Early Tuesday evening, really hungry

[cleolinda]

What? I had half a peanut butter sandwich six hours ago.

Update on POTC trinkets: I think the basic jewelry replicas--rings, pendants--may actually be a little cheaper at Master Replicas than at EE.

Thing is I'm slightly obsessed with objects: trinkets, mementoes, charms. I don't know if it's because I'm a total magpie (probably) or because I love the idea of objects having stories. I'm fascinated by the idea of the old key that fits that one strange door you find one day, or the ring you kept safe all those years having a secret purpose. I keep having to fight the temptation to give every character I come up with some kind of signature object--not everyone can have an Evenstar, you know? Not every fictional someone needs a magic ring or a lucky keychain or a favorite brooch. I mean, I can think of it for my own personal reference, but I have a really hard time not subsequently turning them into plot points. Basically, the last Potter book--Harry Potter and the Search for Deadly Stuff--is like my dream come true. He's gonna collect stuff! Shiny stuff! Maybe evil, but that's okay! Because it's stuff.

You know, I think this also may explain why I love the POTC and LOTR trilogies so much: they're all about people getting stuff. Rings, brooches, cloaks, compasses, swords, maps, necklaces--seriously, was I a dragon in a former life or something?

Anyway.

Okay, this cracked my shit up. At Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab:

For a limited time, the following scents will be available on our Limited Edition page:

PRIVILEGE
Polished party-girl sleaze. This is a shameless scent, devoid of caution, regret, or introspection. This perfume reeks of tabloid glamour, and has no substance whatsoever. Armoise, tuberose, white citrus, rose absolute, oakmoss, tiare, vanilla, linden, and lemon tree blossom. Although this scent originated with fine plants and the pure essences, the final result is a grotesque, eerily empty caricature of a debauched, narcissistic would-be debutante.

PRUNO
Jailhouse hooch. Distilled in toilets, this vintage is comprised of chow line droppings, including oranges, apples, ketchup, and sugar.

These scents will be live for as long as Paris Hilton stays in jail.

Hirst covers cast skull in diamonds. This seems related somehow, I'm not sure why.

Living in a porn-driven, 'look-at-me' culture. Well, obviously this is. Interesting point: " '[Young girls' provocative behavior] doesn't have anything to do with their sexual pleasure,' says Simon. 'It has to do with pleasing somebody else -- the grasping for attention. As a parent, it makes me want to cry.' "

Warning: Imported toothpaste may contain antifreeze poison; Salmonella cases linked to peanut butter top 600.

Ray Bradbury, "enthusiastic fan of Bush," says Fahrenheit 451 misinterpreted. I feel like someone just told me that Santa isn't real.

Putin: Russia may aim nuclear weapons at Europe. Bad for Europe and the entire world; fantastic for Bond movie producers.

"Arcade Fire Stole My Basketball", a game of one-upmanship:

1. "Arcade Fire Didn't Steal Dude's Basketball"

2. "I Was Mugged and Raped by Belle and Sebastian"

3. "Broken Social Scene Fire-Bombed My Country and Left Its Economy in Shambles"

4. "The Decemberists Trained a Falcon to Crap on My Head at My Wedding"

Fin.

Melodramatic Gopher Closeup. This is better acting than you often see on Passions, to be honest.

Invisible Pommel Horse.

Depp, ‘Pirates’ claim MTV Movie Awards. A tidbit therein: "The 16-year-old awards show unveiled two new categories Sunday: best movie spoof and best summer movie you haven’t seen yet. Andy Signore, a filmmaker from Pennsylvania, won for 'United 300,' a hybrid spoof of 300 and United 93." All I gotta say is, this must be the most brilliant parody in the history of ever to not be denounced on sight.

Brian Helgeland revising Ridley Scott's Nottingham. This is the one with Nottingham as the hero and Robin Hood as the villain, which, again, I say unto thee: Orlando Blooooooom.

‘Alien Vs. Predator 2’ A ‘True-Blue Monster Movie.’ Trufax: My mother loved the first one.

Images: The Golden Age.

Justin Timberlake Gets His Ass Beat By Coke Bottle. I just like the headline. Oh, and the blogger's assertion that Timberlake should have gotten current Girlfriend or Whatever Jessica Biel in there to crack some heads. Mostly because I can totally see it.

