Yes, I know it's Sunday and you were expecting Celluloid goodness. . . maybe later. MAYBE . . . . I make no promises! Courtenay finally received my toasty swap goodness down in Louisiana so it's now safe to post up the pics of the sweet toasty crafts I made for her.
Group shot!
***Mid post rant**** Ok seriously . . . uploading that photo almost killed me, stupid blogger picture uploader! Stop reading my metadata and just do what I tells ya! UGH!
Okay back to the super sweeeet toasty goodness! Courtenay, my partner, is a Cajun; or more aptly calls herself a Cajun hillbilly lol! So I made her an evolution of toast tote bag.
Some super kawaii "toasters" . . . coasters but toast ;)
A doubled sided keychain with moldy toast charm.
And for good measure I threw in some cotton perle DMC she was wisting after (living in a very small town she can only get her hands on white, black, and red) and a little toaster love card!
Craftster is seriously the best little crafty place in the world! So many very talented artists and craftsters posting over there it's impossible not to be inspired by them! Stay tuned for my next swap goodies post. . . . . LEGEND!
We never did bother with getting "tv" after we moved, we just rely on the warm glowing love of the internets for our entertainment now. However; if I could have only one channel to view for all eternity it would probably be A&E TV. I could happily live off of the oldest of reruns of American Justice, Cold Case Files, Law & Order, and their ilk for all of my remaining days. A&E is to tv what a warm blankie and a good book are to a rainy grey day in October. If I could only watch one commercial for all the remaining hours of my tv viewing. . . it would be this little gem right here. I hope those Spanish language countries where this commercial for Direct TV airs appreciate the insane awesomeness of it.
Almost didn't make it . . . again! Yeesh, it's been a rough week, with really no weekend to speak of. I really needed more than the one day off right now. Still overly exhausted by everything and accomplishing next to nothing. I didn't even manage to finish reading my book this week, how sad is that? Though friday night we did go to the race track with the man-thing's work people and bet on some ponies. We even managed to win a bit of cash at the end, thanks to my superior horse picking method of "I like this name". Highly scientific I tells ya. Then it was home for a couple of hours before heading off to the Broadway to meet up with Kayla and her "man-thing" Shawn for a midnight showing of Nobuhiko Obayayshi's Hausu.
This is a must see for the independent horror fans. Absolutely priceless; in fact I procured a copy last night just so Malcolm can see what he missed out on while he was away. It has total missed-birthday movie viewing potential when he finally returns this thursday! I read on the Facebook page for the event that this film could be described as an episode of Scooby-Doo directed by Dario Argento, and they weren't kidding. It's an esoteric romp through Japanese horror, viewed through the lens of a '70's esthetic. A little too self-aware, and far too colour saturated to be truly considered 'scary' by any stretch of the imagination; Hausu definitely has to be seen to be appreciated.
Thanks again for inviting us Kayla! It was awesome!
P.S. I think I'm overdue to send some happy mail back to a certain lovely lady in Ontario ;) Just might have to include some movie goodness!
I almost skipped out on Celluloid Sunday today. Been feeling fairly craptacular this week and today certainly hasn't been any better (physically). Though it was a good day for many other reasons, including the discovery of the beautiful brand new Bulk Barn currently under construction over by the Confed Walmart Supercenter! I cannot wait for opening day, sweet bulky goodness; how I've missed you! Then the man-thing and I went all in and made our own gnocchi for dinner. . . completely by hand. . . from the potato up! We kind of ended up with mixed results there, but it was more than edible, and definitely something we'll be revisiting in the future. In the end I decided it would be fairly defeatist of me to allow my second posting of my only 'recurrent' feature to flail and die before it had even begun. So while this post might be slightly lackluster, I find it totally in keeping with this week's offering; The Puffy Chair.
Brothers Jay and Mark Duplass shot this film back in 2005, with a budget somewhere around 15K, (it's probably safe to assume they had to beg, borrow, and steal every penny of it just to get the movie made) and it definitely looks it too. I'd liken it to a very high quality home movie stock, but that never prevents me from viewing a film, and sometimes even lends itself to a higher degree of realism. The premise here is an atypical road trip movie focused on the main character Josh's relationships with his long term girlfriend Emily, and brother Rhett.
This film suffers from a very slow start, and never fully recovers; making it a bit of a hard sell to those who aren't comfortable with the nuances of indie films. The Puffy Chair has the distinction of being one of the first films branded under the then newly coined terminology 'mumblecore' that I referred to last week. Even though some of the scenes feel a little stilted and the acting occasionally leaves something to be desired. . . Mark Duplass' writing is what propelled the film to win an Audience Award at the 2005 SXSW Film Festival. It was a fresh look at topics that have become the mainstay of mumblecore in the intervening years.
Duplass's own relationship with co-star Katie Aselton served as the catalyst here, giving their character exchanges that necessary sense of authenticity which carried the film. Without giving anything away here, again you get the abrupt ending with far less of a sense of closure than even The Vicious Kind affords the viewer. It's almost as if you've finally arrived at the central conflict of the plot, only to be told the ending was never written. Nevertheless The Puffy Chair leaves you wanting more from Duplass; which he subsequently delivers with films like The Intervention, Baghead, and most recently; Cyrus (a film I'm dying to see) .
