Observation

I write this as I am waiting for a class to begin and it is about some recent observations. Yesterday, in a different class, there was a man in said class who had some very gross looking fingernails, and also apparently has children and two businesses. He was middle aged and I have no idea exactly why he is taking that class, but whatever. In any case his fingernails were repulsive and next time I think I will try to sit farther away from him so that I don't have to see the fingernails so closely. Yuck. They were very off-putting. In addition, this man could not type very well at all. He used only one or two fingers and poked at the keys on the keyboard. Which I guess maybe could be expected seeing as he seemed to be at least 50 years old, but still, my mother is probably in his same generation and she knows how to type. I think he may have some issues due to his ineptitude with typing seeing as in the class we will probably be using computers and typing a decent amount. 

In other matters, a more positive and pleasing observation. Just earlier, I had to deliver something to be delivered to someone. It was at the local high school which I graduated from last year. So I went into the main office and there was a woman there who presumably was the secretary. There was also the school police officer whose car I saw parked out front as I was entering. I talked to the secretary lady who basically referred me to the police officer and he wrote something down. I did not know that he served as an assistant secretary, but apparently at least today that's what he was doing. And on to the prime observation here. As he wrote, I noticed that he was left handed. I had seen and even talked with him occasionally in the past when I was a student there, but I had never seen him writing anything. In addition, he wrote in all capitals which is a thing that some other men I have known do. Apparently, it supposedly means that the person is trying to hide/obscure something (about their personality, which supposedly can be revealed by handwriting). Which happened to bring to mind a particular teacher that I had had who is also left handed and writes in all capitals. In any case, this of course goes back to the one and only character of Goren from Law and Order. As I would hope people would be aware, I think he is a very interesting character and all that. He (meaning Vincent who played said character) is also left handed although I don't think there are any really decent samples of his handwriting on the show. I wonder what it looks like. I think I'll conclude this post here, because from this point I would just be going on about how law enforcement and crime stuff is interesting to me, which is something I've certainly been over in the past, I believe. 

As an aside, there are no interesting movies on Netflix that I feel like watching which is a shame and they apparently removed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind which I had wanted to watch but didn't get a chance to before it was gone. Alas. 

Critiquing SNL

This post isn't exactly the most serious of things, but regardless.. I happened to be watching videos on YouTube and one came up in the recommendations that was a skit from a recent SNL. In general, I don't watch SNL but sometimes the skits that make it onto YouTube happen to be rather amusing. Although lots of other times the show is just kind of downright weird. I think you have to be very aware of all the pop culture related news that happened that week in order to completely get a full episode of SNL.

In any case, this particular skit was about a guy who disliked a movie that many people enjoyed, so he gets attacked for that in the form of getting arrested and interrogated. By some officers (as they are called by a character in the skit), or rather probably detectives as these characters semi resembled the characters of Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson from the long running show Law and Order SVU. Semi resembled in that their style of dress was reminiscent of Elliot and Olivia respectively (although not Elliot’s hairstyle, or rather, lack of hair; however the female character in the skit had a hairstyle reminiscent of, say, season 4 (this is off the top of my head, I may be wrong) Olivia) in that the guy had rolled up sleeves and the woman was wearing the kind of jacket that Olivia has worn on the show. However, the personalities of the skit characters were a little off - the guy did do some of the intimidating that Elliot has done but in other occasions in the skit, the guy acted too mellow while the woman was shoutier than Olivia tends to be. The skit also happened to include a part where the female character throws a chair through/at the mirrored glass which then breaks, which was sort of amusing in that I know a similar thing happened in a CI episode although in this skit again, it was a little off. In the Law and Order episode, it was the criminal who did the glass breaking although it wasn't with a chair, he smashed it with his fists and the final scene was of the detectives seen through the shattered glass. I think maybe something like that has happened in SVU but I don't remember the specifics.

Anyways, that was my pointless little critique of a recent SNL skit. I suppose it's not that surprising coming from a Law and Order fiend like myself.

Sctl pltcl rmrks

Try to guess what the title is supposed to say!

Eyelashes guy was on CNN tonight and he said things. He commentated. Basically, the gist of what he said when I was paying attention was that people need to get over the possibility of Russian interference in the election and that the country needs more unity. He also said that two wrongs don't make a right, regarding how people disrespected Obama when he was elected and how similar things are sort of happening now. Which... I don't particularly agree with, but these opinions aren't horribly abhorrent. There's some solace there. While ideally becoming more united would be a good thing, Donald Trump is not a normal politician, so I don't think we can necessarily acquiesce and become complacent (I'm not sure those words are the most accurate to express my sentiments, but I wanted to use some big fancy words).

In other matters, sort of, I have decided to begin watching a commentary by Noam Chomsky called Requiem for the American Dream. Partly because of the title but also partly because of Noam Chomsky being a famous linguist. This is sort of related to the whole Donald Trump mess in that it's apparently about how wealth has become concentrated in a very small amount of people. I will write a review when I finish watching it.

