my opinion matters

Don’t read this if you don’t want to know what happens. I really enjoyed this film. It’s a “coming of age” type of movie based on a memoir of a girl in the 1960s who falls in love with a married man who she doesn’t know is married. There isn’t too much to say about the movie because it was short and sweet, and the acting was quite good. Carey Mulligan, who I have never heard of, played the lead role of Jenny Miller and she was fantastic. Peter Sarsgaard was also great, and so was the guy who played Dr. Octavius is the Spiderman movies. She’s up for Best Actress, and I would love for her to win, but I still think Sandra Bullock has a lock on it. This was a great movie, though, and there are tons of people who will never see it, which is sad because it’s great. Once she found out he was married, she went to see his wife and son, and found out that it wasn’t the first time he had cheated and he’d even gotten a few girls pregnant. Her parents performed wonderfully in the film as well, and

Starting off, this movie seems like it’s going to be sweet. It’s broken into chapters, and the first chapter seeems great. (I am telling the plot now, so stop reading if you don’t want to know)… The first chapter shows a dairy farmer and his family in France being visited by a German soldier, Colonel Hans Landa, who discovers there is a Jewish family hiding beneath the floorboards of his house – one girl gets away. This part is awesome, and the actor who plays the Colonel is genius. Right from the start you figure this is going to be compelling and interesting to watch. His pipe is also awesome in that first scene. The second chapter was about the Basterds, led by Brad Pitt, who can’t really act too well but is always charasmatic and funny and thus is fun to watch. Quentin Tarantino is a weird guy, but his movies are campy, a little more over the top than Sam Raimi (who I love). I never really liked Tarantino’s stuff because the music is very strange, like western/horror or something –

I have never been a huge fan of quirky comedies (a good example is Juno and movies like it) because they make me irritated. They make me irritated because it’s quirky-ness for the sake of quirky-ness. I can’t really explain it any better than that and I’m not going to try. As a result, I knew this movie wasn’t really for me, but it was on the list of nominees, so I’m watching it right now. So far, I don’t like it. Joseph Gorden-Lewitt, otherwise known as the obnoxious kid from 3rd Rock From the Sun, is the lead male in this film, and he always looks really tired and isn’t a good actor. Like, at all. He also isn’t funny and this is supposed to be a comedy. Zooey Deschanel, however, is adorable. I’ve always liked her, even if I didn’t like the film. This movie is about their relationship and, apparently, the 500 days they were together. Of course, because it’s a quirky comedy, the days aren’t particularly sequential. There’s a scene, then a black screen with “Day 71″ or something and the

From the previews, you have no idea how amazing this film is. It is the future of film and it is probably the greatest movie I have ever seen, and that is seriously saying something. It’s so good, I don’t even know how to talk about it. So I included a 10-minute featurette about the film and how it was shot and conceptualized. [http://www.filmofilia.com/2009/11/30/10-minute-avatar-behind-the-scenes-featurette/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Filmofilia+%28FilmoFilia%29] It is shockingly amazing. I saw it in 3D, which was headache-y but I’m really glad I did because it’s not like any 3D movie you’ve seen before. 3D used to be just a regular movie with hands or objects occasionally reaching out towards you. This film was ALL 3D and it was insane. The characters were real and although it was about 3 hours long, I never got bored. Even Michelle Rodriguez was good, which is shocking. I hope that people don’t overanalyze this film and try to make it about s

In Sandra Bullock’s first real scene, she was amazing. And it never stopped. I’ve always had a soft spot for her, especially in Miss Congeniality, but she is great in this film. She also looks great as a blonde. I want to pause and note that apparently Tim McGraw is an actor now, but I must have missed that. I’m pretty sure he’s just a singer. But the movie is set in Memphis, so maybe that’s why he got the role? Who knows. Anyway, this film is about a high school age boy named Big Mike who has had a tough life and is basically adopted by Sandra Bullock and her family. I find it strange that Sandra Bullock did a film like this one where she did such an amazing job, but this year she also did The Proposal, which was not so good. Anyway, Big Mike becomes a football player, no surprise there, and eventually is an All-American. The film is based on the true story of Michael Oher, who I would have probably heard of if I knew anything about football. I honestly cannot say enough about Sandra

