I'm moving. I'm moving.

Yes, I've bought my plane ticket for New York. And I got a request for two interviews today.

Things are coming up Milhouse! (think you simpsons for that quote)

The perils of reading

I've never been one of those people who only read one thing at a time. Sometime in school, I realized that it was easier to be reading two books. One kept at home, and the other in my locker. At Uni, it was the same, only it was the books I had to read for class and the book I was reading for myself before bed.

Now, I'm trying to read Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver, but I really want to re-read some Austen, or Alice, or even re-read Wuthering Heights, which I've been meaning to do since my freshman year of college. Its raining, I want to read British authors.

One of the best reasons to read the movie reviews of the New York Times is that they are written by intelligent, fair minded people who enjoy film and to inform an audience of what they're going to see when they walk into the cinema. Their standards aren't to low as to recommend everything, but they aren't so high that the critics seem like snobs (for that, read the movie reviews in the New Yorker). And they critics act like critics, by taking the film apart and addressing the aspects that did and did not work.

But really, the best reason to read the movie reviews is that someone decided to mimic the MPAA's habit of describing why a movie has a certain rating at the end of each review. These can actually be more entertaining than the article itself, and shows where the true stripes of the writer.

For instance, this week for "Idlewild" we have:

"Idlewild” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). The film has female nudity, adult language, hooch and suspicious-looking clouds of “cigarette” smoke.

It's the quotes around "the cigarette smoke" that makes me smile.

I am a big fan of Project Runway, but the past few episodes have made me wonder if the show isn't misogynistic.

Kayne complains that his model won't shut up, and the next time he wants to tape her mouth shut. Jeffrey continues to raze on Angela and Laura, and mocks Laura off camera by quacking, implying that she has nothing to say and that her level of insight is that of a water fowl.

Now, Alison gets kicked off. My feeling is that the judges held her up to a high standard because she was a woman and therefore should instinctivly be a better designer for other woman. The other contestants, Kayne and Vincent, are pardoned. Why Vincent was saved, when he ignored the fact that a model had to be able to move in that dress, I don't know. Alison's laspe in judgement had more to do with limited time and materials rather than vision. Vincent showed the same laspe that he has exhibited over the past few episodes. He shows an ignorance of what looks good on women time and time again.

What I enjoyed about the first season of Project Runway was how everyone was talented and nice. Now that the show has become a franchise, they've gone the 'Real World' route of casting for conflict. All the designers are talented, but the ones that show promise as well as being great human beings (Bradley, Alison) are given the boot.

The problem with the sister

She's an attention whore.

Yesterday, we were in Banana Republic when one of the sales attendents compliments my J. Crew belt, and started telling me about how much he loved their clothes. The Sis got all huffy, and complained that she had on the more expensive shirt (a black t-shirt with a huge hot pink Ralph Lauren polo insignia on the front), as if that meant that all the attention had to be on her. Then, she whined about how she felt that she was being ignored for five minutes.

Later, we went into Best Buy, a store that she dislikes, because they "overstaff, and all anyone does is stand around, and hover." Funny, within five minutes I had three guys ask if they could help me, including one who offered assistance in the anime section (just browsing, as I noticed that Best Buy doesn't offer FLCL -- foolie coolie -- on DVD). Of course, in Best Buy there's a reason for this: I give off the I'm a geek too vibe. The Sis gives on the Lacuna Beach wannabe. And really, who's more fun to talk to, the girl who sneers at electronics, or the girl who's complaining that for a store which prides itself on having a staff of geeks, why doesn't the book section contain any graphic novels?

This is the face of frustration

Living in a big cities, I've been spoiled by having access to great libraries and multiple bookstores. Back in my home town the library is decent, but still frustrating. I'm trying to find a copy of Edward Said's Orientalism, which the local library doesn't have. Okay, that's understandable (kind of), although it's a pretty interesting/important book concerning how the west depicts the middle east and how such depiction creates tensions in how we view the middle east today. So, I decide to see if they happen to have another book, the popular "Guns, Germs, and Steel" which was a New York Times bestseller. Guess what? They don't have it in book form. As an audio book, yes, but as a real paper and pulp, I can hold the information in my hand and copy notes from it book? No.

I've devised a game. It's going on to the Southern Tier Automated Regional Catalog website, and entering in book titles, or authors, and seeing if the David A. Howe Library carries it. Most of the people I've been meaning to read aren't availble.

FX "DVD on TV" or whatever it's called, is one of the worst carried out ideas on tv. It's nothing like watching a DVD because they cut for commercial breaks (about 10 minutes into the start of the movie). What they believe is DVD like are the 'behind the scenes' features, which are interspersed with the commercials. However, this breaks up the action so much, especially when it is presented before the 10 minute mark (or in the case of "Master and Commander" before the first battle sequence!) means that any potential audience would be tempted into channel surfing during the extremly long commerial break and might find something more inticing to spend three hours day-dreaming, or even paying attention, in front than commercials.

Ooooh, The Colbert Report is on.

Why yes, I'm obsessed

Hehehe. Stephen Colbert, or a user using the pseudomnym, StephenColbert, has been blocked from Wikipedia because of tampering with some entries, including claiming that George Washington didn't own slaves, and then encouraging viewers to do the same on his show.

(Nifty fact: he wasn't fiddling on the show, he actually was messing around with wikipedia. hehehe)

more information found at mediabistro's fishbowlny.

Strange Things

I was in the process of writing a brilliant cover letter for an Editorial Assistant position which was posted on the Harper Collins career page when I accidentally closed Firefox. Upon getting back to the career page, the listing wasn't there. The Marketing Assistant position was there, as well as a few more positions in Editorial, but not the EA one.

Now I'm wondering if this isn't a bit too much like the extremely convenient shop in fantasy novels which disappear the next time the protagonist tries to find it.

Is it wrong of me to consider Stephen Colbert as possibly the sexiest man on the planet? Especially when he has that impish grin that implies that he really enjoys that joke he's telling, and about to break out into laughter.

Sexiest man on the planet? My gut tells me so.

The moleskine craze

Those little black notebooks. Having one just screams 'intellectual' in a way that's less pretensious than having a goatee and a tweed jacket with elbow patches. I'll confess that I have one. It's my checkbook, because I lost my checkbook ledger a few years back and had been carrying my moleskin around for a few months without putting it to good use. But what I don't get is that it is so the 'it' thing to be carrying. They are lovely notebooks, but I find them too small for everyday note taking purposes.

Now the moleskine notebooks were featured in Newsweek magazine as some sort of it accessory/necessity for artistic college students (and all those who want to look like artistic college students). The article also based all of this on actors/characters from the OC, and claimed that no self respecting artist would use a PC (this writer loves her Compaq presario laptop, btw), so I doubt that Newsweek is really doing much more than following the trends of a few years ago.

Here are my thoughts on moleskine:

1) Legendary journals are not mass produced and sold at Barnes and Noble, Borders or where ever by the handful.

2) A little notebook should not cost me 10 dollars, when I will probably end up losing it anyway.

3) Using the same style of notepad as Hemingway or Picasso will not turn you into a novelist or artist, just like wearing Abercrombie and Fitch will not make you cool, and drinking Coors is not going to leave you in the company of beautiful Swedish models who just want to have sex with you.