jellysalmon

Another thing about coastal California bugs is that they're comparatively small. Most bugs that I came across as a child could be handled with a tissue. It wasn't until I was in my 20s that I finally saw a cricket. I freaked the fuck out. They're huge!

The moment that I realized that I was attracted to Parker Posey in Best in Show is the moment I realized there's something unhealthy about my taste in women. This scene in Royal Tenenbaums cracked me up, particularly the part with the shoes/sock. I just thought of how absurd it would be if this happened in real tennis and lost it.

I liked Kuvira a lot. I hope they don't make her too much of a megalomaniac. I think she can work well as an antagonist who just want a strong centralized militaristic government instead of an outright fascist.

I've been checking out a lot of modern anime lately and the one that is the most fascinating to me is Bakemonogatari. Not because it's the best. My god it's a mess of a series in a lot of ways. But because each of its qualities are so polarizing. I think there are a lot of people who would consider some the cons in the following list as pros (and vice versa.) And I wouldn't even disagree with them, it's just a matter of preference. It takes a lot of qualities I think of when I think of anime and pushes them to the extreme (for better or worse.) Art Pros: Top notch. The drawings are really well done. Some of the best I've seen. Backgrounds are simplistic and geometric-heavy but stylized in an appealing way. Cons: A lot of the art end up being close ups on T&A. Sometimes uses a muted and small color palette. There are a ton of still frames that go flashing by so fast you can barely appreciate them. Animation Pros: Again, very stylized and uses camera movement and angles more than character movement. It's the anime version of the West Wing, but instead of walking-and-talking it uses other techniques to get movement on a screen where the two characters are talking. Cons: There's a lot of corner cutting in the animation and some use of computer graphics. Story Pros: It's based on a series of novels and begins kinda in media res so there is a lot of mystery to the world. It also switches POV characters like the Game of Thrones books and has an anachronic order like in Pulp Fiction so there are some fun foreshadowing/revelation moments. Cons: It's slooow. As mentioned before, there is a TON of dialogue. Lot of monologuing too. Much of it is bloated dialogue as well, lots of words to say little of substance. Characters: Pros: Characters are multi-faceted and have hidden depths. Most of the series revolves around them working out their character flaws. They're also over-the-top, leading to silly antics. Cons: Takes a while to find those depths. Some characters act like idiots/perverts/bitches most of the time. There seem to be a lot of pun jokes that don't translate well to English. Audio Pros: Good theme music, fun intro songs, talented voice actors. Cons: Main female character (in the video below) is devoid of any emotion by design. I know she's a fan favorite, but I never really cared for her. I think showing is better than telling so here's an example (it's long so you can just skip around to see samples of animation/music/dialogue)

It's neat that everyone's picks are so varied. Also I totally forgot about Melisandre. She might be my #4. I remember seeing that she was a POV and thinking "Yess! We'll finally figure out what her deal is!" Nope. I mean we learn some stuff about her, but she's a riddle inside of an enigma and I'm still not sure what her endgame is.

Oooh! Time skip! I'm so excited. I love when shows do timeskips but the big ones only really happen in animation because y'know. Aging. I like Korra's new haircut from what I've seen of it. I imagine that the old would would get in the way a lot when Avataring and whatnot.

I have a kind of weird irrational one. My roommate had Jason Segel singing that weird Dracula song from Forgetting Sarah Marshall as his ringtone for the longest time and it annoyed the hell out of me. Now I had never seen that movie and I somehow got it twisted in my head that it was actually from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and vowed to never watch that show. I have since discovered that I was mistaken but I still have a pavlovian retching reaction whenever I see the cover of Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and I'm not sure if I hate it, but I'm damn sure not going to watch it.

I was talking to my friend the other day about how if we could only read the remaining story of three characters, who would they be? My picks: 1. Margaery 2. Jaime 3. Cersei Perhaps partly because they're all in sticky situations at the end of book 5, but more because they're the most interesting to me. If they do indeed bite it in book 6, I'm not sure what else could keep me invested.

It's weird because I really enjoyed FFXII and remember liking the ending when I played it but I cannot for the life of me remember anything that happens in it besides crazy airship battles and taking down the big bad. FFX's ending however I remember super clearly. I wasn't really all that invested in the main characters but the ending moved me 2 1/2 times! Self-promoting addendum: My friends and I made a blog at http://finalfashionista.com where we've been (somewhat) facetiously critiquing video game fashion, and have done FFI-FFVI. We're still ramping up for the modern era. More details means more to assess.

This needs a youtube clup I think The Mummy Returns was the first movie that I recognized as being bad as an adolescent. Before that, I just ate most things up or didn't like it because it wasn't appealing to kids. It did have this unintentionally funny moment though.