I don't even care about the colossal blunder they made pairing John Carpenter's 'Hallowe'en' theme song (possibly because the theme is open source) with the plastic Jason-esque hockey masks. I WANT these lights so bad! I could totally MacGyver me up some sweet, sweet Shatner head mask replica's and have me a beautiful tribute to Michael all year round. They could replace the multi-colour changing strand that currently resides above my bed with of course . . . my Michael figurine. (P.S. he got to lurk in the boughs of the Christmas tree this past Christmas as well) Though I'm fairly certain these were sold through American retailer CVS and as such were possibly not available here in Canada; I'll be keeping my eyes open for them this coming Hallowe'en and if all else fails there's always Ebay!
No, it's totally true! Somebody really loves me; and as such has sent me awesome birthday loot style objects of affection! It couldn't come at a better time, this week has been harsh! Rainy days, less than stellar news, and feeling sick with a sore throat has been ruining my week. So getting a sweet pair of brand new size 38 black china flats (and cool birthday card) from my lovely lady Erikka on Wednesday was really helping stem the misery!
Yayness!
These are the perfect shoes. Don't let the uber low price tag at the market stall fool you. . . seriously, so comfortable. You never have to go through that horrible 'breaking them in phase' with these babies. They always just fit perfect! When I left Ontario, I rashly reasoned that my old worn out pair would last me until I found a new vendor here in Saskatoon. I mean a quarter of a million people live in this city, and it's a fairly ethnically diverse area. Still after being here nearly a year my search has proven futile. Even the ladies in the Asian markets are unable to find a supplier for them. Luckily for me . . . someone loves me.
As if receiving those perfect gems wasn't enough; today I returned home from a long day at work to find another package waiting for me! More goodness from my lady!
All your base are belong to us!
That is the awesome new messenger bag I shall be draggin' my junk around in! (It totally goes with my self made robot wallet) Crafted by Etsy seller Happy Family it's been hanging out over on my Wist* with all the other things I am currently coveting. . . but now. . it's mine! Allllll mine, I shall covet it no more! Thank you sooooo much Erikka! I loves you crazy and I can't wait until we can have date night again!
*What do you mean you don't have a wist? C'mon how can I efficiently stalk you people if you don't post up pretty pictures of the items you covet? See how well it turned out for me? Get on it!
I've decided what this blog needs is a recurrent feature. . . or two. Therefore this post is the first in what will become a *hopefully* recurring series aptly named Celluloid Sunday! So let's start with the best film of 2009 that you've never , no really. . . you've NEVER seen. Heck, you may never have even heard of it, unless you really dig Brittany Snow, or indie films. Not being much of a Brittany Snow fan myself, (sorry Brittany I'm just not that familiar with your work) that leaves me firmly in the indie film fan category.
Brittany Snow is shocked & mildly disgusted by ninjarobotsthoughts blatant disregard for her career.
Thusly, I give you my deep and abiding passion for The Vicious Kind. This awesome little film has won several indie film awards and was nominated for many more but will just never find a large commercial market. It sits on the edge of what trendy movie people call "mumblecore" blending offbeat humour with dark dramatic passages of character growth and inferred plot expositions. These are the kind of films that are either deeply personally satisfying to you, or lull you into a semi-comatose state of WTF is happening here? and why did I agree to watch this? A feeling which is immediately compounded by the increasingly popular abrupt endings most of these films espouse.
Hollywood's big budget movie making machine has taught it's viewers to expect all plot lines to be wrapped up into neat little packages with pretty bows by the end of every film. All character issues are resolved to the extent where viewers can walk away satisfied that they know how the story ends. We know how it all works out for the characters. Their lives are better, their problems are solved; and Hollywood has your money, and you have a false sense of serenity. Big time movie directors sell you on the 'happy ending' every time. . . and on the odd occasion they don't the critics write it off as being "artsy". . . or "making a statement".
Indie film makers regularly employ the abrupt ending because that's precisely how life is really lived. We all come into this world somewhere in the middle of the story and leave it much the same way. We are all works in progress. Nothing is ever truly resolved. The best we can hope for on any given day is growth, and that's what these films showcase. The characters persevere, they endure; and with any luck we get to follow along on their journey and watch them grow. Sometimes by only the smallest of margins, but small changes often foster profound results.
If you can abide by that . . give The Vicious Kind a shot. It's worth it.
After 16 days of transit between Louisianna and Saskatoon my toast swap goodies finally arrived! And they're super cute! So even though I really ought to be asleep right now (work in the morning as per usual) I am in fact still wide awake and choosing now as an optimum moment to post up some right purty toast pics to this here blog! Check it out!
Toasty charm bracelet goodness, so cute.
French toast wall hanging. Which I must say as "franch" toast in my head every time I think or say it. If you've seen the uber sweet 80's film Better Off Dead you know what I'm talking about here! If you haven't seen the movie. . . what the heck are you still doing here! Go, find the movie and view it! NOW! (promise I'll wait for ya)
See that beauty right there? That my friends is ninja toast! Huh? Super sweet. . although . . the thought of a robotic toast to go along with him is now tickling the dark recesses of mind.
Ok. . enough. . . it's nearly 2:00, I best go make an attempt at sleeping.
