lazy day films!

This should really be titled Everyday of my Life Films because if I had it my way I would watch films all day erryday.

Never the less here is a top 10 list of films on Netflix that are the best of the best for this Labor Day off!

Beware of Mr. Baker

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This movie is absolutely ridiculous. Know that it's not safe for children and involves: drugs, alcohol, prostitutes, and a lot of cursing. But, it's an incredible story of one of the world's best drummers.

So Much So Fast

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The story of Steve Ascher, who at 29 was diagnosed with ALS and decides to live as well as possible with the time he has left. With all the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge non-sense this seems a poignant tale to watch.

Fargo

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If you haven't seen this film today is the day! One of the best films of the '90s/ever, this film tells a tale of mystery! deceit! murderrrr! And of course my hair-inspiration, pictured left.

Bernie

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This film, by Boyhood director Richard Linklater, tells the true tale of Bernie Tiede. I won't spoil the fun but let's just say once you finish the film you need to read this article about a HUGE real-life plot twist in this story that cracks me up.

The Intouchables

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This film is soo goood. I saw it in theaters and have seen it about three times since. Which, if you know me, I watch hundreds of films a year so if I re-watch something besides Bob's Burgers episodes you know it's good.

Hey Bartender

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This is a recent addition to my top picks on Netflix. The story of bartenders working in the top spots for drinks around the US. Kind of a jumbled tale it's interesting and fun and boozy. I found it inspiring to my own bartending endeavors.

A Royal Affair

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Ugh this movie. I'm sure I've blogged about this before but it seriously will not leave my head years later. Mads Mikkelsen is probably my favorite actor, he can do no wrong (see: Flame & Citron, After the Wedding, Casino Royale, The Hunt). This story is sad, dramatic, romantic, and true (kind of).

The Mighty Ducks

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A more light-hearted film, this is one of my favorite films from childhood that I can watch over and over and over again. I actually own all THREE films on VHS because I'm just that cool.

What Maisie Knew

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If I could go on a date with a living celebrity, it would be Alexander Skarsgård, because good god he is so handsome (a foot taller than me, CHA-CHING). Anyway, this film is dark and brooding and interesting and stars Skarsgård and a cute kid.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

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This is definitely a weird children's movie. I still watch it a lot because of how weird it is and I can't believe my lunatic parents let me watch this when I was little. Pictured above is the villain of the film, the Child Catcher, who ya know run arounds capturing children in a town that hates children.


Happy Labor Day everyone! Have fun with a few of these movies if you so choose.

Or just watch Bob's Burgers all day, like me

so, is orange the new black?

Last weekend I binge watched Orange is the New Black along with all the 22 - 35 year old women I know.

We tweeted, we texted, we Facebook posted without revealing too much stuff.

photo here

Why is this show so great? I mean, I watch a ton of TV, I have multiple multiple shows going at once yet I dropped everything to watch the new season and ended up finishing the 13 episodes by Monday at lunch.

1. Women? In prison? A women's prison? Yeah, you had me at prison. For as long as I can remember I've been fascinated with prison — what was it like? Why were people there? What did people do all day? I used to be obsessed with the show Lockup on MSNBC, spending an entire New Year's Day one year watching it with my hungover roommates. At an all women's prison in the south somewhere the women were shackled to desks and phones and ran the state's tourism bureau and I remember thinking — wait wut. They made probably $0.50/hour to rent vacation condos to my mom. While I realize OITNB isn't spot on with its message or depiction of prison the glimpses it offers don't seem too terribly far-fetched.
2. Women! So many amazing women! Old women! Tall women! Transgender women! All the women! I'm amazed at the cast, with each episode, with each flashback to a new woman before she came to the prison I'm astounded at the breadth of talent they have assembled for this amazing show. It is truly ground-breaking for the cast alone. Even if the show was garbage getting all these women in a room is a feat unto itself.
3. Those back stories. Last season was amazing, don't get me wrong, but the back stories of this season are incredible. From Miss Rosa, to Morello's dark past (didn't see that one coming!), to Poussey I looked forward to going backwards more and more with each story. In the end knowing the circumstances and situations that brought these women to prison really makes the show.

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True Detective & feminism

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I recently read this article regarding the HBO show True Detective being a "turnoff" for female viewers. As a female viewer who just finished season one (holy cow, did not sleep for days) the premise of the article intrigued me, but actually ended up confounding me:

How can it be so intelligent on matters of slow-burning grief and small-town bigotry and yet so dumb – really dumb – on the subject of women?