After reading the Harry Potter and Twilight series about a million times, I wanted something new and fun to read. I saw a preview for a movie series called Percy Jackson and the Olympians and couldn’t tell if it looked good or horrible. Recently, I’ve rediscovered how awesome the library is and I’ve been using it a lot lately to read books I would never buy or read more than once. Books are hit and miss sometimes, so I usually make it a point to only buy books that are really good or I will read more than once. As a result, sometimes I miss really good stuff. I put the five Percy Jackson books in my library queue and got them just a week or two ago. I just finished book four and am moving onto the last book soon, possibly when I’m done writing this. Don’t get me wrong, Rick Riordan (the author) is no J.K. Rowling or even Stephenie Meyer, but the books are fun and entertaining and fast to read. Sometimes that’s just what you want. The series centers around a kid (who is 12 in the first

[Warning: If you don't want to know the detailed plot of the movie, don't read this] When I first heard about this book, and then the movie, I wasn’t really interested. I knew the plotline, but it didn’t sound like something I would like. But like I said before, that’s the beauty of award season: it makes you see movies you wouldn’t be interested in otherwise. Well. This was possibly the most disturbing movie I’ve seen in a long time. And sometimes the word disturbing can be a good thing and sometimes it can be bad. I’m still not sure which one this is. It’s the story of Clarisse Precious Jackson, who, when the film starts, is pregnant at 16 with her second child by her father. She goes to an alternative school and seems to be making progress, but the whole time you see her relationship with her mother go from bad to worse, culminating in a pushing fight, Precious falling down the stairs with a newborn in her arms and her mother throwing a television at her. Crazy. At first the

I am in love with Meryl Streep. Always have been, always will be. So when I sat down to watch Julie and Julia, I expected to love it, at least the parts with Meryl Streep. I had tried to read the book the film is based on, but I didn’t make it very far. I’m not sure if it was the writing or the story itself, but I imagine it’s a little bit of both. Anyway. The film was definitely slow starting, and although I think I like Amy Adams, or at least I loved her in Enchanted, she’s not so good in this movie. Maybe the overacting in Enchanted is just the way she acts, because she was definitely overdoing it as Julie Powell. The costuming and makeup department seemed to do their best to make her look homely and unattractive, and although that might be what the author wanted, it made her a lot less likeable. The film is about a writer named Julie Powell writing a blog about cooking her way through a Julia Child cookbook. There are two stories happening at once: One of Julia Child, playing brill

I will definitely see most of the movies nominated, but I don’t have enough time or energy to watch all of the television I’ve missed that is nominated. Because of this, I am now able to give you my predictions for television. - Best Drama: Big Love, Dexter, House, Mad Men, True Blood: I give it to Big Love because I love that show. Dexter is also good, so that would be awesome. However, I’m pretty sure it goes to Mad Men. - Best Performance by an Actress, Drama: I give this one to Mad Men too, or maybe Kyra Sedwick in The Closer. To be honest, I don’t watch any of the nominated shows in this category, but I watched The Good Wife a few times and really liked it. My personal pick is Julianna Margulies, but anyone really has a shot at this one. - Best Performance by an Actor, Drama: Although I would love Bill Paxton to win this for Big Love, he probably doesn’t have a chance. My second pick is Michael C. Hall who is a complete genius in Dexter, but I’m guess it goes to Mad Men once

The Golden Globes nominations have been announced and the ceremony is 17 January 2010. Usually I wait until the Oscars to see the nominated movies, but it’s usually the same stuff that gets nominated so I’m giving it a go this year. Thanks to torrents, I’ve been able to download a bunch already. What sucks is a big chunk of the movies don’t come out in theatres until the end of the year, some not until January. Lame. But I’m doing good so far. I’ve already seen The Hangover and District 9 and Coraline but there are a TON I haven’t seen, mostly because they aren’t yet. In my queue to watch at the moment are: - Inglorious Basterds - Precious - 500 Days of Summer - Julie and Julia - Brothers - The Young Victoria - The Blind Side - Duplicity I wasn’t really interested in seeing any of those except Brothers because it looks awesome, but what I think is awesome about awards like the globes and the Oscars is it makes people see movies they wouldn’t otherwise see – it’s why I saw Crash and I’

