Post #80: The Holidays, Finals, and Decorated Trees

So it's December, which means holiday time! I've got my christmas music out, and I bought some wrapping paper and everything awesome! I like the holidays because it seems like more people live in my fluffy marshmallow Disney world of color. There are lights and everything is shiny and I love it. Everything is cheerful. And there's christmas music playing everywhere. Yay! And I get to wrap presents which is one of my favorite activities. I love wrapping things, especially square things. Tape and scissors and this year I bought penguin wrapping paper and it's so cute!
December also brings finals for those of us in school. Somehow I ended up with only two finals out of my six classes. And they're both criminal justice, so that's really awesome. I'm not questioning how this happened, I'm just accepting it. This semester went by really quickly, which is both awesome and not so awesome. The only class I wish I wasn't done with is CRJ 211, Policing in America. It was my favorite class this semester. It was so interesting, and everything I learned is ueful, practical information. Everything else was just whatever.
A quick thought on the movie Victor Frankenstein: Don't go see it. Don't be enticed by the great actors. It was awful. Even Harry Potter and Mr. Tumnus couldn't save this trainwreck. In a stroke of irony, this movie was a horrible mashup of different parts of the original novel by Mary Shelley and all of the Frankenstein movies, a franken-frankenstien movie, if you will. And the writing was not great. Just don't go.
So this year I have decided to put a tree up in my room, mostly because I am not allowed to decorate the tree in the living room with police stuff. So I found a pink tinsel tree (not the barbie tree, sadly.) and I'm going to decorate it with police stuff! My mom found me some CSI tape, platic toy handcuffs, and a cute little police officer ornament.

Ta-da!

Happy Holidays!

-D.

 

Post #79: Chicago Fire, Minimalism, and Lethal Weapon

OH MY GOSH CHICAGO FIRE STARTED AND THE NEW CANDIDATE IS STEVE MCQUEEN'S GRANDSON AND EVERYTHING IS WONDERFUL. In case you weren't aware, I love Chicago Fire. The new season is bringing the heat (sorry) in both people's personal lives and their work lives! It's so dumb it's awesome.
I also managed to watch all four Lethal Weapon movies, and they were all great. And I think Mel Gibson is the worst. But the Lethal Weapon movies were awesome. I thought they were going to get progressively worse, but they didn't. The only one that wasn't quite as good was the fourth. But it was still entertaining.
So I've been going through stuff and whatnot, and in an attempt to get myself together, I've been looking at pinterest for inspiration. Pinterest was not helpful at all. Organizing seems to mean the same thing as minimalism to the people on pinterest, and minimalism makes me want to die.
DISCLAIMER: If you're into minimalism, that's cool! I'm not. But If it works for you, that's great for you.
I understand it's important to keep your stuff under control. That's why I was on pinterest looking for organization tips in the first place. But minimalism just doesn't work for me. I really like my stuff. I like my books and action figures and my stuff. The blankness of minimalism makes me so uncomfortable. You could be using all that blank space to hang posters and store stuff! That's the best part of my stuff, is that it tells you who I am! Minimalism tells me nothing about you. So if you're a supersecret agent who's never home, I guess that would work.  But I'm not! I'm loud and I love a lot of things and I live in what my sister calls a "fluffy marshmallow disney world of color". I like being surrounded by things that I love. If it doesn't match and my room has no apparent theme, that's fine. Because I know it has a theme. It's the "D Really Likes Things and These Things Make Her Happy" theme. Themes are for birthday parties and TV shows. 

"In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different." - Coco Chanel

-D. 

Post #78: It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It's Fall TV Time, my  most favoritest time of the year. Mild Spoilers ahead.

