I *love* the non-special edition original trilogy. I also love many of the books and the expanded universe surrounding the original trilogy and anything predating 1999.

I choose to pretend that the prequel trilogy and its expanded universe don't exist. >_< I think they are flat, boring, stiff, CGI as hell, and ruin much of what was wonderful in the originals.

That said, I am cautiously excited for the new movie. J.J. Abrams is a good fit for Star Wars (more so than for Star Trek really) and I think he will give it his all. Looks like he will be using a nice mix of CGI and practical effects and sets/locations as opposed to having the actors do EVERYTHING on a green screen. It will be wonderful to see the old characters I love and hear the familiar musical motifs related to those characters. I got a little choked up hearing that Han & Leia motif in the new trailer. <3 <3 <3

I work on opening night. I'll be perfectly content to just see it as a matinee on my next offday. X-D

I was debating whether or not to answer this one since I spent a good chunk of time many years ago babbling on about Disney films. But hey, why not.

I love pretty much all of the Disney films, but out of nearly 60 films, I can pin down a few favorites. Sticking with the animated ones.

I have several favorites depending on my mood. When I'm in the mood for prestige, it's Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, or Bambi.

I also love The Three Caballeros, Alice in Wonderland, The Jungle Book, The Rescuers Down Under, Aladdin (my favorite of the Disney Renaissance formula), Lilo and Stitch, Treasure Planet, and Frozen. Yes, I really do love Frozen. In my (unpopular among the hipsters) opinion it is better and more genuine than anything Disney put out in the 90s. <3 In fact, the last few Disney films have been pretty wonderful thanks to Pixar's John Lasseter becoming the head of Disney's feature animation department a few years ago. I can't wait to see what they do next!

I can't choose between the two. Don't make me. Both are extremely dear to me, and both are some of my earliest television memories at the age of three. This applies to the original Star Wars Trilogy (unaltered, not the special editions) and Star Trek, the original TV series (and the original string of movies starring the same characters) only. <3

As an aside, I would argue to this day that Star Wars is not science fiction. It is a pulp serial-inspired space opera. A fantasy. Having something take place in space and on alien worlds does not automatically make it science fiction. ^_^ There's not a lick of science in it.

Geez, could I possibly sound any snobbier here? *laugh* I'm imagining this entry being spoken by the comic book store guy in The Simpsons. X-D

Yesterday, I caught this pretty little guy in a glass cup, and Martin was able to get a pretty good shot of his cute face.  It's a Daring Jumper, a Phidippus audax.  The males and females look similar, but I'm pretty sure this one is male. The iridescent blue/green of his chelicerae is so striking!

I love, love, love jumping spiders! :-D  They have the best vision of almost any arthropod, and this species in particular possesses a degree of curiosity and intelligence.  When most spiders flee for cover, this guy will linger and watch. They can learn routines and solve problems too.  Some people even say that they make great pets and can become pretty friendly.  Based on how this little fellow was acting, I don't find that hard to believe. 

I had a roommate from HELL. Let's see:

- He had a terrible habit of leaving a stove eye on when he left the house.
- Nearly every night, he fell asleep in the living room instead of in his bedroom with the tv on and a DVD playing.
-He fell so behind on his part of the rent that toward the end of our co-habitation, he took to only coming in after I fell asleep and leaving before I got up so I would never get a chance to confront him.
-Worst of all, he was feeling suicidal at one point, and accidentally shot a hole in my desk while mulling over the idea and fidgeting with his gun. After that, I took the gun from him and hid it, but he thought that was fair, considering that he had damaged my property!

This was a long time ago, and though this person was a horrible roommate, he is still a really good friend to this day, and has managed to turn his life around for the better. Somehow that makes this awful time worth it. He had hit rock bottom, and inviting him in was an act of mercy.

If money wasn't an issue, I'd go back to school and be a career student for the rest of my life! World history, several foreign languages, zoology, paleontology, astronomy, anthropology, philosophy, psychology.... I want to learn all of the things! :-D

Hunger. Just as Norman Borlaug once said, there can never be world peace as long as there are starving people in the world. He was able to save a billion people with his agricultural talents, but he still wasn't able to put a complete end to starvation.

