Ramblings of a Constipated Mind

Mason's party was alright. I played a game of beer pong and sat around for a few hours. During the weekend, I went to three movies (see the film blog) and satisfied my new addiction: Guitar Hero. Unfortunately, I have now made it to Hard mode, and I'm not very good. My future as a world-famous guitar player does not look bright.

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Last night I went to a screening of Over Her Dead Body. I had never heard of it, and I wasn't expecting much. My official review comes out tomorrow, but to sum up the experience in five words: it felt like being aborted. That is the only way I think of to describe it. RV deserves an Academy Award compared to this movie. Yes, you read that correctly. I will not be surprised if many people who see it decide to become atheists because they don't understand how a loving God would allow such a project to be greenlit.

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John Edwards dropped out of the Presidential race. I guess this means I'm going to be voting Obama. The only Republican I'd even consider voting for is Ron Paul, and he doesn't have much of a shot at getting the nomination. Huckabee wants to "take America back for Christ," which I find scary and annoying. Romney freaks me out. And I disagree with McCain on pretty much everything. So yeah, if I had to bet, I'd say Obama is going to be our next President. I'll probably end up voting for him, anyway.

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I have cable now. Woohoo! I have also made a rather shocking discovery about a recent television show. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles actually doesn't suck. With a title like that, I was expecting it to be awful, but it's actually pretty interesting and does some interesting things with the mythology. Hopefully it will stay that way. Now if only the strike will end so I can start watching The Office and the new season of Battlestar Galactica...

Also: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is probably one of the funniest shows I've ever seen, especially considering practically no one has even heard of it. It's without a doubt the most politically incorrect show on television, probably ever. Episodes will focus on topics like abortion, homosexuality, even pedophilia, and somehow it works. I laughed so hard I almost cried. It's so wrong, and yet so wonderful.

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Daniel Day-Lewis seems like a cool guy. He dedicated his SAG award to Heath Ledger. He also appears to have read my commentary.

Quote of Da Moment:
"Sitting on the floor is 'roughing it' for me."
--Ana Moorefield (paraphrased)

My one class tomorrow has been canceled due to the teacher getting sick. It is now officially the weekend! Woohoo!

Weekend plans: tomorrow night I'm gonna hang out with Mason and celebrate his 21st birthday. My hypothesis is that, as happens on most Americans' 21st birthdays, there will be enormous amounts of alcohol consumed. I'm guessing a few people will end up spending the night there after passing out. Speaking of which, here's a random question: why is it that people still make a big deal out of their 21st birthday when a lot of them have already been drinking for a few years? I guess it's just like, "Hey! I can actually walk into a store and buy alcohol myself now! I think I'll do it, and throw a huge party to celebrate!" American culture boggles my mind.

I'm also planning on going to go see two movies at the campus cinema, and possibly one or two other movies if I have time. I've gotta catch up on the Oscar nominees. Other than that and do some reading for school, I don't have a lot of plans. Should be good.

My review of There Will Be Blood got published in The Technician/my film blog today. I also ended up writing a last-minute commentary about the death of Heath Ledger, which someone on the Technician website has already publicly thanked me for. It feels good to be appreciated.

Yesterday, I was feeling kinda depressed about the whole Heath Ledger thing. Then I heard my Netflix movies and a package had arrived for me at my old mailbox, so I went and picked them. I came back, set down the movies, and opened the package to reveal...

...the best belated Christmas/birthday present I have ever received. It is a gift that is thoughtful, beautiful and possibly life-changing. My depression was instantly replaced by sheer, unadulterated joy. It is the gift to end all gifts.

That's right. I got a Borat mankini.



Same color, same everything. It is wonderful. It was given to me by someone who shall remain anonymous. Anonymous, you rule. I can now cross "wear a thong" off my List Of Things To Do Before I Die. Here is the new, updated list:

1) Acupuncture (completed)
2) Discover what it's like to wear a thong (completed)
3) Go to China (completed)
4) Go skydiving (completed)
5) Go bungee jumping
6) The running of the bulls
7) Adapt something by Jeffrey Ford into a screenplay
8) Write a book
9) Make a movie

The verdict on the mankini: it is strangely comfortable. Sitting down is fine, providing you can get your, uh, "package", into the little pouch. Standing up, I alternated between thinking, "This actually feels kinda good" and "This is like having a really bad wedgie." It takes some getting used to. But overall, it's eh-NICE!

