leo will go on

Leonardo DiCaprio has two awesome-looking movies coming up. One is Chris Nolan's Dark Knight follow-up Inception, and the other is Scorsese's postponed Shutter Island:

avatar

Avatar is amazing. Yes, it's basically a story about a white guy as savior and guardian for the noble, proud, wise, but ultimately poor and hapless natives against other, mean, imperialistic white guys, sort of like The Last Samurai (which I hated) or Dances With Wolves (which I would never watch). But you know what - who cares? It's ground-breaking movie-making. You sit there awe-struck by what you are witnessing up there on screen. You spend two and a half hours transported to a brand new world - the 3-D world of Pandora with its glowing plant lives, floating mountains, and fantasy creatures. I felt like I was Jake Sully's avatar leaping and flying through this magical planet. It really was a fantastical cinematic experience. Sure, I would love to love the story as much as I loved Star Trek or (500) Days Of Summer, and man, wouldn't this have been a cool way to visit Middle Earth? But it's ridiculous to complain. Avatar completely had me at kaltxì (which, to you uninitiated white folks, is hello in Na'vi).

(10) reasons i love summer

(10) reasons I love (500) Days Of Summer:

- I am Tom Hansen. Well, less cool but I too have listened to too many sad British pop songs and believe in one true love, fairy tale and all.

- Ikea roaming with Zooey Deschanel!

- Day 1, the day they met, is my birthday.

- The "You Make My Dream Come True" musical sequence.

- Tom's awesome little sister and friends.

- The Smiths.

- "I love us."

- Joseph Gordon-Levitt's cool clothes.

- It's the most romantic movie I've seen since Before Sunset.

- It's about turning a heartbreak into some good and hopeful.

meat and potato

I made mini chipotle turkey meat loaves and potato leek soup yesterday. It actually turned out pretty good, esp the soup. Here are the recipes:

Turkey Meat Loaves

for the loaves -
1 small yellow onion
1 medium carrot
1 stalk of celery
2 chipotle peppers canned in adobe sauce
1-1/2 lb of ground turkey
1/2 cup of quick cooking oats
2 egg whites
dash of salt and pepper

topping -
1/4 cup of ketchup
1 tablespoon of adobo sauce from the pepper can
1 tablespoon of brown sugar

Finely chop the onion, carrot, celery and chipotle. Add to meat. Add egg whites and oats and salt/pepper. Mix. Place into muffin tin that's been greased. Bake at 350 degree for about 20 minutes.

Mix topping ingredients. Brush onto meat loaves. Return to oven for another 10 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes.

* I would be light on the chipotle and adobo sauce unless you can take it spicy. I doubled recipe and just put in 3 eggs. Original recipe doesn't call for salt/pepper, but I think it can use some.

Potato Leek Soup

3 large leeks, cut lengthwise, separate, clean (use only white or pale green parts)
2 tablespoons of butter
2 cups of water
2 cups chicken broth
2 lbs of potatoes, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch pieces
marjoram - dash
1/4 cup of fresh parsley chopped
2 teaspoons of chopped fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
dash of Tabasco sauce and salt/pepper to taste

Cook leeks in butter, salt/pepper on low heat for 10 minutes. Do not brown.

Add water, broth, and potatoes. Bring to low simmer and cook for 20 minutes.

Scoop half of soup mixture into a blender. Puree and return to pan.

Add marjoram, parsley, and thyme. Add Tabasco sauce, salt/pepper to taste.

