Some Girls Give You Diamonds, Some Girls Heart Attacks

2014

mdmbrightside — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 08:37:28 GMT

Events Attended

events end

Cinema Seen

movies end

Television Viewed

tv end

Books Read

book end

Songs Related To
	Express yourself Release and go Attack the flow Get low
	How you gon' be mad on vacation? Dutty wining 'round all these Jamaicans
	Bo My God
	You don't really want me You don't really need me You just keep me hanging on
	I didn't know I was broken 'Til I wanted to change I wanna get better Better, better, better
	And if I lose my mental Just hold my hand Even if you don't understand Hold up
	Year off, got no rules tripping off of them toadstools More green than my Whole Foods and I'm too fly, Jeff Goldblum
	And if I was yours But I'm not
	Well, maybe all of my friends Should confront The fact that I don't want Another girl
	Then you bring your mind To rest against mine But the mind has no say In affairs of the heart
	Aw, but it don't get much dumber It don't get much dumber Than trying to forget A girl when you love her

music end

Star Ranking System

☆☆☆☆		I own this media and will return to it.
☆☆☆		I enjoyed it and may return to it again.
☆☆		I had some significant problems but don't regret seeing it.
☆		I didn't finish it. I loathe it entirely.
Hover over each poster to see my star review.

Years in Review
2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011

❄SPOILERS❄ Frozen Film Discussion ❄SPOILERS❄

mdmbrightside — Wed, 13 Nov 2013 08:29:39 GMT

I was lucky enough to see an early screening of Frozen in 3D in early November and it was a wonderful theater-going experience. I’m really looking forward to the movie coming out at the end of the month because I know audiences are going to have great fun watching it. Frozen is gorgeously animated, laugh-out-loud funny, full of lovable characters, music that’s alternatively toe-tapping and transportive, and for good or bad, the point of departure for a lot of discussion.

I decided not to post this discussion until the movie was released nationwide, because what fun is a debate if no one knows what you’re talking about? Even after the film comes out, I bet I’ll be waiting a few weeks before the honey-glow of a new Disney film to dim and fans will want to discuss the finer points. I also want to see it again to be sure my views are consistent. I want to stress I really do like Frozen, but I think it could have been a lot better on the plot end.

One sentence review
The parts are better than the sum, but it’s a lot of fun!

• Anna is a memorable and lovable heroine in a way that differentiates her from any Disney heroine to date. Kristen Bell sought to make Anna unique, and she succeeded with flying colors!

Well, Anna has Mulan's social awkwardness coupled with Rapunzel's gregariousness, but to the nth-degree. Anna was awkward in ways that weren’t just cute or endearing, she reached cringe-worthy more than a few times in a spectacular way. She loves her sister and is excited to make friends and be a part of the world outside her gate. You love her, you root for her - she carries this movie and makes it work as well it does. She jumps without worrying where's she's going to land.

• Elsa is everything I said about Anna inverted.

Here's a fun exercise: Try to describe Elsa without using the words fearful, repressed, or regal. Beyond those three aspects there is no other dimension to Elsa. Her best moment in the movie is definitely the 'Let It Go' montage when we get to see Elsa have fun building a cathedral of ice and being just a little bit sassy. We glimpse who Elsa might be sans powers and status, but then that just gets buried again for the rest of the film. Elsa is so terrified of showing any emotion whatsoever there is no other aspect to her character.

Who is Elsa? What does she think, what does she feel, what does she want for herself? What are her dreams and aspirations? What does she think of her parents, her sister, her subjects? How does she feel about her powers - does she resent them and wish to be rid of them? Does she wish she could be ordinary? Or does she feel most herself when she's at the heart of the storm?

We don't know!

We don't know why she felt like she had to be Queen of Arendelle in the first place. Does she have a love of pomp and panache? Of service to her kingdom? Does she feel like she’s the most qualified for this leadership role? Or does she believe she's has no choice but to fulfill the position she’s been born to?

It's like all the time spent developing Anna's character was taken from developing Elsa's. I got such a good sense of Anna that I felt like I knew her, but ask me anything about Elsa as a person and all I can do is speculate. Elsa is a cypher.

Also, Elsa, baby, bubbalah - you had a chance to live the Calvin and Hobbes/Ice King dream and create an army of gargantuan snow guards! WHY DIDN'T YOU?

NO SERIOUSLY

THERE IS NO LOGICAL REASON YOU DIDN'T

THIS COULD HAVE SOLVED SO MANY PROBLEMS

*TABLE FLIP*

• Kristoff was unexpectedly likable. I say 'unexpectedly' because Kristoff's charm is so downplayed you like him long before you realize you do. He is gruff and rough around the edges (my friend was grossed out by the way Sven and Hans shared food). Heck, the trolls sing a song about him being a Fixer-Upper (I like to think Kristoff had a family, but the trolls just kidnapped him and raised him as their own).

Kristoff and Anna eventually connect within their compatible weirdness and make a cute couple. The movie ended leaving room for their relationship to grow, which was a step in the right direction.

Also, Kristoff witnessed and remembers the trolls healing Anna. He presumably knew Elsa had ice powers before she revealed it on her coronation day. Kristoff didn’t seem to have any obvious prejudice to the Elsa’s ability - he wanted to know why she went ‘crazy’ but seemed more interested in the reason why than that fact that Elsa had ice magic. And as a guy who makes his living from and loves ice, it’s a wonder he didn’t harbor a crush on Elsa for her powers alone. Though helping Anna worked out in his favor as he was appointed Official Ice Master and Deliverer by Elsa. Especially because Elsa’s magic could have instantaneously put Kristoff out of business.

• Hans was a peach of a prince, matching Anna's energy beat for beat in Love is an Open Door, being dreamy and accommodating and protective - overall just a swoon-worthy fellow right up until his heel-turn (big gasp from audience).

Hans sells dreamy a lot better than murderous usurper, but that seems to be the point. It comes out of left field but also underscores that Anna didn't know who she was marrying after one day. I'd like to know more about his motivation to be a King from a childhood of 12 older brothers ignoring him. If the story had played out differently, Anna and Elsa would be dead, but Hans would be ruling Arendelle. And truth be told: Hans seemed good at it. Infiltrating the royal household and commanding the kingdom within a day takes a great deal of skill and ambition.

Though I would have liked Hans’s monologue to have been less from the mustache-twirling school of villainy and more consistent within his personality. Hans struck me as a Bob Benson-style sociopath - nice to everyone, deeply ambitious, and if someone is in his way he uses his impeccable reputation to rally people against them. One of the hallmarks of this kind of sociopath is he doesn’t actually have much of an ego. He doesn’t need to earn the respect or admiration of others because he’s skilled at cultivating it out of nothing. Everything he does is about achieving the position and lifestyle he believes is worthy of him.

Hans wouldn’t gain anything emotionally from tormenting Anna beyond that he can, and that doesn’t gel at all with the rest of his personality. Hans didn’t resent Anna’s trusting nature or despise her royal position. She was a perfect mark for his plan and he would have felt lucky to find such a dysfunctional Princess to manipulate. If Hans had a grudge against anyone, it was his brothers or Elsa, because she treated Anna the way his brothers treated him.

In that moment when Hans realized Elsa froze Anna and all he had to do was let Anna die, Hans would have been elated! His plan had just been simplified to where he’d just let the magic take its course. He’d feel cheerful and excited rather than smarmy and condescending. Hans would feel grateful toward the sisters for cancelling one another out, and leaving only him to legitimately ascend the throne.

So I didn’t want Hans to lose his winning personality and outlook when his true intentions were revealed. Maybe that’s why Hans’s heel-turn feels forced, because Hans being such a smug, petty murderer doesn’t gel with the rest of his winning personality. Also, the entire delegation to Arendelle saw he was about to stab Elsa so Hans wouldn’t have got the throne anyway.

• Duke of Weselton was the character created to monger fear against Elsa when her powers were revealed. He's exceptionally goofy and reads like a last minute addition. Alan Tudyk makes him fun, though.

• Olaf is great. You wish you could have a snow-friend as funny and supportive and sweet. I'm glad I got onboard the Olaf-train early. My trust that Olaf would be great was not misplaced!

• The Trolls were just sort of there to contextualize the magic elements, be funny, and tell Anna that you can't change someone, you can only love them. They come into the story at important points but seem to slow down the momentum. They're fun to watch, though, so it's an even trade.

• Oaken of Wandering Oaken’s Trading Post is in the movie for five minutes, but he makes every second of screen time funny. He’s everything a big, sweet Norwegian fellow would be! Just mind your manners with Oaken.

Like Brave, Disney/Pixar seems interested in making movies centered around female relationships (mother-daughter, sister-sister) but in the most bland, inoffensive way possible. And the result is bland, inoffensive stories with bland, inoffensive themes. Everything else about the movie can be spectacular, but the stories are weak and unremarkable on their own. With Frozen, Disney changed the character roles but not the situation. There are so many more interesting scenarios and emotions to use than just the unimpressive True Love Conquers All. We’ve seen it enough, especially in Disney fare.

