ifeelbetter

In case there is anyone who, like me, did not know there was a cast album for David Tennant and Catherine Tate's Much Ado About Nothing, there is.

No, really:

In other news, I have a computer again. That means I have to honest-to-goodness work on my prospectus again. Which means that I am in a low-level panic at all times again. Only more so.

I'm just gonna go listen to David Tennant and Catherine Tate sing again.

So I still don't have a working computer....Connor, a.k.a. "baby's first macbook," gave out on me for the third time with a VERY expensive graphics card problem and we have had to part ways. I have a new macbook en route but have still had to spend the last few days in pre-personal computer mode. It's like travelling backwards in time, no joke.

Therefore, I did what any time-traveller worth their salt would do: I looked up how to Do Things and have proceeded to Do Them. Like making jam (not so successful) and butter (as hard as it sounds) and kefir (it seems too easy for me to have done it correctly).

And I've watched loads of TV. Suits is my new crack, no joke. And Franklin & Bash is a genuinely guilty pleasure-- I don't often feel guilty about my TV choices, but this one I do. I mean, could they be bigger sexist creeps? No, they really couldn't. But....I love them both. My heart, it is the torn.

Also re-watched Zen, Lewis, Marple, and Mrs Bradley. Goodness, but I do so love a British detective. I sort of adore Lewis at the moment.

So my laptop died again. It already died once this summer (and once a couple of months before that) and I spent a couple hundred dollars fixing it each time. I know I should just bite the bullet and buy a new one....but I would soooo much rather keep my old buddy. He's only three years old! Alas, poor Connor, I barely knew thee!

A friend of mine posted this on facebook:

It's National Book Week. The rules: Grab the closest book to you. Go to page 56. Copy the 5th sentence as your status. Don't mention the book. Post these rules as part of your status.

But, dudes, I am practically professionally obliged to have multiple books at my side at all times. So I picked five. Let's see if anyone can guess the books:

1. "Go home at once." (Clue: I only counted lines of dialogue, not stage directions. And the response is: "I know, mother. I came on purpose.")

2. "Fear not, fear not, thou wedding-guest!"

3. "You see she is yet young; you observe she possesses the ordinary form of childhood; God has graciously given her the shape that he has given to all of us; no signal deformity points her out as a marked character."

4. "Could Anne have forseen such a junction, she would have staid at home; but, from some feelings of interest and curiosity, she fancied now that it was too late to retract, and the whole six set forward in the direction chosen by the Miss Musgroves, who evidently considered the walk as under their guidance."

5. "Right. 'borrowed from Septimus Hodge.' Is it conceivable that the letters were in the book when Byron borrowed it?"

Any litterati in the house want to accept my challenge? I'll promise to do a favor anyone who guesses any. Your choice.

In other news, I have another bookshelf now. And not a moment too soon. That makes....five and a half. In my bedroom. -_-;;

Apparently a group of friends of mine has been making "biography" mixes--collections of songs that "defined" them when they were younger. I found out about it in the pool--where all great things happen MYGODITISSOHOT--and now I'm having trouble sleeping in the humidity of DEATH. So I'm pondering.

Meredith Brooks - Bitch
Savage Garden - I Want You
No Doubt - Underneath It All
Newsies - Carrying the Banner
Little Mermaid - Part of your World
Les Miserables - On My Own
Raggedy Ann and Andy - The Camel's Blues
Brandy - I Wanna Be Down
TLC - Waterfalls
Spice Girls - Wannabe
Mya - My Love is Like Whoa

Now, before you lose all respect for me....no, nevermind. Go ahead and lose the respect. I was just going to admit that I frequently quote that last one. If you were to, say, ask me how I felt about burgers, it wouldn't surprise anyone if I responded that my love was indeed like whoa. And--re:Savage Garden--"chick-a-cherry cola" is the bestest of best alliterations. You know it.

And anyone who doesn't know The Camel's Blues should change that IMMEDIATELY.