merry xmas snapshot

Weather: Cool but clear
State: Frustrated
Music: Beastie Boys Solid Gold Hits (Brass Monkey, junkie!!!)
Last Movie: He's Just Not That Into You on demand (I know, don't ask...)
Reading: Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (still)
Last Pleasure: Watching (500) Days Of Summer and getting all swoon-y and hopeful again about things. That, and watching Russell lose Survivor to Natalie (hahahahaha!)
Last Worry: All my aches and pains
Looking Forward To: A new decade (yeah, how often does one get to say that in a lifetime?)
Not Really Looking Forward To: Getting old(er)
Tired Of: Year-end lists (I used to love year-end lists, but strangely I feel differently now)
Gas Price: $2.93/gallon
Clothes: Black v-neck tee, Lucky jeans (not really that lucky imho)
Today's Headline: Al-Qaida Link In Failed Plane Attack
Current Desktop Wallpaper: Just some Windows 7 nature photo
Last Website Visited: Feed Projects
Last Meal: Home-made chipotle turkey meatloaf, potato and leek soup
Last Purchase: Anchor True Seal glass storage containers
Item Off My Wishlist: Another house
Latest Evidence It's A Beautiful World: This Joe Gordon Levitt dance number:

like a virgin

A girl the other day asked me what I thought of her and what was our relationship. She also asked me whether virginity was important to me (WTF? More about that later.).

Anyways, it's very seldom I have to come to face this type of questions head-on. So I told her, "We are friends." Yikes.

If I were perfectly honest, I would have told her, "Yeah, I really wish you were someone else. The person I can never get out of my head. The person who's ruined me for good. The person whose shadow still follows me everywhere I go, every good time I have, every time I eat a nice meal or listen to a good song, every foreign city I roam. I so want to share every experience, but that person is no longer here for me. So I kill my time with people who don't do anything for me. Don't get me wrong. I think you are perfectly pleasant, probably has a good heart and will make someone a nice wife and nice mother, but you are not that one person. So what can I do? Pretend my heart is not somewhere far away every time I am sitting here talking to you? I am not that good of an actor. I am just some bloke who's got issues but who still has to eat and watch movies. That's all. That's all I can be. Sorry."

And then the virginity question. That one totally came from left field. I just side-stepped it. I think I like girls who are like a virgin (in other words, do not act like tramps) but otherwise, I wouldn't even care or ask. I mean, in a way, it's such an old-fashioned question that it's charming. It's a throw-back question, old school style, like carbon paper and scan-trons and phone booths. I like it. Reminds me of high school. Except without beanery cookies and spirit rallies and sharing lockers with a guy who takes up too much room.

So, I guess I won't be going to lunch or watching movies with this girl anymore. Oh well. It's alright - I am destined for a life of solitude. I can deal.

these are some of my favorite mundane things

Favorite mundane things, with nary an explanation:

favorite number: 9
favorite letter: M
favorite color: green
favorite year: 2006
favorite planet: Pluto
favorite finger: index
favorite key on keyboard: del
favorite day of week: friday
favorite road sign: yield
favorite river: yangtze, li, seine (three-way tie)
favorite punctuation: ;
favorite office supply: the stapler
favorite time of day: 10pm

high school musical

Shorewood High School doing You Make My Dream Come True:

chillin' on glee

Puck made a wonderfully sweet video about the glee of working on Glee:

amazing coincidence of kavalier & clay

I think I am meant to read Chabon's Kavalier & Clay.

The beginning of the story is set in Prague - my #1 wishlist travel destination as of now.

One part of the story involves the smuggling of a golem, which is an inanimate man made of mud. In this season's Amazing Race, one challenge involves the creation of a golem and then delivering it to a rabbi.

And finally, there is a reference to Paul Klee - probably my favorite painter of all time.

Funny how these things work. You can't argue that in many surprising ways, life is a full circle.

grrr

My first week of freedom has not been productive at all. In fact, it's been kinda sucky. Here are the top ten reasons:

1. Been having lower abdominal/intestinal pain that's increasingly bothersome. Been worried about it and can't get a doc appointment to a GI specialist til xmas eve.

2. The Patriots lost last week to the Dolphins, and they didn't particularly look good today in their win against the lowly Panthers.

3. Most of my tv shows are going on hiatus, just when I have all the time in the world to watch them.

4. Weather sucks. It's been cold and dreary. It's actually not so much the cold part that's sucky but the dreary part.

5. Can't seem to write if my life depends on it. I tried again tonight, and the result is quite uninspired.

6. Spending too much money already. Last Monday spent over $200 at Costco. Then bought a suit from JCrew for almost $500. And I've got three more weeks to go.