I suspect there's a lot of executive meddling in these movies, and not just as it relates to merchandising. Frozen was obviously written by committee as there are small scenes that are exciting, heartfelt, and funny while all the important plot points aren't well-developed, feel forced, phony, or meandering. The movie feels incomplete, likely because it was on a rushed production schedule.

Do You Believe In Magic In A Young Girl's Hands?
I really, really wanted context for Elsa's magic, especially after it was so well contextualized in Tangled. We understand Elsa was born with her powers, but has that happened before historically, or in her family? Did no one notice it when she was a baby or toddler? Why did her family feel the need to hide it? Was their a native prejudice toward sorcery in their kingdom? Were they afraid that their subjects would reject Elsa as Queen because of her magic?

What happens to Elsa's magic after the movie? Does she invade other kingdoms with her inexhaustive ice, or do other kingdoms bring the war to Arendelle out of fear of her sorcery? What does the future hold for Elsa, Anna, and Kristoff?

Queen Nobody
Since watching Frozen, I've read the script and spent a lot of time trying to read into the symbolism and actions to understand Elsa, a clear sign the movie could have done a better job with her development. And the answer is pretty obvious, but it bears definition because it’s so vague.

What Elsa's Uses Her Powers For:

Creating snowstorms of ballroom-, kingdom-, or snowman-sizes
Creating a layer of ice across a flat surface (ballroom, fjord, castle court etc.)
Creating snow slides and peaks
Suspending snowflakes in the air*
Turning others hair white
Building cathedrals of ice
Granting independent sentience to snow
Freezing people to death
Creating icicles and ice structures to attack people
Dissolving the ice and snow up into the sky, then dispersing it

How Elsa's Emotional State Unintentionally Affects Her Powers:

Grief :: Suspended snowflakes in mist*
Anger :: Ice spikes
Fear / Confusion :: Snowstorm

*Does this really happen? I'm doubtful, but not altogether unconvinced. Someone screen Frozen for Neil deGrasse Tyson!

How Elsa Describes Her Powers:

Curse
Raging/swirling storm inside of me
My soul [is spiraling in frozen fractals all around]

How Elsa Describes Herself:

The Queen
The good girl you always have to be
That perfect girl is gone
Such a fool
A danger to Arendelle

After consideration, I’ve come to the conclusion that Elsa’s powers represent her true self outside her role as Queen. Elsa magic is the manifestation of her feelings, desires, and suppressed personality. When she escapes to the mountains, she finally feels comfortable enough to act like the person she’s always wanted to be, not the one that was prescribed for her. And she only feels comfortable being herself by herself because she’s so afraid of what people will think of who she really is.

Even though her powers make her unique, Elsa lives in fear of two things:

She will hurt someone, especially someone she cares about. We all have thoughts and actions we didn’t intend to say or do. Elsa has only learned to deal with her true self by suppressing it. She can’t trust herself to be herself because she doesn’t know what that person will do.
She will be ostracized or attacked because people don’t trust or understand her. It’s interesting, however, that Elsa doesn’t seem to fear the people she cares about (Anna) rejecting her or wanting to harm her.

Elsa is told “fear will be [her] enemy” by the Grand Pabbie (grandfather troll). What he means is Elsa being afraid of her powers will put them out of her control, while Elsa and her parents interpret it to mean that Elsa has to hide her powers and from now on pass as ordinary. Elsa is forced to entirely suppress who she is, to subvert herself into the role of heir apparent.

Based on this vagueness, you could read into this symbolism that Elsa is gay or transsexual, or has a mental, congenital, or degenerative illness that she has to hide. Or maybe she’s just got an artistic soul, and that was her first opportunity to express herself honestly. Or it could just be Elsa has a really inappropriate sense of humor. It could be anything because almost anything considered deviant or abnormal could be substituted for Elsa’s ice magic.

It’s a fairly obvious symbol: Elsa’s magic = Whoever Elsa Is To Herself. And there’s a certain self-insert genius to it - if you've ever been afraid to be who you are and terrified of how people would react to your true self, Elsa knows that feel! She's been there! But that vagueness that makes Elsa so relatable also makes her a very dull, generic character. She's everyone and no one.

How Does This Work?
So why ice magic for this metaphor? The film is set in a Norwegian-inspired region, where there is a lot of sub-arctic weather, especially up in the mountains. Ice is also a very mutable form - Elsa uses it for structure, defense, and recreation.

But it’s still magic, and thus has supernatural properties and obeys supernatural laws instead of natural physics. For example, a person’s hair will whiten and they will slowly freeze to death when struck by Elsa’s ice. This can be undone by memory-altering magic if a person is struck in the head, but it’s irreversible if a person is struck in the heart. For a frozen heart, that magical cure-all - True Love - must be conveyed by physical contact.*

Why? Who knows. Who knows why a person’s hair turns white first if they’re struck in the heart. Hair color is not affected by issues in a human cardiovascular system. Who knows why Anna’s lungs, diaphragm, ribs, spine, stomach, or spleen were unaffected when she was hit in the chest by that wave of ice. Who knows why Anna’s hands turned blue before the rest of her, even though her heart is far closer to her brain. Because it’s magic, and magic only has to follow the rules you make up.

You can probably tell I find all these answers unsatisfying. Again, Tangled contextualized it better.

*In order to be True Love, both parties have to be feeling the same kind of devotion and affection for one another to the same degree. It is usually fostered between those romantically in love, though in Frozen it is proven sororal love can also considered True Love. Otherwise... Frozen just raised a lot of awkward questions about incest.

It is possible Kristoff could have unfrozen Anna while carrying her down the mountain because he loved her. Kristoff was developing feelings before and during that alpine descent for Anna that Anna reciprocated for him. Unfortunately, Anna was still fixated on Hans being her True Love which prevented the spell from breaking. In fact, it is unknown whether Kristoff’s public display of affection would have thawed Anna’s heart. He may yet be a future ex-boyfriend.

You're Frozen When Your Heart's Not Open
As to the crux of the film, there was an important head/heart dichotomy in Frozen:

If Anna's mind was touched by Elsa's ice, the mind could be convinced not to let the body freeze to death,
but if the heart was struck by supernatural ice, the heart would kill the body, or let it die.

Symbolically, this dichotomy is compelling. If you understand someone doesn't want you around rationally, you can come to accept it (head). But if you feel someone doesn't want you around emotionally, you can't understand it and eventually stop trusting people because you can’t understand what may make them potentially reject you in the future (heart).

That’s a rich vein of metaphor in freezing the heart versus the head, and thus should have been the effect of Elsa's magic on Anna. If Anna's metaphysical heart - her personality - had frozen instead of her body, she would become more hesitant and indifferent to her friends, similar to the way Kai was affected by the demon mirror shard in The Snow Queen. As Wikipedia surmises:

These splinters are blown around and get into people's hearts and eyes, making their hearts frozen like blocks of ice and their eyes like the troll-mirror itself, only seeing the bad and ugly in people and things. [...] Kai's personality changes: he becomes cruel and aggressive. He destroys their window-box garden, he makes fun of his grandmother, and he no longer cares about Gerda, since all of them now appear bad and ugly to him.

Anna is such a colorful character, it would have been devastating to her companions and audience to see her vibrancy wane into hopelessness (similar to the way her hair color is bleached away). Thus Anna's friends would be fighting to save more than to just Anna's body, they would have been fighting to preserve her as a person.

Now the argument may be made that this metaphor is achieved in the movie: by freezing Anna physically they also froze her personality. I agree with that - the film wisely tamps down Anna's antics throughout the third act to underscore how she's disappearing.

But we understand loss in the abstract. We don't understand how loss will affect ourselves or our lives before it happens. Loss is an unknown quantity, and that makes it terrifying. But by freezing Anna's personality - removing what makes Anna Anna and replacing it with fear and distrust, the audience is shown how her loss affects everyone else in the story before she’s gone. It creates more conflict between the characters and thus raises the stakes.

It was always Elsa's responsibility to conquer her fear and live openly in order to reconnect with Anna. It was Elsa that needed to change. But if both sisters were experiencing a personality change neither could control and would have to sacrifice their fear to overcome it, that would have made for a resonant and meaningful reunion.

Even more than that, it would mirror to Elsa her own isolationism and fear, helping her realize how destructive and ineffectual her behavior really was. Elsa would understand how she had been affecting Anna for the worse, more than regretting killing Anna by accident and or feeling guilty for Anna taking a sword for her. Both regret and guilt suggest that Elsa has loved Anna in the past, but I would want Elsa to realize she loves Anna now and hates to see what’s become of her beloved sister because of her own callousness.

That makes the movie’s solution - True Love - directly applicable to Anna’s state. It would be emotion combating emotion, rather than emotion combating magic. True Love doesn’t cure hypothermia, but the forgiveness and patience fostered by unwavering devotion and admiration from another person (“True Love”) can help a beleaguered individual open up and trust again.

