Missy | December 31, 2002

I’m getting caught up! Quick thoughts from today:

Rabbit-Proof Fence: Simultaneously the most uplifting and most heartbreaking film of the year. Wow. Thought Kenneth Branaugh came across as rather one-dimensional. And who knows, maybe Neville was really like that, what with his heavily misguided “good intentions”, seemingly without much forthought or afterthought. I never expected such a gentle film from Phillip Noyce; I can’t wait to see his adaptation of Graham Greene’s The Quiet American.

Shortly after, I had to pull it together and dash up the street for
Chicago: Again, wow. I admit to having reservations going in, and I found myself holding my breath whenever Renee Zellweger and Richard Gere had to sing and/or dance. But, each musical number left me feeling exhilarated, and the film as a whole was sexy and bawdy and fun. I hope Bob Fosse would be proud.

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Missy | December 31, 2002

I know it’s so very typical for people to make new year’s resolutions, often ones they don’t end up keeping. But this morning I woke up and realized that I have nothing to look forward to. Don’t worry, my life’s not that pathetic, but I mean, last year, I was working towards a promotion, and I had a big trip to Costa Rica planned, as examples. So, I made a list of things I want to accomplish (or in some cases, get back into the habit of) in the coming year.

1) Pay down more of my credit card debt (which I did to some extent this year, but not enough) AND save more (which I know is kind of silly since the credit card interest rates are much higher than savings interest rates, but I hate seeing my savings account regularly dwindled down to virtually nothing).
2) Say good-bye to smoking once and for all. I did it once, then got cocky. No more!
3) Yoga twice a week and dance class three times a week. I’ve been lazy the past couple of months, hitting only dance class twice a week, though I’ve seen amazing improvements in myself over the past year.
4) Summer: take another class. I’ll wait to decide what that class is going ot be. Two years ago it was advanced calc, last year it was acting. I’ll wait and see what kind of learning mood I’m in.
5) Work harder at regular contact with old and new friends.
6) Do some traveling; right now I still want to get to Chicago, and maybe Toronto (especially since my dad has fancy hotel/cheap deals connections).
7) Perform again, in some capacity. For example, auditions for a local production of Jesus Christ Superstar are later this spring. Chicago is supposedly being produced locally sometime this year, too. Redesign this site (you knew that was coming).

In other news, year end lists should come next week. There are a couple of records I still need to hear, and movies yet to see. I’ll try to be creative, too.

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Missy | December 30, 2002

Lord of the Rings: Etc: Peter Jackson and Co. ought to be awfully proud of this, the Stunning Technical Achievement of the Year. I mean, the jaw-dropping computer-generated effects, costumes, make-up, editing, photography, gorgeous aerial shots & landscape are all fantastic. Now if only I cared a lick about the story, then this would be my pick for movie of the year.
UPDATE: [W]hen Legolas swung himself backwards onto that moving horse, I think I got pregnant. Haha. Apparently I am not the only one with a strange secret (although not so secret anymore, is it) crush on Legolas (aka Orlando Bloom).

I wanted to catch Rabbit-Proof Fence, too, this afternoon, but there was too much time to kill in between, and I didn’t know what to do with myself for that long (2 hours or so) that far up in NW. Coming back home & then going back out, what with walking and Metro and whatnot, is too much for my newfound lazy state to handle.

On an unrelated note, I’m thinking Stetsons for Friday’s OSU game will be a go. Come one, come all, if you’re interested. Maybe we’ll even see a Bush twin or two. (I’ve never been there on a weekend night, much less for such a big game, so I don’t know if the joint will be insanely crowded, but since it’s close, and I’ll probably go early–7ish or so–I’m hoping it’ll all work out.)

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Missy | December 29, 2002

Because I am a total loser, I didn’t take any pictures last night. That’s primarily because it’s dark in the Black Cat, and I didn’t want to annoy people with the flash taking pictures of myself & friends, and I couldn’t get close enough to the stage to take pictures of the band, which is a shame, since Travis was looking especially adorable. Have I ever mentioned how much I enjoy watching him dance? The first band was a local go-go band. I know go-go is a DC institution, but I really can’t get into it.

Anyway, it was a bit of a surprising evening in some respects, but about half of that isn’t for public consumption. First, I ran into a guy I briefly knew at Penn State, who now lives in the area. That’s cool. He’s a bit of a film buff, too. (Okay, so I once hooked up with his housemate, which is how I know him.) And I managed to find Catherine, by basically yelling out “Catherine??” several times in the vicinity of the person who turned out to be her. It was cool to finally meet her, and I wish we’d had more time to chat and stuff; another time perhaps. And cheers to her and Rianne (? I may have totally botched that name) for getting up on stage for “Ice of Boston”. I was starting from too far back and there were too many people, so I didn’t make it. Jen, Jen. How’s the hangover? I also finally met Gene Healy in person.

