“Nostalgia – it’s delicate, but potent. Teddy told me that in Greek, ‘nostalgia’ literally means ‘the pain from an old wound.’ It’s a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone. This device isn’t a spaceship, it’s a time machine. It goes backwards, and forwards… it takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It’s not called the wheel, it’s called the carousel. It let’s us travel the way a child travels – around and around, and back home again, to a place where we know we are loved.“

- Mad Men, episode 113 “The Wheel”

There’s a possibility

Fine, fine. But this is only happening because I can’t get “Slow Life” by Grizzly Bear out of my head. To the male audience that carouses my blog: leave now, you’ve been warned. This is about to get all sorts of….

I may be the only person on the planet who actually likes Kristen Stewart and defends her. But, her favorite novel in the Twilight Saga is New Moon, and it shows. I was hesitant about this second film in the series because a) there was a new director, b) it’s the saddest of all the books in the saga, and c) the first movie blew. Chris Weitz, the new director in charge, exceeded my expectations, and did everything I was hoping he would with the film that was lacking in the first. Attention to detail, great shots, a slow progression, steady focus on plot. And, bonus: Bella Swan narrating her emails to Alice Cullen in a voice-over throughout. Everything actually kind of made sense this second time around. We knew Edward left her. We felt her devastation (the month-to-month bay window scene was gripping). And we knew Jacob Black had come in to save the day….(pausing to think about various moments that almost made me a Team Jacob convert, almost.) Their chemistry completely tests everything she has with Edward, that much I know. Rob Pattinson, time to step up your game in Eclipse.

What I didn’t like were the oddly placed, unintentional comical undertones (i.e. the underwater scene when Bella almost drowns, or when she and Edward are frolicking in the forest while Alice is having a premonition that Bella will be turned into a vampire.) Hey! that’s the first time I used the word vampire! If it hadn’t been for Jasper Cullen’s freak out at Bella’s birthday party, I would have forgotten this was a movie about vampires.

But I blame that on the overabundance of ridiculous knock-off TV shows and movies about vampires that have emerged from the woodwork lately. Fangs, blood, fangs, more blood. It’s hokey. Twilight is deeper than that. Yeah, deeper. If you can get beyond the marketing gimmicks, 12 year olds, fan-fic, and general skepticism of a franchise that’s been overly hyped, it has a richness to it that its fans are loyal to no matter what. And, with artists like Sea Wolf, Lykke Li, Bon Iver, Thom Yorke, and Band of Skulls, the scenes were so much more emotional than I imagined they’d be. Overall: the entire composition of New Moon is a serious upgrade from Twilight.

Acoustic Monday

As you may have noticed, I got on this music kick. I like the idea of having a theme, or a branch. And “Acoustic Monday” is that outlet. Radiohead has always been one of my favorite bands, and I favor their second album from 1995, The Bends. When I listen to “My Iron Lung” I tend to think about the red Kool-Aid containers in the cafeteria scene of Clueless. I have an even greater acoustic version of this song somewhere on my computer, it gives me chills every time, but that’s neither here nor there. Best line of the song is the opening sentence.

Thanks and Giving

Greetings and salutations. I apologize for the lack of articles as of late. I am in the midst of finishing my first novel, which requires a lot of brooding, coffee drinking, eye squinting, and tapping my fingers against the keyboard. For the most part, holidays are overrated and oversold. But Thanksgiving has and always will be nearest to my heart. It’s a chance to rake in extra good karma points, tell people you care about them, thank, and give. There is nothing that pumpkin pie and turkey can’t fix. There just isn’t. Trust me, I’m a writer.

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

To navigate my holiday playlist, press the play button in the center, and then use the forward arrow to the right of the scroll wheels to move to the next song. 

For nostalgia’s sake, I thought I’d post some highlights from this past weekend. 

Pre-teen melodies and melodrama

I can’t remember if the drive back from the Sarasota Medieval Festival was the first time I had heard Oasis. But I do remember sitting in the back seat of Mrs. Idelson’s car, staring down at my wax hand mold, hardened into the shape of a peace sign and crumbling at the base. And “Wonderwall” was playing. 

I can’t remember if “1979″ by The Smashing Pumpkins reminded me of my babysitter because she was born in 1979, or if she reminded me of the song because I had just listened to it on a cassette tape in her car. But I do remember staring up at the telephone lines as we rolled down the street towards my neighborhood, filing through all her other tapes in a large bin. “Kids in America” was written in green pen on one.