Thus Elsa's demonstrative love for Anna (a warm hug, aww) would still have thawed Anna’s frozen heart. Heck, I would have lost it if Elsa tearfully reprised "Do You Want To Build A Snow Man?" while hugging Anna's frozen corpse. The audience would have realized Elsa had positive remembrances of their childhood the way Anna did, AKA the entire context of their healthy relationship. It would also give Elsa more to do than cry with her back to the audience (more on that in Animation) as a display of grief for her sister.

The core of the story is about two girls freezing to death because they cannot love - one who isolates herself out of fear of truly knowing herself (Elsa) and one so deprived of love she can’t recognize it anymore (Anna). But the opposite of love isn't it's absence - it's indifference. Both sisters would rather ignore or give up on one another during the coronation ball - they’re indifferent to one another. Anna as a statue is absence. Anna as a terrified inversion of herself, convinced she cannot be loved, wandering away from everyone who loves her - that’s a fate worse than death.

I've thought a lot about this because the movie's solution ("feeling loved will help me control myself") is nonsensical and a little unsettling because the inverse ("love me OR I'll go into the mountains to die") is concerning.

So what did I like about the movie? Everything else.

Frozen is probably the biggest departure from anything else in the Disney fairy tale canon. Alan Menken it isn't. As soon as you can start thinking of Frozen not as a Disney film but a fairy tale musical brought to you by the songsmiths of Avenue Q and Book of Mormon, it works! The lyrics and comedy throughout the film are very different, in an awesome way. Each song is cleverly worded and the arrangements are sweet and plaintive, goofy and fun, beautiful and sweeping, powerful, funny, or uplifting. The music is the strongest feature of the film on it’s own musicality but also because it also features a lot of comedy.

There were titters of laughter here and there before Olaf wanders on screen, but after he shows up? Belly laughs so loud you can't hear the dialogue. Josh Gad is funny. Trust.

Remember the foofaraw around what Frozen's director of animation, Lino Di Salvo said?

“Historically speaking, animating female characters are really, really difficult, because they have to go through these range of emotions, but you have to keep them pretty - [...]"

At the time that quote blew up and differing communities reacted:

Feminists saying women have the full spectrum of expressions and not all of them are pretty OR should be beautified, and
Animators saying the quote was out of context as it really related to the character being on model (something Lino goes on to say in the original quote).

So after seeing the movie - no, I agree, it really is a problem. Because despite Kristen Bell's heroic effort to inject Anna with personality, both Anna and Elsa have a limited range of facial emotions when they’re on screen together and it hurts the film. Anna and Elsa barely seem to have a relationship to reconcile because we can't see it in their faces.

Watch this scene again without the sound on and see if you can tell what I mean:

Seems like they're just having a mild sibling tiff, right? The acting is so subtle and constrained that it doesn't read to the audience as the plot-hinging blowup it's supposed to be.

And that's it - that's the whole movie. I really wanted to see these emotional expressions and gestures between these sisters that had to be inferred through the dialogue. The characters could tell me what they're feeling, but I didn't believe them because I didn't see it. I didn't care about the crisis of the third act because the characters didn't appear to. In that regard, as a visual medium it failed.

More than anything this movie made me miss Glen Keane and Mark Henn. Neither were afraid to let their leading ladies look ugly at the expense of letting them emote. Just go back and watch Rapunzel talk for a few minutes, or watch Sergeant Calhoun from Wreck-It Ralph yell at everybody. These were visually interesting, dynamically-animated leading ladies.

Anna and Elsa look pretty and not much else. Even looking at Anna’s expression comparisons in Tumblr GIFs maker her facial range appear drastically limited. It's bizarre when you have Anna next to the Duke of Weselton or Olaf, male characters who are allowed to have big, hilariously-grotesque expressions because it looks like they're from two different films, and that's a problem.

And of course, the effects animation is beautiful and impressive, but it's hard to focus on when what you're thinking about is how underdeveloped the character animation is.

Two steps forward, two steps back. Where are we going, Disney?

Confirmed:
• Stay until the end of the credits to find out what happened to that which Elsa left behind.
• Rapunzel and Eugene have a cameo. Look for them on the lower-left hand corner of the screen as Anna comes out of the castle gate during “For The First Time In Forever.”
• There's a disclaimer in the credits: "The views of Kristoff and all men who pick their noses are not necessarily those of the Walt Disney Company."

Frozen 2: Hans With A Mustache
OR
Frozen 2: Elsa Develops A Personality

Rating
❆❆❆❄

Ombre Eggs and Easter Baskets

mdmbrightside — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 03:23:38 GMT

I found this image on Pinterest, and was like "Yeah, I could do that." There were no instructions, so I just wung it.

My first question was how to keep the eggs upright. I didn't think they'd stay in place if I just leaned them against the cup. I fit three toothpicks at the bottom of the cup to form a triangle stand and balanced the egg on top.

I poured the boiling water a third of the way up the egg, then mixed in the vinegar and food coloring. In retrospect, I should have mixed the boiling water and food coloring in another cup and then poured it around the egg.

After five minutes, I poured in boiling water two-thirds up the egg to make the next layer.

Last round of color. I only waited three minutes as it was the lightest layer.

Drying out. The little white spots show the bottom of the eggs. Should have mixed the color beforehand.

Boom - ombre eggs.

I bought Easter candy to make treat bags. This one's for my Dad.

The rest went to my Easter basket, "hidden" so I wouldn't eat it all before Sunday. Now candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker.

Eastertime treats! My teeth already hurt.

Novel Gazing

mdmbrightside — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 00:55:41 GMT

I got lost in a quandary today, and then made it all the more confusing by trying to explain it before I understood it. The basic thrust of it was this:

When I'm making something up, I'm imaging a scene. I see the colors, the lighting, staging, action, angle changes. Sometimes I can even hear the dialogue, the soundtrack, or the ambient noise. I see it as if I had watched it on film, or even directed it. The difficulty is, I'm a writer. I'm not a great photographer, painter or cinematographer. The best way I've found to convey my ideas (so far) is to write them down, or tell other people about them - similarly, through words.

So that imaginary visual medium has to be crudely converted into a literary one. At best, I can hope to convey the same mood and actions that I originally envisioned. Which is also something I really love about reading. I love that many people can read the same book and come away with different opinions about what something looked like, or even represented within the same story. There's an enormous amount of personal control you happily relinquish as a writer that isn't found as much in other mediums. But still, I feel like I'm leaving the description incomplete by not including every stage direction or the exact way the heroine had her hair, even if doesn't contribute to the structure of the story. But if I were a director...

There is that part of me, the part that would really love to do a one-to-one transfer - taking the production from my head to a screenplay and storyboard, then to set and editing bay and movie screen. Unfortunately, that is also the part that really, really doesn't want to deal with actors, or producers. I'm lousy at explaining exactly what I want, or translating it for other people. Right now I'm content just to put the ideas in people's heads, even if they aren't exactly what's in mine.

Though I wonder if the Great Writers, or people who have been writing for longer than I have, imagine stories as pictures in their heads, or if they imagine just the right simile to describe what they mean? Do they dream with their eyes or their words? And do you become more literate with time, or do you forever have to transcribe your own imaginary-cinematics?

ETA: From The New York Times article on George Saunders, Saunders imparts:

“The chances of a person breaking through their own habits and sloth and limited mind to actually write something that gets out there and matters to people are slim.” But it’s a mistake, he added, to think of writing programs in terms that are “too narrowly careerist. . . . Even for those thousands of young people who don’t get something out there, the process is still a noble one — the process of trying to say something, of working through craft issues and the worldview issues and the ego issues — all of this is character-building, and, God forbid, everything we do should have concrete career results. I’ve seen time and time again the way that the process of trying to say something dignifies and improves a person.”

Worthwhile to remember.

2012 Year In Review

mdmbrightside — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 10:31:29 GMT

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Years In Review
2012 | 2011

All I did this year apparently was bake, move, and manage. My 2012 priorities need work.

2013 in Review

mdmbrightside — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 09:25:55 GMT

Year In Review

year end

Events I Attended

event end

Movies I Watched











55 Films Watched

movie end

Television I Watched














43 Shows Watched 54 Seasons Watched

tv end

Books I Read





21 Books Read 8,401 Pages Read

books end

Songs I Related To
	I got this feeling on the summer day when you were gone I crashed my car into the bridge I watched, I let it burn
	In your heart believe What in my heart I know That forevermore I'll wait for you
	Call me call me Don't you think it's 'bout time Please won't you call and Ease my mind
	It's good to see you, I must go I know I look a fright Anyway my eyes are not Accustomed to this light
	Four in the mornin' and I'm zonin' Think I'm possessed it's an omen
	Peel me off this Velcro seat and get me moving I sure as hell can't do it by myself
	Pictures came and broke your heart, We can't rewind we've gone too far
	Sometimes I wish you were here, Weather permitting [...] This time, same as before, I'll love you forever
	Don’t give me virtues that I never had Don’t get sychophantal We never were sentimental I know I took more than I ever gave
	Could it be that I got bored and lonely Could it be that I'm just dumb and horny Could it be that Lady Luck has smiled herself on me

music end

Star Ranking System:

☆☆☆☆		I own this movie and will always stop to watch it when it's on TV.
☆☆☆		It was a decent movie, I enjoyed watching it and may watch it again.
☆☆		I had some significant problems with the film but don't regret seeing it.
☆		I didn't finish watching it. I loathe it entirely.

