Shop till you drop

After years of impulse buying and pathological deal-seeking, I've finally admitted to myself that I am a recreational shopper. Even when I'm shopping for things I need, I get a charge out of getting it cheaper or getting a little something extra. I generally hate the mall because name brand stores are not the best places to find deals. Target is good because there's always something on sale and the stock is reliable, though I strangely balk at paying "full price" even if full price is $25 for a dress or pair of shoes. I much prefer places like Loehman's, Ross and Big Lots which reward patience and tenacity. I could (and sometimes do) spend hours sorting through racks, bins and shelves looking for great deals on things I never knew I needed. In some instances this is great--I have replaced every bulb in my apartment with compact flourescents because they were really cheap at Big Lots. On the other hand, I have a pair of bright green, ill-fitting pants in my closet that are approximately 4 inches too long and I've worn them twice--but what a deal! Every time I do walk into a name brand store, I immediately head for the discount rack--usually, I won't shop in any other part of the store. Why pay full price when I know there's a sale every few weeks as one season moves in to replace the last? Of course this approach requires constant vigilance, and I could be beaten out by all those idiots willing to pay full price. Much the same way Sara remembers every meal she's ever eaten at a restaurant, I remember where I bought my clothes, shoes and accessories and what I paid for them. Though I usually won't admit to it.

Confessional

So I have this totally weird thing for Tommy Lee Jones. He's a thousand years old and compeletly haggard and it works for me. He's always represented something very pragmatic and masculine. In any movie I can remember, when TLJ shows up, you know things are gonna be okay, the bad guys will get their asses kicked and the women-in-distress/children/fuzzy animals/plant earth will be safe to blunder into even worse trouble in the sequel. That's what makes this so depressing. Jesus! I feel like I just found out Santa Claus isn't real.
I'm a sad Panda :o(

Notes on a Movie

Saw Notes on a Scandal Monday night, just before the Oscar noms came out for Cate Blanchett & Judi Dench. It was definitely entertaining, but it was entertaining melodrama, the characters were so over-the-top pathological and unable to control their own worst impulses, it's impossible to believe that they live in the real world. Which maybe makes school an appropriate setting. That's not really the real world either, for the teachers as much as the students. In any case, I was entertained and laughed my way through the destruction wrecked by these two careening personalities.
Speaking of destruction: Beware thy kitchen sponge!

Movie reviews

Now that awards season is in full swing (though I couldn't even watch the Globes), I'm catching up on my movie-viewing. I finally saw Children of Men and The Last King of Scotland. So it's been a bit of a downer.
Both were great in there own ways, fictionalizing the real and imagined terrors of the world in which we live, have lived and will live.
Children of Men is a warning of what life becomes when society gives up on it's future. In this case, that is represented by an inexplicable global infertility that threatens to wipe out the human race within a generation. The violent political strife between the English government and the droves of "fugees" from Eastern Europe and Africa (apparently), demonstrated in graphic scenes of terrorism and urban warfare, make a clear point that we don't need to be childless to be hopeless. The thesis of the film (if I may be so formal) seems to be that alienation and complacency result a moribund civilization: the scenes of characters going through the motions of a life without dreams or a future, without compassion for others (beyond celebrities they've never met) seems to invite the inevitable collapse of society around their ears. The lesson questions lifestyles that negate human interaction as well as politics that create us vs. Them. Ultimately the only ways we can survive as individuals, societies or a species is by embracing each other.
The Last King of Scotland, "based on real people and events," is a warning to anyone who thinks he can make a game of nation-building (ah-HEM). Though it's concerned with the aftermath of British colonialism in Africa, the lesson clearly has current applications. Fundamentally, there is a problem when any nation tries to impose their way of doing business on another, whether that's out of post-colonial guilt or a sincere desire to improve lives. There's an even bigger problem when you half-ass the job so you can spend the rest of your time screwing around in exotic locales. That may be too literal an interpretation, and obviously the film is entertaining and disturbing if the characters are taken at face value. I just can't help but think that (beyond providing an "access point" for white audiences) there's a reason to stick attractive white people in peril in Africa (The Constant Gardener and Blood Diamond are other examples of this), it can't help but make a political or social comment. Perhaps, in spite of our political correctness and under the guise of shining light on some issue or another, we (White, European, Western) can't help but see Africa without the spectre of the Heart of Darkness looming over it. It remains, in so many unfortunate ways, a place where it seems law has no rule and the most terrible things can happen. We perpetuate and revel in that notion. Our new manifest destiny becomes saving this damned place. Why else would Angelina and Brad and Madonna make a crusade out of their efforts there? I'm not saying the help isn't needed; it just seems the needs and the lacks of that place are fetishized in our culture as the ultimate Other, a place so opposite and broken that not even democracy works there. It would be interesting to see Africa through it's own eyes, on it's own terms.