I really don’t understand why Obama winning the Peace Prize actually upsets so many people. At first I thought it was because maybe some think that he really didn’t deserve it – but the Peace Prize is at least partially (I think largely) about inspiring hope and promise for a better future, and I think anyone can see that Obama did just that during his campaign. And before anyone says that I’m just drinking the Obama kool-aid – I wasn’t for him in the beginning. But he won me over. By his rhetoric and by inspiring people across the nation and across the world. How often is it that people in countries that despise America rejoice in the celebration of his presidency? It wasn’t because they thought they got one over on us. Obama is an inspiration. So maybe it’s about racism. And no, of course the war isn’t over yet. No one who is honestly thinking about the troops or the people we were originally trying to save would assume that pulling out of the war immediately is a good idea. Things

I couldn’t decide how many “favorite” episodes I would list, so I’ll just start and see how far I get. I could rank every episode, but that would take forever and I’m at work so it would be a massive waste of time. I am leaving out seasons four and five because yuck. The episodes are listed in order of awesomeness, so number 1 is my favorite episode. 1. The Pilot, Part 2 This is hands down my favorite episode. When Sawyer shoots the polar bear, when Michael finds the handcuffs and Sayid gets into a fight with Sawyer, Locke explaining backgammon to Walt, etc etc there is nothing that isn’t amazing about this episode. 2. The Moth It surprises me that a Charlie episode is one of my favorites, but this one is great, especially the conversations between Charlie and Jack when they’re stuck in the cave together. 3. The Pilot, Part 1 It’s classic! And each time I watch it I come up with another theory or try to figure out if Jacob or Jacob’s nemesis is in the wreckage. 4. Walkabout The first L

I personally believe that seasons four and five of LOST were not very rewatchable and ultimately sucked. That being said, I think I know what would make me relatively happy when the show ends. At Comic-Con this year, they released all of these videos that made it seem like once the nuke goes off, the crash never happened and possibly events change well before then too – more on that once I’ve watched all the videos, but the one for Hurley was pretty weird – maybe he didn’t play the numbers but still won the lottery. We don’t know, really. In light of those videos, I think the best course of action is to go with two realities, one that continues with the survivors on the island and shows that the nuke didn’t do anything, and one reality where everything gets reset and we get to see what might have happened to each character had the crash and other stuff not happened. We might see Shannon, Michael, Boone, Ana Lucia, Libby, and Charlie again, if that is the case – which makes me think I c

When I started seeing the previews for “More to Love,” which is basically just “The Bachelor” with fat girls, I was super excited, especially about the sort of mean title of the show. At least they didn’t call it “The Fat-chelor” which would have been awful. My first issue with the show is that the weight of the girls doesn’t seem right. Some girls said they weighed the same or less than me at the same height and they look HUGE compared to me. Maybe I wear my weight better or something but yikes. Or maybe I’m delusional. Either way, something seems off. My second issue is that the guy voted off the fattest girls in the first cut. Like, I get it, but if those girls didn’t have self esteem issues, they sure as shit do now. And each girl talks like they are so happy with themselves and their bodies but then the next second they start crying because they hate themselves and eat their feelings. Okay, nobody actually *said* that last part, but it’s true. Maybe a few of them seemed actually o

I was just at the Wright State bookstore and as I was checking out, the lady at the cash register said “take a free stick of gum” so I did. Who doesn’t like free things? I don’t remember what the gum was called because I threw out the wrapper, but it was sour, then turned sweet like bubble gum. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? Does this mean that the whole meal in a stick of gum concept made popular by Willy Wonka is in our future? I hope so.

