to quote kj: "whoever decided on the soundtrack to 'WATCHMEN' needs to be drawn and quartered."

one of the best things about this movie: 

jeffrey dean morgan as the comedian. (image courtesy of http://meatbun.us/)

so! last night, i piled into the balcony at the somerville theatre in davis square with 15 of my favorite people to take in the 11:45pm showing of "WATCHMEN".  we got to the theatre at 11 to be safe, seeing as we had a slew of seats to hold onto, but it was no use, really: the lobby was packed with excited movie goers, comic book gurus (i don't want to say geeks, that's mean) and even a reeeeally devoted fan who went all out and donned a Rorschach getup complete with eerie inkblot mask, fedora and trench coat:

photo snapped by the lovely and talented miss g.

needless to say, we were stoked.  here's me, stoked:

once again, photo courtesy of the lovely g.

we booked it upstairs, grabbed our seats, and the whole theatre roared when the previews ended and the massive screen in the 800+ seat theatre went yellow.  

i didn't have any expectations of the movie going into it, so i can't say that i was disappointed in this incredibly hyped-up release that's been gossiped about by avid readers of moore's comic book series and hollywood insiders alike... but a large percentage of the folks i attended the showing with were definitely of the opinion that "watchmen" is mediocre at best. 

without giving up any spoilers, a few things i loved and loathed about "watchmen":

LOVED:

+jeffrey dean morgan as the comedian: i LOVE jeffrey dean morgan in general and find him to be a refreshing, confident presence in whatever television show/movie he's involved with, and "watchmen" was no exception.  his character was probably one of the least likable in the film, but his depiction of the comedian was PERFECTION in my book. (granted, i know next to nothing about "watchmen" as a series and haven't picked up one of the comics, but i can't see anyone else doing this part justice the way morgan did.)  his smirk, swagger, saunter and cigar were all perfect and i wanted so much more of him throughout the movie.  "watchmen" is worth the price of admission for his performance alone.

+the opening title montage/sequence: "watchmen" is based on a twelve part series of graphic novels by alan moore, so the fact that they were able to edit, cut, rearrange and smush alllll of that material into a feature film is impressive.  the opening sequence, set to bob dylan's "the times they are a-changin'", is a beautifully shot, vintage-feeling montage of powerful clips that piece together the background information we need in order to appreciate and understand the plot and overarching themes of the movie.  the first five minutes still stand out to me as the most enjoyable part of the movie... i don't know why i was so into it, but it got me excited about the three-hour action epic i'd signed up for, and i'm sure i'm not the only one.

LOATHED:

+the soundtrack: ok fancy mr. director man, i understand that you want to play up the fact that the movie takes place in 1985 and you draw on nixon and vietnam and a few other historical events that you signify with musical choices relevant to that time period, but C'MON.  the random hendrix/ccr/bad eighties pop tracks interspaced throughout the most pivotal ploty points were SOOO DISTRACTING and it completely snapped me out of the story.  boo on your part, person in charge of music choices.  boo.

+the length: going back to the fact that this was a 12-part series, i get that it has to be a long flick for artistic integrity, but this was just too long. TOO LONG.  it was good and fine and everything, but 163 minutes and previews? too long.

+the ending: felt INCREDIBLY rushed.  that's all you get.  no spoilers, because i'm still trying to figure out what the hell happened, really, myself, but yeah.  wasn't crazy about it.

THE VERDICT ON "WATCHMEN":  it was ok. i would consider seeing it again, if anything for jeffrey dean morgan, but only at the somerville theatre (or MAYBE imax) because it is grrreat.

for the record:

(photo courtesy of the hollywood news.)

seth rogen, be my boyfriend.

that is all.

(i'm watching "pineapple express" while my iPod charges for the gym.  tonight, it's dinner, beers and "watchmen" at the somerville theatre.  life is good.)