I think 90% of the time i want to say the phrase "rough stuff" and want to pronounce it like Penny in Happy Endings as "roof stoof" but only a couple of my friends have seen Happy Endings so the reference would probably just be confusing to people.

I was super hyped for this movie and a thoroughly enjoyed it. Pros: -Incredibly amusing. Jokes on jokes. I missed a few because the audience was still recovering from the previous joke. -Some heartfelt moments with Groot, Rocket and Starlord. -Fun visuals. -Cosmo showed up! Cons: -Cosmo didn't talk in a really thick Russian accent like he does in the comics. -Ronan's motivations weren't fleshed out very well. -Action sequences started out dynamic and interesting, but got more ho-hum as the movie went on. Particularly jarring after Captain America really raised the bar. Gamora and Drax in the comics are ultimate badasses but they looked tame next to Steve Rodgers' adventures. I know it's not the movie's forte, but it's just something I think could be improved upon. Overall I liked it, but I think I value cool action over comedy in my superhero movies so Avengers still takes top spot for favorite Marvel movie. This is probably #2 or #3 though.

Hmm. Interesting. I definitely had a cringe reaction to so I think I would have been taken out of the scene regardless, but you're probably right that the audience made it worse. Perhaps my most unpopular opinion: due to my love of the movie Friday I actually enjoyed Chris Tucker in The Fifth Element. But I can totally see why everyone else despises him.

A more recent one: Snowpiercer would have been more consistent for me if they took out the bit with everyone in my theater laughed and it kind of took me out of a film which otherwise had me engrossed.

I'm establishing myself as the first Truther in regards to Olivia. No way that girl is 6. She seems to have a better grasp on things than I did when I was like 10. I'll be needing long form birth certificates and whatnot by the morning. Dave: Kudos for standing up to dogshit litterer. I was thinking you were going to have your dog poop in a bag and put it on his lawn, but your response was more fair and less escalatory. Don't want to start a dog poop war.

I just caught Harold and Kumar and got to the scene where they're at the hospital dressed up like surgeons and they tell a surgeon played by Ryan Reynolds to get some marijuana before going into surgery and Ryan Reynolds' response is: "Marijuana?....but why?" Really makes me laugh whenever i see it.

This is bringing in movies, but I watched Freaky Friday with Lindsay Lohan repeatedly in college and Mark Harmon will forever be the cool stepdad to me

Yea I agree that Bendis isn't the only one spitting in the face of continuity. I'm not sure if this is fair, but I kind of give him a pass for...well being Bendis. I know what his reputation is so when I read something written by him so I expect some inconsistency and quirky dialogue that might be OOC. Not sure why people who don't like his writing bother picking up his books if they know they don't like his style. As for the topic at hand, I'm really not a fan of all the new Green Lantern stuff by Geoff Johns. It feels like one step forward, two steps back. He expanded the universe, but now it's insanely complicated and kind of silly.

I agree that Movie Cap isn't Ultimate Cap, but I don't think it's sad or 'gritty' or 'controversial.' Ultimate Cap comes off as a dick, but he just has 1940s sensibilities. He's a macho man, treats women in a "they need to be protected" way and is weirded out by the more-liberal country the US has become.

Ok there has to be a behind the scenes story behind Blade's "some motherfuckers are always trying to ice skate up hill" line. I love it, but it's so random! Are there even ice rinks that have slopes? How does it apply to this situation!?

This book is so fun. Two great sequences from the latest issue.

I was working at a summer camp at UCLA and was working the registration table for the next group of kids to come in. There are tons of various summer camps at UCLA over the summer, academic, SAT prep, debate, cheerleading etc. Some guy in sunglasses and asks me (in a familiar sounding voice) if he can sign in his kid for some science camp I've haven't heard of. I tell him that's our company doesn't run that camp and he asks where the sign up table for the science camp is or where . So he jokingly (but maybe kind of serious?) says "Huh. So you don't know anything do you?" and I responded back "I actually know plenty of things, just not what you need to know. " he doesn't really respond and just walks away looking for the table. The other girl at the table was like "dude! you flashed attitude at Tom Hanks!" I turned at looked again and sure enough it was him.

I hope this show gets cancelled so I don't have to see any more of those disgusting eye ads. Eye grossness is like visual nails on a chalkboard, but hidden in magazines and websites.

I do love the Cuckoo interactions with Teen Jean, and I really like how one of them (Phoebe) thinks she's kinda cool. I want to see Immonen draw all three with different hairstyles/colors.

I've probably seen less than 10 music videos that came out in the last 5 years, but this one makes me think I need to watch more: