that klosterman loves sci-fi. he has a whole essay on time machines and time travel. so him h.g. well-ing it up doesn't surprise me but it was just boring. there were some twists and turns but victoria and Y____'s relationship was just too predictable and that made it a bland read. the clever and wit of his essays can be found can be found in some parts of the novel. but it wasn't everywhere like it normally is.

so will share some of what did show a glimmer of why i enjoy his works:

Y______ was intelligent yet condescending and one of his insults toward victoria was "i'm not surprised you're a fan of cliff notes." i just had to mention this because i am ashamed of my cliff notes past.

Y______ spies on people. he targeted drunks and shared how he sometimes knocked them down when trying to get into their cars. he explained "sometimes they lie on he ground and laugh at themselves, because drunkards love bring drunkards. it feels great to be drunk, right?". we drunkards do love being drunkards!

for all you crossfit fanatics: "burpies are what convicts do. burpies are designed for people in prison cells."

the best description of north americans:

"north america has more crazy people than every other industrialized continent combined, except for maybe australia. i'd say 25 percent of our populace has craziness in their blood. it's genetic. it's historical. i mean what kind of person immigrated to the new world? not counting slaves, there were only four types really: people who didn't think europe was religious enough, people who thought they could make a lot of money, antisocial failures with no other option, and fruitcakes who thought risking their lived on an alien shore might make for interesting adventure. those see the four components of the american gene pool, and those are the four explanation behind everything good and bad that's ever happened here." lol. brilliant. i never realized how crazy it is that pilgrims settled our country. i mean bible humpers scare me. and here i am in a country that wouldn't exist if it wasn't for them.

klosterman discussed our current narcissism problem and clarified our obsession with facebook: "we're self-conditioned to require an audience, even if we're not doing anything valuable or interesting. i'm sure this started in the 1970s, i know it did. i think americans started raising offspring with this implicit notion that they had to tell their children, "you're amazing, you can do anything you want, you're a special person.". they thought they'd be bad parents if they didn't. they felt a responsibility to give unlimited emotional support. but---when you really thinks about it---that emotional support only applies to the experience of living in public. we don't have ways to quantify ideas like "amazing" or "successful" or "lovable" without the feedback of audience."

i am always discussing the negative effects of our all kids are winners mentality with others. and klosterman sums up the effects perfectly. i know that his explanation sums up my narcissism. i always tell people that even though i grew up in a single parent home, but grandparents and aunt filled the void of my father which resulted in me getting too much attention. being told you are axing by 2 parents is harmful try 5. i'm oddly overconfident yet can be extremely insecure at the same time. it's quite odd. and sad. and i do think the world
revolves around me. i mean let's be honest i spend more time on fb lookin at my pictures than anyone else's.

and some food for thought.

Y_______ is obsessed with observing people when they were alone because that is when he thinks they are their true self. which made me question how differently i act when i am alone and i must admit i am a lot more quiet than normal. this might shock those of you that know me.

okay so those were the best part of the novels. oh also the mention of the beatles. Y______'s story often involved them which seems fishy but he says it's cos everyone loves the Beatles. which is kinda true. everyone does well except grandma bea.

but as a klosterman fan, i recommend to skip his novels but read everything else of his.

the secret history. donna tartt (89)

i saved donna tartt's "the secret history" for the winter. flavorpill recommended i read it in the winter and as we know, flavorpill says and i try to do. it sounds silly but if i had a real winter like the east coast, it would have been the perfect setting for reading "the secret history". though those random days of serious coldest the last couple of weeks paralleled the weather in the book.

i read "the secret history" because it was on flavorpill's list of 30 to read before 30, and though i enjoyed it, i'm not sure why it made that list. it wasn't life changing, though it was a good story. furthermore, i think it would be a good story regardless of one's age. it didn't shine any light or offer any insight on the undergraduate experience.  but i must add it made me grateful that the worse of my college friends were druggies and not murderers.

what?  a murder?!?! yes! there is a murder but i am not going to spoil it for anyone because i want you to read it. i was surprise by how much i enjoyed this book, because i am not one for murder mysteries or suspense.  however "the secret history" is very well written and had so many random twists and turns that i was on the edge of my seat at times. it was a serious page turner and toward the end i couldn't put it down.

and though i am not a fan of the book turned movie reality of hollywood. the whole time i was reading, i kept thinking, this needs to be a movie!!! i googled and it turns out that gwyneth paltrow and her brother bought the rights to it but the movie never happen. but it seriously needs/needed to. it's would have been the perfect brat pack vehicle. it was like a darker breakfast club but instead of detention, prison would have been where they served their time. but seriously such a good book, i recommend you all check it out. though don't feel pressured that you need to read it before 30.

also sorry i don't go into any kind of detail or review for this.  but if you read it and want to discusses it, message me and we can.

oh and one side note, for me, julian never read as sincere.

okay, maybe two, at first i was confused because since they were studying greek and on the east coast, i kept putting them back in the 1930's like a "this side of paradise" but finally fit them into a more "less than zero"/ "rules of attraction" (though i have never read either of them.)

want to say more but won't. but friends read it so we can discuss!