Sexiest men alive

(no, despite the title, this post is not a list of sexiest men alive as chosen by me)

For some reason, I felt like googling "sexiest man alive" although at first my keyboard suggestions suggested "in" after man, as in "sexiest man in Denmark" as in Mads Mikkelsen. Regardless. Eventually I made it to "sexiest man alive" as in the feature that People magazine runs every year in the fall. For one thing, I think it's a good thing that we have this pillar of male objectification because women certainly are objectified quite a lot in today's society, and this does the same thing to men. I looked through a list of the men who have won the honor, such as (this is not a complete list)

• George Clooney (twice!), 
• Johnny Depp (twice)
• Brad Pitt (also twice)
• Chris Hemsworth 
• Adam Levine 
• Dwayne Johnson (most recently)
• Mark Harmon (of NCIS fame which apparently [apparently meaning to my recollection of what I've read in passing around the internets about this show] is quite popular with middle aged women. I guess he is to NCIS as Patrick Dempsey is to Grey's Anatomy). 
• Tom Cruise (back in 1990! I wonder if he was better looking then than he is now. I guess there's not a huge difference, unlike some other people who I could mention.)
• Harrison Ford
• Bradley Cooper
• Hugh Jackman (there are a number of actors named Hugh - Hugh Laurie [House MD], Hugh Dancy [Hannibal] as well as this Hugh)
• Ben Affleck
• David Beckham
• Matt Damon

I am kind of surprised that Leonardo DiCaprio never won the title, especially perhaps in the year, say 2002 or 2003 or even more recently, like 2011. I can understand not doing it in 1997 because he was still quite young and boyish looking rather than manly looking (hence why he got that role in Titanic, probably) even though he was like 23 or something. I'm also surprised at the omission of Patrick Dempsey, who could have won in say the year 2008 or something, a few years after his debut on Grey's Anatomy. However, both these people got honorable mentions as some of the sexiest men alive, although not the ultimate sexiest man alive of the year as indicated by their presence on some of the covers of these issues, just not as the main event, and rather, as "more sexy men" or something along those lines. Also maybe Colin Firth could've won one year in the past. Apparently he was quite popular at one point at least as far as I'm aware (I may be wrong). People magazine's website has a gallery of all the Sexiest Man Alive covers if you'd like to take a look for yourself. I'm curious about the other men who got honorable mentions in these issues, aside from Leo and Patrick. I wonder if Vincent ever got an honorable mention (which would probably have been in the early 2000s, if at all) or if Chris Meloni (Elliot in SVU) did. Or maybe Jared Leto, one of those years. Maybe not for the way he looked in Requiem for a Dream, since that was not exactly a stereotypical 'sexy man' look. It was something more along the lines of this quote which I have mentioned before: "I don't like good looking guys; I like them skinny and pale like they're dying." But maybe when he didn't look like that. Maybe Tom Hanks too perhaps may have gotten an honorable mention years ago. 

Additionally, I wonder how the sexiest man alive of the year is chosen. I only could find a little bit about this from someone who worked for People magazine, in which they said that they considered who the readers wanted to be in the magazine and also who had a big year. Interestingly enough, last year would have been as good of a year as any to give Leo the title, because he finally won an Oscar so why not give him the honor of being sexiest man alive as well? I would consider that to have been a big accomplishment especially since it was a long time coming.

I am surprised that Johnny Depp won in 2009 (just take a look at the cover) because he did not, based on the magazine cover, look particularly good. In fact he looked kind of seedy and creepy like someone who you would try to avoid in a bar. I am not super surprised that George Clooney won (twice) because he is good looking. Although on the other hand I have a personal aversion to him as a person due to some unsavory things about Leonardo DiCaprio that he happened to say in a magazine interview that I happened to read in a grocery store years ago. So he is good looking but I don't like him. Vincent, on the other hand, looked better 15 years or so ago, but despite his current appearance (that sounds rather mean...) I think he's a nice person (and a good actor) and that's what counts. ("I like you way better than George Clooney!" is a thing that I could theoretically say to Vincent)

[an aside: as I write this post, I looked up Jude Law who won the title in 2004, 12 years ago and some pictures of him more recently came up and he doesn't exactly look as good as he used to, which is causing me to laugh and screech in the middle of the night. Alas. Time is kind to some but not others. I don't understand why it had to be kind to George Clooney and not Vincent.] 

[also: another thing causing me to laugh and screech is having watched this video of Chris Hemsworth (the sexiest man alive a few years back) reading various things as he is Australian and Americans - me included - love foreign (particularly British and Australian) accents. I don't know why I expected his voice to sound the exact same as Jesse Spencer who is also Australian but in any case it doesn't which really shouldn't be that surprising because, let's see, Vincent and eyelashes guy (or, Anderson Cooper) are both American with a neutral accent yet their voices do not sound similar. Incidentally, the thought of Jesse Spencer made me think of House MD and the time when House said "That is exactly why you can't touch my markers" to Chase which then made me think of the time in the S1 episode "Poison" where Chase had to impersonate a CDC worker on the phone and said something along the lines of "The CDC is not available..." in a bad American accent.]

A good part of this blog post could be aptly titled "A stream of consciousness from yours truly."

