Rock the Bells NYC 2010

yep. i saw slick rick, rakim, krs-one + all of bdp, lauryn hill (beyonce, mary j. blige, alicia keys, chris rock, jay-z, swizz beats and john legend all making appearances), a tribe called quest, busta rhymes, all of wu-tang + odb's look-alike son standing in for him, snoop dog and warren g.

can you see me? i'll give you a hint... look for the hair and a cheek. q-tip's arm is directly covering my face. awesome.

it was life changing. lauryn hill is a goddess. wu-tang 4ever.

if you love hip hop these pictures might make you freak out:

it feels good to be home.

i'll admit that wasn't my first thought getting off the plane. i felt queasy and unsettled. i called bonnie from the airport and let it all out on my cab ride to brooklyn. all the anger, frustration and fear surrounding my current station in life. my poor cabbie. but then i felt the familiar relief you get from such expulsion, and i rested my head against the window and watched the skyline for a minute. she asked if i was happy to be back. "it does feel good to be home. it really does."

when i decided to move here it was at the magnolia theatre in dallas after a particularly bad day (...week, month, year). i was sitting on the roof of the parking garage looking at the dallas skyline and transposing it in my mind with new york's. since my first visit to new york, it had never felt the same coming back and i knew in that instant that dallas was too small for me. i would never be satisfied with it again.

so here i am, in a place that unveils something new to me every time i step outside, that is always challenging and surprising. i've spent a year here now. i experienced it with my family and all the little things that that means from elementary school block parties to carting my sick cat around my manhattan to get her treated. i said goodbye to them, accepted my failures and awkwardly stumbled through a semester trying to find my footing. now i'm learning to be a grownup on my own and it is endlessly satisfying.

i am temporarily staying in brooklyn with these people who i feel almost unworthy of. they are some of the most generous, open, awesome people i've ever know. it must be fate that we met because everything suddenly seems to be connecting and falling into place. i feel very much at home on their couch, and i think it think it might be the start of something really cool.

i've been enjoying the city with my new friends and those of my old friends who are back from their internships and vacations. spending an afternoon digging through the shelves at kim's video, walking around the east village and soho looking for something undetermined, meeting some friends at corners and leaving some at others. eating the best food in the world, and never having to step foot inside a chain restaurant. being surrounded by people who DO things. you forget how special it is.

i don't have anything to show you right now because i'm still taking it all in, looking for a place to live, settling myself back into this life, enjoying it immensely before it gets difficult. more soon.

Third Grade

Can you believe it?!

New Chucks? Check. (Now that he's taking skateboarding seriously the Nike SBs are reserved solely for that purpose because I just can't keep buying them when they wear out. He's cool with it.)

School uniform? Check.

Boba Fett lunch box? Er... Nope. It's on backorder till October 22nd and he refuses to settle on another one so he's carrying this thing till then. Sigh.

Same backpack since Pre-K (and still going strong)? Check.
Awkward/uneasy expression? Check.

Awesome new hair cut but bad hair day anyway? Check. Check.

That's about right for a first day of school, isn't it? 

Why you should be excited about Scott Pilgrim.

Emily and I were talking the other day about how fangirls are sometimes embarrassed by their fan status. Many of us who love (and possibly obsess over) Harry Potter, Hanson (ok that's just me), video games, comic books, sci-fi, classic novelists, fanfic, cult movies, or what have you, don't necessarily love to broadcast our obsessions to the world as freely as dudes do. We've both been in situations where, in a group of girls, one makes an obscure reference, and suddenly all the faces in the room exchange knowing glances and everyone starts to come out of the geek closet. In fact, that's how most of my girl friends have been made and that's how I discovered Scott Pilgrim. 

It was during what I like to think of as my cultural Renaissance. (I had a baby to take care of and college to get through, so most of my time outside of homework and mom duties was spent at home watching old movies, reading like crazy and collecting all the music I could find.) I met some like-minded girls--fellow writers--who gave me the first volume, and I was hooked. I identified with Ramona more and more as the books went on and really fell in love with every character. I even read The Wonderful World of Kim Pine. Oddly enough, I started out wishing I lived in Scott Pilgrim's world, but by the time I got to the last book (it came out just a few weeks ago) it was completely familiar. The world of the lost 20-something. 

So when I heard Edgar Wright and Michael Cera were attached to a Scott Pilgrim movie, it was this weird combination of validation and uncertainty. On the one hand, YEAH! Thank you Hollywood for seeing how awesome and not-just-fangirly SP is! On the other hand, can a story so personal to so many people be properly made into a movie... and is Michael Cera (*eye roll*) anywhere near awesome enough?

Uh, yes.

I should have had more faith in Wright, who directed the pretty-close-to-flawless Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead. His attention to detail and context are pretty remarkable for someone with such a fun, engaging style. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World does what everyone wants a comic book movie to do. It pleases the fans (pretty much across the board, from what I've heard) and gives those who have never read a page of the books an experience similar to what they would get from reading. Here's how he did it:

- Perfect casting. His actors not only sold the parts, they actually looked the parts. I never thought I would believe Michael Cera in this role, but he was just losery enough without being the virgin he usually plays. When I started to not believe him, Wright would throw in a brilliant animated drawing of "comic book Scott" next to Cera and suddenly it was like they were one in the same. Everyone really seemed to understand their characters and care about getting them right (Stills never came out but Mark Webber somehow made me believe that it had happened off-screen or something), especially Mary Elizabeth Winstead as the beloved Ramona.