BAHAHAHA

i don't even know how to respond to this other than jessie, your kids are going to be just like this child.  i'll put money on it.

color, japan, and more "I WANT SPRING" musings.

last july, i bought a roundtrip ticket on a whim and took off to visit a friend living in tokyo.  for two weeks, i spent my days exploring japan's teeming metropolis on foot and stumbled upon countless galleries, museums, bookstores and boutiques that were exploding with vibrant, bold colors.  i left tokyo for a weekend and visited the country's cultural capital, kyoto, and found that the same shades embraced by japan's creative elite could be found in the shinto shrines residing in kyoto's alleys.  i love looking at the following two photos side by side because i think that they're a perfect pair for their harmonious hues and contextual differences.  the chains of paper cranes pictured below were photographed in downtown kyoto off the beaten path: we had gone for a walk down the street from our hostel and stumbled across a tiny shrine set back a block or two from the city's main drag, and i was entranced by these meticulously crafted ropes that seem as though they were strung together by Technicolor.  the second photograph is of me at the front doors of design festa, an artist's collective in harajuku, which housed some of the most bizarre and inspiring sculptures, textiles and murals that i've ever seen.

(above: chains of paper cranes, shinto shrine, kyoto, japan.)

(above: hil at the front doors of the design festa gallery in harajuku, tokyo, japan.)

sitting here and looking back at these snapshots, i realize that what i'm looking forward to most about the melting of winter is the blooming, bursting nature of boston in the springtime.  the pastel shells of the candy easter eggs at the grocery store down the street make do for now, but i'm seriously counting days until i can shake this snowy lethargy and embrace the newfound energy that'll come blowing into town about a month from now.  i get that march comes in like a lion and out like a lamb and all that, but c'maaaahn.  i want brilliant shades in my life on a daily basis like they were when i was in tokyo; until then, i'll look at these pictures and paint my own and wait for the thaw.

things that make me smile like this:

(this would be jessie and i ringing in the new year. do excuse her devil eye/my vivid slash of guns n' roses/velvet revolver impression.)

+ impromptu hookah parties in my apartment with fantastic, lovely people and fantastic, lovely conversation.  extra points for rose, jasmine and pomegranate flavored shisha.

+ sunny days after snow days: yeah, it sucks that it's cold and yeah, it sucks that i need to leap over a mound of snow half my size in order to get into and out of my apartment every day, but you can't deny that today wasn't a beautiful one in suffolk county.

+ celebrating los' return to the dark side (read: she gave up being a vegetarian) with a massive feast at redbones.  steak tips and mac n' cheese? yes yes and good god yes.

+ FINALLY FINDING A COPY OF RUSSIAN VOGUE.  i have a collection of vogues from around the world and want a copy of vogue in every language/region it's in print. i've been looking for the russian edition for ages and i can't stomach spending the $300+ for a yearly, imported subscription to it.  there are 19 editions of the magazine released across the globe, and the international editions i've got so far hail from the us, uk, italy, australia, spain, portugal, brazil, germany, greece, japan and now russia.  vogues left to obtain: india, mexico, china, canada, switzerland, korea, taiwan and france.  (france and canada i can totally pick up at the borders in downtown crossing.  india and korea?  not so much.)

+ "watchmen" is playing at the somerville theatre on its opening night (which is next thursday, for those of you who have been living underneath a massive, massive rock.)  i'm buying a whole chunk o' tickets tomorrow and making an event of it next week with some wonderful people.  check back for a review later (of the movie, not the people.  oh, i'm so witty, yuck yuck.  facepalm.) 

+ the novelty of the gigantic map of south america currently shackin' up in my living room hasn't worn off yet.  i don't know if it ever well.  le sigh.

+ i finally picked up a copy of david foster wallace's infinite jest and i can't wait to start reading it.   i plan on spending a hefty chunk of my day tomorrow downing lattes at bloc 11 and picking few the first hundred pages or so of this whopper.  (the book is a behemoth at 981 pages.) 

the long and short of it: today was a great tuesday.  how was yours?

zaftigs, you are most deeefinitely my bashert.

see this stacked, meaty, cheesy, saucy monstrosity of a sandwich?