During the process of looking at all the stuff regarding the sexiest men alive, I had the idea of an "ugliest man alive" as a contrast to the sexiest man alive. If that were a thing I would eagerly nominate that horrible thing who I think would have no problem winning the title. Also a good source for other people as runner ups would be... the online dating website. This is actually a thing that I sort of am considering doing on my blog here, but it would be quite mean... and I can be mean, but I'm not sure if I want to be that mean. Plus, if someone found this blog and traced it back to me, I doubt a post like that would reflect positively on me. I've said too much already. 

More theoreticality

Another open theoretical letter, or rather just some thoughts.... (another title for this post could be "Dating advices wanted" which would probably be rather accurate) 

Recently, I happened to look through the photos of JW Anderson's most recent fashion show, FW17. This show had many looks which incorporated crochet, which I thought was interesting because I learned to crochet a few months ago. In addition to the crochet-wear, another thing that caught my attention (unsurprisingly) was one of the models in this show - he was quite eye catching! Probably the thing that caught my eye was that he was very blonde like another person who was the subject of a recent post. So, naturally, I had to try and find out the name of this model and after a bit of searching around, I did, and I was quite pleased with myself. Apparently he is German. Also apparently he is a rather new model so he hasn't done very much modeling work so far. I hope that he does more modeling work in the future so that there will be more pictures of him that I can look at because more good looking people to look at never killed anybody, and I'm certainly probably not going to find good looking people to look at on the online dating website. In any case, it makes me wistful over that particular good looking person who was the subject of a recent post and who is also very blonde and could be a model because of his appearance. I wonder if he has German ethnicity, or Swedish, or Danish or Norwegian. Perhaps eastern European. I have no idea. His name is not obviously (or subtly) Scandinavian/German like the name "Mikkelsen" (Danish, as in the actor Mads Mikkelsen) or "Müller" (German, as in the Fußballspieler für Bayern München Thomas Müller) or "Skarsgaard" (Swedish, as in the actor Alexander Skarsgaard) or even "Wilberg" (as in... it goes without saying). I would have mentioned Italian names or perhaps French-esque names but stereotypically Scandinavians and Germans are supposed to be blonde so I went with that. In any case, I know barely anything about him, much less which particular European country his ancestors were from. Although there are some other people who I do know the details of their ethnicity, that's not the subject at hand. 

To the subject of taking initiative, on one hand it would be a good (or perhaps not terribly horrible) thing to do, but on the other hand, why not just let people live their lives and not go intruding and expecting to be given an answer/attention and so on and so forth. Plus, he could possibly be gay, in which case I'd feel very foolish. So, perhaps the opening line could be "Before I go any father, are you gay?" Getting the important things out of the way first... In one way, that would be a good thing to say because then I would have my answer to that but on the other hand it would also be a weird thing to ask right off the bat and therefore probably I should avoid saying that. Basically, the best solution is to just not say anything because I have no idea where to start in a way that would feel genuine to me and also not be terribly off puttingly WEIRD. I don't know if people starting out conversations like that has ever been successful. I wonder how I would react if someone asked me "Before I go any farther, are you a lesbian?" I would probably say no, I guess. (the uncertainty here is not about being a lesbian, but rather about how best to react to a question like that. Another possible reaction could be "Why (insert optional profanity here) are you asking me that?!" or if it were asked by that horrible thing, merely a "FUCK OFF!!!") In any case, if I ever come up with some normal conversation ideas as well as some initiative, I will let you all know how that goes. Ideally it would go well and I would not make an impression of "she is really weird and I don't think I want to be around someone like that." I'm not sure if maybe I already blew it with the hair touching event. It is very possible that I did. I wonder if he remembers that. I don't think I'd mind too much if he does indeed remember that, but I would mind if it caused his impression of me to be "she is really weird and I don't think I want to be around someone like that." In which case, refer to my previous post where I mentioned an apology about the hair touching event. 

I have touched
the hair
that was on
your head

and which
you probably
thought
was WEIRD

Forgive me
It was soft
So blonde
and so dazzling.

(If my former apology isn't good enough, here is another one in a more poetic form. This particular poem structure lends itself perfectly to this purpose. Me writing poems like this actually goes back all the way to the 8th grade when we had an assignment to do such, and the concept caught on and I began to write many, many more. Incidentally, it was also back in middle school when I noticed (although I didn't take particular note of) the very blonde hair and it was eye catching back then too.)
I also have to wonder how much on the scale of weirdness that that poem would be for something to tell him. I feel like it could definitely be pretty far up there. Perhaps somewhat less weird than the previous theoretical open letter, just since it's shorter, but still probably pretty weird. It would be somewhat more relevant though than something like "What do you think about the topic of drug addicts/addiction?" which is something that could possibly lead to an interesting conversation, but on the other hand is also an incredibly odd thing to tell someone who you barely know anything about as a conversation starter. "Hello. I think you are good looking so please talk to me." That one is worse in some ways, one way being that it does come across as rather desperate but on the other hand, is quite blunt about my intentions which is a quality that I value. 

