So, YouTube is 'promoting' a video that seems to consist entirely of a picture of poor, beaten Rihanna. How is that not illegal?♥ every page of my imagination
Yeah, so now I'm a little obsessed with mash-ups. It started two afternoons ago, when I was checking my Facebook. Someone on my friends list had posted a Beyonce/Lil Wayne video and I listened to it and I was all, "this cannot have been the greatest mash-up ever." So I YouTube'd it. And I've been doing almost nothing since then except, you know, eating.
I generally like indie or alternative music, but I do appreciate other genres like pop, rap, techno and electronica. Specifically techno. Love techno. The more I listen to techno mash-ups, the more I want to listen to them. It's a sickness. I am a sick person.
This person is the greatest mash-up artist I've ever heard. Ever. And the videos are worth watching, too. So do it. Watch them. They're magnificent.
♥ every page of my imagination
Yeah, shorty.
The Lonely Island's new CD "Incredibad" comes out tomorrow. And I want it.
♥ every page of my imagination
2008 did not rock. Barack Obama aside, the year was grim, with deaths in Iraq at all time highs, a hardcore recession, and Sarah freaking Palin pretty much harshing everyone's buzz. But it's 2009 now! And with the new year comes Oscar season. Although most everything else about 2008 blew, the movies were surprisingly awesome. Below are my top ten movies of 2008.
10. The Wackness
A forgotten summer indie, The Wackness is super-cute and, I'm assuming, accurate to the time period. It's one of those quasi-autobiography movies, as the writer/director Jonathan Levine was also a 17-year-old Jewish boy in New York City in the summer of 1994. Of course, in the movie he sells pot out of an icee cart with his elderly psychologist to make money for college. He also has a short love affair with said psychologist's young stepdaughter. The movie got plenty of attention for the music it used -old-school rap, like A Tribe Called Quest - and the fact that Mary-Kate Olsen has a very small role in which she is not very good. But this movie has more than pot and an Olsen twin, it has great acting (mostly) and super storytelling.
9. Hamlet 2
Yeah, this movie fucking rocked. It got so much buzz and then you never heard about it again. It didn't even get nominated for best original song! This was bar-none the funniest movie of 2008, and possibly of the last five years. I've seen it four times now. I own the soundtrack. And even though I know that Rand comes back at the end to play Laertes as bi-curious, I still love it every single time I watch it. Which is often. Because it is awesome. And I'm a little bit obsessed with the movie. If you haven't seen it, which you probably haven't, because no one did, you should, because it is magnificent. And I'm through.
8. Doubt
Meryl Streep! Philip Seymour Hoffman! Amy Adams! Viola Davis! Pulitzer-winning source material! John! Patrick! Shanley! How could this film be anything but awesome? It was awesome, though, with particularly vicious performances by Viola Davis and Meryl Streep. And, of course, fantastic writing and some decent directing for a playwright. My favorite is, of course, the last scene with Adams and Streep in the winter. Such great writing.
7. (tie) The Dark Knight and Iron Man
These movies are very different movies that achieve the same end. While The Dark Knight is obvi the more cinematic of the two, thanks to Heath Ledger and Christopher Nolan, Iron Man is no less accomplished as a film. Quick disclaimer: my love for Iron Man may or may not have anything to do with my intense love for Robert Downey, Jr. Just saying. These two movies ushered in the summer of the super hero, not to mention they revived the genre after years of lackluster filmmaking. I'm looking at you, X-Men 3.
6. Milk
Every time I hear the line, "My name is Harvey Milk and I'm here to recruit you!" on TV, I can't help but smile. This was such a good movie with such amazingly accurate casting both in the physical resemblance of the actors and the skill. With the exception of Diego Luna, who freaked me the fuck out, all the actors were great. The plot seemed to mirror the recent happenings quite eerily, with the Proposition 2 (I think) passing in the movie and then Prop 8 in real life just a few weeks before it came out.
5. In Bruges
Why is it that no one saw this movie?!? It has Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleason, Ralph freakin' Fiennes, a little person, some random Belgian people, and a killer script. Some of the greatest lines of the year are in this movie, and yet no one saw it when it came out in March. It's about a couple of hitmen who hide out in Bruges, Belgium after a hit gone bad. It gets really good after Ralph Fiennes shows up, and not just because he's a sex god.
