misogyny once again

I am so pissed at the dickhead John Carney.  I was previously a fan - admired Once, loved Begin Again.  But then he goes and gives an interview where he degrades Keira Knightley by calling her a supermodel who cannot act while he praises his male cast like Mark Ruffalo and Adam Levine.  (Adam freaking douchebag extraordinaire Levine!!!)  What the hell is he on?  Did he watch his own movie?  Keira Knightley was the best thing about Begin Again!  And she is so wonderful in so many movies in her twice Oscar-nominated, twice BAFTA-nominated career.  Pride And Prejudice, Imitation Game, Atonement, Never Let Me Go, Love Actually, Anna Karenina, A Dangerous Method, Bend It Like Beckham, and so on...  In fact, she should have been nominated for Begin Again - that's how good she was in it.  To publicly trash her acting and reduce her to a supermodel is just plain misogynistic.  (Not that there's anything about being a supermodel, obviously, but that's just not what she is.)

What makes this worse is, I really was looking forward to watching John Carney's new movie Sing Street.  It looks completely charming, and it's the type of movie I would love.  Argh.

don't be a hater

Whoa.  All the internet hate hurled at Madonna for doing an earnest tribute to her friend Prince is just 2 crazy 2 comprehend.  She had nothing to gain for doing this.  It was a fine job - nothing controversial at all about it, yet somehow people are in an uproar.  How is she not worthy?  She is every bit his peer.  In fact, in every measurable way, she actually outdoes him.  So does it come down to racism, or ageism, or sexism?  I mean, it has to be a combination of all those things.  It's completely ridiculous for Prince supporters to call Madonna an old hag when they are the same age, born within a couple of months from each other in that fateful year of 1958.  Prince himself would be very upset at all the venom.

The world, especially the world as filtered through social media, is way too negative.  Behind their keyboards people forget how to behave as human beings.  It is honestly the worst byproduct of the internet age that we live in.  Sure, I am hardly one to talk.  I am a rather cynical individual.  I have many things I dislike and I comment on them incessantly here, but I would never, say, go to a Lady Gaga website and throw insults at her or her fans.  I just don't fundamentally understand that need.  I remember a while back when I posted a Madonna concert clip on my youtube account, I had Lady Gaga's Little Monsters post very negative comments on my posting.  Why?  Why would you take the time to find and then click on my video?  It's just something I was sharing for people with like minds. 

We need to use our voices to reverse that effect.  Spread love and good energy instead.  Fight instead against evil and injustice.  Don't put effort into petty little things.  I don't know how the world can become a better place when we cannot get over these trivial matters.  This all saddens me.  But it also serves as a reminder because I don't want to become what I am witnessing.  Don't be a hater.  Be a lover.

everyone wants some good movies

2016 movies I want to watch (some already came out but I haven't gotten to them):

Captain America Civil War - I am just an okay fan of the Avengers movies (but at least these are not the new sucky brand of DC superhero movies).  But the Captain America ones are the best of the bunch.
X-Men Apocalypse - Loved First Class and Days Of Future Past.  Buzz on third one is not so great, unfortunately.  But I am still in.
Finding Dory - Pixar pics are mostly a no-lose proposition (except for the Cars and Monster Inc ones)
Star Trek Beyond - Loved the first and didn't like the second.  But I really like the cast - everyone is so perfectly cast in their Star Trek characters, so count me in.
Jason Bourne - Yes to return of Matt Damon!
La La Land - How can you lose with Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in a musical set in Hollywood???
The Lobster - Buzz is amazing on this Colin Farrell romance indie set in a world where everyone has only 45 days to fall in love or be turned into an animal of his/her choosing.  Is this the next Eternal Sunshine?
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk - Ang Lee is an automatic in for me.
Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them - JK Rowling post-Harry Potter.  This looks magical.
(Deadpool) - Love me some subversive Ryan Reynolds superhero.
(Everybody Wants Some) - Richard Linklater is an automatic in for me.
(Sing Street) - Another music-filled feel-good movie from John Carney (Once, Begin Again).  Who doesn't need this in their lives?

thank you for being a friend

Last week, I almost died.  I was watching Golden Girls.  I was taking a gulp of my water when Bea Arthru did one of her deadpan looks.  I literally choked on the water and was heaving for breath for a good minute.  It actually was really scary.  I honestly felt like I have never been closer to death.

