The noir-musical genre

I almost never regret spending my time watching a movie, even ones I end up hating. The mediocre ones are usually sufficient enough to sustain its own expectations, however low they may be, while the really bad ones can be seen as investments that pay off whenever you choose to ridicule them with friends or turn them into amusing anecdotes. 

Well yesterday I saw a movie that was an exception to the rule, i.e. it was a total waste of time. Repo: The Genetic Opera, or whatever it is properly called, was a complete disappointment! Please, don't bother watching it. I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I actually thought it could be good. The trailer showed potential, it reminded me of Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical (2005) which I love, but at the end it wasn't even close to what I expected and I was left with a mind-boggling disappointment that made me want to forget I ever saw the damn thing!

Comparing the two films did lead me to an interesting observation about genres and where these type of movies could fit in. I did a compromise, in my head, and came up with the noir-musical. Correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I know that's not an establish genre yet. But that is where I would put Reefer Madness in. It's a musical that satirizes a propaganda film that came out in the 30s and deals with the "evil" that is marijuana, so already you can tell that it's not in the same category as Singin' in The Rain. It's "noir" because of its seediness and setting in the 40s. It also gets kind of gory at the end but I'm not sure how to classify that particular aspect, so for now I'm pleased with the noir-musical label. Come to think of it, Chicago and Cabaret could also fit in this genre, except that Cabaret, I believe, is known as a Bob Fosse musical, but that's more auteur territory rather than genre. Hm... discuss among yourselves. 

The Prodigal Daughter returns

This seems to be the theme of my life lately. Unintentionally a few weeks after I moved back home, me being the prodigal daughter of course, I've been reading books that deal with similar topics. 

Bitten by Kelley Armstrong is about the only female werewolf in existence, at least in this particular mythology, named Elena. In this story Elena has been spending the last year of her life away from her pack because of issues best discovered when you read the book yourself. Point is her "journey" is about coming home, prodigal daughter no.2.

The book I'm reading now, Stray by Rachel Vincent, is about another type of shape-shifters, namely werecats. The protagonist is again a young woman who has spent the recent years of her life going to college and then to postgraduate studies in pursuit of a life independent from her pride (which I've just learned is the equivalent of a wolf's pack for cats). She is forced to return home because of a certain incident. A reluctant, prodigal daughter no.3.

I'll have to think back on other books I've read first but I'm thinking that this is a theme that comes up quite often in one way or another, especially since a lot of the heroines that I read have some kind of daddy issue in their baggage.

Christmas flicks

Christmas came and went and with it went my hope for to find a new good Christmas flicks. What is it with holiday movies?! You'd think that putting together a warm family film isn't a difficult task but faced with the selection of crap served around this time of year you realize that the simplest things are the hardest to reinvent year after year. 

I can count all the good holiday movies, according to my standards, in the last dozen years i one hand. Amongst them are Bad Santa and The Family Stone. The former is by no means a traditional story but it still manages to embody the spirit of christmas and ultimately leaves you feeling good afterwards. The latter, which I just saw again for the first time since it came out in 2005, leaves the same impression. Utilizing a family get-together is a great way to represent different personalities into one film and Family Stone does a good job of fleshing out these various characters into individuals that the audience can relate to despite the limited amount of time and plot space. I find that films that manage to do this leave the biggest impression because we are able to sympathize with most, if not all, characters, therefore accentuating the gray that is the human condition. 

Now contrasting the good with the bad, The Holiday, which I saw when it came out in the cinema, is one of those films that manage to only go down hill. Of course this is a matter of taste but personally I've never gone to see a film with low expectations and was still left disappointed, the fact that the drivel cost money just made me feel worse and embarrassed for Kate Winslet, cause well she's way too good for it. Besides the superficiality aspect of the film (i.e. the acting and the story), the fact that Christmas was just a backdrop of time where the narrative takes places is the biggest reason why it's a subpar holiday film. 

