| Date: | 2010-09-04 13:23 |
| Subject: | Plays-o-Rama! |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  accomplished |
All right, so let us delve deeper into the plays I spent a good three months bitching about.
~1. Lysistrata - Aristophanes
This was a good play to start the course on. I thought it was incredibly funny, far funnier than I had predicted, and the ideas and portrayals of women were perhaps more fair and truthful than some of the most modern works out there today. I recommend watching it, and here's a link to an awesome performance you can watch. Hurray!
http://blip.tv/file/3616368/
~2. Mostellaria (The Haunted House) - Plautus
I didn't like this one as much as Lysistrata, or rather I didn't like reading it. Our prof. showed us a clip of it in class and the improv going on with the actors was incredibly hilarious, but sitting down to read it was slightly more tedious. You could tell that watching this on stage would be awesome, but reading it while sitting in a library is fairly boring.
~3. Everyman and Other Medieval Miracle and Morality Plays - Anonymous
We read about four of five of these plays, but they were all pretty short so I might as well just consider them as one entity. They are boring, incredibly stale and the only reason they exist in a scholastic atmosphere is because this is literally all the Christians could contribute to literature until Shakespeare saved the day. Just to let you know how blunt they are, in some of the plays there will actually be a character named Exposition... Guess what he does.
~4. The Country Wife - William Wycherley
This one was optional, in that I either had to read this one or "The Way of the World", I picked this one because a professor at the CAW recommended it to me. It was pretty darn funny. Even reading it proved to be amusing, though for those of you who would rather watch Helen Miren act like an adorable bumkin, here's a link: http://blip.tv/file/3699856/
This began our look at comedy that relied more on wit than slapstick (though all Everyman and Friends relied on was an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope) which I found came off the page rather well.
~5. The Rover - Aphra Behn
Two things made me fall in love with "The Rover", the first was the fact that it was written by a woman during a time where a couple generations ago women weren't even allowed on the stage, let alone write for it, and the second was that like a smart little student I checked to see if the library had a performance I could watch (you know, like plays should be taken in) and found they had a copy of a performance staring Daniel Craig and Andy Serkis which is absolutely incredible and frankly impossible to find anywhere else. God bless the library! Seriously, if you attend York University, bring your laptop to the library and rent The Rover (DVD 10771).
It bears noting that you can only rent it for 4 hours. Such is life.
~6. The Mysterious Mother - Horace Walpole
Holy incest Batman! Yeah... our prof. gave us a few plays involving incest, but this one takes the cake. Now we move from comedy to the gothic (what do you mean incest isn't funny???). Not surprisingly I cannot find a performance of it, and frankly it's not that great of a play. I mean, why are the evil friars so evil in the first place? What the fuck do they care if some old lady doesn't give communion? Am I missing something???
~7. De Monfort - Joanna Baillie
And our class is thankfully graced by another female author. This play, if possible, is more boring than "The Mysterious Mother." Here's my issue with "De Monfort": NOTHING HAPPENS. The only thing that does happen, a murder, happens between acts so we don't even get to see that! Most of it involves De Monfort wringing his hands together and mumbling about disliking some guy... then he kills him offstage... then just... dies >.<
This play bored me.
~8. The Family Legend - Joanna Baillie
Despite not liking her last play, I unfortunately had to pick up another Baillie play for an essay. To be fair, The Family Legend was far more interesting and I kinda had a fun time reading it out-loud in my apartment and trying to do the Scottish accents. Of course, writing the essay made me want to smash my head against a wall because literary nothing has been written on this play. It is almost possible that I am the first person to have written an essay on this play about Scottish guys hating on each other.
~9. The Cenci - Percy Shelley
Yes, that Shelley and this Shelley were married. They had quite the sordid love affair. In fact, the whole time I was read "The Cenci" I kept wishing there was a book or a movie about these two I could be investing my time in instead. Not to say that P. Shelley's opus wasn't bad, but after reading "The Mysterious Mother" I found this debauchery to be fairly tame. In fact, I'm still not sure in Old Man Cenci actually has his sons killed at the beginning of if it really was an act of god. Probably the most interesting this about this play was that it was based on a true story, which really shines a light on the corruption of the Catholic church at the time. In fact, a lot of the gothic plays we looked at really took pot-shots at the Pope.
~10. Galileo - Bertolt Brecht
When I bought this book from the bookstore the clerk looked at me with said eyes and said: "Brecht? Man I feel bad for you..." So... that was a good sign. Brecht isn't as bad as that boys haunted eyes made it seem, but I could understand the distance. First off, Brecht believes that people should neither like nor dislike characters in order to give the audience a completely unbiased opinion of the play... unfortunately this means all the characters taste like cardboard and frankly I cared so little for the characters that I sure didn't give much of a damn for the play. The play itself is ridiculously incorrect. Just by chance last year I took an Astronomy class and we spent quite a lot of time looking at Galileo's work and his life... and very little of that was actually presented in Brecht's play. In fact, Brecht's play seemed to be more of a comment on nuclear warfare than anything Galileo ever did... I dunno, as much as I disliked this play it does have the strange habit of popping up in my mind from time to time.
~11. Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett
SPOILERS~ Godot doesn't show.
~12. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead - Tom Stoppard
The play and the movie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4SVVKuOr0c) are surprisingly different, especially seeing Tom Stoppard made the movie version. Having been a huge fan of the movie for a long time, I almost thought I wouldn't need to read the play, but I quick scroll through proved me wrong. Why am I talking about that? Because all of you are to follow that link immediately to watch the movie (staring Tim Roth and Gary Oldman) and then go read the play. It's like double the fun! Quadruple the death!