Bohemian Rhapsody, which happens to have been utilized in the most magnificent and epic AMV I have ever seen featuring the equally magnificent and epic 'Neon Genesis Evangelion'.



I've never seen a better marriage of song and anime, and the editing is mighty fine as well. XD

Always truth. :) I'm much better at unabashedly speaking the truth rather than performing outrageous feats of badassery.

In my ever so humble opinion, 'House, MD'.   The way it ended last season was the final straw for me.  I will not be watching the new season.  You know a show has jumped the shark whenever all the hard-earned growth of your lead character is just flushed down the toilet.  Round and round we go.  I told myself that I would be finished with the show if House got back on the Vicadin or broke up with Cuddy, especially in the ludacrous way he did.  Lo and behold, last season delivered those conditions just like that.



So many American tv series just don't know how to quit while they're ahead.

Hi!  It's been three weeks since I visited, and I have tons to talk about, and tons to comment on regarding the f-list, and yet here I am answering a silly writer's block. :P

I wanted to say first of all that I'm going to disagree with the one movie I KNOW most people are going to mention: The Dark Knight.  Sure, it had better filmed action scenes than the first film and a miraculous performance by Heath Ledger as The Joker, but other than that, I thought it was a much weaker film than Batman Begins.   XD

Two more very unpopular opinions:  I like both Terminator and Alien much more than both of their sequels!  :O

Now, sequels I like better than the firsts:

-Batman Returns:  While it hardly does justice to the character and mythos of Batman, this is still my favorite Batman movie of all time!  It's gorgeous to look at with its neo-German expressionism, Danny Elfman's score blows my socks off, it has Christopher Walken (his mere presence adds extra points to any movie!), and it includes the coolest treatment ever of The Penguin.  Catwoman gets a pretty badass treatment too.  :D  While it fails as a Batman movie, it excels as a Tim Burton movie!!

-Spiderman 2:  I'm not really sure why... I just enjoyed this one lots more than the first, though I enjoyed the first one too!

-The Three Caballeros:  The sequel to Saludos Amigos, both making up the South of the Border Good Neighbor Policy films made by Walt Disney during WWII.  Saludos Amigos is perfectly enjoyable, and perhaps much more educational than its sequel, but The Three Caballeros is one of the strangest and most beautiful things I've ever seen.  It stretches the boundaries of animation and narrative storytelling, and pretty much loses its mind long before the end arrives.  XD

-Powaqqatsi:  The sequel to Koyaanisqatsi.  Only just barely do I enjoy Powaqqatsi more, but I do.  The music and the vibrant colors and images of the southern hemisphere are warm and enchanting, even the scenes portraying intense labor and struggle.  Compared to the colder portrayal of the northern hemisphere in Koyaanisqatsi, I suspect that the director Godfrey Reggio is biased in favor of the south.  XD

-Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom:  I know this is a really unpopular opinion here.  This seems to be the one everyone hates, but it's my favorite.   Ridiculous political incorrectness and all.  So there. ;P

-Hellboy 2:  Lots of these seem to be comic book films don't they?  Hm.  Anyhoo, I don't necessarily think this is better than the first one, simply that I enjoyed it much more myself.  Guillermo del Toro is one of my favorite directors, and nobody does gorgeous dark fairytale aesthetics like he does!  And boy, does that aesthetic shine in this one.  So beautiful.  Plus, it was nice to see Abe Sapien, my favorite character, get so much screen time, and great to hear Doug Jones perform his own voice for once!

-Toy Story 3:  This one I enjoyed more than the first and second movies. 

-Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence:  Not for any reason in particular I can put into words.  They're both wonderful... maybe I especially enjoyed this one just because I got the pleasure of watching it on the big screen.  I get to do that with so few anime films, and I had to drive to Atlanta, GA to do it!

There are a couple of subsequent installments of trilogies like Lord of the Rings and Star Wars that I may have enjoyed more than the earlier installments, but I tend to think of things like that as one big movie, so I didn't include them.

