Monday, May 31, 2010
sing a sad song, just turn it around
By the way, I have never really seen the Bad Day music video til today. It's directed by Marc Webb, who went on to make (500) Days of Summer. Check it out. It actually made me smile, esp the subway sequence where they are doodling on the billboard. And hey, it's Anna from The O.C.!!!
bad day
Today I have Daniel Powter on repeat cuz I am having a bad day.
- My spanking new BMW 2010 328i is acting up. I already had to bring it into shop last week cuz it made some strange grinding/buzzing noise while it was just sitting the garage last weekend. Engine was off, and I had been home for over an hour. I just happened to be passing through the garage after watering my plants in the backyard and heard the strange noise. I recorded it on my phone and immediately made an appointment to bring the car in. As expected, they couldn't reproduce the noise and said that all systems checked out fine. Well, this weekend the car was making other noises. Randomly it would make this electronic ringing noise - it's the noise that it normally makes when I lock or unlock the doors, but now it's making that noise randomly when I haven't touched the remote/car at all. Worse yet, today my right (passenger side) rear door won't unlock. The unlock mechanism would just stutter and get stuck. I don't know. What was my dream car is now my $40,000 nightmare. I want to just return it, except I didn't get it from Target. I just hope this blog doesn't become a blog about my car troubles for the next four, five years. Hyundai is not looking too bad these days. Damn Germans.
- Guillermo del Toro quit The Hobbit due to delay. The movie studios have legal/financial issues and can't get their act together. Does this mean The Hobbit might never see the light of day? If it does, under whose helm? Will it end up sucking? And when? Will it be within this decade while I still have hair? I am not sure what my thinning hair has to do with anything, but since I am having a bad day, I might as well throw that into the mix.
- Justin Bieber is dueting with Jaden Smith on a Karate Kid soundtrack song. Omyfreakinggod, please kill me before this misery gets any worse.
- BP's Top Kill attempt of pumping mud into the busted well failed. We are now five weeks in. And 40 million gallons (or 18, depending on whom you ask) later, oil is still leaking into the Gulf. This is the worst spill in U.S. history, exceeding Exxon Valdez. I don't know how many CFL lightbulbs and Priuses we will need to counterbalance this. Sure, my city can require me to do recycle and all, but if they can't stop big oil companies from committing this type of environmental catastrophe, I don't know what good my little weekly compost bin will do. It is all rather hopeless, isn't it?
- It's Memorial Day. My friend Adam is soon going back to Afghanistan for his second tour.
- I hung out with this girl yesterday. Per usual, I don't think it will go anywhere. And then, by chance, I drove by you-know-who's old apartment yesterday, and it stirred up all kinds of crazy feelings in me. I hate it that I can't let go after all these years. We only knew each other for a few years, yet I think the rest of my life will be marked by the time we spent together.
- I saw 2012 on Amazon Video On Demand. All that end of the world stuff scares the bejesus out of me. The earthquake scenes are particularly freaky. Thank goodness though there was plenty of comic relief, like how John Cusack's car can outpace all hell breaking loose. Or how the Chinese can build an ark that can save human kind in three short years. Actually maybe if the world was going to end in 2012, I shouldn't worry too much about my BMW. My warranty doesn't run out til 2014, so who cares?
- My spanking new BMW 2010 328i is acting up. I already had to bring it into shop last week cuz it made some strange grinding/buzzing noise while it was just sitting the garage last weekend. Engine was off, and I had been home for over an hour. I just happened to be passing through the garage after watering my plants in the backyard and heard the strange noise. I recorded it on my phone and immediately made an appointment to bring the car in. As expected, they couldn't reproduce the noise and said that all systems checked out fine. Well, this weekend the car was making other noises. Randomly it would make this electronic ringing noise - it's the noise that it normally makes when I lock or unlock the doors, but now it's making that noise randomly when I haven't touched the remote/car at all. Worse yet, today my right (passenger side) rear door won't unlock. The unlock mechanism would just stutter and get stuck. I don't know. What was my dream car is now my $40,000 nightmare. I want to just return it, except I didn't get it from Target. I just hope this blog doesn't become a blog about my car troubles for the next four, five years. Hyundai is not looking too bad these days. Damn Germans.
