the good, THE BAD, the ugly

It's Friday, I needed a bit of a laugh at the expense of someone else.

Crap I want but don't need

Teavana Cast Iron Teapot
Teavana

Udderly sMOOth Lip sMOOcher Ambrosia Flavor
Bovine Bubbles and Hogwash Ltd.

Deathwatch

I’ve come to the conclusion that the British understand psychological horror far better than we do in America. Most of the British horrors I have seen have given me chills without resorting to chainsaw murderers and cannibalistic hillbillies in the woods of West Virginia. This movie came on cable one day, the title is pretty stupid but the movie gave me the creeps.

The story is set in the trenches of World War I. In the midst of gun fire and dropping bombs, a small group of British soldiers find themselves walking lost in a mist believed to be gas. Slightly confused about the details of how they got there, they stumble across an expansive, labyrinth-like German trench where they a survivor. Taking the German captive, they begin to secure the trench for the British, and wait for contact.

Knee deep in water and mud, the soldiers find the bodies of the previous German occupants, tortured and entwined in barbed wire. The youngest British soldier is Shakespeare, who is able to communicate with the hostage in French, shows him sympathy, but is told cryptically that something evil is afoot.

As the soldiers wait for contact over the radio, they sit and wait in endless amounts of rain until night falls. The trench begins to reveal to the individual soldiers that it is not the Germans they should fear. An officer is found to have been killed during the night under circumstances similar to the previous occupants and soon the Captain begins to lose his grip on reality. Haunted by noises and hunted by an unseen force, the soldiers numbers begin to dwindle.

I can’t say that I understood every little detail of this movie, in fact I only understood the beginning and the end, it was the middle that was garbled. Fortunately, with horror movies, I don’t really need to understand why something is going on, I only care about what is going on. Trust me, It is easier to watch the crap I watch if you look at it this way. In conclusion, I absolutely enjoyed this movie, it had its share of gore, but it a war movie you need some blood, but there were no monsters which adds a touch of reality to the story which makes it far more frightening in my opinion.

Daily Memory

The day I fell in love with David Bowie, I was six and the winter holidays were fast approaching. Christmas movies and stop motion tales about reindeer and elves were looping all day on our television set, when he appeared. There he was, hosting The Snowman. I can’t remember a lick about the show, but the image of Bowie in his blue snowman tie has been with me ever since.

the good, THE BAD, the ugly

Okay, so I am having one of those days where nothing feels right. Where everything I say comes out wrong, and everything that I do could have been done differently. So I was thinking it was just some bad karma or icky Ju Ju. So I thought I would do a Google Image search for Karma and write a little story about my day.

I have decided to scrap that idea in lieu of finding this image. I think it pretty much speaks for itself.

Crap I bought but don't need

Forks Earrings

Customer made Forks Necklace

Edward and Bella's Eyes

Topaz
Noriane's Bijoux

The Company of Wolves

How could I have forgotten about this movie? I remember first seeing it in the late 80’s and seeing it again in high school. I thought this movie was so well done, and full of deep and meaningful symbolism. Fortunately, I still feel this way. It was this movie that brought fame to Neil Jordan and attention to author Angela Carter who wrote the original short story.

A young modern girl falls asleep in her English manor and begins to dream and here is where the story unfolds. Her dream involves her sister being chased through the forest by a pack of wolves and soon meets her demise. A funeral is held and we meet Rosaleen, who is really the young girl dreaming. Rosaleen has just become a teenager and is not only curious, but also becoming noticed by some of the young men in the village. It Is her Grandmother who begins to tell her tales designed to warn her and be cautious of men and their desires.

Her Grandmother weaves stories where the beast that lays inside of every man is forced out in the form of a wolf. Rosaleen is warned of these werewolves and is given three rules she must always follow when in the forest in order to identify what man is indeed a wolf in disguise. When wolf attacks around the village become a cause for concern, the stories of werewolves become less fiction and more of a reality for the villagers, and for Rosaleen who takes the place of the story teller, creating her own wolf tales.

When she one day stumbles across a nobleman in the woods on her way to visit her grandmother. We all grew up with the late of Little Red Ridding Hood and Rosaleen is the embodiment of the cautionary tale.

