Sunday evening, detangled

[cleolinda]

Well, let's get my linkspam backlog out of the way, because tomorrow I actually get to leave the house. I'm getting a good bit of my hair cut off--I'm not sure how much, but at least a good few inches, and it's nearly to my elbows now. The sad part is, I really like my hair at this length; it's just so dry and damaged that I need to get some of it whacked off so it'll stop tangling so badly. When a hair-washing takes thirty minutes minimum, you have a problem. Fortunately, since my hair is curly, I just tell my stylist what length I want it and "make me look good," and she does, no frills or layers. Because, see... okay, I don't remember if I've ever confessed this publicly before, but the thing is, and this is a deep dark secret for me, I perm my hair. Shut up! You don't know! You haven't seen it! It's lank, fine, straight and limp in its natural state, and when I was fourteen and skinny, I could get away with it. Now that I've spent the last ten years wrestling with my weight, I need hair substantial enough to balance that out visually. I let Della blow it out straight a couple of years ago, and you know what? Straight hair doesn't look any better on me now than it used to. And Della? Della is a genius. Her perms are so good that I only have to have them twice a year, and they look fantastically natural. (Obviously I don't look like a TV star, but season one Felicity is the closest comparison I can think of right now, on a good day.) And lest you think I'm deluded on that last point, I've had crunchy poodle perms, and I know what they look like. Number one, I grew my bangs out to avoid the satellite-dish effect (we call them "Bessemer bangs" here in Birmingham). Number two, Della manages to do my hair so that a tight curl comes out looking like a soft, close ripple. People are uniformly shocked if/when I tell them the truth, and "people" includes women with actual curly hair themselves. I've been going to Della for at least ten years now, and if anything ever happens to her, I am so screwed. The problem now is just that my hair's grown out to the point where the bottom six inches have gone through way too many perms, and it's time for them to meet their maker. I'm going to have her do a softer wave this time since my hair will be shorter, and only cut it up to my shoulders, because taking all that weight off will probably cause it to look even shorter. And then I'll basically start growing it out all over again, but deep-condition the ends more frequently this time. And so basically, I've now revealed my dirty secret and y'all will now think of me as That Sad Sack Who Perms Her Hair, but at least you'll understand why it takes three hours to get my hair "done," as I've always euphemistically termed it, and why I'm always so relieved to have it done.

POTC3 trailer, the Engrish version. To be fair, it can't be easy translating "to de end o'de urt" into Russian and then back into English again. (Awwwww! "Will you marry me?" "It's not a good moment now!") ETA: Awww, Darth Junction strikes again--copies of the bootleg across the interwebs are going down. I wish I'd downloaded the Engrish one now like I did the hi-res. Also, if you can't wait for Monday evening, screen caps. ETA2: Download the high quality trailer here. Again, still in Russian.


President of Gambia says AIDS cure revealed to him in dream.

Winter has been world's warmest on record. You know, except for the parts where we were freezing to death. Ah, global warming.

DePauw Banishes Fattie-Hating Sorority. Hey, it's Gawker's wording, not mine.

Thrillist Endorses Most Douchey Product Ever. Specifically, nylon "tattoo" sleeves. Like... arm stockings. As I pointed out to Sister Girl... what if the guy has a lot of arm hair? I mean, guys being guys, a lot of them do. Is it just... matted underneath? Also, I believe the correct formation in the headline would be "douchiest," Gawker. Bring your A-game next time.

Secret of horror writer's lineage broken.

Breaking news: Baby polar bear is adorable.

A new batch of reader hatemail from Dooce. The picture of Chuck, by the way, is made of win. I don't think I realized how fortunate I am to not get bitchy reader mail until just now. Seriously, ever. Any bitchery I ever received was back when I had anonymous commenting enabled (example: the infamous [and nonsensical] "fag" comment), and nobody seems to bother bitching via email. I'd say that it's because on LJ, your asstastic comments are attached to your online identity, so you can't mouth off without people knowing it's you, or at least online "you," but people manage to be asshats every day on LJ. So I can't quite explain that. Maybe the Galadriel icon scares them?

Saint Patrick Drives the Snakes Out of Ireland ("I need to pee!" "Are we there yet?").

The Sith Rejects. Sadly, Darth Junction is not on the list.

Osama bin Laden Biopic In The Works. Oh dear.

Danny Boyle: A Script For 'Trainspotting 2' Has Been Written. I think I had a more positive response to the OBL biopic, actually.