- Guillermo del Toro quit The Hobbit due to delay. The movie studios have legal/financial issues and can't get their act together. Does this mean The Hobbit might never see the light of day? If it does, under whose helm? Will it end up sucking? And when? Will it be within this decade while I still have hair? I am not sure what my thinning hair has to do with anything, but since I am having a bad day, I might as well throw that into the mix.
- Justin Bieber is dueting with Jaden Smith on a Karate Kid soundtrack song. Omyfreakinggod, please kill me before this misery gets any worse.
- BP's Top Kill attempt of pumping mud into the busted well failed. We are now five weeks in. And 40 million gallons (or 18, depending on whom you ask) later, oil is still leaking into the Gulf. This is the worst spill in U.S. history, exceeding Exxon Valdez. I don't know how many CFL lightbulbs and Priuses we will need to counterbalance this. Sure, my city can require me to do recycle and all, but if they can't stop big oil companies from committing this type of environmental catastrophe, I don't know what good my little weekly compost bin will do. It is all rather hopeless, isn't it?
- It's Memorial Day. My friend Adam is soon going back to Afghanistan for his second tour.
- I hung out with this girl yesterday. Per usual, I don't think it will go anywhere. And then, by chance, I drove by you-know-who's old apartment yesterday, and it stirred up all kinds of crazy feelings in me. I hate it that I can't let go after all these years. We only knew each other for a few years, yet I think the rest of my life will be marked by the time we spent together.
- I saw 2012 on Amazon Video On Demand. All that end of the world stuff scares the bejesus out of me. The earthquake scenes are particularly freaky. Thank goodness though there was plenty of comic relief, like how John Cusack's car can outpace all hell breaking loose. Or how the Chinese can build an ark that can save human kind in three short years. Actually maybe if the world was going to end in 2012, I shouldn't worry too much about my BMW. My warranty doesn't run out til 2014, so who cares?
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
lost and found
I finally found a pair of comfortable and not ugly shoes for myself - it's from LLBean. It's their canvas mountain shoes size 10 wide. I am considering buying another pair as backup...Somebody called me a closet Gossip Girl watcher cuz I said this girl who just walked by looked like Taylor Momsen (ugh). Truth is, I haven't watched Gossip Girl in a season and a half cuz the characters are all so tiresome. I especially hate all the Humphreys - Jenny's the worst, but Dan is right up there, and the dad is a snooze. Poor people are just so needy/uninteresting/self-righteous/tortured/blah-blah-blah...This Sunday my new car started making a weird grinding/saw buzzing noise while it's sitting in the garage. Engine's been shut off for over an hour. I grabbed my iPhone and recorded a sound sample. Good thing too, cuz shortly after it stopped. I brought car in today, and obviously they couldn't find anything after running diagnosis and told me to just monitor it. I think I might just do that with a baby monitor. I am buying a Hyundai next time...Lost finale was quite satisfying in my opinion. I don't like it when people criticize it for not answering all the questions; people think after investing six seasons' of their time, they deserve everything wrapped up nice and neat with a bow on top. My view on that is, we spent a lifetime in our own lives, and when we die, there will be no neat answers either, so I am good with ambiguous endings. In fact, I prefer it. Unless of course, if we are talking about a romantic comedy, in which case you accept that it is fake and a fairy tale and thus the guy and gal have to get together and live happily ever after...Lost is however not as emotional for me as The O.C. and The Wonder Years. I actually cried when those shows ended. What? Don't judge...I am two weeks late, but yay to Sandra winning Survivor (or better yet, Russell not getting a single vote!!!). I love it that being an ass can only carry you so far, and then there will be a certain point when that comes back and bites you. I love the part where Sandra threw Russell's hat into the fire behind his back. Granted a villain still won, but it's the lesser of two evils (literally) to me...If Crystal wins American Idol tomorrow, I hope she finally takes a shower and clean out her dreads...If Evan Lysasomething wins DWTS tonight, I hope Johnny Weir beats him down in a back alley...For the first time in