Years in Media
2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011

Twelve Days of Christmas Ornament Search

mdmbrightside — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 04:41:15 GMT

Detail shots from Memere's Attic

I'm looking for a set of ornaments: it's the Twelve Days of Christmas painted on wooden discs/medallions. The set was originally sold by Lillian Vernon in 1991. Price is negotiable, but I will spend more for a set in excellent to factory condition.

I'm putting this post together in the hopes that someone selling this set will find my entry through Google. Blog it, and they will come. You can contact me at mdmbrightside@gmail.com.

You Can't Reason With a Headless Man

mdmbrightside — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 22:15:10 GMT

Happy Halloween!

Scoring pumpkins is hard, or I'm really bad at it. You know what? It's a combination. I'm just gonna binge on applejack and candy and watch Halloween specials. I hope you do, too!

Retrospecticus

mdmbrightside — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 08:30:57 GMT

Something possessed me to make a collage of all the pumpkins I've carved over my nine years of house-haunting:

That's 39 pumpkins. Part of me feels proud of this accomplishment, and the competitive part of me knows there are haunters that carve 40+ pumpkins a year, no sweat. And though there are a few year-to-year repeats (my standby is the first pumpkin - I call the design 'Jack') I like that I take chances and try new themes and designs year after year. It's funny to look at them and remember what I was watching or thinking at the time I made them.

( Pumpkins By Year And Halloween Folders On My Halloween Blog )

How To Watch A Scary Movie By Yourself

mdmbrightside — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 04:09:11 GMT

How To Watch A Scary Movie By Yourself

1. Watch a lot of scary movies.
Good horror is a lot like good comedy - there are certain beats and rhythms to a joke, as there are certain beats and rhythms to a scare. The scare should be logical but surprising in it's execution. You should subconsciously start putting together where the scare is going to come from, but still be startled when it shows up. The more horror you watch, the better you are at learning to recognizing the beats, and better anticipate when to shut your eyes.

2. Breath deeply.
This can help you get through a lot of scary scenes when you know something is about to pop up in your face and startle you. I tend to hold my breath in anticipation, which starves my brain of oxygen and makes me all the more anxious. So yoga breathe - 8 counts in, 8 counts hold, 8 counts release. You're still going to be scared, but you'll also feel calmer about it.

3. Watch it all in one sitting.
You're by yourself. There is the strong desire to pause when things are getting intense. Resist. The more you pause to mentally prepare yourself, the more drawn out and scary the movie becomes. It is intimidating you into leaving. Don't let it. Resist! It'll be over sooner that way.

4. Think about what the ghost is going through.
We're most afraid of something when we have no idea what it wants from us. From DMJared with Tips On How To Make The Game SLENDER Not Scary:

Rationalize the Slenderman. Why would he be chasing you? Maybe I dropped my wallet in the park and he's trying to give it back to me because he's a nice guy. Look at him: he wears a nice suit. Maybe he just wants some help. Maybe he's homeless and needs help washing his suit so he can go into a job interview and make himself into a decent human being. [...] Look at those arms. I bet he gives wonderful hugs.

5. You have the power of mute!
If all else fails, most scares/anticipation are built out of a combination of the score and musical stings. You can always mute, which is the cowards way out, but hey - you gotta do what you gotta do.

Memetic

mdmbrightside — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 22:04:28 GMT

Comment and I'll:

1. Tell you why I friended you.
2. Associate you with something. A fandom, a song, a colour, a piece of fruit. SOMETHING.
3. Tell you something I like about you.
4. Tell you a memory I have of you.
5. Associate you with a character/pairing.
6. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you. (Or else I'll just ask a random question. I reserve that right.)
7. Tell you my favorite user pic(s) of yours.
8. Tell you that you must spread this disease in your LJ.

Right from behindgrey_eyes

A Treatise On The Artistic Process, Or Why Abi Doesn't Like Presents

mdmbrightside — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 03:14:44 GMT

I'm not sure if I'm good at gift-giving. I don't like receiving gifts because I'm particular, and there's not a whole lot I want. There's always stuff I need - socks, shower curtain rings, corn cob bedding - but stuff like that rarely makes a good gift. So when I wish to give shape to my gratitude, I want whatever I'm giving to make the receiver feel listened to, noticed, special. I've been the recipient of some bizarre but well-meaning goods that always leaves me wondering if the other person knows me at all. And that's what paramount in my mind when trying to give presents - is it generic, or is meaningful? It's an art, and it takes a lot of thought to be good at it.

What I usually I do is give something temporary that the receiver will enjoy once (flowers, food, movie tickets) that both shows I care and won't create more unwanted clutter. But if I want to give something more permanent, I want it to be unique. That's how I usually end up making something.

I'm in the process of moving (an entry on that is coming up next) and my nearest neighbors have done a lot of looking out for me - they've helped with the lawn, had me over to their house for family dinners, etc. I really wanted to show them in a concrete way I appreciated them. And after I thought about it for a while, I realized the thing they know me for best is my Halloween decorations. So I decided to carve a faux pumpkin for them.

Which brings me to the second theme of this entry: the artistic process. Part of my move also includes me trying my hand at being Actually A Writer, instead of a Long-Winded Procrastinating Daydreamer. Working on this pumpkin project made me realize I have clearer thoughts about the artistic process than I realized. I can even present them in a bulleted list, with the pumpkin as an example:

You're in love with your original concept. Obviously, you are a genius.
You know what they'd love? A one-of-a-kind carved pumpkin. I've been carving pumpkins for years - I can bang this out easy. Funkins are even on sale right now. I'll put their name on it, and a cat! They have cats, they'll love it!

The abstract design stage adds depth and strengthens your idea. You are wholly convinced by how awesome you are.
I've got the font to look almost exactly how I had it in my head. I had trouble with how the cat clip art fit in with the letters, but I flip it horizontally and voila - MASTERSTROKE. I even made it into an outline to save on printer ink - way to think economically, me! The letters are pretty detailed and small, but I can make it work. Now let me print this bad boy out and we can get started.

Any confidence you had previously will evaporate as soon as you begin.
OK, it's really hard to push this keyhole saw into the foam. I... am not as good at carving as I thought I was. The edges are really rough. What if I completely screw this up? Have I already screwed it up? It looks like crap so far. I can't give this to them, they'll think I'm an asshole. They don't want my shitty arts and crafts. How do I carve the little details and not break through into other letters? Oh, fuck! I just did - Fuck!

The despair only gets worse the farther along you go.
THIS IS FUCKING TERRIBLE. I HAVE WASTED TIME AND MONEY I CAN NEVER GET BACK. WHAT DELUSION POSSESSED ME TO THINK I WAS GOOD AT THINGS.

You will need to take a long break to deal with how bad things are going.
I AM DONE WITH YOU. GOOD DAY SIR.

You begin to accept your original concept is not coming out exactly how you planned it. You begin to make concessions, compromises, and changes. You persevere.
OK, it's really not that bad if you're standing three feet back. I bet people aren't going to get that close to it, anyway. I'll work on this letter and see how it goes. That's not atrocious. It could even be good if I angle the saw right. All right - that almost looks like the template. Let's finish it up and see where we are.

You discover along the way. You forgive yourself more easily for your mistakes.
The website recommended a dremel for finishing it, not that I have one. What if I use strips of sanding paper? Wow - that edge looks a lot cleaner. I wouldn't have thought of doing that, but it looks a whole lot better. Oh, damn - I lost a piece that defines the cat's legs. Whatever, it still looks like a cat.

You accept that it will not be what you imagine it would be, but come to appreciate it for the work it is.
Good enough.

You are bothered when people thing it's really great, simply because they haven't seen what it could have been.
Oh, thanks! Yeah, I'm really glad you like it. It's... yeah. Oh, no - you don't have to do that. But I'm really glad you like it. I worked hard on it. I don't - I'm not really good at this stuff. I just don't know when to quit, haha.

In packing stuff up, I found some paintings I did in college. They're not good by any stretch of the imagination (here's one; Right?), and all have this consistent theme of either abstract focus on light or extreme violence (Blood Brothers and opera had a lot of influence in that period). I tended to be uber-creative when I'm in the most emotional turmoil - well, I used to, anyway.

But finding those paintings made me remember how much I love watercolors and the ways I used to paint just for the sake of it. While carving the pumpkin, I realized decorating for Halloween for the past eight years has been my most consistent creative outlet. It's something I did without pressure, just doing it because I enjoyed what I made and how people reacted. I hope that can follow me toward something more professional.

Every Birthday, From Now On

mdmbrightside — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 15:44:10 GMT

I'm out of fun birthdays. The next good one is 90, and that's a long way off.

I like to make playlists for life events, holidays. I'm working on one for birthdays, themed to be enthusiastic, goofy, and congratulatory for still being alive. Unsurprisingly, it's Broadway heavy.

Once A Year Day! The Pajama Game
Everybody's Free Aquagen Featuring Rozalla
Goofy Goober Rock Spongebob Squarepants
The Mad Tea Party (UnBirthday) Alice in Wonderland
Still Alive GLaDOS
Circle of Life The Lion King
To Life Fiddler on the Roof
Still Here Follies

Happy Birthday To My Queen!

mdmbrightside — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 00:41:51 GMT

A+ for prison references

I love listening to her laugh. She seems more human.

I'm Getting Laid, Or I'm Getting Lied To [ list meme ]

mdmbrightside — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 22:05:44 GMT

1. Think of the last person who said I love you, do you think they meant it? I'm not sure.
2. Would you date an 18-year-old at the age you are now? No, probably not.
3. When’s the last time you were aggravated and happy at the same time? Eating amazing seafood outside while it starting raining.
4. Would you ever smile at a stranger? Yes.
5. Is there someone mad because you’re dating/talking to the person you are? I don't know. I assume not.
6. Have you heard a song that reminds you of someone today? Pulp's "Like A Friend."
7. What exactly are you wearing right now? An oversized t-shirt, no pants. All day.
8. How often do you listen to music? Everyday!
9. Do you wear jeans or sweats more? Jeans, but it's close.
10. Do you think your life will change dramatically before 2013? Where I live, where I work, and whether or not I work - so, yes.
11. Are you a social or an antisocial person? More antisocial, but not anti-social.
12. Have you ever kissed someone whose name begins with the letter ‘A’? ... No.
13. What about ‘R’? Also no.
14. Can you drive a stick shift? No!
15. Do you care if people talk badly about you? I'd want to know they talking shit more than I care what they say.
16. Are you going out of town soon? Probably.
17. When was the last time you cried? Recently.
18. Have you ever told someone you loved them? Yes.
19. If you could change your eye color, would you? Maybe. I'd like a lighter green.
20. Is there a boy who you would do absolutely everything for? Yes.
21. Name something you dislike about the day you’re having. I can't seem to get anything of significance done. This has been three days of lounging on the couch, napping and feeling sorry for myself.
22. Is it cute when guys kiss you on your forehead? If I want them to.
23. Are you dating the last person you talked to? No.
24. What are you sitting on right now? A couch.
25. Does anyone regularly (other than family) tell you they love you? No, but I'm not broken up about it.
26. Have you ever wanted someone you couldn’t have? Yes.
27. Who was the last person you talked to before you went to bed last night? No one.
28. Do you get a lot of colds? Small seasonal, inconvenient ones, yeah.
29. Where is the shirt you are wearing from? A vampire store in Philadelphia.
30. Does anyone hate you? Probably. Wait - Yes.
31. Do you have any empty alcohol bottles hidden somewhere in your room? If I do, not even I know about them.
32. Do you like watching scary movies? I do.
33. Do you want your tongue pierced? No thank you.
34. If you had to delete one year of your life completely, which would it be? 2011, although the end of 2010 had it's moments.
35. Did you have a dream last night? Yes.
36. When was the last time you told someone you loved them? A while ago.
37. Do you think you’ll be married in 5 years? It's unlikely.
38. Do you think someone has feelings for you? God, I hope so.
39. Do you think someone is thinking about you right now? No. I find it hard to believe other people actually think about me. It's a mental disconnect I have.
40. Did you have a good day yesterday? Same as today.
41. Think back 2 months ago; were you in a relationship? Two months ago? No.
42. In the next 48 hours, will you hang out with a girl? Possibly.
43. Has anyone told you they don’t want to ever lose you? Yes. Not romantically, as a friend.
44. What’s the best part about school? Being around the people you like almost every day.
45. Do you have any pictures on your Facebook? Yes...
46. Do you ever pass notes to your friends in school? I used to.
47. Do you replay things that have happened in your head? Unwillingly.
48. Were you single over the last summer? Yes, I was.
49. Is your life anything like it was two years ago? No.
50. What are you supposed to be doing right now? Packing, cleaning, or sleeping.
51. Do you hate the last guy you had a conversation with? Nah, he's cool.
52. Are you nice to everyone? I'm polite.
53. Have you ever liked someone you didn’t expect to? Yes, if TV characters count.
54. Do you think you can last in a relationship for 6 months and not cheat? I'd like to think so.
55. Are you good at hiding your feelings? I don't think so, but I don't think I'm qualified to answer that.
56. Do you think you like someone? I think I thought I'd try.
57. Have you kissed someone whose name starts with a ‘J’? Yes.
58. Do you prefer to be friends with girls or boys? Girls mostly.
59. Has anyone of your friends ever seen you cry? Probably all of them at one time or another.
60. Do you hate anyone? The emotion would be wasted, so no.
61. How’s your heart? There's life in it yet!
62. Is there something that happened in your past that you hate talking about? This is an obvious yes. The alternative is I've never been embarassed or dejected.
63. Have you ever cried over a guy? I have.
64. Who is probably talking a load of crap about you right now? I don't know, and don't care.
65. Are your toenails painted pink? Boney as ever.
66. Will your next kiss be a mistake? As likely as not.
67. Girls love it when boyfriends cry; correct? When appropriate.
68. Have your pants ever fallen down in public? I don't recall.
69. Who was the last person you were on the phone with? The former tenant of my apartment.
70. How do you look right now? Hot mess.
71. Do you have someone you can be your complete self around? As close as I'll probably ever get.
72. Can you commit to one person? It's nice to think so.
73. Do you have someone of the opposite sex you can tell everything to? Yes.
74. Have you ever felt replaced? Yeah.
75. Did you wake up cranky? If someone else wakes me up.
76. Are you a jealous person? I can be.
77. Are relationships ever worth it? Generally, yes.
78. Anyone you’re giving up on? Yep.
79. Currently wanting to see anyone? Right now I wouldn't want them to see me.
80. Name something you have to do tomorrow? Go to the store.
81. Last person you cried in front of? It might have been a roomful of people, but that was months ago.
82. Is there someone you will never forget? There are a lot of people I'll never forget.
83. Do you think the person you have feelings for is protective of you? No.
84. If the person you wish to be with were with you, what would you be doing right now? Sitting on the couch, watching TV, probably working on separate computers, maybe leg touching a bit.
85. Are you over your past? That's a no.
86. Have you ever liked one of your best friends of the opposite sex? Physically? Sometimes. Romantically - not that I recall.
87. Is there anyone you can tell EVERYTHING to? No.
88. If your first true love knocked on your door with apology and presents, would you accept? Unwarranted gifts are always a bad sign.
89. So, the last person you kissed just happens to arrive at your door at 3AM; do you let them in? How drunk am I?
90. Have you ever liked someone who your friends hated? No.
91. Will you be in a relationship in 2 months? It's unlikely.
92. Is there anyone you know with the name Michael? Yes...?
93. Have you ever kissed a Matthew? I don't think so.
94. Were you in a relationship in January? No. How was it going? Nonexistently
95. Were you happy with the person you liked in March? Conflicted.
96. Don’t tell me lies, is the last person you texted attractive? Very. He's also gay.
97. Who do you have texts from? The usual assortment of people.
98. If the person you like says they like someone else, what would you say? Do you see any similarity between this person and me?
99. Have you ever kissed someone older than you? Yes.
100. Who’s in your profile picture with you? Just me.
101. Ever kissed under fireworks? No.
102. Has anybody ever given you butterflies? Yes.

All day, every day.

Fourth of Dessert

mdmbrightside — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 03:28:37 GMT

It honestly couldn't be much of a surprise.

Let Me Kick Down To You Something Our Founding Fathers Kicked Down To Me

mdmbrightside — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 19:33:34 GMT

Strawberry Fields

mdmbrightside — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 00:00:03 GMT

As previously discussed, I really like fresh strawberries. Out-of-season strawberries taste diluted and empty. But we live in a modern age - there's gotta be a solution in there somewhere.

Well, we can flash freeze them! We can flash freeze them at home, thanks to Alton Brown and Good Eats! And why just a few? We can freeze a whole lot!

Pictured: A lot

I went to the local fruit stand where they sold strawberries by pints and quarts. I originally wanted 5 quarts (10 lbs), but then was told I could buy a palatte of 8 quarts (16 lbs) for $30, saving nearly $10! And when buying in bulk, what the hell.

