Daily Memory

My mother is from Maine, and we would spend every summer with her family in a town called Dover-Foxcroft. My grandfather started the Hall's Christmas tree farm and we would work either making bows or shearing trees as we grew up. But every year without fail, my cousins and I would walk or bike about a mile to visit "The Enchanted Forest". The kid in the picture is neither me or my sister, but oddly enough, we have pictures just like this.

I loved this place. It was created by a man who carved animals and characters out of tree trunks and would scatter them around the woods. It was great going through and playing with the Peanut characters and searching for the tiny wood animals hidden around.

I had not been to Maine since my junior year in high school. I returned 10 years later, and then 3 years ago began returning with my boyfriend. I was so excited to show him where I had spent so much time enjoying. I was crushed to learn that the forest was closed as many years after creating it, the owner was on the hook for liability if anyone got hurt in his park. So basically, people suck. Walk it off asshole, bring back the Enchanted Forest.

Crap I want but don't need

I Heart Carbs Necklace
Because I do
I Am Snizzle

Blood Rose Earrings
Jeweled Trellis

Edward's Eyes
Ack, I know they are Twilight inspired, but I need amber coloured pieces, and these are gorgeous.
Noriane's Bijoux Shop

THE GOOD, the bad, the ugly

Aye aye cap'n.

Infection

Second to movies about zombies, are movies from Japan. The Japanese can make one hell of a fucked up movie that will give you nightmares and make you more afraid of long wet hair than you ever thought possible. I have several favorites from Japan, but the one that gets me the most is Infection. I have watched it at least 8 times and can still make no sense out of it, not for a lack of trying, but I don’t think you are supposed to really understand it you know?

The movie takes place in a hospital that is losing funding. Just a guess, but it may have to do with the fact that there are only 5 rooms in this hospital, 4 nurses, 2 doctors and a dude who can’t suture for shit. Anyway, an emergency comes into the hospital from an ambulance who is trying desperately to find somewhere to dump its patient who is suffering from an unusual rash. The doctor on duty that there is no more room and to take the man elsewhere, and is then called to one of the 5 rooms in the hospital for an emergency. He arrives to the room of a burn victim who rolled to the floor. I thought a burn victim had to be in a sterile room? Mental note, do not spontaneously combust in Japan. While trying to resuscitate the patient, a nurse makes a fatal error with the chloride that was injected into the man. They decide that this mistake will cost the rest of their funding, and decide collectively to cover up the cause of death by speeding up the blood chemistry.

At this time, they notice that the body from the ambulance was deposited in the hallway and was not removed after being refused admittance. A third doctor arrives and suggests that they should study the rash man’s symptoms as he is currently turning into green jelly. After some hesitation, they agree, but by this time, the goo guy has disappeared. And one by one, the staff begin to act unusually having succumb to the “infection” that was spread by goo guy. The events escalate and nothing makes sense after the first half of the movie.

Why do I like this movie so much? I have crappy taste I know, but it was so different from the other J-Horror I have seen. There was no stringy hair or guttural noises on the other end of a cell phone, and the US has not yet re-made this film. I thought it was visually disturbing and claustrophobic, the wonderful twist at the end which removed any possibility of understanding anything that I watched, just made this the perfect movie for me.

the good, the bad, THE UGLY

I perform the third degree of ass kissery everyday in the hopes that I will not be joining the masses of the unemployed.

the good, THE BAD, the ugly

The one on the left in the arm lock is my boyfriend. I need to have a serious talk with him about the dude on the right.

Crap I want but don't need

The Astor Trench

Spectrum Flats
Mod Cloth

Plum Blossom and Silk Shea Butter Soap (handmade)
Mooka Soap

The Happening

I like Shayamalan movies, they may never capture the magic of The Sixth Sense but he can’t make the same movie over and over again. I do have to say that Unbreakable was terrible, however I watch it every time it’s on, and Lady in the Water was just as forgettable. But for The Happening, I had high hopes. I adore the thought of an atmospheric disturbance causing people to spontaneously commit suicide. You can’t fuck it up right? Wrong. You can fuck it up if you hire actors who could have easily been substituted by cardboard cutouts and voiced by computer programmers with box goatees. But the premise behind the story was awesome.

The movie introduces us to the air born madness in Central Park, where all insanity begins. Two girls are on a bench talking, when one stabs herself in the neck. AWESOME! The other girl looks around to see everyone around her going all hara-kiri on their asses.

