My real life put on screen: Glee

I totally sang "Endless Love" my senior year of high school as a duet with my friend Jordan for a choir concert.

Because friends listen to "Endless Love" in the dark.

Let's talk about my year in movies

I try to keep track of all the movies I see in a year that are new to me. This year's list is extremely lacking in new releases--I haven't seen a new film in a full price movie theater for months. I might get around to it later this week. But anyway, I watched a ton of older movies, catching myself up with pop culture. Here are standouts that I haven't written about: some of them lived up to the hype, others were disappointing.

Let's start with the disappointing:

Three Coins in the Fountain (1954)--A film about three single women in Italy and their search for husbands. My soul died a little when I realized how pre-feminist movement the whole film was. Everything from the old maid given a basket of cats to changing all your interests to match the ones of the man you want to catch. There was a lot of yelling involved on my part.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)--Lead-lined fridge in an atom bomb.

Annie Hall (1977)--I thought I liked neurotic, but this got tedious. I feel terrible for not liking this film.

American Beauty (1999)--Why was this such a huge deal? I didn't connect to it. It seems to be a bunch of ill-formed thoughts and story lines slapped on-screen.

A Beautiful Mind (2001)--Beyond mediocre filmmaking. I honestly stopped caring about the characters a half hour in. To be fair, I already knew the suprise twist, but still, mediocre.

Once (2006)--Much like You Got Served's dancers, these musicians shouldn't have tried to act. Good music though.

Casino (1995)--I know I've already expressed my rage. But seriously, top 250 on IMDb?

Let's talk about the good:

Seven Samurai (1954)/The Magnificent Seven (1960)--I saw these two on consecutive days which was probably one of the best ideas ever. While the original gets a little slow in parts, it's gives time to develop all the characters for such a simple story. Definitely lives up to its hype. And how fun/manly is The Magnificent Seven? Such a work of love of the original and is just about the most awesome thing ever.

Mostly Martha (2001)--I've never seen No Reservations, but I love this film. I have a thing for frigid/emotionally cut off female characters. I also have a thing for adorable quirky men (in this case Italian). It manages to both be dark and delightful and to incorporate a child without making me sick. Loved it.

Fearless (1993)--I didn't think I would like this film as much as I did, but put tragedy to slow motion and crescendoing strings and I'm yours. Also, I just love Isabella Rossellini.

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)--Crime fighting chicks are awesome. And Anthony Hopkins is perfectly creepy/alluring/genius.

Days of Heaven (1978)--This film is lovely. The cinematography in conjunction to the magic Ennio Morricone's use of Camille Saint-Saëns' "Le Carnaval des Animaux: Aquarium" is magical. While it's more of a series of vignettes than an actual narrative, it's transfixing and the one film I really like Richard Gere in.

All That Jazz (1979)--I love dance a lot, and I love to peak into the dancing world like this musical does. And despite the ridiculously long ending song, SeaQuest guy is great.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)--A movie that I kept thinking about afterward. Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet's relationship is so real and honest within such a gimmicky plot. Well done.

Persepolis (2007)--Animation that reminded me of Daria, but with an edge. I learned a lot about the Iranian revolution in the 70s and got to see an entertaining/heartbreaking female coming-of-age movie.

Like the corners of mind

Today as I was walking on campus I encountered a smell that took me back to high school.

In high school, I never ate the actual meals they offered in the cafeteria, but went to the student store which was run by students (in a certain class, I think). It was always overcrowded and busy, but it offered cheap a la carte food that I could afford on my $10 a week lunch allowance from my dad. By my senior year, the store actually had a roped line, but those years before, I honed my shoving-through-crowds skills so I could, not so much cut, but strategically get to the front faster. It was lunch-Darwinism, if you will.

The specific smell: pizza sticks and fresh baked cookies. It's an odd combination that's almost gross, but also comforting in a junk food sort of way. Pizza sticks are essentially a thinner and stretched out version of hot pockets. Also cheaper, and I bought them a least every other day with a bottle of chocolate milk. And those cookies, I cannot for the life of me remember the name of them, but they were never baked all the way through, making them that much more delicious. Although, for some reason, I had some sort of dietary conscience that prevented me from buying those cookies on a regular basis. Also, I was sort of broke and couldn't afford the sleeves of 3 for a dollar.

Anyway, the smell just made me want to get a pizza stick and a bottle of chocolate milk even though that was also kind of gross.

Happy Labor Day

In honor of graduating from college in a year and getting the day off work/school, I'd like to share some of my tender memories of high school jobs.

Job: Burgerville*
The first one I got when I was 16, the summer in between my Sophomore and Junior years of high school. I knew a couple of the people who worked there and they talked me up to get the job. Too bad I kind of sucked at it. In my 6 months there, I never got to move up the prestigious ranks from counter cashier/milkshake barista to drive-thru cashier. I was a little slow and never did manage to memorize the whole menu.

Also, half of the staff was pretty white trash and rude since they had worked there forever. Although, getting scolded by professional fast food workers for sucking takes the sting out of being an inefficient worker. I at least knew I'd get out of there someday.

Lesson learned: working fast food is kind of hard and it sucks. Also, be nice to fast food employees.