Neil Jordan tells the story is such a surreal way that it wasn’t any wonder he was asked to direct Anne Rice’s Interview With A Vampire. A long time favorite of mine, I would highly recommend this movie to any grown up lover of a good fairy tale.

the good, the bad, THE UGLY

I've been drawing casually for about a year now, and most of it is cartoony sketches/caricatures of people. Recently, though, I've been doing some more detailed things, such as this: Octopocalypse Vs. Gorillageddon

For the record, that's the Empire State Building that the gorilla has in his hand, not a giant syringe. And the octopus has the space needle.
-New York Rock Exchange

I honestly liked it better when I thought the Robomonkey was holding a syringe and the Franken Squid had a cocktail weenie. So much for realism.

This piece of Bad Art was discovered within the pages of The Artists Corner

Crap I want but don't need

Let Me Be Frank Tee
Vig Tees

Creature Hoodie
Circles & Squares

Attraction - Necklace
Free Forged

Mirrormask

This is quite possibly my favorite fantasy movie. Created in collaboration of Neil Gaiman and the Jim Henson company, the result is a glorious mix of the abstract dream world and the troubles of a teenage girl. Not a terribly good writer, Gaiman does tend to write imaginative stories that use both light and dark ideas, always walking a line between Gothic and fantasy.

Mirrormask follows a young girl named Helena who works in the Campbell Family Circus which is run by her mother and father. One particularly angst ridden night, Helena has an argument with her mother through the wall of her camper about life in the circus being crappy for a young girl. Helena says something that she knows she cannot take back and heads off to the Big Top. During a routine with her father, Helena’s mother collapses and is rushed to hospital.

Feeling guilty about what she said, believing her mother’s illness to have been caused by the argument, Helena wakes one night in a blackout to sounds of a violin and an empty flat. Upon examination she finds two men with masks for faces and a black shadow that destroys everything it touches. Escaping with the cocky juggler, Valentine, Helena enters a world that resembles the worlds she creates in her drawings. Once in the City of Light, Helena is mistaken for the Princess who came to their city and stole the Charm causing the White Queen to fall into a coma. With the Queen asleep and the Charm gone, the shadows have begun to devour the world.

With Valentine’s reluctant help, Helena vows to find the Charm and put everything to rights. But the City of Light has neighbor in the City of Shadows where the Princess had come from, and the Dark Queen is looking at Helena as a replacement for her missing daughter. Helena and Valentine follow clues about the city, introducing them to a multitude of unusual characters from Sphinx’s to orbiting giants. Racing against the ever growing shadows and fleeing from the Dark Queen Helena must learn to come to terms with the guilt she feels for her mother’s illness and learn not just to ask for forgiveness, but to forgive herself as well.

A remarkably beautiful movie accompanied by an equally dreamlike soundtrack, Mirrormask is Alice in Wonderland for the next generation.

Crap I want but don't need

Brewing Pitcher
Tea Forte

Bookmark - blue Buddha quote on the mind
a la mode

Floral Series (2) - Wii Skin (vinyl decal)
Novelty Gallery

Crap I bought but don't need

But really I do need.

Wall-Mounted Rectangle Jewelry Cabinet with Mirror - Walnut Finish
Amazon

A Room With A View

Deep within my zombie loving soul, is an area that goes all melty for period piece romances. My personal video library has at least five versions of Pride and Prejudice and an extensive collection from Masterpiece Theatre. When I discovered that MT remade A Room With a View I swooned. For those of you who remember the 1985 version with Julian Sands and Helena Bonham Carter, this version follows the novel by E.M. Forester closely, however scripted its own epilog which almost ruined it for me. Almost.

The movie tells of Lucy Honeychurch, a young woman at the turn of the century who is visiting Florence with her chaperone Charlotte. Charlotte is all bent out of shape because they did not receive rooms with views as they had requested. Presumably because they were tired of listening to the old spinster bitch about a “view” the Emerson’s, a father and son (in real life as well) offer up their lodgings that coincidentally have a view. It is in this exchange that the younger Emerson, George, becomes enamored of Lucy, who sees herself as a proper young English woman, but who is struggling with her individuality.

Several encounters happen throughout their Italian visit, when George can no longer hid his feelings and embraces Lucy in a field. Lucy is insulted by this forward gesture but is totally hot for George’s bod, she notifies her chaperone and they soon return to England where Lucy meets a pompous guy named Cecil who chain smokes and avoids any exertion of energy. Cecil falls in love with Lucy, and since it is a proper union, Lucy accepts.

Soon after, the Emerson’s move into the area and Lucy is torn between her desire for love, and what is right for her family in the typical Edwardian class structure.

What girl can resist a romance like this. Like I said though, this version included its own continuation of the romance which left me weeping into a pillow, but was beautiful never the less.

P.S. There will be no zombies in this movie.

Daily Memory

Elementary school, I remember many things from this time in my life, these were definitely "the awkward years". I was not a popular girl as you can imagine. I out read my piers and was detested by my teachers for not "fitting in". But this story is not about being an outcast, it is about stage fright... and boogers.

As a child, I was very self conscious and suffered from disabling heart palpitations whenever I was forced to be the center of attention. Now, I don't remember exactly how this came about or if it was just one of those things we were forced to do for music class, but it we had to put on a musical play about the Western settlers. I still remember my one and only line "Forced to leave our possessions behind us." Everyone had one line and we all were part of the chorus.

I said my line and returned to the left side of the raised stage floor where chorus was located. I only mouthed the words which gave me plenty of time to looked ahead at the kids in the first row. Youngest students were always in the front and the eldest grades in the back. In the first row I recognized a neighbor of mine who was easily recognizable by his white-blond hair. I am staring at him, when he takes his finger and begins to put it up his nose. I am shocked that he is doing, but kids will be kids right? Oh no, that little bastard then decides to kick it up a notch. He removes what can only be described as a scientific specimen and pops it into his mouth where he then proceeded to chew it... with his mouth open.

I'm not sure how severely I ruined the play after that, but I know my involvement was swiftly concluded the moment I started to dry-heave.

THE GOOD, the bad, the ugly

I only fear that this will lead to a MacBook with a Twilight themed cover. Perhaps there already is one...

Design You Trust

Crap I want but don't need

Ribbed Placemats
Amazon

Antique 1907 Pocket Watch Pendant
Dust Design

Books Are My Boyfriend T-shirt
Alimd

Bedtime Stories

I can officially say that I do not enjoy Adam Sandler movies. I do not find them funny… at all. I try to give them a chance, thinking they will mature. I find that I am in the minority when it comes to enjoying his movies, but then again I am in the minority for preferring horror films. Honestly, I had forgotten that Sandler was in this, believing it be Ben Stiller instead. Well, when the movie began, I was reminded that I was going to in for an hour and a half of silly voices and a cameo by Rob Schneider. Before you start defending Happy Gilmore as the greatest movie ever made, It wasn’t F.Y.I. I will admit that Bedtime Stories had an enjoyable premise.

The story begins narrated by Jonathan Price who is awesome for those of you who don’t know that already. Price is the owner of a small motel in Los Angeles and father of two young children one being Skeeter, an imaginative boy who grows up to be Adam Sandler. Ever night at bed time, Skeeter’s father would tell him and his sister a bedtime story. Soon, Price is visited by a chubby hotel proprietor who convinces him to sell his hotel and promises to keep Skeeter employed and will one day allow him to run the hotel, as long as he works hard.

Thirty some years pass and the hotel is big and fancy and not hit by the recession at all. Skeeter is employed at the Nothingham Hotel, but as a maintenance man. Well, the pudgy Hotel mogul who bought Skeeter’s fathers motel holds a press conference to announce that he is developing another, grander hotel in L.A. and announces that the hard worker who will be running the joint, is not in fact Skeeter, but the guy from Memento. Saddened by this news, Skeeter is also asked by his sister to babysit her two kids for a week while she goes on an interview in Arizona or somewhere since her job as a Principal will be terminated as her school is being shut down, this is surprisingly not due to budget cuts.

Skeeter shares the babysitting responsibility with his sister’s friend Jill who watches the children during the day. On the first evening, the children ask Skeeter to tell them a bedtime story. Using his frustration at work, he tells a tale set in Medieval England about a servant who is promised a kingdom, but is overlooked. Finding the story dull and lacking a happy ending, the children finish the story for him.

The next day, Skeeter’s life begins to take on elements of the bedtime story, and seeing this as his opportunity to have the management position in the hotel industry he was promised and the girl, Skeeter begins to weave in his desires into the stories, only to find that it is the imagination of the children who are controlling his fate.

I am not even torn about my opinion of this movie, I did not like it. I know it was most likely geared to my age group and was not my genre of choice, but I find that comedy does very little to excite me. If you like Sandler movies, you will definitely not be disappointed but if you are like me and Sandler tends to make you throw objects at the screen, stay far away from this one.