Anybody want to share songs that "defined" you in your youth (misspent or otherwise)?

I saw two films today. Because I am no longer a teenager, I did not theater-hop. I paid for both. I think this justifies my upcoming ~~rant~~ ~~tangent~~ digression.

I will just start by saying that my hopes were moderately high for one and abysmally low for the other. Both surprised me greatly.

( ....suuuuspense.... )

In other news, I'm almost done with my syllabus for next semester. Highlights include: Exit Through the Gift Shop, My Fair Lady, George Carlin's "Seven Words You Can't Say on Television," and an article from Vanity Fair. Yes, my reading lists are eclectic. They are definitely that.

Plus, I'm trying to draft a proposal for a course for Comp Lit in the winter more geared towards my actual area of expertise, 19th century Japan-related texts. I'm thinking I might propose a course based on travel narratives on the far east, a sort of "orientalism" in practice sort of thing. That's still in the works.

Last note: did anyone see this week's So You Think You Can Dance? If you didn't, check this shiz-nit out:

Did you see that jump at 1:17? Did you see that??

In case anyone was wondering where I had scamped off to, I have been very busy this past month. First, I went to a wedding in Minnesota. Then I flew to my beatific hometown of Jersey City to meet up with my dad so we could both fly to visit my sister's in-laws in Copenhagen and celebrate her and her husband's "cotton" anniversary. Now I'm temporarily back in Jersey for a few days before I finally return home later this week. There will be many pictures at that time--this is fair warning.

The realy impressive part is that I have been without my laptop this whole time. This entry is being written on my iPad which, while lovely, is not entirey as user-friendly as my tried-and-true buddy the laptop.

So I was on tumblr--because it turns out that, despite my earlier protestations that scrolling through images couldn't be that interesting or significantly different from lj, I'm completely hooked, like total-junkie-hooked---and I had an incredibly pathetic moment of personal tragedy.

I saw this. I'm not so much "in the know" or whatever about memes....so I conveniently missed all the information that this is not in fact a real thing. I missed that vital piece of information because I had fallen out of my chair and was convulsing with glee around the room. (I say "convulsing with glee" because I have been informed by numerous roommates that my Celebration Dance is not-so-much-with-the-dancing-per-se.)

To be more clear: there's been a meme floating around tumblr where you get four actors/actresses names and a random song from your iTunes on shuffle and make a movie premise out of the results. This particular instance (that comes with a kickass, unreasonably-realistic promo poster) is for a film called It's Not Necessarily the Truth starring Ellie Kamper, Adam Scott, Maya Rudolph, and Jesse Eisenberg. Here's the summary:

It’s Not Necessarily the Truth (2012) — Lilly Calvin (Ellie Kemper) is a compulsive liar. After being fired from her plush job at the New York Times for making up quotes, sources, and entire interviews (shades of Shattered Glass), she moves to Washington D.C. to start over as a novelist and embrace the side of herself that needs to make up stories. Problem is, she still needs to live, work, and eat. Pressed for cash, she takes a job as a live-in nanny for White House speechwriter Wesley Reynolds (Adam Scott) and his unbelievably chic, put-together lobbyist wife Sloan (Maya Rudolph). Their daughter Madeleine (some adorable kid actor yet to be discovered, or… Pearl Anderson? Come on, you know Maya and Paul’s kids would be at least as adorable as the Apatow girls if you put ‘em in movies) is disarmingly smart, articulate, and knows more about her nanny’s sordid past than Lilly would care to have come out. Madeleine has Lilly over a barrel, and is reaping the rewards in the form of extra fruit roll-ups and later bedtimes — that is, until Lilly figures out that the Reynolds family is completely dysfunctional. Both Wesley and Sloan are having affairs with wealthy Republican senators, and neither want it to come out. As Lilly gets more and more tangled up in the Reynolds’ lives, she also finds herself in a messy almost-relationship with Ryan (Jesse Eisenberg), a disgraced Georgetown grad student who was kicked out of school weeks away from his master’s degree after being found guilty of major plagiarism. Let’s just say that little white lies have never been so complicated.

