chrryblssmninja

straight to the point

for Christmas, I got

- a 4-DVD package of the first four Batman movies
uh...I liked the first one? and I like Catwoman in the second one

- Virgin mobile $10 card for my phone

- 1600 Microsoft points. So I went on my brother's Xbox Live account and got:

LIMBO


and The Undergarden



I've played The Undergarden so far. It's interesting and kind of trippy. I got the "drop a bomb on a musician" acheivement on the second level.

So I just finished reading the collected Batman: R.I.P.

WHAT

WAS

THAT

GRANT MORRISON, YOU SCOTTISH FIEND


Twice during the main story, I wanted to throw the book at the wall.

Yet the concluding chapters were so brilliant and, in my opinion, made it all worthwhile.


I still think they should have given some hints or at least visual shape hints or something earlier in the story. It could have been done without sacrificing the fragmented, plunge-into-action nature of the story.

FRUSTRATING, BRAIN-BREAKING

I liked it sooooo much better than boring, overrated Hush though.
I feel sorry for those who had to follow this story issue by issue, though. It works much better when read all at once.

- - -
in Marvel land, is anyone reading Ed Brubaker's The Marvels Project? I am buying that one issue by issue. I'm a sucker for revisiting stuff from the superhero "golden age."

Hugs for all my Liverpool flisters.




superhero fun, via cutiesaiyajin:





Directions: Create a new blog post. Write an introduction then copy and paste the meme below into your blog and change the comments to your own. Use the title of this meme in your subject line or create your own. Feel free to tag your friends or not. A link back to this lens would be appreciated.

( meme below )

was able to go to the Milpitas Library today. Got a good stash.

books:
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle - the Hamlet parallel that's got notice from the Oprah book club crowd
Bat-manga - old school Batman manga
The Art of the Video Game

VHS
Creature from the Black Lagoon - I have to see old school monster movie

DVDs
Open City - what I like Italian neorealism
Sisters of the Gion - it looks pretty, it's about geisha, and I want to see more of Kenji Mizoguchi's work
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser - the story seems interesting, and I really should see a Herzog film sometime
Gaslight - dude classic. plus, they have the original British version, and I like seeing original sources
The Great Train Robbery and Other Primary Works REALLY REALLY OLD MOVIES
Le Deuxiéme Souffle - I'm still on my way to watching all the movies of Jean-Pierre Melville
The Great Match - about peeps in Mongolia, the Sahara, and the Amazon trying to watch the 2002 World Cup. like a doc version of The Cup
Two Lane Blacktop - I've always wanted to see this, but the covers of the copies in the library were too cheesy for me to take home under the eyes of my family...thank you Criterion for your classy covers
I Walked With a Zombie/The Body Snatchers - MOAR CLASSIC HORROR WOOO
Man of a Thousand Faces - Cagney as Lon Chaney what
Ace in the Hole - I really like atypical film noir, and I keep on borrowing this but never get around to watching it
Duck You, Sucker - I've heard good things about it, and lol title

/filmgeek

haha so I need to get through this book first, Soccer in the Sun and Shade by Eduardo Galeano. It's kind of awesome. Then finish Tales of Ise and the audiobook files of Pride and Prejudice. Then I'll finally read my copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies! Then I'll read the copy of To Say Nothing of the Dog I bought a year ago. then I'll get to the books I got today.

I also have to finish Kingdom Hearts (hahaha how many years have I been on that game). And then play Bioshock all by myself instead of just watching my brother.

I will restart the Script Frenzy challenge in June.

my possible internship at the anthropology museum starts the second week of June.

I like summer.

via cleolinda:
first, the serious stuff: Yesterday's deaths - John Updike and Kim Manners.

now, less serious matters:
Is Joaquin Phoenix's rap career a hoax?


via supersyncspaz7: Nutella cupcakes!


Oprah and Tom Hanks behind Edgar Sawtelle film adaptation
That book still has a ton of holds on it in the library.