7. Still can't decide on which health insurance plan to sign up for for next year, and now I am locked out of the website because there was some glitch when I was required to change passwords.

8. All the year-end lists and decade-end lists are sorely absent of anything I truly love. Okay, I think the LOTR trilogy got a few mention here and there, but I am seriously overdosing on Beyonce, Lady Gaga, & Precious coverage. By the way it also sucks that Peter Jackson has been getting pretty bad reviews for The Lovely Bone. Being a Peter Jackson fanboy, I was rooting for him to knock another one out of the ballpark. Ang Lee this year also made a movie (Taking Woodstock) that nobody had any love for. Meanwhile, there are some predictions that Mariah Carey will get a best supporting actress nom for wearing no makeup in Precious. What gives? Has the world gone mad? Actually it has already, but I was just hanging on to the few bright spots left (like Ang Lee and Peter Jackson make good movies, and Mariah makes Glitter), and they are being taken away from me one at a time.

9. Tiger Gate. I think we are up to thirteen fourteen women now. Don't get me wrong - I was never a Tiger fan unlike the majority of America (never understood it). So it's not like I am disheartened by the fall of a hero. I just don't want to read about it anymore. Can anyone really tell one homewrecking whore from the next? By the way, they are all kinda ugly, aren't they? Tiger's Swedish wife Elin is way hotter than any one of them. Yeah, Tiger is not only a douche, but he's also an idiot, but then again most douches are idiots - they kinda go hand in hand.

10. Every time I drive by the airport and see planes taking off, I wish I were going somewhere and spending xmas in another country.

saul bass

It's Saul Bass appreciation time.

Saul Bass was an American graphic designer and filmmaker best known for his title sequences for Hitchcock, Kubrick and Scorsese movies. His style is very distinct, and you would recognize in a heartbeat.

The Man With The Golden Arm:


Anatomy Of A Murder:


It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World:


The influence in evident here -

Catch Me If You Can:


Kiss Kiss Bang Bang:


Also, check out this student project which reimagines the Star Wars title sequence as done by Saul Bass:

raiders of the lost art

How come nobody told me about these posters??? They are so neat.

The Locke's Secret poster, done by Olly Moss and inspired by the art of Saul Bass (who deserves a post of his very own very soon), is about the coolest thing I've seen recently. It's probably better that I didn't know, or else I would have been out $50.

traveling with yoshitomo nara

There are many parts to this.

talking about a television

TV talk:

- Those people (namely Jaison, Mick, Natalie, and OMG Shambo) on Survivor are stooopid. How can they not blindside Russell while they can?

- But then again, there is not a single person left on Samoa that I want to win this season.

- Michael Voltaggio wins Top Chef. Finally someone I root for wins something (that's directed at you, Tom Brady). He's probably a jerk, but he's a badass and he's creative. I like that in people (not the jerk part but the badass and creative parts).

- I cannot believe no more Glee til April of 2010. That's like more than four months away! What do I have to do - sing to myself? By the way, I don't really want Schuster to get together with Emma, and am oddly sympathetic for Terri. She was simply a desperate, misguided woman.

- I can finally say I am on Team Jakob. Jakob should totally win SYTYCD this season. There is no justice otherwise. But this season, in terms of choreography, has been pretty anti-climatic. Not a single routine blew me away.

- Speaking of justice, or the lack thereof, Donny Osmond won this past season's DWTS. Like, seriously??? Those damn Mormons have nothing better to do than to sit by the phone and vote.

- Martha Stewart is so haughty. I cannot stand the way she talks down to some of her guests, like Rachael Ray, who could not be more gracious.

- So at what point did I start disliking Gossip Girl? It is so tired. And to have any storyline involving Jenny Humphrey is simply of a waste of airtime.

- I don't like Scott Foley on Cougar Town. Prefer Courtney Cox to be with Nick Zano instead. But Nick Zano is heading over to that sinking ship called Melrose Place.

- Project Runway was a total dud this past season. Let's hope that they sew up a better cast next time out.

- I like Diane Sawyer. Class act all the way. She is going to do well on the ABC evening news.