my life, I am actually thinking I might be a horrible parent. I love kids, but then I realize I might not handle being responsible for somebody else's life all that well. It's not the feeding and clothing and educating part that bothers/worries me (they will be well-fed, well-clothed, and well-educated surely); it's the part when they don't listen to you and don't turn out to be everything you want them to be. I mean, surely I will project my expectations onto these kids, and how likely will they meet them or even come near? What if they have their own brains and their own will and do whatever they desire? What if they are broken and make strange noises in the garage after you leave them for an hour? It will undoubtedly keep me up at night. And I don't know if the warranty would cover them. Well, my point is, I always want to fix things and make them right, and kids are just hardly right and seldomly fixable...In the Lost finale, they said, "Nothing is irreversible." I wish that were true. I need to know that you can fix mistakes once you make them, that people will forgive you for your missteps because you are bound to have missteps, that real love comes back to you eventually, and that redemption awaits.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
race lessons
Another Amazing Race season has come and gone. There were highs (love the Shanghai stadium challenge, where they have to do the dragon puzzles with the wind blowing and then hand the pieces in order to their cheering sections to reveal a seat number - that should have been the finale challenge with even more puzzle pieces) and lows (ugh, the San Francisco final leg - the final memory challenge is too easy and shouldn't take place in some dingy music club; it just wasn't exciting or grand enough). Nonetheless, I love this show and will now patiently wait for Amazing Race 17 in the fall.
Here are the lessons I learned from this season's Amazing Race:
1. Lesbians are very angry and bitter. And if you u-turn them, they will rip you a new one at the final pit-stop.
2. Good guys (i.e., Cowboys) don't always win.
3. I have no gay-dar. For the whole season, I cannot tell which is the gay brother.
4. If you are the shortest man alive, you shouldn't really smoke, cuz cigarettes look too distortedly big on you.
5. Or maybe, if you are the shortest man alive, you should just smoke all you want, cuz you won't live long anyways.
6. U.S. American beauty queens can in fact read maps. She proved it everywhere like such as the China and the Asian countries.
7. Don't go on the race with your grandmother. I mean, it's very sweet and all but you won't make it very far. Unless you are a hillbilly and your mom had you when she was 14, and her mom had her when she was 14.
8. They make rain covers for cowboy hats. Or are those just big shower caps?
9. Cows will kick grandmas in the face. They have no sympathy or respect for the elders.
10. Saying muy rapido in China doesn't help.
11. Learn Morris Code.
12. Kiss up to flight attendants so they can bump you up to first class. Apparently that's all it takes to win one million dollars on Amazing Race.
13. Always mind your coconuts. Leave no coconut behind.
14. If the Race tells you to dive into the ocean to retrieve a bottle with a rolled up paper inside, you should probably take that paper out of the bottle to see what it has to say.
Here are the lessons I learned from this season's Amazing Race:
1. Lesbians are very angry and bitter. And if you u-turn them, they will rip you a new one at the final pit-stop.
2. Good guys (i.e., Cowboys) don't always win.
3. I have no gay-dar. For the whole season, I cannot tell which is the gay brother.
4. If you are the shortest man alive, you shouldn't really smoke, cuz cigarettes look too distortedly big on you.
5. Or maybe, if you are the shortest man alive, you should just smoke all you want, cuz you won't live long anyways.
6. U.S. American beauty queens can in fact read maps. She proved it everywhere like such as the China and the Asian countries.
7. Don't go on the race with your grandmother. I mean, it's very sweet and all but you won't make it very far. Unless you are a hillbilly and your mom had you when she was 14, and her mom had her when she was 14.
8. They make rain covers for cowboy hats. Or are those just big shower caps?
9. Cows will kick grandmas in the face. They have no sympathy or respect for the elders.
10. Saying muy rapido in China doesn't help.
11. Learn Morris Code.
12. Kiss up to flight attendants so they can bump you up to first class. Apparently that's all it takes to win one million dollars on Amazing Race.
13. Always mind your coconuts. Leave no coconut behind.
14. If the Race tells you to dive into the ocean to retrieve a bottle with a rolled up paper inside, you should probably take that paper out of the bottle to see what it has to say.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
wax on, wax off
How awful does this new Karate Kid look? Will Smith's son (hate him - he's so freaking smug) goes to China, gets picked on by Chinese kids (boo-hoo), gets schooled in kung fu (or is it karate? I am confused) by Jackie Chan (traitor!), and then beats all the Chinese kids in some martial arts tournament and returns home to the States so he can throw Chinese elderly women off train platforms (bastard!). I hope Jackie Chan can sleep at night being involved in this crap and promoting violence by a black kid towards Asians.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
everyone is annoying
Annoying things about people I actually kinda like:
Ellen - American Idol. Boy, she kinda sucks on that.
Rachael Ray - the incessant need to bond with her guests. Girl, you cannot try to be best friends with everyone who walks on to your show - it just comes across as fake.
Oprah - she thinks she is God.
Rosie - it's that whole lesbian thing.
Madonna - Kabbalah.
Johnny Depp - his sartorial taste. This is surprising, because the guy couldn't be cooler in every other way.
Wong Kar Wai - his tinted glasses.
Tom Brady - Gisele.
Julie Delpy - her failure to reply to my fan letter. Come on, girl - I have only written two fan letters in my life, and you got one of them. What do you want from me?
My mom - the volume of her telly.
Ellen - American Idol. Boy, she kinda sucks on that.
Rachael Ray - the incessant need to bond with her guests. Girl, you cannot try to be best friends with everyone who walks on to your show - it just comes across as fake.
Oprah - she thinks she is God.
Rosie - it's that whole lesbian thing.
Madonna - Kabbalah.
Johnny Depp - his sartorial taste. This is surprising, because the guy couldn't be cooler in every other way.
Wong Kar Wai - his tinted glasses.
Tom Brady - Gisele.
Julie Delpy - her failure to reply to my fan letter. Come on, girl - I have only written two fan letters in my life, and you got one of them. What do you want from me?
My mom - the volume of her telly.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
thieves of dreams
Check out the new Inception trailer. It is going to be the best movie of the summer, for sure. Seriously, check it out. Leo and JGL and Nolan and Cottilard and Tom Hardy and epic, mindblowing story.
video saturday
Best lottery commerical I've ever seen. See, you don't win lottery to buy a house and soak in a hot tub (which is what most lottery commercial presume); you want to win the lottery because you want to dance on the ceiling!
The National doing a new song Terrible Love. Matt Berninger has such an achingly melancholy voice that he can sing Happy Birthday and it would feel sad:
With Lost ending in a few weeks, JJ Abrams has a new movie called Super 8 that is super-secretive coming next year. The trailer is showing before Iron Man 2:
The National doing a new song Terrible Love. Matt Berninger has such an achingly melancholy voice that he can sing Happy Birthday and it would feel sad:
With Lost ending in a few weeks, JJ Abrams has a new movie called Super 8 that is super-secretive coming next year. The trailer is showing before Iron Man 2:
lame asses vs villains
Whom I am rooting for in the current season of reality shows I am watching:
Amazing Race - obviously Cord and Jet, the Cowboys!
Survivor Heroes vs Villains - this one is hard. I would normally root for heroes because I hate backstabbers. But the heroes are just too lame to warrant my enthusiasm. So I might have to lean to the dark side and pick...Sandra. I know. It's crazy, but I just cannot write down Parvatti or Russell - they make me barf.
American Idol - Lee all the way. Crystal Bowersox is so Janice Joplin-boring, and that whole bohemian I-am-going-to-be-myself thing is kinda tired. You are on freaking American Idol - how much of yourself can you really be? You can't sign your soul to the devil and pretend you are above it all.
Dancing With The Stars - I guess Nicole the Pussycat Doll. There is really nobody else who is kinda good and doesn't irritate me. Just don't let that Evan Lysasomething the figure skater win, or Johnny Weir might just go postal. Meow.
I have to say, aside from Amazing Race, all these shows are underwhelming me. I still watch them but they really don't do much for me anymore. So You Think You Can Dance is coming back in a few weeks. I missed ya and your Britishness, Cat Deeley.
Amazing Race - obviously Cord and Jet, the Cowboys!
Survivor Heroes vs Villains - this one is hard. I would normally root for heroes because I hate backstabbers. But the heroes are just too lame to warrant my enthusiasm. So I might have to lean to the dark side and pick...Sandra. I know. It's crazy, but I just cannot write down Parvatti or Russell - they make me barf.
American Idol - Lee all the way. Crystal Bowersox is so Janice Joplin-boring, and that whole bohemian I-am-going-to-be-myself thing is kinda tired. You are on freaking American Idol - how much of yourself can you really be? You can't sign your soul to the devil and pretend you are above it all.
Dancing With The Stars - I guess Nicole the Pussycat Doll. There is really nobody else who is kinda good and doesn't irritate me. Just don't let that Evan Lysasomething the figure skater win, or Johnny Weir might just go postal. Meow.
I have to say, aside from Amazing Race, all these shows are underwhelming me. I still watch them but they really don't do much for me anymore. So You Think You Can Dance is coming back in a few weeks. I missed ya and your Britishness, Cat Deeley.
Monday, May 3, 2010
in the mood for mo
A smoking (literally and figuratively) Madonna will appear in the May/2010 issue of Interview. In it, she talks with Gus Van Sant about Milk, Sean Penn, her upcoming directorial effort W.E., and...Wong Kar Wai.
With Madonna on Glee, Joss Whedon directing Glee, and now Madonna talking about Wong Kar Wai, I feel as if my favorite worlds are converging. Next thing you know, Madonna and Lola will be joining The Amazing Race as a superhot mother/daughter team, and they'll have to eat curry fish balls in Hong Kong!
oh the places i'll go
Yesterday night, they had Bao Xishun, the tallest man alive til recently, at the Pit Stop of The Amazing Race. I breathed a sigh of relief when the episode didn't end with a "In Memory of..."
The Cowboys (my favorite team of the season), the beauty queen and her himbo, and the whiny/catty gay guy and his ambiguously gay brother are in the final three, and the crooked cops are out. They went thru the Yu Yuan Garden and ended at the riverside promenade in Shanghai. It is still a thrill for me to see the teams run through locations that I've been to before, or for me to end up visiting the locations that I remember from The Amazing Race. Season after season, the show just stirs my excitement for what's out there in this great wide world of ours.
I am going to spend a few days in New York in early June (my hotel is a block and a half from this past weekend's would-be bomb site!!!). After that, not sure where my wanderlust will take me next. I really want to go back to Europe or go to Australia/New Zealand. But really, I would be happy to go anywhere. There is wonder everywhere waiting for our discovery.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
oh my gravy
Weather: Absolutely lovely. Blue sky, light breeze, not hot. My favorite type of day
State: Rested
Music: Preview tracks from Robyn, The National, and LCD Soundsystem
Last Movie: Clash Of The Titans
Reading: Kafka On The Shore
Last Pleasure: The Power Of Madonna on Glee
Last Worry: New York terrorist attack - damn, my hotel is going to be one block from there
Looking Forward To: Amazing Race finale next weekend (so exciting - go, Cowboys! Oh my gravy!)
Not Really Looking Forward To: Amazing Race finale (no more episode til next season)
Tired Of: Black people beating up Chinese people, and Donald Trump whining (he does that a lot)
Gas Price: $3.18/gallon
Clothes: Green madras shirt, Gap jeans
Today's Headline: Pakistani group claims NYC car bomb responsibility
Current Desktop Wallpaper: Gorillaz
Last Website Visited: Shoebuy.com
Last Meal: Mushroom quiche, broccoli slaw salad
Last Purchase: BMW 328i (like a real car, not a toy one)
Item Off My Wishlist: iPad and a pair of good shoes, any pair will do
Latest Evidence It's A Beautiful World: My cool new ride, obviously
In Memoriam: He Ping Ping, the world's smallest man. Last week's episode of Amazing Race was dedicated to him (he was featured in the hand-pulled noodle challenge in Shanghai)
Saturday, May 1, 2010
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