December 31, 2005 at 5:43 pm (flix)
Now I’m watching the Japanese version. There are several allusions to Sadako (from Ringu) in it: the ghost of the dead girl walks by the doorway and looks just like the young Sadako in the flashbacks to when Sadako’s mother was doing a psychic demonstration for the press. Then when the girl first approaches the alive little girl, you only see a pair of white stockinged legs and shoes, similar to the legs that appear in front of Ryuji (that part wasn’t in the book, though).
Also, in the American version of Dark Water, there are some homages to the Japanese Ringu–the most notable one is the kind of filming that occurs when Jennifer Connelly’s character climbs up the water tank. The footage flashes back and forth between her and the past, when the little girl (Natasha) climbed up and drowned. Also, there are shots from inside the tank, looking up, similar to the ones in Ringu (with Sadako at the bottom of the well).
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December 31, 2005 at 3:42 pm (jobs, marooned, thoughts about urbana-champaign)
I just spent $320 on a ticket to San Antonio for the end of January. I justified going to this conference since I need a job by May and because I have semi-estranged family in San Antonio and it will be good to visit them.
You can get a flight from O’Hare to San Antonio right now for about $140 round trip. However. The cheap flights are all at 8 AM and have ridiculous amounts of waiting time between connecting flights (on average 3 hours a pop). Factor that into the $80 round-trip ticket I’d have to pay for the shuttle to the airport, which only leaves every four hours, as well as the taxes on top of the ticket, and you’re looking at a trip costing about $250 and a full days’ worth of travelling time on each side. So I think $320 out of Champaign made some sense (even though the connections aren’t going to be that much better, at least I don’t have to get my ass to Chicago by 6 AM–I’d have to get a 1 or 2 AM shuttle at that rate).
I am so ready to blow the popsicle stand that is C-U, Illinois. My life is far too important and busy to be so highly inconvenienced whenever I need to fly anywhere. 
Thank God I’m sharing a room with like, eighty people. I think. Hmm. Guess I’d better double-check that.
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December 30, 2005 at 8:55 pm (flix)
I’m getting awfully sick of all the romance and couples bullshit that is continually crammed down my throat by our society, especially at this time of year. I’m just about the unluckiest girl when it comes to love and this shit isn’t helping. Thankfully, though, I’m finally at an age when men seem to actually *notice* me, so maybe in ten years they’ll start asking me out on dates.
Anyway.
I just saw a movie all about plumbing. It really wasn’t bad, and the director is a dreamboat.
Turns out he directed Motorcyle Diaries, which I haven’t seen. I’ve been looking up a few articles here and there about the popular American perception of Che. We’re pretty divided.
It’s unusual for me to see a remake of a Japanese film first–I usually try to see the original first. I think Ringu is infinitely better than its American remake. The same holds true for just about every foreign film that is remade in American versions. But this was pretty good. I’ll obviously have to see the Japanese one now. I think the film had good direction, acting, and design. The cast has amazing credentials.
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December 28, 2005 at 11:05 pm (music, novelty)
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December 28, 2005 at 10:49 pm (memories, novelty, talking shop)
I wonder how one becomes a Disney librarian? As much as I hate Disney, I think they need to take some responsibility (yeah, get in line, right) for their own cultural past.
I was dismayed to learn that they’ve completely changed the Tiki room and the song and everything. That was one of Walt’s own creations. While Walt was an incurable asshole, it still is a bit of history. Theme-park history in itself will probably become a serious field someday if it’s not already–there are so many societal and cultural aspects to the creation and success of a theme park. Plus they canned the Main Street Electrical Parade. Disney is just like downtown Urbana–to stay updated, they just tear everything down and start over. There must be some serious collectors of vintage Disney music out there. I hope this stuff is being preserved. You can’t even buy a recording with the Tiki Room on it anymore–the last time that was offered was back in about 1994, and I don’t think you can buy those recordings anymore, either. Unless they’re used. But you CAN get some new version with Lindsay Lohan or Hilary Duff or someone. Groan.
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December 28, 2005 at 10:11 pm (jobs, marooned, music, talking shop, thoughts about urbana-champaign)
OK. I can’t move to New Zealand. I’d be stuck in the middle of one of two islands with only expensive ticket options to escape.