4. Gran Torino
Cliiiiint. What can I say? He's magnificent. Also, I did not know there were that many derogatory terms for Asians before I watched this movie. Obvi Clint Eastwood did, though. What I want to know is how.
3. Rachel Getting Married
I can't even include an image for this movie, that's how amazing it was. No picture I found could do it justice. I have been told that my personal love for this movie belies my taste for the bizarre, but I was on the verge of crying from about two minutes into the movie until after the credits rolled. I even sobbed once or twice. If you tell anyone, I will deny it wholeheartedly. Who do you think they are going to believe?
2. Let the Right One In
Fuck Twilight. The best vampire movie this year was this gruesome Swedish gem. See that little twelve year old girl next to this paragraph? Yeah. That's the vampire. And she hooks a little twelve year old boy. She also eats a bunch of people amid obscenely beautiful cinematography of the Swedish snowscape. This showed up on a ton of critics' lists and for good reason, too, because it is awesome. But not awesome enough to be number one. I think if it were in English, I would have liked it even more. But it is what it is. Let the Right One In, all your dreams...are dead.
And finally...
1. Slumdog Millionaire
You saw this one coming. You know how I know you saw this one coming? Because I know you. And also because it's kind of a no-brainer. Where else would you put a movie like Slumdog? It's sweet, but not too sweet, it's stylish, it's uplifting, and - fuck the haters - it doesn't matter whether it's plausible or not. It's beautiful. It's a love story that ends with a huge song-and-dance number. How could anyone not love this movie. If this doesn't win best picture, I weep for humanity.
Honorable Mentions: Man on Wire, The Wrestler, Role Models, Happy-Go-Lucky, Mamma Mia!, Revolutionary Road, Boy A
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Sufjan Stevens. Maybe you've heard of this fellow. Maybe you have not. Regardless, this man is a god.
Abby, you say, or not, I don't know you, isn't that a rather hyperbolic statement? Surely this Sufjan character isn't a celestial being. Well, stuff you, because he is. He is...magic. Listen to this song from his album Illinoise called "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us" and tell me he is not magic.
This particular brand of magic is not unfamiliar, of course - it's just music. But since music like this is so rare on the whole, the things it can do seem so astounding. It can make us feel amazing or awful; it can facilitate time travel; it can transplant your soul into another's body; it can truly change your life. Even if you don't want it to.
♥ every page of my imagination
"All of us have heard this term 'preventive war' since the earliest days of Hitler... A preventive war, to my mind, is an impossibility today. How could you have one if one of its features would be several cities lying in ruins, several cities where many, many thousands of people would be dead and injured and mangled, the transportation systems destroyed, sanitation implements and systems all gone? That isn't preventive war; that is war. I don't believe there is such a thing [as preventive war]; and frankly, I wouldn't even listen to anyone seriously that came in and talked about such a thing."
~Dwight D. Eisenhower, August 11, 1954
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Blade Runner came out on DVD on Tuesday. I got it for Christmas from a friend, who I think just got tired of my talking about it incessantly. Blade Runner came out way back in '82, when movie tickets were, if my sources are correct, a quarter. It was generally regarded as a commercial failure, but it got a big cult following, like many sci-fi movies. This new DVD has four separate cuts of the movie, three different commentaries, a making-of documentary, and special features.The premise sounds strange. It is set around 2020, in a Los Angeles where a homogenized Asian culture has pretty much taken over. The Tyrell Corporation started making these things called "replicants" - they're pretty much people only robots. The only way you can tell them apart is by asking them a whole load of questions and then waiting for their eyes to flash or something. Replicants soon started getting creepy, and, like, growing emotions after a little while, so Tyrell built in a self-destruct after four years. All the replicants were sent to be slaves because that's pretty much the best reason I can think of to build such robots. When they escape to Earth, they get a blade runner such as Harrison Ford (Rick Deckard) to beat them down, hence the title.
The catalyst is that four really advanced and dangerous replicants escape to Earth, supposedly in an attempt to fix that whole self-destruct thing. Meanwhile, creepy freaking Tyrell keeps building and improving on the replicants, even though they already didn't work out. He makes Rachael (Sean Young), who is almost indistinguishable from a human, even to herself. Deckard falls in creepy love with Rachael and they end up having creepy cyborg/rapey sex in the middle of the movie. Yeah. But it's good, I swear.
The end confrontation between Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), the main escaped replicant, and Deckard is too amazingly amazing for me to divulge any info, save for this tidbit: he ends up both shirtless and pantless by the end. Yeah. So go out and buy it. Yesterday.
