Your Greatest Fear!

This weekend was our annual Halloween Party - M. and I decided to make it a theme party: Your Greatest Fear! And people were supposed to dress as their worst fear, uh, embodied. It lead to a lot of existentialism amongst our nerdiest friends and questions along the line of "isn't that which we fear the most our very selves?" and crap like that. ha. I had, since the inception of the theme, decided to dress as a homeless person, which was much less funny after getting the news that I did not get my dream job like, the day before. Then I was in kind of a bind because I didn't have another costume idea, and dressing as an out-of-work, somewhat highly educated person was less my greatest fear than my uh, reality. For a brief time I thought I would go as a bunny, in a weird homage to Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Anya, but I was afraid no one would get it and it would be stupid. Do you know I showed an episode of Buffy to the class I taught this summer, and no one (NO ONE) had even heard of it. In the end it seemed easier to stick with my original idea than spend the night saying, "No, it's an homage." Anyway, I went as a homeless person after all, and it wasn't too bad. One of the best costumes was by my friend, J., who was a clown; she really terrified people, just by smiling at them. I'm not afraid of clowns, so I just thought she looked cute. D. was a great car salesman.

My life sucks?

Well, I just got some super disappointing news and I'm thinking about entering a why-me-spiral, starting with not getting accepted into a PhD program at the beginning of the year, pausing at my broken arm and wearing a cast all summer, taking a long look at the craphole that was August, when I was really sick, to September, when my grandpa died, and now October with the aforementioned disappointing news of the employment variety, which is basically that I will never get a decent job, and, oh, yeah, I need to start repaying those student loans.

Another option is to make fun of other people, because putting other people down is how I make myself feel good. Get it? So, let's see... Whoever writes Battlestar Galactica is a total idiot. Mike's been watching that show and I hate it. If I wanted to watch a bunch of insane, violent, hyper-masculine, hypocritical, militaristic assholes make a bunch of stupid decisions, shove their religion down my throat, and run a civilization into the ground, I'd turn on Fox news and watch my own government do it. Also, my cat peed right outside her box. What kind of moron would do that????

Huh. It didn't work.

my special lady friend

The third season of Veronica Mars if off to a great start. I was kind of afraid it was going to fall into a groove, which I was dreading (tragedy in the season premiere, followed by the break-up of Veronica and Logan), but so far it has neatly defied my expectations, which makes it uh-awesome! Last week, I see that season two's Gia was on the Gilmore Girls - so imagine my surprise when this week, the Gilmore Girls's Logan was on Veronica Mars, and the Gilmore Girls's Logan was playing the brother of Veronica Mars's Logan! It's like their directors were playing poker and lost their actors to each other or something.

I'm only recently becoming hip to the Big Lebowsky references - I don't know why it's taken me a while, because that's like, one of my favorite movies - so last week I just about fell off the couch when they started hitting that kid and yelling, "You're entering a world of pain, Larry!" and tonight, oh, it took me a minute, but then I got it... "Hey, I've got a beverage here"???? Come ON! (imagine Gob saying "come on" - you know what I'm talking about...)

My friend C. paid $30 to meet Kristen Bell this summer. It sounds better when she tells it... sort of. I have a weird, old-lady-crush on Logan. I would have paid him $30 to... kiss me! hahaha! Can you do that?

Tiny, minor complaint: I hate the revamped theme song, it was better fast. Also, does anyone know what happened between Veronica's dad and Wallace's mom? I thought they were dating. By the way, where IS Wallace this season?

Shoes! Glorious, beautiful shoes!

This weekend we saw the long-awaited Marie Antoinette by Sophia Coppola. I spent most of last week internet-stalking the movie and becoming a veritable expert on all things Marie Antoinette. I love cultural insight, so I was thrilled by the scenes that showed the day-to-day activities of being an 18th century queen, like how she had to wait for the women of court to dress her in the morning, how she and the dauphin were put to bed by a crowd of people (including what appeared to be a cardinal) on their wedding night, how they acquired a glass of water at dinner and how, when she gave birth, the room was so crowded with people they could barely open a window after she passed out. Those moments were interspersed with long sequences of listening to music or watching the sun rise - leading some to criticize the movie for being "boring," but really they give the impression of what it might have been like to be bored, despite having all of Versailles at your disposal.

Operating under a post-modern principle that it's quite impossible to accurately represent a time and place you have no real familiarity with, Marie Antoinette rather strives to represent what it might have been like for a bright, extremely young woman who suddenly became the most powerful and wealthy women in France, having to deal with intense pressures and living a fairly isolated life.

Great performances were put in by Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzman (as Louis XVI), Judy Davis (as a Comtesse who guides M.A. through the complexities of French court life), Asia Argento was great as Madame Du Barry (the lover of Louis XV), and humorous performances were put in by Rip Torn (Louis XV) and Shirley Henderson (you'll remember her as Bridget Jones's friend Jude, and Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter.)