Anyway, as this suicidal trend is spreading through my stomping grounds, we meet Elliot and the Funky Bunch, a sappy sweet and poorly acted teacher in sunny Philadelphia. Upon hearing about the epidemic, he grabs his equally poorly acted fellow employee, a math teacherand his daughter and his own wife, Alma (as an aside, I lived next door to the Dechanel’s in London and was good friends with Emily. We were however all convinced that Zooey was… “special”, and if this movie is any indication, I think she very well may be) and they make haste to leave the city. When the math teacher looses contact with his wife, he panics and decides to find her but only ends up killing himself instead.

Forming survivalist groups, they begin to travel to the areas not affected. They run across some botanists, which I have never done myself, and compare theories. Al Gore was right, and the planet hates us and we are systematically being ethnically cleansed. Again totally awesome, would have been better with zombies, but I digress. The groups of survivors become smaller and smaller.

Apparently, the movie was supposed to be a nod to the B movies of the 50’s. Well, it succeeded in becoming a B movie of the 21st Century. I enjoyed it, even though it was torture watching Wahlberg, Deschanel and Leguizamo which made me bleed from the eyes and ears, I just can’t shake how frightening it would be to have the earth kill us off.

Daily Memory

Damn I love Cheetos. In high school the parents of a friend of mine left town for a week leaving her home alone.They hired me and another friend to live with her for the week so she didn't get lonely I guess.

It was wicked. They gave us money to go grocery shopping and I of course hit he junk food isle and grab myself a bag of crunchy orange Cheetos. That night, I proceeded to eat all of the contents of the bag. I then spent the rest of the evening by the toilet waiting for them to come back up.

For anyone thinking they can battle the cheetah, if you eat too many, they will make you very sick,

THE GOOD, the bad, the ugly

I am posting this because I am enamored with this artist. And because my friend thinks I don't have enough "GOOD" items.

Limoncello
Pepperminte

Crap I want but don't need

Paisley Cuff
Leaves of Gold

Marietts Spats
I want the shoes too
Efia Fair

Midnight Sun Sock Yarn

Draco Malfoy Sock Yarn
Sunshine Yarns

Eagle vs Shark

You may be thinking to yourself “does New Zealand make good movies?” Well with Eagle vs Shark they sure do. I thought the movie was great, but I had a few knots in my stomach because the story reminded me of the people I knew in High School. FYI, I was a nerd, and I knew people who fit into the roles of Lily and Jarrod and it brought up all of the feeling of sympathy for them.

The story is based around a shy, nerdy and not very attractive girl named Lily who is madly in love with Jarrod, an overly confident, mullet wearing geek. The two work in the same mall, Lily at a burger joint, and Jarrod at a game store. Lily waits to see him everyday when he comes into the restaurant and hopes that one day he will choose her line to stand in. However, Jarrod has a thing for the attractive cashier and takes no notice of Lily. One day, Lily is fired due to having her name randomly pulled from a hat (which was not so random) but works out the rest of the week. One day when the attractive cashier is not in, Jarrod enters Lily’s queue and gives her an invitation to a costume party for her to pass to the missing cashier. When the other girl discards the invite, Lily decides to go to the party with her brother dressed as a shark.

Meeting at a party as a shark and an eagle, the two battle on a video game and have sex. believing that they are now in a relationship, Lily begins to follow Jarrod and brushes off his attempts to lose her. Jarrod has a secret, not only is he absolutely unbearable, he has a long standing hatred for a bully from his past. With his desire for revenge, he now needs Lily’s help, or at least her brother’s car, to go home and begin his training. Lily follows him to his family’s house where the two discover not just each other, but themselves as well.

I would not rent this if you are expecting a side splitting comedy as you might expect from Jemaine Clement (Jarrod) who you may recognize from the comedy show The Flight of the Concords. But you will find the humor in the exaggerated behavior of its characters, that may just remind you of yourself or of someone else you once knew. It is a touching and uncomfortable story that you can’t not allow yourself to see, at least once.

Daily Memory

When my sister was three, she began the habit she now has called "grazing". You know, where you poke about the cabinets opening and tasting everything. Well I happened upon her one day when she was at this age, eating bite sized morsels from her hand.

When I tried to explain to her that it was dog food, she looked up at me and said, "no, they are mufa-bits."

And a new word in our lexicon was born.

the good, THE BAD, the ugly

I really don't know where to begin with this. Is it simply that man with a box goatee is playing a rousing game of Dungeon & Dragons. Or is it that a man with a box goatee is playing a rousing game of Dungeons & Dragons with a large silver dildo?

