I've been in a bit of shock the last few weeks hearing and seeing various publications refer to author Stephenie Meyer as the new J.K. Rowling. Sure, there are a few similarities but as I see it, not enough to warrant the comparison - and that's not a bad thing either. I couldn't get into the Potter series but I entered Meyer's books on the ground floor and was hooked immediately.
I'm one of these people that has never been afraid to read from the teen section at the book store, mostly because over the years I've come to find that many of the fantasy stories I've enjoyed have come from there. I was looking for some new reading material last year when I noticed "Twilight" on the shelf. The cover caught my attention and taking a quick read of the inside cover, I decided it would be worth a shot - considering my love affair with vampire stories. I was sucked in from the first few pages and ran out before finishing to find the second book ("New Moon") in the series. By the time that was done, I only had a few short weeks to wait before book three, "Eclipse", came on the scene. I don't track best sellers so I had no idea just how big this entire Meyer thing was until the movie was announced.
In a recent TIME article, reporter Lev Grossman had this to say:
That's the power of the Twilight books: they're squeaky, geeky clean on the surface, but right below it, they are absolutely, deliciously filthy.
And that right there is the only explanation needed for Meyer's work. It's like Anne Rice for "geeky clean" teens, taking on some of Rice's themes from a different angle and using very, very different characters.
I like Meyer's stories and her method of storytelling so yes, I'm a pretty big fan. I'm curious to read her up coming sci-fi novel, "The Host", which is due on shelves in early May, mostly to see whether her style transcends the vampire genre and if she can be as successful without Edward. In the meantime, I'm holding my breath the fourth installment of the so called "Twilight Series" which is due later this year and of course, then there's the movie...
There has been a lot of talk around the interweb over the last few months surrounding the firing/letting go of various "prominent" and not so prominent traditional movie critics (by traditional I mean traditional media). Some folks snapped out against bloggers, others against the papers themselves and other still managed to understand that we're in the midst of technological changes that will affect our lives and the lives of generations to come - yes, even things like the way we see film and how/what we read about it. To some, that may be one of the most unimportant aspects of the day to day but to others, myself included, film is a huge part of our lives. Even if I didn't "write" about it, for me movies provide an escape, a learning experience and sometimes even the motivation and inspiration to do something.
I had read a few of these various commentaries but it took Armond White of the New York Press and his essay to really make me question what my place is in my pseudo role as "film critic".
Reading the first few paragraphs I was angry and to an extent, I can't overlook White's dismissal of some of last year's best films but reading on, sleeping on it and re-reading the piece this morning, I also can't help but wonder if White doesn't have a point. With the ever growing number of bloggers out there, everyone has their say and I wouldn't want it any other way but are we missing something in our culture which critics used to provide that is now "apparently" provided by bloggers? If that's indeed the case, how come I don't stumble on these great criticisms on a regular basis?
It's been a hard admission but I'm guilty of White's charges. I don't have a PhD in film, English, art, music or even life but that also doesn't mean that my experiences and personal learning doesn't influence how I interact with film and what I take from it. My life is enriched by more than just movies. I read, I listen to music, I write, I talk to people, I learn from them. What I don't always do, and what I've decided to make an effort to change, is how I share my experiences interacting with film and vice versa. White's point that we need to look and engage beyond what's on the screen and whether it's good or bad and examine, question and argue the merits of the message is a well made point. I'm lucky enough to be involved with a group of people that feel the same way and that want to share, enjoy and discuss more than what's up on screen so I don't have huge steps to take to make my change - I just have to do it.
When I started this movie blogging thing, I never imagined I'd be here 3 years later, having moved from running my own site to contributing to what is shaping into a fantastic site yet - here I am. I'll admit that I have secret dreams of being discovered and becoming famous. I'll also admit that I know very well that it's wishful thinking. What I do want to gain from all of this is the opportunity to share my thoughts on one of the things that brings me great joy in life, film, with others and if one day I can do so and be able to support myself doing it, that would be a huge bonus.
