An Epic of Epic Epicness

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is a story about Toronto resident Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) who is the bassist for the Sex Ba-bombs. He meets the girl of his dreams (literally) only to find out that he has to defeat her 7 Ex-Boyfriends in order to date her.

The movie is based off of a series of graphic novels and is a very highly anticipated film, so when my friend asked me if I wanted to go I was like "Hells yeah!" This movie has been on my radar for awhile now, even without having read the graphic novel beforehand. I knew Michael Cera was in it and with Edgar Wright as the director I had a hunch this movie would be good. I was not disappointed one bit.

The screening theater was not as packed as I thought it would be, but everyone in there was very excited. We were told right off the bat that the movie was not completely finished yet: the credits were still being created and wire-work was visible in some of the fight scenes. Luckily, it didn't take away from the film at all and a lot of the gaming and graphic novel related graphics were already included.

The movie opens just like you'd expect, with gaming music and a pixelated version of the production company's logo (I believe it was Universal). The audience applauded and laughed from the start and we continued like that for 2 hours. I was amazed at the detail that was put into the movie, from the music, to the graphics, to the text on screen detailing different aspects of each character - everything that was included gave that extra punch.

Each character was hilarious and the actor's portrayals were awesome. Michael Cera was definitely good (he's got the "weird" thing down pat) but the real scene stealer was Ellen Wong as the young and lovestruck Knives Chau. The moment she appears on screen she had us laughing and "awwwing" at the same time. She gets a tad crazy as the movie progresses, but remains cute throughout the story.

Brandon Routh and Chris Evans, who both played an ex-boyfriend, also stood out. Routh's character Todd Ingram derives his psychic power from his vegan-ism which is hilarious because of the relevancy to our time. Evan's character Lucas Lee is an action star whose one-liners are noteworthy and definitely "CSI: Miami cheesy".

Everything else about Scott Pilgrim vs. The Word was 4 star including the screenwriting (dialogue was spot-on "If I pee my pants will you pretend it was from the rain?") the editing (the cuts and transitions were phenomenal). Overall, I highly recommend this movie and can't wait to see it again in August.

I seriously cannot talk this movie up enough. The trailer was released on the same day I saw the movie and it does not do it justice.

Click for trailer

2010 Oscar Predictions

I'm too tired to go into the whole experience at the AMC Best Picture Movie Showcase I went to yesterday, so I'm just going to post my Oscar Predictions for now. These are the movies I think will win, not necessarily the movies I think should win.

Best Picture: Avatar
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker
Best Actor: Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart
Best Actress: Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds
Best Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique for Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Best Original Screenplay: Inglourious Basterds: Quentin Tarantino
Best Adapted Screenplay: Up in the Air: Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner
Cinematography: Avatar: Mauro Fiore
Editing: Avatar: Stephen E. Rivkin, John Refoua, James Cameron
Art Direction: Avatar: Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg, Kim Sinclair
Costume Design: Coco avant Chanel: Catherine Leterrier
Original Score: Avatar: James Horner
Original Song: Crazy Heart: T-Bone Burnett, Ryan Bingham("The Weary Kind")
Best Makeup: Star Trek: Barney Burman, Mindy Hall, Joel Harlow
Best Sound Mixing: The Hurt Locker: Paul N.J. Ottosson, Ray Beckett
Best Sound Editing: Avatar: Christopher Boyes, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
Best Visual Effects: Avatar: Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, Andy Jones
Best Animated Feature Film: Up: Pete Docter
Best Foreign Language Film: Das weisse Band - Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte (Germany)
Best Documentary Feature: The Cove: Louie Psihoyos, Fisher Stevens
Best Documentary Short: China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province (TV): Jon Alpert, Matthew O'Neill
Best Live Action Short: The New Tenants: Joachim Back, Tivi Magnusson
Best Animated Short: Wallace and Gromit in 'A Matter of Loaf and Death' (TV): Nick Park

Bam! done and done. Now, time for a nap!

Sucktastic

The thing that sucks about being unemployed is that it's always hanging over your head. No matter what I'm doing, I'm still unemployed and I always feel like I should be doing something to not be unemployed. If I'm out doing laundry, I'm thinking about how I should be applying for jobs. If I'm at a museum, I'm thinking about how I should be preparing for an interview. It's like never-ending homework!