Frank Miller: From Now On, I Direct My Own Stuff. Man, here's three headlines in a row where my mental reaction was, "Oh, this is going to end well."

‘300’ conquers box office again. Is anyone actually surprised? Also: We now complete Week 2 of not leaving the house due to puppage, so no, I haven't gotten to see it yet. (Related: 300 director enjoys egging on Gerard Butler's crazier fans. I keep imagining Snyder turning to the guy and saying, "Hey, man, can I have that coffee cup when you're done?")

All the King's Watchmen: Considered for Rorschach: "A slew of actors from Daniel Craig to Simon Pegg," and, most recently, recent Oscar nominee Jackie Earle Haley. As for Ozymandias? Apparently Jude Law has a Rorschach tattoo and wants the Ozymandias part, but Tom Cruise also wanted it at one point. As Alan Moore works go, I've only read League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and From Hell, so I have no idea who would be a good casting idea, but if I were Zack Snyder, I'd give it to Law on frickin' principle. Also, this still doesn't clarify who Gerard Butler "might" play, but he needs to jump on this rather than the Escape from New York (!) remake.

Rosario Dawson: Sin City 2 Begins Shooting This Summer. That said, it looks like the Ava Lord casting still isn't final.

Looks Like 'Bond 22' Will Indeed Be Direct Sequel to Casino Royale. Again: duh. I got the DVD today but haven't been able to watch it yet, so that's for tomorrow morning. (Casino Royale DVD Will Be Paltry -- Double O-Dip Coming, Obviously. Oh, now you tell me!)

Blu-ray to Replace DVDs by 2010? NO. NO, I REFUSE. The entertainment industry embarked on a huge (and hugely successful) campaign several years back to make sure that we all switched from video to DVD, particularly considering that laserdisc just didn't take hold. They made DVDs and DVD players extremely affordable, came up with the ability to skip around with the touch of a button, and added extra content that you can't get on videotapes (although a cassette I have of Bram Stoker's Dracula does have a 20-minute making-of featurette, you can imagine what a bitch it is to FF to the end if you want to watch that but not the movie). In short, DVD is to video what 3-D is to 2-D; they gave us multiple reasons to rebuy entire movie collections in a new format, and they made it affordable enough that we didn't feel the bite too badly. I can live with HD DVD taking over, because at least HD DVD is compatible with regular DVD players, as I understand it. Blu-ray? Isn't. And I'm sorry, but I'm NOT re-buying my entire movie collection all over again. I don't care how much you can fit on a single disc or how fantastic the quality is; I'm not seeing the same leap that we had from video to DVD. If you want to me to start buying my future DVD purchases in a new format that can be played on a DVD player, okay, we can talk. If you're trying to introduce an "alien" stand-alone format, well, I don't think you're going to see a lot of people taking the bait.

International Fantastic Four Posters; International Spider-Man 3 Poster. (Dunst: No Spidey 4 For Now.)

Premonition officially one of Rotten Tomatoes' 100 Worst-Reviewed Movies of All Time.

Sweeney Todd on Hold? Not for very long, I don't think--apparently they're on hiatus while Depp's young daughter recovers from whatever landed her in the hospital (news stories have been vague, although I've heard it was blood poisoning from a rusty nail).

Neil Burger (The Illusionist) to direct Dawn Treader?

LeBeouf Talks Constantine 2. Specifically, "Wow, I didn't think he would jump back on. Keanu went through a lot of s--t with that movie."

Speed Racer Cast? I went to grade school with a kid who looked exactly like Speed Racer. I thought you should know.

Theron, Farrell, Fiennes & Dafoe Fill The Hurt Locker.

Eastwood Directing Jolie in The Changeling.

G.I. Joe Movie Stupider Than Originally Thought.

Toy Story 3 Scheduled for 2010.

Wong Kar Wai to Shoot Love Story About Lesbian High-Schoolers.

Casting Bites: Brideshead, Ratatouille and Death Instinct.

Dreamworks Animation Going Three-Dimensional.

Shyamalan Resurfaces with Bollywood Financing.

Pornography Big Business on the Web; sky reportedly blue.

Jackie Chan: Ratner Doesn't Know Much About This Action-Directing Stuff ("Even though Brett doesn't know much about directing action, he does notice details that help us improve the scene. I appreciate his attentiveness when we shoot action scenes and his feedback"). It's a pity that action's pretty much all he directs, then, isn't it?