- Sticking by the book's dialogue. The way the characters talk to each other is a big part of what makes SP great. I mouthed along with the entire pre-titles scene word for word. There is nothing more reassuring/exciting for a comic book fan.

- Straight-from-the-books animation over some of the scenes, like labeling everything in Wallace and Scott's apartment and animating Scott's last haircut. Again, this made me believe the movie more, gave the audience the feeling of reading comic books and allowed him to include things he didn't have time to flush out into full scenes. Also it was just totally clever and cool.

- LEAVING THE ENDING ALONE. Dear other directors who take on comic book movies, please take note of this amazing new development in adapted stories called not messing with the ending! For a second there I got really scared (because Knives Chau isn't as involved in the end of the last book), but Wright did right by the story and we got our ending.

- Making smart omissions and additions. I can't think of anything in the movie that felt like it didn't belong there. The fight scenes were embellished but that's to be expected. While Scott going to visit Kim in the country is one of my favorite parts of the books, I totally get why it was cut. It's a big chunk of the story that veers a little out of the aesthetic of the rest. That works in black and white drawings but not so much in a quirky action movie. I love the Kim/Lisa storyline but the movie had to take some direction and Wright, of course, went with focusing on Scott's development. Like with Stills being gay, I never really felt like I missed it.

- Getting the music right. My friend had the 2007 (I think? Maybe?) limited edition self-titled Sex Bob-omb EP on vinyl and this soundtrack is what it wanted to be. This could have been a dealbreaker but they got it oh-so right. +10 points for Plumtree.

- Understanding the story. The film gets how you're supposed to feel after being told this story and it makes you feel that way. Simple as that. The aesthetic is right and the books and movie go hand-in-hand. I kind of love that there is only one definitive version of this story. That's how you make a comic book movie!

- Being awesome. I don't care if you've never read the books and don't care to ever read the books, there is no reason you should not be freaking out right now! This is a fun, ridiculous, awesome, smart movie and you should see it right now!

No Caption Needed

Back on mainland time!

Huzzah! After sleeping for 13 hours straight, my internal clock is officially fixed. I hope you guys appreciated my random, scheduled posts and that video Erik sent me yesterday that made me do a fist pump of solidarity! Now for a little catching up...

Sunday night B and I had dinner with my friend Sabrina and her husband David. I'm pretending it's because they wanted to hang out with me but we all know it was for B. This is becoming a common thing amongst my friends. "Hey... so... can your kid come play video games/guitar/soccer with me? You can come too... I guess." I kid. But not really. Sabrina rules at all things kitchen-related and whipped us up a lovely stir fry with super fancy fondu for dessert. I, being less skilled in the kitchen and having been away from Texas' little culinary joys for too long, brought Dublin Dr. Pepper (the real stuff), super crispy tortilla chips and Texas Texas salsa (you can order it online... you're welcome). Not exactly the classiest addition to a dinner party, but I think it went over well. B played video games and acted a fool (as he tends to do when he knows he's the center of attention), and I talked everyone's ears off (as I tend to do always). It was a great time. They love Harry Potter and they are married grown ups. Can't beat that.

I went to the movies the other night and saw that they were tearing down the skatepark next door to put in a Legoland. My heart died a little. So many memories at this skatepark, of B getting bruised from head to toe and thrown in a trash can at skate camp, of sitting on the top of a ramp filming my friends doing tricks, of screaming at hecklers who were messing with my then-boyf... ah the good old days. RIP Woodward.

In other news, there's been a lot of this going on...

and lots of staying up way too late together reading, listening to music and watching old episodes of Danny Phantom that I *borrowed* from the internet. (You can't sue me until you put this stuff out on DVD, Nickelodeon, at which point I will happily buy it!)

Today we went shopping for an SMU shirt for B. I'm not exactly a proud alumna or anything, but B has to wear the dullest uniforms ever to school, except on Wednesdays when he can wear a college shirt. He already has two NYU shirts, so I thought I'd mix it up a little. I also got a giant bag for lugging all my crap around New York (B compared about 50 bags, including doing all sorts of tests with each one to determine which was the best and ultimately ended up picking out the perfect one for me--do what you will with that) and these shoes/kitty dress combo... because I'm five.

Austin, Texas decided to share Torchy's Tacos with Dallas so B and I ended our day of shopping with a couple fried avocado tacos, salsa and Dublin DP from the tap.
Best worst meal ever.

B immediately regretted trying the deep fried chocolate chip cookies.

Finally, I am working on a Scott Pilgrim post. It will probably suck but I still have to attempt to make it perfect. Stand by. Also, more exciting developments leading up to my big announcement that I will make... soon. I promise.

If you've ever worked for a film festival...

My friend, MIAP classmate and fellow ex-festival worker, Erik, showed me this. 

I had this same moment (minus making a video, I just stormed out) on the second day of the last festival I worked. That's why I'm in New York now. It's how my life took a turn in the direction it was always supposed to go. I'll always have a soft spot for festivals and love the friends I made, but... well, I'm sure everyone who is or has been a part of something like this can relate to what she has to say on some level.