OH MAN I LOVE TELEVSION SO MUCH.
Gotham came back Monday, and it was awesome. I'm not too keen on the season titles thing ('Rise of the Villains') but otherwise everything was awesome. Everybody bes crazy!!!! And also I love Ben McKenzie. I'm glad Bruce found a proto-Batcave.
Gotham was followed by newcomer Minority Report, based off the movie of the same name. It was pretty entertaining. Futuristic, woo *wiggles fingers furturistically*.  It has a good premise, and I am curious to see where it goes.
Tuesday saw the premiere of The Muppets. It was not funny and I will not continue to watch. It also conflicts with The Flash, which returns next month.
Wednesday was The Goldbergs, which is on a precarious ledge. Adam is no longer cute and small, which puts the show at a place that could either work out just fine or topple the show over the cliff of non-entertaining bad television.
Wednesday was also the premiere of the (dear god) seventeenth season of Law & Order: SVU. It was essentially part four of last season's crossover episode with the Chicagos. The show's only saving grace is Peter Scanavino as Carisi. He's cuter than the whole cast combined, and he's a pretty decent character on an overall terrible show. Entertaining, yes, but terrible.
Thursday night saw the premiere of Heroes Reborn, which was a little convoluted, but I think that might have had something to do with the two hour premiere. The Player followed Heroes and was enormously entertaining. The premise is probably not one you should do too much hard thinking about, but if you take the show for the shiny action packed hour that it is, it's a great escape!
There is nothing good on Friday nights. And even if there was, I would have missed it because I got to see Duran Duran!!!!!!!!!! There are not enough exclamtion points to describe how awesome it was or illustrate my excitement. Their new album is not half bad.
Sunday was the premiere of Indian Summers on Masterpiece. It was a really interesting premiere, and I think the series as a whole has a lot of potential. Indian Summers was followed by the season finale of Vicious. It was absolutely hilarious until the very end and then it was just really heartbreaking.
I am so glad TV is back.
"Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it." -  Julia Child
-D.

Post #77: Some Thoughts on Patriotism and Respect

Last night was both my third favorite and least favorite holiday of the year. My third favorite (behind Thanksgiving and Halloween) because Patriotism and America and I am blessed and proud to live in this country and Fireworks and Hot Dogs! Yay! My least favorite because it seems to bring out the most disrespectful people into the greater public. Me and my peoples have gone up to a church parking lot up on a hill with a great view of the fireworks for quite a few years now. We have never had a bad experience there in all the years we have been going, until last night.
To the owner of the maroon Jeep with license plate "PYIT4WD" and 'Coexist' tire cover and your friends: It's sad that you couldn't 'pay forward'  some respect last night. I am disgusted by your blatant disrespect to your nation, the national anthem, and the families around you trying to enjoy The Fourth of July. To drop F-bombs and have a water bottle fight complete with screaming and obscenities while everyone around you tried to observe a moment of silence for our men and women in uniform and then listen/sing along as our national anthem was played shows that you don't live by the words on your license plate. You live only for yourselves. You and your friends demonstrated no gratitude whatsoever, certainly not for the men and women who fought and died to protect your freedom to act like such assholes.
There is no good karma coming to those who feel it is acceptable to act in such a way.
Barring those people, I had a fun time last night! My best friend and I had a dance-off with the kids in the house behind the parking lot who were sitting on their deck. I think they were making fun of us, but we caught them and then it just turned into a dance-off. I did a couple of Herkies (sort of) and had a fun time being with people I loved and being grateful for the freedom to do these things. And I only cried a little when they played "God Bless The USA".

I Tried.

"Sure I wave the American flag. Do you know a better flag to wave? Sure I love my country with all her faults. I'm not ashamed of that, never have been, never will be." - John Wayne
-D.

Post #76: Television, Television, and Steve McQueen

Lo and behold summer has returned and holy triple digits, Batman it is roasty. But hey, Summer TV is on, so at least there's that. Aquarius is still great, and I'm trying to finish Last Ship so I can watch the new season, Graceland is back and Dominion starts next week! Yay! And Dominion has thirteen episodes this season and not six, so it should carry me right into the fall TV season. And on one of my wacky rabbit ear sub-channels, Police Surgeon is on every night! It is honestly the worst show ever made and only got four seasons because Palmolive-Colgate wanted an entire show for just their commenrcials and it's my favorite! Dr. Locke is so handsome and the plot is so corny and it's Canadian and it's awesome. It's perfect for trying to eat a popscicle before it melts and there is nothing else on. The ridiculous plots are so fun and so mindless. Last night this guy was trying to sell an entire attache case of heroin and then on the other episode a guy was in deep with some loan sharks who had the most seventies-tastic mustaches.
Poldark stared on Masterpeice last week, and it's got the exceptionally attractive Aiden Turner as the titular character and there is nothing else on so it's great. Crimson Field, which is on after Poldark is legitemately fantastic, and it's got some Downton peeps and Hermione Norris from MI-5, and some cute doctors. But it is really good, even if there is nothing else on.
Since there is nothing on TV (besides Police Surgeon) I've been watching Route 66. I scored the first two seasons on Ebay for $25 (yay!) and I love it. Martin Milner and George Maharis are swell, as Tod and Buz, repectively. The trouble those two boys get into in that Corvette is so entertaining, and sometimes still really relevant and poignant. There's even an episode set in Reno, NV ("Like a Motherless Child", S1Ep20). It Features the Mapes Casino, located at N. Virginia st and First Street, which was demolished in 2000. Someday I'm going to do an ultimate road trip and visit all the cities Tod and Buz (and later Linc, played by Glenn Corbett) visited. Probably not in a Corvette, but that's ok.
This week, my new favorite thing ever is Steve McQueen. I watched Bullitt and The Blob, and I've got six more of his movies sitting in my stack. I know this is a total cliche, but that man is cool. Super dead, but still super cool. I have never seen a man look so good in a cardigan as he does in the red one in Bullitt. I'm going to make one for myself. It's beautiful, even in that wacky burgundy red color. And The Blob is the greatest, shlockiest movie I have ever seen. And I love that even at 27, he looked like a teenager, and his girlfriend looked 35.  Everything about that movie is magic.
"Time starts now" - Bullitt
-D.

Post #75: Some Thoughts on the New Mad Max

This post contains serious spoilers for Mad Max: Fury Road. Go watch it and then come back. You have been warned.
Holy Mutant Vehicles, Batman! Mad Max was flipping amazing! From the crazy rides to the barren postapocalyptic wasteland, this movie was insanely awesome. I love Tom Hardy and Nicholas Hoult, so I'm a little predisposed there, But even Charlize Theron (who I'm not a super big fan of) was good.
On the surface, the plot was standard apocalypse fare, but  it was way more complicated than crazy warlord runs the postapocalyptic death world and people make a run for freedom. All of the characters, even the really super evil bad guys had interesting motives, and all of the motives at their most basic were about survival. Max's maint motive is survival, Furiosa wants redemption (which she tries to achieve by helping others survive), the wives/breeders of the crazy warlord Immortan Joe want to escape him and survive, even crazy-flakes Immortan Joe wants to survive, and is using whatever means necessary, and by that, I mean taking five wives to have babies for him and turning young men into crazy cult members, like Nux, who (spoilers) doesn't survive.
There are plenty of blog posts devoted to the feminist undertones of Mad Max, and I encourage you to go read them (this one from NPR is a good place to start), I will simply say this film had some of the most bad-ass, real women I have ever seen. And I will give ten more points for the fact that Max and Furiosa (and the ladies they were with) worked to each other's strengths, whether male or female. No one ever seemed helpless. Especially the women.
The crazy car battles were awesome. The mutant vehicles were awesome, there are some super cool articles about the cars, mechanics, and the guitar player who made it all awesome. The theatre shaking explosions were awesome. The fact that "Dies Iae" from Verdi's requiem was not only used as part of the soundtrack but also as the underlying theme of the whole soundtrack was awesome.This is a movie I will buy when it's released on DVD. 

There were only two things that jolted me from the movie trance. 

The first was the water thing. I live in a drought state, so water is a hot topic right now, and there were moments where I squirmed a little as water was wasted. The parts where the water was wasted by crazy flakes warlord Immortan Joe didn't bug me That's a crazy flakes warlord thing to do. It was the bit where Furiosa and Co. have escaped (sort of) and Max find them. They are hosing each other off and when Max shows up, they just let it run. I'm not sure how long they expected to be on the road, but I imagine you would want to conserve water so you don't die while trekking across a desert wasteland. There's only so much in that tank. Later in the movie they explain that Immortan Joe and Co. have been drilling for water, and that there's plenty of it, which also begs the question, if you are being held to have children because you are exceptionally healthy and it's in Immortan Joe's best interests to keep you hydrated, it seems unlikely that you would behave as if you hadn't seen water in ages, the way Max does. 

The second thing was the "blood bag" thing with Nux and Max. In terms of apocalyptic power and terror, it's brilliant to use people as walking blood banks. And I love that they took into account that keeping Max's body elevated above Nux would keep the blood from flowing back, similar to the concept of keeping the placenta above the baby when you deliver a baby in a terrible 'help is a billion hours out' scenario. Max is a fairly big dude, (Tom Hardy is about 5'9", if you were wondering) and in the movie is declared 'High Octane', implying that he has 'crazy blood', so I'm going to be generous and say he maybe has 12 pints of blood in his body in peak condition (the average adult has 8-10). Let's say it takes 30-45 minutes to directly tranfuse 1 pint of blood between Max and Nux. Max and Nux had been there for while, so Max is down at least 1 pint, which if you factor in that Max is probably dehydrated, should knock him out. But it doesn't, Max is high octane, whatever. So he keeps losing blood as Nux and his buddies chase down Furiosa, and then they are involved in a high velocity accident, so at this point he's most likely down two or three (at three pints, you are at risk of dying without immediate attention) pints, and Max still manages to carry Nux and a car door. And then a day-and-a-half later he gives Furiosa probably three more pints, and considering he's still slightly dehydrated and wouldn't have been able to properly replenish the blood he lost, he should have passed out, if not died. So that bugged me, but otherwise, it was easy to get lost in the movie.