Poorly made Christmas flicks do the opposite of what they're supposed to. You're supposed to feel warmth and joy and hope after seeing those stories not discouraged and disappointed. I miss the days when they made movies like Home Alone (1 and 2 only), the first Santa Clause or Miracle on 34th Street (unfortunately I haven't seen the original but I'm guessing it's great if the remake is good) They were genuine holiday entertainment where you sense family, a lil bit of Christmas magic and a lot of joy at the end. Happy tears, that's all I want, maybe it's too much to ask for...

Dry spell

The holidays are approaching and that means we've hit a bit of a dry spell on TV land. Most shows have gone onhiatus and the ones that are left, well, I guess I just don't have much to say about them at the moment. I thought that I'd had plenty to say about The Wire once I was done with it but there really isn't much to say. The show is very good overall and well written but it's Goddamn depressing! It's depressing because it's very authentic and realistic which makes you even more depressed because you can't even tell yourself that it's fiction.

Speaking of depressing, at least three TV shows I follow are getting cancelled this season. Pushing Daisies, which I've talked about earlier, Eli Stone and Dirty Sexy Money. I always think it's awfully mean to cancel a show before they actually finish airing their season and even worse when they're still filming said season. I believe it has a lot to do with the unravelling of most shows that have this fate. Dirty Sexy Money for example, they've had flaws from the beginning sure, but these last few episodes I noticed that things were falling apart. Plot holes here and there, abandoned storylines and the overall sense of rushing towards the finish line. It makes for less than satisfying TV, which is really a shame since Peter Krause and most of the cast could do better. I suppose now that the show is over they have the chance to do that, hopefully.

Eli Stone on the other hand is not having the same problems since they're more of a "procedural" kind of show, but it has gotten a bit boring. It made big changes this season, common in TV shows on their sophmoric year, but usually the show has a chance to balance things out in the third season, which Eli Stone won't have. I feel sorry for Johnny Lee Miller, the show had potential and promise but all those hopes are squashed now. 

I wish I could say that I didn't understand why some shows make it and some don't. Why smart shows have low ratings and moronic ones stick around for forever. But I do understand why and that's only from my own experience. The experts working within the industry know even better what works and what doesn't, more importantly though they know what works in proportion to how much they cost. That makes me think about how contradictory showbusiness is. To have people who deal with art and artists in the confines of monetary rules and regulation. Is entertainment simply commoditized art? 

Pushing Daisies countdown

Four more episode till the end of Pushing Daisies. I have to say that I'm feeling very conflicted about it. On one hand, the end of the show marks the end of one of TV's best cleverly well written show and the loss of well acted, perfectly casted characters like Ned, Olive, Emerson, etc. Even the smallest guest roles in the show are always above par. On the other though, I am loving Lee Pace a lot right now and I would really like to see him doing a variety of other roles. To get an ending to Chuck and Ned's love story would also be a welcome, while at the same time I was hoping that if they had more time they could give Olive a chance with Ned, something I definitely won't get in the last four episode.

The fact that I want the girl that's obviously not getting the guy is something I realized comes up often. What is it that makes women attracted to unattainable men? I have seen a LOT of TV and films and have read a considerable amount of dark fantasy romances. Most of them are just a variation of the same formula, the classic "Pride and Prejudice" one. The difference between those stories and real life of course is the girl does eventually get the guy, no matter what stupid things they do or how many personality flaws they have to overcome. Are they just projecting what really is a 'turn on' for women or are we so affected by them that in real life we are drawn to difficult, unavailable men because we think that eventually somehow he'll be ours? 

No wonder why men don't understand women, I think we barely understand ourselves.

taking a breather

hmph

sigh

...

A season of Chucks (spoiler alert)

This season I realized that there are at least three shows on air that have a character called Chuck in it. I say at least because there are billions of TV shows out there and I can't possibly know how many have Chucks in them. Anyway, the three are of course: Chuck as in the show Chuck, Chuck as in Charlotte in Pushing Daisies and Chuck as in Charles Bass from Gossip Girl.

All that was basically so I could segue into a gushing blog post over how great the latest episode of Gossip Girl was! It was an especially great episode because my favorite characters are Chuck and Blair and in this one they had good stuff to work with. Chuck's dad dying was definitely a breaking point for the poor lonely orphan, puts-up-a-jerky-front-as-defense-mechanism, boy. With his dad, who never gave him any of the confirmation and approval all kids need, dead and no one to turn to, he has a lot of issues to deal with.

Of course he does have his friends, although Serena doesn't count anymore cause she's such a selfish bitch sometimes, and Blair, who finally said she loved him out loud! It was a heartbreaking scene when Chuck didn't say it back, but we all know he does. When he finally comes to her and lets her comfort him, it was so touching, almost too raw and honest for what you usually expect from a "teen" show. I say "teen" cause I don't really see them as high school kids, it's just too weird.

Speaking of Blair, her scenes with her mom and step-dad were also really sweet. I do think I might have a girl crush on Leighton Meester, she's purrty ;-)

On top of all the Chuck and Blair stuff there was a secret dying, no pun intended, to be revealed all throughout the episode about the reason why Lily was admitted to a hospital in France and we finally heard it!!! Well sort of...


spoiler alert


[Edit]
Rufus met up with Lily at the grand central, came up to her and asked something to this effect "...was it a boy or a girl?"
WTF right?! it was pretty awesome, somewhat expected because Rufus was really upset after CeeCee talked to him and I thought well this has got to do with a baby, specifically Rufus and Lily's baby. I just thought it was aborted though,cause they wouldn't know if it's a boy or a girl then right? and Lily wouldn't have had to stay away that long which it seems that she did so that means she gave the baby away right? anyhow there might be a half-sibling showing up soon, 'citing!


I don't care what anyone says, when I love something girly I dedicate myself to it. You haven't seen me talk Twilight yet, then you'll know for sure.

wanna feel like a failure?

Second post in just how many days, I amaze myself.
Having trolled around google images for awhile, looking for any photo of my old school, I started finding photos of old classmates instead. You know how one thought leads to another etc etc like Peirce (not a typo, seriously that's how you spell his name) the indexicality guy says, well I was reminded by this joke that Daniel Tosh used to do about the show Cribs on MTV and how it should actually be called "Wanna feel like a failure?!" so that's kinda what I think about all those web-communities out there. I mean obviously what we see isn't a fair realistic presentation of another persons life but as we all show our best side to the camera, so to speak, it's easy to forget that the grass isn't greener on the other side just greener where we can see it.
So, wanna feel like a failure? get a facebook account and see how successful your friends from high school turned out ;)

crazy stalker lady

I'm not sure why I want to write a new post, God knows I've all but given up blogging. That's not true. I did give up blogging, why? Cause I'm an attention whore and anything worth doing is only worth it if I get sufficient attention for it. Let's list why this is shall we: first born child, first born grandchild, first born daughter, first born granddaughter, only daughter. I'm spoiled, grew up spoiled, sure my parents did a pretty decent job, I turned out alright but spoiled none-the-less.

Point is, I'm used to getting what I want and when I can't have it I tend to go a little overboard with the eagerness. This is especially embarrassing when I have a crush on someone. My common sense constantly reminds me that you can't control what people think but the rest of me only knows what it wants and that relentless want won't go away unless I've exhausted all my options toward achieving my goal or crash and burn at the attempt. With the regard of crushes, I've learned from my mistakes past. Nowadays I stop short of making an ass out of myself and play crazy stalker lady on the internet instead. The little comfort being that I recognize how creepy and fucked up it is to be trolling around facebook in search of a guy I thought was pretty six months ago, well he's still pretty now but I just haven't seen him since last spring. Sadly I know I won't stop caving in to my curiosity and desperate need for any type of closure. I guess there's nothing left to say, I'm Nicole and I'm a cyberstalker

My first home away from home

in the dawn of Facebook

So I've decided to start "blogging" again, mostly because AK told me I should and partly because everyone has what the popular kids call a facebook account and I am determined never to get one. Hence the return to the more classic mode of putting yourself out there on the web. Anyways life has been rolling and full of happy news and happenings so I might just feel like dropping a line or two sometime these days. Ciao!