But, while there are sucktastical things about unemployment, there are some good things too. Such as dinosaurs.

A Woman's Wit: Jane Austen

Sigh. As you all know, I'm a HUGE Jane Austen fan. HUGE. So when I heard about the Jane Austen exhibit at the Morgan Library and Museum on 36th and Madison, I was beside myself.

I went last night to the last Gallery Talk and the experience was awesome. Obviously I can't actually meet Jane Austen (that will be the first person I introduce myself to up in heaven, believe you me), but going to this, seeing her actual letters and the first editions of her books, was more amazing than meeting any author or celebrity that is still alive.

The Gallery Talk was presented by the curators of the gallery. They gave us insight into why they picked some of the pieces and they offered a little more information on Jane Austen's life. The exhibit contains 51 of the 160 or so letters that are still in tact, first editions of all 6 of her complete novels, the first draft of The Watson's (that is scribbled and scratched on and if I didn't think I would have gotten caught stealing it, I would have snagged that thing so I could sleep with it at night), and various line drawings by artists in the 1800 and 1900's of the characters in her books. Also, they had around 15 books from Jane's own library. And finally, there was a reproduction of the watercolor drawing Cassandra did of Jane (the only way we know what Jane looks like) and a reproduction that Cassandra had someone do after Jane died.

Which leads me to the heart-breaking part of the exhibit, Cassandra's letter to a niece after Jane's death. She goes on to say,

"I have lost a treasure, such a sister, such a friend as never can have been surpassed. She was the sun of my life, the gilder of every pleasure, the soother of every sorrow; I had not a thought concealed from her, and it is as if I had lost a part of myself. "

Of the other letters, I especially loved one of them that starts with:

"I believe I drank too much wine last night at Hurstbourne; I know not how else to account for the shaking of my hand to-day. You will kindly make allowance therefore for any indistinctness of writing, by attributing it to this venial error."

Jane Austen was hungover! There was another one in which she drew the lace pattern of something new she had just gotten on the paper. The neat thing about Jane's letters were how she used all available space on the page. Back then, sending a letter of more than 1 page to a recipient meant the recipient had to pay extra, so she often wrote over her paragraphs in a different direction and between lines.

One thing I learned about her though, was that she could be sarcastic. I might be slightly off about the facts on this, but I believe at one point, a clergyman of the king gave Jane tips on a new novel she could write. She goes on to write a plot outline for it full of cliches and ridiculous plot points!

After the Gallery Talk there was a video which I didn't watch because it's available online and I wanted to look at all the stuff again and go to the museum shop. The shop had some of the stuff I already have (puzzle, paper dolls) and some stuff I do not (notecards, notebooks, earrings!) and I wanted to buy everything. But I didn't.

The gallery is over March 14th, so if you are a Jane Austen fan, run, do not walk, to this exhibit!

Adventures of the Unemployed

So it's been awhile and quite a bit has happened, most notably I was let go from my job. It sucks, blah blah blah, but whatever. I'm looking at it as a good thing. I wasn't necessarily happy at my last job so onto better things!

The thing with unemployment is that you end up with a lot of free time that is super easy to waste if you're not careful. So, along with sending out resumes I've been trying to take advantage of my free time.

I've been making things. This is a tea bag holder I made for myself (and one for my mom)

Going to as many talk shows as possible.


Pretending to be a tourist with Jess, my partner in crime (my co-worker who was also let go). We went to the MOMA to see the Tim Burton exhibit.



And volunteering with NY Cares when I can. (sorry no picture of that)
Soooo, I've been keeping busy and just doing my thing!

Fall TV Preview at Paley Center for Media: NBC Preview

I went to the Fall TV Preview's at Paley Center tonight. It was NBC night and they showed Community, Mercy and Trauma.

Community

Community is a comedy about a group of students who attend a community college. The show has comedy veteran's Chevy Chase and The Soup host Joel McHale. Even though a lot of the funny parts of the pilot have been shown on the promos, I enjoyed the episode. There is the set-up that's involved in every pilot , but unlike a lot of shows, it's not overdone. The comedy is subtle and funny and Joel McHale's character Jeff, the ex-lawyer whose main goal in life is to talk his way through everything without having to do any real work, is extremely likeable. The real star, however, is Danny Pudi, the fast-talking, over-zealous Abed, who will be making the audience laugh out loud with his movie references and hilarious exchanges with the rest of the characters.