The next big purchase was the dry ice, which was nearly as expensive as the strawberries. But by flash freezing, the berries retain more of their shape upon thaw.

The first step is to wash the berries, dry them thoroughly and then place them in single layers in the fridge to get them as cold as possible before freezing.

You then have to break up the dry as much as possible (which I didn't do very well), place it in the cooler, add the strawberries and wait. It takes a while for them to freeze through - 30 to 90 minutes.

My berries got a little freezer-burn, AKA ice developing on the outside of the fruit. I'm not sure if this screwed me in the texture department (all the berries I've thawed have been pretty soft and leaky) but it hasn't effect the flavor.

I used a glass pie-plate to text if the berries were frozen: when dropped on the pan if they made a hollow plunk sound, they were done! Those with freezer burn were also done.

Then it was into a specially sized plastic bag...

...and sealed in the vacuum sealer. The freezer I use has a smell I can't rid it of, so everything gets well sealed to keep in the flavor and keep out the funk.

Here's about half the pint-sized bags stacked in the freezer. Below it are frozen banana slices.

I've been to known to buy bags of frozen fruit, so I wanted to figure out if I was saving money by freezing the fresh strawberries myself.

Don't look too closely at my math - I only get it right after two or three tries

And the verdict - not really! At the price I usually buy bags of frozen strawberries, I spent a dollar more per 12oz bag and $21 in excess. If I had bought less dry ice, I would only have spent $0.48 more per bag and only $6 in excess. That's a better margin for quality!

So what do I do with all my frozen strawberries? So far I've made syrups, compotes, smoothies, parfaits and even cake fillings:

I had some excess egg whites from making frozen custard, so I used them in a white cake with strawberry filling. As they thawed, the berries made a jammy layer that was delicious.

It was also one of my better frosting jobs.

Next up is cherry season, and then peaches... I'm gonna need a bigger freezer.

Productivity

mdmbrightside — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 04:24:34 GMT

When I'm feeling ineffective, like when I can't find an apartment I can afford AND wants me as a tenant, I try to make something.

This was my first time making pretzels. I couldn't get the shape right so I just make pretzel blobs. Cover anything with enough butter, sugar or salt and it won't matter what they look like. They are also delicious. I have had four.

Here is the recipe.

This post brought to you by things I thought were relevant to your interests.

8 Commonly Used Morning Phrases

mdmbrightside — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 23:59:08 GMT

"Good morning, Charlie!"

"What a good boy! What a good boy I have!"

"What's for breakfast, Charlie?"

"You need to eat some vegetables."

"Fine - eat what you want. As long as you're healthy."

"Stop being so lazy! You can fly for crying out loud!"

"Charlie, NO."

"You're being a tiny asshole."

Snow White and the Huntsman [ SpoilerTown ]

mdmbrightside — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 23:29:21 GMT

The cinematography was sumptuous! Sometimes the colors were muddier or more muted but it still looked appealing. The sets were wonderful and the costumes were to die for, courtesy of the flawless Colleen Atwood. The Evil Queen's gowns in particular were amazing as they had many touches of bird feathers, skulls, and bones.

The Mirror Man you see in the trailor in place of the Magic Mirror is one of many wonderful upgrades to the original tale. His golden, shrouded appearance that melts and reforms with the appropriately sonorous and reverberating voice produces a reverant effect in the viewer for the mysticism and magic in this land.

Likewise, the true fairy-tale moment comes when Snow White, the Huntsman, and the Dwarves are walking through Sanctuary, the land of tropical plants, fluffy prey animals, flowery butterflies, humanoid fairies, a white stag with birch branch antlers, and lens flare. It's the most enjoyable moment in the film after the grit and murder because it exists as nothing more than a chance to sit back and look at some gorgeous CGI. It's as if the movie goes to screensaver for five minutes: not much is accomplished in that time, but it's a welcome respite.

But the troll bridge! We saw the bridge, horse spines scattered on both sides, then the huntsman stops, and shouts TROLL! I cracked up. The movie takes itself pretty seriously, so to actually have a legitimate troll bridge was hilarious. And the troll itself was well-designed: it had a hulking, ape-like stature that had lived in the hill for centuries, grass and rock growing out of it's body. One of the best creatures in the film.

There was a scene they added in the film where Snow White and the huntsman take refuge in a fishing village. It's run entirely by women as all the men have gone to war against the Queen. On top of that, the women slash their faces so the Queen will not try to steal their beauty. I really liked the world-building aspect of that, showing who else the Queen affected during her reign of terror.

And the evil Queen, Ravenna, is truly an interesting character. She led a decoy shard army to be defeated by the King so he would "rescue" her. She then uses her beauty to bewitch him, murder him, and lead a siege against his castle. It's implied she's been doing this for centuries. The root of her power is her "fairest blood" some sort of spell that involves three blood drops and some white liquid (milk for the Queen, snow for Snow White). By consuming the heart of Snow White, another of "fairest blood," her magic will no longer drain her youth and beauty. However, Snow White is also the only one that can kill her. And this mythology does make sense, so credit to them for that. Ravenna also has the necessary stillness and command a good evil Queen should have, as well as the necessary withering looks.

Damn, girl.

I liked Kristen Stewart. I don't think she was acting her best in Twilight (to be fair, no one in those movies really was trying their hardest) but as her most widely seen performance, that phoning-it-in gesture-based acting is what she's usually judged on. But here and in other roles she's shown range. When people usually think of Snow White, it's usually a baby-faced beauty they're thinking of, like Lily Collins in Mirror Mirror. But I liked Stewart's lean, sharp-jawed, locked in a tower scrappiness. She looks like she belongs in leather and armor, fighting a war for her people. She brought something new and different to a film that was trying to do something old but different.

On the other hand, Stewart's low-key demeanor didn't always work in scenes that required more playfulness or affect, but in more action-based or awe-struck scenes she did very well. I think it's also important that she didn't oversell scenes. She's been locked away for a long time, it's no wonder she has a stunted sociability. And that "There's no way she's hotter than Charlize Theron!" isn't worth dignifying. Fairest of Them All doesn't mean just looks, and the story was never a beauty contest. It was about the Queen's warped perspective that led her to try to kill her child. In this movie, that's still what's happening.

The Prince character, here a Duke's son with a mean arm for archery, is well-used. I liked that he was shown as competent in battle, clever enough to hide himself in the Queen's hunting party, something of a badass (DO YOU NEED A BOWMAN), and genuinely trying to rescue his childhood friend Snow White. It was also an interesting twist to have him be the disguise the Queen takes to give Snow White the apple instead of an old woman. The Duke's son's role ultimately was to be another dude who cared for Snow White, but this one has access to an army that will fight for her throne.

On a similar note, I like that they gave Snow White two love interests but didn't have her marry or take up with either one. I appreciate this trend that girls can be shown standing triumphantly alone at the end of their movies. And I like to believe Snow had to be kissed both by her "Prince" and her hunstman - the two men who loved her truest - in order to wake.

Ain't got no time for love triangles!

If I get the movie, I'll probably re-edit to take out all the scenes where someone's shouting. It might be the fault of the newer director (this is his first directing gig) but there are a handful of scenes where someone SHOUTING TO PORTRAY INTENSITY. It's a mood killer and entirely unnecessary. Out they go.

ACTING!

They expanded the role of the Huntsman for the film, and Chris Hemsworth really brings a likability to the character. But besides providing some protection and faithful love for the sheltered Princess, he doesn't add to the story. It's not his story so the main conflict has nothing to do with him, and basically he was written to provide the protection the dwarves would have offered and the love the Prince would have given. His character comes away endearing, but a superfluous jumble of what the other characters were there to provide.

And on top of that, the huntsman is a cliche. When he's flung out of the bar at the beginning, I could hear his voice in my head:

"I'm a gruff sot with a heart of gold, taleneted in combat, ready for an adventure that softens my demeanor and helps me forgive myself for things I couldn't control!"

They gave him the standard dead wife to be drunk about, which is more backstory than he's ever had but that's all the history he gets. The huntsman's role in the Snow White cast is a change-up, but it doesn't significantly impact the story to warrant the change.

Then on the flip side, we have the Queen's brother, created essentially to fill the villainous role the huntsman left. It feels like we're playing musical chairs with character traits, except nothing in the story changes. And as a villain out of the smiling, slimy school of thought - he wasn't very good. I wasn't impressed enough with him that I wanted to see what he would do, wasn't compelled to know his backstory, and didn't hate him enough to care if he died. And maybe I hated his haircut, that's probably in the mix.