As an aside, I think "More good looking people to look at never killed anybody" should be another one of my quotes, along with "Nobody plans on becoming a drug addict" and "You have nice teeth" and "I only like him because of his eyelashes" and "Full Metal Jacket was a strange movie but it did stick with me, apparently." I think these are some quotes that nicely sum up myself. (I put them in chronological order to the best of my memory of when I first came up with them) Also, an honorable mention to a quote that isn't mine but is one that I like: "Maybe in a few years I'll be a more uplifting person." Guess/Remember who said that? (it is the same person who was the subject of the "You have nice teeth" quote. He said that quote probably about 10 years ago because I remember reading it in an interview that was done regarding the album All the Stars and Boulevards, which is from 2005.)

Album review: Turn on the Bright Lights

Firstly, an errant thought on none other than eyelashes guy: I just watched him commentate on CNN a little bit and had the realization that he seems to be rather reasonable when he commentates and he doesn't yell and shout at/over the other commentators like some do. So I guess that's a nice thing that I hadn't explicitly thought of in the past. 

I know technically you're supposed to do reviews of things (movies, music, tv, etc) that have recently been released but I just do them based on what's new and/or interesting to me in terms of things that I've watched/read/listened to regardless of if I'm 15 years late such as for this review of an album released in 2002 when I was only a small child. 

Now, onto the main topic here. In the sort of recent past, the Killers covered a song called Obstacle 1 by the band Interpol. I listened to this cover and thought Flowers did a good job of it and that the song was interesting. So I ended up listening to the original version of the song which Flowers did quite a good job of mirroring. Generally, covers shouldn't stray too far from the original song. Usually I find myself more amicable towards covers of other songs by bands that I already like rather than covers by other people of songs by bands that I like. Hence, I enjoy the Killers covering Obstacle 1 and Muse covering Please Please Please (which is far superior to the original version in my opinion), but I can't be certain that I'd enjoy, say, some other band/singer covering Mr. Brightside or something. Hopefully you get the idea. In any case, in addition to listening to Interpol's Obstacle 1, I branched out a little bit into another song from the same album (Turn on the Bright Lights - 2002) called NYC. It's an interesting song to say the least. Rather mellow and morose at the same time. Obstacle 1 is a bit more upbeat but at the same time it is also morose. Eventually I listened to the album in its entirety - 11 songs. Overall, it's a morose album. I consider it morose as opposed to melancholy which is a word I use to describe All the Stars and Boulevards by Augustana (plus some of their other songs could be described as such) along with thoughtful which describes all of their songs. Having looked up the definitions of morose and melancholy, the latter means something along the lines of a thoughtful sadness which I think makes pretty good sense to describe All the Stars and Boulevards. Morose means gloomy which is a fair enough description of Turn on the Bright Lights. (huh, both of those album titles are sort of long and wordy) 

Overall, the lyrics of the songs on Turn on the Bright Lights range from slightly weird to very weird. Which in some cases works/isn't a particular detriment to the songs but in other cases I don't think it really helps. I think perhaps the lyrics are just a little too weird for me to enjoy the album in full although I do like a few of the songs off of it. Perhaps it's like the people who like Mr. Brightside and Somebody Told Me and All These Things That I've Done off of the Killers' album Hot Fuss but don't particularly care for the rest of the album for whatever reason. 

So, in conclusion, I'm not completely sold on this album and it didn't jump out at me like "wow, what a great album!!" although again there are a few songs off of it that I like. It's possible that (this is a sentence that would require the subjunctive in Spanish, by the way) this album might grow on me if I listened to it more, but I'm not sure if I particularly want to listen to it in full again. I suppose I like this band ever so slightly more than the Strokes, who I tried to get into but just couldn't find any songs of theirs that I particularly liked even after going through like the first 5 that popped up in search results so which I assume are the most popular. I would've thought that I would have found at least one song in that selection that I at least sort of liked but alas, I didn't. However, Instant Crush (which isn't really a Strokes song though) is a good song. I guess I like (?!?!) the Smashing Pumpkins ever so slightly more than the Strokes because there are about 5 songs of theirs that I know, and I don't know any Strokes songs. Even though I don't particularly like the Smashing Pumpkins, I know a few of their songs and occasionally for reasons unknown (see what I did there?) feel compelled to listen to them - these songs comprising of 1979, Bullet with Butterfly Wings, Disarm, and Today. Perhaps I could throw Ava Adore on this list as well. But that's it. And I don't even like those songs, I just occasionally for some reason feel compelled to listen to them. A trivia is that the intro to the Smashing Pumpkins' song Today is rather similar to My Chemical Romance's song I Don't Love You. I think MCR was somewhat influenced by the Smashing Pumpkins. However, Gerard seems like a nice person but Billy Corgan just doesn't and I think this is part of why I don't like the Smashing Pumpkins. By this point this post has gotten rather off track from the main subject of Interpol to then the Strokes to then the Smashing Pumpkins with an allusion to the Killers thrown in and then to MCR. So this here will be the end of this long winded post.

Poetry

(bad, cheesy poetry, to be specific)

Here are some poems I have composed; they are on the subject of eyelashes guy in an assortment of styles.

"This is Just to Say"

I have watched
the commentator
that was on
CNN

and whom
you probably
don't
care about

Forgive me
But those eyelashes
So long
and so magnificent

A haiku

Eyelashes guy - wow!
I am just fascinated
by those eyelashes

A sonnet (following the stanza structure and rhyme pattern but not in iambic pentameter because I just don't have the energy to put in that much effort.)

Eyelashes guy, I gaze at thee
When on CNN you speak
It is your eyelashes I desire to see
Although your opinions I critique

Your eyelashes are just magnificent
And your eyeballs rather blue
By others much money has been spent
To have eyelashes like you

Your eyelashes drew my attention 

And I what I had to do
Was to research your political affiliation

I'm not a conservative like you

Sometimes you say things with which I disagree

But you're a conservative and that's just how it's going to be

I tried to come up with a limerick, but I couldn't think of anything. [as with all posts about eyelashes guy, I dearly hope he never reads this.] 

pltcs

(The title of this post is the word "politics" but with the vowels removed, kind of like the title of that one song, Thnks fr th Mmrs. As you can see, I am getting creative with my blog post titles now.) 

This post is about partly becoming more open minded (a topic which I think I have discussed a little in the past) and also about being "out of touch." It has to do with politics so if that's not your cup of tea then perhaps don't read further.

As you may know, eyelashes guy does a podcast in addition to writing political commentary and offering it on TV. So I am listening to an episode of said podcast where eyelashes guy interviews a colleague of his who covers politics and entertainment. During the podcast, they ragged on the celebrities who have made an implorement to Congress members urging them to not support Donald Trump basically. Additionally, eyelashes guy has criticized Meryl Streep for the speech she gave recently at an awards ceremony, for which eyelashes guy has received criticism (mind you, on twitter) for. In any case, I was sort of surprised to hear that from him basically that people don't want to hear about politics from celebrities and said celebrities are 'out of touch' and (my quotation marks) "real Americans" don't identify with those celebrities... things along those lines I guess. In any case, people don't have to listen to what celebrities say about politics if they don't want to, but I see no reason why celebrities can't/shouldn't voice their opinions on the matter. Certainly there are some people out there who agree with them. Whatever. I don't remember exactly the points he made or his guest on the podcast so I'll end this part here. I get somewhat disappointed when eyelashes guy says something stupid (or more eloquently, something I disagree with) but I guess it comes with the territory, him being a conservative. So all I can do is just hope that the next political issue he decides to opine on is one where his opinion is one that I at least partially agree with. Who knows. We'll just have to wait and see.

On a sort of relevant topic to the previous paragraph, here are some thoughts about being "out of touch" as people in/around liberal city areas are called. Maybe, another way to look at things is that people out in the sticks of Texas and other Republican areas are the ones who are out of touch with the city folk. I wonder if they have ever considered that way of seeing it - it's always the people in the big liberal cities that are accused of being out of touch (of which I would say that I belong to... I wouldn't personally consider myself to be ashamed/otherwise unpleased with the state of supposedly being "out of touch," but I'm sure there are people who would be more than ready to criticize me for it).  

I'm kind of sick of writing this post about political issues so this will be the end of it. Probably why I don't plan on becoming a political writer or a politician. The subject can be kind of interesting sometimes, but other times or when you've just had too much of it it can be a drag. Particularly when eyelashes guy says something you disagree with. I'm not a professional political writer nor do I claim or plan to be one. However, sometimes the thoughts just need to be put to keyboard. 

An open theoretical letter

to that one guy...

To start off, I apologize for touching your hair all those months ago if you found that weird which I imagine you did, at least to some degree. But I really wanted to touch it and I was probably never going to see you again so I had to do it then and there. Your hair is very nice and blonde and soft. And I'm pretty sure it's natural. It's very blonde.

What are you doing these days? I looked up on the Internet what kinds of things are considered normal conversation topics because I'm predisposed to talking about strange things like murder, drug addicts, various actors/musicians/etc that I like, Law and Order (that's a big one) and a certain political commentator who I call eyelashes guy (because he has long magnificent eyelashes, obviously). So, those are topics that I probably would talk about but have consciously attempted to avoid at this point because I barely know anything about you. But now you know some stuff about me. Although like I said I will try to talk about things that are considered "normal conversation topics" such as what did you do last weekend, or what do you like to eat, what are you studying, or what's your favorite TV show, etc. (Mine, like I said before, is Law and Order.)

I'm quite worried that this comes across as very, exceedingly weird. But my friend says I need to take more initiative and maybe I will have more success with this than on the online dating website which I mostly use at this point as a kind of exercise in people watching for when I'm bored. Also said by this friend is that if someone they sort of knew of from high school contacted them out of the blue, they would probably respond and have a conversation and following this point is that please don't make me regret this. Come to think of it, that's kind of a... loaded statement. If you really don't like me or something or you think I'm just way too weird (which I wouldn't blame you for) then feel free to indeed make me regret this and just ignore it or say something mean back. I won't bother you anymore if you do that although I will be kind of sad that what my friend said turned out not to happen. Oh yeah, another reason that you could possibly decide not to interact with me is that you have a girlfriend already. In which case the aforementioned applies too.

