Soooo...originally this was going to be a blog post about how funny I thought the Oscars were but..people have kind of beat that subject over the head with a ridiculously large sized hammer. While myself and the three ladies I watched the Oscars with thought Seth MacFarlane was hilarious, handsome, and found ourselves pleasantly surprised that he can sing, I have read much that does not comment on any of our findings. I have lost count of the articles I have read about "boobs", stemming from the now notorious Seth MacFarlane spoof at the Oscars, and many more that attack his jokes as "sexist."
I will note that, as a host, I had really only known Seth MacFarlane from Family Guy and Ted. I loved Ted and I'm not so sure about Family Guy. But, watching the Oscars in Rhode Island, which showed a New interview with him after, I discovered that Seth went to RISd for College. It explains a lot when the campus burger joint, Albie's, has RI's own "The Drunken Clam" and his show's characters in an ocean mural on their wall. Doing some research after watching the News segment, I learned that he's a native New Englander and it's pretty cool that he spent college time here too. I also discovered a duet with Sara Barellis that I really like.
No, instead I will not spend this blog commenting on any of the massive cycling sexist/feminist/breastist articles, and instead comment on the finer moments of the evening. For example, the Sound of Music joke was hilarious. If you didn't watch the Oscars, you can see what I am talking about here. I apologize for the jauntiness of the video.
I rather liked the nominees. I found myself pleasantly predicting the Argo wins(really really loved this movie) and then discovered that there were still many movies that I had not seen. I never got to see Lincoln(I don't like Daniel Day-Lewis(no I'm not proud he beat Hugh Jackman for Best Actor)) or Zero Dark Thirty, for instance, but in those two instances I don't feel that I am missing anything. I do feel a missing piece from not seeing Django Unchained- while graphic, I do love me some Quentin Tarantino.
Jennifer Lawrence was stunning.
The performance from the Les Miserables took me right back to the moments I loved in the film. Chicago was fun too, but the stage was tres bon pour Les Miserables.
Overall, it was a great evening. A little clogged with commercials, but that was fine because my viewing party(as mentioned, four women) turned the event into a game. An adult game. The rules? If you predicted wrong, if someone bawls their eyes out, and when the "cut-your-speech" music starts up. Just to keep it simple. Can I just say that using the Jaws theme was brilliant? It was funny because we found ourselves cheering for the music, wondering what would surprise us next! We almost played by BuzzFeed's suggested rules, but we would have been on our bums after Seth MacFarlane's intro!
So, that's my review for the week. If you've been wondering where I have been, you can see a few videos on my YouTube page, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTKxQJ11LsE , but I hope to begin posting regularly now that my schedule has gone back to normal. Have a lovely rainy day!
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Happy Valentine's Day!
Hey everybody! So, it has been awhile and while I haven't necessarily been posting to my blog, I have been uploading to YouTube. Recently I made this , which was a video where I was asking Chris Kendall to be my Valentine. That didn't necessarily elicit a response as much as it ended in getting called a fangirl... So, I said eff him and moved onto making a different kind of Valentine video, which you can find here , for my friends and family back home. I talk about my experience during Nemo and how, in a weird twist of chance, I couldn't get to a PostOffice in time for Valentine's cards to be sent home!
I plan on finishing final edits for another video soon. Sort of chronicling my faces that I make in an average day. I do want to write blogs again for movie/TV reviews, but I haven't been able to watch any movies while at the Inn. I had no power Friday-Sunday and when I moved into the Inn Sunday-Today(Wednesday) I had some massive homework to catch up on. I do recommend watching recent episodes of HIMYM and catch yourself up on Castle because hot DAMN next week's two parter is going to KILL ME! Seriously, go watch a trailer!
Anyways, its back to work for me! Ttfn!
I plan on finishing final edits for another video soon. Sort of chronicling my faces that I make in an average day. I do want to write blogs again for movie/TV reviews, but I haven't been able to watch any movies while at the Inn. I had no power Friday-Sunday and when I moved into the Inn Sunday-Today(Wednesday) I had some massive homework to catch up on. I do recommend watching recent episodes of HIMYM and catch yourself up on Castle because hot DAMN next week's two parter is going to KILL ME! Seriously, go watch a trailer!
Anyways, its back to work for me! Ttfn!
Sunday, February 3, 2013
What I Have Been Watching
If you've been following along with my blog, then you know I am one busy graduate student. So, what does a 23 year old grad student do when they have time off? Let me try to answer that by telling you what I did this weekend.
Friday. After a long work week- 8hrs at Dunkin' and 13 at the CML- and a week of classes- three to be exact- I wanted nothing more than to chillax. Alas, the Student ALA was having their Welcome Back! party and, as the social media coordinator, I wanted to be there. We had pizza and Doritos and plenty of people came. I stayed until about 9-9:30, then I went home and read a bit of Cosmopolitan before I went to bed. A light read and a guilty pleasure.
Saturday I couldn't help but celebrate Groundhog's Day. After singing this a few times, I spent the entire day(9-4ish) doing homework. Okay, so that isn't free time. Free time happened at lunch, when I watched and episode of Chuck(my favorite show right now) and then began again when I played a few hours of Dragon Age. When my roommate got home, we settled in to watch Seven Psychopaths, which was freaking hilarious!, and, of course, Groundhog Day with Bill Murray. In between, we watched a few YouTube skits, including Chris Kendall and ZeFrank . Overall, comedy night was a grand success. I polished the night off by reading a few pages of Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, which I am avidly trying to finish before it's due date at the library...
Then Sunday. In the morning, I caught up on The Big Bang Theory, which was probably the funniest it has been in a few weeks, and a show on the CW which I won't name ^_^ I worked at Newport today, which went smoothly, and came home to watch Dark Shadows, which I hadn't seen since it was released this past summer. Director Tim Burton and Timbur Bekmambetov and script by one of my favorite authors, Seth Grahame-Smith. I think this Burton film is one of the best he has done in a few years.(I can really only think of Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter and Corpse Bride here, i.e. post 2000s.) While it does contain a lot of his usual traits, and by that I mean casting and music choice( on that, see this,) it's genuinely funny and it has a balance of quirky and cheezy, which is me all over. I'm a fan of vampires, I like the TV shows that came out of the 60s-70s for their strange content, and, oh yeah, I'm from Maine. While I haven't been to Colinsport, ME I take pride in its' usage just like I do in Storybrooke and Murder She Wrote. You should probably read this article if you have no idea what I am talking about or if you are asking yourself where/when these Maine references occur. Because they do.
On a separate note, I want to get more into the groove of blogging(working up to vlogging again) and, or that reason, I think I am going to do one weekly blog about a movie and/or TV show I watch during the week. In the rare occasion I finish a book that is not a textbook, I will post a review here as well. To start off this week, I have a hard choice between three movies I loved this weekend. Instead, what I will do is compare three elements that all worked for the way the film was shaped.
1) Comedic Timing. This is the first thing I think of when I look back at these films. Woody Harrelson, Christopher Walken, Johhny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Bill Murray and on and on. I think I've been quoting Seven Psychopaths since yesterday and I always try to do Bill Murray faces. If you share my sense of humor or have done acting/improv, I think you'll find something offered in all of these.
2) Musical arrangement. In Seven Psychopaths there was usage of French music and I am always looking to expand in contemporary french music. In Groundhog Day there was, of course, Sunny and Cher with Babe and the Pennsylvania Polka- which I really want to find out if that exists at the celebration because I would spend a Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, PA just to dance to it. For Dark Shadows, Danny Elfman is back. His arrangement of 70s music has inspired me to research music from1972-1973 on my own. I took his choices and found some of my own; this is one of those times that it is okay to answer a reference question using Wikipedia. Someone, god love them, they spent time organizing the largest events in music history for 1972(as well as many other years and decades) for people to view. Which I did. I read all of it. My final list had Blue Oyster Cult, The Doors, Elton John, and waaay too many others to list. Thank you Spotify. And, when it comes to original composition, I was also impressed.
3) The landscape shot. These moments really make or break a film. In Seven Psychopaths, the town and the desert shots gave me a sense of where these guys were. In Groundhog Day I really did feel like Phil was in the middle of nowhere. With Dark Shadows I could feel the train-ride in and settle into the small coastal town that Maine is so full of. The color/contrast was nice too for most of these.
3a) What did these films not do? Seven Psychopaths did not close all the loops- i.e. Colin Farrell and his girlfriend's relationship really- and that was okay. The sum of its whole was much better. Groundhog Day didn't ever tell us how much time Phil spent in PA, and that's okay too. And in Dark Shadows did tease us with a sequel, but Burton and Grahame-Smith didn't establish their world's vampire enough, and that's...well...as a vampire enthusiast I keep dwelling on it. HBC had vampire teeth before she died and the way in which vampirism occurs in DS is wicked vague. One time its witch curse and the next it is by the bite itself. Not blood sharing necessarily. Weeeellll.....see what I mean?
And that's what I've got for this week! Stay tuned for the next thing!