From MindFreak to Mandrake. Have you seen those dumbass commercials where some greasy magician with a pack of cards is all like, "I can READ YOUR MIND with the EMO POWER OF MY BANGS" or whatever? Yeah. So, the guy, Criss Angel, "has been cast as the comic strip hero Mandrake in the upcoming movie version of Lee Falk's magician character."

Kevin Bacon Joins 'Frost/Nixon.'

Disney to Make RomCom About Adam & Eve. "The soon-to-be-script details Adam as he follows Eve 'to a modern-day Gotham after they have a lover's quarrel. Adam discovers Satan was behind the breakup.' " I know all the words in that sentence; I just can't quite make them play nice together.

'Gone With the Wind': The Musical. This is going to end well. Eh, maybe it will. All it really needs, though, is a reality show to cast it.

Nikki Finke Gets In Blog Scuffle Over 'Hostel II.' You know, I spend a lot of time wrestling with my feelings about these "torture porn" movies, because I have a really hard time reconciling the fact that I will go to the mat for free speech and controversial content with the idea that I can't find anything the least bit redeeming about these movies. I'm also really uncomfortable about the fact that my entire experience with the movies has been a few trailers, because with anything else I'd say, "That's not enough to judge something on." I have no problem with liking horror movies; I don't like it when movies focus on the splatter, but I like thrillers and battle scenes and being thrilled and/or horrified in a number of less gory ways. I just... I can't put my finger on it, but the first time I saw the Hostel trailer in the theater, I felt dirty. Like I wanted to wash my hands, and maybe something nasty was crawling up my neck. And it's got a similar visual aesthetic to Seven, which I really liked. I don't know... Seven was nasty but it also seemed to be about something. By the end of the movie, it's like it was about a certain despair that the world is so filthy, and that evil wins, and that even when it doesn't win, it's still there wearing you down for thirty years, whereas Hostel just seems to be about the fact that the world is filthy, and here are people doing cruel, filthy things for an hour. Seven seems to have a very cynical, weary soul, and Hostel is all just like, "WOOOOOO BLOWTORCH EYEBALL!" I don't know. It's not that I need horror to have anything "redeeming" about it, despite my example--it's more like I need it to be about something other than hurting people.

Jim Carrey Will Lead Gay Prison Movie. There's pretty much no good headline to follow that ramble up with, so it might as well be this one.

Anna Paquin - Now a Blonde.

X-Men's Ramirez to join Heroes.

Deeply awesome: The Spoiler T-Shirt. Warning: Spoilers. Uh.

Early 'Hairspray' Review Says Audiences Will Go Wild With Cheers and Whistles. I don't know, the only thing I can think whenever I see anything about it is "KILL IT WITH FIRE." I think this is a knee-jerk She-Travolta reaction, however.

Gawker's The Unethicist: I Will See You in Hell by Accident.

Whenever I find myself in situations like these in which I am clearly in a world that was not made for me, it makes me wonder what else I'm missing out on, when the barbecue ends and everyone goes back to their underwater mansions to have sex with dragons.

Your situation is kind of like the boring middle-aged Midwest version of this. Popular culture has led us to believe that the upper middle-class is filled with sexual aimlessness and moral turpitude, all key parties and impulse-purchase-sports cars and vodka tonics. In reality it's board meetings and Whole Foods and small industrial favors to save the privileged few from one more headache before they settle down for a night of television, wondering if their college-aged kids are going to be able to avoid all the mistakes that have led to this mildly depressing but not completely unpleasant place in their middle-management lives, and if not, what is in the hatch?!

Comments

[fiveforsilver]

If it were gold, I'd say "what a waste of gold", but platinum is an awful metal to make jewelry out of anyway, so I just think it's a ridiculous waste of money instead.

[girlalmighty]

Oh man. My love for BPAL just grows and grows.

[stepliana.livejournal.com]

I will never get tired of the Arcade Fire drama. It makes my life.

[cupcakery.livejournal.com]

Oh, Russia. It's almost like having the old you back.

[elvensapphire.livejournal.com]

Thing is I'm slightly obsessed with objects: trinkets, mementoes, charms. I don't know if it's because I'm a total magpie (probably) or because I love the idea of objects having stories. I'm fascinated by the idea of the old key that fits that one strange door you find one day, or the ring you kept safe all those years having a secret purpose.