I wanted to lay it all out there because I will admit that I'm... different/eccentric/other similar words, as you possibly may have gathered from reading this. And I didn't want to begin with a pretense of normality like what I expect other people would be like. Even if you do have a girlfriend (or boyfriend if you happen to be gay... that's always a possibility) then I would settle for just being friends because mostly I think you look like a model and I would just like to look at you and theoretically photograph you even if you don't actually date me.

The end. If you found me in some way to be someone that you'd actually feel like talking to, then by all means please do. Or if I'm just too weird for you, I understand and you can just decide not to talk to me. I have barely any idea what you're like so who knows how you'll react to this!

Deryueglaadsdhiecsts

(the title is a combination of the words "drug addicts" and "eyelashes")

I was reading about the movies about drug addicts that I've watched recently and came across this choice line in a NYT article... 
"As the junkie Harry, a wasted pretty boy, he seems kept aloft by his eyelashes, the only substantial thing on his frame."

What a quote!! I don't think I have to spell it out as to why I find this quote quite pleasing to have read. Also, the next sentence: "Superficially, it might be easy to confuse the protagonists of '''Requiem'' with the models in a Calvin Klein Jeans ad of a few years ago."

Here is the review that these quotes came from if you'd like to read it in full.

Also, here is another relevant quote. 
"Did you enjoy Darren Aronosky leading you by the hand to the brink of suicide, only to leave you tottering there above an abyss of despair? If so, you’re a bit weird. But don’t worry, you’re not alone; and neither is ‘Requiem for a Dream’. For more of the same spirit-crushing depression, check out ‘The Panic in Needle Park’, ‘Christiane F.’ or ‘What About Me?’" ~ Jonny Sweet

Here is a short little blurb about the two movies.

I just wanted to put this out there.

Movie review: The Panic in Needle Park

Today I was bored because I don't have anywhere to go and so I've just been sitting in the house and decided to try and find something on Netflix to watch. I at first considered some movie that Vincent had been in a couple of years ago and also co-produced (or something like that) but it didn't have particularly good reviews so I thought it might end up being a waste of time (sorry Vincent). So, I decided to watch another movie in the same vein (no puns intended) as Requiem for a Dream (which I would willingly watch a third time, in fact - other people have considered it to be a movie they never want to see again because it's too depressing or something, but I could watch it yet another time...). This movie was from 1971, nearly 30 years before Requiem for a Dream was made although the book Requiem for a Dream was published I think around that time. This movie also apparently was based off of a book but I'm not aware of any particular details about that book. It took place in New York, on the west side of Manhattan, presumably in the 70s compared to Requiem for a Dream taking place in the Bronx (in the book) or Brooklyn (in the movie). Regardless, it's all New York City. 

There were a number of similarities to Requiem for a Dream (although technically, just based off the movies, Requiem is the one which would have been taking cues from Panic in Needle Park. However, I don't know when the respective books were published so it's possible it went the other way around.) however the movies have distinctively different story arcs/effects. The themes are perhaps not quite as different seeing as both movies are about drug addicts, but I do think they are kind of different. One of the interesting similarities to Requiem is in the beginning, the main male character steals a television to sell at a pawn shop although the particulars are a little different - in Requiem Harry takes his mother's tv (which, we see, has been a recurring event) but in this movie the main character (Bobby, which you have to remember is not the same as Bobby from Law and Order) steals the tv out of the back of a truck. Another particular similarity is a line that the main female character (Marion in Requiem, Helen in this movie) says - Marion is going out to dinner with her therapist in order to borrow money from him and she imagines stabbing him in the hand with a fork and screaming at him "YOU SMUG SON OF A BITCH!!!" In this movie, Helen screams this line (minus the smug part, although I do think that would have fit in her case as well) at a cop who did her a favor but wants her to snitch on her boyfriend. Which leads me onto the next subject here. In this movie, a part of the plot is about the characters' run ins with law enforcement because they're using drugs/dealing drugs/being a prostitute in order to get money for drugs, the like. This isn't as prominent in Requiem for a Dream. There is a pair of cops who are after Bobby and his drug dealing accomplices. One of them talks to Helen multiple times in an effort to get her to turn in Bobby.For some reason, I just couldn't see him as a cop. Maybe it was the way he looked. He kind of resembled pop stars of the 80s. I think it was the hair. Plus neither of them had badges, which I thought was weird. In Law and Order the detectives are always wearing their badges. In any case I just didn't really like that character. He rubbed me the wrong way for some reason. 

I thought this movie had a bit of an anticlimactic ending. It just kind of ended. It didn't have quite as defined of a story arc as Requiem for a Dream does. I guess perhaps the assumption is that in the end the characters continue to live on in the way that they did during the movie. Requiem for a Dream definitely has more of an impact on the viewer, I think. It also has the visual side of things going for it as well - just as far as the way the movie looks, it's rather pleasing even though it's about drug addicts. This movie, being made in the early 70s, does look a bit dated and 70s-ish. Not that that's bad, it just is something to note. 

I went and read some stuff about this movie and one thing said that it was the Requiem for a Dream of its time, which is a pretty good description.

