Saturday, June 16, 2012

{insert quote about how awesome summer is here}

What I’ve been doing for the past three days of summer:

(1) Reading: Anna Karenina. Seeing as I’m only on page 25 as of today and it’s only the part when Levin’s contemplating about proposing to Kitty (and Anna Karenina hasn’t even been introduced yet!), I can’t give a fair opinion but so far? I kind of actually like it. I despise Oblonsky like I never despised a character before and adore Levin like I adore Toby Maguire’s Peter Parker (which is a very, very good thing). My favorite quote in the book right now: “There was no solution, but that universal solution which life gives to all questions, even the most complex and insoluable. That answer is: one must live in the needs of the day-that is, to forget oneself.” (pg. 7)

(2) Contemplating about a job at Kumon teaching English. Hopefully I’ll get it.

(3) Filling out University housing/dining/everything else forms. I’m excited about university and all but I’m pretty sure I’m going to die under all the paperwork (hopefully not).

(4) Rewatched: Joe Wright’s Pride & Prejudice and Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin with friends. Spazzing out over the hilarity of Mr. Darcy and Tintin’s ninja-ness ensued. (They’re the perfect films to start out a summer with.)

(5) Watched: All of Season 3 of The Office. S3 of The Office is a gem; All the episodes are amazingly written and executed on screen by the actors and the behind-the-scenes crew. The best episodes of S3 in my (humble) opinion are definitely “Branch Closing,” “Business School,” (which was directed by Joss Whedon!) “The Negotiation,” “Beach Games,” and the season finale, “The Job.”

On my to-do list for the week: The next 729 pages of Anna, Season 2 of the Office, and faxing in insurance documents to The University on time!


(This repost was posted here.)

the one that left me blubbering



There's no way I can explain my admiration and L-O-V-E for the Parks and Recreation season 4 finale in an intelligible manner yet because this week was completely exhausting (and let's face it-the finale took my emotions to a whole different level), so I decided why not just list out the scenes I adored the most?

So ready? 1...2...3..GO:

  • "I've never been one for meeting new people or doing new things, or eating new types of food, or traveling outside of Southern Indiana. I've had the same haircut since 1978, and I've driven the same car since 1991. I've used the same wooden comb for three decades. I have one bowl. I still get my milk delivered by horse. [Ben, incredulous: You do?] But you and Leslie like to hold hands and jump off of cliffs together, into the great unknown. You twohave a good relationship. I don't personally know what that's like, but I am given to understand it means you're going to land on your feet." -Ron Swanson to Ben Wyatt.

  • Blue Ivy Carter's sorta cameo appearance in Tom's dream. (She apparently gives him a high-five.)

  • Jerry dying from nervousness about Leslie winning.

  • Ben's inability to drink scotch with Ron.

  • Ann cheering Leslie up with kickboxing.

  • "Your ambiguous ethnic blend perfectly represents the dream of the American melting pot." - Leslie to Ann

  • Donna-April-Andy group hug!

  • Jean-Ralphio/Ben Shwartz cameo!!!

  • Ron finding Leslie in the city council room and their following conversation.

  • Leslie giving Ben the tiny Washington monument statue the way he gave her the Knope Pin from episode 1.

  • Ann being sneaky with the polling results and Leslie's reaction to it (Amy Poehler, you are beyond perfect.)

  • Ben saying that he didn't write a concession speech for Leslie.

  • And the most misty-eyes-ugly-sob-can't-stop-the-tears-from-flowing inducing scene: Leslie choking up in the voting booth because her she's voting and her name's on the ballot and she's voting and she might almost win the position of city councilman and her name's on the ballot.

  • WAIT! The runner up misty-eyes-ugly-sob-can't-stop-the-tears-from-flowing inducing scene is....the part when Leslie slides her picture next to the old city Councilman's picture on the wall of Pawnee's old Councilman's because you know, she's been wanting it for for four seasons and...she finally achieves it.


I can probably write pages on why Parks and Recreation is as amazing as it is, besides the fact that it has the best season finales (see: season 2's last episode), but not today. Today, all I can say is that I'm glad that we'll be able to go back to Pawnee, Indiana this fall. Thank you, NBC.

(This repost was posted over here.)

words on the twenty-first of April

(This repost was posted over here.)