....the future needs this film. I'm just saying.

I literally spent forty minutes trying to convince myself that the fact I could find no mention of this film anywhere on the entire internet didn't mean it wasn't really going to happen. And then another hour (mostly skimming the hot mess that is Jaime Pressly's autobiography of the same name) trying to convince myself that it was a real book and so could someday be made into a real movie by those same four actors.

My feelings summed up:

So remember all that wedding hooopla I have been waffling about for months now? Well, it's nearly done! But I need some clothing choice help from y'all if you're willing.

( pick a dress, any dress )

[Poll #1752849]

Thanks, internet folk!

( in varying degrees of possibility of me actually buying/owning/ever being near the item in question... )
Yeah. That last one is 100% wishful thinking.

...because it is too hot to have thoughts.

Pick five of your favorite shows (in no particular order) and answer the following questions about them.

1. Parks and Recreation
2. Sports Night
3. Doctor Who
4. Hustle
5. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

( Questions and Answers ahead.... )

Well, that was fun.

WHY ISN'T THE HEATWAVE OVER YET. WHY.

Wallace Stevens: "Summer is like a perfection of thought."

William Carlos Williams: "In summer, the song sings itself."

Henry James: "Summer afternoon--summer afternoon...the two most beautiful words in the English language."

And yet, despite knowing such great thinkers feel this way about summer, I'm much more aligned with the Manny school of thought:

One of these days, I might just end up on some cars in the street, is all I'm saying.

I can't get myself to do anything. Not dissertation, not funtimes writing, not necessary household work, not grocery shopping....

Things I have been doing:
1) watching In Treatment. Makes me want therapy just for the helluvit.
2) re-watching Sports Night because I will always love Dan. I have this thing for characters named Dan/Danny. Especially written by Sorkin. IDEK.
3) I went on a mini-vacation with the family. We're about to go on the longer one to Denmark but I am temporarily back in my Real Adult Person home to do some "work" beforehand. Now if I could just get some actualfacts work done, that'd be aces.

If only it wasn't summer...I would have so much energy and will to accomplish shit if it wasn't summer!

So I may have mentioned that my brother-in-law is Danish? He and my sister married hurriedly two years ago because (a) my mother was dying and (b) he, the brother-in-law, needed a green card at some point. Because of the rush (and then the absurdities of proving to the government that your marriage is real love stuff and not an evil evil ploy to con the government out of...your happiness? I don't really know the logic there), my family has still not met his family. So we're rectifying that by taking a two week trip to Denmark (specifically Copenhagen) this summer.

Does anyone have any favorite haunts in Copenhagen by any chance?

Also...I recently inherited a bit of money from my grandfather--who I never realized was an actual!facts wealthy person during his life so this is all a bit surprising--and I was thinking of buying an iPad. Does anyone have one? Does anyone have Important Thoughts about them? I have to admit, I just feel this guttural, non-logical desire for Apple products. I don't even really know what one would use an iPad for, I just generally want it because it's shiny and newish.

♥ So. Um. I tend to be a bit...monomaniacal about new tv shows that I like. I can't be alone in this; this is the internet, for crissakes.* So I watched a couple of episodes of Parks and Recreation earlier this season and I could see it coming. "Oh boy," I said to myself, "you are gonna go mental for this show." But I postponed it. Mostly because I was too lazy to ~~download~~ "acquire" all the episodes.

Then I watched the entire three season run in two and a half days. I didn't do much sleeping. Or eating. Or....moving.

But it was soooooooooo good. I think this may be my favorite moment of television history:

"I'm like an elephant, OK, if I walk into a room, it's like, OK, he's in there."
"....ba-ba-booie."

