The Illusionist (2006)(repeat), dir. Neil Burger
I saw this movie soon after it came out, but watched it again one night in the hostel I stayed in when I was in Prague. (Which is weird, since it was apparently primarily filmed there, although it takes place in Austria.) It’s a great film, with Edward Norton the brilliant magician-cum-con-man. I hesitate to say anything much more about it, because I think it’s worth seeing without many preconceptions. Definitely recommended, though. Amazing.

Clash of the Titans (2010), dir. Louis Leterrier
This was a shitty remake, that makes little sense and follows few myths that I know of. It wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t really worth much. Although I guess I made it through it without falling asleep. Saw it in Copenhagen.

The Boat That Rocked (aka Pirate Radio, US and Canada)(2009), dir. Richard Curtis
The better of the films I saw in Copenhagen. A quite funny British comedy about an imaginary pirate radio station broadcasting to the UK from the North Sea, and the young man who comes there. It wasn’t amazing, but it was quite funny, and quite enjoyable. A bit ridiculous, like any good comedy. Pretty feel-good sort of comedy.

Young People Fucking (2007), dir. Martin Gero & Aaron Abrams
This one I watched in Sweden. It’s a lot less inappropriate than it sounds, actually. It’s sort of like someone took Mumblecore and then grossly distorted it — it’s got some of the same ideas, which is to say it focuses on the relationships between young people, but at the same time it’s a comedy and not graphic at all despite being frank. It wasn’t hilarious, but I did enjoy it overall. (The plot: five groups are followed through the lead-up, act, and aftermath of sex.)

Up (2009)(repeat), dir. Pete Docter
Still wonderful the second time. I don’t get why people don’t like this movie. Watched it with Jacob and Bri in Italy. (Original review.)

From Paris With Love (2010), dir. Pierre Morel
Things that made this movie good: the fact that it has Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who I like. Things that made this movie bad: the script, the plot, the problems with the story. Honestly, it wasn’t boring or uninteresting, but it just didn’t feel coherent to me. Totally appropriate for watching on a trans-continental flight, which is why I didn’t mind.

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), dir. Chris Columbus
Honestly, more fun than From Paris with Love. Also watched it on my flight back to the States. I do like children’s fantasy, although sometimes it’s a bit silly. This is silly. It, again, breaks way too many of the stories of Greek mythology. But the story is really just a journey story with some bildungsroman and some quest story thrown in.

Shutter Island (2010), dir. Martin Scorsese
I liked this a lot more than I thought I might. Also watched it on the plane, and surprisingly similar to Inception, weirdly. DiCaprio in quite a similar role. I spent most of the time wondering which story it was going to follow: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (dir. Robert Wiene) or The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether (Edgar Allen Poe). I won’t ruin anything by telling you the answer. I found a lot of issues with the story, but on the whole I found it creepy and attention-holding, and didn’t really worry about the plot holes until after the film. I also really loved the very end.

The Princess Bride (1987)(repeat), dir. Rob Reiner
William Goldman’s novel is brilliant. The film adaptation is, also. I first read the novel in elementary school, and mostly believed Goldman when he claimed that it was an adaptation of a novel by S. Morgenstern. I only found out about the film years later, and instantly knew I had to see it. Unlike many such circumstances, this one ended well — the movie is similarly a masterpiece of comedy and drama. Mainly comedy, to be fair. I own it; Blake and I watched it on Saturday. Worth every re-watch.

Inception (2010), dir. Christopher Nolan
I am glad I saw this in theatres. It reminded me in certain ways of Paprika (2006), a crazy anime film about a machine that allows its users to enter into others’ dreams. That film is in some ways the opposite of this one — in Inception, dreams are almost always logical. It’s received quite a lot of criticism, some of it perhaps warranted, other parts not at all. This is a film where I did not entirely like the ending, but on the whole I thought it was truly excellent. The acting is good, and some of the issues people seem to have with the script may actually be brilliant. Depending on how you view it. I loved the use of “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien,” random but beautiful; I loved the apparent incongruity of Ellen Page and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as action film stars. Okay, so there are problems with the film. The logical nature of the dreams is odd. There are lots of questions that arise. But you know what? Those questions have answers, or possible answers. And I like that. Definitely like that. I would definitely recommend seeing the movie. Perhaps without reading too much more about it. I’m not even going to try to summarize the plot; just watch a trailer and then go out and see it.

I got my stitches out of my lip today, which is good. I’m looking forward to my lip healing entirely.

You know, I rarely post on here like I used to — like I used to five years ago, I mean. This sort of thing — each paragraph treating a different topic, loosely connected perhaps but perhaps not at all. Also there were entries that were numbered because they were so completely unrelated. Sometimes I like looking back and reading something I wrote, say, five years ago. Things have changed a lot; they also have changed very little. (It should be noted that these old posts aren’t here on this website.)

I’ve been following the World Cup, which means that for the first time since the last World Cup (when I rooted for France), I’m watching entire association football matches. It’s fun; it also means that I’ve had more conversations with my roommates than ever, since we can talk about sports for once. It’s kind of fun, although I still don’t know most of the players. I’m rooting for the US, and for Spain. If it comes to it, I’ll transfer allegiances to Argentina, or perhaps Brazil. But we’ll see what happens. I’m watching Argentina play Greece right now.

