Bah humbug

Drew Barrymore is shooting a new movie in and around my building and I haven't seen her at all! pouty face. also lurking around should be Justin Long and Christina Applegate

New york is a scream

From a little media bee I heard the buzz that David Arquette was in a glass box in front of Madison Square Garden. Waaaa? I said. Why? Well it turns out he was supporting a charity called Feed American and taking a stand (in a glass/plastic box) for hunger. I went to check it and they have perched this plastic tent on the top of MSG right next to the big marquee. Well, cool, I guess. I really liked David in Scream and think he and Courtney Cox are a cute couple. Anything goes in new yawk.

Chugging along

Life has been going at a pretty smooth rate these days. I had a good 4th of July weekend: watched the fireworks on a friend's roof, sunbathed in Prospect Park and Coney Island, ate lots of delicious food.

The job has been kind of crazy, what with me managing myself! Yep, I'm surviving but learning a lot along the way. Which is good in the long run but hard right now. I guess a lot more people in the company are noticing/working with me without my manager because he usually did most of that. I just hope they are getting a good impression.

On the media front, I'm still watching 30 Rock, Kathy Griffin: My life on the D-list, Tori & Dean, The Tudors, and started re-watching Dexter because the 3rd season comes out in August. That show is so good! It makes you realize how much intention crafts our cultural idea of crime. The differences between a serial killer, a vigilante and a solider are finely drawn. You are doing it for the common good, the country, patriotism, justice or all the other glowing euphemisms? Then we can empathize! Anyway, interesting stuff.

30 Rock binge

Currently watching at least one episode of 30 Rock a day. I blame it on Netflix and their instant tv watching abilities. But I love this show! It's about television, smart women, cultural mockery, vaudevillian slapstick and sharply sketched characters.
LOVE! IT! Tina Fey really rocks my world, pun intended :)

Vampire Romance

Vampires are back in style! Or vamping their way to the forefront of American culture. True Blood & Twilight both feature pale tortured male vamps in love with beautiful, vulnerable young women. The thing with vamp stories is that it is almost ALWAYS about a male vamp and a human woman. The traits of a vampire- the strength, the predatory ways, the penetration of the fangs- make it a traditionally masculine role. The human woman is frailer and is the prey. The interesting thing about male vampires is that they are the most tortured, melancholy, romantic of males. For some reason, their undead state and superhuman strength (not to mention godly beauty) allows them to be in touch with their emotions, wahoo!

Both series are also based on books, which says something both about the long literary history of vampires and also their place in pulp/romantic fiction- or women's fiction. Debate about the literary merit of this genre continues and it might not help that they are so ripe for film adaptation. Lots of imagery, action and making out. The True Blood books are definitely aimed at women. Twilight is aimed at young people in general but makes its audience mostly out of females from 14-24 (the money market).

And they both feature prominent female leads, the same as Buffy. (for a very fun time, check out the mashed up sequence where fans have edited Buffy into Twilight so that she kills Edward). And so I watch them. And I wonder where the female vampires are. Why are there no female vamps? Of course, they are given side stories in all of these texts but that is not a focusing relationship. Hard to picture a rock hard, physically strong woman in a romantic relationship with a comparitively weaker, normal and non supernatural man? Because then it's not sexy if she scares him, if she bites him, if she dominates? Hmmm

And once again Jezebel proves how awesome it is by commenting on the this exact topic:
http://jezebel.com/5301189/the-allure-of-books-with-bite

Crawling back to Netflix

So...I caved. I went back. After six solid months off the juice, I just couldn't take it anymore. Yes this happens to coincide with the end of the television season and the beginning of the giant reality wasteland that is summer programming. But it's also because Netflix now offers instant streaming for Macs (before it was just PCs)which means I can watch stuff on my computer now! And we all now how much instant gratification is important to Americans. So far I managed to watch the premiere of Nurse Jackie (on Netflix as a promotional tool) and it was good! Smart show, cliched premise, good acting. I also watched the first episode of the Tudor's, season 2- all of which is available instantly on Netflix. There goes my social life! But seriously, I just couldn't hold out any longer- there was a back list of movies I've been wanting to see for a while. So for $10 a month, its really not bad- almost cheaper than going to see one movie in the theater. But we all know that I'm a film and media junkie and i need my hook-up, stat!

Twelfth Night in the park

was magical! really fun. The weather turned out to be perfect, with pink & blue streaked skies, perfect temperature & no rain. This version of 12th nite was definitely on the campy side. They played up the cross-dressing homosexual tension & the foolery, so that it was light hearted & fun. The play, especially the side story of Malvolio's hubris, has elements of humiliation, discomfort, madness and power that can be played on to bring out the tragedy in the story. However, this version was sort of like 12th nite recession style: all upbeat and funny and happily queer. I had a great time and thought that Anne Hathaway was perfect!! She has such an interesting look, not at all typical but very compelling.

A fabulous NYT write up:http://theater2.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/theater/reviews/26night.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1246024924-uM4JzSAGby7CSemiB3CQSA

Digital, baby!

TV has pulled the plug on analog, sorry poor old people with old tvs. It's all sexy digital now, yeah baby!

and i scored tiks to Shakespeare in the Park's Twelfth Night (my abs fav shakespeare play) with Anne Hathaway (adorable!). I'm super duper excited and hope that this miserable rain takes a hike, because I don't think sitting through several hours of drizzle would be good for my cold. Yay Shakes!