The other funniest thing of EVER:

ALSO. I watched all of the things that Youtube had to offer after I got caught up--the withdrawal was fierce in this one--and I saw this interview with Adam Scott. I kind of want to walk hand-in-hand through romantic 80's romantic montages with him. And scrunch his face. Especially when he explains how easy it is to fall in love with Leslie Knope/Amy Poehler.

My withdrawal was not helped, bee-tee-dubs, by the fact that the finale was not, you know, finale-ish.

* Side note: turns out, no Rapture today. I woke up this morning and thought to myself--yeah, I wouldn't mind. It was pretty this morning. I was feeling good. I read a book about catching art thieves in a flowery glade for a couple of hours. Hell yes, I wouldn't mind the world ending on a note like that. Only it didn't. Bummer. Or. You know. The opposite of bummer.

♥ Also. Doctor Who. I was not fond of this episode. I think this series is a bit top heavy with two-parters for one thing. I don't think it helps that this is one of the sort of standard set pieces of the reboot Doctor Who catalog, the "oh, the philosophical dilemmas we've raised! now fight people lots!" trope. It's been done, is what I'm saying. It's not bad, it's just old. And you didn't need a two-parter for it. Who called second Doctor in the first five minutes? And the script wasn't up to the standards of this series--not in charm or crackle. It just seemed a bit....flat.

On the other hand, I was sort of waiting for an episode not to soar high above all others of its type from previous series (as the other four this season have done). It's nice to have the shoe actually drop. And there was no way to match last episode. It made me ship a box, for goodness sake. A box.

(1) I have issues with technology. So, to be clear: I am on my ten-year-old computer because my four-year-old one, the one that works....doesn't work. Not right now. And this one? It's a bit...sensitive. And prejudiced against new stuff like YouTube and sending e-mails. It actually turned itself off when I told my roommate that I missed the newer one.

(2) Doctor Who stole my heart, dipped it in rainbows and essence-of-adorbs, squashed it under a unicorn hoof, and gave it back to me.
( Learn more about my smushed heart under the cut )

(3) Hawaii Five-0, we need to have some words about that finale.
( As Jon Stewart would say, meet me at Camera 3. )

(4) I have seen. so. many. films. in the past week.
Super brief run-down:
♥ Hesher: JGL and Rainn Wilson are some sort of magic. I'm also not a Natalie Portman fan by nature--I am by practice, not nature--and she was fantastic also. I loved especially the way cliches of sentiment were raised and then twisted. If you watch the film, you'll see what I mean.
♥ Everything Must Go: If you've seen one of the (thousaaaaands) of trailers on TV recently or read the short story, you don't need to bother with the film. The film is good but uninspiring. It's a fine way to spend an afternoon but nothing to feel compelled to see.
♥ Cave of Forgotten Dreams: Honest to god, this is the best use I have ever seen for 3-D technology. It's like the damn thing has been suffering through children's films and schlock action movies for the past half-dozen years just to refine it for this purpose. That being said, I could have done with a lot less sentimental philosophizing. These are the images of a prehistoric civilization inventing art: it doesn't need sentimentalizing or philosophizing. It just is.
♥ Something Borrowed: Ginnifer Goodwin seems to have made a career of smiling through her tears. I am Not A Fan of victimhood-as-virtue for women, guys...or the assumption that women who think they are physically attractive or worth other people's time and respect are whores and villains. Not so fond of that either. I will say this for this film, though: unlike Sex and the City 2, which was so fundamentally badly constructed that it insulted the intelligence of us all, this movie was at least constructed. It had plot. It had characters. It had arch. It had no fart jokes.
♥ Thor: I LOVED IT. It is so nice to watch an action movie that passes to Bechdel test, for one thing. And Loki was doing a lot of acting. I love to see theater actors tear up a film like that--it was so apparent that Tom Hiddleston was an all-or-nothing kind of actor. No middle gears for that guy--and Hollywood doesn't always have room for actors like that. (Also--my sister said my younger-sibling issues were showing.)