~3. Ernestine Shuswap Gets Her Trout - Tomson Highway
At less than a decade old, this was our youngest play. Finally a Canadian play got shoved in there. It takes place literally 100 years ago, when Prime Minister Laurier visited and essentially screwed over an entire nation. Hurray for Canada! Actually, it takes place the day before his arrival, as four women prepare the banquet for "Loly-yay." It's written in English, but it uses the grammar of the Shuswap, which makes it almost not English. For example, every time some is addressed their entire name and place of residence is listed... every time. Repetition is a big part of this play, which didn't bother me because it kinda reminded me of an old epic poem (Beowulf, The Iliad) which used repetition out of necessity. How else are you supposed to remember all this information? Anyway, it's a pretty weird play, but I actually liked it. Check it out if you get the chance.
And there you go, what three of my four summer months were dedicated to. I actually feel slightly less hostility towards these titles than I did a month ago, but I still hate morality plays with a strong passion.
-LS
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| Date: | 2010-09-03 13:20 |
| Subject: | Cursed books! |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  confused |
Okay, I am confused.
So this is the book list for my Medieval Literature class:
SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT
Author: WINNEY
BEOWULF
Author: LIUZZA
(Joygasm)
LE MORTE D'ARTHUR VOL 1 (ED: COWEN)
Author: MALORY
LE MORTE D'ARTHUR VOL 2 (ED: COWEN)
Author: MALORY
(Volume 2 is more expensive than volume 1 for some reason)
PEARL
Author: STANBURY
SIR GAWAIN
Author: HAHN
WIFE OF BATH
Author: CHAUCER
(Another one I already owned)
SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT
Author: J R R TOLKIEN
(A course that has both Beowulf AND Tolkien!?! Have I died and gone to heaven???)
So, you may have noticed three of these books have the name Sir Gawain in them, two of which are the same title, so I am assuming are the same story, just different translations. Obviously I went for the Tolkien translation, which also had a translation of Pearl in it. So at least two of the titles on this book list are redundant, and if you're not paying attention you're gonna buy the same story twice... possibly three times if Hahn's Sir Gawain is yet another rehashing of the same story.
Can anyone help explain this to me? Are they in fact different stories? Until I know for sure I'm not gonna buy Stanbury's Pearl or the non-Tolkien Sir Gawains, and hopefully I'll never have to because this year my book list comes to: $380.60
Fuck you school!!!
-LS
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| Date: | 2010-08-30 15:23 |
| Subject: | Shanghai FTW! |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  happy |
I am back from Shanghai, and have survived the most over-crowded day at Fan Expo EVAR. What do I wanna write about though? Books. Books make my soul happy...
I thought I would have tons of time tor ead books this summer, but thanks to taking a summer course where we only read plays, well... I read a shit ton of plays instead. So I've decided to add a third list to my reading year: Plays... but I'll write about those laterz.
12. Helmet for my Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific - Robert Leckie
I read this solely because I had a Pacific marathon (go watch The Pacific NOW) and really wanted to check out the source material. First stop was Leckie's book, because... well... I am in love with James Badge Dale.
And while the two are hardly twins:
That didn't stop me from picture James Badge Dale in Leckie's place (especially on page 261).
13. When we were Orphans - Kazuo Ishiguro
I read this book solely because it took place in Shaghai, and actually only about half of it did take pace there, the rest was in London. Frankly, I might have missed the point of this book, but I found it a little boring. The first 100 pages or so are just about high society in Victorian times. Sigh... The last bit, during the Japanese invasion in Shanghai, was pretty cool, but it was also short-lived. And the ending? When you find out what happened to his parents? I dunno, I just have a hard time believing it... whatever.
14. Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts
This is one of those rare books that are really long (nearly 1000) pages, and yet feels a lot shorter. I never got bored with this book (well, maybe I found some of the sub-plots unnecessary, but hardly boring). It was just incredibly beautifully written, which might be strange when you consider the fact that it was written by an inmate. Also, it had a strange feel to it, because I was never sure what parts had actually happened to the author (whose brief bio at the back of the book is eerily similar to the main characters) and what was made up. This book is filed under fiction, but it feels real. I highly recommend it.
15. Red China Blue - Jan Wong
I read this in preparation for my sojourn in China, and I'm glad I did. It gave me a very easy to understand yet thorough look into the vast political changes China had gone through over the past 50 years. If you are interested in China or political history, this is a great book/autobiography to read. One question though: Hey Jan, you're Canadian, you live in Canada... why can't you spell 'colour'?
16. The Good Earth - Pearl S. Buck
This is one of those weird books that everyone I've met over 50 has read it in school and has vivid memories of it, but I had never heard of it before. Well, its an incredible book. It made me cry, full-on out-in-public with tears streaming down my face. It's a really neat look at a China just on the cusp of a communist revolution. The revolution is alluded to early in the novel and in the last chapter or so you hear it's going on, but it never really encroaches on the main characters (only three of whom seem to have real names). Anyway, this book was really great.
All right, that's enough of this for now.
P.S. I hugged Stan Lee. Joy!
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Okay, the following deserves an explanation...
The idea to make this video has been fermenting in my mind for months. What I said in the intro was true, I watched this movie on St. Patrick's Day and my mind was so abuzz with comments and complaints that I could not think of a succinct way of presenting them. So as I watched the movie I started writing a script for a video review.
For years now I've been a fan of internet reviewers like The Angry Video Game Nerd (back when I started watching him he was still the Angry Nintendo Nerd) and just about everyone on That Guy With the Glasses (I'll give you a gold star if you can find my homage to TGWTG.com), so it's really no wonder that my thoughts on movies had become influenced by that format.
I've never had any attention ever at any time before seeing that movie of making a video review - but I have always been interested in the idea of making a video essay (go check out what this guy does on YouTube). So although when I wrote the script I thought it would be fun to make it, it wasn't until I got an idea to make a video essay (more on that - hopefully - in the future) that I realized I should make something mindless that would require the same type of editing as a test run.
So, here's my test run:
(Can't see the embeded video? Click me.)
Hopefully calling it an experiment or a test run doesn't cheapen it, because it was fun to make - and a bitch to edit - and I was surprised by how many of you guys were willing to give up your time in order to help me with my insane procrastination.
