chrryblssmninja

I was going to continue with my practice of setting 101 goals for the new year, but then I can't remember if I clicked "revert to previous draft" when I opened this page or not, so, my goal for the year is...accomplish something.

I did write about my media highlights and favorite music of 2015.

Goals actually accomplished in 2015:

• I was able to show whomp around San Francisco, and I also reconnected with many relatives on both sides of my family! I'm a really social person, and it was great to see and talk with them.


• With the family, I returned to Las Vegas and Puerto Rico. New places we visited included Yosemite and Mammoth, other towns in Gold Country, Also did more local tourism, including the Renaissance Fair at Casa de Fruta. All the hyperlinks in this paragraph link to pictures!


• I did get to speak Spanish more, especially in Puerto Rico, and I used Japanese a little at work (although, when one customer asked me a question in Japanese, I answered in Spanish. I corrected myself and she was fine with it, but yeah). I even had a simple conversation in Norwegian! Although I can't say more because we can't post about specific customers on the internet. Even a few phrases of Tagalog helped once. I am now on over 80 days of practicing Gaeilge and Norsk on Duolingo.


• Finally visited New People when we went to a festival in Japantown. My mom bought me this Omocat sweater...partly because I forgot to wear warm enough clothing for that windy day...


• I did start lifting 20-pound free weights, and while I didn't get to 25-pound, I did move from 10 reps to 15 reps over the course of the year.


• I bought some nice and often useful clothes (many via work discount), as well as 2 CDs, nice yearly agendas (classic art for 2015, and a slim Star Wars one with Rey and BB-8 on the cover for 2016 through 2017), and the Universal classic Horror DVD set. Also received a new photo camera and mini-tripod prior to our Las Vegas trip.


• I did read at least one book from every continent except Antarctica, but I think that's less of a feat because diverse selection is pretty much my general taste when I go to the libraries here. Also read five non-fiction books, as well as five books published in 2015. Now I want to read more from before 1900.

I think I'll just dump my list of TV watched from October through December here. So much I still have to catch up on...
( the episodes )

( TV episodes watched from January through March, with some comments )

JANUARY - MARCH MEDIA RECAP

Fringe, Being Human UK, and The Lizzie Bennet Diaries ended.
Shows I started and continued to watch: Utopia, Les revenants, In the Flesh.
I also plan on watching all the rest of Peter Gunn on Hulu in the future.

The only movie I saw from 2013 was Something Necessary, a pretty good Kenyan movie that MUBI streamed for free on the day of the Kenyan elections..
Movies I gave the highest ratings to on this year's movies-watched list:
The Saragossa Manuscript (now I want to watch more stories within stories movies), Chungking Express (finally watched it!), Fists in the Pocket (I pugni in tasca), and the entire trilogy experience of The Human Condition (Ningen no joken)
Favorite viewing surprises: Paranorman, La main du diable, A Matter of Taste (Une affaire de goût), Miss Minoes
ok not really a surprise since I'm a fan of Johnnie To's work already yet the choreography of lighting and movement in Throw Down deserves a mention
Faces added to my to-watch list:
Hideko Takamine, Rachel Mwanza, Pierce Gagnon
Funniest moments:
the dinner scene in Vulgaria
the proposed graveyard scene from Seven Psychopaths
when the titular character gets a gun in The Gingerdead Man

Favorite books read so far this year:
Historia universal de la infamia, Jorge Luis Borges
A Monster Calls, Patrick Ness
Works that I can imagine as a good (or better) film or TV adaptation:
Esi Edugyan's Half-Blood Blues. Jazz musicians of African descent stuck in Berlin and occupied Paris in WWII. At least it wouldn't shift more focus towards the white characters like what I saw of Dancing on the Edge.
Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination (Tiger! Tiger!), in a way that would get the epic sci-fi look and themes right, treat the problematic aspects as problematic, and not gloss over the character flaws and twisted relationships.
Dashiell Hammett's The Glass Key, in a modern (though not modern day-set) adaptation that would include the book's meditative aspects, without being slow for the sake of self-importance.
John Ajvide Lindqvist's Little Star. Probably best as a miniseries.
Favorite short stories read:
"Four Rajeshes" and "Bibhutibhushan Mallik's Final Storyboard", by Rajesh Parameswaran
"Nights Can Turn Cool in Viborra", by Charles Portis

The only new music I've played on repeat so far: various selections from Cristobal Tapia de Veer's soundtrack for Utopia.