I'm going to see Bridesmaids within the next couple of days. Feministing has declared that it is every good feminist's responsibility to prove to Hollywood that clever, mature, independent women exist and are legion and we will be the market for films if you just give us the credit we deserve. I can't give my two cents until I've seen it.

(5) Another year, another novel. :)
So I haven't been at liberty for the past two Novembers--grad school, my love, you do eat me up during the school year--so I have organized a small group of people to do our own Nanowrimo (or "Lo"nowrimo for "Local") in June. We did it last year--weeelll, I say "we." Only I finished. But we're trying again this year. If anyone wants to join, let me know!

That's all for me! My ancient computer hasn't shut down on me for a whole thirty minutes now, so I feel lucky. Peace!

Um, so apparently I had/have/am having a thread on the love meme (which has been awesomely organized?

So I'd like to deliver a message to the internet, which has almost always treated me well over the years. To the kind people of the internets:

Also, you make me do this in the innermost parts of my soul:

And now for more recs!
Because I feel I owe the internets some love after that biznas. Like...I would bake each one of you a banana bread (confession time: I had to take three tries at spelling "banana" right then, because Gwen Stefani got in my head and I just kept adding "na-na-na"s)...but that would be creepy because (a) none of you know me personally so it would actually be some random stranger showing up at your door with baked goods and y'all learned about stranger danger, I am sure and (b) I wouldn't know how to get the banana bread to you except for stuffing it into my own CD drive and that probably doesn't work...though I have been told that you can get into the internet through [significant pause] other means. But yeah. Recs.

Shelter!AU by harriet_vane
Up to part 12b as of just now
Have you not been reading this? Why, crazed individual? Not reading this is like...I don't even know. It's probably most like trolling petfinder.com in the middle of the night for pictures of kittens that desperately need adopting and then not adopting them because you are allergic. (<--TMI, my friend. T. M. I.) This fic is everything good. This fic is like snorting magic. Oh, but did you want plot? FINE. Jesse is a dishwasher, trying to make ends meet to take care of his sister, and Andrew is fantabulous and filthy rich and just as lovely as a box of girl scout cookies. GO READ IT NOW OR YOUR EYES WILL GO ON STRIKE.

Jurassic Park!AU by anonymous
Up to 13b
I almost didn't read this because--and this may be overloading your capacity for embaressing confessions about my geekdom for one entry but this is my ~~house~~ lj, right, so there, ok?--I was too scared to finish Jurassic Park when I was a kid and....I still haven't. Because I am a scaredy-cat. As my mother once called me, I am a yellow-livered sapsucker. No, I don't get it either. I think it might be some sort of tree. BUT. THIS FIC. THIS FIC. There's this bit where it turns out that Mark can't help but make dinosaurs that, like, want to cuddle Eduardo so much they die of un-cuddles if he's not there....and yes, I say. Me too.

Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks by anonymous
Up to 32 parts!
Eduardo loses his memory this time--I have this giant ol' sweet spot for that particular plot device--and ends up back in California with Chris, Dustin, and Mark. It's stunningly well written. Like--guys, I study words. I am drenched in text and I am trained to criticize it. And...this is just beautiful prose. If it was a food, this fic would be every single person's secret favorite dish. Like, not the one you admit to when asked--not the one you would ever think to call your favorite food. This would be the food that you reached for on the worst night of your life and eating it made life slightly better. That's how lovely this writing is.

OK, so I have the emotional memory of a goldfish, right--that's my preface to this entry. Or a warning. It could be more like a warning. ANYWAY.

But I never remember the RTD series being this good. I mean...last season was killer, yeah, and this two parter....I am still catching my breath. Like, literally. I was jumping up and down on the sofa. Just. OMG, yo.

( and now I waffle in specifics )

GOD, WHY IS THERE SO MUCH TIME BETWEEN WEEKS. COULD WE NOT MAKE THEM SHORTER, JUST FOR AS LONG AS DOCTOR WHO IS AIRING EPISODES? KTHX.