Now to break some rules, and follow some others;

Sometimes he receives notes from the past,
short in their wording and direct in their import;
they break out of the seas like bubbles
and hold him to a forgotten wall.
When they come to him,
they are like fireflies below a waning moon
and he closes his eyes before them
in a movement of shame.
The words are always written in a heavy hand,
script more indentation than outline,
the black ink sometimes faded.
They are always unavoidable.
When he dines with his girlfriend
or transfers lines in the depths of the subway,
he has been known to see reflections,
or embossed words
in the wrinkles on her face,
in the plastic boxes that house advertisements.
Once, in frustration, she called him late at night
and asked him to explain his distractions.
“I can’t,” he said into the receiver,
“and I don’t know if I want to.”
The present is not inescapable
any more than the past is incapable of forgetting;
his dreams will not leave him alone,
because he has not yet given them up.

I think this is a good example of why I haven’t written a poem in quite some time. But that doesn’t [necessarily] mean that it’s bad.

I made Madeleine’s pumpkin pasta last night, and am eating its leftovers with some bacon to give it a different flavor. I made the dish in the first place because I found a can of pumpkin I bought last November, and then forgot about; it’s a great recipe.

When I first started living here, in October, I disliked cooking for just myself, since I was so used to always cooking for three or four. But I’m not averse to leftovers, so I’ve been enjoying the idea of cooking for myself one night and eating it for three or four. As I’ve mentioned before, I try generally to spruce up leftovers — it’s a lot more fun to eat the same thing when it’s not quite the same thing. Roasted chicken turns into roasted chicken tacos. Spicy peanut sauce and pasta turns into pasta with pan-seared chicken and a creamy spicy peanut sauce. Pumpkin pasta becomes pumpkin-bacon pasta. The other day, I made a vegetable dal, with a gigantic cauliflower and some pepper and other veggies. Without meaning to, I made a huge amount, and literally ate it for five meals (lunches included); it was good since I couldn’t chew as well as normal. By the last day, I was tired of it, though; I turned it into more of a soup than it usually is by adding water and small pasta, and a bouillon cube. The flavor transformed — it was the same, but varied.

I’m going to miss living in Spain. But I don’t think I’ll miss it that much, somehow.

I had some nightmares last night. Quite unpleasant. I need to do some exercise, no.

2. I didn’t want to make dinner tonight, but wasn’t willing to do another tomato-sauce pasta, so I did anyway. And oh yes, delicious. (Onion,) Eggplant, Italian red pepper, and mushrooms with a coconut milk curry sauce, on Israeli cous cous. So many of my favourite things.

The XX, Wilco, Panda Bear, Fuck Buttons, Dr. Dog, The Antlers. Pavement, The Pixies. Yeasayer.

Now there’s also:

Beach House, Broken Social Scene, CocoRosie, Diplo, Florence + The Machine, Grizzly Bear, Major Lazer, Matt & Kim, Final Fantasy, The Books, The Field, Titus Andronicus.

Now, some of these groups I want to see more than others. And some I’d see more because they’d be fun live than because I love their music. (Major Lazer, for example.) And let’s not forget about the bands that people (Ali) tell me I should see, but that I don’t know yet. But wow, awesome.

She discusses the necessity of finding suitable plaintiffs for a case like this, by comparing the Lovings, who were plaintiffs for a case on interracial marriage (and have the perfect name), with the woman who was the plaintiff in Roe vs. Wade (and later became an anti-abortion activist). I heard an NPR piece on Rosa Parks, and how she wasn’t in fact the first woman to do what she did, but instead was the one who had the best background for pursuing a national suit. (Before her, most recently, was a 15-year-old named Claudette Colvin who was pregnant and not thought of as a good face for the campaign. Which makes sense, really.)

Anyway, I recommend it for reading. I wish I could jump to the end and see what happens, but I guess that doesn’t work so well in Real Life.

I have no excuse for this. They’re just catchy and fun.

Not really, just a thought: Paul Auster, the American author who wrote City of Glass and a number of other novels, seems to be more famous here than he is in the States. I’ve only read that one book (and its graphic novelization, since Jacob had it), and most people seem never to have heard of him. Here I see his books in every bookstore. It probably has to do with the fact that he won the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature, a prestigious Spanish award, fairly recently.

2. A lesson on Theory of Mind.

When two people have an argument about ideas, rather than about facts, they both perceive the argument differently. They represent their background and ideas differently, and it becomes two different arguments when presented to two separate individuals. If both people think they’re right, then they skew the other person’s argument and present things against their own backdrop. That doesn’t make them right.

Anyrecommendations? I think maybe it needs a font change. And maybe the orange isn’t a very good color…

Also exciting is that I finally am fleshing out the pages of the site. I did all the programming for a quiz intended to help me (anyone) memorize Sanskrit names for yoga poses. Unfortunately, I think I need to reconsider the complexity of it. It seems a bit too hard. Also, the original terms I used are a bit off. Some of them are totally right, especially all the root terms, but there are a few where there’s a Sanskrit name and the matching English “name” is actually just a description / direct translation, when really there’s an English name for the pose (or, sometimes the English is a description of who the pose is named after, when it should be a description of the pose, which is more important). So I need to go and fix up my database. Any thoughts on this are also appreciated, except I recognize that at the moment no one’s actually looking at this blog. Someday, perhaps!

Fin.

For the moment, I upgraded the software. The rest will come shortly.