let's stumble towards success and pack some snacks for little breaks

I was thinking today about my favorite movies, and what would go on my top-five list, and I realized that it's kind of an odd collection. So I'm going to tell you about them.

1. À la folie... pas du tout

Actually, I'm going to tell you about all but one of them--my all-time favorite. The reason I'm not telling you about it is that you really shouldn't know anything about it before you watch it. Don't read any reviews or the IMDB page or anything, just watch it. Trust me. Twenty minutes into my first viewing of it, I didn't think I was going to like it very much; I then watched it three times in the next twenty-four hours because it's just. that. good. I own it and I try to get everyone I can to watch it with me, and so far every one of them has agreed with me that it's truly excellent.

2. Boondock Saints

This is about two young Irish Catholic men living in Boston who take up vigilante justice. Willem Dafoe does a brilliant job as an FBI agent trying to track them down. It's extremely violent and occasionally offensive, but it's the characters who are violent and offensive, not the movie, if that makes sense. Sometimes I watch a movie and it feels like it's implicitly accepting things like that; this one shows people who are like that and lets you decide what to make of them. My first boyfriend introduced me to it--I think he, like many of the young men who make up most of the film's cult following, likes it because he can live vicariously through the badass main characters. I can see that, a bit, but I like it because of the frank way it tackles the question of what justice is and who should get to mete it out. I also like it because it's funny as hell.

3. The Emperor's New Groove

The older I get, the more I realize how difficult it is to write really good kid-appropriate humor, which this movie absolutely nails. It's an animated film set (very) loosely in the Inca Empire. The basic storyline isn't anything special: a selfish young royal is turned into a llama and has to team up with a peasant man (John Goodman) to get back to his palace and turn back into a human, in the process learning a few life lessons. The beauty of the film is in the little moments and the characters, and the lovely little occasional breaks in the fourth wall.

4. The Iron Giant

Another animated film, less of a comedy, although it does have some funny moments. I watched it in theaters when it came out in 1999 and liked it a lot, because of the characters and storytelling. Then I watched it again as a teenager and realized, holy shit, this is about the Cold War and the paranoia of the '50s! I had no idea when I was ten how realistic a lot of the movie was. It's really well-done. Also, Dean is one of the hottest animated characters ever. I'm just saying.

5. The History Boys

This movie is not about child abuse. It really isn't. Nor is it about homosexuality; the characters are pretty much all male, and some of them are gay, but it's not about that. It's about sexual dynamics between adults and teenagers (some of which could be considered abuse of power, but when the boys are seventeen years old, it's not pedophilia, and I really hate it when people talk like it is). It's also about education, which people tend to overlook in discussions of the movie because sex is more immediate, but there are some fascinating ideas in there about teaching styles and methods. It's intense, and it always leaves me thinking, but there's also a lot of squee in it. I thought Dakin was hands-down my favorite character the first time I watched it, and the second time Irwin and Posner seemed just as great, but then after the third time I realized how different and plausible a movie it is if you think of Rudge as the main character.

Man, now I really want to watch all of these again.

I just got Brokeback Mountain, Deathtrap, and The Laramie Project for thirteen bucks total. Legit ones with actual covers, not crappy pirated DVDs. Also eighteen single-serving Newman's Own lemonades for $3.50. It was a good grocery store trip. I think maybe I've got some of Grandpa's obsession-with-sales genes.

Have you seen Deathtrap? It is all mystery and murder and surprises and hilarious hijinks and playwriting, plus there is Christopher Reeve and Michael Caine smooching, back when Michael Caine was young enough for that to not be gross. You should watch it. :D

Patrick Creadon has done it again.

I really want to see that.

I got myself Netflix yesterday (as a reward for getting a job offer; more on that Monday), and today I discovered that it lets me watch movies instantly on my computer. I'm very pleased about that. I watched "Orange County," which I wanted to see when it came out in theaters but wasn't allowed to because it had Jack Black in it and I was eleven. Cake's "Shadow Stabbing" played during the opening scenes, causing me to do a bit of a double-take, as I'm used to hearing that song at the beginning of a different movie.