YES. Quite honestly, Cleo, I am exactly like this. As a child, I used to pick up the most random things in stores, on walks, at school - buttons, insignificant (to anyone but me) coins, lost screws, solitary earrings...it was ridiculous. I'd carefully tuck them away and take them home and clean them (just in case). And then I'd make treasure chests out of them and it would factor in somehow with the world of my Barbie dolls. Dolls and trinkets have always been my two greatest obsessions. And now as I've gotten older, I find my nearly 21 year old self collecting little pieces from everything I love (musicals, theatre, LOTR, HP, POTC, Narnia, Nightmare Before Christmas...the list goes on and on) and meshing it in my room with my dolls. It's silly, but I love the stories and feeling behind it all, the fact that just seeing my medallion (for example) can transport me, in a split second, to the Black Pearl and back, completely effortlessly. Call it escapist, call it hording, call it crazy, but I absolutely love everything about acquiring little pieces of shine.

[ailaes.livejournal.com]

It's more like I need it to be about something other than hurting people.

I know how you feel.

Horror is my favorite genre (don't ske me to count the number of movies I have) but lately I've become bored with them. It seems they're all repetitive - the same thing only this guy isn't dead or whatnot.

I really enjoyed the Saw movies, only because it was imaginative and there was a story along with the blood and gore. I barely made it through Hostel - I was bored to tears. Se7en is one of my all-time favs, as are The Descent(the 'creatures' are an afterthought really), Silent Hill, Butterfly Effect, From Hell, Exorcism of Emily Rose, and some of the classics - Carrie, the Exorcist, Silence of the Lambs, Psycho...you get the idea.

Don't get me wrong - I admire the directors/writers etc. that are trying to 'revive' the genre, but please, give me a plot that makes sense/is believable and will genuinely creep the hell out of me.

[cpip.livejournal.com]

Could the Motherland really stay away?

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

Beth of BPAL is so awesome.
--
" '[Young girls' provocative behavior] doesn't have anything to do with their sexual pleasure,' says Simon. 'It has to do with pleasing somebody else -- the grasping for attention. As a parent, it makes me want to cry.' "

I think Simon is overstating the case. There can be multiple reasons for the behavior, and one of the quotes below points that out:

Anna Stanley, a 25-year-old in Madison, Wisconsin, knows all about that double standard. She also wonders if she and her peers place too much importance on the power of sexiness.

"It seems like it stems out of the 'Girl Power' thing of the '90s gone awry -- men objectify us, so let's objectify ourselves and get something out of it. It's not really progress," she says. "But it's something I have mixed feelings about -- because sometimes I do it, too.

"Sometimes you do dress up to get noticed and attention, and you do feel more confident when you do that."

[morganwolf.livejournal.com]

This post gets a big Morgan stamp of approval.

[morgan-c-hoax.livejournal.com]

The Ray Bradbury thing kinda makes me want to burn my anthology of his. Would that be ironic?

[fiercy.livejournal.com]

You're right on target with Hostel. The trailers tell the story and, no, there is absolutely no redeeming value. The only message you might possibly take away (and I'm really, really stretching here) is that the sense of entitlement that Americans often show will get you in trouble. But, again, that's really stretching it. It's meant to shock, to make the watcher physically ill and to out do those who have come before. Hate them.

[sualocin.livejournal.com]

Thing is I'm slightly obsessed with objects: trinkets, mementoes, charms. I don't know if it's because I'm a total magpie (probably) or because I love the idea of objects having stories. I'm fascinated by the idea of the old key that fits that one strange door you find one day, or the ring you kept safe all those years having a secret purpose.

Oh dear yes. There is this little museum in Tombstone, that sells all these old keys from who knows when, and it is possibly my favorite place in the west. ♥ There is something so beautiful about random objects, little momentos.

And it reminds me of this home on the strange (http://www.homeonthestrange.com/view.php?ID=26).

[pinstripe-bindi.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, but Bradbury is clearly going senile, because I read an essay he wrote when I was in college about that book where he said it WAS about free speech and just freedom in general. Freedom to think what you want, go where you want, wear what you want, etc. I can't find it online--I don't even know if it EXISTS online--but I remember it clear as day. Sad.