Emma Watson Not Quitting Role as Hermione Granger in Potter Films. Why wouldn't she want to continue? Well, here's an idea: " 'The man actually gatecrashed her school. She was very alarmed and worried.' The fan, in his 20s, was questioned and then warned off by detectives. He is said to be 'an admirer who was over-zealous' .... The star of all five Potter movies has said in the past that her celebrity status has been responsible for her not having a boyfriend."

Comments

[girlfromsouth.livejournal.com]

I'm 99.9% positive I read something...Friday perhaps, that says that Neil Berger/Dawn Treader rumor isn't true.

Which is sort of a shame - I thought The Illusionist was unfortunately predictable plotwise, but man was it pretty to look at.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Aww, now I'm just sad.

[septimus.livejournal.com]

POTC3 Trailer was deleted :(

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I'm working on uploading the non-subtitled, non-Engrish hi-res version.

[linz-lou.livejournal.com]

Blu-ray to Replace DVDs by 2010?

I will be so pissed if that happens. I have to admit that I bought into the whole HD-DVD thing - the quality is stunning, by the way - but, I hate the whole Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD debate. There's no way I'm buying yet another player just so I can buy the movies that are only released on Blu-ray. HD DVD players will play normal DVDs (and increase quality), which is one of the main reasons I went with HD DVD instead of Blu-ray. The one thing that really sucks about Blu-ray is that I've noticed they have way more titles out - it looks as though Disney is going Blu-ray all the way, which means no POTC in hi-def, for example. I didn't think that Blu-ray would win the war, but, it sure looks like they might. My DVD collection is not all that impressive compared to others, but, I've spent enough money on it that I don't want to buy all of my movies in Blu-ray.

I totally understood the whole VHS-to-DVD move. DVD-to-Blue-ray? Not so much. [/rant]

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

See, exactly.

[morganwolf.livejournal.com]

I would just like to say I feel your hair pain. Mine sounds a lot like yours in its natural state, only wavy. I never permed it because I-- well, because I hate getting my hair done. I worked in a dang salon where they played with it all the time for free, and I still hate having it done. I recently had a few inches taken off too because I'd put off getting a haircut for so long and had been dutifully dusting the split ends individually, but the hair was so dead and fried that the color I put in was coming out in two different shades and...

Suffice to say, it would take a lot less time, money, and aggravation for me to just make regular cut and color appointments rather than having to spend an entire day correcting the mishaps during my annual visit to the salon, but it is not in my nature to make things easy.

Also, fine hair sucks hard.

[ter369.livejournal.com]

Also, fine hair sucks hard.

Down this thread, I recommended Kerastase products to Cleo. I have fine hair, I color it, and this stuff is amazing for body and softness.

[queenthesixth.livejournal.com]

The Brideshead Revisited casting looks interesting. Hayley Atwell was in The Ruby in the Smoke and Mansfield Park (which aired tonight in Ireland/UK) with Billie Piper. She should be a very good Julia.

[eyemage.livejournal.com]

sorry to correct on tech stuff...but hd-dvd isnt playable on current dvd players...you do indeed need a hd compatable player as well as a hd tv.

my personal take on the next format is something non disk shaped...flash drives are getting very big these days...they just have to make em more permanent storage wise.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Huh. Someone was telling me that HD DVD is or would eventually be compatible with the current DVD format.

[ter369.livejournal.com]

Hair care product rec for those who color/perm for years (heh) on end: Kerastase.

I have fine hair that I color every month. This stuff is genius. It's also only sold in the US by a stylist, or online through eBay, drugstore.com, Amazon, etc. My $28 bottle should last most of the year.

Totally worth it. No tangles, more body, and silky softness. I use it every other day.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I'll ask Della about it tomorrow--her salon seems to pimp Aveda a lot, which... doesn't really light my fire. I hate the smell, for one. I usually use formulated-for-curls Pantene, which is apparently safe enough to use on treated hair. Is the Kerastase a shampoo, conditioner, or both?

[camisado.livejournal.com]

I highly doubt Blu-Ray will win this war. Just like laserdisk and beta, the format technology is controlled by Sony. And Sony will not allow porn in their formats. This is why all their formats do not catch on with the general populace.

Also, this statement that Blu-Ray is going to win by 2010 is coming from "the European chairman for the Blu-ray Disc Association." Yeah, I'm so sure, Mr Chairman.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Heeeeeeeeee. You know, now that you mention it, I bet the failure to allow porn has a lot to do with it.

