Happy New Year!

December 31, 2009

Dear readers,

Happy New Year! I hope 2010 is an even better year and decade for you than ever before!

I’ll be going into 2010 loving:

1. “Nine” Haha I can’t shake it off.
2. my friends – it’s the beginning of a great friendship, I hope.
3. Jane Austen adaptations – “Emma” got it started. Last night I watched “Mansfield Park”.
4. reading.
5. Hollywood’s golden age – today’s celebrities seem so trashy in comparison. Maybe it’s the color photos.
6. self-respect – watching Daniel Day-Lewis in interviews made me realize how much the words I use bring me down.
7. cinematic films - giant impressive movies like “Inglourious Basterds” and “Nine”
8. Italian – I blame “Nine”.
9. German – Dag Sinterklaas, anyone?
10. art – whether it’s drawing or writing, music or film.

See you on the other side.

Love,
Katherine

And Are You Beautiful and Pale

December 30, 2009

Dear readers,

My, there was a lot of thinly-veiled angst this week.

Oh no! Winter break is almost over! Time to head back to the slave-driven lifestyle of the high school student. This break has given me a chance to slow down and contemplate everything, mull over ideas andwrite again. Unfortunately I can’t say the same for unpacking my room.

Anyway, “Nine” was a delight, wasn’t it? Haha okay, enough of the “Nine”-ing. I will try to deter this by listening to “Sweeney Todd”. For now it is working.

Love,
Katherine

P.S. Reading: Emma
Listening to: What else? “Nine” soundtrack
Putting off: French homework, orchestra practice, and screenplay reading
Digesting: curry  

P.P.S. Looketh! We must all give thanks to Madame Tussaud’s in London for this visual wonder. I like that they gave Johnny Depp the most vivid sweater, and that he looks disgruntled.

P.P.P.S. Speaking of, last night I dreamed of dabbling in mischief with Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis. Mainly, flying planes into buildings, stealing food, and wearing ill-fitting polo shirts. Thinking back, they (in my dream) could very well have been Guido and Luisa Contini, but more in love and possessing the bodies of Johnny and Vanessa. Dun dun DUNNNNN! This was all very nice, considering that I have been praying to God not to let me dream of In Cold Blood for the past three days.

I’ve Got a Plan For What I’m Gonna Do to You

December 29, 2009

Dear readers,

Sometimes I walk through the house and I can’t believe that this is my home. It is mine, not rented or borrowed for a quick holiday. You’ll have to excuse this seemingly exaggerated emotion. My parents moved here seventeen years ago and it has taken them that time to get a house of their own. This is kind of a big deal for us.

Then at other times I sit on our cream new old couch, squished between my father and my sister, and I can’t stand being in this place. I feel suffocated, but frustrated because I have nowhere else to go. Every single person in this family is a ticking time bomb, including myself. Genetics how I loathe thee.

I’ve been listening non-stop to the “Nine” soundtrack. I love this movie, flaws and all. I’m trying to get rid of this obsession by listening to other things but all efforts have been futile. Even Johnny Depp interviews cannot help me now. The allure is not so much the vocal prowess of the actors or the lyrical beauty of the songs, but that life takes on a different tone when I’m listening to them. This happens every time I listen to the “Sweeney Todd” soundtrack too.

And the cast – they are so wonderful together. I love their ensemble interviews because there’s a strong feeling of family and genuine fondness of each other. As a side note, Daniel Day-Lewis reminds me of more mature version of MIKA in interviews, mostly because he keeps laughing at the things he says.

Sunyoung and Amanda gave me Moleskine notebooks (a set of three plain journal cahiers and the original, respectively) for Christmas yesterday at the birthday party. I’ve only opened the cahiers, because I’m debating whether or not I want to exchange the notebook for one that is unruled, but I love doodling in them already. I can express myself more freely there. Here I have to keep my readers happy and keep in mind that this is pubic, but in the cahiers I say whatever I feel with doodles and little lines of words. For now, writing is not enough. It’s only the unleashed vomit of emotions onto a blank piece of paper that satisfies me. I apologize for the crude choice of words, but at the moment it’s difficult to find any others that fit.

It’s late, and I’m obsessing a bit over “Nine”, so goodnight.

Love,
Katherine

One Time I Needed You

December 28, 2009

Dear readers,

Gah! A bear sleeping bag that I want but am afraid to want.

You can see more about it here.

It reminds me a bit of “Grizzly Man”, which is not the thought you want to have before falling asleep. I would have a little panic attack every time I see this in my house.