And I know exactly what you mean about the Hostel movies, and 2 of my favorite movies are Se7en and Saw (just the first one). I felt this absolute visceral disgust when I saw the trailer (and later read an exceprt of the script) and my immediate thought was "Why was this even made?"

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

"Ray Bradbury, "enthusiastic fan of Bush," says Fahrenheit 451 misinterpreted"

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

*tears hair, rends garments*

[darthtall.livejournal.com]

Okay, I just laughed like a moron for about five minutes while watching the gopher over and over and over and over. EeeheeheeheeheeWOOOO.

*makes grabby hands at the spoiler t-shirt*

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

See, I feel like "so let's objectify ourselves and get something out of it" is still about other people's sexual pleasure rather than your own. It still involves objectifying yourself. It's not even the emphasis on sexuality that bothers me--it's the emphasis on women's sexuality as entertainment for others, whether women get anything out of it or not. And I'm not even saying we can't have that--I guess I wish that we were seeing women be the subject as well as the object. Which "you do feel more confident" does point to, I guess.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Well, you know, I could even go with "F451 isn't about censorship, it's about apathy," but in a very petty way, Bradbury being a Bush supporter kind of broke my heart.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Eli Roth is apparently in the press now saying how the Hostel movies are all deep and are metaphors for the increased use of torture internationally and blah blah whatever--and I think "the entitlement of Americans" isn't a bad theme for a horror movie. It just seems to me--and again, I feel bad because I haven't seen the movies and so obviously I can't know this for a fact--that there's a difference between the fact that pretty much most American tourists come from a privileged place (compared to many of the countries they visit) and a movie that is actually about that privilege and entitlement, and how having it yanked out from under you in an anti-American environment is terrifying. But see, that's the thing--that's psychologically terrifying; if a movie like Hostel had that, it wouldn't have to rely on chainsaws and blowtorches. I mean, it could have them too, but it would have other assets to lean on. Which is kind of why I suspect that's not what the Hostel movie(s) are like.

[thegeneralerin.livejournal.com]

Putin: Russia may aim nuclear weapons at Europe. Bad for Europe and the entire world; fantastic for Bond movie producers.

And my future career.
Am I wrong for loving Putin? Just for the crazy?

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

I guess I wish that we were seeing women be the subject as well as the object. Which "you do feel more confident" does point to, I guess.

Yeah, that's what I was trying to get at. See, when someone dresses provocatively, there's two things going on. On the one hand, they've made themselves the object of other people's desire. But with that comes a certain amount of control over the other person, which is where the confidence comes in. The question is whether young girls are noticing both sides of the equation. I'm pretty sure 25 year olds see it, but I don't know whether the really young girls, like preteens, see that. (And there you get into the question of how much control a preteen actually has, since even in the ordinary way of things, the attention she attracts might be from someone a couple of years older, which makes a big difference at those ages. Then there's the perverts, but we'll leave that aside since they're a minority.) In terms of high school girls, though, surely there's both aspects in play?

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

Also, the most illuminating comment I've ever heard on this topic was (I paraphrase), "So she dressed sexy. But what makes you think she dressed that way for you? Have you ever considered that?"

(I want to say it was TNH who made the original comment, but it may have been someone else on Making Light.)

[bookwoman84.livejournal.com]

Ray Bradbury, "enthusiastic fan of Bush," says Fahrenheit 451 misinterpreted. I feel like someone just told me that Santa isn't real.

I...but...tears.

[detective13.livejournal.com]

That is a Beautiful cat you've got there! Looks velvety and evr-so-soft!

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

My problem may be with a set of behaviors rather than a single trend--it's not even that girls or women or whoever are dressing more provocatively. It's five-year-old girls worrying that they're not "sexy" enough, or that they're too fat, or teenage camwhores on MySpace. In the article, someone on a show--was it called Sex Files or something?--said they were looking for people to discuss things, and instead women sent them breast/waist measurements. It's just this constant idea that dressing up like a Pussycat Doll will get you rich and famous, I guess. If it was just "I feel good dressed this way and I'm gonna go out and dance at my favorite club now and I'll dance with you if I damn feel like it," that'd be one thing.

[elirrina.livejournal.com]

Я люблю your icon. And I sort of love Putin for the crazy as well.