Movie review: Reservation Road

I have had a lot of time to be watching movies lately, hence the amount of movie review posts. The latest movie that I watched is called Reservation Road and it had one of the actresses from Requiem for a Dream in it and also Mark Ruffalo. The fact that I was at least somewhat familiar with these actors was part of why I decided to watch it, but I also thought the plot seemed interesting. The movie is about two families in New England, one of which has their son killed in a hit and run accident. The father of the other family is the one who was driving and killed the kid. The premise is rather interesting in and of itself; as the movie progresses we learn that these two men (the father of the dead kid and the guy who killed said kid but whose own son is still alive and well) end up crossing paths in interesting ways although the man with the dead kid is unaware that the other guy is to blame. 

I actually was rather impressed with Mark Ruffalo's performance in this movie and I was surprised by that. I didn't exactly expect that I'd think he did particularly well in this role. I think perhaps this was because of the writing rather than his acting ability - for example, I liked Tom Cruise in Born on the 4th of July but didn't enjoy Vanilla Sky. I like Vincent in Law and Order but I won't watch Men in Black because as far as I'm aware he has a rather cheesy role in that movie. I think Mark Ruffalo sort of perhaps looks better with shorter hair actually like he had in this movie rather than longer hair like in other movies. Although I think he should get his chest hair waxed or something... there was a scene where I caught a glimpse of it and there was a decent amount of it and personally I don't like lots of chest hairs. I wonder if he has back hair as well... 

Sort of interestingly, I found myself sympathizing with Mark Ruffalo's character (the one who hit the other guy's kid and just drove away) more so than the father of the kid who was killed. I'm not really sure why, honestly, because you'd think that one would sympathize with the man whose son was killed by a driver who then left the scene. Perhaps what influenced it was that Mark Ruffalo's character was divorced and only got to see his son sometimes, otherwise he was in the care of the ex wife. Mark Ruffalo's character definitely tried to be a good father/make his son happy (they shared a love of baseball) so perhaps that was part of it. Also, the other guy had a crop of facial hair and heavy eyebrows and honestly looked kind of creepy. And, he began to have problems in his marriage due to how he and his wife (played by the actress who played a drug addict in Requiem for a Dream) were trying to deal with the aftermath of their son's death - he was very angry at the unknown person who had killed his son and was dwelling on it and was contemplating taking justice into his own hands because he believed the police were inept. His wife on the other hand wanted to focus on their remaining child and being there for her rather than steeping in anger about the accident. SPOILERS to come. (highlight between the # symbols with cursor to read) 
# The man whose son was killed eventually does decide to take justice into his own hand and goes out to buy a gun which he then goes to Mark Ruffalo's character's house and threatens him with it (while his son is about to go to sleep in the next room), forces him into the trunk of his car, drives somewhere else and continues to threaten to kill him. A) that's called kidnapping and B) if this were Law and Order and I were Jack McCoy, I would totally prosecute the guy who kidnapped and threatened to kill Mark Ruffalo's character. I mention this because the other day I watched a Law and Order (original version) episode where a mother whose daughter was killed sneaks a gun into the courtroom and shoots the suspect while he testifies. McCoy wants to prosecute the mother because she ended up killing the suspect and people shouldn't take justice into their own hands. His colleagues tell him that no jury will convict the mother because they probably wanted the suspect to be dead as well. However, in Reservation Road, I found the man whose son was killed to be not that sympathetic and I would theoretically prosecute him for the kidnapping. I would build my case by portraying him as unhealthily obsessed with his son's death and unable to let go of his immense anger, which he took out by ruthlessly threatening/attempting to kill the man he believed was responsible. Of course, I'm not a lawyer so this is all just amateur theorizing. Regardless, it's kind of interesting to think about. 
# end spoilers.

All in all I would recommend this movie; I thought it was interesting and I thought Mark Ruffalo did a good job in portraying his role. It reminded me a little bit of the book/movie Charlie St. Cloud in that they both involved baseball fans and car accidents. 

To have or not to have an affair

(mind you, the title does not mean that I am the person considering whether to have an affair or not)

As you may know I am kind of a fan of reading advice columns. In the olden days, I used to read the two (I think) columns that run in the Style section of the Washington Post, one of which is written by a lady named Carolyn and there are interesting little cartoons to accompany the columns (some days, at least). Now, I mostly read Slate's advice column and sometimes the NYT's Ethicist column although I have not read that one recently. 

One column that I read recently on Slate was about a person whose relative had gotten drunk and killed someone in an accident while driving. Obviously, this is an unfortunate situation to be in for both the relative and the person seeking advice. Another person was seeking advice on whether or not she should have an affair with a friend because her husband never wants to have sex with her even though she prances around in expensive fancy underwear. Firstly, an affair is very usually not a good idea which I would assume most people are aware of just due to common sense. Apparently this lady is not and thinks it could possibly have the chance of turning out well. The best solution, with the information given, is probably that she should get a divorce so she can sleep with people however often she likes. Maybe she could become a prostitute if she's so starved for sex. (please realize I'm being a little facetious here.) And she'd even be able to make money off of it that way. Although, it would definitely be a good idea for her to perhaps talk with her husband about this situation - perhaps he could offer some insight on why he doesn't want to have sex with her. Maybe he doesn't find her attractive. Or maybe he needs a prescription for Viagra. Maybe he finds it unappealing how clamorous she is about wanting to have sex and that puts him off even more from wanting to roll around naked in bed with her (or maybe not in bed. Maybe they are the type of people who like to do it in the shower, or in a tent underneath the night sky, or in a public place, etc). Etc. In my personal opinion, being married to someone like that (the wife, not the husband) would decidedly be a nightmare. It would be just unappealing to be married to someone who's always begging to have sex. Our advice column lady says she "doesn't see how he can be a good husband" if he doesn't have sex with his wife barely ever. Maybe he just doesn't like it. Some people aren't particularly fond of physical affection. 