In this recent interview, WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg touches a little on publishing and how everyone's famous to 15 people but what struck me most was his comment of RSS feeds as personalized newspapers. What this suggests to me is that there's room for all of us out there on the bloggosphere. Traditional critics don't have to go silent, they simply need to move beyond lamenting on the loss of their daily/weekly/monthly regular readers and keep providing their thoughts and ideas on the web. I do this for free, because I love film. Yes, I understand that everyone needs to earn a living but life is hard for everyone. Critics aren't the only ones losing their jobs and sometimes, one needs to make sacrifices. Perhaps these great critics can't make a living from doing what they love but how many of us really can? Bottom line: if you love something enough, you should do it regardless of what it pays or even how many people are reading it.
Overall, I think Mr. White was a bit harsh in his commentary but it certainly struck a cord with me and for that, I thank him.
I had a fantastic day yesterday. I mean - truly outstanding. Outside of the bomb exercise excitement during the day I attended what was likely one of the most interesting and entertaining talks I've seen to date.
Michael Rubin is one of these all around genious type of guys - smart and funny with tons of stories to tell including his best one: how George Lucas, somewhat unknowingly, revolutionized film making for ever - and he's documented in a great book called "droidMAKER: George Lucas and the Digital Revolution".
I have a film class paper kicking around where I bluntly state that Lucas hasn't made a good film since "THX 1138" (for the initiated - myself now included - that's pronounced THIX) and I stand by that. What I have never meant is that the man is some sort of lackey. I's always appreciated his contribution to film making - I'm just not the biggest fan of his films. That said, I never realized just how big of a part he had in revolutionizing the way so many films are made today. Michael's talk was loaded with details and fun facts but it was all delivered conversationally and with a lot of passion. Entertaining and informative is an understatement. To top it off, he personalized every book to the individual (and I don't just mean with a name. He asked questions about where you worked and what you did) and happily talked about everything from movies to computer tech stuff that was way beyond my understanding. A really super guy.
I also had the great pleasure of meeting Dr. Alvy Ray Smith, co-founder of what is arguably one of the world's best recognized animation companies PIXAR. Does it get any better than this?
Dr. Smith shared a couple of stories about the beginnings of PIXAR, the struggles of getting George Lucas' attention, perhaps most importantly considering PIXAR's current incarnation, the hiring of John Lasseter, how the company got it's name and the first years of struggling to make ends meet under Steve Jobs. Again, a fantastic speaker with loads to of interesting things to share.
All in all, a super night. I'm not sure how it's going to be topped but SIGGRAPH is on the road to doing it again. Next month, a talk from legendary futurist Syd Mead (OMG SYD FREAKIN' MEAD!!!) along with a screening of "Blade Runner: The Final Cut". I already have my ticket although I'm almost certainly going to skip the movie mostly because of its running time. It'll end very late and I still have a long trip home afterwards!
The boss came in a few minutes ago. The last few minutes unfolded like a bad comedy:
Boss: What's going on across the street? Me: At the building? Boss: No, at the coffee shop.
[I walk over the boardroom which has floor to ceiling windows and look across the road. I see a group of people standing around, two cop cars blocking both ends of a nearby side street. A group of folks in what looks like bomb squad attire look on. I start to freak out.]
Me: I'm not sure what's going on but it doesn't look good!
[I look for a few more minutes. Lights go on in my brain. Lots of people standing around. Traffic still moving. Cars parked all around the building...]
Me: It looks like they're blowing up part of the building! One of the construction guys has a camera and there's a crowd of onlookers at the end of the street with cameras!
[BOOOOOOOOOOM! Explosion. Smoke. Car alarms going off. Cops, onlookers and bomb squad walk away.]
This has been the most eventful few minutes of the day. Actually, it was kind of cool to see it unfold. Wish they would have warned us ahead of time. Would have loved to stand out there with my camera!
I was reading a post over at The Blog According to Buzz that really scared me a little. It's about Bisphenol A (BPA) and specifically how this chemical is poisoning children - all thanks to the convenient plastic bottle. Though Buzz specifically speaks to baby bottles, it looks like lacing plastics with this chemical is a fairly rampant practice. If nothing else, it gives me an excuse to drop $30 bucks on a fancy SIGG water bottle which I've been pining over for months!
The commercial fights between Pepsi and Coke continues. I've always been a bigger fan of Pepsi the drink but Coke's commercials always seemed to be on the cutting edge until a few years ago when Pepsi too a strong hold with their Generation Next commercials. I love that branding and the ads that came with but I haven't been really blown away by any of their commercials lately...until recently.
I'm used to seeing the shortened 30 second spot on TV but here's the full Superbowl ad for Diet Pepsi Max. Makes me smile every time:
I know I mentioned I wouldn't go on the Keanu overkill for a few more months, but I remembered to look up his appearance on Leno which is actually kind of fun, mostly because they don't talk about the movie until the last 2 minutes of the second part of the appearance.
What always surprises me most is how different Keanu looks at certain points in the day. I'm starting to get the sense that he's a night owl.
I've dubbed the week Keanu Week considering that nearly every post this week has been about the hunk. Hubby has finally given into my love for Keanu and last night, sitting together before the movie started, hubby actually played along. "Maybe I'll have a dream about Keanu." I smiled and responded "Can I jump in too?" And it's because of things like this that I love my honey.
I had to be critical of the film because in all honesty, it wasn't particularly good but I did have fun. As a fangirl, this would have been my review:
Who ever decided to put Keanu Reeves and Chris Evans TOGETHER in a Dodge Charger deserves a metal. It's like they read my mind.
How else do you expect a Dodge Charger owning/loving girl with serious crushes on both Reeves and Evans to react. That didn't just make my day, it made my month!
The "official" review is here, complete with all of the nitty gritty details but as a Keanu fan, I can tell you this is a turning point and perhaps even a return to his earlier days as a truly talented actor.
And on to today's KFF:
Hope you've enjoyed the overkill. I won't be doing that again until The Day the Earth Stood Still comes out later this year.
I'm not happy. I can't say I had anything specific in mind as to what I expected from their first album in over a decade but I can say that now that I've heard it, this isn't it. I just hope the rest of the tracks are a bit better than this.
This time on the "Today" show. Looks like this was also done this morning (looks like he's sporting the same duds as for he did for "Live with Regis and Kelly" but for whatever reason, he looks a bit uncomfortable too.
Street Kings opens on Friday and as a result Keanu is in full promotional mode and for fans, that means that we're getting lots of new and fabulous material to swoon over.
Keanu was on "Live with Regis and Kelly" this morning and the interview is pretty good. The first half is a general intro and Keanu speaks highly of Canada (woohooo!), hokey (woohooo!) and his interest in doing a romantic musical (WOOOHOOOO!). The second clip focuses a little more on the movie.
Hubby and I are heading to a screening tomorrow night so I'll have a full review up on Row Three late Thursday night!
On a side note, who the heck needs tv anymore? This was on this morning and it's already online! I love the internet!
You'll notice a pretty big change on the blog today namely that's it's naked.
Thanks to fellow local blogger Raul, it's come to my attention that today is CSS Naked Day and I've decided to join in the efforts with thousands of other bloggers, mostly as a thank you to the folks who put in so much darn work and effort so that our blogs can look fabulous - in some cases, at the touch of a button!
Now I just have to remember to dress myself up again tomorrow!
Though that's true, there are 41,012 with my first name and 1,124 with my last name but in combination I am unique. How many of YOU are there? Play along and let me know!
My landlords, who also happen to be my parents, decided to install some new appliances this weekend.
A few weeks back my dad rescued some appliances from a home he's working on. The appliances, a new range and fridge, had been earmarked for the trash but were apparently still in working condition so dad brought them home. After replacing the door of the range and purchasing a new rubber seal for the freezer, the two appliances were ready for installation but I've been gallivanting around town for 2 weeks and haven't been home on a weekend for long enough to finally have them installed. So yesterday, before heading out to a movie meetup, we finally brought in the new appliances. The result, is a fantastic looking new kitchen:
It's amazing how new it all looks and feels and I even mentioned to my mom that it smells like new appliances, even if they are only new to me! I made a comment to hubby that it felt so different. His response "Yeah, it feels like someone broke in and brought us new appliances". Cheeky bastard. :)
What this also means is that I no longer need to turn the fridge off when we podcast because this new fridge is oh so very quiet...this also means that my milk will likely last longer!
Let's recap shall we? New appliances. New TV. New computer (which I'll blog about later this week). I feel like we won the loto!
So that title isn't quite accurate because I'm hijacking the blog for Keanu Reeves goodness but whatever. I've been meaning to post this for a few weeks and for whatever reason, I haven't gotten around to it so here we go.
If you've come by here in the last six months or so you're probably aware that we own a Dodge Charger. Hubby belongs to a local LX group and recently returned from a trip to California. The night he got back, I got wind of this funny story which I'll attempt to retell, even though I've only heard it 5th hand (or something to that equivalent).
One of the guys from the LX group (he goes by WestcoastSRT8 so that's what I'll use here) was flying into LA and because the flight was really empty, the airline offered him an upgrade to first class for a nominal fee. He happily paid up and was seated in first class, with no one sitting in the seat next to him. Apparently, a tall, dark and handsome bloke was sitting next to a woman with a screaming child and asked to be moved. He ended up sitting next to WestcoastSRT8 and the two started chatting it up. Our guy talked at length about the car show, the car and whatever else came to mind while the handsome bloke went on about motorcycles.
At LAX, the two went their separate ways to the same carousel to pick up their bags and the next thing you know, there are cameras and a film crew walking in front of our guy as he's making his way out of the airport. Almost by accident, WestcoastSRT8 later finds out that the guy he sat next to on the airplane was none other than Keanu Reeves (and the motorcycle bit all becomes clear) and all the cameras at the airport...they were there for Keanu's arrival. The result is this fun picture of our guy (the older gentleman seen in the background over Keanu's right shoulder) making it into a bunch of picture with Keanu:
If that's not good enough, there's also this video of Keanu making his way through the airport and WestcoastSRT8 (he's pulling the wheely bag) in the background through the entire thing, looking cool, calm and collected:
Sometimes, it pays to be out of touch. I'm not sure I could have been that cool through the entire trip knowing who I was talking to. Actually, I'd probably have turned into a pile of bumbling words as soon as he sat next to me on the plane.
You know that New Kids on The Today Show bit I mentioned the other day? The YouTube gods spoke and the video is up. I'm a bit disappointed, mostly because I'd expected a longer segment and maybe a little singing but I'm not surprised that didn't happen, especially considering the endlessly screaming fans. You can barely hear anything over the screaming. What struck me most is that as the camera panned over the crowd, I noticed that only a handful of people looked old enough to remember the NKotB first hand. I feel a bit old after seeing that. Check out the video:
Poking around I also found this People.com clip which was kind of fun:
The vaults opened at 4PM last night and all hell broke loose at the office. As a result, I was stuck here until the ungodly time of 8PM (resulting in missing the recording of the Movie Club Podcast which REALLY rubbed me the wrong way). When I finally walked through the door at 9:30, I was tired, hungry, had a pounding headache. I was in bed by 10PM and this morning I still had a headache. Two Tylenol later I'm feeling a bit better but really not looking forward to class tonight. And I still have a podcast to edit before tomorrow. Plus I'm not feeling great.
I was checking out the newest news from TED when I discovered this little story.
During the BBC World Debate last month, which was hosted by TED, someone, presumably a heckler, stood up from the crowd and started talking loudly. Turns out it was Robin Williams and the comedian took over the stage, stopping the debate for a full eight minutes of laughter.
BBC caught the entire thing on video and they've posted three minutes of the impromptu stand-up. I'm surprised that it's not quite as funny as I had hoped for but Williams does take a few shots at himself and then goes on to take a few at technology. My favourite of the bunch is (paraphrase) "You walk into Google and you have have is a computer and an exercise ball. I think that's how they're hatching new employees."
I want more of Robin Williams doing stand-up. It's better than seeing him in crappy movies.
I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a New Kids fan. True, I haven't made an effort to search out a best of album or anything (though the idea keeps creeping into my brain) but I am looking forward to new material from the earliest of the boy bands. A few months back I posted a link to the New Kids website and now, care of Just Jared, we have the first new picture of the gang together and I have to say, it brought a smile to my face. The crew will also be making an appearance on Friday morning on The Today Show in celebration of the 20th anniversary of their "Hangin’ Tough" album. I'll be YouTubing that at some point on Friday.
Does anyone else care about these guys or is this reunion a lost cause?
