Pastel Covers: Chick/Mainstream Lit

Today I feel so irritated, that the fan whirring is too loud and every single little sound (ie. scraping of photos hanging on the wall) annoys me. So I thought I'd take this mood and put it to good use. Time for a chick/mainstream lit blog.
 (I've been trying to read more chick/mainstream lit, or books with pastel-colored covers. Because other girls read them and I thought I'd try to read normal for once, instead of just books published by Penguin, or something. I don't remember what my reasoning was)

Order from worst to best.

P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern
Nope. Nope. Can't get through it. No matter how many girls squeal and touch their heart and while saying, "Mind, you have to read this it is the best book ever it touched my heart I cried and cried blah blah nyeh nyeh" I can't finish the thing.

Nope. Not gonna. Nope.

It's just--as you can see in the favorites post, this kind of book is just not my type. And maybe it's the writing style. It just reminds me of Twitter's quoters. You know. @Teenagelove or @Quotesforgirls or whatever middle school girls like to retweet.

(To be fair, I am in a bad mood today. And it's probably not as bad as I make it out to be, it's just that I've read so much better things. AND I already watched the awkward movie version. Why did they get Gerald Butler, the 300 guy, to be the husband? Lol.)

Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella
This is not a bad book. This was actually quite enjoyable. Let's see, what happened? Out-of-luck working woman has fun adventures with her great-aunt's ghost, a flapper from the 20's. A light, easy read, especially since flappers are cool.


Dear John by Nicholas Sparks
Everyone was reading a Nicholas Sparks, so I decided to try one.

I was curious (and skeptical) about all the glowing reviews:  "Ohhh I cried out my eyes out at the end! and my heart was touched so much it explains feeeeelings so well! I was sad for a week."

My reaction:
I did not cry. The feelings were explained. I was sad for maybe five minutes at the end.

Others' reaction to my reaction:
YOU callous thing you didn't really read it did you? What is your heart MADE of did you not UNDERSTAND the book

See, it is books like these that make me feel like a Mr. Bennett. "Lol, you silly girls."

Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
Oooh! I liked this one. Not really a romance book, more like a family drama/historical book. Learned a fair bit about the Siege of Leningrad. I cried when ____ dies due to war-caused poverty/hardship. Which is, you know, the saddest kind of hardship. NO NO except for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobody_Knows_(2004_film)

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Mika gave it to me as a birthday present.
I just finished reading it a couple hours ago. Haven't watched the movie yet.
Wow. I must say, I am very, very impressed.

Now, THIS book can describe feelings. (It was part of the book's job, since SPOILER he had to show that the characters had souls.)
And although it took me a while to be all "OHH OHHHHH this is SCIENCE FICTION written like a person narrating the past like a drama/romance" it was a very profound book. Has a slow mood to it, like you are wading backward through honey (weird simile). Makes you think about the time you have, how much of it you spent innocent, and what you should do with the rest.

Thanks for the lovely present. :)



On a lighter note, if you are in the Bangkok area for Nov. 22-23, come to my high school's production of Pride and Prejudice. (2 P.M. on Nov 22 and at 7 P.M. on the 23rd.) Now I know that the people that read this blog probably already know about/are in the play, but the past 3 sentences were an excuse needed to lead up to the poster. (And if I have a duty to promote something, I will advertise it avidly.)


DRUMROLL

 LOOK GUYS LOOK its the poster.
It's also on a tarp 3 stories high in front of my school.
And on hundreds of pieces of 3.5X5 paper.
ELIZABETH here is played by the lovely ROSE TALBOT, an up-and-coming British stage actress. Look out for her further works as Hero in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

Woah. Double take.

Here is an extra shot for you. Feel free to use it for your wallpaper. I know I'm using it for mine.

Until next time (which will be after the play, when there will be more blackmail material updates) ! I feel so mean

Too soon to be excited

So I was Googling upcoming movies. And I know it is too soon to be excited for 2012 movies, but

http://www.movieinsider.com/m5625/the-great-gatsby/
GREAT GATSBY REMAKE!
Leonardo DiCaprio ... Jay Gatsby
Tobey Maguire ... Nick Carraway
Carey Mulligan ... Daisy Buchanan
Isla Fisher ... Myrtle
Elizabeth Debicki ... Jordan Baker
Joel Edgerton ... Tom Buchanan 

Leo is perfect for Gatsby, and Isla for Myrtle. And even though Tobey is super annoying in Spiderman, I'm sure he'll make a great (albeit slightly dunce-ish) Nick. I can't really picture Carey Mulligan as Daisy, even though she was great in Pride and Prejudice (I haven't seen Never Let Me Go yet). 

No, wait.  I can picture it now. I am so excited. 