Your feedback is priceless because it will help me make my video essay (which I will be doing in September if all goes well). What worked? What didn't? Am I totally kidding myself into thinking I have any wit worthy of being captured on video?
-LS
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Well, if you have me on Facebook you're probably aware of the fact that I attended Anime North last month cosplaying as Madam Red, thanks to the more than 100 photos that have been posted of me since. Geeze Louise...
Anyway, I don't really have anything to add, but here's some weird swag I got at the convention:
In the Dealer's Room one of the dealers wanted to take our (my, Rachel's and Krista's) picture. As a thanks he gave us these:
You're supposed to put them in water...
Then they grow...
And you end up with big squishy balls of water...
Yeah... I don't really get it either, but it feels kinda cool to put your hand in there. It would be a neat thing for one of those blindfolded Halloween things where you put your hand in spaghetti and they say it's brains. These could pass for eyeballs or whatever...
I then bought this!
A black Mokona - the kindred spirit of Maiji - as featured in xxxHolic and Tsubasa Resevoir Chronicles by CLAMP and a (knock-off) Vivienne Westwood lighter, as featured in Nana. So yeah, A strange mix of random crap...
-LS
(See you at FanExpo!!!)
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For the past few weeks I've been watching a shit-load of WWII movies and werewolf movies. What's the connection? I dunno, I like them. Anyway, I wanted to see if I could manage to make a top 10 list of my fav. werewolf movies.
Oh, and FYI, Werewolves > Vampires.
The Pick of the Litter Lycanthrope List
10. The Nightmare Before Christmas
Okay, I am kinda cheating here, but I think you can bend the rules with the bottom spot on any list. There is a werewolf in this movie... although he never turns into a human - that we are shown anyway. Basically, I had nine movies I really liked and decided to go with Nightmare for #10 because I genuinely enjoy this movie and couldn't think of any other werewolf movie (that I've seen) to put here instead.
Moving on!
9. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
I know. "What?" Most people don't think of this as a werewolf movie, but the plot does centre around a werewolf (and another guy who turns into a dog... just 'cuz his name is Sirius I guess. What would he have done if his parents had named him Kip???) and it incorporates the whole tragic aspect of being a werewolf quite nicely.
When I read this book it finally made me realize why people like Harry Potter so much, and it remains my favourite book of the series. Remus Lupin (okay, really? Really J.K.? That was his name and he just happened to become a werewolf???) is a pretty cool werewolf... even if he does give chocolate to kids he doesn't know... and abandons women when he knocks them up... and dies offscreen because... I dunno, J.K.'s printer ran out of ink?
8. Teen Wolf
My guilty pleasure of the list. This movie is silly and ridiculous and doesn't make any sense if you think about it for any seconds, but it doesn't have to. It's just a fun little movie. If you like werewolf movies and haven't seen this, then go rent it! It has a werewolf playing basketball!
Just let that one sink in for a minute.
7. The Monster Squad
This is one of those nostalgic movies for me. It's pretty much a kid's movie. If you haven't heard about it, this movie takes all the classic horror monsters and shoves them together in an 80s-fest. The plot is a group of kids have to band together to defeat the monsters. This movie also began my lifelong question about what magical properties hymens have. I mean really, why is a virgin always needed??? (I swear this is a kid's movie!)
6. Ladyhawk
I'm breaking the mold again. This is a werewolf movie only on a very technical level, otherwise it'd be much higher on the list. It follows the same concept, a man turning into a wolf at night (every night mind you) and he is a tortured soul because of it. Not to mention his girlfriend turns into a hawk during the day. Sucks to be them. So of course they team up with baby Matthew Broderick to fight the evil wizard and lift the curse. It's a great movie - even if it does suffer a little from 80's syndrome - and I like seeing movies that tweak the werewolf mythos a little. They always work out the best, as we'll see later on...
5. The Wolf Man
Let's be honest, this is only really on here because of obligation. This is the movie that started it all. Sure, there were tons of werewolf movies before, but they all sucked vampire balls compared to this one. The makeup and transformation scene in this movie completely changed the way people thought about werewolves and since this movie people have been trying to one-up it... So yeah, let's talk about the remake. Is it as good? Yesno... I mean, The Wolf Man isn't that great to begin with script-wise, it's the special effects it's always going to be remembered for, and of course the remake had special effects that were like a million times better - but the script still wasn't all that interesting.
4. Underworld
I'm including all three movies here, but mostly the first and last (the prequel). People have a pretty mixed bag of feelings over these movies, but what can I say? I enjoy them. They look really cool, the action is awesome and... MICHAEL SHEEN. Seriously, this guy can look really freaking goofy sometimes, but he might just be the sexiest werewolf there ever was. no, fuck it, he is. There is no sexier werewolf.
(Sorry Jacob.)
Am I really putting these movies so high on the list just because of Michael Sheen? Yes. Fucking deal with it.
3. Le Pact des Loups (Brotherhood of the Wolf)
(^Not the wolf, just my favourite character)
Now, I haven't seen this movie in seven or eight years, so excuse me if I'm remembering it through rose-tinted glasses, but I recall it being very striking and it really stuck out in my mind. At the time I thought it was the best cinematography I'd ever seen in a werewolf movie (pre-Underworld) and it just had a cool modern feel to it despite being set in the 17-hundreds or whenever the fuck it takes place. That being said, I did think the ending was a little... meh... I'm really surprised I haven't watched this in so long... or own it. Why don't I own this?
2. Ginger Snaps
When this movie came out there hadn't been a good werewolf movie in about a decade and the ridiculously bad An American Werewolf in Paris had just come out - so this movie was like a breath of fresh air. I don't mean it was only good because it followed the release of so much crap, nor do I hold it in high regards simply because it's Canadian. It honestly revitalized the werewolf movie genre. A shit-ton of werewolf movies flooded the market after this was a success. It wasn't just another rehashing of the werewolf story, but a completely new take.