I've missed so many birthdays!

Happy belated birthday to subtle__sarcasm, and Happy Birthday to justbolognese!

Noirvember has taken over much of my free time. I even wrote a related book review here. Here is my "Criminal Chiaroscuro" list of movies. From my Noirvember watching, I especially enjoyed the Brit noirs They Made Me a Fugitive and Odd Man Out (James Mason with an Irish accent? whaaat). On the American side, I have a new addition to my favorite films:



Yeah the climax has similarities with one of my other favorite movies, High Noon (even the same director) but sheesh I was crying around the 2/3rds point at 4 AM- so late because it's tricky finding a link for this film.

Even the non-noir movies I watch in between noirs tend to stuck to the same '40's-'50's era. Maybe I don't feel like confronting a sustained movie-length version of the present right now.

I was also very addicted to playing Plants vs. Zombies until my recent discovery of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. Charlotte Lu is my favorite. Whoa boy do I eagerly await the next video on Thursday.

I did have a weird dream last night, ( probably due to playing Plants vs. Zombies before bed. )

I hope to post some cooking experiments in the next post.

In my dream, there were a lot of things, but I remember being in a house with family friends and Simon Pegg was there with some people too. We were going over some rules or something in a living room, because we were all sharing the same house. And then there were other things I barely remember, just that it was a brownstone in a city at night.
And then there was a part in a colorful place where I overheard a businessman talking about Taipei being basically tea places. I remember moving through some stores and then ordering hot rose tea at Tea Station.
Some more colorful places, a mall, a bunch of people suffocating themselves with rope and then turning into dolls with those circle eyes that move when you move the head. There was also a zombie-like virus and we had to be careful. I remember going into one clothing store with blumenfeuer and we couldn't close the opening to the store. One teenage girl walked in, and then another teenage girl walked in. We couldn't do anything until we were sure they did/didn't have the zombie virus. blumenfeuer went to talk with one girl in a couch and clothing display, and I tagged along to defend. The other girl sat on a nearby couch. One of the girls started acting weird, and then we had to chase her through the mall. I eventually found her on a desk of a police station crowded with shocked people. They said she wasn't a zombie, she was an extortionist. Who also killed people. Under a bunch of files and papers, I found that I had been too late. She had suffocated herself like the others, and I unwrapped yet another binding of rope to see yet another body turned into a small doll, with those globe eyes that moved as you moved it.

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.

Saw Star Trek. My mind wasn't blown, but it was still lots of fun. There needs to be an accent-off between Chekov and Scotty and that subtle Southern-ish thing Karl Urban did for McCoy.
oh, and someone needs to make a manip with Lost's Jack and Sawyer and Dan's notebook, with the text,"Damn it, Jim, I'm a doctor, not a physicist!"

yes, Lost is still on the brain, and I keep on spamming ontd_lost with more fake Lost songs.
more of the Lost dance musical can be found here and this tribute song for dead characters was inspired by the 30 Rock finale.
An example: In the comments for the first link, amarettosours and I were talking about West Side Story and how Mr. (Tom) Friendly could probaby only find love off-island. It resulted in this:
Guys are the best in Ame-ri-ca
Short or long-tressed in Ame-ri-ca
Rustle and rest in Ame-ri-ca
I only love in America

These Other males are all just straight
Great guys yet at times it does grate

that I'm the only one like me
in island soci-e-ty!

(chorus)

I SERIOUSLY DON'T KNOW WHERE ALL OF THIS IS COMING FROM

Went to Borders while doing errands some time afterwards, and when I saw a copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies I totally grabbed it and ran like new!movie!Chekov to bring it to my mom, who was already in line for the cashier. En route, I knocked over some books and had to stop to pick them up. yeah.

