emily jean

This weekend I brought the cats to the vet and one needs to lose 5 pounds and the other needs to have his teeth brushed every day. Also I had to throw out my houseplant that was making the cats barf, apparently. It was the saddest vet visit ever.

Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen.

I didn't love this as much as everyone else did--the plot and the characters were pretty clunky, and the morality system switches weirdly between contemporary and era-appropriate beliefs. Still, circuses! Elephants!

3/5

The Savage Detectives: A Novel, Roberto Bolano

It took me a long long time to get into this...halfway through the book I was still forcing myself to pick it up and keep reading. But now that I'm finished, it keeps haunting me and little bits and pieces keep floating up into my consciousness throughout the day. It's sprawling and messy and complicated and often boring, but vital and tumbling and moving and powerful.

5/5

Transformers, dir. Michael Bay

Awful, awful, awful. I was hoping it would be dumb and awesome, but it was just dumb--too much CGI made the transforming and fighting scenes messy and impossible to follow, the characters were nails-on-a-chalkboard bad (the shrewish mother teases her son about masturbation! The hispanic character keeps speaking in Spanish! THERE IS A CHIHUAHUA! HILARIOUS), and the plot made no sense whatsoever.

1/5

Last night I decided a wind chill of -5 degrees was as good a reason as any to walk all over the city and go to the new pork sandwich restaurant. The first idea was bad, the second good.

Ne le Dis a Personne, 2006, dir. Guillaume Canet.

Sharply crafted and quick, a great murder mystery with bonus explorations of the idea of the unreliable narrator, a really cute dog, and some hottie lesbians.

4/5
 

Last night I made a delicious chicken soup and wondered why everything in New York gets so dirty.

Encounters at the End of the World, dir. Werner Herzog, 2007

This movie combines two of my favorite things--Antartica and Werner Herzog pontificating like a adorable and crazy old grandfather. Don't miss the commentary track, with Werner Herzog pontificating about Werner Herzog and his music guy telling stories about the spooky orphanage he grew up in and scientific research dives.

4/5

Yesterday I walked around The New Museum with two artists and snarked about all the art. We all felt pleasently superior.

Yesterday Becca and I were very close to the camels but were to shy to ask to pet them.

Yesterday the cats had to spend dinner in the bedroom because they needed too many snuggles and kept walking over our dinner date.

Christmas break:
Yankee swap
Top Chef marathons
Teaching a little girl to make a slinky walk down a set of stairs
New scarf
Hiking with an enormous blue Texas sky above me
Magical candy shop, yarn shop, and book shop
Indian food
Stories about antique furniture
Standing at a concert surrounded by people of all ages
Mexican printmaking exhibition

New Years:
Lots of delicious sushi
Miracle Fruit!
Prosecco
Jalepeno poppers
Mariokart

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, 1954, dir. Stanley Donen

I just cannot get my feminism to suspend far enough to enjoy this movie, even on a kitschy level.

3/5


Singin' In the Rain, 1952, dir. Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly

Still a lovely and frothy pleasure.

5/5


Slumdog Millionaire, 2008, dir. Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandan

Gripping and tender and poetic, but a lot darker and scarier than I thought it would be. Beautifully shot and beautifully put together, and lots of incredibly adorable child actors.

5/5

Year of Wonders, by Geraldine Brooks

Fleshed out details and a fairly consistent avoidance of easy moral answers. Also, sufficiently gorey and thrilling.

4/5


Notable American Women, by Ben Marcus

I still can't quite tell is this is brilliant and avant garde or pretentious and overwrought. Some of the images still in your head for days though, and the language is liquid and gorgeous.

4/5

Yesterday I clicked submit on my first grad school application! I am a little sad that all applications are online now, there was something exciting about finding the post office that was open latest in town, rushing over, and hearing the satisfying metallic slam of the mailbox when you put your big packet in.

Yesterday I walked through Central Park at dusk and the sky was a true violet, with bare black trees against it.

Somehow I missed this article on The Onion originally, and am reposting it now only because I still am filled with a bottomless pool of rage every time the movie Garden State comes up in conversation.

16 Films Featuring Magic Pixie Dream Girls. Key quote: "Like the Magical Negro, the Manic Pixie Dream Girl archetype is largely defined by secondary status and lack of an inner life. She's on hand to lift a gloomy male protagonist out of the doldrums, not to pursue her own happiness." Also, WORD on Breakfast at Tiffany's. That shit is AWFUL, and I love Audrey like I love oxygen.

Further discussion of the topic on Jezebel.