For starters, we have a female werewolf for once. Already we're in bizarrely new and scary territory. Also, it took something John Landis said (we'll get to that in the next movie) and ran with it - this entire movie is pretty much an allegory for the menstrual cycle. I don't even need to prove it, it clicked in your head the second I said that, didn't it? The other thing I loved about this movie was the sister relationship, which is just something I relate to in general having four sisters.
The sequel was unfortunately forgettable. I thought the prequel was actually much better (than the sequel), but it still wasn't great - I've never been a fan of ancestors who happen to be your clones. How does that make sense?
1. An American Werewolf in London
Sorry to be predictable, but what could I say is the best? Teen Wolf Too? I mean, what can be said that hasn't been said? This is honestly the best werewolf movie I have ever seen. 29 years later and it's still as gruesome, haunting, terrifying and hilarious as it was the day they made it. This movie not only changed the face of visual effects (they literally created an Academy Award category just so they could give the Oscar to Rick Baker for this movie), but every horror movie since has had to follow the same comedy meets horror formula seen here. Of course, I have yet to see it be done anywhere near as well...
It also took the idea of the werewolf and tweaked it a little. Having the victims of the werewolf come back to try and convince David to kill himself is both creepy and absolutely brilliant. Talk about your schizophrenic meltdown...
(^Okay... is it fucked up that I think Griffin Dunne is kinda hot in this scene???)
And of course, back to what John Landis (the director of said masterpiece) said. This movie is basically a metaphor for an erection. If Ginger Snaps is about a woman getting her first period, An American Werewolf in London is about a man going through puberty. They're like companion movies. John Landis says it better than me, so all I'll say is: "Hair where there wasn't hair before."
Well, that's all folks. Think I missed something? Think I've got it all backwards? Let me know!
And, once again, OMFG, Michael Sheen...
-LS
P.S. Think I should try to do a WWII list now?
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| Date: | 2010-06-03 19:13 |
| Subject: | |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  angry |
11. A War of Gifts - Orson Scott Card
Well, I'm really not learning my lessons here. I don't even want to talk about this novella because I don't think it deserves any kind of serious commentary... Ugh, I'll try. This is Ender's Game: The Christmas Special. No, really. It centres around religious zealot Zeck (I swear to god OSC, if you named him Zeck because it looks similar to "zealot" I will hurt you...), yet another super-genius who goes to battle school and-
Okay, we need to take a break here. Hey Mr. Card, are you capable of writing a character who isn't a super-genius? Because I honestly can't think of any main character in any of the books in this series who is just fucking normal - except for villains or minor characters. LEARN TO WRITE A DIFFERENT CHARACTER. Right, back to A War of Gifts... sigh...
-Dink. So Dink is trying to invoke the spirit of Satan Claus or Sinterklass or Black Peter or something by giving gifts... gifts like socks... to other students and Zeck adamantly opposes him because Santa is an anagram of Satan... or something. I feel like a jackass just writing a summary, I can't even imagine what OSC felt like writing this novella. They argue, Muslims pray, Ender has about three fucking lines and then swoops in at the last chapter like the incarnation of Santa Christ and solves everything by giving Zeck a sock.
I don't know, I fucking hated it. HATED IT. There is an unwritten rule in science fiction that you NEVER put in Christmas. Want to know why? Because you end up with shit like Santa Claus Versus the Martians and this piece of crap. It's completely pointless, it's just shoved somewhere in the Ender's Game timeline, meaning that it neither adds nor takes away anything from the main story. It's like that ridiculous Beauty and the Beast Christmas movie they did. Worse, it's just another lame attempt to rewrite Ender's Game. We really don't need to see the same story through every characters eyes. Twice was pushing it, this is flogging the horse and pissing on it.
The worst part is, I am still gonna continue to read his novels, but take my advice, skip the novellas...
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Ugh... just found out my stupid summer course had a book list that costs $200. Wh are you trying to fool Drama 2140, you're barely a real class! I wanted to take a trip to New York, but loosing $200 means I might not be able to... dang.
That being said, who would have ever thought I would go to summer school... by choice...?
9. First Meetings - Orson Scott Card
As a long time fan of OSC and the Ender series, it sort of pains me to say that I did not enjoy this collection of short stories very much. The first story I guess made sense, but I didn't really buy. What we saw of Ender's father before never suggested he was this wunderkind, and how come if the rest of his family is so dumb the government thinks they'll be able to breed super-genius Ender? Whatever, I guess it ties up a lose end from Ender's Game. The second story is... more misogynistic tripe. Yeah, they're both pretty bad, but what disturbs me is that I can't figure out if OSC is himself a little bit of a misogynist or if he was just trying to make everyone in the world haters of women. The second story upsets me more because it is stupid... just stupid. Ender's parents meet and within the span of 24 hours decide to get married and breed super babies. Yeah... moving on. The third story is the only story worth reading, because it's the original Ender's Gamer. It's pretty much just the third act of the novel, although anyone else notice Petra isn't there? There are no women in this version! The fourth story... Ender does his taxes. For real. The system of taxes doesn't make sense, by the by. If I go to England when taxes are due (which I did last year) I didn't have to pay taxes to the English government just because I was on their soil. IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!!! Sure, I guess it's nice seeing how Ender met Jane, but seriously, a short story about a war hero doing TAXES!?! GO FUCK YOURSELF ORSON SCOTT CARD!!!
10. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Sorry, my brain is a little drained. Who knew I had so much hatred for First Meetings? This book was good, and sad, and meaningful... but that whole thing that happens in the end with Ray and Ruth/Susie leaves me feeling a little, weirded out. I mean, they essentially slipped her a ruffie and... did things to her. Okay, but really, it's a great book. If you liked the movie you'll enjoy the book even more.