Labels: amazing, blade runner, harrison ford, pantless, replicant, robots, rutger hauer, sean young, shilling for a movie, the future, tyrell
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Aren't you proud?♥ every page of my imagination
To be honest, I only started watching the new ABC show Traveler because of Pyro. I am a huge dork (it's so bright outside this closet) and watched all three X-Men movies. Aaron Stanford rocked the crap out of Pyro in the latter two. He also has the potential to be very hot. So when I saw him in a promo during Lost 
being all "sorry" on the phone with a couple other hot guys, I was all, "totally gonna watch this." My expectations were subterranean.But then a funny thing happened. I watched the pilot and was hooked. Within a minute, man. It took me about three episodes to get as hooked on Heroes, which is a much stronger concept than "let's-blow-up-a-building-and-see-what-happens." And yet, I find myself sympathizing with the douchebag rich boy Tyler, the overly-serious Jay, and even Terrorist Boy himself, Will Traveler.
♥ every page of my imagination
1// Any conversation beginning with the words, "Have you gone to the bathroom lately?" is a conversation you don't want to have.
2// Never trust politicians whose names sound like body parts.
3// Silver body paint dries really slowly.
Labels: bathrooms, body paint, body parts, conversing, names, observations, politicians
♥ every page of my imagination
♥ every page of my imagination
If your hair is lighter than your skin, one is fake.
♥ every page of my imagination
Abby is way, way sick today, and since she shares this computer with her family, it would be quite rude to continue to contaminate it.:) Ta-ta for now.
~Abby
♥ every page of my imagination
Okay, so I'm going to start a thing where every Monday I review a new movie on this humble little excuse of a blog. I feel guilty about not posting all weekend (I know! I'm weird.) Today I'm going to start with what is possibly my favorite movie ever: Genesis.I was exposed to this wonderful movie by the fantabulous subscription-DVD-program called Ironweed. My oldest brother got it for a birthday present, but since he's gone to college I get to watch them first. :D Genesis has so far been my favorite, but every week it's something new and wonderful. I have learned from so many different points of veiws by watching movies, it's really amazing.
Genesis follows the journey of life on earth, from the tiniest of amoebas to mammals like you and me. It's narrated by an old, wise black man who sits in front of a pot of water through the entire movie. I don't really get that part. Perhaps it's supposed to symbolize the boiling pot of...life? He speaks in another language, so it's subtitled, but there's not a lot of talking. It's a very artistic film, in that of the 81 minutes of the movie, more than an hour is just silent, nature sounds and all that.
It starts out with cells, joining together, forming invertabrates, about ten minutes of underwater creatures, including several very breathtaking shots of a jellyfish swimming around. It sounds really boring, but the camera is crazy hi-definition and to any artist or art appreciator it's life-changing experience. Then we move on land, to the mudskipper, who is the most adorable 
amphibian ever. We watch it as it builds its home. We also get glimpses of other amphibians, but not for very long.
Then there's, like, seven minutes of a snake eating an egg. I KID YOU NOT. But it's so close up that you can actually see the muscles constricting to crush the egg and then pushing it back out. You can practically see through the skin of the snake. It's that... mind-blowing.
There's some other great scenes, like the nine minutes of pure, bubbling lava near the beginning, or the turtle sex. I had to cover my eyes for the latter, though, it's terribly odd.
In conclusion, go out right this second and but Genesis. Your very life depends on it! Or at least enriching your very life, but you know, whatever floats your boat. If you want to go about your day thoroughly unenriched so be it, none of my business.
~Abby
Labels: omniscient narrators, snakes, the french
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Mika is the greatest thing to happen to music in a very, very long me. And his first single, "Love Today" is probably the happiest song I've ever heard. It makes me feel like I'm sitting in the bay window with warm, sweet sun kissing my face. Seriously, it's that awesome. Tip: don't read the lyrics. It's a bit of a downer. Happy Friday!