(1) Jimmy John's does not lie
...about their speedy delivery, that is! At my internship one day, we decided to order Jimmy John's for lunch. Our sandwiches were delivered, and I swear I'm not lying, in under five minutes. Magical delivery, ftw.


And their sandwiches are not bad either.

(2) The wait for the Catching Fire director is over, and no, it's not Alfonso Cuaron. (A hundred frowny faces cannot come close to explaining my misery at the missed opportunity). It's not even Bennet Miller (the one I was rooting for in the final director showdown). It's Francis Lawrence! He's the director of several Lady Gaga music videos, I Am Legend (with Will Smith), and Water for Elephants. (Um, so does this mean we can expect Robert Pattinson as Finnick now? :P)

Now I don't live anywhere near LA so I have no idea how Hollywood production really works, but It's sort of surprising that Lionsgate is trying to trying to finish this film as quick as possible because wasn't Hunger Games several years in the making with Gary Ross at the helm? Taking time = quality and classy stuff as the final product. And I'm pretty sure there were always 1.5-2 years between each Harry Potter film except for the first two and the last two (but only 'cause they were shot continuously.) Shooting Catching Fire might be okay, but here's the most frightening part- there's only four months for pre-production! ( I am clearly waaaaaayy to invested in this series *cough*) November 16, 2013, here we coooomeeeeeee, whether everyone's ready for it or not.

(3) So I love Pride & Prejudice, right? My love for this classic burns with the fiery passion of a thousand suns and maybe a bit more. Finding out that Hank Green is producing The Lizzie Bennet Diaries completely made my Friday and the vlog-adaptation miniseries (which are in the POV of our favorite literary heroine transformed to fit in our world of 2012) is incredibly clever. How clever? Get this- Bingley in this vlog series has been modernized into Bing Lee. (Please don't tell me that I'm the only one who spent five minutes straight laughing when I heard that.) And in case you don't feel like jumping over the Lizzie's youtube page, here's the first vlog diary entry here:

top three: Shakespeare


(This repost was posted before over here.)

Othello‘s not my favorite Shakespeare play by far because gosh darn it, why can’t everyone just be straightforward with each other for once?! And why oh WHY doesn’t Othello believe Emilia when she’s defending Desdemona?! It would’ve saved him (and the rest of the cast) a whole lot of trouble. And poor, innocent Cassio. He just wanted his JOB BACK.

Anyway, since I’m studying for my Othello exam for tomorrow and am in the mood for thinking about Shakespeare, here are my favorite Shakespeare plays (comedies and tragedies) in no particular order:

1. Hamlet. Unlike Othello or Romeo & Juliet, the circumstances are not caused by blindness and secrets but rather Hamlet’s fear of taking action and you know, SCAR his evil uncle. The psychology behind the play is fascinating. Plus, my favorite character makes it through the sort-of-bloodbath in the end. Woo-hoo!

2. A Much Ado About Nothing. If I had to pick a favorite Shakespeare comedy, I’d pick this in a heartbeat. The relationship between Beatrice and Benedick is the classic love/hate relationship and the play is everything a comedy should be.

3. A Taming of the Shrew. Er, no of course I didn’t put on the last because 10 Things I Hate About You is one of my favorite teen film classics. Can I just say that it’s just a really fun read?

Of course, I still have yet to read the rest in the myriad of Shakespeare’s work such as As You Like It, Julius Caesar, and Twelfth Night. But I shall get to them someday. (Insert dramatic pause here.)

Oh, and MOST IMPORTANT FILM NEWS ALERT: Lionsgate has shortlisted Alfonso Cuaron for the job of directing Catching Fire!!!!!!!!!! (One exclamation mark is clearly not enough to contain my excitement at this piece of news.) Even though I fell on my knees and exclaimed “NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!” when I read that Gary Ross decided to leave the series*, after reading about their beyond awesome shortlist, my sadness at his departure has completely (well…almost) disappeared. I hope the shortlist isn’t just a studio wishlist and that negotiations are going to happen soon because my nerd + film-loving life is going to be made if Alfonso Cuaron decides to roll up his sleeves and take the job. (But seeing as I probably jinxed the whole ordeal with this paragraph and because he won’t be able to commit because he’s working on Gravity, it’s probably not going to happen.) *Fingers and toes crossed*

*Well I would’ve done exactly that if I wasn’t in a room surrounded by people. *Ahem*