Foreign Film: Amelie

My friend Savanna recently had me watch the French film Amelie. Not a big watcher of foreign films myself, I was unsure if I would enjoy it, however, the film was funny from the start and the fact that it was in a different language took nothing away from its humor (we of course watched with subtitles). The movie begins with random events that happen at the same time of Amelie’s conception followed by scenes of the quirky girl’s childhood. The story continues with Amelie as a shy adult with the goal to make other’s lives better by doing good things. The people she helps includes a man that used to live in her apartment, a neighbor with brittle bones, her own father and a blind man. Along the way she finds a man with whom she exchanges secret messages in cute ways, trying to build up the courage to meet him. I recommend this movie to anyone, whether they’re a fan of foreign films, or they’ve never watched one before.

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

I'm terribly excited, you know.

Agenda Book 4

If I Was a Photographer, I'd Do Something like This

I've recently come across Iris Humm's Photography Blog and I'm obsessed. Her work reminds me of edgy disposable camera photos. Check out her blog.

She's also doing a project with Luca Campri called Revolution Starts at Home. Really cool stuff.

Things I Learned on July 19th, 2009

• 7 am is a good time to travel from Baltimore to Ocean City on Sundays
• Drinking a large coffee before a road trip will lead to many pit-stops
• It is important to bring gas money- lots of gas money
• A good music playlist is essential in order to have a good road trip
• A driver is lucky to get a parking spot on the Oceanside of Costal Highway, very lucky
• One should bring an ipod, a book or a friend to occupy their time spent out of the water
• Don’t forget to apply, re-apply and re-re-apply sunscreen
• Places like the backs of hands, tops of feet, lips and ears are often forgotten when applying sunscreen
• If you have gauges, you will most likely loose one, if not both while body-surfing, but things like pen caps can make appropriate substitute gauges
• It is smart to bring an extra set of clothes when going to the beach. You never know when you’ll have to change
• Always check for things like vomit before swimming in a pool
• It is never good to accidentally bump into a car, especially when the owner of said car is a bitchy old pro golf employee. She will call the cops
• The police in Ocean City have better things to do than waste their time on accident reports
• 6:30 pm is not a good time to travel from Ocean City to Baltimore on Sundays
• Avoid listening to calming music while driving home exhausted, this will only make you want to sleep
• Don’t listen to the navigational device "TomTom" when trying to find the fastest route home. The monotonous machine will take you on six different highways and through the city, ultimately taking you on the most sketchy and longest route possible
• Bad things happen in three's
• Driving home at ten o’clock when you haven’t slept in 34 hours is not good. Your vision will start to fail and you won’t be able to keep your head straight

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Movie

It’s 3:50 a.m. and I’ve just returned home from the midnight premier of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. (Yes, I do realize that this is my third consecutive Harry Potter related post, however I’m sure you can understand my obsession, especially with the movie coming out.) I’ve decided to post my thoughts on the movie since they’re still fresh in my head. The movie as a whole was not a disappointment, though it did not fully meet my expectations and excitement (which were extremely high). That’s probably my own fault though; I usually get my hopes up only to be disappointed. The main issue I had was not the fact that scenes were different and/or changed from the novel, but the fact that Harry’s sixth year was supposed to be much sinister than the movie portrayed. The trailers and previews for the movie had me thinking that the movie would have a more serious tone than it actually did. In my opinion the fifth movie (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) portrayed a much darker year of Harry’s life. I thought moments like Ron's poisoning and even Dumbledore's death were a bit anti-climatic compared to the book. Don’t get me wrong however, the movie in it’s whole was quite good. The visuals were beautiful and the effects were captivating (as in all the Harry Potter movies). I (and the rest of the theater) found myself laughing almost every three minutes or so, which is a good and bad thing. Good because it means the movie was entertaining. Bad because it means the movie wasn’t serious enough. I was also laughing because whenever there was a scene of an upset or contemplative Draco Malfoy, my friend Meaghan (her blog) would whisper “Sexy Brooding Draco” in my ear. The movie also focused too much on the Hermione-Ron relationship, though Jessie Cave (who plays the obsessive Lavender Brown) was hilarious with her infatuation with Ron. The kiss between Harry and Ginny was pathetic and awkward, but so was the kiss between Harry and Cho in the fifth movie. I don’t know if I can judge the kiss without bias though, since I am not a Ginny fan. I thought Emma Watson was beautiful the whole movie, especially the scene at the slug-club Christmas party behind the curtain. And of course, my favorite, Luna Lovegood, played by Evanna Lynch, was great the whole movie, especially with her lion hat. I must say though, I think the sixth movie explained everything thoroughly, and if a non-book reader watched it, he or she wouldn’t have any trouble understanding the events, unlike movie number five.

Memorable scenes:

-Bathroom fight scene between Harry and Draco
-Love-Potioned Ron (hilarious!)
-Cormac McLaggen puking on Snape’s shoes
-Dumbledore with the fire in the cave (bad-ass!)
-Ron semi-moaning Hermione’s name, hell, Ron was funny the entire movie
-Harry under the Felix Felisis potion (“Hi!”)

Events not included and/or edited:

-The meeting between the Prime Minister and the Minister of Magic
-Harry and Dumbledore flying back to Hogwarts on brooms
-Dumbledore hexing Harry still under the invisibility cloak
-The battle between the Death Eaters and previous D.A. members
-Dumbledore’s funeral

All in all, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was a success film and I cannot wait for it to be released in video so I can buy it and watch it again. Go see the movie and blog about your own opinions!

p.s. sorry for all of the parenthesis

Wizard Rock

Wizard Rock is a genre of music solely based off of J.K. Rowling’s famous series Harry Potter. Frequently playing at Harry Potter Conventions and available on itunes, bands like Harry and the Potters and Gred and Forge have written many songs about the Harry Potter universe. Quickly after reading the series (unlike many, I only read the Harry Potter books a couple months ago) I came across a whole area of music that I had never heard of- Wizard Rock. One would think the music would be silly or childish, since J.K. Rowling’s books are in the children’s section at most book stores, and don’t get me wrong, many songs are silly, but they’re actually catchy. I find myself humming wizard rock songs during the day without even realizing it. When I first found out about wizard rock I went searching itunes for more bands and found many, including The Parselmouths, Oliver Boyd And The Remembralls, Draco and The Malfoys and The Moaning Myrtles. Some songs are serious, but most are extremely humorous, including songs from my favorite wizard rock band, The Whomping Willows. With song titles like “I’ve had Harry Potter Inside Me”, “Ginny Gets Around”, “Voldemort Can’t Stop the Rock”, and “Dobby, Bang Your Head” how could you go wrong?

p.s. go to itunes and listen to songs like "The House Called Awesome Theme Song", "Brotherly Love" and "In Which Draco and Harry Secretly Want to Make Out" (hehe) . Project Playlist didn't have a wide variety.

This Is What I Do At 2:30 in the Morning

More From My Agenda Book

Corset Piercings: Cool or Crazy?

"The corset piercing is most popular for performance art and fetish events, and is almost always removed immediately afterward. They usually can't heal properly because they are a surface piercing in an area prone to rejection and they use a type of jewelry that isn't really suitable for permanent use in the area. More recently, the term corset piercing has been used to encompass any kind of paired, laddered piercings that can then be laced together." read more at snopes.com

The finished result of corset piercing is really cool I think, but it seems like it would hurt so much. I don’t think it’s worth it since the wearer will usually have it removed shortly after having it done. I would never do it, but it’s neat to look at.