I can’t remember sneaking into Romeo + Juliet, or if we chickened out at the last minute. But I do remember buying The Cardigans’ First Band on the Moon album the day after I saw it, and bringing it into art class, we were making paper mache that week, and one boy named Jerry asked to sit next to me. “The only guy for me is Leonardo Dicaprio,” I responded.  

I can’t remember why we called each other names on the basketball court at P.E. or stopped being friends, but I do remember singing “Killing Me Softly” by The Fugees in drama class before everything fell to pieces, while we sat in the entrance to the theater, on that cold floor, in Airwalks, plaid skirts and baby tees, in the land before time, as pre-teens, when we had grown up on backyard birthday parties, swimming pools, and jelly shoes, just before we all grew up, and I left.

Acoustic Monday

 

Monster mash

I know it’s nearing the end of October, and the only horror-esque post I wrote this year had to do with Rob Zombie and carnies, and, if you include my review on Where the Wild Things Are, I guess. So, I’ve compiled a playlist of songs that put me in the Halloween mood. I call it:

1. Mr. Sandman – The Chordettes
2. Zombie – The Cranberries
3. Hells Bells – AC/DC
4. Little Red Riding Hood – The Animals
5. Don’t Fear the Reaper  - Blue Oyster Cult
6. Bullet With Butterfly Wings – Smashing Pumpkins
7. The Killing Moon – Echo & The Bunnyman
8. Ghostbusters Theme – Ray Parker, Jr. 
9. Running With the Devil – Van Halen
10. Thriller – Michael Jackson
11. White Rabbit – Jefferson Airplane
12. Love Hurts – Nazareth
13. Bang, Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) – Nancy Sinatra

Where you’ll find me

This past weekend, I went to the IMAX at Navy Pier to see Spike Jonze’s Where The Wild Things Are. (Check out this cool site, “We Love You So” for the eyes and inspiration behind and ahead of the film.) Navy Pier in itself is a whimsical child’s fantasy, with a long boardwalk facing the lake, a giant 150 foot ferris wheel overlooking downtown, a carousal, and a colorful wave swinger.  It is one of my favorite places in the city. But, onto more serious topics. 

…Because Wild Things is really nothing to be taken lightly. What we all have inside of us, is a kid. It’s acted out in different ways, through the toys we collect, the board games we play, the way we dance and skip and hop, chuckle, serenade, and marvel. And it’s also found in the things we fear the most, our silence, the small things we yearn for, the distinct smells we fumble over—like Thanksgiving dinner, or sun block, or fresh laundry. When we are sentimental, we are tripping through a thorny forest, thick with foliage, and maybe we’re running to catch up with whatever sentimental things we are chasing after. 

Where The Wild Things Are is that forest—it’s that island we go to from time to time, but it isn’t sappy. It’s far away, and it’s impeccably sad. But it’s what we needed. I haven’t been affected by a film in such a specific way since I first saw The Neverending Story, or maybe Hook. And it’s for all the same reasons. Peter Pan grew up and forgot about Neverland. The Swamp of Sadness took Atreyu’s horse, Artax, while he was battling to stop “The Nothing” from taking over…everything. 

What I recommend: go see this film, tell me you loved Bob and Terry the owls just as much as I did, swoon over Karen O. and her musical splendor, feel like Max, empathize with Alexander the goat, stir through your emotions, you won’t have much of a choice either way; go home and do what I decided to do: build a fort, and imagine yourself sitting there with ewoks and falkors, and Carol. Run away, explore and make believe, but always, always come back to yourself.

The Hallway

My non-friend, friend, Chris, whom refers to himself as a “Duckie” (i.e. Pretty In Pink) recently shared this insanely amazing link with me. Miranda July is a writer, director, musician, and performance artist, just to name a few of her titles. She inspires me to be creative, and if that doesn’t sound like an acceptance speech at a middle school awards assembly, I don’t know what does. She is subtle, abrasive, fragile, crushing, poetic, raw, and oh!…talented! Her art installation, “The Hallway” was featured at the 2008 International Triennale of Contemporary Art in Yokohama, Japan. It was 125 feet of all of the things we come to fear in life: decisions, connections, trusting other people, trusting ourselves, getting lost, being figured out, coming to terms with things. There are random and disconnected thoughts that sprout up, that only highlight the way certain things happen in life that don’t make sense, and never quite disappear—reappearing when we least expect them to, or want them to, an elephant in the room that nags at us until we accept that life is just not supposed to make sense. We are all stuck in our own long halls, afraid at first to be encased in it, and then so numbingly comforted by its walls, that we never want to leave, but we have to.