On Saturday, Ryan, Rachel, their mom and I went to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. First, a brief comment on the audience. I understand that the books are largely viewed as children’s books, but the books really grow with the characters and by the time the sixth book comes around, the students are fourteen and the general tone is pretty dark and depressing… cause that’s what fourteen-year-olds are like. They are. It’s true. My problem, then, is not with the books or the movie, but with the parents who allow their VERY young children (like under the age of eight, as young as around two or three) to come to the movie theatre for the seven o’clock showing and sit through two and a half hours of gruesome and scary scenes. Let’s be honest – if I was really young and saw this movie, it would probably scar me for life (much like the movie It – that is terrifying and you know it). In fact, when the inferi come out of the water I jumped, as did most of the audience including the rea

I know that I haven’t posted anything in awhile, but it’s hard to keep up a blog when you actually have other things to do. Right now I’m interning full-time in the archives at Wright State, after which I will graduate with my MA!! Exciting!! Things are good. Except that Michael Jackson died. There have been so many different views about him stated in the last day or so, the worst of which are that he was a child molester and people are glad that he’s dead. I don’t understand. I mean, I get that he may have done some unspeakably awful things – but he *was* acquitted. So was O.J., but still. And to wash away all of the amazing contributions he made to music and dance is shocking and appalling to me. I think that he was amazing, even to the end. Perhaps his final tour may not have been so amazing, but we will never know. He had an extraordinary amount of talent and he was a force to be reckoned with throughout his entire life. I will miss Michael Jackson, if for no other reason than anyo

This new show starts tonight called Harper’s Island, where apparently they’re going to kill off one person every week – which sounds pretty cool. I think I have a good chance of liking it because I don’t really like horror movies but I like serial killer stuff. Should be interesting. Other than that there hasn’t been much on of interest – LOST of course, but besides that there’s just American Idol (which is just terrible) and Top Model (which is lame because none of the girls are that pretty). Family Guy is still there, but there aren’t really any shows besides LOST that I’m super excited about. Movie-wise, there’s been better stuff. The Prestige was seriously one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time, and Doubt was absolutely fantastic. I also saw my first Bond movie: Casino Royale, and I loved it. Journey to the Center of the Earth wasn’t even that bad. Crazy, I know. And Slumdog Millionaire! I didn’t expect much, but I’ve seen it twice and it is super good.

This year, I was a bad Oscars viewer as I had seen NONE of the movies nominated, except The Dark Knight, and that doesn’t really count anyway. Still, just like every year, I made my predictions based on buzz about the movies, other awards they won, and how much I wanted to see them. Turns out, I know what I’m talking about a lot more when I have no idea what I’m talking about. I successfully predicted: - best picture (slumdog millionaire) - best actor (sean penn) - best actress (kate winslet) - best supporting actress (penelope cruz) - best supporting actor (heath ledger) - best director (slumdog millionaire) - best adapted screenplay (slumdog millionaire) - best makeup (benjamin button) - best original score (slumdog millionaire) - best sound editing (the dark knight) - best animated film (wall-e) that’s pretty good. so out of 24 major awards, I successfully predicted 11, and I got all the awards anyone cares about, so I am totally awesome. Woo!!!!

I like finding new music, because finding something I really like doesn’t happen very often. So here’s what I’ve been listening to a lot lately: - Jason Mraz. First of all, I like his last name, so he already gets points for that. I like that remedy song he did a few years ago, but he recently came out with “I’m Yours” and it is seriously my favorite song right now. It is happy and catchy and I really enjoy his voice. I downloaded the rest of his album and I’m listening to it right now – lots of brass and fun happy music – I also like “Coyotes” and a few others. He performed on SNL a week or so ago and he was amazingly good, and usually people are terrible on SNL. I mean seriously, TV on the Radio? Where are the people who actually like that music? Because it sucks. - Lady Gaga. I have to admit, I hated the hell out of that stupid “Just Dance” song for awhile. But, like all good pop music, it gets in your head like a freaking virus and it worms it’s way through your brain until you sta

Okay. So the first two episodes of LOST aired last week and I have a few theories and lots of questions. I continue to hope that the show will not end without telling me… something. About something. And that it isn’t aliens or a “who shot JR?” kind of thing. I think the creators know that fans would go fucking crazy, so here’s hoping. If I’m being honest, the beginning of the premiere worried me because it was bad. BAD. But then Sayid killed a guy on a dishwasher and I slowly started regaining confidence in the new season. I really like the episodes that don’t focus on one person, but at the same time I got way too confused and there was too much information to digest properly. I like that Hurley got the first flashback of the season and I thoroughly enjoyed his flashforwards – although I was surprised he told his mom the truth… but I guess if anyone was going to believe him about everything, it would be the person who experienced the numbers curse along with him. But still. I thought

I love the Geek Squad at Best Buy. A few weeks ago Sawyer (the dog) spilled a vanilla coke on my laptop, completely ruining it. So I took it to Best Buy and they completely fixed it, free of charge. I’m talking new keyboard, new screen, new hard drive. For free! I am now forever justified in purchasing the service plan, and I’m glad I did it because the repairs would have cost around $1500 – yikes. Anyway, they rock and I am super happy to have my laptop back and it’s all shiny and brand new-ish. Unfortunately, I have the “I want a new toy” bug, and I’ve been trying to shake it off to no avail. I dont need a new toy – especially not one that is in any way related to a computer, but alas, I have been bitten by the purchasing bug. It’s probably just the weather and the fact that I got loan money. Instead, I will try to convince myself that the money should almost exclusively be used to pay off debt. Debt. Debt. Debt. Not a new toy. Debt. We shall see.

I left Ohio once, in August 2006, to live with my sister in Oklahoma. It was supposed to be permanent. I came home in November. It wasn’t that we didn’t get along or I hated her new boyfriend – we didn’t get along, but that wasn’t the biggest reason. I missed Ohio. It was something I never expected because I had lived there my whole life, in the same house, in East Dayton. But there was something missing in Oklahoma. First of all, there was almost no construction. There are those who have said there are four seasons in Ohio: winter, almost winter, just after winter, and construction. I missed the orange barrels that they taught in driver’s ed were filled with rocks and cement to persuade us to fear them. I wonder if other states get that same lecture. Dayton is small, but not too small. We get first-run movies and even the weird independent ones at the Neon. We have an extremely healthy theatre life in Dayton, where you can see plays at the Victoria Theatre or the new Schuster Center.

Okay, so I was wrong before about the site for the reserach blog for my class. The actual blog is here http://www.daytonstories.org/childhood/ - enjoy! It’s apparently a group blog where all six members of my group will be posting their research progress. Sounds cool enough. Tomorrow I’m going to try and get to the archives on campus to do some actual research that will actually count for something – here’s hoping. So far the quarter seems like it will be fairly easy – I’ve pretty much picked my topic for my 700 paper, which is the thing I was the most stressed about. I’m going to keep up with my research on the pledge of allegiance and the addition of the words “under god” – I used to hoenstly believe that it didn’t matter what you wrote a paper about as long as you got it done and got an A. I now know that you won’t be motivated to do ANYthing for a paper or a class if you aren’t at least a little excited about the subject – and I am DEFinitely excited about this. I’m hoping to do so

So winter classes started yesterday and I’ve already had two classes: Family & Gender in Modern American History (the one I need the blog for) and Museum Administration & Collections. Tonight I have Historical Methods from 6-935. I always think those classes are a good idea and I swear I always regret it. But ah well, if I’m going to graduate at the end of the summer I have to take whatever’s offered whenever it meets. It’s okay so far – lots of papers, same as usual. The only thing I’m not looking forward to is the exams – I honestly believe that graduate students shouldn’t have to take exams. But whatever. I do what is asked so I can get my diploma, which is really all that matters at this point. In fact, I have some reading to do for tomorrow’s class – it’s a mixed undergrad/grad class (the family & gender one) and I feel bad for the undergrads because it’s more work than most 400 level history classes at Wright State – well… not really, but it seems that way, anyway. I