I'm going to DVR this show for awhile.

Mercy

The pilot of Mercy throws us into Mercy Hospital and the lives of the people who work there. The main character Veronica, an ex-military nurse fresh from Iraq, has a tough outer shell, running from her almost-divorced husband and treating patients as though she's still on the front lines. At first glance I thought her character would be annoying, one of those over the top "tough guy" nurses who knows more than their doctor counterparts, but about a half-hour in I actually started to like her. Michelle Trachtenberg (of Buffy fame), plays the kinda-hearted newbie nurse just trying to get through the rough first days on the job.

I probably won't stick with this show. It didn't quite draw me in, but not because of quality, just because it's not really my bag.

Trauma

Trauma is an action-drama that gives us an inside look into the lives of first responder paramedics living in San Franscisco. We learn in the pilot just how much baggage these paramedics are carrying with them when an accident turns into a tragedy and kills some of their colleagues and bystanders. The main complaint I had with the pilot is that the characters aren't that memorable to the point where I can't remember 1 character's name!

I probably won't stick with this show but only by default. There are just so many good shows on and only so much room on my DVR.

Next Wednesday I will be going to the ABC fall previews, woohoo!

Awesome Night of Awesomeness

Ok, so last Wednesday was an awesome night of awesomeness. It was amazing, seriously just insane. Sometimes I don't even know how I pull some of this stuff off.

So, similar to how I went to the Harry Potter premiere to see if I could get a glimpse of the red carpet, I did the same on Wednesday to see The Time Traveler's Wife. My camera died, but since I had already met both Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana I wasn't too worried about getting pictures and I was planning on only staying for a few minutes anyway.

I got to the Ziegfield theater and there were quite a few people (although not nearly as packed as HP6) and I ended up standing near this young girl. I heard the tail end of her conversation to her friend where she said "I don't know why nobody believes me." I asked what they were talking about and she said they had an extra ticket to the actual movie and would be willing to sell it for $20. I thought it was shady but then she said I could walk in with them and THEN pay her and not to mention you also get free popcorn. Of course, free popcorn did it in for me. Not only would I be watching The Time Traveler's Wife 2 days early, I'd be watching it WITH the stars AND I'd get free popcorn? I'm in (also it costs $12 to see a movie in NYC anyway). I didn't have the cash on me though so I ran to Duane Reade to get money out and buy batteries. The line was too long for the batteries so I got the cash and took off back to the premiere.

The girl gave me my ticket and I went in. I saw a girl from Alloy's editorial department there on the red carpet waiting to interview Rachel McAdams. I yelled to her but she didn't hear or see me. I went in and got my popcorn, took a picture of the bathrooms with my phone and sat down.

My popcorn and my screening pass


Eric Bana and Rachel Adams walked in and sat down and everyone started yelling. Eventually people stopped, well, they stopped until BRAD FREAKING PITT walked in. Everyone went crazy. I took a really crappy picture with my phone (this is going to be a theme here, please bear with me)

That's Brad Pitt outlined in white.


So, the movie started and I took some pics if the movie so people would believe me, however, it doesn't matter now that the movie has been released in theaters. Ah well.

I will leave my comments about the movie for a different entry because I don't want to spoil the movie for anyone.

The movie ended, I wept, people cheered and Brad Pitt booked it out of there. I walked out and one of the theater employees said "Exit to the right, after party to the left". I did a quick turn to the left and walked to the bus that was taking people to the after party. I got to the bus and there was a security guard who wouldn't let me on. I saw another girl trying to talk her way onto the bus, too, so I started talking to her and found out she was a big Rachel fan and her name was Elyse. We decided to walk to the after party and see if we could walk in with the people on the bus and nobody would notice.

Well, that didn't happen. There were tons of security guards and tons of paparazzi there and nobody could get in without a special pass. This was a, and I quote, "cast-party put on by Warner Bros. and highly private". Elyse and I tried to talk our way into the party but they weren't letting us in so we walked around the block, talked to one of the drivers who said he was Rachel's driver (and now I think he was full of shit) and came back to the entrance.