that, dear readers, is the new yorker sandwich served up in all its pastrami and corned-beefy goodness at zaftig's.  i'm ashamed to say that i'm totally a "my side of the river" kind of girl (meaning i very rarely make a concerted effort to cross the charles river to get to allston, brookline or jamaica plain unless there's something really fantastic in it for me), and therefore have refrained from experiencing this cozy jewish deli on harvard street in brookline until this evening.  after roughly fifteen inches of snow fell on boston, a few of us drove over to larz anderson park in brookline to go SLEDDING, which seemed like a fantastic idea... until i realized an hour into it that my boots were hardly waterproof and that i was in need of hot tea and comfort food to combat the coldness.  enter: zaftig's.  after chucking our socks in the dryer for a bit and digging out the car from a snowbank on comm ave, we needed something hearty and zaftig's was riiiight down the street, so it was a no brainer.  

zaftig's serves up breakfast all day, diviiiiine knishes and latkes, incredible looking desserts and absurdly decadent sandwiches, as is evident by the MONSTER that i wound up with at dinner tonight pictured above.  (other selections ordered at the table: a delicious, classic reuben, one of the freshest garden salads we had ever seen and a thanksgiving-style turkey/mashed potatoes/stuffing open-faced sandwich that kind of made me want to bury my face in it.) the chicken noodle matzoh ball soup is delicious as well, and every single item on the menu was enough to get us salivating before we even ordered.

long story short: though my sandwich above was, in fact, the most intimidating meal i've had in a looong long time, zaftig's could not have been a more perfect choice for a meal at the end of a bitter, blizzarding, blustery day.  it's easily accessible by way of public transportation and literally steps away from the coolidge corner stop on the c line.  though lines out the door may prove to be a nuisance on weekends, but brunch at zaftig's seems well worth the wait on a sunny saturday morning.  if anyone happens to try their challah french toast or the infamous breakfast sandwiches before me, drop me a line and let me know how foodgasmic your experience was!

vicky cristina barcelona: a big fat ¡GRACIAS! to mr. allen.

i saw "vicky cristina barcelona" last summer with Los and the latest Woody Allen flick quickly registered on the list of my favorite movies of all time.  yeah, i love spain, and yeah, i think that penelope cruz is an incredibly vibrant talent, but the film themes of romantic escapism and the temperal, transient nature of love really hit home for me.  seeing as i'm currently snowed in and have yet to leave my apartment today, i opted to watch "vicky cristina barcelona" while getting ready for a sledding date and brookline and now i can't stop thinking about cristina (played by the boticelli-esque scarlett johannson) and her search for love.  the narrator's initial description of cristina is as follows:

"she had reluctantly accepted suffering as an inevitable component of passion, and was resigned to putting her feelings at risk.  if you asked her what it was she was gambling her emotions on to win, she would not have been able to say."

sooo yeah.  if there's any block of text already written that could describe me and how i would sum up my feelings on the past few months of my life, it would be the quote above.  i guess it's a conclusion i've come to a little too late and i wish that things could be different, but what's done is done and it's kind of silly that it took a snowed in screening of woody allen's oscar winning blockbuster to show me that.

and now, cruz as maria elena in all her glory:

(image ganked from boston.com.)

on impulse purchases:

ok, so someone needs to come over and cut my credit card up into teeny tiny little pieces.  i've been desperately seeking different outlets for my creativity since acquiring all this newfound free time post-layoff, and i finally went out last week, bought a hammer, and decided to attack the white, naked walls of my apartment.  jessie and i have been spending the past couple of sunday afternoons painting, so i had a few canvases i wanted to tack up in my living room in addition to the slew of framed postcards and photographs i've got hanging around.   i don't have any "before" pictures, but here's a look at my humble abode in its current, more aesthetically pleasing state:

first, a shot of the boudoir:

and some [blurry, sorry] shots of the living room:

and then, after i put the hammer down and the picture hooks away, i. couldn't. stop.

the pictures looked great and everything and painting was fun, but i wanted more. i wanted new chairs! i wanted a bookshelf for the cookbooks i don't have in my kitchen! i wanted a standing coat hanger and another dresser for the bedroom and more paintings!  so, what did hil do, ladies and gentlemen? like a crazy person, she stopped into that adorable little antiques & restoration haven down the street from her apartment and she bought THIS:

a gigantic, hil-sized map of south america.

I DON'T HAVE A JOB AT PRESENT.  WHY AM I DROPPING CASH ON A MASSIVE MAP OF SOUTH AMERICA WHEN I COULD BE SPENDING IT ON FOOD OR INTERVIEW CLOTHES OR I DON'T KNOW SAVING IT.  RAHHHHH.