YES.

http://www.movieinsider.com/m5680/the-raven/

I had an emo stage where I really liked Edgar Allan Poe poems. So I am excited for this. Also, John Cusack is kinda cute.

John Cusack ... Edgar Allan Poe 
Luke Evans ... Detective
Alice Eve ... Fiancee

Wait, he has a goatee? Meeeh. :/ But you have to admit, he does look a lot like Poe now.

Best for last:

LES MIZ REMAKE! 

http://www.movieinsider.com/m8831/les-miserables/
Hugh Jackman ... Jean Valjean
Russell Crowe ... Inspector Javert
Anne Hathaway ... Fantine
Eddie Redmayne ... Marius

Now I don't normally like Anne Hathaway, but since Fantine is supposed to be naive but lovable bimbo that everyone pities, I'm thinking she'll do fine. Hugh Jackman is great, and not because of Wolverine (go see The Fountain, which I should have included in my favorites post. I'll write about it here, then.)

The Fountain (2006)

First heard about it while I was editing a friend's essay for her university class in Philosophy and Logic.

Trailer here, because the plot's a little hard to explain. (Three of the same guy but in different time periods search for immortality?)

YouTube highest rated comment: 
Best Hugh Jackman ever. I wish he was known for this instead of Wolverine. 

The uplifting soundtrack is great for making boring work seem more dramatic and exciting, too. 

Where was I? Oh, right, Les Miz. I'm sure Russell Crowe will do fine, and I looked up Eddie Redmayne, and it looks like he has the right amount of fop with a a hint of douche to be Marius. Hohoho, I should get that phrase patented. 

WAIT STOP

Directed by:	Tom Hooper

TOM HOOPER? OF KING'S SPEECH?

*spaz*

HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO WAIT UNTIL

In Movie Theaters:	December 7, 2012

AND NOT ONLY THAT, THIS IS A 

Genres:	Musical Adaptation

Wow, I am so excited. Woah. Woah. What. Woah. 

PARANOID PARROT

This is the best I can do with Windows Movie Maker on a 10-year old XP okay? Okay.

Book Haul

School is cancelled tomorrow because of flooding, so I opted for blogging instead of doing real work. (shrug)

Went to the annual Book Expo 2011 at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center yesterday. Been going to these since I was a kid. They made me as excited as when Scholastic book deliveries came to our school. Heh.

Anyway, the three books on the left are what I got from the fair, and the five on the right are what I am currently reading/plan to read.

Favorite Movies

Haven't been updating because of school and work and all that. And been watching fewer movies too.

Let's see,  in one month I've only watched Captain America, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and  Bride and Prejudice. Rise of Apes trumped the other two, not because they  were bad or anything (they were all pretty darn good actually), but because I had to hold and comfort two scared friends while watching apes take over the planet. APES TAKING OVER THE PLANET IS SO FREAKING SCARY, MAN. And at first you're all sympathizing with Caesar. And then Tom Felton is mean and has an American accent. And then I'm the only one laughing in the theatre when there's that circus orangutan. And then before I know it both G. and A. are whimpering and crying and I have to pat them comfortingly. Rise of the Planet of the Apes definitely makes one of my favorites. 

lol circus orangutan

All that made no sense. Okay whatever, here I go with my favorites, in descending order.

• Pope Joan
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes
• Super 8 (see Summer post)
• Sita Sings the Blues 
• Ip Man 1,2
• Tombstone
• ชั่วฟ้าดินสลาย
• มหา'ลัย เหมืองแร่
• Inglourious Basterds
• A Better Tomorrow 1,2,3

...

I just realized that a lot of these have the "Epic Line." You know, when at the climax there's this Epic Line. Like for Rise of Apes, it'd be SPOILER 

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Picture-heavy after the jump.

Favorite Books. And by favorite I mean "inducing giddy obsession"

Pink llama is there to add balance. I bought these classics at one book fair sale for <100B each, which is why they're all the same Wordsworth editions. 8D

In order of favorite to most favorite.Won't repeat Brontë/Austen stuff. 

Future Posts

• Favorites
• Contemporary
• Friends vs. HIMYM
• Things That Made Me Cry
• Things I Laughed At
• Khaled Hosseini
• Thai edition
• Chinese edition

Aroi wa.

Clockwise from top left: Coconut pie, ขนมตาล, ขนมกล้วย, ขนมฟักทอง

Brontë vs. Austen

Haven't done a books post yet, so here I go.



I've read one of each by the three sisters: Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, Charlotte's Jane Eyre, and Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. And two by Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice (I felt like it was almost required of me) and Emma.