And so ends my try to "carpe diem"...

There are to sides to every story right? well as I've mentioned before this blog will contain only happy thoughts so for the dirty details of this post you should go to www.casandratitis.blogspot.com.

I'll make a long story short cause I've written alot on the other blog. I tried out for swedish Idol this year, made it all the way up to the duets part on the second day of the stockholm version of "hollywood week". Saw a lot of cute guys, well a few. The cutest was a guy that looked like Scott Speedman (Ben from "Felicity"). Why was he the cutest? (there was a photographer that looked like Ryan Gosling) well because he gave me the most compliments, hehehe.... I really think thats why I sing to an audience, its not just the positive feedback I long for, its the praise from cute/hot guys that I'd like to impress :)

Anyways, he said it was "bästa musik upplevelse" he heard among all the girls and that he was slightly "förförd". I also noticed him mentioning me to other ppl cause I'd see him talk to someone and then he'd hint in my direction, hehe....
Sadly I did not get his number, stupid stuipid me! honestly networking was the last thing on my mind during those days but man do i regret not giving him my number. We of course hoped that we'd be coupled together for the duet but alas it wasn't meant to be, he did however manage to tell my duet that I was his first choice so he'd better not mess it up, hehehe.... his duet was there too so she was kinda offended, haha... but it totally made my day for sure!

I got a bunch of compliments from other peeps too, mostly guys of course and a couple of girls, I'm not gonna be humble about it :) its not everyday you get praise like that.

So bottom line, it sucks that I didnt go further but its not like I had a chance in winning the whole thing so it doesnt really matter and at least now I know a little bit more that my voice can actually touch people, that theres potential there and its not just the simple fact that I can sing. Mooshy clichés but its true so.....lol.

To anyone who cares: I'm back!!!

Did anybody notice how long I haven't updated the blog?! The last post was on d 9th of December, which was coincidentally the first anniversary of my blog (applause) Thank you! Thank you! Anyways I thought it would've been cool if I just stopped posting then 'cause the one year cycle was complete. Eventually the obvious came to me, where am I supposed to blog now? make a new one (I don't think so). But since I've had absolutetly no inspiration or motivation to blog then it wasn't a problem.
I've missed it though, so I'm back!

I will proceed to write only positive things from now on, what with my template being Oh-so-pink now and stuff. It's time to seperate my glass-half-fulls and half-emptys into different venues. For u who prefer the latter www.cassandratitis.blogspot.com might be more your taste.

Ok, I've discovered my new favourite series of the year this week: "Veronica Mars". It's soo awesome I tell you (TV junkies out there would undertstand me). I saw the whole 1st season in 2 days and proceded to watch 13 episodes of the second season through out the week. By the weekend I started to watch the first season all over again (under the pretense of introducing it to my brother).

On the music front I have not much to report, almost nothing actually. Been listening to old stuff + some Kanye, Fiona and Fort minor.

Oh and I was in Jakarta for like a month.

Man! do i have to decide a title everytime?!?!

Ok, i should be finishing my homework right now, it was due last week, lazy lazy me! I'm half asleep but was in a pretty good mood, listening to podcasts and such, but now I feel kinda weird, like icky weird but not because anything disgusting happened. I just made one mistake, I checked out what the ppl in the podcasts looked like plus their age too, this is something any podcasts listener out there shouldn't do cause it really ruins everything. Ppl sound much more cooler than they look, mean yes but it's true, I'm almost always dissapointed when i see their faces, hehe..... More annoyingly their age, at least in this one Harry Potter related podcast, they're mostly youngsters (I was just soooo wrong, totally thought they sounded older than me). It was just much more cooler when i thought they were older college kids discussing HP, but now it's just makin me feel sooo friggin nerdy. Not that being a nerd is bad but I've always pictured myself a little above the geek/nerd/loser line. Anyways I wont be listening to them again, it just seems too odd for me now. Whatever, it's 3 am should continue writing my work. Weird thing is I've actually done a lot of my work half asleep, hehehe.... they usually turn out pretty good, except for the occasional typos and missing words hehe....