However, I’m suddenly feeling a bit more clear-headed about some things. I’ve been beating myself up about the possibility of getting a second master’s in musicology, since I’ve wanted to be a music librarian for a long, long time. I’ve since decided that staying in Urbana for another degree and taking out loans at this juncture isn’t worth it. I really, really, really dislike Urbana and Champaign (actually with quite a passion) and it doesn’t suit me at all. More important, it’s too much risk for too little gain. Since I consider C-U to be most decidedly in the middle of nowhere, with pretty much nothing to offer, I hate to think how I would find some little music library in the middle of Alabama or something, should I be successful in music librarianship.
But being at home, with my stepmother (who has a Ph.D. in public policy), my activist blood is really kicking me in the shins. Most people don’t have activist blood. I do. It’s something you’re born with or not, sort of like a calling to be a clergy member. I’ve decided that I find music scholarship important and I want to fight to ensure that it can continue to be a serious discipline in which people may find livelihoods. But it’s not for me. I am finding music to be too inconsequential right now. There is too much at stake to go into music. I think I knew this on some level and that’s why I suddenly started to find public librarianship to be a much more attractive option. My strong interest in communities and community activism would be richly rewarded if I were to work for Chicago Public in some disadvantaged neighborhood.
And, incidentally, the Scherzo and Allegro from Borodin’s second string quartet is totally fucking addictive. Why can’t all string quartets have interesting melodic lines? Maybe people don’t take this string quartet as seriously as some of the ones lacking melodies.
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December 27, 2005 at 9:33 pm (Uncategorized)
you know, looking through my Flickr account at my pictures, I’ve decided this is what my vacation is all about:
dogs.dogs.dogs.dogs.dogs.dogs.dogs.tchaikovskyoverkill.
dogs.dogs.dogs.dogs.dogs.dogs.diezauberflote.dogs.dogs.
dogs.dogs.figaro.dogs.dogs.booze.dogs.dogs.dogs.dogs.
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December 27, 2005 at 5:31 pm (Uncategorized)
Here are two of Bearly’s spawn, fighting over a toy hedgehog. It lasted about ten minutes, until the hedgehog was pretty much torn in half.
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December 27, 2005 at 4:51 pm (Uncategorized)
so why am I writing a blog post? Cuz I haven’t done so in a week.
I got this rockin’ new iPod for Christmas but I can’t seem to organize my photos to save my life. There are about eight copies of every photo I’ve ever taken on the thing. I’ve gone back through all the computer’s folders to delete extra copies of everything (which has taken several hours) and it still doesn’t work. Now I am hanging around on Apple’s message boards because other people have similar complaints. There are some photos I’ve completely deleted from my computer (and I double-checked with the Find option and they are nowhere) so I don’t know why this isn’t reflected on the iPod since I keep updating it. Grrrrrr.
Also, applying for jobs these days can be a nightmare, especially if an organization or company requires you to fill out their online forms (which usually are technologically so five years ago and so sometimes erase all the work you’ve done and you’re required to start over). My application for CPL just took about three hours.
In the meantime, though, I’m seriously considering moving to New Zealand because I have a big connection (and I’ve spent about two months there, too) and so that’s kind of exciting! I’ve been having a great time at home, where my father lives, and last night I went back to my real home and visited a bunch of folks I’ve known for oh, two decades. Yikes.
I also spent quality time in Dogville at my mother’s house in the country, where all her Labradors live and where her Labradors’ offspring visit (my aunt adopted two). Pictures to come.
If I have to listen to Tchaikovsky’s fucking violin concerto or any Mozart operas again in the next year, I think I will drive a screwdriver into my eyeball. I don’t know why my stepmother and my father listen to these things over and over and over again but you would think they would get sick of it. Oh, well.
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December 21, 2005 at 5:33 pm (Uncategorized)
I love them, I love them.
My friend made me watch Love Me Tonight last spring, and it had all these fabulous Rodgers and Hart songs that you always hear in the background of classic films during dance sequences for some reason. Richard Rodgers could write a mean melody. But of course, I also adore Gershwin and Porter and Arlen. Sigh. And Johnny Mercer, of course.
Some of my faves:
Tangerine
Just One of Those Things
Lover
Isn’t it Romantic
Desafinado (from the Latin line of standards, by Jobim)
Stardust (duh!)
But Not for Me
Mimi
Amapola
Perfidia
Take the A Train
Thank God all these hot new jazz singers love standards, too. May they never, ever die.
Yes, old people love me.
I first recognized the enormous power of the jazz standard when I went to a Willie Nelson concert in Denver several years ago and he sang Star Dust and made me cry. He also sang The Rainbow Connection, which killed me. Only Willie can put that kind of beauty and emotion into a song in spite of a raspy voice.
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