Love,
Katherine

P.S. Asmita was talking about how we both knew the difference between good and bad musically while we were watching “Nine”, but I think that sometime between fifteen and sixteen I gave up critiquing things that way and took up categorizing simply by, “do I like it or not?” Which is why I can now comfortably say that “The Pink Panther” is one of my favorite movies and I don’t mind listening to “Panic at the Disco”, as long as its not for long periods of time.

But Don’t You See that In the End There Will Be Nothing

December 28, 2009

Dear readers,

Hola! I hope you don’t mind if I ramble a bit in this post, it’s winter break and there is no one live to talk to. So here I am, lonely, mind exploding, legs falling asleep, and overly full. I can’t stop thinking about “Nine”. I want to watch it over and over again. Heck, I’d like to live in it. (That last sentence was dangerously Mary-Sue.)

I’m writing prose again, which is great, and I have this feeling that this will be the great American novel, which is not so great, because we all know everyone thinks that way as they write and it doesn’t help at all to think that way. I feel like writing funny stuff again, so perhaps I’ll start writing that PotC fanfiction again. Or something new. You never know.

And I’m in extreme like with the new BBC adaptation of “Emma”.

Tomorrow is Angela and Tiffany’s birthday party and I don’t know whether to expect to feel happy or unhappy afterwards. Maybe I’ll come home and write one of those angsty posts I always write after I hang out with them. One thing to look forward to is getting the rest of my Christmas presents. We have a tree up as an attempt for holiday spirit, but no presents were under it. That’s all right with me, I guess.

Grr. I am quite the awkward person. I don’t know how to express myself, except through writing, among other things. It’s like my thoughts don’t quite connect with my voice. There’s a broken line or something.

I don’t really understand MLIA. The stories on it seem to suggest that life is awesome, rather than average. And what’s the great difference between “average” and “meh”, the two choices under each entry? The entries themselves all sound the same now, all trying so hard to be witty that they follow similar formats. No one gets to complain about movies being predictable now, so is MLIA – submitted by the people. We would be hypocrites.

I think I’m in love with the 60s. Almost every movie I watched yesterday was about the 60s. I love the cars (sound familiar?), the fashion, the nostalgic colors that everyone’s recall of it seems to take on.

Marion Cotillard as Luisa in “Nine” was really sophisticated. So was Audrey Tautou as Coco Chanel in “Coco Avant Chanel”. Now I’m just going on and on about everything that pops into my head.

I really like the combination of dark brown and red.

Love,
Katherine

You Want My Soul, Well Take it All

December 27, 2009

Dear readers,

I can’t stop thinking about “Nine”.

As others have said, its weakest point is the execution of the plot, which keeps it from being the movie that it could have been. Visually, it’s breathtaking, and the characters intriguing, even Guido, who you should hate because he does a lot of stupid things. His wife, Luisa, is probably my favorite out of all the female characters. I hope Marion Cotillard wins an award for her performance. If not that, at least her song, “Take it All” should win something. I know “Cinema Italiano” is the more famous song of the two up for nomination, but in my opinion “Take it All” is the better of the two, more emotional.

The movie may not be great, but I do like it very much. Maybe it’s all the movie equipment. Makes me excited.

I watched a few other movies yesterday too, another movie marathon.

“Public Enemies” is better on DVD, if that makes any sense. Mostly because it is less shaky, but it loses the feeling of being there, in the 30s. I also watched “A Single Man”, but I didn’t really like it, even though it was another really pretty movie. Then I watched “An Education”, which I really liked, partially because was aesthetically nice, and partially because I related to Jenny’s dilemna (even if I’m not being taken to shows and auctions by some random older guy). “District 9″ was another good film. We were eating enchiladas while we were watching it (not a good idea AT ALL). I really liked the ending though, and like everyone else has said, it’s cool that it’s not a typical alien movie. After watching it, I hated humans.

Love,
Katherine

P.S. Oh yeah, and “Coco Avant Chanel” too. Good movie, good practice of French. Haha there was this point where one of the characters said, “Je parle anglais comme une vache espanol”, which was an idiom we had learned last year. A minute after he said that, our brains translated it simultaneously and we started laughing for fifteen minutes.

You had to be there, okay? Haha.

In half an hour it will be Christmas.

And I have spent Christmas Eve decorating the tree, eating salty tri-tip beef, and watching BBC’s 2009 adaptation of “Emma”. Now I must read the book.

