Pariah

Oh hi, I do still exist! I hope everyone has been having a beautiful 2012, it has been oddly nice here in MN :)

I just saw a great movie! Has anyone heard of Pariah? Its a limited release, but made it to Minneapolis a few weeks ago. I've been wanting to see it ever since and finally made it out the Uptown Theater this afternoon. As expected, it was wonderful. I love movies that depict an an honest life, and this one did so in a disturbingly beautiful way. Has anyone else seen it?

Here is the preview...

And the poem shown in the movie. How perfect is that last part? I am not broken, I am free.

Heartbreak opens

onto the sunrise. 

For even breaking is

opening and I am

broken. 

I am open. 

See the love shine in

through my cracks.

See the light shine

out through me.

My spirit takes

journey.

My spirit takes flight,

and I am not running, I am choosing.

I am broken. 

I am broken open.

Breaking is freeing. 

Broken is freedom.

I am not broken.

I am free. 

A rare case of a movie that beats out the book!!

via here

Have you seen it? What do you think......?

Movies in a word...

I stole this idea from Rachele over at The Nearsighted Owl , It looked fun, but was actually kind of hard! (The word links to the movie, in case you are wondering)

Love

Hysterical

Poignant

Quirky

Uplifting

Acceptance

Dedication

Happy :)

I need so many more words to portray how much I love these movies! Anyways, what do you think? Did I capture them well? Do you have any to add? Its harder than it looks...

Holiday movies!

My favorite holiday movie has always been Prancer. A little girl helping out an injured reindeer so he can fly on christmas...come on thats good stuff! Makes me cry like a baby every single time. Then of course there is A Christmas Story, I love this movie! Every time I see it I think of sitting in the living room with my grandpa laughing while my mom and grandma comment on the movie's stupidity! :) Whats not to love about a pink bunny costume as pj's, a sexy leg lamp, and the line "you'll shoot your eye out, kid!"

Most of the new holiday movies fall a little short of the classics in my mind. But, to get in the spirit, we watched a few recently. My mom loaned us 4 christmases and it was really cute. That may have been more due to the adorable relationship between teeny tiny Reese Witherspoon and the giant Vince Vaughn though than the actual holiday aspect of it! Last night though I watched a Hallmark movie (don't judge!) that was adorable. It is definitely going in my group of holiday favorites! It was called A Dog Named Christmas and was about a developmentally delayed 20 year old who fostered a dog over the holidays and.....well I won't ruin it, check your local listings! It was really good and of course, I cried multiple times (those damn Hallmark movies!) The shelters here in Seattle are doing the same thing and I thought it was a good idea. Now after watching the movie, we are definitely going to look into it. We just have to be strong enough to bring the dog back after christmas, Domino is already too much! I think shelters across the US are doing the same thing, everyone should check into it and watch the movie!

So, I know I am missing quite a few, what are your favorite holiday movies?!

On a side holiday note, Rachel got me tickets to the Nutcracker by the PNB for our anniversiary! I have been wanting to go ever since I moved here 4 years ago. I am super excited!! :)

Stolen post

I saw this on Lisa's yarns and thought it was a fun one, so here it goes...

1. What animal should cease to exist? (Not including bugs. That’s too obvious.)
-Pomeranians! Just kidding, I love all animals and think nothing should be excluded...but I seriously do not like these yippy little puff balls!

2. What was your favorite thing about the beach?
-Absolutely everything! I love when it is basically deserted though and you can just listen to the waves. Plus, I love sandpipers; those little birds that chase the tide searching for bugs and stuff, they are adorable :)

3. If scientists found a way to allow dogs to talk, do you think we should implement it? Or should we just keep them quiet?
-I am torn on this one. It would make animal abuse harder for the jerks that do it if they had to listen to the cries for help. But, there is something so amazing about the silence of a pet. I'm going to go with no, because I don't think we should impose our scientific discoveries on nature...but I do think more people should listen to the silent pleas of animals.

4. How do you order your Starbucks?
- Grande pumpkin spice (normally sugar free vanilla) light room americano.

5. What’s worse? People who don’t know the difference between your and you’re OR people who  smack their food?
-PEOPLE WHO SMACK THEIR FOOD!! hands down, this is my biggest pet peeve! Close your damn mouth people! This goes for gum chompers too, have some decency!

6. What CD can you listen to over and over?
- Right now it's Brandi Carlile's "Give Up the Ghost", but basically anything by her!