A thought on Aquarius - The dialogue on this show is great ("What are you going to with that? Pistol whip a midget?" - Hodiak on a fellow detectives new secret gun). Barring of course the fact that they'd be cursin' sailors off the ship, the way they talk to each other is pretty realistic. 

"It's not the load that breaks you down. It's the way you carry it."- C.S. Lewis

-D. 

P.S. The Popular Mechanics review of Mad Max is a good read too, f you're interested.

Post #74: This is the Dawning of the Age of Summer Television

Last night saw the two-hour (or two-epsiode, depending on how you see it) premeire of Aquarius on NBC. If you're not caught up/planning to watch, go watch and then come back. Also- I'm not planning on bingeing on NBC, I'm going to watch week-to-week, so all future blog posts will reflect that.
Okay. So I think this show has potential on the disturbing crime drama bandwagon. It's got an interesting, albeit mostly fictional, plot, enough drama to keep the show rolling, and David Duchovny as...Fox Mulder. So it's a crazy psycho killer and not aliens. Whatever. Duchovny is playing Hodiak, a cynical LA detective with a new, relatively idealistic, super-cute partner (Grey Damon as Brian Shafe). Mulder Hodiak accepts a case that isn't really a case, when he gets called by an old girlfriend. Help my daughter has been taken by aliens Charles Manson! Duchovny plays Hodiak the same way he played Mulder, and it's a shame, because it's really the only glaring issue with the show. Brian Shafe is a: really cute, even when he's a grimy, scruffy undercover cop; and b: an interesting character. He is a great foil to the other officers as well as the rapidly changing world in wich he lives in. He's a great blend of by the books ("You gotta read him his rights...The Miranda rights.") and standing for what is right even when it's pits him against senior officers. I also really like Charmain Tully, the female officer in the ridiculous 1960's female cop uniform of a below-the-knee skirt and heels. Because that's practical. She's a great character too. She's really idealistic and super sassy ("you were on drugs! You're still on drugs!"). I like the Shafe-Tully relationship right now, especially because Shafe has a wife and (hopefully) Shafe and Tully can just be professional friends. Shafe's wife is also an interesting plot point. I won't spoil that one. I will spoil Hodiak's crazy wife and now AWOL from the army son. I think that the son is going to cause trouble for Hodiak's career. And if he doesn't, the wife will. All in all, a good kick off for my summer TV season.

I also went and saw Hot Pursuit. It was pretty silly. If you like cheesy cop comedies, this one's pretty good.

Tomorrow is the homeschool prom, and I'm not one to pass up a chance to dance. I've had a fun/terrible time putting together an outfit for this thing! It's tropical theme, and I'm not super into tropical anything unless it's a frozen drink, so I decided to channel Summer Roberts from The O.C. circa season three. I found a super cute floral dress that's not too casual and not too formal, so I'm pleased with that. 

"I dress to kill, but tastefully." - Freddie Mercury

-D. 

Post #73: The Good Word

If you know me, or you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you probably know I love The O.C. Like really, really love. It's my favorite. Today while I was out walking, we ended up at a garage sale, and there they were. All four seasons of The O.C. I had the first three seasons, but my season one wasn't in super great condition (I bought them second hand) and I didn't have season four. So I bought those two, and the guy gave me a hard time about breaking up the set, and then they tried to remember the name of Seth's girlfriend, they had Ryan's (Marissa) so I said "Summer!" the guys were impressed, and even moreso when I said that Seth named his boat after her. Did I mention I really love this show? So we headed on our way, and I was thinking about it, and I figured I could pass on my copies of the first three seasons, or sell them as a set, and for $1, I'd go back and pick up seasons two and three. So I walked back and the one guy said "Ah, she's back" and laughed and gave some spiel about giving them to my friend and I said "I'll get her sucked in too!" and the other guy said "Yes, share the good word! Spread the gospel of The O.C." It was by far the most glorious thing anyone has ever said to me. I also got Footloose, so I'm excited about that. I want my life to be more like an 80's movie. I want Kevin Bacon to yell "Let's dance!" as glitter rains from the sky. I think that would be cool.
On a more serious note, Memorial Day is Monday, and I would like to take a moment to thank all of our veterans and those currently serving, as well as their families. I also reccomend reading this blog post: https://wdavisonjr.wordpress.com/2015/05/22/remembering-a-friend-on-memorial-day/
"On the stereo, listen as we go, nothing's gonna stop me now." - Phantom Planet ("California" is the theme song for The O.C.)
-D.

Post #72: Finally, Summer!