Netflix predicted later that, based on my other ratings, I'm likely to give "Wordplay" 4.7 out of 5. Good to know the system works!

EDIT: Here's the code thingie if you want to be Netflix friends with me: http://www.netflix.com/BeMyFriend/PitrH8ia6TxrUso1Xy3E

I got an AA on "La Senorita" in Dance Dance Revolution. No, I don't think you understand. I've been trying to AA this song for over three years. Do not mock me. I am proud.

I'm going to California for spring break. I'm leaving either next Friday or the Monday after, depending on whether Mom can get a flight changed so I can be there for the weekend. Anybody wanna hang out?

I found out that Mr. McCloud was the first black person to become a Free Mason in the state of Missouri. This is both awesome (because dude, I know the first black Free Mason in Missouri!) and sad, because there weren't any black Masons in Missouri until the '90s.

I got my Reed and Sarah Lawrence applications in. I need to work on Bard this weekend, because next week is a little crazy for me homework-wise.

I'm kicking ass in my classes. I have every single point it is possible to get in history, including extra credit, and I got 67/70 on my last psych test.

Cramerica was on Jeopardy! this week. I haven't seen it yet, but he has promised to send it to me.

I memorized the Greek alphabet. Psych was deadly boring on Tuesday, and we weren't covering anything I need to know (really, we haven't covered ANYTHING I need to know in class, though I've learned a lot from the text) so I printed off the Wikipedia entry about the Greek alphabet during the ten-minute break and memorized it during the second half of class. I still don't have the characters down, but I can recite it aloud, and I don't need to know the characters for crossword puzzles, which are the main reason I wanted to know the alphabet in the first place.

Cord didn't get the internship to Japan. Not only that, but because five people went to Seattle for the interview, there were three positions, and one girl chose another position over this one... he was the only one who made it to the interview process but didn't get into the program. He's really, really bummed.

Sharai appears to have forgiven me. She's acting completely normal toward me again. I have no idea what happened, but it's a tremendous relief.

I finished watching "Firefly" and "Serenity." The series wasn't bad, but it wasn't as good as it's made out to be, and all the self-back-patting in the special features annoyed me.

I also watched "Bridge to Terabithia." I was on the bus home from Penn Valley last night at about 8:30pm, and Richard called me and demanded that I get off at UMKC and hang out with him. So we went to see a movie. It was the first time we've spent time together since we broke up, and I think things are going to be totally fine between us. "Bridge to Terabithia" was much, much better than the preview made it out to be. They adapted the book well, and it made me cry, though not as much as the book did. Richard, bless his heart, sobbed through the last quarter of the movie.

This is the funniest picture I've seen in a long, long time. Not, as my mother put it, for the easily offended.

I have now been sick for three and a half weeks. Still coughing, still snotty. Monday was really bad. Tuesday I took drugs, but they didn't help. It's lightened up a bit since then- at least I can breathe at night now.

I did 450 crunches on Thursday. All we did in karate class was knife work, and I missed Monday because of sickness, so I was feeling distinctly un-exercised. I also did some chair dips and pushups.

EDIT: Oh, and I've got my phone charger back, so I can be reached on my cell again.

Yesterday was Rain's party, which was awesome. Bailey, whom I hadn't seen in years, was visiting from California. Ann came, and gave Colin a lift, which made me very happy, because I haven't hung out with Colin in person since Anytown in June. Karel and Kyle came, but had to leave after a few hours. The rest of us spent the night and went to church this morning. Colin liked All Souls, and says he wants to start coming regularly, and Ann said he can ride with her. Yay!

At church, we watched Word Wars, made by (NPL member) Murdoch's brother E-Wolf, also known as Eric Chaikin. The movie is about hardcore Scrabble. I saw it at the Boston con, I think- there was a Q&A with E-Wolf afterward. It was just as good the second time, and just as suspenseful because I'd forgotten who won.