Work woes

After thoroughly googling myself to determine that a casual search of my name will not lead here, and knowing that my readership is piss-poor (thanks Sara & Alex!), I feel safe posting about my job. Gulp!
Last week was pretty shitty at work. Frankly, I'm over the details.
The important thing is that I got to meet Daniel Craig. And I totally went retarded. The only sentence I could form was "I saw Casino Royale twice!" in basically the same manner and pitch a three year old would use describing a trip to Disneyland. After that all I could do was retreat to my office to answer a phantom phone ring. D'oh!
So much for sleeping my way to the top :o)
Then later, at a convenience store, I saw his cover with Nicole Kidman on W Magazine. All I could think was, "That is so lame! I can't believe I let that man rob me of intelligent speech!" and "I really can't stand Nicole Kidman, her best work is way behind her (in To Die For)."
He is pretty hot, though.
And to you, my dear readers, please never, never, never link this blog to anything containing my real name--I would like to work in this town again :o)

I'm afraid...

...this is why people resent America. Does this country (as a whole) even care that much about soccer (a word only we use because everybody else calls it football, but we already have a game called footbal in which the players mostly carry the ball with their hands)? Not really. And yet, we can afford to just buy up the world's most famous footballer.
The upshot is, we'll have to deal with Mrs. Beckham...
I wonder if the Galaxy will become the new Lakers?

America is funny

Rented a couple satires that seemed to fly under the radar last year but I'm sure will become DVD hits:
The first, Confederate States of America,

was a funny and pretty scary vision (visa-a-visa a faux British documentary), of the last 150 years of American history had the South won the War of Northern aggression. Some of the best bits were the "commercials" inserted into the broadcast of the documentary ("not suitable for children or servants") on CSA TV. What a great conceit! Terrifying and far too plausible to anyone who's ever encountered Southern pride and the stars and bars...

The next, Idiocracy, was lighter, more commercial fare that was unceremoniously dumped into theaters by Fox with no publicity.

A fierce satire of the wages of stupidity on American culture by Mike Judge (the genius behind Office Space), Idiocracy makes concrete everyone's (mine anyway) secret conviction that she is much smarter than everyone else--that's a premise I could get off on.

I totally scared myself stupid watching The Descent alone. Once I'd regained my senses, I wondered at the possible subtext of a story in which an irresponsible, thrill-seeking American leads her trusting group of English friends into a quagmire from which the only apparent escape is a painful, bloody, violent, terrifying death. There's also emotional subtext.

The ubercable at my mom's house got me totally hooked on BBC programming (via BBC America and the SciFi channel) so I've been rounding out my rental queue with the last few seasons of MI-5 (I know Sara would appreciate the Matthew Macfadyen hotness factor) and Doctor Who.

Happy Holidays!

Yeah, I'm totally 2 weeks behind on the yuletide cheer. I gave myself the gift of a complete vacation while visiting my mom in SC, and did no posting and very little communicating with the outside world. Rest assured, there was much communing with the cable TV (200 channels!--but there was still mostly nothing on...). 2 weeks in SC were relatively uneventful.
Before I left LA last month, I had a lovely visit to the Huntington library and gardens, which I highly recommend to anyone in the Pasadena vicinity.
I also managed to catch the end of the UTIOG tour at the Roxy on Sunset. Grabbed a burger at the Rainbow beforehand--it was a very rock'n'roll on the Strip kind of night. Could not be more bummed that the Rapture is not coming to LA with UTIOG opening! Aaahh!!! How could they collectively do this to me? It's just goddamn cruel.
Got back to LA just in time to party in the Hills on New Year's-- enjoyed too much wine, some amazing views of Hollywood and a complete abscence of lines, bouncers and crowds.
I'm sure there's plenty more fun and frivolity I haven't had a chance to blog about...my resolution is to totally get better about this...I swear. No really, I mean it and I'm going to stick to it. Who am I kidding? Check back in another 3 weeks...