-LS
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| Date: | 2010-04-20 19:53 |
| Subject: | Lemon custard? |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: | accomplished |
Doctor Who inspired this bit o' madness last night:
What could be better for a Doctor Who marathon than Fish Custard to snack on??? Not bad, I totally recommend it. Works great with chicken fingers as well.
8. Once Upon a Time in the North - Philip Pullman
A much better novella than Lyra's Oxford, this one really made me want Philip Pullman to write more companions to His Dark Materials. I highly recommend it to all Lee Scorsby fans!
-LS
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| Date: | 2010-04-15 00:03 |
| Subject: | FREEDOM!!! |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  exhausted |
Just finished my last exam today, so I am finally done my first year of university. It was my Astronomy exam, which had some ridiculous questions about gamma rays and light spectrums, but also even more ridiculous questions like:
Uranus is:
a) Bigger than Earth
b) Small than Earth
c) The same size as Earth
d) A silly name for a planet
Okay, I exaggerate slightly, but there were two questions about whether or not Saturn and Jupiter were bigger than Earth. All in all, I think it went fine.
Then it was Krista's birthday, so we had an impromptu dinner for her. At one point Wally mentioned how once, many years ago when I still lived with them, he overhead me in the kitchen giving a soliloquy to Rolo ice cream. I have no memory of this, but I honestly do not doubt it.
Book update! I read a lot for school, but most of the time I only real short stories, articles or parts of novels, being that I only record graphic novels and full novels, I realize my list so far this year is a little short, still, on we go...
7. John - Cynthia Lennon
Not as interesting as I thought it would be. I thought there'd be all these scandalous secrets or whatever, but it actually panted John in a better light than my initial prediction. I would say read this novel if you want to hear about Yoko being heartless or Paul proposing to two women and then immediately dumping them. However, if your a Beatles fan there isn't anything in this novel you haven't heard of before.
*2. Fullmetal Alchemist 20 - Hiromu Arakawa
I <3 Fullmetal Alchemist.
*3. Fullmetal Alchemist 21 - Hiromu Arakawa
Anyone else who's read this noticed Ed's growth spurt in this volume? I mean, it's about time! I assume Ed has finally turned 16 by this point, but it's never really specified.
*4. Fullmetal Alchemist 22 - Hiromu Arakawa
I am both incredibly excited and viciously annoyed by what going on in the manga. On one hand, we are finally reaching the climax and every page is cooler than the last and o the other hand... we're reaching the end :( I shall go cry now.
-LS
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Hey, just trying to encourage people to give me feedback on an experimental story I'm working on. It's my naive attempt at a romance. So read the chapter and tell me what you think... or you can just stare at the cute critter.
I won't judge.
Read me!
-LS
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Well, it's English class time, and we actually have a lecture that's halfway decent, so rather than completely ignore it in an attempt to write some essays, I'm gonna do something that uses less brain power:
Review Pokémon!!!
I have SoulSilver, so that's that one I'm reviewing, but let's be honest, they're not exactly terribly different from one another.
1. Old v. New
Between my sister and I we own and have played every single version of every single Pokémon game that ever was or will be... but believe it or not I never played this game. It came out when I first moved to Toronto and I was sort of in a weird place then and never bothered booting it up, but my sister did and once her twice shared her thoughts with me. She disliked having Pikachu stalk her in game and would just deposit him in the PC to get rid of him, she always couldn't stand how ridiculously easy the Pokémon League was, but understood it was so they could have such an extensive second half where you go back to Kanto - which was rather cool in her opinion (and everyone else's. In fact, I've heard it called the best Pokémon game EVAR because of this fact).
So, having the Pokémon follow you around this time is five kinds of awesome, because it can be any Pokémon you want and it's really cute to see them all chibified. I especially like having an Unown follow me, because when you walk from side to side they appeard only as a line. How awesome is that? A 2-D character in a 3-D world???
2. Menu
Just comparing this to previous Pokémon releases (Pearl, Diamong and Platinum), this menu system wins by far. It is so easy to see and find everything in your bag or Pokédex, because now you see everything as icons. And... geez, not much else to say, just that the menu rocks my brain.
3. Control
I both like and hate the controls in this game. On one hand you can now do everything with they stylus... exactly for control walking. It's really a pain to use one hand for button mashing and another for stylus control, so I end up forgoing the stylus and just using the buttons, so I don't get to enjoy this awesome control system. They should have it so absolutely everything can be controlled by the stylus, that way it's not so awkward to hold.
4. Gameplay
The same as every other Pokémon game... so, perfect.
5. Voltorb Flip
I was unsure of this strange new game at first. There's always a little casino in every Pokémon game and all they offer are slot machines. I have no idea if Voltorb Flip was in the original Silver, but my god I am happy it is in SoulSilver. The slot machines were annoying and mindless. They made you think there was some skill to them by sometimes having a Pokémon point at which buttons to push, but it was just mindless button mashing and relied on boredom and luck to play. This time we have a game that's the love child between Sudoku and MineSweeper. Although there's a little luck to it, you really have to know how to play the game, and count. In fact, it's like the simplest form of card counting. A few more games and I'm off to Vegas to play Black Jack. I haven't made it past Level 5, but I only encountered it lack night. Best of all it costs nothing (except you time and dignity, but hey, you checked those at the door) to play.I love this mini game and I hope future Pokémon games take a cue and have casino games that are not mindless.
Well, that's all I have for now, if I have anymore thoughts I'll make another post. What do you guys think about HeartGold and SoulSilver? And how does it compare to the original?
-LS
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Dear EBGames Employee-
(Sorry Meagan, this is the exact opposite of the kind of stories you wanted.)
Today I was at your establishment to pick up my pre-odrered copy of Pokémon SoulSilver. I also decided to buy the guide book because I like to have all the stats at a hands reach and not have to spend twenty minutes online to figure out what the best ingredient for a fucking poffin is. At first the transaction went on nicely, until the following happened: You mentioned that the book was 20 per cent off seeing I bought it with the game, this wasn't the problem, the problem was when I sarcastically remarked that "well, with savings like those, I can't afford not to buy it" you decided that you were better and smarter than me because you thought I was a) being serious and b) too stupid to know that you can find walkthroughs online.