[kittygopounce.livejournal.com]

I've got naturally curly hair, and I'm considering perming my hair (ok, just the small few locks at nape of my neck that naturally fall stright - apparently they are non-conformists ;) - but still) ... so *shuffles over and joins Cleo in the Sad Sack corner* Sigh.

[stringertheory.livejournal.com]

Oh, honey. I feel your hair-pain. I don't perm, but that's only 'cause I don't need to. When I was younger, my hair was perfectly straight - wouldn't curl for anything. Nowadays, it curls if I look at it wrong. Bushy, frizzy curl-type things. I understand the 30 minute washings and 3 hours of getting your hair done. Oh yes, indeed. ;)

God Bless Snyder for helping all the crazy Butler fans out there. Gerard is most awesome, after all. :D

NUUUU! I knew when I bought Casino Royale that the extras looked a bit skimpy. I should have waited! GAAAH!

[leila82.livejournal.com]

OMG your hair is like mine! Right down to that whole straight-when-younger thing, which mine totally was.

I've resigned myself to the fact that, most days, I look like I've stuck my finger in an electric socket.

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

'Secret of horror writer's lineage broken.'

Was that ever a secret? I mean, he looks just like his dad.

As for Watchmen casting, I speculated on that (http://robyn-ma.livejournal.com/366314.html) a couple years ago. With fun comic-to-actor comparison photos!

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Wow, the comparisons are pretty good.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I am actually looking forward to the horrific mess that a Frank Miller directed piece would be. Because you know he wouldn't pull back from the less saleable bits of his comics.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Not to mention the whores. Like, even more whores.

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

Re: Blue-ray comatibility

My tentative understanding (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc#Compatibility) of the HD-DVD/Blue-ray situation is that Blue-ray players should be able to play both old fashioned DVDs and Blue-ray disks, but they aren't required to by the Blue-Ray standard -- in other words it's left to the designer to decide. As a consumer, that just means you have to check the specifications before you buy. On the other hand, HD-DVD players are all guaranteed to play regular DVDs.

The problem now is just that my hair's grown out to the point where the bottom six inches have gone through way too many perms, and it's time for them to meet their maker.

I've never had a perm before, so there's something that would never have occurred to me.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Well, obviously the oldest hair is at the bottom, and if you grow your hair out long, that means the hair at the bottom has been there a lot longer than the hair at the root. The ends have just been processed so many more times that they've got to go--as opposed to the roots, for example, which have grown out fresh and straight.

[meinnim.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the POTC3 trailer! Downloading it.

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

Also, you really need to see 300 if only because your 9 million fans are dying to see you m15m the fuck out of it. Who's with me here?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Well, that's why I was going to go. That and pretty mens.

[oohasparklie.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link to the hi-res trailer. The first link for the "Engrish" version, the video has already been removed.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I didn't download that--which is a shame, as it included such lines as "Who is ready to go to the ghostful shores for lucky Jack?"

[kosher-jenny.livejournal.com]

Craig as Rorschach? He's a good enough actor to pull it off, though a hot Rorschach would be weird. The Simon Pegg thing is just...what. And I say that a big Pegg fan (is it April yet?!). I don't know about Jackie Haley though since I haven't seen any of his movies.

Jude Law as Ozymandias? Maaaybe, but he'd have to bulk up a bit first since I don't think he'd have the physical presence otherwise. Of course, finding an actor with both that presence and the charisma the character requires would be almost impossible. So when it comes down to it I'd rather they cast towards the latter trait.

But man...a Watchmen film? Even if they get a top-notch cast I'm still going to be afraid. Even the positive reviews of 300 have called it a case of style over substance and Snyders' previous works don't seem to deviate from that. Which makes me scared, since that? Really not the way I want to see used to approach Watchmen. :|

[morganwolf.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the double comment, I wasn't reading thoroughly enough, but regarding hatemail: just be glad you're not a cosplayer who'se been unfortunate enough to wind up on 4-chan. Oh, the hatery. THE HATERY!

