REALLY?

The Dark Knight is the greatest movie EVER MADE? I have difficulty believing that.




According, that is, to the IMDB users who have rated it NUMBER ONE on the Top 250. And IMDB has a formula resembling a rocket science equation to figure out a movie's place on aforementioned list, so I know it has to be somewhat accurate. The formula involves how many movies the user has rated and a slew of other things. The hype for this movie is kind of getting out of hand. Though it's already been released, so perhaps hype stops once something is released. But I have to say that I am one of approximately seven people in the...entire country who has not yet seen The Dark Knight (that's an official estimation, folks). I was on vacation when it came out and I've been really busy.

So who's seen it, is it really worth the 9.3something rating it was given on IMDB?

Oh yeah, I know how lame this post is, but I started it the other day and now I just want to finish it. A better post is coming soon... I hope.

peace!
a

I wuv reading.

Sorry for my embarrassingly sporadic posting, and this one isn't going to be much better, since I am leaving for San Diego for a week and I have a lot of packing and stuff to do. But hopefully, between the summer reading and AP History work I have to do out there, I will glean some inspiration.
So this post is pretty much about some books I am planning to read in the near future. Pshh, talk about lame. Thank you for reading this if you still are. (Sometimes, if you can't tell, I have confidence issues. :P)

1) The Perks Of Being A Wallflower


The grade above mine is really strange in that they all get obsessed about several things and pass it around the grade. For example, Fight Club, both the film and the book. And all of them seem to think that THEY are the one who started the phenomenom. It's quite fun to watch, actually. One of these obsessions is The Perks Of Being A Wallflower, which is, in and of itself, already a cult classic. It's the kind of book that causes people to write to the author and tell he/she that the book kept he/she from killing themselves. Whoa. (Though I read somewhere that someone wrote the same thing to the author of the Twilig ht books and I couldn't help thinking that there's nothing philosophical or deep in those books that could honestly keep someone from killing themselves. Oh, even better: I once hear that HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL kept someone from killing themselves. Yes. HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL. How many people are secreting wanting to kill themselves but are just waiting for that classical magnum opus [cough] to keep them from doing so?) But anyway, what I've heard from this book is that it is written in the form of letters from a teenage boy named Charlie to an anonymous reader, and it's all about angst and adolescence and things like that. I think I'm going to love it.

2) Everything Is Illuminated


I bought this book at the incredible Strand bookstore when I went to New York over New Years, and it's been lying on my bookshelf every since. It's weird, I know, but I've just been waiting for the right time to read it. It's written very oddly, so I can't be distracted by any shiny objects while attempting it. It's about...I'm probably going to get this horribly wrong, but I'm pretty sure it is about a guy with the same name as the author who goes on a search throughout Eastern Europe to find the woman who helped his grandfather, somehow, in the Holocaust.
Here's hoping I have a better idea of what the story is about after actually reading it.

3) My Sister's Keeper


I can't help it, but I really like Jodi Picoult's writing. Well, actually, I've only read Nineteen Minutes but that was so absorbing and wrenching that I'm sure her other stuff is also well written. My sister and several of my friends have read this book and lurrrv it, so I figured I might give it a try. Basic story: This girl was conceived as a donor for her sister, and her whole life has revolved around surgeries and such to help her sister, and then I think she decides to sue her family or something light-hearted like that.

4)Eclipse


Yes, yes, I've read the first two Twilight books, and I must say... I just don't... GET it. The most recent Entertainment Weekly cover article was on the books, and it dared compare them to Harry Potter. I got pissed at that. Harry Potter was a series like none seen before, gorgeously crafted with astounding detail, and they were so many people's childhood. They transported us to another world, one of Quidditch and potions, a Ministry of Magic and owl post. All sorts of people loved those books; male and female, rich and poor, young and old. However, the Twilight books appeal mostly to one audience: obsessive teenage and pre-teen girls who think that Edward Cullen is the perfect boyfriend or whatever, even though his speech consists of two variations: 1) Bella, I love you, I would die for you. and 2) Bella, don't be stupid, I'm going to laugh at you now and then two seconds later tell you how much I love you. Bumper stickers on facebook ar e like, "Romeo who? I'm waiting for my Edward Cullen." And I'm thinking.... actually, they're both two men that I would NOT want as mates. Romeo is whiney, melodramatic, and rash. And Edward is just possessive and creepy, no matter how hot he may be. However, I still read the books because they're easy, and fun to read.

Reading is one of my favorite things to do, and it has been since I was three. When I was younger, I would take a book in the car EVERYWHERE, even if the ride was only going to be ten minutes long. When people told me that they couldn't read without getting carsick, I remember feeling incredibly sad for them. What did they DO in the car?? Stare out the window? How unfortunate. :P And I know a lot of random things, from trivia to history facts to lots and lots of geography, and when people ask me how I know, I almost always answer... "I read a lot." And it's true.


In a non-book-related subject, I watched Wes Anderson's Rushmore on Sunday and again this afternoon. It was so freaking awesome my mind is still buzzing. I'll write more about that when I get back and more about..... BILLY JOEL, who I saw in concert last week. Gagagaga. I love old people music.

