it was a good night – the girls came over for our 3^rd ever weekly girls’ night. we got some yummy chinese and watched “girl with a pearl earring.”

I *very* much enjoyed the movie… it was artistic in a way I’ve not seen before. watching the movie was like watching an oil painting in motion. a friend said it would be that way, but I didn’t understand until I watched it.

now, I’m reading through some intellectuals’ reviews and discussions about the movie. Bethany abandoned me at 10:30, so I’ve had nothing better to do. (grr to her for staying out VERY late last night with James but bailing on ME so early tonight) eh. anyway, I’m glad for the opportunity – there is a LOT of very interesting discussion out there.

oh yeah… last night I watched “kill bill vol. 1.” I LOVED it. =) there were so many neat things done with color, animation, music, silence… not to mention it was just a FUN movie. I loved the “psycho”-like squeal-y noises when she saw each person she was about to kill, I loved the “monty python”-meets-”dead alive” type blood squirting… =) I can’t wait to see vol. 2!

I decided to post some pictures of my rearview mirror issues.

1. to give you a good idea about the way it broke, the first picture is of the beginning stages of my car’s mirror’s rapid decline. between this pic and the next, the whole thing just fell off and hung. when I drove on the highway, it was swinging and scratching the car door.
2. the second picture is the happy resolution to this chapter of the dilapidating car saga… I saved myself $250 by using packing tape (duct tape’s comparatively invisible cousin) to reattach the mirror. you mechanics got NOTHIN’ on me!

since the last time I posted:

1. Dave got the job. we’re moving to Upland!
   (anyone know a good place to live?)
2. Melissa got accepted to Wycliffe!
   (sorry boys, she’s headed overseas)
3. my sisters decided to come out for the weekend!
   (Mom was going to Hawaii with Dad)
4. Dave decided where we’re going on our honeymoon.
   (no, I don’t know where we’re going or what we’re doing)
5. we’re ready to order invitations.
   (finally – never knew there was so much to it!)
6. we started registering.
   (Dave ended up scanning me!)
7. my driver’s side rearview mirror fell off while I washed my car.
   (yes, AGAIN – only it wasn’t a touchy-feely car wash this time)
8. I finished all of alias season one in three days.
   (waited for Beth to catch up; now we’re on season two)
9. I fisished a season and a half of scrubs – marathon last night.
   (I love Zach Braff.)

spent the weekend with Shawn and Dave. when those guys get together, hilarity and chicken noises often ensue – this weekend was no exception.

highlights:

• Shawn stomped all OVER us playing Settlers of Catan.
• we ate some of the best pizza in the world.
• we went to the northern Indiana semi-state blah blah basketball game to see Shawn’s old hs play… it was fun watching the Alspaughs get riled up about the refs.
• we met Matt’s new girl – and loved her.
• we got to watch a stupid goose walk on then fall through then walk on then fall through some ice on the lake. =) it was mesmerizing.
• I won a round of frizolf – the boys both finished at a stellar 6 over par. I tore ‘em up. =)

good fun, boys. I’m glad you guys had time to hang this weekend – it was awesome.

one thing I really like about watching new tv shows is finding new music that I like. in the few shows I’ve watched on dvd by season (angel, buffy, alias, etc), I’ve found quite a bit of music I like… and quite a bit of music I’d like to have. it really is too bad that I can’t download music at work. I have a dialup connection at home, which means there’s no filesharing/bittorrent anything for me there. anyone want to volunteer some internet time for a good cause? =)

anyway, to give you an idea of the kind of music I’m into right now, here are some songs I’ve decided I’d like to have:

• cranberries – never grow old
• kate bush – this woman’s work
• bill bonk – halfway home
• bill bonk – rings a bell
• ryan adams – la cienega just smiled
• nina storey – if i were an angel
• sarah mclachlan – angel
• john wesley harding – i’m wrong about everything
• leroy – trans am
• gus – goin’ our way
• natalie merchant – not in this life
• ivy – edge of the ocean
• duncan sheik – out of order
• freedy johnston – love grows
• sting – someone to watch over me
• enya – how can i keep from singing
• fleetwood mac – songbird
• norah jones – shoot the moon
• chantal kreviasuk – green apples
• john mayer – no such thing
• smashing pumpkins – landslide
• abra moore – home
• norah jones – feelin’ the same way
• bill bonk – world gone mad
• doves – break me gently
• gigolo aunts – lay your weary body down
• gigolo aunts – my favorite regret
• depeche mode – dream on
• jeff buckley – lover, you should’ve come over
• alison krauss – i’m gone
• sydney bristow/jennifer garner – since i fell for you
• maren ord – just like you
• natalie merchant – my skin
• miriam gauci – canzone del salce

got any of these?

yay! Elayne brought me alias season one today, so I’m going to have something to watch again!

so, the other day I was driving home and flipping through radio stations. I stopped on a psuedo-npr station (npr in the morning, jazz cafe in the day, classical in the evenings, and catholic talk shows at night) that was playing a very fun song, a la Israel Kamakawiwo`ole (yes, you’ve heard him before even if you didn’t know his name).