I dunno about you guys, but LJ isn't working worth a flip for me.  It hasn't worked for the last few days.  It was all I could do to even post this entry!  Had to refresh like five times to even get the screen to load!  It's not completely loading anyone's entries for me to read, and I can forget about replying to posts!!  That isn't working at all.

Is everyone else having this kind of trouble?

Time for a brief geek-out break!  ^_~ 

Some of the best film music in existence arguably comes from Italian films from the 1960s.  A great chunk of that wonderful film music was composed by the incredible composer Ennio Morricone, mostly known and remembered today for his easily recognized (constantly used in pop culture) music from films like 'The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly', 'Navajo Joe', and 'Fistful of Dollars'.  This  less-remembered song by Morricone is from the 1969 Italian film 'Machine Gun McCain' .  Music from this time and place was characteristically over-the-top, almost operatic in tone, but somehow--in my humble opinion-- downright gorgeous and infectious as hell.   "The Ballad of Hank McCain" is one hell of an earworm! 






This cover by Mike Patton and John Zorn is delightful too. I honestly can't decide which I enjoy more.  This one is softer... more seductive.  



Mike Patton, a daring, talented, versatile vocalist whom I adore, clearly has a huge thing for music from this era.  He recently put out an album called "Mondo Cane" which is a fantastic assortment of covers of Italian songs from the 60's with his own personal touch.

Something of a tangent here, but what the heck...





Who ever said that music couldn't be beautiful, powerful, and obnoxious all at once?!?  ;)

Oh, that's easy.  Pay off the remaining debt that is keeping me in this rut!  XD  That would just about take up the entire $10,000.   

*bounce*  The one I have looked most forward to! ^_^   My own little LJ birthday gift to myself!

Day # 25: Your favorite scene from your favorite movie

You honestly think I can pick only one??  Not a chance.  There are no less than ten scenes stashed in the cut.

( My favorite, favorite scenes.. come see!Collapse )

If anyone actually picks their way through this monstrosity of an entry, I'll be happy and amazed.  ^_^  Either way, I really enjoyed sharing these glorious scenes and trying to put into words as best I can why I love them so.  I think I might even leave this one public.  >_>

( Full Meme Under HereCollapse )

Most people associate the word ''paradise'' with a tropical locale. What is your idea of paradise? Tell me in detail what it would be like. :-)

6 billion people. 6 billion versions of reality all going on at the same time. I wonder how many of them are thinking this exact thought the same moment I am...

This is not a meme, but I was very much inspired by dragonfare. In the spirit of the season, and in no particular order I am so thankful for:

consciousness, honeysuckle, absinthe, blank paper, dishwashers, Walt Disney, calico kittens, fireplaces, stars, oxygen, paint, my hands, Christmas lights, dreams, intimacy, color, Clive Barker, oboes, pussy willow, roller coasters, silence, sound, black light, glow-in-the-dark, emotion, burrowing owls, memory, babies, world maps, language, kimchi, Marten, mice, fantasy, Isis, Mother, skyscrapers, the ocean, pomegranates, silly sound effects, bathtubs and showers, full-piece orchestras, Raymond Scott, muenster cheese, rainstorms, ladybird beetles, Aurora Borealis, Fantasia, windows, curved paths, hydrangea, affection, dancing cockatoos, Granddad, cheesecake, clouds, history, Figment, anthropomorphic anything, airplanes, ghost stories, sushi, friends, rosemary, cellos, Evangelion, Imajica, Nights into Dreams, fine glitter, hot tea, myself, public refuse collectors, animation, sunshine, music, my captioning degree and skills, crabs, Lost Girls, warm blankets, Mt. Tamalpais, cameras, gyoza, black holes, transvestites, voices, mystery of existence, off-days, the horizon, the past, the future......

Honestly, I could go on and on and on, so I'll end it there. :) So much to be thankful for...