And just because I have random pictures sitting on my computer, here's one of Audrey Hepburn in that Gap commercial from two years ago.



And this, which I found as a bumper sticker on Facebook and it pretty much made my day.



What books are YOU reading this summer?
I'll write more once I'm back from sunny San Diego! Oy. That sounds like some cheesy weatherman thing. "And it's sunny in San Diego today folks!" Cue cheesy grin.

peace!
a.

Fuck Starbucks!

The amazingly cool/creative/funny Sister Libby over at Ice Cube Confidential recently posted her "Coffee Shop Mix-tape," and it was so great that I was inspired to create one of my own. I've always secreted desired owning my own coffee shop..... a quaint but not cramped space in an old brownstone in a historic part of a town like Boston or Burlington, Vermont, decorated in my favorite quirky style, where I could sell my favorite books and some fair trade items from places like Nepal and Peru. I would bake all my own... baked goods, sell as much tea as I did coffee, and I would have a super-small stage where local artists could perform on open-mic nights. Sigh. If only. And perhaps most importantly, I could chose my own perfect soundtrack. And everyone would love my coffee shop so much that they would spurn the Starbucks around the corner... and that other one around the OTHER corner. When dreaming up my Coffee Shop Mix, my mind immediately went to spare acoustic songs, but then I realized that if I would be in said shop, I might get weary of those kind of songs, and who wants to be sad all the time? So I mixed that kind of song a lot into my mix, since I have plenty of those on my iPod, but I also mixed in some more upbeat tunes.

“New Romantic”- I just discovered Laura Marling, and her voice is so surprising; she’s this tiny little blond, milky-skinned fairy-tale creature, and this soulful, alluring, smooth voice comes out of her. I also suggest “The Captain and the Hourglass.”

“Criminal”- She was 17 when she wrote this. 17. And this song is one of the best I’ve ever heard. I’m 16. This makes me angry at God for not granting me more talent.

“First Day Of My Life”- I love Bright Eyes. I love this song. I suggest that you watch the video. It’s so sweet.

“New Slang”- You’ve all seen Garden State. But this song hits me deep every single time I listen to it, and I can listen to it over and over and over. It just transports me to a different plane of living. This is the only version I could find though, it’s different than the one I have… I really really want to learn this on guitar… which might take a while. Oh, and just to be obnoxious, I loved this song before I saw aforementioned movie. :P

“Angeles”- I couldn’t find the recorded version, but every time I listen to Elliott Smith, a switch is hit somewhere inside me, and I am constantly in awe of his genius, every song is a work of art.

“Love You Much Better”- The Hush Sound is probably my favorite band without a member named Ringo or Lennon, and I wanted to put “Where We Went Wrong” on the mix, but they didn’t have it.  Wah wah wah.

“I Will Follow You Into the Dark”- I hear those opening chords, and I simply melt. Ben Gibbard’s voice and lyrics…. “If heaven and hell decide/ that they both are satisfied/ illuminate the “no’s” on their vacancy signs/ if there’s no one beside you/ when your soul embarks/ then I’ll follow you into the dark/… so sweet, so poignant, yet also slightly dark.

“One Of These Things First”- Nick Drake’s music is autumn in song form.

“Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa”- To lighten things up a bit.

“Aux Champs Elysees”- Do I have any idea what the hell he’s saying? Of course not. Does that keep me from loving this buoyant, joyful song to bits? Of course not!

“Naked As We Came”- I actually use this song as a lullaby. Weird, I know. But it’s so soothing.

“Portions For Foxes”- Guitar-driven, but it’s a light song, and I love it.

“Sweet Baby James”- My mom always said that if she had the opportunity to run off with any celebrity, it would be James Taylor, which I always thought was really weird because he’s gross and old and bald. But I can’t deny how much I love his music, and the uniqueness of his voice.

“Just Like Heaven”- SHOW ME SHOW ME SHOW ME HOW YOU DO THAT TRICK… The guitar riff is killllllller.

“Hey Jude”- This is the part in my coffee-house fantasy where one person starts singing along, and then one more, and eventually the whole place breaks into song. Like in Almost Famous. And a lot of swaying is involved.

“Spit On A Stranger”- My dad got me into this band when I was around eight, and their first album was really bluegrass, but their second was this amazing mix of bluegrass and jazz, and I’ve listened to it so many times that it’s all scratched up. This is a cover of a Pavement song, and I love Chris Thile’s (lead singer and mandolin player! Hell yes!) voice and skillz.

“Tangled Up In Blue”-…It’s Bob Dylan.

“Life Is A Song”- This was the last song they played on “The O.C.” and the lyrics, gentle guitar, and honesty of Patrick Park’s voice are what have made it one of my most played songs. “We always forget how strange it is just to be alive at all.”

“Vienna”- I listen to old people’s music, don’t I?

I'm going to go make myself some tea. Oo, and PLEASE make your own coffee-house mix, but be sure to credit Sister Libby for starting the movement.

peace!
a.

P.S. I can't stop listening to "Buddy Holly" by Weezer. It's so catchy, and the music video is absolutely astounding, check it out or be lame. Ouch. That must've STUNG.