This past weekend I moved in to a new apartment located right in the heart of downtown Chicago. With the generous help of my parents, my boyfriend, and my good friend Rob, I am now inhabiting a convertible studio with an ecclectic assortment of furniture from my sister's old apartment, my old room, and our old house in Texas.
Kitty and I are very happy in our new home and are adjusting quickly to this new "city life." It is vastly different living in a high-rise managed building than in a neighborhood with two "Dad" landlords who stop by to fix the broken fence in the backyard of the three story house apartment you are co-habitating with a bunch of dudes upstairs and a bizarre couple in the basement.
I think I am going to like it very much. Just beware, if you plan on coming over, you must bring three forms of ID, your birth certificate and you must have your photo taken, your fingerprints recorded, and you must recite the Gettysburg Address...backwards. Seriously, the security in this place is hardcore.
I read this article today about two robot characters in the new Transformers movie named "Skids" and "Mudflap."
Apparently their characterization is getting the same reaction from critics as "Jar Jar Binks" did in Star Wars: Episode I.
Basically, the characters are being interpreted as negative stereotypes of black people - more specifically, they are reflecting the racist image of "Stepin Fetchit," a black character from the 1920s and '30s that exploited negative stereotypes for comic effect.
The "genius" that is Michael Bay has responded to these criticisms by saying that "We're just putting more personality in," and "Young kids love these robots, because it makes it more accessible to them."
And my favorite defensive line: "Listen, you're going to have your naysayers on anything," he said. "It's like is everything going to be melba toast? It takes all forms and shapes and sizes."
Yes, Michael Bay. A movie is dull, dry and boring like melba toast if there is no explicit racism in it. You are a cinematic god.
I like how it keeps repeating that this is the first innovation in toilet paper since the 1880's, like we are supposed to be blown away that no one has come up with a better idea for wiping since then. I also really like the fat guy that says, "being big has its advantages, but is also has its disadvantages." That's all he says.
I know I haven't posted anything in a week and then I come back with commentary on an ad for the Comfort Wipe, but I am currently suffering from a stomach virus, so I thought it was fitting.
I couldn't help it. I had to post another video today, but this one is with Zach Galifianakis from "The Hangover."
I think some of the funniest people are the ones who can sit in front of a camera and really not say much at all but leave you cracking up anyway. Will Ferrell had this affect on me once, but I think his antics are growing a little tired. I still love him though, which is why I am glad he is supporting other actors like Galifianakas on his site "Funny or Die."
I haven't watched The Jimmy Fallon show yet, but I saw a posting on Metromix's blog about his show on Monday night with guest Mark Paul Gosselaar, aka. "Zach Morris" from "Saved by the Bell."
Gosselaar appeared on the show AS his character Zach Morris. I watched the clip this morning and he nailed everything from the hair, to the giant cell phone, to the periodic "time out" moments. While you could tell he had some make-up caked on his face, Gosselaar looked a lot like the Bayside High School teenager that he played almost twenty years ago. Pretty crazy.
At the end of the segment, Gosselaar --- er, Zach even performed the Zach Attack hit "Friends Forever" with The Roots.
I am finally feeling rested and "back to normal" after returning from my trip to London and Bruges. It was a great trip and I am happy my sister and I were able to spend the week together before she has to leave for Texas. She departs on Sunday and will be living in Temple, Texas during her residency for the next three years, maybe more.
My favorite part of the trip was our two-day excursion to Bruges. It is a small city with cobblestone streets, a canal, and buildings that have been in existence since the Medieval period. It was a very "easy" city to visit because you cover the whole city on foot in a couple of hours and everyone is friendly and speaks English. There wasn't much nightlife, more just an extension of dinner. The restaurants and tea rooms sort of transform in to bars as the sun sets. We found a great pub on one of the side streets away from the big tourist crowds with cheaply priced pints and DELICIOUS beer. We also found several chocolate shops featuring sweets shaped like the human anatomy (picture at bottom).
London was fun as well, even though I was sick for a majority of the time we spent there. Our friend, Anna, lives in a charming area called Chiswick Park and we spent most of our time hanging around in her area. We did go to central London one night and bought tickets to "We Will Rock You," a musical set to the music of Queen which was pretty entertaining.Other spare time was spent in pubs or watching British television. Below are a few picks (mostly of Bruges).
I read about this in the RedEye this morning and thought, what a nice segue in to my posts about my trip to the UK!The food company Del Monte recently asked 1,000 British women to vote on which celebrity they deem worthy enough to appear as a delicious ice pop, and the winner was the yummy Daniel Craig. They are only available for a limited time and unfortunately, you can only get them in England.
I kind of wish I had known about this when I was there last week, but maybe it is best that I didn't buy a box of these and end up spending my entire week at my friend's flat licking iced-fruit replicas of James Bond until I could feel my tongue. Disturbing.
I actually did spend a significant amount of time at my friend's flat, but the reason for this is that sometime in between the take off from Chicago and the landing at Heathrow, I caught a cold. I blame the baby sitting four rows ahead of me, but that's just because I hate babies. Not really, but this one had a particularly sinister look about it and I saw it eyeing me when I walked by as snot dripped down its nose and on to its Elmo onesie.
So the first few days were spent hanging around the Chiswick Park neighborhood where our friend lives and watching British television which consisted of 50% bad British drama and 50% outdated but good American TV.
I have returned from my week abroad and I will write more about that in the next couple of days, but today I wanted to post a bit about one of my best friends in the entire world and one of the coolest proposals ever.
My friend Sarah trained for and ran in the Rock and Roll Marathon in San Diego this past weekend where she raised around $4,000 for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. This was Sarah's first marathon and despite what turned out to be a tortuous race course, she finished with all limbs intact.
Sarah's boyfriend Barrett broke through the security line at the end of the race with a sign that read, "Sarah, will you marry me?" on it and got down on his knee to present her with a ring. The crowd at the finish line went crazy and Sarah sprinted towards him despite having just completed 26.2 miles.
It's not elaborate and doesn't involve any expensive reservations, and it is the best proposal story I have ever heard. I think I like it so much because I can (well, not really) imagine how Sarah was feeling towards the end of that race – soo incredibly tired, in pain, and wanting more than anything for it to be over. But to see your partner there at the end, congratulating you on completing one of the most difficult accomplishments of your life, and letting you know that he wants to be with you forever – I think that would be incredible.
I don't like saying "congratulations" to people who are engaged, but I will say that I am sooo happy for the two of them and I look forward to seeing them celebrate their life together. Cheers!
today about two robot characters in the new Transformers movie named "Skids" and "Mudflap."