As of the the thirteenth, I will have finished my first year of college! Yay! It's been a pretty decent year, and I can't wait for next year, mostly because my class lineup is way better than this year's.
Maybe it's because my classes are all lower level, or maybe it's because I took AP classes and I'm pretty good at taking tests, but I just don't feel the pressure some of my classmates are feeling concerning finals week. There are so many kids either sleeping wherever they aren't going to get stepped on or crying. So much crying. Maybe it's just my finals. For Creative Writing, we just had to bring in a poem to read to the class. I performed "Direct Orders" by Anis Mojgani. And I mean performed. I can command a room when I need to. "Direct Orders" has been my favorite ever since Mr. Burge showed it to us my freshman year of high school right before Thanksgiving. Every time I listen to it or read it, I find something new that speaks to me, similar to the way the Schweddy Balls skit on SNL gets funnier every year. I'll admit I had to pause to take a deep breath after I read the line "rock out like your dead grandfather has just come back to take a drive with you in your new car."
With the advent of summer, there also comes the inevitable end of my favorite shows. Gotham ended last week, and it was by far my favorite show this season, followed closely by The Goldbergs. The Chicagos finish up in the next couple of weeks, and I think there's a few more episodes left of The Night Shift (I know, I know, it's bad. But it's so bad it's good. I love it.). This summer's lineup is pretty good. Graceland, Dominion, and The Last Ship come backin the next couple of months, and I'm looking forward to Aquarius on NBC. I also recently started The Following and let me tell you, that show is intense! The season one cliffhanger was crazy! And of course, there's still Masterpiece on PBS. I'm looking forward to Poldark and the WWI medical drama.
The movie lineup for this summer is pretty okay. I saw the latest Avengers movie last week, and it was really good. I want to go see Slow West, Jurrasic World, Pan, Fantastic 4, and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (Aw yes Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer!). And most of all, I want to go see Mad Max. I am so excited for it! Tom Hardy as Max? I think yes! And one of the trailers had "Dies Irae" from Verdi's Requiem!
"When you arise in the morning, think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love." - Marcus Aurelius
-D.

Post #71: Criminal Justice, Grantchester, and Getting Fired?

Wow! The past month got away from me, I've been having internet issues, I'm lazy, etc., etc. Okay there are some excuses for why I haven't been blogging. Although, I really have been having internet problems.
School has started back up and my class lineup this semester is a little better than last semester's. I have Anthropology, Core Humanities (which is essentially history and English rolled into one existential package),  Spanish, Creative Writing, and Criminal Justice.
Apparently I am the only person in my CJ class that spent a lot of time over winter break thinking about Criminal Justice, in particular, what exactly Tsarnaev's lawyers were trying to accomplish by filing pretrial motions that wouldn't really do anything besides buy time. Because seriously, no matter where you move the trial, unless you find 12 people who have recently woken up from a coma, you aren't going to find a wholly unbiased jury that's unfamiliar with the case.
I got some strange looks from my classmates. "I spent a lot of time thinking about this!" I said. "I just worked over break." some girl behind me said. I bet she's allowed to watch cop shows in her living room.
I'm not allowed to watch cop shows in the living room, especially CSI, because I sit and mutter about how wrong everything is. You can't just punch something into CODIS and have it spit something back out in 30 seconds. Or I get excited when something happens that I learned about. Last night while watching Backstrom (which is pretty good, actually.), I got excited because one of the people got charged with first degree murder under the Felony Murder rule, which says that if someone dies while you are committing a felony, even if it's not necessarily your fault, you get charged with first degree murder, i.e. if you rob a bank and the teller has a heart attack and dies, or your partner shoots them and they die, it really sucks to be you. Also, please don't commit felonies.
In other TV related news, Downton Abbey is back (yay!) and after Downton is Grantchester! Grantchester has the very cute James Norton, who was on Death Comes to Pemberly a couple of months back. It's a great show. I like solving mysteries!
And now some bad news. I got fired, sort of, from my DJ position at Wolf Pack Radio. But so did 3/4 of all the rest of the DJ's, I think. I say sort of because I am welcome to "help [with] producing programming" but that sounds like a nice way of saying 'come and watch other people do the job you've been turned down for'. I am upset! I am some other things, too, including aware of what libel charges look like.
Because of some agreement with some other "real" radio station, WPR has gone from 60 hours of open studio time per week to 15. There is no Desultory Radio Hour this semester. I'm waiting to see what happens next year. I'm really disappointed. I really enjoyed working with WPR, and I had a blast on my show! Hopefully the formatting will change again next semester year and I will come back.
"There are far better things ahead than any we leave behind." - C.S. Lewis
-D.