umbrellas of demy

La La Land was inspired by Jacques Demy's musicals from the 60's, including Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Young Girls of Rochefort. Here are some clips from those movies:

oh cold snap shot

Weather:  Really cold but clear (showers expected this weekend)
Mood:  Anxious, jittery, restless
Music:  Essential Leonard Cohen, George Michael/Wham playlist
Last Movie: La La Land (A, magical, wondrous), Rogue One (B-, standard Star Wars)
Last TV:  Jessica Jones on Netflix (B+)
Reading:  Nothing but should change that by next week
Last Pleasure:  Ciao Bella key lime ice cream sandwich
Last Worry: Rain and mother
Last accomplishment: Mopped floor yesterday - not one of my favorite house chores
Looking Forward To:  2016 to be done - put a fork in it
Not Really Looking Forward To:  The next four years; working the lawsuits from work when I get back from leave
Gas Price: $2.559/gallon premium at Costco
Clothes:  Black Old Navy t-shirt, black Gap jacket, blue Gap jeans

Today's Headline:  Clashes, Air Raids Tarnish Russia and Turkey's Syria Truce

Last Website Visited:  costco.com
Last Meal: Satay chicken lo mein takeout from Lychee Cafe
Last Purchase:  Dyson heater fan for my mom
Item On My Wishlist:  Jacques Demy Criterion boxset
Latest Evidence It's A Beautiful World: 

wake me up when 2016 go go

This past week saw the unexpected passings of George Michael, Carrie Fisher, and her mother Debbie Reynolds.  What a cruel year 2016 is/was.  It has already taken from us, among many others, David Bowie, Prince, Leonard Cohen, Alan Rickman, Alan Thicke, Florence Henderson, Garry Shandling, Patty Duke, Muhammad Ali, Elie Wiesel, Garry Marshall, Gene Wilder, and Anton Yelchin.  We still have three more days to go...I cannot express how much I love La La Land.  I went into it with sky-high expectations (on paper, this movie ticks all my boxes), and I pretty much smiled through the entire thing.  Within those two hours, there were so many moments of pure cinematic joy and magic.  It really is a movie for dreamers.  And like my favorite movies, it's also tinted with melancholy and longing.  It seems most of my favorite movies or books have the same theme (the Before movies, Eternal Sunshine, Atonement, Norwegian Wood) - even all the love and hope in the world cannot conquer the realities of life and time.  Yet you always need to choose to love and hope.  Movies like this inspire me to get my creative gears going again.  This is exactly what I want my work to convey...Oh yes, please give Oscars to Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone...The past two weeks away from work have been just me doing little thing here and there around the house - filing, shredding, tossing/recycling.  I am not sure how productive I've really been.  Actually I know I really haven't been productive at all.  I have never been productive, ever.  It seems my entire life is a series of non-starters.  One day I am gonna be different.  I keep saying this to myself, but what really does it take for a person to change?  I don't know.  All I know is what Leonard Cohen tells me - Ring the bells that still can ring/Forget your perfect offering/There is a crack in everything/That's how the light gets in...   

2016 in the rear view mirror: tv

Amazing Race (After all these years, this is the show I still most enjoy watching.  But it looks like its days are numbered.  CBS didn't bring it back this fall, and its spring season is not premiering til April 2017.  Fuck, fuck, fuck...)

Gilmore Girls - A Year In The Life (I cannot say enough about how much I needed this revival in 2016.  It's been a hard year, at home and otherwise.  But revisiting Stars Hollow and the Gilmore Girls have restored warmth and hope back into my battle-worn heart and soul.  I am now ready to take on another year.)  

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (My favorite new discovery this year.  When all's said and done, I really just want my tv shows to make me happy.  And Kimmy, Titus, Lillian, and Jacqueline make me really happy.)

Agent Carter (Hayley Atwell was my latest tv kickass female crush, following the likes of Buffy and
Veronica Mars.  Sadly, it got canceled this year, only after two seasons.  The second season by the way was superb.)

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (Season two is not as great as the first.  I mean, they let Greg leave and then interfered with Rachel and Paula's friendship.  But still, who can resist the lovable wackiness of the clan from West Covina?  Besides, it's the only show where boba drinks represent!)