- Of the final three, I was rooting for mixed couple Brian and Erika to win, simply because Brian is such a good guy. Homegirl Erika says she wanted to prove that Miss America contestants can do all sorts of physical stuff. I think she just proved that Miss America contestants are hot-tempered and can yell at their husbands just like any other women. Don't worry though, girl, Brian still loves you thru and thru. Love or not, they came in third, and Ken and Barbie Cheyne and Meghan won fair and square. Good on them. Gay brothers/cab-stealers Sam and Dave came in second.

- Regardless, I seriously love Amazing Race.

the invisible man

Saw this on ABC News: Liu Bolin is a Chinese artist who literally disappears into his photographs.

losing

Apparently my upcoming decade of awesomeness does not involve the Patriots...

end of the decade

It just occurred to me that we are at the last month of this decade. For some reason, I thought that would be next year. I don't know why I had failed to realize that the decade started on 1/1/2000, so 12/31/2009 will indeed be the end of the decade. That's in 27 days exactly. Holy moly!

So I have 27 days to get ready. For what exactly? For a new beginning of course. Yeah, I declare the next decade to be my decade. It's the decade in which I will kick ass, become like Super Mark. I will be charming. I will be cool. I will make girls fall in love with me. I will fall in love with a girl - just one is all I need. I will be creative, like mad creative. I will learn skills, like mad skillz. I will be kind and charitable and generous with my soul and my time and my friendship. I will work hard and play nice. I will be healthy and fit, eat well, sleep well, exercise more, indulge less. I will be more courageous, extra fearless, like Taylor Swift platinum edition. Yeah, that's right. In 27 days. I will be all that and a bag of chips.

The thing is, the way I've been feeling about myself and my life, you would think I am the worst human being in the whole wide world. But I am not. I have never beaten up my popstar girlfriend, never cheated on my blonde wife/mother of my two children while I am on my golf tour around the world, never molested altar boys and then paid them off with God's money, never kidnapped a girl and hid her in a shack in my backyard and fathered two children with her, never plotted a terrorist attack, never committed genocide, never sent 30,000 troops to a war we can't win, never committed security fraud that cheated investors out of $65 billion. Nah, the worst thing I did was have a bad attitude with my mom, trash-talk about my incompetent coworkers and bosses, and wasn't always upfront with girls whom I wasn't interested in, or worse yet, with girls whom I was interested in. So why the hell do I feel so bad? Just because my dreams haven't magically come true? That the world hasn't lived up to my ideals? That life hasn't delivered me the jackpot? It's alright. That is so last decade, and this decade. But next decade, I will stop feeling bad about myself and start moving forward with being awesome. I am going to be so awesome you better wear shades when you look my way. I am gonna come out and blow 'em away like Susan Boyle. 2010 is gonna be like that.

I don't have to go to work for the rest of the year, so I am going to have a lot of free time to start practicing being awesome. I will start by watching Bruno on my new Tivo HD. Then I will pick up reading Kavalier and Clay and finish it before end of year. I will go to my cousin's wedding and shield off all the questions about why I am still single at my ripe old age and that it should be me next. I will go play with my new Nikon lens that I got for a steal during this last Black Friday. I will wear my cool new fitted plaid shirt and authentic fit cords from Gap. I am going to rock out to new songs from Hot Chip (how good are Take It In and One Life Stand?), Vampire Weekend, Shout Out Loud, mixed in with Annie, Swell Season, and Jason Mraz. Yeah, it all starts right here.

no more troops, more piano stairs

I honestly am getting kinda confused as to why we were so full of HOPE when we elected Obama into the White House. I mean, is there really that much difference between the Dubya administration and ours, other than that Michelle Obama wears J. Crew clothes and Laura Bush didn't? Sooner or later, and probably sooner, the love affair with the rest of the world will be over, and we are right back where we started, particularly now that Obama is gonna send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. And no, I do not believe he will bring them home in 18 months.

You see, I think he and everybody else who is involved in these matters have it all wrong. We don't need more troops; we need more piano stairs - they honestly will make the world a better place: