fun in 7-11: bot water
Mood:  cool
Topic: Hmmm?

 

So, 7-11 is becoming more and more interesting.  Not only do they have sangria and tamarind sodas, they have domokun and these weirdo Bot Waters.  I haven't been all that big on flavor spiked waters because most of them trade on being calorie free and achieve it by using fake sugars--which are most definitely not my bag.  Bot water uses real stuff, and keeps the calorie count low.  The orange was tastey--kind of like gatorade.  These would be great for all those freaky people who can't stand the taste of plane water, seriously.   

Carefree -- excuse me, what?
Mood:  bright
Topic: Ignore me please

There was a time when black and white movies bothered me for no other reason than being devoid of color.  I felt horrible about it because I knew there were some awesome stories out there that I was missing out on because of my strange aversion to black and white.  I have since gotten over that and, with the help of TCM, have been plumbing the depths of film history to find all the gems that I was born too late to catch -- be they black and white or color. 

It's hard to grow up when I did and not know of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, but I realized a while back that I hadn't actually seen very many of their movies.  Enter Carefree, the story of a desperate man who talks his psychiatrist friend into analyzing his girl to figure out why she won't marry him.  

Carefree is yet another old movie starring well known screen legends that  steps merrily over the line of what is good and what is just plain WRONG!  I worry about all of Dr. Tony Flagg's (Fred Astaire) patients.  Not only does he make chauvinistic and stereotypical prejudgments but he does it on a tape machine that he leaves in his office with un-attended patients.  Not only does he use local anesthetics to put patients in dream like states he leaves them un-attended so that they might wander out of the building unsupervised and trot through traffic with the goal of shattering glass on a transport truck.  And even though he seems to being doing his best to romance his patient outside of the office with the precept that it is for her treatment, he doesn't realize that he has fallen just as in love with her as she him.

This brings us to the greatest psychiatric insult in the film--blatant and idiotic hypnotic suggestion.  Although I have read that it's not all that unusual for patients to fall in love with their doctors--called transference, I think--I have never had offered to me the solution of simply implanting an assertion of hate into a patients brain to compensate for their love.  I was aghast.  I was agog.  I was befuddled.  I was watching as, all of a sudden, the psychiatrist who didn't know himself finally realizes that he reciprocates the love of the patient he just hypno-suggested his way out of.  Bring on the crazy antics to get her unconscious once again so that he may remove his meddling.

I can't say any more.  I am at a loss.  This was worse than revisiting all those Elvis movies and discovering how often he played a complete jerk.  But it wasn't quite as bad as Fred Astaire in blackface.

IRONY
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Hmmm?

Neatorama has a neat little post on Words that Changed Their Meanings.  Of course I was especially interested in the treatment given to irony.  Having grown up with teachers whose proclivities for uber correct language had shades of Mrs. Tingle, I have had it drilled into me what irony is not, but never explained to me what irony is.  As a result I steer clear of the word at all costs.  So of course, I had never heard of definition number one, but I'm sure I have done it a few times.

IRONY:

1: a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the other's false conceptions conspicuous by adroit questioning —called also Socratic irony

2 a: the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning b: a usually humorous or sardonic literary style or form characterized by irony c: an ironic expression or utterance3 a (1): incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result (2): an event or result marked by such incongruity b: incongruity between a situation developed in a drama and the accompanying words or actions that is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play —called also dramatic irony tragic irony (Meriam-Websters)

Takato Yamamoto
Mood:  bright
Topic: Oh So Shiny

 

Googling Takato Yamamoto will result in a slew of blog posts and flickr collections.  Seems a lot of people already know about this amazing artist, but nobody thought to tell me...  Somehow the serene expressions of many of the subjects suggests to me that their being mired/contorted/picked to pieces is somehow a private indulgence that I have just walked in on uninvited.  These works are fascinating, gruesome, and beautiful.  I would like to see much much more.  More than this at the Mondo Bizzarro Gallery.   

Borba skin balancing water
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: "Milk Cocoa" - Spoon Tap
Topic: Hmmm?

So, I was at 7-11 this morning getting some coffee and sunflower seeds when I saw Borba skin balance water.  I'm kind of a sucker for vitamin enrichment--its a kind of healthy washing, I know, like the green washing that's been running rampant around slightly guilty, lazy environmentalists.  

I picked up the acai berry, Age defying, potion which is 0 calories and high in antioxidant vitamins C & E.  I went with acai berry because I already knew I liked the taste and, honestly, the Borba take on it is pretty good (more on that below).   

You can find more on the flavors and line of drinks on the Borba Blog.  I did manage to pick up the squarish new packaging and, though I don't know what I'll do with the cuppy thingy--it is eye catching.  Perhaps the cup is there to remind you that there are actually 2 servings per container?

Oh, yes, and there are some beautiful nude desktop wallpapers under the downloads link on the Borba skin balance water site--if you like naked model bodies in sultry lighting.

Now, ON TO THE TASTING!

1st sip -- hit with the blaring taste of sucralose.  I'm probably hyper sensitive to this--I mean it is the 9th listed ingredient, but I've had a lot of issues with artificial sweeteners, drink a lot of plain water, and don't even sweeten my tea/coffee. I know I am a minority in beverage consumption and so won't even go on a rant about why-must-everything-be-sweetened here.

more sips -- the more sips, the less I notice the sucralose except for a slight after taste at the roof of my mouth.  I do, however, feel as though I have put on lip gloss--the slightly sticky kind.  It tastes right in line with the acai berry juices I have had before--though less strong.  It is a bit thicker than water and the packaging suggests shaking to mix in the sediment.

I do not yet notice any change in my complection , but I could be experiencing a, possibly imagined, B vitamin boost.  YEAH!  Over-all, Borba skin balance water tastes more healthy than say Vitamin water, and gives my palat a little something different from plain old filtered water.  My lips still feel like I glossed, but its not a bad feeling. 

Life size Gundam in Japan
Mood:  cool
Topic: Futurism

 So, way back in 2008 the story  "Gundam cartoon academy to turn fiction into reality in Japan" was making its way around the web.  The first whisperings of real gigantic human piloted robots is the mostly imobile and just for show Giant Gundam that is currently in Japan (on Danny Choo).  

Richard of Doomed Moviethon on the Daily Turniquet
Mood:  chillin'
Topic: Seriously

Food Party!
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Oh So Shiny

So, even though I was already acquainted with and a fan of Thu Tran's Food Party, I still managed to miss the first two episodes on IFC.  I was even warned about it premiering ahead of time on Serious Eats.  How could this possibly happen?  What could possibly be wrong with me?  Am I so preoccupied and harried that, not only am I not blogging, writing, web building, crafting, I can't even catch a show on TV--or set my DVR to record?  Will we ever know the answers to these questions?  

Much better than trying to figure out, is to bury yourself in the Food Party that's already out there and waiting for you while you wait for the next episode on Tuesday. 

 

 

Don't scientists watch animated movies? Do they not know what they're getting into?
Mood:  happy
Topic: Futurism

 

Being the nerd that I am, when I read the story about  Mice engineered with gene for human speech(io9) I immediately thought of The Secret of Nimh.  If I am remembering correctly The Secret of Nimh revolved around a group of mice and rats who had escaped their lab imprisonment where they were made extra smart and given the capacity for speech and planning as they battled each other over the rats' idea that humans should be taken out.  

So scientists today have engineered transgenetic mice with the gene for human speech.  They have made the first step in a chain of events that is going to take away Mrs. Brisby's home and put her children in danger!  Not to mention that if the outnumbered and well meaning among the small animal world don't succeed, the rat's are going to rise up, steal our electricity and murder us all!  How can we let some lab coat buffoons put us all in danger like this without censuring them?  Is anyone keeping tabs on these crazy scientific advancements?

 

Previously:

Anime beats real life again

Sci Fi Movie Reality

What anime hath fortold

Electronic Face Masks and Animated Prophesy

I love me some futuristic architecture

Successful Arm Transplants and a Murderers Hands

Lasers in the Sky:  life from the movies

 

This is the comic that I built
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: Ignore me please

Allow me to introduce you to Levi Levi.  He is a private detective, but really he'll do just about any odd job and if you throw him something he won't do, he'll find you the guy/girl who will. 

Levi has been hanging around in my head and sketch book for a little while waiting for his chance to provide me some respite from the very long comic project I've been working on.  His segments will be relatively brief and offer a world of variation.  For months now, and completely unlike me, I have been so focused on my extra long/involved project that I didn't need to use him, but it just so happens I felt the need last weekend and have a few pics and pages done already.  

I have given him his own blog/rss feed thingy because it was the easiest way to present a page with those neat previous/next entry links without having to create pages from scratch.   I'm thinking I will post new pages for him here too when I get them in, but I'm not resolved on how I'm going to do it.

I'm actually kind of nervous.  Though I bought into the free website fad long long ago and eventually started renting ad free space and a domain for my artwork and craftiness and ever expanding list of projects and ideas, this one feels completely new and unexplored.  Hope you like it in any case.

Another Cinderella Story: almost an awesome teen movie
Mood:  happy
Topic: Oh So Shiny

The DVR is both a blessing and a curse for me.  It allows me to catch shows I am genuinely interested in without having to chain myself to the TV.  It enables me to program my own viewing even more than I did when I would routinely put in a movie to avoid TV programming.  And it helps me catch shows and movies that I would have never seen because my passing curiosity was never enough for me to try and catch it when it aired.  Warner Bros.  Another Cinderella Story is one such movie.  I would have never seen this without a DVR.  That said, I do like a lot of teen movies.  I'm not really sure why I do, and I don't like all of them, but.....you get it, right?  

I pushed play on a lark late one night to peruse the thing and see if it had anything to offer.  And once Katharine Isabelle and Emily Perkins from Ginger Snaps appeared on the screen, I was committed to the rest of the movie.  I first became acquainted with Isabelle and Perkins from the Ginger Snaps movies.  Werewolves, more than vampires I think, have a cheezy and unfortunate movie history.  Ginger Snaps got it right for me.  Not to say that there isn't enough fuel in the three movies for some robust geek debates, but I was satisfied, and entertained, and happy.  And I was even more happy to see the two actresses who played the sisters in Ginger Snaps playing the evil pseudo step sisters in Another Cinderella Story.  If they were only given more time on screen!  

Unfortunately their parts didn't even have the meat of the adversary role in the film and they primarily occupied a comedy relief position in a movie that was kind of comedy all over.   The rest of the film was kind of cookie cutter, pretty teen drama, with the added bonus of semi-musical, attitude-heavy dance routines.

Anyway.....'sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters.  never had to have a chaperon no sir.  I'm here to keep my eye on her......'

Sweet Charity
Mood:  cool
Topic: Seriously

If The Music Man is a clever, albeit doily covered, soda shop/tea room of great musicals then Sweet Charity is a smokey, red-velvet covered after-hours club.  

I have to admit, before I met my husband, I knew very little about the crazy creative force that was Bob Fosse.  I knew what I liked, but it never occured to me to dig into it and rip from its bowels what would be the shared essence of other things, similar things, I might like just as much.  I was a late bloomer musically too--about the only creative product I was completely up on until college was visual art.

Knowing a little more, now, about the personalities that mold any one creation, its easy for me to see that Sweet Charity reeks of Bob Fosse's sweat, and genius, and insanity, and it is lovely for it.   I'm not big on heavy video posts, but I cannot help myself here.  I'd rather watch these than continue to rattle on about it, so that's what you get to do too. 

 

Sammy Davis Jr. and the "Rythm of Life"

My favorite number -- "Big Spender"

"Rich Man's Frug"

"There's got to be something better than this"

 

Bento Beat Box
Mood:  bright
Now Playing: The Blue Hearts
Topic: Oh So Shiny

 

Every morning I turn on the TV while I'm getting ready.  First for the Weather channel (which is really unneccissary in Summer as every day is exaclty the same!) and then to a music video channel.  I can't say why I started TV-ing my mornings, I'm not all that addicted to the box; and I remember, long ago, I used to wake up with a stereo and music.  Anyway, the music video channels have become my only link to popular music in my radio-less existence.  I am far too used to finding stuff online now and have developed a strange and exclusionary music persona.  While I like discovering the random Ting Tings' "That's Not My Name" and Honey Honey's "Little Toy Gun,"  there is only so much Theory of a Dead Man, and 'lil Wayne I can take (no offense--just personal taste).  Well, wouldn't you know it, my incomplete salvation was at hand!  Hiding in a free-on-demand channel in my digital cable was Bento Beat Box on Anime Network.  This half hour show is like a mini music video channel for Japanese Rock brought to you by JRock Revolution. 

So, ah, I'm not going to say that Rock in Japan isn't just more of the same done different--music 's like that all over the globe, but the fact that it is done different is refreshing in its own right.  I'm also not going to say that it's not necissary at all to understand the lyrics in order to get all you can out of a song 'cause there is a lot of beautiful poetry in music, but really there are several popular songs supposedly in English that no one understands.  I am going to say that even people without my strange and exclusionary musical persona could really enjoy the show.  And now that I said all that I'm gonna whine, because I don't actually get the Anime Network as a channel and I really want to, and my free-on-demand doesn't update but once a month so I only have access to one measly episode.  For those of you without my particular obstacles--go and discover some music, boost its ratings and all!

Noises Off
Mood:  chatty
Topic: Seriously

There are movies in my collection that are both so good and so not mentally taxing that I can run to them every time TV programming pisses me off.  This is a lot.  And so, these movies get watched a lot--and that's how good they are, as I never get tired of them.  One such is Noises Off!.  It is the story of the stage production of something called "Nothing On," which is full of sardines and telephones and doors.  My only ever roomate, ex-roomate, wonderful friend can't stand this movie because she said it was too spot on (or something like that, she'll probably deny everything).  I've never worked in theater myself, so I couldn't say though I have worked in artist spaces--which are just as flaky--and been in the small and buzzing enclosed spaces of a working theater production, so.....The characters in Noises Off! are the amalgamated caricatures of theater.  At least I hope they are amalgamated caricatures, and amplified.  It would be like walking around in a cartoon if one were surrounded by people like this.  Walking around in a cartoon might seem cool at first, but I have a feeling it would drive everyone to lunacy(like Who Framed Roger Rabbit right?)--that's why cartoons are so fun to watch and not live.  That's why Noises Off! is so much fun to watch.

A few random, closing thoughts:  I wish Christopher Reeves had done more comedy.  Carol Burnett is and always will be the bomb.  I miss John Ritter.

Bavadoom at Doomed Moviethon
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Seriously

 

After gallons of work and heartache (I know, I watched) the much asked after Bavadoom is complete and offered up spread-eagled like on that paramount of horror movie obsession sites:  DoomedMoviethon.com.  From the Cinema Somnambulist (child and successor of DoomedMovieBlog):

"The moviethon consisted of 17 Mario Bava films watched in a little under 54 hours. While it was not as insane as Argentophobia and it wasn't nearly as drunken as Doomed Fulci-thon, my Mario Bava moviethon was a whole hell of a lot of fun."