One of my favorite sequences was played out to the tune of "I want candy" - a series of shots alternating delicious looking cakes and petit fours and The. Most. Gorgeous. Shoes I've ever seen in my whole life. (The cakes are Ladurée and the shoes are Manolos.) Presumably it's for scenes like these the film was booed at Cannes and generally disliked by French audiences, where Marie Antoinette remains a controversial figure. Speaking of, I heard a French girl complaining at the end of the movie, "How can you end that movie without a beheading?!?" (Still calling for her head, aren't they?) Frankly I was relieved that the film didn't include the miserable final years of the royal family's lives (not just because I have a no-death-penalty-rule that I employ, and I couldn't quite decide if it might apply in the case of Marie Antoinette), but because the ending, while avoiding the shedding of blood, perhaps even more convincingly implies that the era was over, but also illustrates the grace and bravery with which Marie Antoinette faced the end of her reign.

I'd recommend the film to any fan of Coppola - ooooh, I can't wait to see what her next movie will be!

Oh, Come ON!

Last night's anxiously awaited tv line-up was a big disappoint. Our friends compaired it to both the night we watched the 2004 elections and the year Crash won Best Picture at the Oscars. Not only did Michael Knight not WIN... not only did he come in FOURTH, but JEFFREY wins? Tattoo Neck? A man who tattooed his NECK? A man who basically cheated and went over budget and insulted a mother and called her fat and also his clothes are really ugly and I hate them? HIM?

What a night. I dressed up like Heidi Klum, by which I mean I wore a blonde wig. And no one knew who I was. I really thought Uli vas going to vin this. Her dresses at Olympus were so fabulous! Listen, I don't care what the guys at Project Rungay have to say, I'm pissed! Oh, puh-lease! (Bitch!): It's about the process and the people in the process. Jeffrey wouldn't have been our pick, but we have no problem with the decision, if for no other reason than it's practically a certainty that all of the final four will be moving to new phases in their careers within the next year. No one knows better than those guys that it's about snarkiness. And no one makes me feel as snarky as Jeffrey. The next phase in Jeffrey's career is crashing a Saturn Sky Roadster.

Here's the general reaction to the winner:


So, after the massive disappointment that was Project Runway, we gleefully switch over to the Daily Show to watch Jon Stewart spank John Ashcroft, but what does he do but just HAND him the interview!?!?

What I did today

Well, it was a pajama day, like the days of yore. Unemployeed moi spends the day in her pajamas - NOT because she has no gumption, mind you, but because she's very, VERY busy! This morning I did a ton of reading on the feminist presence in the blog-o-sphere. Do you know some maniacs call these "boob blogs"? Crazy. I read all about this controversy of one feminist who called this other feminist a like, bad feminist because she "posed" for a picture with Bill Clinton and had the nerve to, you know, stand there looking pretty with her boobs.

The "guilty" party has a great blog: Feministing.

I also read this great article - although living in a pro-choice world is important to me, I wish abortion where not a political issue (and I fear it's probably going to blow up all over the political landscape all over again very soon) - anyway, this writer, Elizabeth Wardle, perfectly expresses the real issues that are (don't get me wrong) more important than abortion.

Also I wrote an article - hopefully soon to be published! I'll keep you posted!

OMG! I can't wait to see this movie!

I'm SO excited about Marie Antoinette! Sofia Coppola is a great director, and Kirsten Dunst - already a great actor at what? Six years old, back in the Interview with a Vampire days, is getting better and better. Check out the website, it has some nifty information, as well as this glowing review in the NY Times, and these gorgeous pictures!!!

Watch what happens!

Just finished watching PR, and now must spend a whole week in agony, wondering what will happen next! Naturally, I'm inclined to think the worst of Tattoo-Neck Jeffrey, both rude and weak of chin (a definite sign of poor character.) So, Tim leaves us hanging at the end by saying, "blah blah blah UNfortunately..." and then they show Jeffrey crying. I'm sure it's all a smoke screen - probably will go something like, "blah blah blah, UNfortunately poor Jeffrey was unjustly accused blah blah blah" and then he weeps for joy. The reason I think this, of course, is because, as everyone knows, all four of them showed at Olympus Fashion week about a month ago, and the pics are available online for all to see (loyal as I am to Michael, I have to say Uli really rocked it.)

In other news, I think I'm getting sick, the last few days I've felt really tired and scraggly. But, luckily I don't have too much to do in the next few days except lay around and drink orange juice and read. Just got the new Kate Atkinson book in the mail today - I'll be sure to post about it on my book blog soon.

Cab of the beast!

One of my friends has this slightly odd obsessive compulsive thing where she looks for low cab numbers - number one seems to be the Holy Grail, but I think she gets excited about anything under 50. This weekend, we were driving behind this!