OCTOBER ROAD GETS A FILMED WRAP-UP AND PUSHING DAISIES DOESN'T?

finally: Toy Story: The Dark Knight.


finally, part 2: lightly spoilery promo pic for next Lost episode shows Daniel Faraday actually has arm muscles what
ETA: lol io9 Faraday bound (and possibly caged) in upcoming episodes

sorry, Dan. had to post that.

inspired by croakvegas reading Watchmen:

THE CLASSY COMIC BOOK POST

The media often mentions Watchmen, Maus, and other such works when showing how comics have "grown up." I'd like to give a showcase on other worthy titles that the media reporters don't pick up on Wikipedia.

There will be titles for every taste here: bibliophiles, history buffs, superhero fans, manga addicts, even those on the avant-garde side.

note: I tend to call long series "comic books" and more stand-alone titles "graphic novels."

( click click )

I think that's enough for now. TO BE CONTINUED. My computer's getting tired. I spent exactly (yeah, exactly. it's scary) 3 hours making this. I did eat dinner during that time, but I ate fast.

Happy Birthday, never_frugal!


foof. plorp. I'm tired. Schoolwork and stuff.
My parents' anniversary was Monday, so we went to the ultrahip Chinese restaurant Sino, which was pretty good, not too overpriced. Portions were big. Last night, I had to stay late in Berkeley for some CalTV meetings, so before that we ate at Angeline's Louisiana Kitchen. ULTIMATE JAMBALAYA WOO. I also tried some of my dad's penne pasta and their sauce (along with the little orange heirloom tomatoes) were just marvelous. yup. and beignets! nice. They were served in this bowl full of powdered sugar...so much that I choked a bit at first, all that powdered dust...I did the same thing with the souffle at Sino...
haha we don't usually eat out like this two days in a row. It just happened.

oh, and now the CalTV site is all new and improved and stuff. Here are all the projects where I've done camera work!.

random random links

via cleolinda:
Danny Boyle to direct a musical? awesome.
Jane Austen's "The Dark Knight" interrogation scene.
LINK OF WIN
Add cowbell and Christopher Walken to any song
NY Post critic smacks Rogert Ebert with a binder, Ebert's response.


Klinsi interview!
It's dubbed, so I don't know if my German flisters might find that annoying. There's probably an undubbed version on the site...I'd look for it if I wasn't tired right now
I only caught a bit of this on TV. I'll watch the whole thing when I have more time.

hey hey Jack Coleman (Noah Bennet on Heroes) is now a guest blogger on TWOP!

WAAH I MISSSED THE PUSHING DAISIES PIES WHEN THEY CAME TO SAN FRANCISCO NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
They're hitting Denver today, followed by Dallas, Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York.
They do have some simple pie recipes on that site, though.

Gossip Girl!
pics of Blake Lively's 21st birthday
aww she invited everyone
via yaiyah: Leighton Meester singing "Bette Davis Eyes."
overproduced, but Leighton's voice is cool and low and surprisingly un-Blair-like.
Gossip Girls in talks to make appearance in 30 Rock flashback
this sounds fantastic! eeeee...one of the better stunt casting decisions I've seen about 30 Rock's second season

also, did anyone notice in the season premiere how Serena borrowed Dan's copy of Nylon Magazine? soo hilariously appropriate product placement. Hey, they're a pretty cool, hipster fashion mag, and they cover other things too. like a certain time-traveling island show.
I totally bought the issue with Leighton Meester on the cover. Seriously, back in May, I saw it on a rack, and I grabbed it right away.

Finally...
Has the Large Hadron Collider Destroyed the World Yet?
and,
Karl Lagerfeld: Still not a ninja. For now..
GASP WHAT IF THESE TWO LINKS ARE RELATED

Saw The Dark Knight. Overall good stuff, not perfect but not bad at all.
No spoilers in the comments for this post, please. But THE PENCIL.

lol when we were getting back to the car, a guy going past the cars facing us did a double-take on my Batman shirt. He kept on trying to covertly look at the yellow Bat-sign, like it was glowing in the night or something. haa

I like it when little boys see my Batman shirt and say, "Hey, it's Batman!" They don't mind the fact that I'm a girl or anything, just OOH BATMAN. yay win

wow. I just realized that the last book I finished was titled Conquering Gotham. It's about the construction of the Penn St. train station in Gilded Age New York, though. I totally did not plan this.