(Not pictured here because he's too lame to even get promotional material,
and he's in two-thirds of the movie)

There was one aspect of the Queen's character that I didn't like: she thought of love as a weakness, something that always lets you down - but we don't know why she thinks that. The little we know about her past is that she came from a small village, her mother gave her "fairest blood" to make her beautiful enough that the invading King would kidnap her instead of kill her (but would still rape her?), she supplants wives to murder kings and steal kingdoms, she's been alive for 20 lifetimes, and she's kept her younger brother alive with her. We don't know how or even if her heart was broken, or by whom. Maybe we can assume she took up with another monarch after her first king died, and in time her second king replaced her for someone younger. There are actually a couple scenes with her in the trailer that didn't make it to film, so I assume there was more backstory of hers that was taken out.

Though the effects that goes into making the dwarves are really, really impressive, it still uncomfortable to watch. They cast several well-known, rough-around-the-edges actors to portray the tough dwarves (Ray Winstone, Bob Hoskins, Nick Frost, Ian McShane), but only used their heads. They hired little people stuntmen to portray the bodies.

Essentially, they wanted to give recognizable actors the parts that otherwise would have gone to little people for marketing reasons. Unfortunately, as much as it's marginalizing, it works. It's fascinting to see these familiar actors shrunk to size so seamlessly. Meanwhile, on Game of Thrones we're watching Peter Dinklage kill it as Tyrion Lannister, proving you don't have to be well-known or of minimum height to be a great actor. GoT could have done it with a taller actor and a little person stuntman, but they trusted in talent and are reaping all the awards. Even within the movie, the dwarves prove to be convenient once or twice, but on the whole had their job of protecting and sheltering Snow White taken by the huntsman. GD height-based outsourcing.

Overall: ☆☆☆

Smitten Kitchen Strawberry Cake

mdmbrightside — Tue, 29 May 2012 09:43:33 GMT

It is finally strawberry season - that three week period between late May and early June when you can pick your own or pick up pints of fresh, local strawberries. The little red berries are among my favorite summer fruit, and it always frustrates me that they come first and aren't as succulent and delicious through July and August (or the rest of the year). Though I'm planning a big move this year, I wonder if I should pick up - oh, a couple pounds or so, and freeze them a la Alton Brown with the dry ice to at least get me through the fall.

But besides eating the quart bought from the Mennonite farm stall out of hand, I really wanted to use the strawberries in a dessert. The strawberries are tiny and bright and taste perfect - something so good can only be amplified with butter and sugar. The Smitten Kitchen recipe for strawberry cake from last year leapt to mind, but by evening it was still too hot in the house to use the oven. Ah, summer. The season of the crock pot.

But, as fate would have it, I woke up in the middle of the night, couldn't get back to sleep, and it was 70° outside. Let's bake this thing.

Now I'm a bachelor, or whatever the lady equivalent of that is, so I often halve or quarter recipes. Instead of a pie dish, I started with a six-inch cake pan. The cake was well-contained, but I probably needed to add twice the amount of strawberries to achieve the same look from the recipe. Still:

...a damn fine cake

You guys. You guys. MAKE THIS CAKE.

I wish I could put into words or interpretive dance how good this cake is and how good it makes me feel. It's buttery, it's sweet, it's fruity, it's crunchy. I am restraining myself from eating the whole pan right this second. I might not die for this cake, but murder would be the first thing on my mind if anyone else were to finish it. I am probably going to make it ten times over. It is that good.

Next up: Bought some fresh spring onion. Gonna try making scallion pancakes.

ETA: Made those scallion pancakes. I apparently want to grow up to be a fat person.

My iTunes (Meme)

mdmbrightside — Wed, 09 May 2012 15:36:02 GMT

Number of Songs:

4469 (soundtracks, you guys)

Top 10 Most Played Songs (No Repeat Artists):

Childish Gambino: "Bonfire" (57)
Robyn: "Call Your Girlfriend" (54)
Ceasar Davila: "American Horror Story (Opening Theme)" (46)
Jay-Z & Kanye West: "N****s in Paris" (45)
Placebo: "Every You Every Me" (40)
Marshall Lee: "Fionna" (37)
Pinkie Pie: "Smile Smile Smile" (35)
POGO: "WALL-E Chords" (35)
Lana Del Rey: "Video Games" (33)
Foster The People: "Pumped Up Kicks" (32)

First five songs that come up on shuffle:

Fatboy Slim: "Weapon of Choice"
Tchaikovsky (Swan Lake): "Act 1. No. 4 - Pas de trois: IV. Moderato"
GLEE: "Heads Will Roll/Thriller"
Eagle Eye Cherry: "Save Tonight"
The Robins: "Since I First Met You"

Search:
“sex” how many songs come up?: 24
“love” how many songs come up?: 116
“you” how many songs come up?: 327
“death” how many songs come up?: 21
“hate” how many songs come up?: 7
“wish” how many songs come up?: 16
“dream” how many songs come up?: 53

I'm Giving You A Nightcall To Tell You How I Feel

mdmbrightside — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 02:28:08 GMT

Notes on my family Easter visitation.

1. For 10 to 15 minutes a white SUV and I drove side-by-side in a three car lane up the mountain. We were both using cruise control at the same speed. When we turned into the curves we would get half a car-length ahead of the other person. Eventually we'd make a turn on the other side or drive more steeply and we'd even out again. We never made eye contact, but neither of us obviously gave a shit.

2. My grandmother actually saved a recipe for dying Easter eggs. She was a chemist, so her love of precision may be to blame:

RELATED: I am bad at the white-crayon trick.

3. I spent much of the drive back wondering when I was going to truly fly the nest and get out there on my own. It turns out it's much sooner than I expected and now I feel ambivalent about it. Apartment hunting and job prospecting and stuff moving is so much work - and my rut is so comfortable.

4. I'm going to eat my feelings in Ferrero Roche eggs and watch The Wire.

5. I made a Peep Wreath. Why does anybody let me do anything?

Hunger Games Book Series & Film Review

mdmbrightside — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 03:58:53 GMT

#DAMMIT, DISTRICT 12 #YOU DO THIS EVERY YEAR!
#THIS IS WHY WE ALWAYS LOSE

I put off seeing the Hunger Games in theaters until Sunday (I didn't want to spend more than $7 on a movie ticket, I have an appointment Saturday afternoon, etc), but I re-read the first and part of the second books in anticipation.

I can't remember what I was reading before I first began The Hunger Games, but the second time around I was coming off some primo adult lit. So to go back to YA where every detail was relentless described - the food, the clothes, what everyone looked like - it felt like Suzanne Collins was holding my imagination's hand. And while I don't think Collins is the best at stringing words together, I think she does have a knack for creating memorable characters and amusement-park ride pacing.

The thing she is worst at? Coming up with names.

I Can't Take You Seriously
If You're Going To Call Yourself That

Despite her ability to well-frame and populate her universe, Collins is really, embarrassingly bad at creating names for her characters. Katniss is two letters off catpiss, and no parent alive would consider that name without making that connection. The fact that Collins never addresses it in the books says to me she didn't want to dignify the criticism, or didn't think it was founded. I found out later that katniss is a common name for sagittaria, a type of aquatic plant whose name means "belonging to an arrow." So name-based character development, OK. But your main character's name is Catpiss. You made that decision, and thought it was a good one.

The characters are more or less named for the material their District produces or what they specialize in - Peeta works at a bakery, Thresh is a field worker, Gloss is a materials worker, etc. Sometimes it works fine (Haymitch is decent, Prim is cute), but on the whole you just wonder: What was she thinking?

The worst by far is set aside for the "muttations," because the word mutations needed some edge. It's here that I think Collins really no idea how entymology works, or how words evolve into slang. Mockingjay, the term for a hybrid bird isn't bad - but jabber jays sounds like a Pokemon. So does tracker jackers, the mutated form of a wasp.

Maybe the alliteration looks all right on paper, but it sounds awful in your head.

A Horse of A Different Color

For me, the story only gets interesting when they get to the arena. It's like a roller-coaster funhouse of action - I love getting to that point and know I can't put it down until I finish it. The first two-thirds are all window dressing until we're running around in woods, killin' or bein' killed. Before that - I don't really care for the Reality TV Show allegory because I never thought it fit with the tone of what was going on, but that dissonance is probably why it works.

The Capital tries so hard to make these children look desirable and civilized before they send them in to kill each other. As a sponsor, who I assume is the real beneficiary of the Games, you're not betting on who will win based on how good they look in evening wear or how witty they are. You're looking for skills, a resilient mindset, brute strength. Clear skin and charm won't get you far when someone's shooting at you. The implication that the sponsors would rather spend money on looks than ability is used purely to make them look frivolous, which I'll get into a little more later.

The way I understand it, when gladiators were prepped for the arena, their physical prowess and ferocity were highlighted. They were treated like animals - even after retirement, they were more showhorses than people. Their value lay in what they had done more than what they looked like.

So it's weird to me that the Capital would waste so much in resources beautifying these kids before slaughtering them anyway. I can understand some of it needed to look good on a television screen, but not to the extent it's focused on within in the story. The exaggeration of it is probably meant as a commentary, but the concentration on it through Collins's writing throws me off. She really gets into the detail of hair removal, dresses, and special effects. Even as a girl who enjoys some of those things, they aren't what's interesting or important to me in this environment.