For me (but not for most people, according to asking around) Brontë trumps Austen. Wishy-washy acoustic coffee-shop music is not enough for me, but something with lots of bass and strong vocals is. In the same way,  Austen, while pleasant, isn't enough, but Brontë's dark gothic plots are. I'm not sure if that made sense. Okay lemme try again:

The worst thing that can happen in an Austen book is an uncomfy social situation, but in a Brontë it's eternal damnation/lifelong unhappiness/doom spanning generations. For me, the latter's just more entertaining. When I express these views to Jane Austen girls they give me this look of disgust and say that I'm "sadistic." Which I am okay with. 

The one on the far left reminds me of that hobbit. Merry, I think. 

Summer Blockbusters

Okay, after three four posts on unknown indy stuff it's time to go to the opposite end of the spectrum. If I've been talking about the nobility of the film world--good-taste but possibly snooty and inaccessible stuff--then it's time to talk about the loud, mainstream crowd. Here is the Summer Blockbuster edition. Reviewed in order of worst--> best.

What the crap is this?


Transformers 3: Even Worse Than the Last One
The only reason I paid money and took time to watch this was because we were at the theatre and there was nothing else to watch. This movie was playing every 10 minutes, seriously. So for convenience's sake, we went in.

I went into the theatre in a good, forgiving mood. There's no way it could be worse than the second one! Megan Fox's super-realistic acting is gone! Maybe the robots got new sound effects! Maybe there will be some improvements--

WRONG.

Three hours of ear-eye-brain torture.

NEEDS A MUTE BUTTON

First of all, call me traditional but the hot girl is about a foot taller than Shia LeDouche. By the way, he got even douchier than he was in the last movie. The garbage script attempts to deal with the "I'm a hero, what are my responsibilities?" issue, but it completely fails and I end up laughing.  I feel bad that Leonard Nimoy has to stoop so low to work on a film like this.

And then there was that action scene climax that was over an hour long. Is it really necessary for the other building to fall on top of the glass building so the railings will connect and the two kids can escape only to run into an ugly robot blah blah blah. The fact that the girl was running around in stilettos for hours was more impressive than all of the robot-building smashing. I leaned back and tried to sleep but it was too loud. Then I thought that I should've taken some sort of sedative. I closed my eyes and I swear, there were tears.

By the third hour of the film I'd lost my mind, and so had my friends. We'd taken to laughing out loud at "serious" parts of the film, like when that paper hits Patrick Dempsey's face, when the robots say a sentimental goodbye to LeDouche, and especially that line that goes something like

You didn't betray us. You betrayed yourself.

That killed me.

EU Film Fest: Verdict

The audience: About 20~50% Thai. They range from teenage all the way to 80+. I wasn't really there for the kid movies, so didn't see any kids. (I came late to The Magic Tree.)The rest of the people were probably European/American expats. One nice thing about this winnowed-out audience is that at the end of the movie you can lean over to a neighbor and ask, "Wait, so...they're dead?" which is what the person next to me did. So I tried asking when I got confused too, and guess what? People who go to film fests are nice enough to explain the artsy-fartsy stuff.

The venue:

A bunch of photos of Bangkok in the 50s

  

Vintage ads.

A Mona Lisa done by a kid. There was a whole section of these. 

There's a spiraling ramp on the upper floors with an unbroken line of graffiti on the walls. That sentence didn't make sense. So go see it for yourself. 

There's a little library on the underground floor. Full of thick art books. Dead silent. But "No Sleeping" allowed, lol. 

All in all, I'd say that I had a great time at the festival. Sure, five indy movies in one day is hardcore, but Mika and I did it because we are HARDCORE ARTSY PEOPLE. Looking forward to next year's. Or even better, a film/art/etc. festival sooner than that. Tell me if you know anything about one!

On a completely unrelated note, I must say that the best Bubble Tea is the one by Miss Mamon (sold at Central Rama 3 and Central Pinklao). And I'm not just copying BK Magazine either. I went and bought and tasted. For once, the pearls weren't all tough and rubbery like Dakasi's. And the tea was a perfect blend of milk, tea, and sweetness. Mmm. T_T

Look, even the cup is cute. One con would be that the CUP IS NOT BIG ENOUGH

  I'll post about more well-known movies right after. Get ready for rants, both bad and good.

EU Film Fest: DAY 3

(Didn't catch the first movie, Kooky, because I was busy recharging my iPhone in an Apple store. Shamelessly. Lol)

 The Wedding Photographer (Sweden, 2009)

This was the only romantic comedy in the whole festival. For me, rom-coms have a higher bar to reach than other films because it's so easy for one to be cheesy and trite. With most rom-coms, I forget the characters' name before I'm even out of the theatre.

 But this one was the best rom-com I've watched in a long time. It had the rom. It had the com. And it also dealt with other issues (ie. social class, friendship, changing yourself, urban-vs.-rural, rich-vs.-poor, etc.) All the while making the whole audience laugh like hell. I need to get a DVD of this, seriously. Also, Astrid's clothes and hair were really pretty. How Robyn shot photos like a machine gun was also hilarious. I didn't mind the fact that I was laughing hysterically while sitting between complete strangers. Trailer here: 

When We Leave (Germany, 2010)
Completely different from the last one. By the end, I was clutching my hair into two fists and the woman behind me was sobbing.

Umay moves to Germany with her son to get away from her abusive husband. Her conservative Turkish family and husband don't believe that women should live alone because it is shameful to the family. They make life really hard for her. Reminded me a lot of A Thousand Splendid Suns. Example:

Umay: Please don't desert us! (etc. sad speech with tears)

Older brother drags her out and dashes her head against the pavement.

Trailer here.

Forbidden Fruit (Finland, 2009)

Last film of the festival. The theatre was fully packed.

Forbidden Fruit is about two girls who belong to a extremely conservative Christian group (Conservative Laestadians) in Finland . In their community, things like TV and dancing to rhythm music are forbidden. You don't say "Hello," but "God's greetings" instead. 

 The brunette, Maria, runs away to Helsinki because she wants to see the world. Her blonde friend Raakel has been instructed to "bring the lost sheep" safely back to the community. They experience a lot of firsts in the city, like dancing (gasp), boys (gasp!), and alcohol (GASP!). 

Maria: Kissing felt really good.

Raakel: REMEMBER THAT FEELING WHEN YOU BURN IN HELL!  

The movie was really funny at times; the whole audience was laughing at the teen-girl antics. But you also learn whats un/necessary in faith. (Is a bunch of clergymen constantly checking on the status of your sins necessary or not?) Anyway, I'd recommend this to anyone who has experienced--or even more importantly, is being encased in--any sort of restrictive society.


Oh, and one more thing. Those Scandinavian films: it took me a second to understand when they say "I'm going to bed, it's late" and it's still light out. 8D

EU Film Fest: DAY 2

 The Magic Tree (Poland, 2009)

A family movie about a magic chair that is made from the wood of a magic tree. The chair grants wishes to whoever sits on it.  The movie was enjoyable, sure. But you know how there's a trio of kids, and the littlest one always has this catchphrase that makes adults laugh? Yeah. For this one, it was "I smell trouble."

I didn't laugh, but a lot of other people did. But I liked how the chair granted wishes. When the kids needed to get on a ship that was sailing away from shore, the chair conjured up a huge waterslide that connected the shore to the boat. Creativity! 

  Dust (Luxembourg, 2009)

This film definitely isn't for everyone, but I can imagine that it would mean a lot to someone if it was for them. For starters, the cinamatography is brilliant. Every second of the film could be on a postcard. I took this in the theatre:

Anyway, the film takes place in a post-apocalyptic time, when virtually all of the human population has been wiped out. Twins Elias and Elodie live by themselves in an old mansion: growing their own food, swimming together, etc. Their relationship is freakishly close. You get a kind of an Adam-and-Eve vibe from them. Things get complicated when a wandering guy arrives at their mansion. 

the twins

Minimal dialogue, but everything is mostly conveyed visually. You can tell during the first minute that they're too close, and not one word needed to be said, nothing explicit needed to be shown. Long stretches of silence, shots of landscapes, and piano music complete the haunting-ness. Trailer here:

 An Ordinary Execution (France, 2010)

Not much to say about this one, because compared to Dust it wasn't that memorable. There's only a 10-min break between films, so I was still thinking about the last one while watching this one.      Let's see, what was it about? Oh, yeah. A young woman doctor has to treat Stalin, who's a fat jerk. 

 Run If You Can (Germany, 2009)

A love triangle between a wheelchair-bound man, his assistant, and a cello girl. Wheelchair guy is all cynical and dryly humorous about his disability, garnering lots of laughs from the audience. Great acting by all, especially when the girl thinks there's been a suicide and she's screaming hysterically. Very fitting music editing.

Then a quick, relaxing sax+guitar performance. 

 Exit Through the Gift Shop (UK, 2010)

Easily the best film of Day 2. Exit is an art documentary about Thierry Guetta's abrupt rise to fame in the world of street art. Thierry's friend, the street art legend Banksy, features in the film and also directs. Google Banksy if you don't know him. 

Banksy is kept anonymous with voice change, too

One Banksy work on the Israeli West Bank Wall

Exit is made so well that you don't even feel that you're watching a documentary, because you're laughing so hard. How can a documentary be so funny?!