Crap I want but don't need

Bella's Mittens from Twilight
Ruth Cross

Kick Ass T-shirt
Circles and Squares

Wolf deep v tee black
1AEON

The Signal

If you like horror and independent films, you will not be disappointed, however if you only like one or the other, you will be. I personally enjoyed The Signal, it was a great blend of horror, with the spin that only a budget of $50,000 can bring to a movie like this. The movie is broken into 3 chapters and each chapter has a different director, which is impressive for a movie that was completed in 13 days. Each part tells the story using a different genre, horror, black comedy, and romance. Seriously, it works.

HORROR: We meet Mya, a young married woman who is having an affair with a man named Ben. Before the signal is discovered, they lay together making plans to meet at the train station and leave the town together. Noticing the time, Mya freaks out after seeing the time, since this is an affair, I am guessing she doesn’t want her husband to suspect that anything is going on behind his back. But I’m sure the guy is a total prick. Ben gives Mya a mix CD to listen to and think of him and his suggestion of running away. When she leaves, Ben turns on the television and we are introduced to “the signal”, which is a hypnotic blur of colours and images.

On her way home, Mya is accosted by several people who have gone mad. She enters the house and her husband, Lewis, is home with guests setting up the tele for a ball game. The signal appears and Lewis bludgeons his friend as the other escapes. In a panic, Mya runs and hides until the morning when she decides to meet Ben at the station and leave her life and husband behind.

BLACK COMEDY: Lewis is released from his bonds, having been tied up by the third friend, by Ben who has been looking for Mya. Lewis attacks Ben and packs him into his exterminator van and goes searching for his wife. Seeing her car crashed outside an apartment building, he goes knocking on the doors until he is invited in by a woman who was planning a New Years Party until the signal caused her to kill her husband. A small group has formed in the flat while they try to figure out what is happening, however all are still affected by the signal. Lewis, still looking for his wife subjects one of the refugees to the signal and learns that Mya was heading for the train station.

ROMANCE: This being the conclusion of the movie I don’t plan to say anything about it. The movie is cleaver not quite as frightening as one would expect, but at the end I thought to myself “shit, that was good” and then I watched it again.

Daily Memory

We lived directly next to a playground until I was 7. Everyday I would play at that park, either with my best friend or alone. Playgrounds at this time were fun, they were deathtraps for kids. There was a large log structure with a tire swing, slide, bridge, multi level platforms and a balance beam. One day while walking along the beam, I saw the biggest fucking ant I have ever seen. At least I think I did. I am very seriously re-evaluating my younger self's ability to tell a dream from reality. Just like the time I was convinced I pooped in the bath tub. Apparently that was a dream too.

THE GOOD, the bad, the ugly

I am taking back my previous verdict of "THE BAD".

Upon closer examination and further evaluation, I see now the error of my ways. A painting of Batman playing an ax IS truly a sight to behold.

Crap I want but dont need

Daydream 4 (Buckle)
Bionic Benz

Long Hammered 3/4 hoops - sterling silver
SStargell

Forever Young Necklace
Shana Logic

The Fall

This was a bit of a sleeper hit for me. I ran across the trailer on Apple.com and fell in love with the visual style. It was a beautiful and imaginative story full of fantasy and emotion. If you haven’t seen it, you should.

The story takes place in the 20’s, the era of silent film. In a hospital in Southern California lies a young stunt man who paralyzed himself performing a stunt falling from a bridge in order to impress his girlfriend who had left him for another co-star. Depressed and alone, Roy Walker wants nothing but to die. Enter Alexandria, a young immigrant who broke her arm falling in the orchard where she and her family works. She stumbles into his recovery room which he shares with two other men. Roy devises a plan to befriend the child, but only to trick her into acquiring enough morphine to do himself in.

So Roy begins to tell her a story of 5 men seeking revenge on Governor Odious who has wronged each man grievously. An Indian, an Ex-slave, an Italian explosives expert, Charles Darwin along with his pet monkey and the Masked Bandit who is the leader of the band. After they meet on the island they were banished to, they devise their plan to take down Odious.

The story plays out through Alexandria’s imagination, placing the people she knows into the roles and the stunt man is our heroic bandit. As Roy weaves his story to Alexandria, she is pulled into the story herself, however in real life, Roy is tricking her into scoring pills from the pharmacy and steal the medication from his hospital mate.

It is a beautiful story within a story, bringing these two people who “fell” together. Roy is lost in life and Alexandria finds the part of him that needs to live. So visually stunning and engaging, I felt as though I was brought into the fable as well.