And yes, if enough people ask me to, I will post pictures of me wearing it. I am not ashamed of the mankini!

It is a sad, sad day in Hollywood.

The guy was only 28, and had already been nominated for an Oscar. He was shaping up to be a very, very respected actor. I remember when I first saw him in The Patriot, and being surprised at how good his performance was. He's only gotten better over the years. Is he this generation's River Phoenix?

It looks like an overdose on sleeping pills - accidental or suicide, we don't know. The scary thing is that it might be related to his role as the Joker in the upcoming Batman movie, The Dark Knight. There are reports that Ledger claimed to have become so immersed in the role that he needed to take sleeping pills at night because it disturbed him so much.

This really came out of left field. It's probably going to be a bit creepy watching him on screen this summer. I hope he nailed it.

May our thoughts and prayers go to his family, particularly his daughter. Cheers to you, Mr. Ledger. Rest in peace.

I have seen There Will Be Blood, and have updated my film blog accordingly.

The director of Magnolia has done it again. I'm still trying to process everything. A couple of random thoughts before my full review later this week:

1) Daniel Day-Lewis gives what might be the best performance of the decade. And it's weird, because I usually judge acting by how well the actor makes me forget that he's an actor. For example, if I can watch Tom Cruise in a movie and forget that I'm watching Tom Cruise, then he's done his job the best way he can and made me see only the character. With this movie, I was alternating back-and-forth between seeing Daniel Day-Lewis and Daniel Plainview. But each time the words "Daniel Day-Lewis" entered my brain, it was usually followed by something like "delivered that line really well" or "is freaking me out with how good he is." The rhythm and tone with which he delivers his lines gave me chills.

2) What a thought-provoking examination of capitalism and religion and how when taken to the extreme they are immoral and destructive. It also shows how both capitalism and religion ultimately depend on each other, despite their frequent conflicts. And why is it that both capitalism and especially religion are often associated with blood ("washed in the blood of Jesus")? I think it's fair to say that Communist China would definitely approve of the messages in this film.

3) I have no idea why Anderson chose the title he did. It's not that bloody.

In other news: this kinda scares me.

Quote of Da Moment:
"Do you think God is going to come down here and save you for being stupid? He doesn't save stupid people, Abel."
--There Will Be Blood

To be perfectly honest, I don't know enough about Martin Luther King. However, I do know that the guy gave some awesome speeches, promoted unity over divisiveness, and basically said we should all love each other regardless of petty things like skin color. What what I've read he also supported non-violent resistance. I guess maybe like the Gandhi for African-Americans? In other words: he was a cool guy.

We got a day off from school to reflect (or not) on how great a guy he was and how white people suck for killing him. White people suck for a lot of other things too, come to think of it. So cheers to him and his memory.

Well, I've been to all my classes now, labs and all. It doesn't look like this semester is going to be too bad, at this point. Having only one class on Mondays and Fridays is great, because it gives me more than enough time to basically do the whole week's worth of homework. Hopefully the rest of the semester is like this.

Oh, except my last film class sucked. Instead of focusing on Double Indemnity, the teacher blabbered on about all this really weird, abstract theory regarding history and film. Now, I have no problem with a little abstract thinking now and then, but when a film class opens with the question "What Is History?", you know you're in trouble. She started throwing around all these big academic film words nobody knew and talking (I think) about the historiography of film and how film doesn't just reflect history, it's more than that (but I didn't quite understand what exactly). There are two people I know from the Film Committee in the class with me, and afterwards we were all in shock. One girl said she took a history of film class last semester and it was nothing like that - it was actually about movies. All I know is that somewhere between the time I entered the classroom and the time I left, my brain went supernova, collapsed on itself and formed a black hole that proceeded to devour any intelligent thought or bit of rationale I might use to understand what was going on. At least tomorrow we're watching another movie... time to recover.

Luckily, not all my lectures have been that bad. My history class on Modern Asia is going to be focusing on China, India and Japan. From what I can tell, I've already got 1/3 of the class down. This week we're talking about China, and I was the only person in class speaking up to actually answer questions and whatnot. Everyone else is probably just shy or something, but still, it feels good to actually know a decent amount about something.

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I found out today that a single room is available in another residence hall and my name is next on the waiting list. I decided to take it. It's in Wood, which is about 5-10 minutes farther away from my classes (and my car), and is practically in the middle of nowhere, but hopefully the pros will outweigh the cons. It will be nice to have a little more space for myself. I guess if I end up hating it, I can always move back.

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Last night I had to go to a dinner for the Caldwell Fellows and talk about studying abroad along with five other students. I think it went pretty well. The problem is that it ran slightly long and there wasn't time for a question-answer session with the audience. It's frustrating when you feel like you have a million things you could talk about, but don't get a chance to because nobody asks. Grrr.

Overall, though, it went really well. It was great to catch up with people. I wore the silk shirt that I had bought in China. I think it is quite possibly the single best fashion decision I have ever made in my life. Everyone who knows me knows that I don't pay a lot of attention to clothes and how I dress. I just don't see the point a lot of the time; American culture is way too appearance-focused. Give me a t-shirt and some ratty jeans and I'm fine, you know? Anyway, I got multiple comments from total strangers while I was walking to dinner. I would pass by people and they'd go, "Nice shirt!" or take one look at me and go, "Awesome!" It gives me an excuse to think, "Yes, I know, I'm sexy, hands off." One guy said, "Nice costume," but I'm going to pretend that didn't happen. For all I know the shirt really looks retarded, but I don't care. It's comfy and it gets people talking. I think I'm going to make it what I wear from now on to any dress-up occasions. Put out the Oriental vibe.

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I have a ticket to go to a screening of There Will Be Blood tomorrow night. I am nearly wetting myself with anticipation.

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Blegh. Back at NC State. Hopefully this semester will be okay. I'm taking 17 hours, and as usual some of my classes look like they'll be cool, while others look like they are going to suck hardcore. I have to take a class on Social Research Methods for my Sociology major, and I'm required to do 6 small projects for it. I'm sure it will be helpful for learning how to do good social research, but still. Not exactly my idea of a good time. I also have to take a statistics class and two labs. On the bright side, I'm taking a class on the History of Film Since 1940, and we started out by watching a movie. Woohoo! We saw Double Indemnity, a classic noir film from the 1940s. It was great, with some surprisingly witty dialogue. I wish my life was narrated by a dramatic voice-over.

Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are going to be hell on Earth, but I've scheduled my classes out so I only have one fifty-minute class on Monday and Friday, so it's practically like having a five-day weekend every week. Yay! Anyways, school is going okay so far. With luck, this semester won't be too hard and I'll be able to have some fun and do other things (like find a girlfriend?).

On a completely unrelated note, I've been keeping up a little bit with the Presidential primaries. I watched the Republican debate around a week ago. Honestly, I pretty much hate all the Republican candidates. They all sound nearly exactly the same, and like they're afraid to go too far in opposition to Bush, maybe out of fear of a backlash from the GOP or campaign supporters. The majority of them were basically like, "Give Bushie some credit!" and a couple of them even said the USA has the best health-care system in the world, which anyone who knows even a little bit about world health care systems know isn't true at all. We do have very high quality health care, but in terms of availability, it's not even close to where it needs to be.

The only Republican I would even give the time of day to is Ron Paul. He came across as kind of insane during the debate (but in a good way), probably because he was the only one calling for really major changes and the other five guys jumped on him for it. He's the only one that directly stated he was against the concept of preemptive strike (he even quoted the golden rule), and acknowledged that in order to tackle health care and immigration you're going to have to make big economic changes too. I don't agree with him on everything, but he at least seems to actually believe what he says. He's rich enough he doesn't need to rely on outside forces to finance (and possibly influence) his campaign.

In terms of Democrats... at this point, I'll probably end up voting Obama if he gets the nomination. I agree with Clinton on a lot of things, but we've already had 20 years of Bushes and Clintons in the White House, and I think it's time for a change. Obama needs more experience, true, but it might be good to get young meat into the oval office.

Anyways... if you're wondering which candidate to vote for, you should check out this site. Thanks to my mom for sending me the link. I came out closest to Obama and Hilary.

Bedtime.