~Abby
Labels: smiles, sugary goodness, sunshine
♥ every page of my imagination
I balls-out love Heroes. Probably more than is actually healthy. It's a great new show from NBC that took all of Studio 60's lead-up hype and smashed it to bits. That is, at least, my theory. Everyone watched Heroes first and then they were like, "Wait, which power does that coke guy have? None? Well, then why am I watching it?" At least, that's what I did. But I ended up watching S60 out of pure pity. Hey, Sorkin, remember Sports Night? When you were not a douchebag?!Heroes has everything one could ever want in a TV show. It's Lost but faster paced. I'm sure Heroes gets so tired of that comparison. I'm sorry. It's Law & Order without all the law...and order. Although one of the characters is a cop. Oh, and the similarities don't end there! Every now and again dead people show up, courtesy of the very evil Sylar, who is pictured/ridiculed above. Tomorrow I wake up without my brain. But it's cool, 'cause I'll post pictures.
First you got your core cast. It consists of that damn cheerleader you keep hearing so much
about, a pair of overly-affectionate yet foxy Italian brothers, an adorable Japanese cube-fairy who stops time, a crazy chick, the thought police, and an Indian guy who's the Professor X to every else's Mutant Academy. Then there's the peripherals, who generally exist to have relationships with the mutants, but also serve as target practice. Case in point: Simone. You shall be missed, if only for your pretty hair.The show is on haitus right now, though, so there are no new episodes until the television advertisements tell me so. I'll keep you posted.
This show has taught me much in its almost-season run so far. 1) Superpowers are cool. 2) If I had superpowers, I kill people, too. 3) Even the worst examples of stick figure art can be
important in the scheme of things. 4) Heroin sux. That last bit was actually gleaned from some graffiti carved into a door in my school; however, it was reinforced by Isaac, a.k.a. Mr. IPAINTTHEFUTURE.I really like the idea of Heroes as a graphic novel on television. I'm a second-generation comic book lover, although while my father compulsively read every DC superhero, I just liked the Sailor Moon comics. I know enough about the world in there to appreciate the little cinematic touches like the title scroll, or the juxtaposition of objects on a desk. But I'm not so into it as to recognize every tiny little detail ripped off from X-Men. Practically the entire idea is ripped from X-Men, man, tell me something I don't know.
Any show that can make me scream with laughter one minute then sob hysterically the next is something special. I can only hope that its success doesn't go to its head and mess around up there like it did with Lost (Sorry. It was a necessity). I hope they don't start repeating superpowers. Or complicating the relationships between the characters. You pulled the "who's-your-daddy" thing off once, but don't think you'll get lucky again. And I reeeally hope they don't kill off DL, the sweetest most adorable character ever!
In conclusion, brains. :D
~Abby
Labels: brains, herion, stick figures
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I've loved movies ever since my dad took me to see Jurassic Park in theaters. Opening night. It's amazing I remember that, because it was released in June of '93, which means I was two. I also remember kicking my mom in the face when she was changing my diaper, and I was potty-trained by my first birthday. And yet I can't remember what I did in third period today. Tangent alert!
Back to the dinosaurs. I recall running out of the theater screaming when the guy got eaten when he was in the john, then vomiting on a random usher. What was he doing just walking around the hallway? Didn't he have a job? Well, after that I rewatched the movie at least once a year. I can recite whole scenes. I own the sequel...s. And almost all of the action figures. I used to make the raptors pilot the Star Ship Enterprise and the T-Rex take the Millenium Falcon and as I type this I realize why I had no friends growing up.
My favorite action figures where the chompies, though. The little bitty dinosaurs who devoured people? Yeah. I think they were in the second movie. Also, I don't think they were actually called chompies, because I'm GoogleImaging every imaginable spelling and I keep getting pictures of donuts. I liked them because they were tiny and had sharp little tails that I used to pull back and whip my brothers in the face with them. They hurt like hell.
Ever since then I've loved movies. Any kind of movies. Documentaries, dramas, comedies. Glitter, even. I'm very forgiving. Ever since I realized that there are actually people who write movies - not so long ago, mind you - I knew I wanted to be a movie writer. Or whatever the technical term is. So in twenty years when you find yourself watching the latest flick I wrote during a painkillers-induced week-long hallucination, just remember: blame Jurassic Park, not the doctor I swiped the prescription pad from. He didn't know.
~Abby
Labels: dinosaurs, drugs, potty training
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You are witnessing the rebirth of a formerly forgotten blog. How wonderful for you.Previously, this blog was used for naught but one survey, and that was only because Amy forced me to put something up here. However, I felt bad because the layout is so pretty and all, I decided to use it for something. And that something would be... wait for it... ranting on various unimportant subjects. Gasp now.
Alrighty, let's get to the show!
♥ every page of my imagination