(i would be lying, however, if i said i wasn't obsessed with it.  it's pretty great. the bookcase underneath it was part of the purchase as well and i got both for a fantastic price but STILLLL i shouldn't be doing that i know better ugh.)

Ode to Devendra!

apparently my ode to spring toootally worked in the positive thinking department: it's 60 degrees out in Somerville, the sun is shining, and the sunset roses mirror the weather's pleasant disposition.  see?

on days like today you need a decent soundtrack for skippin' down the sidewalk, and nothing hits the ear nicer than devendra banhart when it's brisk and beautiful out.  i know i'm tardy when it comes to joining devendra's fan club, but better late than never, right?  i've got banhart's two most recent albums, smokey rolls down thunder canyon and cripple crow, playing on repeat for the afternoon.  banhart was raised in venezuela and thus a hefty chunk of his discography includes some lovely spanish melodies, and coincidentally his spanish tracks happen to be my absolute favorites on both albums.  

songs i currently can't stop dancing to/listening to/lusting after courtesy of mr. db:

quedate luna.  the haunting minor chords of this mellow track off banhart's 2005 release is my favorite on the album and tugs at my heartstrings a little just because it reminds me of flamenco and impromptu jam sessions in the albaicín, granada's old arab neighborhood and my favorite barrio in a city that i miss being able to call home.  i learned how to play this on guitar last night and the callouses on my fingers are kind of beastly from practicing it too much.  love it.  major sexy time music, too, but then again half of cripple crow makes for excellent sexy time music as well. 

carmensita.  if you're not dancing to this song within 30 seconds of pressing play, you're either a) broken in the legs, b) deaf, or c) too cool for school.   this song can usually be heard blasting in my kitchen while i'm making food for people or when i'm getting psyched before leaving my house for a big night out.  this shit'll put you in fabulous mood, guaranteed.  it's auricular candy. 

bad girl.  ok so this one's in english but i love it anyway, mostly because i find it slightly touches on the melancholic nature of the dissolution of my last relationship.  ("i'm not waiting but i keep holding on" hit a little too close to home for me, i guess. erm, yeah. moving on!)  the consistent reverb and pulsing syncopations practically put you to sleep, and in a good way: this raw, lamenting lullaby of banhart's is comforting and heartbreaking at the same time with its crescendoes and perfect balance of resignation and refusal.  [for the record: i'm listening to it today NOT because of allllll the romantic bullshit that doesn't need to be drudged up yet again; i'm listening to it because it's a beautiful song, despite/because of its emotional undertones, and it sounds divine on a day like today when the heat of the afternoon starts to cool off and the wind starts reminding me that spring isn't quite upon us yet.]

also: thank you, devendra, for your quirky lil' cameo in "nick and norah's infinite playlist".  you are great.  and thank you for this photo, as well:

image courtesy of paste magazine.

a day full of couch forts and law and order: svu reruns? yes.

so thiiiis is how i feel on this overcast thursday morning.  

on a whim, i opted to spend my wednesday night out and wound up boppin' my head like a maniac at the Bodega Girls dance party which took Middlesex in Central Square by storm last night.  Bodega Girls were fantastic: their beats were incredible, their energy was insatiable and the club was still packed with ironically-dancing hipsters hailing from every corner of Suffolk County when the lights went on long after last call.  they have a show coming up at Great Scott on March 10th and I stroooongly strongly strongly encourage anyone up for a rowdy night out complete with a bumpin' soundtrack ought to swing by the corner of Comm Ave and Harvard Ave in Allston that night.

in other news: Noir at the Charles Hotel is open until 2 on week nights.  made note of this last night with the band of merry ruffians i had spent the evening with at Middlesex, hence reason why I'm currently buried in blankets and pillows on my couch with a ginormous bottle of water within arm's reach.   i just made the biggest bowl of "hangover delight" (grilled chicken and sauteed baby 'bella mushrooms served over egg noodles in a garlic/oil/cheesy goodness) and i plan on hibernating until heading over to precinct tonight to check out a friend of a friend's band.  oh, to be 23 and unemployed!