Speaking of Murdoch (aka Kid Beyond, aka Andrew Chaikin), I'm in love with his new CD, Amplivate. The first four tracks are completely vocal, but it's hard to believe that they are. Murdoch can do some phenomenal things with his voice. There are videos on his site; I highly recommend checking them out, and buying the CD if you like what you hear. (That's him on the right in my icon.)

Yesterday (that is, Tuesday):
-Sharai and I met with Zola about the banned books club (now dubbed "Novel Challenge"), and we've got a good plan.
-We went to Costco with Mom, and Sharai finally bought me my birthday foamy soap. Yay, foamy soap!
-Mom and I went to Korma Sutra, a great Indian restaurant, to celebrate my grant. It was delicious, though my leftovers seem to have mysteriously disappeared. I'm kind of sad. I wanted those.
-We went to an empty parking lot down by Target, and I learned how to drive. It was a little scary and very fun. Mom didn't freak out quite as much as I expected her to, except when I hit the brake too hard. And we only had one run-in with a police officer. Now I need to get my permit at some point.
-I discovered that none of the schools I want to visit in Boston offer tours or information sessions on Saturdays or Sundays. Which kind of sucks, as I was planning to spend this weekend there. I guess I should have planned further ahead. Anyone have any ideas as to what I should do? I'll call Aunt Amanda about it tomorrow.

Today:
-I got a bass amp. We were going to get a used one, but this one was less than a hundred dollars new, and I like it a lot. I can actually hear Milo clearly without plucking the strings really hard, which makes me very happy.
-I watched the rest of "About A Boy." It was kind of ehh. Not bad, but I wouldn't watch it again. I thought the kid was a pretty crappy actor, Hugh Grant wasn't at his best either, and there was some really morally misleading stuff about conformity that I didn't like. But it was cute.
-Sharai came over, then Ethan and Laura came over, then we all took the bus to an Italian restaurant to meet Jonhenry for dinner, then Josie picked us up and took everyone home. I fell over rough-housing with Ethan on the bus and now I have a mondo-bruise at the top of my right thigh. Owch.
-I talked to Jasmine on the phone. Sounds like we definitely need to put together an Anytown field trip to Passages: me, her, Rain, Calvin, Colin, and Terrance. And now I have the Anytown song in my head again.
-Laura called me in tears, saying that she'd broken up with her boyfriend. It wasn't exactly a surprise (it had been coming for a long time), but it still sucked for her, and I stayed on the phone with her until she'd calmed down a little.

Tomorrow I have a tutor training thing at UMKC (50 bucks for 4.5 hours, which is a hell of a lot more than they pay me for actual work). Friday morning is a Student Activities meeting. I'm going straight from the meeting to the airport- Clay is coming back about three hours before I leave.

I realized today that I almost never post in my LJ about movies I actually like, and decided that an explanation of this was necessary.

Anyone who knows me well is aware that I always watch the credits of movies. This is because I figure that no matter how bad the movie was, a lot of people worked on it to make it good, and some of them must have done their job right. Even if I didn't appreciate the final result, I can see that a lot of effort goes into making a film. I figure that the people whose work I can't see or didn't notice because they did their jobs right (i.e. lighting) deserve five minutes of my time, especially if they're as disappointed in the movie as I am.

I rarely feel inclined to post about my reasons for liking a movie. Because a movie is meant to be entertainment, I kind of expect it to be good. If my reaction to something that was meant to entertain me is "I want that two hours of my life back," I feel that I should present my reasoning. That's why I usually post extensively about movies I disliked, and briefly or not at all about the ones I did like.

"Better Than Chocolate" was very good. Thank you for the recommendation and loan, mercymckinnon.

Yep, Clay's hit a dozen. One more year and he'll be a teen. Boggle.

Regardless of the fact that without it I would still be unaware of the fact that the guy who plays Silent Bob also directed "Clerks," there was never meant to be a "Clerks II." And it would suck even without the Halle Berry lookalike.

