Pretty Little Confession

Let's make this the first thing I say so it’s Swarovski crystal clear: I am outright embarrassed to be reading Pretty Little Liars. I was with my mom when I got it and I made her carry it, as if someone would recognize me at the Shreveport Barnes and Noble. I was on the phone with my friend at the time; she groaned “God Sara, you’re just too cool for your own good.” That’s right, I have an image to maintain and it does not involve looking at anything from the Teen section without a public display of disgust.

I find both the book and the television series much like Corn Nuts, the first bite is really bad but for some reason you just keep eating it until you’re convinced they’re really good, but you still realize there’s no nutritional value. Except Corn Nuts, I can shamelessly eat in public.

Grime Rings

Before I stumble into bed, I like dragging water over my eyes and looking at my reflection one last time to see what tonight's watercolor results are. It reminds me of the charcoal drip on windows of old buildings, and cliche album art.

1 New Message

Melissa
9:13pm

"Old creepy neighbor was asking about you again. You're lucky I'm not that mad. I could easily tell him you like older men and that you like to call them all the time."

Easy on the E's, Just Sayin'

I would just like to remind everyone that there is no "e" in the word "ridiculous."
"Rediculous" is not an existing word in the English language, though possibly one on the bottom of a Revlon nail polish bottle.
Spelling errors are common, and happen to the best of us. But in the event of calling something ridiculous and spelling it wrong in the process just makes you look more ridiculous than what/whomever you were calling "rediculous" in the first place.
Especially as you enter high school and college. Just sayin'.


Another word that doesn't have an "e" in it would be the slang term, "ho." Reason being, the word derives from the other word "whore;" referring to a person of similar behavior or occupation. The ever-commonly confused "hoe" refers to the gardening tool.
So if you do stoop to that level, at least spell it right. Otherwise you're painfully unoriginal insult will lose even more potency, and in effect make you look ridiculous. Just sayin'.

The Big Pink

In celebration of my new single-hood, I bought myself a Pocket Rocket.


His name is James, and apparently he's some type of 2004 edition emo kid. I thought those were extinct, but James persists.
Despite the clever packaging, Urban Decay has blessed us with a pretty rockin' product here; as they so often do. The quality I'm probably most impressed with is the consistency, which I'm most finicky on when it comes to lipgloss. Not too thin to the point that you have to reapply it every five minutes, and not so thick it could double as a gluestick.
I also like that it just gives off a nice flush shimmer, not a chrome sheen that highlights every crease in your lips.

Oh hey, did I mention he's holographic?

urbandecay.com

When it comes to upcoming movies, they fall into a ranking of four categories for me:

1-Oh my God, I must see this the minute it comes out.
2-I am definitely seeing that...when it rolls over to OnDemand.
3-Yeah, maybe I'll watch that on HBO when absolutely nothing else is on.
4-No, never.

There may be about 5 films out of the year that rate a 1, and I initially filed Kick-Ass between a 3 and 4. I found the trailer about as intriguing as the one for Hot Tub Time Machine, looking as if it would probably be load of poorly written wisecracks and typical slap-stick humor. I don't even like superhero films to begin with, they typically translate the exact same story (just in a different color of Spandex). However, after reading that the film "may do for superhero movies what Pulp Fiction did for crime films"--that's the big statement all the critics are tossing around--I had to see it for myself a few weeks ago.
After that, I had to see it again; this is a rare occurrence.

It was certainly very Quentin Tarantino-esque; brutal violence with anime-like cinematography and that whole new level of "girl power"he always includes. In fact, the character "Hit Girl" has been stirring up quite the controversy between her foul mouth and ability to annihilate grown men without even wincing. Being the desensitized millennial that I am, I wasn't as shocked by the juxtaposition of the character, or too concerned with an 11-year old being exposed to a few gallons of corn syrup. However, I notice the people that she really has tugging at their shirt collars mostly consist of men. I can't help but briefly wonder if Hit Girl was a boy, would there be as much of a fuss? Would the tables be turned?
Since boys have such a fixation with violence around that age (being that they haven't entered puberty yet) I don't think the result would be as shocking. Little girls are supposed to be the epitome of innocence--sugar, spice, and everything nice. Now add a pair of butterfly knives and some throwing stars and you have some very uncomfortable men.

Of course I find her empowering in a twisted way, and I'm curious if Hit Girl will trigger a new genre of some lethal Lolita's (not that she's the first). Perhaps our society could use a sociopath in pigtails to refute the usual influx of sexualized Bratz dolls.
Basically, she's my new Chuck Norris.

And I'd like to see you ask her to make you a sandwich.

Though Hit Girl is the outstanding favorite to many, she didn't entirely overshadow the other characters either. Kick-Ass, the actual main character, is the absolute antithesis of Hit Girl (and any superhuman for that matter). He serves as the typical geeky teenaged boy, he doesn't wake up with any super powers, he doesn't effortlessly exterminate thugs, and he's not emotionally detatched. But even as he's only winning by the skin of his teeth, if at all, he still remains somewhat inspiring. I took a certain admiration as he was crushing his polyblend mask in his hands and began crying on his bed after being introduced to and completely shown up by an 11-year-old and her father. In a typical superhero film, he probably would have been stoked and instantly joined forces, or may have been suspicious, only to later join forces. I was truly impressed that they put a little more thought into that, of course a boy would be crushed and embarrassed. That would probably make anyone want to cry in secrecy.

I didn't entirely hate Nicholas Cage's character either, which says a lot.

I may only be so impressed with the movie due to my originally low expectations. But even so, the movie seemed to take a lot more sociological consideration than most superhero films, which I find most commendable about it. Shockingly enough, I may even pick up the graphic novel after this...


(Update: for an interesting and much better evaluation of Hit Girl, check this out)

(Another update: the soundtrack was pretty good too, I remember hearing a lot of Prodigy)

Ghost in Disneyland

Beauty and the Beast, I think I could comfortably say is my favorite Classic Disney film. The estate was just gorgeous, but of course I would think that of a brooding mansion crawling with gargoyles.

That was the movie I’d watch over and over, don’t we all have that as a kid? I’d watch it until the credits rolled. It was that film I discovered that when you center yourself and focus on those credits, imagining the room is moving rather than the words, it creates the optical illusion of being on an elevator. Isn’t that fun?
Anyway, for the past few months I had been pondering what I might look like rendered as a Disney princess; being the near antithesis of a typical Disney princess. So I combined their various features and distinct stylization with my wardrobe, and voila:



Princess Ghost! I included my cat, Wonton, because they always have some sort of mischievous, right-hand animal. Right now it’s sort of at a “coloring book stage;” hand-drawn and raw. I’d like to paint a background using photoshop, I found the perfect tutorial in a back issue of Advanced Photoshop (which by the way, if you purchase one of their thicker magazines, you pretty much have a year’s subscription because they always circulate around the same artists). So I’ll probably go in and illustrate a typical location I’d skulk around: an old warehouse, graveyard, or a rotting house perhaps—the usual. And of course clean up the lines a bit and add color.
I’m considering a villain version as well, one with sharper features and a sinister scowl. You know, to balance of good and evil.