In any case, this lady wouldn't have this problem in the first place if she hadn't married him - presumably she was aware that he didn't like to have sex that often before she married him. If it was so important to her to have sex a lot then maybe she should have married someone else who had similar desires. I guess she could always become a prostitute... although of course, I can't say that that would have any better of an outcome for her marriage as having an affair. She could just tell her husband that it's strictly business... I wonder if she has considered that option, to become a prostitute. It seems like it would satisfy her desire to have sex, at the very least. And like I said before, she could get paid for doing it, so... it couldn't really be all that bad. Or... assuming she fits his type, she could try to have an affair with Donald Trump because he really loves the ladies as various things that have come to light have revealed. And she would get lots of publicity for this, probably, assuming the affair became public knowledge, and it could be like Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton and Donald Trump could end up getting impeached! I see no losers here. Due to the publicity, she could find even more men to sleep with. She seems like the kind of person who wouldn't be totally opposed to having an affair with Donald Trump (never mind his orange wrinkly skin and those tiny hands.... he says there's no problem, but is he being honest??) because she apparently sees no issue with the concept of having an affair, so does it really matter who it's with? Are some affairs more wrong than others? A theoretical scenario: say you are a secretary of a large company and you have an affair with a married coworker. Or, say you are still a secretary but in this scenario you have the affair with the CEO of the company, but he's not married (although he is perhaps dating someone else). Which affair is more wrong? Or are they both the same amount of wrong? Are some animals more equal than others??

Also

Some miscellaneous additional thoughts on Requiem for a Dream.
I decided to watch it again (I must be an emotional masochist) and anyways the second time around for watching anything you can pay attention to all the little details more.
One thing I wonder about is how Jared Leto got to be so pale for that movie. He's quite pale in this movie. I wonder if there was any intentional action on his part to obtain the pale complexion - did he stay indoors for the summer? (I guess if I looked at what time of year it was filmed it might give me some insight into if Jared Leto potentially had to spend a whole summer indoors so as to palen up for the role)
In addition to being pale, he was also rather skinny which I didn't particularly take a lot of note of the first time around because that's kind of my type. I guess a normal person might have noticed it more that he was that skinny. Here is a relevant quote: "I don't like good looking guys. I like them skinny and pale, like they're dying." Believe it or not, this is a quote that someone else other than me said originally. Anyways, in one scene he's looking rather ribby because you can see his ribs a little bit through the back of his shirt. Additionally, I'd bet that he had some nice prominent spine bones while filming that movie, in addition to the ribs. Spines. Ah. He was not bad looking in this movie even though he was portraying a drug addict. Drug addicts apparently tend to not have a lot of extra fat on them.
I don't think I like the way he looks nowadays though. As far as I'm aware he has been tending to sport long hair and facial hair which does not look good. Alas. But still, if I desire pale and skinny look like they're dying type of people, there's always male models. I wonder if any of them also happen to be drug addicts. I would not like to become a drug addict although I realize that the possibility is there, even if it's minimal.

Movie review: Vanilla Sky

I don't really have a lot to say about this movie because it was really really weird and not in a good kind of way. Not even in the Full Metal Jacket kind of way because in this movie I don't think I even really understood the plot that much at all. Even other movies that have been kind of a mindfuck I ended up understanding by the end (think: Dot the i, Dream House, Shutter Island) but this one I just... it left me mostly just thinking wtf. And not in a good way, like I said. Anyways I'm off to read about it so I can find out what the plot was actually supposed to be because I certainly didn't grasp it just from watching the movie. And to think that I anticipated this coming on Netflix today so I could watch it because I thought it would be good. It had Tom Cruise in it is all I can say. 

If you're curious, below is some information on what it was supposed to be about. I don't recommend this movie nor do I recommend Apocalypse Now. Anyways I think I'm off to watch Requiem for a Dream again sometime in the nearish future. 

From Wikipedia: 

According to Cameron Crowe's commentary, there are five different interpretations of the ending:

• "Tech support" is telling the truth: 150 years have passed since Aames killed himself and subsequent events form a lucid dream.
• The entire film is a dream, evidenced by the sticker on Aames' car that reads "2/30/01" (February 30 does not occur in the Gregorian calendar).
• The events following the crash form a dream that occurs while Aames is in a coma.
• The entire film is the plot of the book that Brian is writing.
• The entire film after the crash is a hallucination caused by the drugs that were administered during Aames' reconstructive surgery.

Crowe has noted that the presence of "Vanilla Sky" marks the first lucid dream scene (the morning reunion after the club scene)—all that follows is a dream