- - -
Also finished Battlestar Galactica S3. MIND BLOWN, even knowing spoilers.

- - -
Members* of the MLS team New England Revolution help subdue man on flight
*The manager, goalkeeper coach, and team director.

- - -
Finally, I used the icon above in replying to never_evil's post about Dr. Horrible.
She suggested a Dr. Horrible collaboration with The Master.

sounds great.

news
Store shooting in Chicago, 5 dead
Chad rebels fight government force in capital

TV
HEY COLBERT, CONAN SAVED ABRAHAM LINCOLN!
via subtle__sarcasm: The Underrated of 2007.
ooh, it includes Angela Kinsey (The Office), C.S. Lee (Tang on Chuck), Jack McBrayer (THE BEST PAGE EVER on 30 Rock), Orbit (Digby on Pushing Daisies), and Ed Westwick (Chuck Bass)

music
Lots of good bands to play at Coachella.

Back on January 14, Spinner posted this music video: "Ready for the Floor" - Hot Chip. The song's just alright, but the video itself is really interesting. They've borrowed a bit of a colorful '60's look, and there's a Joker character with Two-Face split and Riddleresque shenanigans. This was released before Heath Ledger's death; I don't know if the Joker imagery has affected airings of the video.

movies (most links from cleolinda)
Meanwhile, Sean Penn, Christian Bale, and Jake Gyllenhaal have offered to help finish Ledger's last film, Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. Johnny Depp has alread taken over the role, but this is nice.
Heath’s character falls into a magic mirror four times during the film. It allows Terry to change the actor easily if he wants to.

As for The Dark Knight, the advertising people have put a memorial on the main site, while slowly turning over the marketing focus to the Harvey Dent/Two Face character, played by Aaron Eckhart.

The Rotten Tomatoes Awards came out a few weeks ago. They added up all the critics' percentages and arranged the movies by release and by genre, which is nice.
Check out the winners of "best wide release": Zodiac, Enchanted, Gone Baby Gone, Knocked Up, Juno, Hairspray, Sicko, The Bourne Ultimatum, No Country for Old Men, Ratatouille.
Of those, I've only seen Zodiac, but I really want to watch Ratatouille.
Once topped the Limited Release category.
Dude, James McAvoy was in 3 of the 5 top Romance films. There was an interview with him in Parade, and he said that he and his wife together don't make enough money to live in London's West End or Chelsea. (They live in North London.) Sheesh, how much money does it take?
Back to Rotten Tomatoes. The movie I want to see most, out of all the genre films: The Host. It's a well-reviewed Korean movie about a sea monster. The visual effects were done by a small but respected San Francisco studio, and the film was released many months before Cloverfield.

Whether you liked, disliked, or vomited through Cloverfield, check out this parody: Watching Cloverfield. And in case you missed it, there was a nice little hidden surprise in the last shot. Also, there are spoiler macros.

we end with cute
Finally, padfootie is so right - Knut's baby sister Flocke does sound like a car with starting problems.

After reading various comments and posts, I’m less distraught over Arsenal’s 0-0 game. We’re only 1 point from the lead, after all, and that’s great. We’ve got a more-or-less solid team, and as Johnny Rotten said, “Those boys are doing something fantastic.” (Really, talking about Arsenal was the only time Mr. Rotten seemed lucid in his odd, seemingly drunk talk at a Guitar Hero III launch thing my brother showed me. Oh, and Johnny ranted against Spurs.)
In the world today. 78 feared dead in Indonesian landslides, tiger makes deadly escape at San Francisco Zoo (humans to blame?), retailers hope for post-Christmas lift to slightly disappointing holiday shopping season, and (via a letter in officialgaiman) The Library of Congress is now classifying Scottish authors and works under “English literature.” Boo. LoC FTL.

Oh my gosh. My Filipino friends, there are clap-on parols.