I talked to the security guards some more, showed them how cooperative I was being when the paps were going crazy trying to get pics of Brad Pitt. Fast forward about an hour and some party-goers who had come out for a cigarette and saw us trying to talk our way into the party motioned for Elyse to walk over. They were leaving and they handed her a pass! The guards took everyone's pass when they walked in but they must have found that one while in there. Elyse felt bad, but had to catch a train to New Jersey so she walked in to the party and said she'd try to get me a pass.

I waited outside and talked to some of the paps who showed me their Brad Pitt pictures which I now recognize on some celeb sites. I also saw the girl who plays Young Claire and I told her she was great in the movie. She said thanks in her sweet little voice! So cute! I then saw Ron Livingston who plays Gomez and was also in Swingers and Office Space.

Elyse finally came out while I was talking to one of the security guards. She couldn't get another pass and had to hurry to catch her train. The guard asked me how she got in, I told him I didn't know (I didn't want to get anyone in trouble) and asked if he would please let me in. He started pushing me, or so I thought, he was actually slipping me a PASS! OMG! One of the paps asked me how my friend got in and I said our friend finally came and gave us our tickets so I was now going in too. Hehe.

I walked in with my pass, grabbed some champagne and went downstairs. The after-party was really swanky at Rouge Tomate on 60th and 5th ave. Everyone was in dresses and heels while I looked like a soccer mom in jeans, flip-flops, and a cardigan. When I got downstairs I spotted Rachel and was determined to talk to her. I made my way over to her and tried to strike up a conversation with people around me ("Sooo, do you work for Warner Bros?" Classy Lindsey, classy). She had a lot of people around her so I didn't want to interrupt and wait? is she talking to Brad Pitt? Um, wait, am I standing RIGHT NEXT TO BRAD PITT? I think I am! I have gone through the trouble of painting a little picture for ya. This is what it looked like:


I was so close to him I seriously could have pinched his ass. I definitely would have gotten kicked out, but still! Close enough to pinch! His ass was about 12 inches away from me. Brad's. Ass. Close to me.

Anyway, after about 20 minutes of me waiting for him to get done talking he walked away. Seriously, he was like a Time Traveler. One second he's there, the next he was gone! Although his clothes were too, so he must not have time traveled.

Ok....so Rachel started walking away and I started to follow her. Although, not creepily. There were a lot of people around and a few other girls who wanted to meet her too. So, we all went up to her and shook hands with her. Then I talked to her about art because she had to learn papermaking for the movie. She's so freaking nice and pretty and awesome and skinny and oh man, her dress! I wanted to ask her if she had it taped on but I thought that would be inappropriate and I was supposed to be a WB employee so I couldn't. The girls must have been around my age, but I don't think worked for WB either, so I felt ok asking for a picture with her. I only had my camera phone and sadly, it didn't turn out. Here's the pic:


But I did photoshop it a bit and lighten it up and it's much easier to see:

Hehehehehee.

So I got my picture and she had to make her rounds and she left. I then decided I would try to get an autograph from Eric Bana for "my niece who loves him" (aka my brother's girlfriend). I had to use the bathroom first (free champagne! and food!) so I took a pic in the bathroom cause I was so pumped. I was all FACCCEEE.


I may or may not have stolen a wine glass at this point. HINT:

(Hey! I needed a souvenir! Also, please note: my signed poster in the background, ahahaha)

I also took a pic of this one area with like a little pond and some candles. Can't really see it but whatev.


Eric Bana was sitting down with his wife most of the time, so I didn't get an autograph. I did say "HiILovedYouInTheMovie" to him and he asked how I was doing kinda awkwardly, but that's the extent of the Eric Bana interactions. He was too busy schmoozy with people like the director and junk. I mean, who's more interesting/important, me or the director? NO brainer Eric Bana! Remember our joke about the shoes? Sheesh. I swear, it's like he never knew me.

Anyway, it was about 1:30am at this point and I was tired and a lot of people had left (including BFF's Rachel and Brad Pitt's ass) so I hopped on the N train (local after midnight, dammit) and did some Sudoku puzzles on the train on the way home. I'm so G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S, ahahaha.

Phew! Long entry.