You did quickly realize that you were advising customer not to buy something right next to your manager and tossed in a quick line about there being "pretty pictures" for me to look at in the book. Yeah, thanks dickweed, don't want too many words in my books, they do overwhelm me so... Of course, you didn't just stop there, did you? Then you preceded to tell me how you used to play Pokémon when you were younger, but grew out of it, etc, etc.
Allow me to say now that I did not appreciate your condescension of the things I was buying or what I like to do with my spare time. I especially did not like someone who works at an EBGames acting like they're better than me because I pre-ordered a Pokémon game when I'm sure every time a new shitty first-person shooter comes out you put one aside with great anticipation. I don't like the fact that a guy who is 30-years-old and probably takes great pride in his gamer score on XBox Live is acting like I have a problem for liking a fun little game I can take with me when I travel, because I do travel. I visit other countries and experience life while Douchey McScumass spends all his time pwning noobs on Halo 3.
Sincerely,
Psychic Trainer Elise
6. Push - Sapphire
Alas, I don't have a whole lot to say about this novel, I though it was very interesting the way it was written, switching from first person to letters written between to people, to short stories written by side characters. All in all, a very cool book to read. The subject matter was of course quite dark, but it does leave you with a nice sense of there being light and hope at the end of that dark tunnel. Haven't seen the movie yet, but seeing as what I liked most about this book was the style, something tells me the movie will be slightly lacking.
-LS
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4. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business - Neil Postman
Some of you might recall my rant about this novel from last year, so I won't bore you with that, instead enjoy this paragraph from the last chapter. It really struck my interest, because Postman suggests this and an unlikely solution to the problem of television:
"The nonsensical answer is to create television programs whose intent would be, not to get people to stop watching television but to demonstrate how television ought to be viewed, to show how television recreates and degrades our conception of news, political debate, religious thought, etc. I imagine such demonstrations would of necessity take the form of parodies, along the lines of "Saturday Night Live" and "Monty Python," the idea being to induce a nationwide horse laugh over television's control of public discourse. But, naturally, television would have the last laugh. In order to command an audience large enough to make a difference, one would have to make the programs vastly amusing, in the television style. Thus, the act of criticism itself would, in the end, be co-opted by television. The parodists would become celebrities, would star in movies, and would end up making television commercials."
Jon Stewart anyone?
5. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
Can you believe I never read this before? I couldn't. Especially since I'm awfully familiar with it. Why? How? Because one of my favourite movies is Apocalypse Now, which some of you might know is just a retelling on Conrad's novella. It's such a haunting novel and I actually started reading it a second time after I finished it. There's this whole strange conspiracy going on that it took me a second reading to really understand. I think Apocalypse Now treats Kurtz's character slightly differently, or at least made more of an attempt to say it was the cruelty of men that drove him insane. I think that's why he goes mad in Heart of Darkness as well, but people (or certainly the jackasses in my class) seem to blame Africa for making him go mental... Aw, I'm rambling. It's a great little book, it's written in slightly difficult language (being a hundred and eleventy years old and all), but it's well worth the two or three hours you'll need to set aside to read it.
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This picture makes my life.
Anyway, entered a writing competition at my school today. I don't enter writing competitions very often (or rather, the last time I ever entered one I was in junior high), this is mostly because a) writing competitions have ridiculous word count requirements and b) you have to pay to enter. The idea of paying someone to read my writing is awfully... silly.
So this is a writing competition run by the school, not entry fee, no word count requirement and the winner gets $400. Not bad. I entered a short story and a poem. I don't actually like my poetry, but I figured I might as well give it a go.
The number for my short story is 35 and my poem in 26... and I'm not actually sure anymore if those were the numbers I got, because I have a shitty memory. The guy before me handed in a poem and his number was 34, so this leads me to believe those are the numbers of entires so far. Today is the last day to enter, so it doesn't look like there's a whole lot of competition.
There was also a category for screenplays, but I thought I didn't have any finished screenplays. As I handed in my stories I remembered I was wrong, I have a finished one from Grade 12, but I don't really feel like handing it in. After all, I nearly killed my printer with all the copies I had to print this morning. Who needs four copies!?! The price of entry is: ink and paper.
Anyway, won't know the results until April I think, so I best be promptly forgetting about all o' this.
-LS
P.S. The lady taking the entries, the head of Professional Writing I think, was really stressed and short tempered with us, but as I left she wished me luck, which was nice - as I was the only person she wished any luck at all upon :)
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So, today my curiosity got the better of me and I saw this movie:
A long list of things popped into my head that I wanted to complain about, though I guess it's more a comment of how modern civilization has adopted Greek mythology.
First off, I know nothing about the books this movie is based off. I also haven't done any recent research on Greek mythology, so I apologize for any errors made in my haste.
1. British ≠ Greek
I just hate how every movie casts British people, or gives people British accents whenever representing anything ancient and/or European. It's just... aggravating.
2. The Empire State Building
I was gonna let it slide that there is for some reason a door to Olympus on the Empire State Building, just like I forgave Doctor Who for saying the Daleks helped build it, but there were a couple of things that grated my nerves about this. First off, why does Percy's mom know where the door is and how to unlock it? She can't enter Olympus, so why would she ever need to have this knowledge? Second, it leads to a sort of parallel universe, and my understanding of Olympus was that it was on Mount Olympus. There is a physical place in out natural world where these gods supposedly kicked it old school, so why are they in the Netherworld here?