7. What was the most surprising thing about college?
- The experiences outside of the classroom. Its true that it is the time to figure out who you are. This is undergrad that I am referring to. The most surprising thing about grad school is that I am still alive and partially sane!

8. What’s the best deal you ever got? (Biggest sale item.)
- I love this question because I just got the best deal ever. I was at Fred Meyer shopping for boring necessary stuff and remembered that I needed a new bra. This wasn't fun bra shopping, it was boring "I really need one" bra shopping. So I found on on the sale rack that was purple, which added a little excitement. I went to check the price after the sale on the self scanner thing. It read "foundation, 3 cents" which I assumed was a mistake with the scanner. We went through the self checkout aisle and it rang up that way there too!! So, I paid quickly and left with my 3 cent bra!! Awesome :)

9. Who is your role model? Why?
- This is a seriously tough question. I am convinced that I don't really know of my role model. This isn't because I don't appreciate the people that I know or that I know of, I am surrounded by amazing people. This is simply because I believe that the people out there who deserve "role model" status are the silent fighters. The woman making minimum wage at 3 jobs to support her children, the people who are overworked and underpaid at homeless shelters and foster care centers, the drug addicts who turn their lives around only to encounter struggles and judgment, the person who gives up their seat on the bus to an elderly passenger or their last dollar to a homeless veteran......all without praise or notoriety. These people are my role models!

10. What movie would you like to see that is in theaters right now? Why?
- Where the Wild Things Are. It looks beautiful and it is nostalgic for my generation.

Those are my answers, comment with answers to the questions that you like or repost if you so please :)

A hodgepodge of information....

....because I still dont have internet! Looks like its going to be a month without it now :( sucky....

So, I have been spending a lot of time in the library and starbucks. This sucks because...well because its not my comfy couch mainly! It is interesting for people watching though. Plus I just got a mini notebook for school, so I have been getting use out of that. We were in starbucks the other day and we got to watch the poor cashier give everyone that dumb taste challenge that they have. What a waste of time! Just give people the free sample and get the line moving along, yeesh!

Off topic; we went to see Whip it on Sunday and it rocks! I love Ellen Page, she is hilarious! Anyways, its a really funny movie and it made me want to finally make it out to see the Rat City Rollergirls. I have been saying that since I moved here so maybe I will actually do it now!

Pet news; we are searching for a dog walker or dog daycare for Domino. Its an interesting search....he is a handful and I think my description of him ("a 100lb dog who is very undersocialized, needs a female walker and at least a month to warm up before he will not be spooked by everything on a walk with you") is scaring people off. Im not getting many replies to my emails.....?

Ok, thats it. Im feeling disconnected from the world....poor me.

Lars and the real girl

You know how when you accidentally forget to update your Netflix queue and you end up with a movie that you didn't really want to watch, one that was just on there as a "buffer"? Well that is how Lars and the Real Girl ended up in our mailbox...and then on top of our tv for about a week. Last night we finally decided to try to watch it so that we could return it and get something we wanted. Well, a beautifully serendipitous thing happened....I loved it!

The movie is billed as a comedy about a man who falls in love with a sex doll. They need to fire their advertising exec because not only did that sound really stupid, it completely misses the point of the movie! It is about community, family, accepting differences, and the psychopathology of everyday life (a corny Freud reference for those who aren't dorky enough to recognize it).

Ok this is my synopsis, I will try my best to not include spoilers!

Lars starts the movie off as a painfully socially awkward man in his late 20s. He cant talk to women at all, not even his sister in law. He is basically agoraphobic; afraid of the world outside of the garage that he lives in. His sister in law (who is the most lovable movie character you will ever see!) keeps trying to get him out of his shell but nothing is working. So, he orders a real doll (warning! the site is graphic) but not as a sex toy, he just wants a companion. He goes a little overboard with her; bringing her to dinners and church, buying a wheelchair, and taking her to the doctor. This though is how he meets the psychologist who talks his family into "going along with the delusion" so he can work out what he needs to. The odd thing is that this doll makes him normal! Suddenly he is happy and talkative and...well, "normal." I am not going to tell any more of the plot because I really want you to see it!

I love the premise of this movie because it challenges the realm of "normal." It shows how something that could be considered an illness and weird could really just be a way for the person to work things out. In Lars' case, he needed to work through grief, his pain presented in a socially "weird" way, but he found his own way to work through it. I am a strong believer in feeling emotions and the individuality of experiences. This movie epitomizes that belief in a beautifully weird way!

Has anyone else seen it? Any thoughts? Any other movies that were surprisingly good?