It's official. Jingle Bell Rock is my most hated secular X-Mas song. It has to have played three times as often as any other song today! :-P

Very little scares me, but I do have one embarrassing irrational fear. Lightning. My behavior with lightning likens to a phobia. Astraphobia, I believe, is the term for it. When driving home from work during a storm, I am paralyzed with mortal terror, in danger of wrecking because I won't stop staring at the sky, anxiously anticipating nearby lightning strikes. O_O' Even when I'm indoors, I'm filled with the "fight or flight" adrenaline rush, though I don't do anything as ridiculous as hiding in the closet or under the bed. ;) I know that lightning is capable of striking people inside the house, even if it is a rare occurrence.

I don't know where this fear of lightning originated in me. But then, where does any phobia come from?

Maybe I could face my fears by spending time in the Lightning Field in New Mexico. XD

I am at work and overflowing with creative energy. I feel like I'm in some sort of transition like the season. I can't wait for my weekend to begin!

Thank god I'll never have to make a decision like this for real. If you were to put a gun to my head and make me choose, (assuming I didn't just ask you to go ahead and pull the trigger to spare me having to decide), I would go with Japanese. When it comes to my favorite ethnic cuisines, I am absolutely mad for Japanese, Indian, Italian, and (Authentic) Mexican. Of these, however, Japanese is probably the healthiest, and that's ultimately what would sway my decision.

There are lots of other ethnic foods I want to dip into, including Korean, which I have already dabbled in by way of delicious curry rice noodles and incredible kimchi. I wanna taste the whole world! I'm very thankful that I don't have to choose just one. ;P

Once again, I've been trapped in a busy routine that has left me completely devoid of any desire to make an entry, but now I finally have something new to share!

I've been using the online radio program Pandora.com, which is a great way to discover new music. You can create your own radio stations based on a single musical artist you select, and the A.I. plays music by that artist as well as other things it thinks are similar that you might also enjoy. I created a station based on the group Adiemus, hoping I might find some more chorale type music with a similar flavor. I confess, for the most part, Pandora has given me lots of uninteresting New Age that just isn't my thing. I'm picky with my New Age. I like very little of it, but what I do like, I LOVE. Fortunately, if you dislike something Pandora plays, you can tell it so, and it will never play it again and instantly go to a new song.

One thing in particular Pandora has presented to me has caught my attention, and it will be the first time in a long time I've fallen into a musical obsession this intense. The group is called "Libera", and it is a British boy's choir project arranged and directed (and sometimes written by) a guy named Robert Prizeman. It's been going on since the late 80s, and obviously, many boys have come and gone between the ages of 7 and 14. It's pushing all of my happy buttons. Amazing boy voices, chorale arrangements, enchanting New Age style sounds, classical instruments, and the occasional powerful intonation of a pipe organ.

I'm particularly taken with the song "Stay with Me". The first time I heard it, I started crying. An overly dramatic reaction, perhaps, but that's what I did. :P It's so beautiful. The songs "Salva Me" and "Adoramus" are wonderful too. I cannot wait to get my hands on all of the albums, but the one called "Free" in particular, as that's the album these three songs are from. :D My God, the notes these boys can hit.....

I love so many. "Ben", "Earth Song", "Will You Be There", "Stranger in Moscow", "HIStory", and "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" stand out in my mind.

As for the videos, my favorites are "Thriller" (of course!!!), "Earth Song", "Billie Jean" (Film Noir meets Wizard of Oz!), "Black or White", and "Stranger in Moscow".

*sigh* -_-

I just heard that Michael Jackson died. :'-C

Oh my god, it's so hot! :-X I'm covering a greeter's lunch break out here in the greenhouse and it's gotta be 105 at LEAST in here! Stupid deep south summers!!

-sigh- Could arms-length casual talk between coworkers get any more boring?! I prefer solitute to social interactions such as this! May just be my mood. :-P

-laugh- Great. Apparently, my new nickname at work is Clarice since my co-worker thinks I favor Jodie Foster in Silence of the Lambs. XP

I just noticed a moment ago that every entry I've posted has changed my selected user pic to my default. *blink* What the hell happened??

It's actually 90 degrees here today. :-X I wish Springtime would last longer than a week here! Straight from freezing to hot just like that!