I got my first paycheck today. Seventy-something bucks, whee. I'm going to pay back some of my Christmas debt to Mom, put some in the bank account, and keep some to buy coffee, because it's rude to go to coffeeshops without buying anything and I'm getting sick of studying in the library.

One of the new French students dropped out because he apparently hadn't taken French 101 (nobody's been able to figure out how he managed to sign up for 102) and the girl from East Central is quite obviously lost (she couldn't figure out what "chien" meant even after Ms. Brandt barked at her, for god's sake), but the other new people seem to be doing well. There's one called Rachel I like a lot, and another one (Tulani? Something like that) has the most awesome, massive, corkscrewy, red-and-black Afro ever. Hair like that makes me wish I was black.

Also, Student Activities. Erica, Dylynda, and Joshua's replacement Shannon were in the office today. Josh won't be leaving until next Friday, but he has barely any hours until then, so I haven't run into him yet. Shannon... she's nice and all, and I like her, but she hasn't really gotten the SAC atmosphere yet. She locks up her desk, her computer when she isn't using it, and the office when no one's there, which nobody ever does, and she wears formal clothes too. I think she'll loosen up, though- she just has to get used to us.

You know when you're in a really good mood and then someone says something and you just plummet to feeling like complete crap in .001 seconds? That's happened to me twice today, once just now. Meh. I did get a promise for a reference letter from Zola, one of my TLC bosses. When I asked, I made sure she knew that it was okay to say no because we haven't known each other all that long... but she told me that I come very well recommended, so she doesn't have any reservations. That was nice, because it means that Mindy, Ms. Sheeley and Dr. Spaulding gave me good references, and I was kind of worried about my reputation with the last two. Casey, one of the English teachers, was working in the writing lab while I was for three hours this morning, and we had a couple of really interesting discussions. I can't remember much of it, because I was practically asleep on my feet, but I'm very much looking forward to Friday mornings from now on.

I uploaded a couple of new icons, including this one, which is a pic taken of me by shoutingboy at vito_excalibur's birthday party.

Oh, I know what will make me feel better- hair dye! I've been waiting for some free time to do this. I hope you all are well, and I wish you a happy weekend.

Pick 10 movies you love. Pick a quote from each. Have people guess. Comments will be screened, so go guess! Those who have guessed correctly will have their name after said quotes. Answers will be posted later sometime. :P

1. Quinze. (Yes, this is one of my favorite lines of a movie. No, it's not in English. No, I don't expect anyone except maybe crazybutsound to get it.)
hannahrorlove, great_scotto

2. -You're wet.
-Yes. It's raining.
androidlovesong, vito_excalibur, shoutingboy

3. Me, I'm dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly... stupid.
androidlovesong, hannahrorlove, etymological, crazybutsound, devils_reject, g4n0nd0rk

4. That's why he's the King and you're a schmuck. (Bonus points if you know the actress's name. I didn't realize it was her until the credits.)
hannahrorlove, great_scotto, etymological, devils_reject

5. And how did you feel, being denied these Hungry Hungry Hippos?
androidlovesong, crazybutsound

6. Now if anything hurts you, or upsets you in any way... don't run your fat ass mouth off to me, because I don't give a shit. Now move out.
devils_reject

7. You HAVE the right to remain silent. What you lack is the capacity.
crazybutsound

8. Hey, how come Andrew gets to get up? If he gets up, we'll all get up. It'll be anarchy.
hannahrorlove, crazybutsound

9. I'll tell you whose fault it is. My no-good dirty rotten pig-stealing great-great grandfather, that's whose fault it is.
androidlovesong, slightly_wrong, vito_excalibur, hannahrorlove, great_scotto, devils_reject, g4n0nd0rk

10. The King's stinking son fired me, and thank you so much for bringing up such a painful subject. While you're at it, why don't you give me a nice paper cut and pour lemon juice on it? We're closed!
androidlovesong, slightly_wrong, vito_excalibur, hannahrorlove, great_scotto, shoutingboy, crazybutsound, devils_reject