It was a very good, if not a bit strange birthday. And I’m not at all hungover.

One of my Christmas gifts was “How to Cook Everything”. Now granted, it’s not how to cook everything; for example, babies and kittens are left out, as my ex Jason would say. Shut up, it’s funny. Being remedial (at best) in the kitchen, this was a perfect gift. Know what I’m making tonight? Meatloaf, a staple in any midwesterner’s diet.

I’m too lazy to make it out to the movies today, but expect my usual hodgepodge of reactions in the coming days. If the posts are full of nonsequiturs and read like I’m puking out whatever thoughts come to me, it’s because that’s exactly how I write. My English teachers would be so proud. Today I think I will lay low, watch Dr. Zhivago, and eat myself into a coma. Cheers!

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Missy | December 28, 2002

I almost forgot that I’m turning 31 today. Same thing happened last year, when I was in New York (Brooklyn, to be exact) with my pal Mihow, and I woke up with the glare of the sun off the skyscrapers being beamed directly back into my eyelids via the Manhattan-facing windows of her loft, and we crawled out of bed, she to work, me to the Broadway Dance Center. I forgot what day it was, at least until we went out dining and drinking and drinking. This year, I crawled out of bed intending to go to class, realizing my body was in sad shape from yesterday’s class and knowing that overdoing it would mean crash-napping today.

My mom’s wishing me a happy birthday reminded me of the day, not to mention how old this body is getting. That said, I shouldn’t complain. I’m in good health, and I don’t look a day over twenty-……nine, probably, especially since I splurged on fancy schmancy new moisturizer that I swear took a year off my face upon first use. And I painted my toes Chanel “Sun” (an excellent watermelon-y color). Today I’m embarking on something I swore up and down I’d never do: a pixie-ish haircut.

I had plans to catch the first of two Dismemberment Plan shows last night, but lacking companions (and it was freaking cold out) I stayed in to watch The Piano Teacher (forgetting that the Kennedy Center Honors were on tv, which I planned to watch only because some dancer friends were part of the Chita Rivera segment). Make no mistake: I felt very nauseous after watching the film. Once I got past the shock value (which, I swear, wasn’t gratuitous), I appreciated the film, mostly because Mihow and I have had numerous conversations about sexual deviance–be assured neither of us is a sexual deviant, but we’ve known people who, well, have issues. Despite the obvious (repressed middle-aged esteemed piano professor who is, by all “normal” accounts, a sexual deviant and who has it all backfire on her), I enjoyed the film’s parallels to the classical music, especially Schubert (whom I admit knowing little about, despite having some background in classical music training). The rigidity of the music is something a novice succumbs to; only a trained musician understands the subtleties. Only in the case of Erika (played with steely reserve over top of emotional immaturity by Isabelle Huppert), she too literally interprets the music and the composer, perhaps as a misguided outlet for her own emotional shortcomings. Her prodigious student/love interest understands those nuances, and she resents that about him. The film is an interesting companion piece to this year’s Secretary, if only because both are statements about sexuality, even when the former is a disquieting (some would say sickening) exposition of repressed sexuality, while latter is more of a black comedy.

This post is all over the place.

Tonight: The Plan! Hopefully all my pals can make it out, plus fellow Birthday Girl Catherine is in town. Pictures will be taken!

UPDATE: I saw Pedro Almod

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Missy | December 25, 2002

I’ll be filing this holiday under Bizarre. Currently, we’re experiencing a power outage. How am I bliggity-bloggin’, you may be asking? Laptop which is running on battery and an unaffected dial-up connection. Ah, technology. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I got in Monday, because I waited til forever to book a flight home so I had to come earlier than anticipated. For lack of anything better to do on Christmas Eve, my mom and I went shopping. It was surprisingly uncrowded except for Victoria’s Secret, where every man with a female significant other was shopping last minute without any concepts of what sizes the collective shes are. (Here’s a tip: take a peek in her closet for her dress size, in her lingerie drawer for the underthings.) Christmas Eve dinner was not unlike other years, that is, until we started getting pummeled with snow which didn’t let up until sometime mid-day today. The other side of my family couldn’t get here for today’s gathering, and there’s so much food leftover we’re not sure what to do with it. White Christmas indeed, and then some. I can’t remember the last time I had the urge to go snowmobiling. That urge, of course, was squelched by the lack of a snowmobile. My Dad did make it over–a 20 mile trip which took over an hour–along with his 100+ pound “puppy” lab that nearly destroys anything in its path. They didn’t stay long, needless to say. I may or may not have caught myself using the words “dinner” in reference to lunch (which in my defense, was today a mid-day meal complete with turkey & fixins) and “supper” in reference to what everyone else calls dinner. And now the power has been out for nearly an hour; at least we can go bury all that leftover food in the snow if need be.