On Friday I was supposed to meet with a friend in Berkeley, but she couldn't make it and so I just spent the day doing Christmas shopping. At Comic Relief, they didn't have the Buffy issue my mom needed, so I just bought the Gaiman/McKean book The Day I Traded my Dad for Two Goldfish for my dad and an Astro City issue for me. At Gamestop I got a $10 gift certificate for my brother, and put it inside the nifty little Xbox 360 gift card holders. Walked over to check out Amoeba. In the bargain bins I found a CD my brother really wanted...for only $1.98. waaah! ooh the spending possibilities... Too bad I couldn't get the $7.99 2 CD set of Benjamin Biolay. (What! I first heard about him while watching a report on his sister, Coralie Clement. He has a cool voice. -hides-) I did buy an Os Mutantes CD for $8.99, though. It's the same one I've already heard a million times...but the other ones were more expensive. Even copies of the same CD were more expensive. Hey, I found a deal! I need to go back there again. Amoeba has some great deals, if you take the time to look.

Now, at JC Penney, there was a bear that caught my eye one day. I mentioned it here as one that displayed true sadness. Well, a month ago, I saw it again. I dragged it all around the store with me, but had to put it away because we weren't buying anything else, and the lines were long.
On Sunday, while Christmas shopping with my family, I found the bear again. The price tag was gone, and some seams were roughed up, but it was still the same bear. It was $0.97 now, and I used another bear of the same model as a price comparison. But this one looked distinctly different from the others of its model. My brother became obsessed with it too- to this day he keeps on asking me to look at it. It usually makes him laugh, though. Hmph! The bear's name is Snowflake Sparkles.

That day, I also found nice clothes for Christmas (in my family, my brother and I HAVE to get new Christmas clothes. No matter what. We still use them afterwards, though.). I got a platinum blouse, with light metallic thread woven in tastefully. Then I FINALLY found a nice, long skirt that fit me. It was dark gray and had a faint herringbone weave. My mom said such a long skirt demanded boots. Knee-high leather boots. yeah. I was surprised. So now I have shiny black leather boots that go up to my knees. Even my grandma said they were nice.

Christmas was fun. After church, we went back home to prepare food for the party we were going to. While my parents were cooking, I felt like watching something Christmassy. So I put in a Doctor Who S1 DVD and watched the backstage scenes of "The Christmas Invasions." Hee, David Tennant's real accent. Then my mom asked me to help with gift-wrapping.
We then went to the house of our family friends. Tons of people were there: all my parents' friends and their kids that are like my cousins, some of their relatives and friends...lots of people. The little 4-year-old girl B was so cute. "Santa gave us guns!" Nerf guns, dear. She also flashed us her panties, and told an 8 year old that he wasn't old enough to play Guitar Hero. This was while she was holding the guitar controller, trying to play. Lots of fun, that girl. XD
We played Guitar Hero III and Halo 3 in their garage, with food and foosball breaks. It got cold, and my feet froze in my tights, extra-thin socks, and boots. But I enjoyed rockin' out when I could on Guitar Hero (and helped teach one uncle there. "You push the colors. And then you strum that thing."). And while I'm still not great at Halo multiplayer- I think 9 kills was my highest- I was still the sneakiest person in Capture the Flag mode. That led to some great stories and laughs...And my username was BATMAN. It was one of the names already there, but how could I not be Batman?

Oh, and my gifts: Lost S3, the Heroes graphic novel, and a bunch of stationery. And a Subway gift card. And some candy. I don't eat that much candy, though (too much gives me a headache, and my tongue has grown discriminating) so I'll just let the rest of my family have at it. Buying and researching real good chocolate has destroyed my taste for Dove and Hershey's and even Godiva and Lindt. Better to save up and wait for true quality than get quantity at a discount. Or mass-marketed "luxury," in Godiva's case. Their fillings are alright, but the actual chocolate is kind of waxy to me - good texture, little flavor. [/chocolate snobbery]

Wow, this long post is mostly happy. I feel kind of guilty, for some reason.

ETA. Oh, and my gift to Mom: Godiva. Because she still likes the stuff.