Job: Clark County Fair
I took a job at a booth at the Clark County Fair the summer I recovered from knee surgery. I wasn't able to work most of the summer since I had to gain back most of my leg muscles in rehab, so I worked a little bit over a week at a food booth at the fair. The foods I helped prepare and serve: bratwurst, hot dogs, corn dogs, french fries, and elephant ears. Basically, anything that, unless you're really really hungry, would probably make you throw up. I worked the closing shift 6pm-11pmish. I was always afraid I would get attacked by carnies or at least jumped by some of the classy folks you see at the fair.

My favorite memory is one night while driving home, my tire popped on the freeway. I had borrowed my dad's Subaru station wagon since it got better mileage than the Volvo I normally drove. Unfortunately, this meant I didn't know where the spare tire or tools were in the car**. Plus, I didn't have a cell phone. After searching the car and waiting for someone to stop for a while, I realized I was probably on my own on this one. I was probably about 5 miles from home, so I just decided to start walking. Fortunately, a woman and her daughter stopped to give me a ride. This seemed less sketchy than me walking all the way home by myself, and I took the offer and got home safely.

Lesson learned: Working late at night at a gross place is not fun. Also, cell phones are useful.

Job: Coldstone Creamery

I took this job the summer before I went to college. It wasn't bad. I usually worked closing, which prevented me from seeing my friends, but And even though I had to listen to Fall Out Boy's "Grand Theft Autumn/Where is Your Boy Tonight" 23423 times a night thanks to my shift manager, I mostly liked who I worked with. Plus, ice cream is the least disgusting fast food there is: you smell like sugary goodness instead of ketchup when you get home.

My favorite part was making cakes: 1) it was something to do since our store wasn't very busy, and 2) I didn't have to talk to customers. It required me to cut circular layers from premade cakes combine them with ice cream/fixin' layers. I was actually quite fast at this, so I was assigned this job most of the time. Mostly, I didn't suck at this job.

Lesson learned: ice cream is delicious, but not delicious enough to get a "Gotta have it" size.



*Fast food done with local, Pacific NW goods = way expensive fast food. Although those milkshakes are delicious.
**Answer: under the hood and under the carpet in the back, respectively.

Ramblings from home

I'm taking a week vacation to my hometown of Vancouver, WA. After a 12 hour trip from Utah to Washington, I have made it and am now chilling out my parents' basement, kickin' it high school style.

The highlight of the trip so far? Snapping beans!! I don't know if any of my faithful readers has had the great pleasure of snapping beans. It involves putting your hands into to freshly washed beans from the family garden, pulling out a pile, breaking off the ends and each piece into two or three pieces. Tons of fun.

Anyway, it's a part of my childhood and present-day self that is super Mormon. Nothing says food storage like snapping home-grown beans and canning them for years to come.

Fighting Evil by Moonlight: In remembrance of Sailor Moon

Sailor Moon was not my favorite character--she was too flighty--but her love story rocked.

I'll admit. I loved Sailor Moon as a kid*. My BFF at the time watched it, so of course I started watching it, too. I think it all started one sleepover when we woke up ridiculously early (like you always do at a sleepover), made some Eggo waffles, and watched some Sailor Moon.

Sailor Venus was the coolest and the most badass. She was vigilante before the group even formed.

I watched it on USA Network at 8 or 8:30 every morning the following summer. I even got my sister to watch it too, because that 's what family does: watch each other's TV shows. I also managed to watch it before school when my mom would drop me off at a neighbor's house on her way to work. It was on either right before or right after The Facts of Life and Gargoyles (other great shows). Another great aspect of my fandom was downloading and saving a ton of Sailor Moon pictures on our computer. This was when household internet was still sketchy and slow, but I would spend hours going through web rings, searching for the best pictures, mostly of the core 5 Sailors (Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus) and Tuxedo Mask.

Sailor Mars was never my favorite, but she was fiery. (Yeah, that was a pun on her powers).

I haven't watched it in years, but going through the wikipedia page tells me it was way more involved than I remember.

But let's break down what I remember and loved about the show:

• Girl evil-fighting squad. Girl power anyone?
  

Total tomboy. Totally likeable. Totally tough. Not really memorable.

• Each Sailor was given a different planet name, and, as we all know, space is awesome.
• The transformations scenes, though illogical, totally pretty.
• Secret identities = comedy gold!
• Secret identities = romantic obstacle gold!

Tuxedo Mask. Greatest. Identity. Ever. Plus he was a cute cartoon character. Mmm, Darien.

• Teen angst!
• School uniforms and short short skirts.
  
• Anime--the one show that I watched that was anime, and it was pretty.
  

Sailor Mercury was my favorite. She was the bookworm, but was a totally sassy superhero. Plus, I think I have her haircut now. Just less blue. And less poofy.

Anyway, I miss this show. It was girly, and fun, and fantastic. I mostly watched the first season (which, according to Wikipedia is 46 episodes long!) before the daughter from the future and the other planets show up, and destiny and past lives are discovered. But I have beautiful memories of the early days of Sailor Moon, when it was all good old fashioned teenage fun. 4th Grade was awesome.


*It's probably been 10 years since I've watched the show, so I think I legitimately call it "when I was a kid".

Remember that one time...

While watching the NBA finals this week, I tried to explain to a roommate the greatest thing the Portland Trail Blazers were ever involved in. Now I can just show her:



That's been stuck in my head since 1992. Thanks Dan Reed, U-Krew, and Z-100!