3. Everything About Percy's Upbringing
All right, so we are led to believe that Percy's mom married Scummy McDouchbag to hide Percy's smell... or whatever... in order to keep him safe from things attacking him. We are also led to believe that there is a magical camp where only gods, demi-gods and mythical creatures can go... but no evil creatures? First off, Percy's mom's plan fails horribly, as Scummy McDouchebag is apparently not nearly smelly enough, and he does get found out. So, that was a waste of time. Why didn't she send him off to Camp Plot Convinience? Clearly it was a safer place, except from Hades... which is never explained... and clearly she isn't capable of raising him in any way shape or form, so why doesn't she fall in line like all the other mortal parents and ship him off???
4. Gods Are Not Allowed to Have Contact With Their Children
... wait... what-
5. There Are A Bajillion Demi-Gods
No, just no. I know the gods like getting jiggy with it, but they aren't popping out a hundred kids a decade. They have better shit to do!
6. All the Demi-Gods Are the Same Age
No, I'm letting this one go. I'm just gonna assume there is more than one Camp Ship-your-immaculately-conceived-children-here.
7. Hercules v. Herakles/Heracles
Ugh, everyone does this, so it's getting to the point where it's meaningless to correct, so let's just spell it out: Hercules was the Roman name, Herakles was the Greek name. Are we good?
8. James Bond's Horse Bits
I'm cool with a satyr and a centaur watching over Baby Poseidon, and I though the Satyr covering his physical differences with the crutches was kind of clever... but then it gets completely undermined by Pierce Brosnan being a centaur who can... what? Chop his horse part off? No seriously, how does he do that? How does he hide the fact that he's a centaur? Does his wheel chair have Time Lord technology? How come he can hide his legs but Grover - YOU NAMED A SATYR GROVER!?! - has crutches? Also... how come Grover has no balls?
9. "Every Time a Bell Rings an Angel Get It's Wings."
The satyr horn thing was stupid... just stupid...
10. Hades ≠ Satan
We just love mixing Christian belief systems into Greek mythology, don't we? Here's what they got right: Poseidon, Zeus and Hades are brothers. Here's what they got wrong: everything else."The big three" - as they are lovingly referred to in the film - are lords of their own realm. Zeus got the sky, Poseidon the ocean and Hades the underworld. Hades as it refers to the underworld is not hell. All dead people go to the same fucking place. But no, for some reason here Hades is Satan, Zeus is god and Poseidon is Kevin McKid. Why does everyone want to piss me off!?!
11. Percy Jackson
Okay, this is just a complaint about the actor, but I don't care enough to look up his name. This kid cannot act. "Hey Percy, you're mom's dead." "Sucks to be her!" "Hey Percy, you're mom's not dead, just a hostage." "Nooo!!! My mother!!!" Ugh, he just had no emotions. I care not for him.
12. The Enemies
Hey kids, name all the Greek mythological creatures you can. Okay, I got minotaur, hydra and medusa. Into the story we go! They were forgivable, except for Medusa. She's dead you idiots... AND YOU HAD HE STARE AT HER OWN REFLECTION AND SHE DIDN'T TURN TO STONE! YOU STUPID FUCKING-
13. Hades <3 Persephone
Here's what I remember of their story. Hades was a little lovesick and a tiny bit more obsessed than is generally considered healthy, and takes Persephone down to the underworld. Her mother Demeter gets a little peeved and makes Zeus convince Hades to give her back. Zeus, not wanting to be a cock-block, says she has to stay in Hades for six months of the year because she ate six seeds (Krista says Hades tricked her into eating these, but I recall it being someone else offering her seeds and that compromise being something Zeus came up with). So, not the healthiest relationship in the world, but she's not quite the caged and horny animal we see in the film... Also, this clearly takes place in the spring, so WTF is she doing in Hades at that time anyway?
14. Gods Are Not Allowed to Have Contact With Their Children
Okay, no seriously: what? The explanation finally given is that they can't see their children because it distracts them from their duties and for some reason Zeus actually has the authority to make Poseidon do this. I CALL BULLSHIT! First off, Zeus is probably the worst offender of unprotected sex on Mount Olympus, and I don't see him making up a rule that will probably hurt him the most. Second, them having kids has never driven them off course before, why would it now? How about all the mortals out there with children? Should we impeach leaders of our nations because they have children which might distract them? Fuck off... Third, it seems these Gods all have about a kid every other month, so I doubt they'd be so concerned with their well-being that Zeus would actually need to create a rule to keep them from even speaking. Fourth, contact with said children would have prevented all the shit from going down.
15. The Movie Doesn't Suck
The special effects are great, the action ain't half-bad, the comic relief wasn't over the top and annoying... but my god this movie could have been so much better. It's mediocracy pisses me off more than any other aspect of it.
... I think I'm done. That is all.
-LS
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... Can I keep him?
-LS
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Ah, the Olympics, feel that patriotic pride burning in your heart. I'm not too sure what I think about the opening ceremonies, but I thought I'd just share some thoughts I had while watching them.
Opening Ceremonies
Well, when Vancouver said they weren't even gonna try to compete with the Beijing opening ceremonies, boy did they mean it. Oh, I kid, I kid! But seriously, of course it wasn't anywhere near as cool, but I guess I didn't expect it to be so mind-boggling. Of course, my lonely joint greatly appreciated the sheer insanity of what I was witnessing.
I nearly had an aneurism when I saw this:
Yeah... WTF?
Did anyone else have flashbacks to Avatar when that big tree thing showed up? Or how about what that chief started hitting the ground with his staff? "You shall not pass!" anyone? Whoever designed this whole thing really loves Hollywood fantasy movies.
Then Gretzky lights the torch, and I felt as though I had just read a mystery novel, thinking the entire time that the murderer was the doctor, only to reach the end and discover that... yeah, the doctor was the murdered. So, uh, I dunno if I'd say I was disappointed, but I mean, honestly: Who didn't guess that? In fact, I had guessed everything who did the torch relay race in the stadium and the flag bearers. I even guessed the astronaut! The only one who surprised me, bizarrely enough, was:
Steve Nash! So he was the only one I was genuinely excited about seeing there.