It still dismays me that people have nothing better to do with their time than insult other people without any intelligence or purpose. It's also upsetting that, as evidenced in Dooce's case, some people still believe mental illness is
1) imaginary
2) practically criminal to have even though it's imaginary anyway
3) nothing you should talk about in public ever, at all, in any respect, even if you are discussing how you are trying to fix it.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah--in retrospect, I feel good about my decision to talk about my depression openly, if those are the current perceptions we're dealing with. I'm really fortunate, though, in that my depression/bipolar II is a pretty garden-variety kind of thing; the most extreme thing that happens with me is that I can't/won't get out of bed. Whereas someone who ends up in the hospital or has any kind of severe symptoms or heavy-duty treatment ends up labeled "crazy." And Heather seems to have severe OCD, from what I've gathered (if she's been more explicit about it, I haven't seen it), which is hardly up there with your major psychosis.

The other thing that bothers me is that people constantly harp on her parenting skills. I read her blog and come away thinking, "Wow, she and her husband are really great, dedicated parents dealing with a great kid who nonetheless has some health problems." I have no idea where this "OMG CHILD ABUSE!!1" stuff keeps coming from.

[shesnotallthere.livejournal.com]

Wait, wait, wait...you've found someone who knows whatever unholy ritual it takes to perm fine hair?
And it stays that way? For longer than half an hour? (Yes, I had a perm fall out in a half hour.)
And it doesn't look like you have an unhealthy relationship with a crimper?

What will it take to get you to give up the name of the salon? 'Cause I'll do it, whatever it is. I'm not kidding. I don't know off the top of my head where I'd find a sacrificial goat at this hour, but dammit, I'll get it done.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

It's on the top floor of Belk's at the Riverchase Galleria (Birmingham); I don't think it has an actual name per se. Honestly, the only reason I'm having it permed again right now is that I have three inches of new, stick-straight growth at the root. I see Della in the spring and in the fall, and that's all it takes. Now, granted, it takes about three hours of rolling and soaking in chemicals and unrolling, but when I was in middle/high school, I got perms from a guy who'd been cutting my hair since I was a toddler, and I had to have them done every six weeks.

[mysticowl.livejournal.com]

Downloading the trailer now, will get translating in six minutes or so.

And yes, bootlegs are ENORMOUSLY HUGE in Russia. Copyright? What copyright?

[sapphires13.livejournal.com]

Well, let's all be glad that Della doesn't have a tiny moist hand. *shudder*

Also:

President of Gambia says AIDS cure revealed to him in dream.

Now see, in my dreams I just get Helen Mirren making me take her to Walgreen's to pick up her cold medicine and making me miss my screening of The Sound of Music in Spanish...

Danny Boyle: A Script For 'Trainspotting 2' Has Been Written.

YES. YES. YES. YES. *uses appropriate icon*

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Me, I had a dream the other night that I was a (modern) princess marrying a (modern) prince who had to come to my college dorm to help me pick out a wedding dress. It was very odd, but far less unpleasant than usual.

[mysticowl.livejournal.com]

Got it!

(chanting) yo ho ho, danger's my thing.

What are you ready for? What is each of you ready for? Do you have enough courage to make a voyage to the ends of the Earth, to the ghostly coasts, to return Brave Jack.

And I thought you just missed me!

Time was pirates roamed freely all over the Earth. But this era is coming to an end.

Why would I want to go with you? Four of you tried to kill me, and one of you succeeded.

Our enemies have united and swore to destroy us.

In battle, you will perish.

The chiefs of the pirates from everywhere on Earth - Welcome to Singapore! - have to unite. There's been no gathering like this in our time.

I owe money to everyone here...

It wouldn't have worked out between us. - You keep telling yourself that.

They will all be destroyed. They just have to choose a place for the last battle.

Marry me!

This isn't the right time!

You're insane.

Otherwise nothing would've worked.

Dude!

[xander77.livejournal.com]

That's uncannily similar to my own translation (Cleo's previous post).

[skulkings.livejournal.com]

My understanding is that Blu-Ray players will also be able to play current DVD's. And CD's.

What makes you think that they can't?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I can't remember which article it was, but someone was saying that that was the chief drawback of Blu-ray--that they weren't compatible with current DVDs, whereas HD DVD players would be. Checking up on it at Wikipedia, it looks like they *can* be backward compatible, but "it is not compulsory for manufacturers."

[lots42.livejournal.com]

Tom Cruise playing an egotistical maniac who wants to solve all the world's problems through horrible acts of deception.

Either he's a lock on for the part or his Scientology masters won't let him for fear of bad comparisons.

[troubleinchina.livejournal.com]

If you'd like I can make up hate mail for you.

"Arg! you, woman thing! I don't believe that pink hair in your icon is yours! You dye, don't you! Arrrrg!!!!"

Um.. yeah.