Stranger Things (It's a sci-fi drama centered around a group of grade-school friends in the 80's.  It's got Winona Ryder as the mom of one of the kids.  It had me at eleven.)

Late Late Show With James Corden (My favorite chat show these days.  James Corden is my new Rosie.)

Orphan Black (Tatiana, how do I love thee?  Let me count the ways - Sarah, Alison, Cosima, Helena, Rachel...)

Endeavour (I dare say this is better than Sherlock.)

Younger (Sutton Foster is as likable a tv presence as Lauren Graham.)

iZombie (Rob Thomas has created another smart and charming female protagonist in Liv Moore.  Now only if they get away from that Max Rager storyline.)

Bonus:  Selfie (I know this John Cho/Karen Gillan comedy only lasted half a season in 2014, but I loved the show then and I love it even more this year when I rewatched it on Hulu.  Why is this not for sale on dvd or something?)

before next year

This is happening.  The Before Trilogy is finally coming out on blu ray, next February, as a Criterion collection.  Whenever people ask me what my favorite movie is, I always say Before Sunrise/Before Sunset or the Lord of the Ring trilogy.  If someone put a gun to my head and make me choose just one (I am not sure why they would do that unless they are gangsters who are really opinionated about cinema...), I would probably have to say Before Sunset.  I really believe these Before movies are responsible for making me a romantic but not in a lovey-dovey way.  Instead they made me believe in true love but also that true love does not have to be permanent.   It can be a spark that you once knew, and then it just becomes a memory for the rest of your life.  But really what are we but a jigsaw puzzle of memories?

netflix and chill

I know the yoots these days mean something different when they say "Netflix and chill."  But the last thing I want is for my tv watching to be interrupted by sloppy, dirty sex.  I've really been Netflixing and chilling for the past couple of weeks, since I joined Netflix for the Gilmore Girls revival and have since been catching up on Netflix series I've been wanting to watch.  I really enjoyed season one of Stranger Things.  But the show that is seriously giving me happiness is Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidlt.  Everyone on that show is comedy gold. I cannot wait for season three which is supposed to be coming in May next year.  Wait...does that mean Netflix got me?  Will I now be paying another $10 a month for my tv entertainment?  I guess I'll be fiscally poor but pop culturally rich.  Damn you, marketing geniuses!!!  You are geniuses because I am aware of what you did there, and I am still biting.

stars hollows

This story about how four Marines bonded over Gilmore Girls makes me all verklempt.  Stars Hollows was a representation of the America that they fought for while they were deployed to Iraq. They reunited to watch the Gilmore Girl revival, and now all is right with the world again.

alexa, fix my life

I was this close to buying an Amazon Echo Dot this past Black Friday weekend, but I ended up resisting.  But if I did buy one, here is what I would ask Alexa to do:

-  Alexa, more Gilmore Girls please.
-  Alexa, redo election.
-  Alexa, eradicate the Kardashians from our collective consciousness.
-  Alexa, remove from my earshot or sightline anything to do with Beyonce and her Lemonade, which is about how she is pissed at her cheating husband and yet she stays with him.  So confused - which is the badass feminist female empowerment part of this tale?
-  Alexa, teach me how to be cool like Ryan Gosling.
-  Alexa, stop the rain.
-  Alexa, leak-proof my house.
-  Alexa, make my mother healthy.
-  Alexa, make people stop bothering me with questions at work and tell them I really know a lot less than they think I do.
-  Alexa, grow my hair out of the bad haircut I got two weeks ago.
-  Alexa, decongest streets and freeways and shopping malls by 50%.
-  Alexa, have GY call me and say sorry.
-  Alexa, stop terrorism.
-  Alexa, make Putin and Kim Jong Un less creepy.
-  Alexa, leave American Indian land alone.
-  Alexa, reduce the price of the Criterion Before Sunrise trilogy to under $50.
-  Alexa, make Amazing Race come back for many, many seasons to come.
-  Alexa, release the Neca Batman Returns Catwoman action figure already.
-  Alexa, give Chi Young a good paying job with benefits.
-  Alexa, make 2017 awesome.
-  Alexa, seriously stop the freaking rain.