Friday. After a long work week- 8hrs at Dunkin' and 13 at the CML- and a week of classes- three to be exact- I wanted nothing more than to chillax. Alas, the Student ALA was having their Welcome Back! party and, as the social media coordinator, I wanted to be there. We had pizza and Doritos and plenty of people came. I stayed until about 9-9:30, then I went home and read a bit of Cosmopolitan before I went to bed. A light read and a guilty pleasure.
Saturday I couldn't help but celebrate Groundhog's Day. After singing this a few times, I spent the entire day(9-4ish) doing homework. Okay, so that isn't free time. Free time happened at lunch, when I watched and episode of Chuck(my favorite show right now) and then began again when I played a few hours of Dragon Age. When my roommate got home, we settled in to watch Seven Psychopaths, which was freaking hilarious!, and, of course, Groundhog Day with Bill Murray. In between, we watched a few YouTube skits, including Chris Kendall and ZeFrank . Overall, comedy night was a grand success. I polished the night off by reading a few pages of Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, which I am avidly trying to finish before it's due date at the library...
Then Sunday. In the morning, I caught up on The Big Bang Theory, which was probably the funniest it has been in a few weeks, and a show on the CW which I won't name ^_^ I worked at Newport today, which went smoothly, and came home to watch Dark Shadows, which I hadn't seen since it was released this past summer. Director Tim Burton and Timbur Bekmambetov and script by one of my favorite authors, Seth Grahame-Smith. I think this Burton film is one of the best he has done in a few years.(I can really only think of Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter and Corpse Bride here, i.e. post 2000s.) While it does contain a lot of his usual traits, and by that I mean casting and music choice( on that, see this,) it's genuinely funny and it has a balance of quirky and cheezy, which is me all over. I'm a fan of vampires, I like the TV shows that came out of the 60s-70s for their strange content, and, oh yeah, I'm from Maine. While I haven't been to Colinsport, ME I take pride in its' usage just like I do in Storybrooke and Murder She Wrote. You should probably read this article if you have no idea what I am talking about or if you are asking yourself where/when these Maine references occur. Because they do.
On a separate note, I want to get more into the groove of blogging(working up to vlogging again) and, or that reason, I think I am going to do one weekly blog about a movie and/or TV show I watch during the week. In the rare occasion I finish a book that is not a textbook, I will post a review here as well. To start off this week, I have a hard choice between three movies I loved this weekend. Instead, what I will do is compare three elements that all worked for the way the film was shaped.
1) Comedic Timing. This is the first thing I think of when I look back at these films. Woody Harrelson, Christopher Walken, Johhny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Bill Murray and on and on. I think I've been quoting Seven Psychopaths since yesterday and I always try to do Bill Murray faces. If you share my sense of humor or have done acting/improv, I think you'll find something offered in all of these.
2) Musical arrangement. In Seven Psychopaths there was usage of French music and I am always looking to expand in contemporary french music. In Groundhog Day there was, of course, Sunny and Cher with Babe and the Pennsylvania Polka- which I really want to find out if that exists at the celebration because I would spend a Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, PA just to dance to it. For Dark Shadows, Danny Elfman is back. His arrangement of 70s music has inspired me to research music from1972-1973 on my own. I took his choices and found some of my own; this is one of those times that it is okay to answer a reference question using Wikipedia. Someone, god love them, they spent time organizing the largest events in music history for 1972(as well as many other years and decades) for people to view. Which I did. I read all of it. My final list had Blue Oyster Cult, The Doors, Elton John, and waaay too many others to list. Thank you Spotify. And, when it comes to original composition, I was also impressed.
3) The landscape shot. These moments really make or break a film. In Seven Psychopaths, the town and the desert shots gave me a sense of where these guys were. In Groundhog Day I really did feel like Phil was in the middle of nowhere. With Dark Shadows I could feel the train-ride in and settle into the small coastal town that Maine is so full of. The color/contrast was nice too for most of these.
3a) What did these films not do? Seven Psychopaths did not close all the loops- i.e. Colin Farrell and his girlfriend's relationship really- and that was okay. The sum of its whole was much better. Groundhog Day didn't ever tell us how much time Phil spent in PA, and that's okay too. And in Dark Shadows did tease us with a sequel, but Burton and Grahame-Smith didn't establish their world's vampire enough, and that's...well...as a vampire enthusiast I keep dwelling on it. HBC had vampire teeth before she died and the way in which vampirism occurs in DS is wicked vague. One time its witch curse and the next it is by the bite itself. Not blood sharing necessarily. Weeeellll.....see what I mean?
And that's what I've got for this week! Stay tuned for the next thing!
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