The whole torch mishaps really confused my less than sober mind. So entranced was I by the pretty fire that it took me until the announcers said something was wrong for me to realized I had been staring at nothing for five minutes.
Oh weed, I will do nothing without you from now on.
Anyway, then to add to my sheer confusion my feed on the computer actually cut out, so I had to quickly find an article to find out what happened. So what? They threw Gretxky into a van and drove him to the torch? That cannot be what they resigned themselves to do. That was their Plan B? Drive the flame to the torch? At least get him to run, that sounds way more Olympic.
Yeah... I think that's all I've got on that for now.
Nodar Kumaritashvili
The death of this 21-year-old athlete was tragic, but not unexpected. For the past few weeks I've been hearing about this track and how fast and dangerous it was and I knew we'd be seeing lots of crashes at this Olympics. What I did not expect was the architect or whoever's responsible, to look at this death trap and not think: "Hey, maybe at this really dangerous turn we should have wall instead of steel beams? Or like, a cushioned wall? Maybe?"
People should lose their jobs over this!
I haven't actually read the news today, so I don't know how that inquest is going or what's even going on with luge. All I know is that no one should EVER die at the Olympics and as the host country we need to be held responsible for not taking every safety step necessary to ensure that people actually get to walk into the opening ceremonies with their teammates!
On the bright side, I guess we all get to numb our brains by counting medals.
-LS
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| Date: | 2010-02-09 12:26 |
| Subject: | Arrrrg! |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  distressed |
I cannot stand my English class this semester. I'm not entirely sure what exact part I dislike, be it the texts we're reading of my prof's boring lectures of our tutorials where I want to jump out the window for sheer boredom. Our tutorial room is also fucking freezing. I have this class for three straight hours, one and a half for the lecture in the hall with no plugs and then off to tutorial where I never really join in the conversations because said conversations are either about race or Blackberries v. iPhones. I have nothing to say on either subject. In fact, this entire course is about race. Every text we've read so far is about race in England. If it were just race, that would be fine and interesting, but throwing in the English stuff is mind-numbing. None of us our English, none of us are affected by the going-ons of England. NONE OF US CARE WHAT MARGARET THATCHER SAID IN THE EIGHTIES SO STOP BRINGING HER UP AS SOME LIFE CHANGING EXPERIENCE WE ALL HAD.
Ugh, I can't even order my angry thoughts properly.
Last week in lecture our prof started going on about the Tempest really being about the homosexual love affair between Prospero and Caliban... WHAAAAAAAT!?! I'm sorry, but I really don't think Shakespeare was trying to imply that Prospero was in love with his Caribbean slave and THAT'S why he was angry when Caliban tried to rape his daughter.
I am so fucking bored right now and don't think I should even continue to show up for class, except I need to pass this fucking class so I keep showing up, day and day, to been bored mindless. The text themselves are interesting, but if our prof has anything interesting to say about them then he has completely failed. I have never been so bored in a lecture in my entire life. His voice is so monotone that half the time I don't even know what he's saying. All his words sound the same. I try taking notes, but everything I hear sounds redundant and unimportant and I just can't fucking stand it. The fact that I have to go to the tutorial in half an hour actually makes me want to cry.
I don't think I'm going to make it through this semester without jumping off a roof.
-LS
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Uh... that's not a sentence I ever wanted to say, sort of turns my stomach and makes me feel sick. I just can't help it, when people bitch and moan about a movie and then get the facts wrong it drives me nuts.
First things first. This:
Is a terrible movie. It's not even in the category of being so good it's bad, it's just bad. It's illogical, annoying and just poorly executed... Anyway.
Reasons not to hate this movie over:
Bulma's hair isn't blue/green/turquoise/purple: Yeah, okay, let me stop you right there. Just the very fact that I just listed four colours should be some indication that the anime never had much reverence for her hair colour. Akira Toriyama always gave her purple hair. So yeah, who gives a shit what colour her hair is, it's hardly important.
Goku should be Asian!: Why? While the planet Dragon Ball takes place on is Earth (I don't wanna be a total geek and start naming chapter and episodes, but Bulma and Popo do visit Jupiter at one point, and of course the moon is present), but Goku doesn't come from Earth. He's from another race on another planet and the only genetic trait Saiyans seem to share with Asians is black hair.
That stupid pot: I don't think they did a very good job explaining it... well they didn't do a very good job explaining ANY of this movie, but the 'plot-pot' does come straight out of Dragon Ball. The big difference is in Dragon Ball it's a huge plot-point that actually makes sense and is also... a rice cooker. Yum.
How can Goku become Oozaru without a tail?: I'm pretty sure I've heard it from the horses mouth that they decided against giving Goku a tail (which is so retarded because the tail echoes the entire basis for this manga exist - ie. Journey to the West).
But I want to give the movie the benefit of the doubt. We never see Goku naked (thank kami!) and for all we know it's his deep and dark shame he just doesn't talk about.
There are no high school dramas in Dragon Ball: Yeah, putting Goku into any form of formal education - or just plain education for that matter - is ridiculous, but doesn't anyone else remember Gohan's high-school adventures?
Reasons to hate this movie:
No Vegeta:
Okay, that might just be me. Obviously Vegeta had nothing to do with the King Piccolo Saga, but if they're gonna just skip through volumes and volumes of graphic novels (about 14 to be exact - 36 if you wanna count the alien/high school stuff) and take whatever story bits they want, why not just skip to Dragon Ball Z? You're hardly gonna leave anyone in the dark here, most people who like Dragon Ball are only familiar with Dragon Ball Z, so just do the Saiyan Saga and be done with it!
No Krillin:
You wanna know why the King Piccolo Saga was so tense in Dragon Ball? Because Krillin got murdered! He was the first main character to die (heh, and come back) in the series, and they completely erased him from the canon.
Plot Rape: There's just too much... far too much... to go over...
-LS
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