Can you imagine what my obit would say if I did die from watching Golden Girls?  Other people die either from diseases, or something really dramatic or heroic.  I die from watching a rerun of a sitcom about a bunch of old ladies living in a house in Florida. Oy-vey.

the colour in everything

Weather:  Gloriously sunny and mild
Mood:  Stressed but trying to fight it
Music:  James Blake - The Colour In Anything (A) and Radiohead - A Moon-Shaped Pool (B+)
Last Movie: In Bruges (rewatch) - Man, I love this movie so much.
Reading:  nothing
Last Pleasure:  Watching Golden Girls rerun on Hallmark channel
Last Worry: Trump (aside from my trifecta of worries these days - house, mom, Chi Young)
Last accomplishment: Making really yummy herb-crusted lamb chops for Mother's Day
Looking Forward To:  Captain America Civil War and La La Land
Not Really Looking Forward To:  Calling more contractors (that profession has become my least favorite of all professions - even worse than lawyers and journalists and auto mechanics)
Gas Price: $2.749/gallon premium at Costco
Clothes:  Orange/blue checkered shirt from Land's End, navy blue fleece pants from Uniqlo

Today's Headline:  Trump Blasts New York Times Over Lame Hit Piece They Did On Me and Women

Last Website Visited:  curbed.com
Last Meal: Chicken cabbage quinoa salad
Last Purchase:  Notting Hill blu ray
Item On My Wishlist:  Fantastic Cities coloring book
Latest Evidence It's A Beautiful World: Daniel Buren's color treatment of Frank Gehry's Fondation Louis Vuitton

i saw your ghost

Dear Y:  I hope this letter finds you well.  It's been two years since we've parted.  It was great while it lasted, but then again, it wasn't great enough to last.  All the things that people do to each other - make each other happy, infuriate one another, build up the other person's dream, break each other's heart - I guess we did it all.  I do think about you sometimes.  I am not sure though whether I think about the idea of you, what I've built you up to be in my head, or actually about you the person I was with.  Regardless, whenever I do think of you, whichever version that is, I inevitably wish I were not some messed up person who cannot make things work.  I wish I were that person whom you wanted to stick around for, that person worthy of your trying.  I look at myself in the mirror and wonder if I would ever grow up to be that type of man.  Like someone who makes someone else want to put everything on the line and say, "I am in.  I am all in."  But I know I am not yet that man.  I have too much crap.  I am not nice enough.  I am petty and selfish.  I don't love hard enough.  I hold things too close to the chest.  I am often times inauthentic.  I worry too much about what other people want from me and what they want me to be.  I think you wanted an authentic person to be your life partner.  You thought I tried too hard to say the right thing and do the right thing, but I end up saying and doing all the wrong things because those things I say and do are not real.  There was one fight that we had where you said, "Why do you do that?  Can't you just not be so appeasing?  It's like, the more you try to be likable, the less likable you are."  That comment cut me to the core.  I hated you when you said it.  Not that it wasn't the truth.  But I hated that you thought that of me.  You were supposed to love me and see the best in me.  Being critical of me was my job, not yours.  Maybe that's why it didn't work - because we both saw that me that I didn't like.  Now granted, you had issues too.  I am just saying.  But this is actually not the reason I am writing today.  I am not writing to rehash what went wrong.  I am writing simply because I heard a song today.  My library was playing on shuffle, and it came on.  It was Jose Gonzalez's cover of Hand On Your Heart.  Do you remember what that song meant to us?  Or have I attached too much meaning to it over the years?  It just made me very wistful, like seeing a thousand sunsets, or watching a time lapse of our would-be growing children, or smelling the perfume my mother used to wear when she was young.  So I am writing you this letter to let you know - someone from your past thought of you today.  I don't want anything from you.  I don't need to know about your new life, whom you are loving now, what you last dreamed about last night.  But I think sometimes it's nice to know that even when people aren't together anymore, their ghosts sometimes come floating in and out of each others' lives, just as a reminder.  Today I saw your ghost.  That's all.  Take care, M