I’m Busy in the Blissful Unaware

December 24, 2009

Dear readers,

Last night, I was determined not to go to sleep before doing something useful, like writing, which I haven’t done in ages. But a voice kept telling me, “Wait until you get that moleskine you asked for for Christmas.” Of course, I knew that writing in a certain brand-name notebook wasn’t going to help my creativity, so I picked up one of the empty notebooks lying around, and I began to write.

But how did I begin? After months and months of attempts to begin, why did I suddenly succeed? 

I kept repeating to myself what Ernest Hemingway said, “All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know.”

So I did. I wrote down what I considered to be the truth about humanity and then a giant extended metaphor exploded onto the page, so to speak. I wrote a few pages and then I went to sleep.

And I dreamed about going to a MIKA concert. Huzzah!

Love,
Katherine

P.S. And James Dean, but that’s only because of all that Club Retrospect tumblring yesterday. Good golly, with yesterday’s posts alone Club Retrospect’s tumblarity surpassed that of my personal tumblr. Maybe I should just post James Dean pictures every day. But that would be selling out, yes?

But Not For Me

December 22, 2009

Dear readers,

I love these. If only everyone randomly began to speak like this. I would die laughing.

Famous movie quotes as if written by a proper Englishman:

“We must acquire a larger vessel.”
- Jaws

“I’m growing impatient with these malevolent slithering reptiles on this bloody aircraft.”
- Snakes on a Plane

“Toodeloo you ghastly miscreant.”
- Die Hard 1,2,3,4

“Please remove your simian appendages from my person, you unwashed gorilla man-thing.”
- Planet of the Apes

“There is a herptile in my western footwear!”
- Toy Story

“I shall return.”
- Every Arnold Schwarzenegger movie

“I am now fully versed in the combat stylings of “Kung Fu.”
- The Matrix

“I do wish I could cease committing acts of sodomy unto your delightful buttocks.”
- Brokeback Mountain

“My dearest apologies Captain, I have configured this vessel to it’s maximum efficiency. Alas, if you wish me to attempt to defy the laws of physics, I shall increase my efforts.”
- various Star Trek movies and episodes

“Does Marsellus Wallace match the appearance of a female canine? Then why is it, good sir, that you are attempting to have coital relations with him, as if he were a female canine?”
- Pulp Fiction

“I do not believe that is an orbiting planetary body, but in fact a massive facility constructed exclusively for use in space.”
-Star Wars: A New Hope

“Oh dear. I do believe that when we dined on this soylent green, the main ingredient was in fact human beings. In its defense, twas better than English food.”
- Soylent Green

“I say to thee honestly milady, I am an indifferent.”
- Gone With the Wind

“It’s an elaborate ruse!”
- Return of the Jedi

“Miss Scarlett, I regret to inform you that I am uneducated in the field of obstetrics.”
- Gone With the Wind

“Fare thee well, infant.”
- Terminator 2: Judgement Day

Love,
Katherine

For She Who Loves Petit Nicolas

Or can read it.

1. Petit Nicolas – It’s such a cute French book. It’s available in English too, and the binding is beautiful. “Je n’aime pas les filles,” he says. Aww.

2. “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” – One of my favorite movies. Beautiful and creative, with a compelling – and true story. It’s about the editor of French Elle, Jean-Baptiste Bauby, who had a stroke and found himself with “locked-in syndrome”, paralyzed except for one eye. He writes a memoir, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, by blinking his eye. I highly encourage everyone to watch this in the original French. Also, Julian Schnabel is awesome.

3. Le Petit Birdcage Tee – $15, forever 21

4. “Quelqu’un M’a Dit” Carla Bruni – She’s first lady of France but she’s also a model and a singer. I love “Quelqu’un M’a Dit” but can’t really speak for the rest of the album because I haven’t heard it. Another great CD is “Divinidylle” by Vanessa Paradis, or Coeur de Pirate’s debut album.

5. C’est La Vie necklace –  $24, Rock ‘n Rose

6. Fifi Lapin shirt – Fifi Lapin is a fictional rabbit that dresses in designer outfits – $19, Forever 21

7. French Toast Stamp – Haha make your bread that much more awesome - $6, Fred Flare

8. “Pierrot Le Fou” poster – my mom and I tried to watch this this summer, and it baffled me. But the poster’s pretty, right? $25, Criterion

9. Mannequin

10. Honeysuckle soap! Huzzah? Don’t know – not an expert on soap ahhaha.

11. Autumn beanie – $7.80, Forever 21

Love,
Katherine