I need to get out of here.

I wonder if there’s snow in DC. I doubt it. I know they’ve got power, though. Here’s to my impending and none-too-soon return to the land with underground electrical wiring.

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Missy | December 23, 2002

Did you catch Julianne Moore on Inside the Actors Studio last night? The host often gets on my nerves, but I think that’s because many of his guests are of the variety that they have little more to offer than anecdotes, rather than a serious discussion of how and why they do what they do, which includes choosing scripts and building characters. Okay, yeah, he’s still on the annoying side. As one would expect, Moore is warm and funny and smart. Something she pointed out that, to me, seems to be at the root of her talent (her acting training notwithstanding) was her love of reading growing up. I imagine one cannot expect to be a great actor without exposure to the varieties of storytelling and fiction (in novels and plays) and characters. She only lightly touched upon nudity and violence in films, such as (and I’m totally paraphrasing) with Short Cuts, for example, that scene wasn’t so shocking in and of itself if you consider that that is the type of conversation that could occur only between a married couple, or in Boogie Nights, where there is absolutely no emotion attached with the nudity, and everyone on the set knew that.

Have I mentioned I’ve never seen Vanya on 42nd Street? I’m going to, soon.

Anyway, I wouldn’t have known she was going to be on had I not woken up in the middle of the night a couple of nights ago and turned on the tv to catch a reairing (from a couple of years ago) of Phillip Seymour Hoffman, perhaps the msot engaging guest–in terms of getting at the meat of what he does–that I’ve ever seen on the show. This time around, having taken Acting For Babies, I actually got all of what he was talking about.

I’m also making little progress though Esther Kahn, which I cannot seem to get through in one sitting. If I’ve the time, I’ll go round 4 this morning to try and finish it. At any rate, the story is the development of an actress, and it’s kind of interesting in that it, so far, has touched upon techniques used with the Method. I’m still wary of how it’s going to turn out, when Esther is cast as Hedda Gabler. I have my doubts. But, perhaps that’s the point.

I’ll be leaving town this afternoon, and I’m unsure as to whether or not I’ll be posting from The Heart of it All (only I see now that There’s So Much to Discover), but in any event, have a great holiday!

UPDATE: No year-end Best Of lists for me yet. Assuming I can see all of the films I want to see in the near future, I’ve got 8 10 (!) films left to see. How did I get so behind? Thank goodness for vacation. (Most of those films have been released only very recently in DC, if yet at all.)

We almost always go to the movies Christmas night, but unfortunately, Chicago will not yet be released, which is too bad because I know my mother loves musicals more than I do.

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Missy | December 20, 2002

You know what’s cooler than cool? The Dismemberment Plan is playing on my birthday. AND, Catherine, who shares the same birthday, along with Denzel Washington but who cares about him, is going to be in this neck of the woods. The same thing happened last year, but I was in her city while she was in mine. This year, we will rock! (UPDATE: And likely drink heavily.) I’ve been a big fan of her site for, like, 17 years now and I’m pleased as punch that we’ll finally meet up. Yay!

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Missy | December 19, 2002

Julian uses a simple game theory example to illustrate the Iraq situation. Read it. It’s not hard to follow, but if you have questions, I’ll help you out. Game theory is neato!

I have other things on my mind, and I’ve been filtering and reassessing and thinking about what to post, what not to post. Basically, I’m scatterbrained all of a sudden, and writing is the last thing I’m motivated to do right now.

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Missy | December 17, 2002

Okay. How is Giles not dead? Well, given the teasing and then the total lack of explanation, my guess is he IS dead. After all, we were told these visions are of people who are dead (which would include Spike’s visions of the undead Drucilla, and the once-dead Buffy). I noticed Giles had a shadow, which makes me think he’s more than a mere ghost (obsessing over details much, Missy?) BUT, the appearances of these people in the past have been of the overtly manipulative variety. This Giles seemed like the old Giles, even though he had sort of run off when Buffy was trying to get out of the hole/cavern. Also, I was trying to pay careful attention to the things Joyce was saying to Buffy in her dreams, on the off chance that Whedon & co. are still trying to inject the possibility of an alternative or made up reality (ala the mental hospital episode). But that’s not yet clear. Also, I’m surprised the ancient vamp left Buffy alive. It was pretty creepy seeing her all cut & bruised like that. And the principal? Still not sure where he fits in, or even if he’s a good guy. I want him to be a good guy.

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Missy | December 16, 2002

Thanks to a recent comment from John, I’m listening to Sunny Day Real Estate. Once when I saw them live, a roughly 120 pound emo kid stood next to me singing (nay, wailing) at the top of his lungs, like a girl (I mean, c’mon, Jeremy Enigk sings like a girl). I wanted to sic Jeff on him, then realized I could myself handle the kid with one simple backhand. I didn’t do it.

I have been working on about a thousand Christmas cards and paying a hundred bills, and I’ve made myself sick from all the envelope glue. With the exception of my attendance at one meeting (and notetaking at said meeting), bills & cards are the only thing on my agenda today. Oh, and finalizing the Chicago trip.

I have a date tonight. Well, sort of.

UPDATE: ***Request for Info*** Anybody know if Ted Leo sells out at the Black Cat? In other words, is there a need to get tickets in advance of Wednesday’s show?

UPDATE#2: These things are also true:

Scott Tobias, you rule. Thanks again.

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Missy | December 15, 2002

I suppose it is a documentarian’s dream to start with an already heavy subject and, in the process, capture on film what would otherwise be a contrived fiction-writer’s purging point-making. But in Daughter From Danang, which follows a Vietnamese-American woman who came to the U.S. as a 6 year old as a part of Operation Babylift and who is reunited in Vietnam with her birth mother & family, the filmmakers have been catapulted by life’s simple ironies, which in this case appear at virtually every turn, thanks to the confusion arrising from cultural barriers. It’s a beautiful, complex film–even if the documentarians DID get hella lucky. This plus Wiseman’s Domestic Violence mark my two most depressing and unfun days at the movies this year.

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Missy | December 13, 2002

So last night I dreamt I was making out with Snoop Dogg. I was absolutely not into it, but I remember he was a really nice person. You may be wondering why I should be dreaming about the Doggfather. It’s because right now, my two favorite songs are Snoop’s “From the Chuuch to Da Palace” and Nas’ “Made You Look”. I mean, I scour the hip-hop radio stations and MTV and BET for these songs and videos. Go here to watch the Nas video (the album comes out today). I was going to link to the Snoop Dogg video, but I quickly realized that it was all slick & produced, which is to say, not the same grittier version I’ve been seeing, where he’s rapping in a small apartment with live musicians, and the sound quality is such that I think they recorded the whole thing right there & then.

Today is my office Christmas party. Normally, these things start at noon and go until the last man (or woman) is standing. My goal this time around is to go easy on the liquor and come home at a reasonable time, tuck myself in snug as a bug, and wake up not hungover. Empirical evidence suggests that the odds are not in my favor, however. As examples of the evil combination of liquor & coworkers, consider the following: last year a fight broke out (verbal, no punches thrown); someone passed out on a couch at Buffalo Billiards (someone always passes out on a couch at Buffalo Billiards; I think we need to stop going there after the regular party) and she later disappeared into the night without her bag (containing keys, wallet, etc); and I flirted heavily with a very young coworker (I’ll have you know that I bid him adieu at night’s end; I learned my lesson from a few years ago when I found myself making out with one of our LAN guys. Both gents are gone now, and I swear it wasn’t my doing.)

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Missy | December 11, 2002

Moveable Type question: anybody know why comments aren’t showing up in my archived posts?

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Missy | December 10, 2002

Jen has cooked up a list of the songs most influential to her. It might take me awhile to pare down such a list for myself, but it’s a fun thought experiment. And because I’m totally procrastinating writing a paper, expect my thoughts by day’s end.

UPDATE: Here’s my top 20 list. Most of these are either vivid memories, and/or they represent moments when my tastes shifted, rather than simply being favorite songs (a few of these I can’t even stand). In the approximate order which I recall hearing them:

1. “Afternoon Delight” by the Starland Vocal Band. This was my absolute favorite song when I was…I don’t know how old I was. Given the house we lived in and the age of my little brother, I’d put myself at around 6. I remember singing along when it came on the radio, while all the adults in the room laughed and laughed. That’s it, make fun of a little kid unknowingly singing about sex.

(more…)

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