So now I own Pride and Prejudice and Zombies! I need to finish The Antigua Stamp (by Robert Graves, so good) and these other library books first, though. As well as those free audiobook files of Pride and Prejudice. I'm sort of half-listening to them, and I hope that experience gives me this dreamy confused nostalgia thing when I read the text altered in the zombie mashup novel.

via fannish5:
Name 5 dead characters you'd like to see resurrected.

really? now? hahahahaha.





Tweetmeme lets fake BBC "zombie swine flu" story go unchecked

phew, folks.

and now we continue

THE THIRD ANNUAL SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST MUSIC SPAM 2009

evaluations based on sample songs given.

artist/bands starting with C - De

favorites
Castledoor
aww so bright and peppy and twee but in a good way. from LA.
Coreysan
spacey yet cool reggae song from Taricqua, Trinidad and Tobago. I checked out more of his work at his Sonicbids site. I recommend listening to "Top of the Mountain;" the other songs have too much of an 80's MTV late-night feel too me. Really cool how he adds more electronic and rock flair to the usual cafe world music fluff.
Cyne
rap from Gainesville, Florida. Cool jazzy beat, and lightsabers are mentioned early in the song.
Designer Drugs
get your New York City horror-rave on with the track "Zombies!"

rock
Capsula
moody, dark, midtempo cool from Bilbao.
Dexter Romweber Duo
Chapel Hill, NC band with low-fi rock 'n roll sound

funky
Café Funquê
funk-lined jazzy rock from Rio de Janeiro
Codebreaker
kitschy electronic fun from Milwaukee

pop
Caracol
cute French pop from Montreal
Susanna Chouffel
there's something to this radio-friendly folksy alternative pop tune. From Austin.

hip-hop
Classified
very different down-tempo hip-hop, with soft-pop touches and bongos. From Enfield, NS
Common Market
rapper from Seattle.

r&b
Bart Davenport
r&b with hints of twee. Slow jam on a Sunday afternoon. Simple, similar to many songs, but something about it is special. From Berkeley.

electronic/dance
CLP
alright stuff from Berlin

folkish
The Devil Makes Three
Bluesy midtempo alt-country from Davis.

experimental
Delicious
avant-classical business. From Austin.

oddities
Chip Pope
just bizarre
Cosmopolitan
some lo-fi vocals with crazy electro Britrock feel and random metal screams. From Hermosillo, Mexico.
DD/MM/YYYY
avant-garde atmosphere in a whirlwind, hippie hipster vocals and guitars. From Toronto.
Delhi 2 Dublin
What the Vancouver band's name says. With some other sounds thrown in.

artists/bands starting with B can be found here
starting with A found here



---
unrelated: who was a dork and stayed up until 4:30 AM (with a nap from 11 ~ 1:30 ish) reading Henry James stories?
I was.
at least I didn't stay up late due to internet mucking-about or procrastining on homework

no one told me that the upcoming book/and maybe movie Pride and Prejudice and Zombies HAS MR. DARCY TEACHING THE BENNET SISTERS IN THE WAY OF THE NINJA
quote from the author:
“I hated her when I was forced to read Austen in school, but when I started re-reading I realised she was a brutal, but very funny, satirist,” he said.

“I can only aspire to be as mean-spirited as she could be.”

(link via cleolinda)

Happy Birthday, lessthan3stars!

I was walking to lunch a day ago and I spotted some fellow CalTV members filming. They needed people to interview. I volunteered. My mind was rushed and focused on food, so I was a little flustered, but fortunately, I had some props on hand.
see me starting at the 2:19 mark on this video

Basically, I pull an orange and a potato from my pocket and make them talk.




argh I am trying to finish application for Google summer internship

if I get the job, please do not direct complaints about company evilness to me I am lowly (possible) intern

but I hear they have the best cafeteria food, and it's all free

The commute I know already - I interned at NASA before (yeah, that NASA, haha) and that was in Mountain View too



I finally found Death Cab for Cutie's cover of "Earth Angel" from the Stubbs the Zombie video game soundtrack. I remember hearing it on the radio...I remember it being more atmospheric and haunting...or was that another indie cover of a similar '50's song...or maybe it was a live version...my memory is fuzzy...
still, this song is now stuck in my head. Or at least battling for headspace with that Katy Perry hot/cold song that is playing everywhere...please win, Death Cab, please win