*this entry was brought to you by the caps lock key on your keyboard.

PS: I am now on tumblr. I am unsure of why I am on tumblr. But I am on tumblr.

BAM. Am I right, or am I right?

PS: Arthur + Defying Gravity = my happy place.

So. I have handed in my last paper (of all coursework of EVER...except for those courses I want to audit in the Fall), handed in my final grades for the semester, read my student evals from between my fingers in abject terror (personal favorite in this batch is "I think the instructor did a fine job teaching the course, but the course itself was created simply as a means of testing how strong a student's will to live is"), and am now officially footloose and fancy-free for summer.

If only the weather would join me in summer. Geez, Michigan. Catch up.

I am going to make a list of things I intend to do this summer. In the fall, I'll check back in and see how ~~much~~ little I accomplished.

· construct super-awesome syllabus for the fall
· learn to drive
· get license / permit
· crochet a hat
· knit roommate a scarf (that should have been done months ago)
· take ukulele lessons
· write a novel in June
· move occasionally in a vaguely athletic manner
· experiment with new recipes
· write Prospectus
· start first chapter of dis
· read all the things I only skimmed for prelims
· be outdoors more
· don't be misanthropic and/or emo when it's hot
· reject apathy

There. That should do it.

PS - I can't manage November NaNoWriMo so I do it in June with a bunch of friends. If anyone wants to join in, feel free!

Reading this book--which I did over the course of an afternoon--has been indescribable. I have never been hit with so many truths so solidly, so quickly. Whether you agree with her on the differences between "Western" and "Chinese" parenting (I don't) or her evaluation of either one (I still don't), this book is still the best articulation of a strand of existential angst that twines so intimately with familial love that it might as well all be one thing.

I wish my mother was still alive so she could read this book, honestly. I know for a fact her children broke her heart many times over--just as, glaringly obviously, Amy Chua's children have broken hers many times over. That much is clear--"clear," in fact, may be the under-statement of the century. But when she talks about her faith in her children's strength--and they prove her right every single time--there's some kind of recompense. I hope my mother would have said she felt the same. I hope we made up for the heartbreaks eventually.

It's also worth noting--or giving a warning about--the way cancer strikes their family. I have found it hard to bounce back from the stiff-upper-lip-ing it through that one attack, the one that killed my mother. It's been two years and sometimes I get these wells of sorrow still--I wish I had done that before, when she could still see it or She'd know what to do or something like that. Every description of a family dealing with cancer has seemed unutterably false to me. Every expression of sympathy has seemed wildly inaccurate. But this book...she got it right on the money. I'd say more on this topic...but I don't think I can. Read the book. She says it much better anyway.

As a final note, can I just stand up for second children for a minute? My sister was true to form: very diligent, very dedicated, very much on the side of the "virtuous circle" system. I am, despite an unruly childhood, her equal now. We're both on our ways to PhDs in English at prestigious Research One schools. In our family, it was the third child, the only boy, who bucked the system. In fact, I don't think middle kids rebel in anywhere near as vehement a way as youngest siblings.

So, a poll for your readerly pleasure (and my own curiosity):
[Poll #1732886]

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Recent Entries

Public service announcement

what I become withut a computer...

technology....can't live with it, can't live without it

"She reads a lot of books. Good things, books."

sounds of my youth

thoughts on movies

Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen!

Saddest fandom confession (today)

Help me, internet. You're my only hope.

Things I Want (but probably won't and shouldn't have)

a TV meme

I know summer is supposed to be fun....

On the offchance...

Ummm....Parks and Rec, where have you been all my life?

Things. Most make me go ARGH.

GUYS. WOT. + recs

DOCTOR WHO. WOT.

BEST THING EVER

Summer is a go (come on, get on board, weather!)

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother + thoughts on siblings