this song was called “breakdown” by Jack Johnson. I really liked it, and it just made me feel a happy while I listened. I said to myself, “self, you should get this cd!” so… I went online to bmgmusic (a friend conned me into ordering a few cds with him a while ago, so I have a club membership and a few free cds left). bmg considers Jack Johnson a “hot” artist, so I couldn’t get his cd for free. incensed, I drove to Target today and bought his new cd for less than I could have online. =)

what a great chill cd! this is the kind of album you put in while you’re driving down a long, straight highway (of which there are many in Indiana) with the sunroof open and the windows all the way down, waving your hand in the wind… this is the kind of cd you listen to with headphones as you ride your bike down a beach boardwalk in South Carolina… it’s so happy and warm-weather-y! if you want a copy, see me. =)

what an odd combination. I guess it was bound to happen – and it figures that Disney is cashing in. =) and, to tell the truth, I hope it happens more often – that means they’ll release the movies in the USA within the year instead of years later.

Saturday night, we watched “Bride and Prejudice” – what a riot! it was such a fun film. Miramax teamed up with some Bollywood film companies and the director of “Bend it Like Beckam” to create a modern India vs. America version of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice.” they took the classic story about class distintion and social expectations and created a story of clashing (?) cultures.

you could tell which parts of the movie were American additions to the typical Indian film… the biggest change from typical Indian film was that the dialogue was in heavily accented English rather than subtitled. there were scenes reminiscent of Grease, and it was easy to distinguish what scenes arose from which country’s values. and of course, there was spontaneous bursting into song and dance and a happy fairy-tale ending, as in all Indian movies (that I’ve seen). AND… the same guy who’s played the dad/uncle in EVERY Indian movie I’ve seen to date was also the father in this movie. =)

the movie stayed pretty close to the book – all of the major plot points were touched on, and the main characters of the book all had their counterparts in the movie… some names remained the same (Fitzwilliam Darcy became William Darcy, Ann DeBourgh remained Ann DeBourgh, Collins was named Kholi), while some characters had names with the same initials… for example, Jane’s counterpart was Jaia, Lydia was Lakhi, Lizzie’s counterpart was Lalita, etc.

it is a very fun adaptation, a good movie – more so, I imagine, if you know the story of Pride and Prejudice. Dave seems to have enjoyed it, though, even without having read the book or seen the 6-hour mini-series. =)

my roommate’s boyfriend is currently driving the most fabulous, most ghetto car I’ve ever seen. the thing is just hideous. note the rust spot paint job… er, primer job… and the tinted windows. the inside is pimped out with a very nice Pioneer TAPE deck. I’m assured that the interior is absolutely spotless – in pristine condition – even if the outside is not.

James told me that the difference between a ghetto car (like this car – a loaner from his brother while his pathfinder gets a new transmission) and a redneck’s car is this: the redneck’s car will look perfect and pimped out on the outside but not run – it’ll sit on cinderblocks in the front yard; the ghetto car will look like crap (as does this one) on the outside but will run perfectly well.

guess in that case, it’s better to be ghetto. =)

anyway, James, here’s a picture of you and your car on the Internet like I promised. =)

I heard pearl jam’s remake of last kiss on the way in to work this morning.

college. superbowl Sunday. wasn’t interested in the game – my team got eliminated in the last round of the playoffs, and the two teams playing weren’t having a very exciting second half. I’d walked to the end of the hall to watch halftime with my floor – they were laughing very loudly, so I went to see what was going on. after halftime, I went back to writing a paper.

a little later, I heard some more noise coming from the room everyone was in. didn’t know what was going on, but wanted to see. left the paper, went into the room expecting to see some silly commercial or one of the teams getting wailed on… walked in instead to the whole room crying. sobbing. it was… surreal.

one of the girls on our floor had been killed. her mother called and told them what happened. she went with her best friend to see some family or something. best friend hit a patch of ice and drove the suv off the highway into a ditch/phonepole. best friend walked away from the accident, Ashley (the girl from my floor) died.

the girls hosting the “superbowl party” in their dorm room were close friends of Ashley. it was a rough couple of weeks, then a rough couple of months, for them. one day I was in the bathroom taking a shower (there were always at least 5 or 6 of us in the bathroom on any given morning, getting ready for classes) and that song, last kiss, came on the radio. all the talking in the bathroom stopped pretty much immediately, and in the quiet, we heard about a verse of it before one of the girls at the sinks said, “anyone mind if I turn the station?”

every time I hear that song, I think about superbowl Sunday, and Ashley, and how insensitive the radio, the band, the people who wrote the song in the first place, seemed to those girls who’d just lost their friend. not fair, I know. pearl jam was making money off a song with meaningless (to them) lyrics while those girls were hurting in a way I can’t understand.

it was an interesting, abstract way to realize that what we say can have a completely foreign (to us) impact on the different people who hear it… makes me (I talk without even thinking most of the time) want to evaluate what I put out into the world, what I force other people to hear.