Arguably, the reason Katniss won in the Games wasn't because she only had Peeta's spin and Haymitch's preferential treatment. The worst jams Katniss found herself in she got herself out of using her cunning and skill. She wasn't reliant on the sponsors, but she did benefit from their favor.

Though I can understand why it's alluring for the reader. Being sent off to a deathmatch is a lot more appealing if you get your fifteen minutes on the way. People like to ruminate on what it would be like if they were famous - who doesn't like to dream of being adored by millions for your personal quirks? And The Hunger Games dives deep into that fantasy with a big fat counterweight of having to kill and likely be killed to know that fame. It indulges and unlocks some of our fears of celebrity - the ruthlessness that a person must cultivate to survive stardom.

Beyond the ridiculousness of the Death Pageant, the other big qualm I have with the series is how:

The Capitol is Cartoonishly Evil

What always struck me about the Capital was it's similarity to the Emerald City. Everyone dresses in bright, outlandish colors, acts simperingly ridiculous, and has absolute faith in their Great and Powerful Leader. It's an extreme, but it never felt realistic next to the rural folksiness of coal-mining Appalachia (though there's something to be said for Katniss being an ass-kicking Dorothy).

Now what galls me is the fact that Panem apparently understands "Bread and Circuses" keep people happy and non-revolutionary, but for some reason chooses to endlessly punish the Districts in order to remind them not to rebel.

Issue #1: You Know Who Doesn't Rebel? Happy People

Wouldn't it be better to integrate the Districts into Panem so there's not an Us VS Them mentality away from the Capital? I don't mean make it all one District, but make the Districts understand they're a valued part of the system even if they're not rewarded for it beyond lip service (and don't do The Hunger Games, obviously).

The Capital isn't going to put revolution out of a citizen's mind by continually reminding them of it. Creating an event celebrating their loss and continually penalizing them for it is going to make the Districts feel divisive from you and more likely to rebel. Watching their victors win a battle to the death makes them think they, too, might have a chance in a fight.

Issue #2: Why You Gotta Be Trying To Kill Katniss All The Time?

You know how to make Katniss less of a threat? Undermine her credibility. Not with fire or bombs or made up rules. Falsify evidence she's colluding with the Capital as a spy on the rebels. Make her seem like she's gained something from betraying her ideals. For a system that's able spin murderer to Victor they do nothing to Katniss to make her seem unlikable. They definitely woud have more to benefit from the Districts disliking her because then killing her would be a boon to their own PR. Concurrently, we as readers would be enraged at seeing Katniss portrayed so erroneously.

I hated Dolores Umbridge x1,000,000 times more than I hated Voldemort, and from what I've seen I'm not the only one. Yes, Voldemort killed Harry's parents and his regime killed his godfather - but Umbridge? She got under the my skin because she was trying to manipulate what I thought.

The issue is that the Hunger Games villains have no deeper psychology than just being punitive bullies. The Capital exists solely to be a bad guy who does despicable things - the Goliath to Katniss's David. There's a line in the film: "The only thing more powerful than fear is hope. A little hope is good, too much is dangerous." Then why aren't you using it right.

This seems like an attempt to revise the stance of the Capital, that they're not just doing this for entertainment/punishment, but to distract the Districts from collusion with one another. But once again, thrusting a District's prowess into the spotlight and reminding them not to rebel is going to keep that possibility at the forefront of their mind. Revolution was always going to be certainty.

I can concede the events of the 74th Annual Hunger Games were unusual, as an underdog won where usually the well-fed and well-trained were winners. But the nature of them Games and the fact they're televised live make it difficult to control the outcome. Scrappy upstarts had won before, Katniss and Peeta weren't really revolutionary in that. It was the timing an apparent unrest in the other Districts.

Maybe this is Villainy 201, but the lack of depth in the villains really undermines the tension. I'm not invested in the seeing the villain defeated because I don't have any strong opinions about them.

And None For Peeta Mellark

Another thing that bothered me was how little attention was focused on Peeta. And I don't mean the reader or Katniss, but the Capital. He was the attractive, lovesick boy playing to the crowd - they should have loved him a million more times than ever-stoic Katniss. Katiness was the more fearsome competitor but outside the arena she would have been insufferable. And yet - nothing for Peeta. No sponsers, no fanclubs - all throughout the series he does these amazing PR moves and the reader is never told anyone else gives a shit about him. Peeta Mellark is awesome, and goddamnit - he is trying! The way he reads as Katniss's Ken doll gets under my skin. He's worth more than just what she sees in him.

And from what I'm seeing on Tumblr, I'm not the only one stanning for him:

SHIT SON be cool man be cool they don’t have your photo man they don’t know you maybe that kid could be Peeta I mean it’s a common ass name I ain’t got nothing to worry about I’m inconspicuous as fuck deep breaths deep breathing fuck fuck fuck

maybe it’ll be a bake off

But How Did You Like The Movie?

I... wasn't in love with it.



I'm the Squidward in this scenario

It wasn't bad, but if I happened upon it on TV I wouldn't pay close attention to watching it.

I didn't like the cinematography - everything was either super drab and washed out (District 12/the Arena) or nauseatingly tacky (the Capital). I think the second aesthetic was done on purpose to make the Capitol elite look foolish, but it still isn't something you want to spend your time staring at. Peeta's rock make-up was fantastic (shout out to Ve Neil and Face/Off: Season One Winner Connor!), though Seneca Crane's beard was the best thing aesthetically and it's sad to think that's not going to show up in later films.

Weirdly, I feel like the story itself works better as a book. Many other reviews say it's better as a film, but I think there's one glaring flaw. In the book, you're inside Katniss's head and so her perspective guides you through, gives you clues how to feel about characters, and keeps you from being bored during the long stretches when she's just running around the woods. As the reader's avatar, you can understand and empathize with Katniss's priorities and disdain for the nonsense going on around her. I love book!Katniss to death because I understand her emotions and where she's coming from.

In the movie, I couldn't get any sort of read on Katniss and it alienated me from her character. Jennifer Lawrence's performance is solid and captivating, but I don't think she was given a range. We know how she feels about Rue and Prim, but her confusion about Peeta, the heart of the story, is never really obvious. We get the feeling she's ambivalent toward him, then sort of protective, then furious, then apologetic, then ambivalent again, than conspiring with him, and finally... question mark. We don't know how she feels and as an audience, it eventually slides into indifference. In later films we may see this as their romantic beginning, but for now that ambivalence prevails.

As for Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark, he's amazing. Can't say enough good things about him. He is the emotional core of the story the way he wears his heart on his sleeve and wants to engage almost everyone he meets. You really like him and want Katniss to recognize how great he is.

The other adults characters - Lenny Kravitz as Cinna and Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket were competent but not standouts. Stanley Tucci as Ceasar Flickman is fun, but when he shows up outside an interview or TV screen he's almost invasive. I didn't like that they would switch from Exciting Arena Action! to two candy colored men providing analysis. They didn't do it often enough for the gimmick to flow well. But Woody Harrelson as Haymitch was actually a lot of fun to watch - he played drunk really well, and was funny, acerbic, sympathetic, and smart.

Donald Sutherland is a very thoughtful and subdued President Snow, which I think they did well to portray him as. As the face of villainy for the series, you can never quite tell what he's thinking but you know he's exceptionally aware of what's going on.

Little Rue was such a treasure, but the movie felt like it really rushed through her plotline. She was cute and twee and then she was dead. The rioting that came after her demise felt forced, too. Maybe it was the last straw, but the way it happens with a bunch of dudes standing around in the square and then messing up the offices came off as scripted, made for film.

Prim, too, kind of surprised me. When she teared up during her goodbye with Katniss I was genuinely moved. Though I generally don't like characters who don't have any other function in a series to be a character's emotional touchstone. We understand that Prim is cute and sweet, but aside from Katniss liking her the audience don't have any independent reason to see her as important or worth living for. We're supposed to equivocate that protective emotion with someone else in our lives we love deeply and would do anything for, but it doesn't translate well without more of a touchstone.

Much of the rest of the kid cast went from unremarkable to 'cast-for-looks-over-acting-ability.' (whoever that girls with the knives was awful). Cato would have been interesting if I could have understood what he was saying at the end, and the chatter of the kids as they hunted Katniss was theater-camp level lame improvisation.

From the beginning of the series I'd been trying to figure out how the arena worked - were they indoors or outdoors? Were the cameras in satellites or millions of lenses hidden everywhere? The way the movie did it was to make the arena an indoor area (the ceiling is fake, I'm not sure how they're going to get that to work for the second film), which makes me wonder if they built the arena around a current landscape and inserted the cameras/traps or implanted all of it - plants, rocks, rivers. It seems to me like a giant waste of resources to build all those cameras and traps and then set them on fire for funsies, but you know - oppressors gotta be oppressen'.