Ummm yeah, easy — the show wasn't written to be kind to the feminist agenda (whatever that is). It was written to be a devastating, creepy look at small town violence and the detectives who work to bring the perpetrators to justice. And it does all those things really really well.

Things I like most about True Detective include how raw the two main characters, Marty and Rust, are portrayed by Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey. In particular McConaughey's character reminds me of Jimmy McNulty, aka Dominic West's character on the other HBO cop-masterpiece that wasn't particularly kind to women, The Wire. I also enjoy that while Marty's relationships with women are not functional or fun or feminist they are real things that happen to men with jobs like his. What's being portrayed isn't fun to watch both because it's misogynist (which it is), but also because it's heartbreaking.

Now, if you've read my blog or know me you know that I am a lunatic feminist who constantly talks about body image, powerful females in film & TV, Claire Underwood on House of Cards, and LGBTQ issues as discussed at the Oscars but in this case I think we've gone too far, fellow feminists.

But what the show is implicitly – if unintentionally – saying, is that true detectives are men.

True Detective is set in rural Louisiana in the mid-'90s. I don't know about you but I kind of doubt there were a ton of Louisiana State Police Criminal Investigations Division homicide detectives who were women during that time in that place. Perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps my experience working in the same building as a small police force at a University in Washington State that has only had 2 female police officers in the last 6 years on a staff out of about 20 was an illusion.

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In the end I'd rather watch True Detective with all its misogyny than shows like Girls or Sex and the City that portrayal the lives of women in other weird lights.

Lena Dunham has done a great job pretending to know what it's like to be an unemployed middle-class white girl living in a two bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, oh wait, no she hasn't. I was an unemployed middle-class white girl in Bellingham for about a month after I graduated college and I could barely afford to put gas in my car. Working semi-part-time-kinda at a coffee shop would not afford you the apartment Hannah has here, let alone in Brooklyn. Dunham's writing reflects a major flaw I find with Girls: the situations seem too good or too bad to be true because they are, Dunham can't write about characters being poor because she herself (as well as the entire main cast) has never been poor.

In the case of True Detective Nic Pizzolatto, the creator of the show, wrote about what he knows, Louisiana, and writes from the perspective of how a man would deal with the situations presented for Marty & Rust. Had he written the scenes involving Maggie and Marty's crumbling relationship more focused on Maggie's plight would it have had the same impact on Marty's character? I think not.

Feminism is great, feminism is the reason some great strides have been made in the entertainment industry, but feminism is not something to be pushed into all media in order for audiences to feel comfortable. If we were comfortable with how the women in this show are treated would we feel the same way about the show in general, I don't think so. Would the dramatic conclusion to the series, that I am not about to spoil, have come about if Rust stayed home with his daughters, painting their nails and watching Sweet Valley High with them? No.

True Detective doesn't make me uncomfortable because I understand that these characters aren't supposed to be feminists but they are also just that — characters on a television series. And, in the case of most amazing television, most are not feminists because the shows was written/directed/and produced by a man. The biggest thing this article made me realize is whining about current shows portrayal of women does nothing — writing shows focused on strong female leads, directed by strong women, and produced by women will do something.

To end this rant on feminism and modern television I leave you with a few shows that are baulking traditional roles for female characters and doing some amazing things:

• House of Cards – Claire Underwood, Jackie Sharp, etc.
• The Fall
• Top of the Lake
• Nurse Jackie
• Sherlock
• Bob's Burgers (I had to)

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my life, as told by Bob's Burgers gifs

Besides my obsession with melting my brain via House of Cards I love Bob's Burgers. To me there is nothing funnier than Tina's moan, or Louise's antics, or Gene's tender soul. I love it all and most of my love comes from how relatable it is.

So, here are 15 moments that my life perfectly mirrors Bob's Burgers, as told through amazing gifs from this incredible blog: http://bobsgifs.tumblr.com/

         1. When I try to act like an adult at dinner parties

         2. When I ride my scooter and people can't see me

   

         3. When I get a parking spot within 100' of Target

         4. When my body forgets I'm lactose intolerant 

         5. When my friend and drink a bottle of wine before seeing The Artist and everyone glares at us

         6. When someone calls me on the phone

         7. First swim of the year!

         8.  Trying to interact with people my age

         9. Watching anything with Michael Fassbender in it

         10. First sip of coffee of the day

    

         11. My inner response to most things

   
          12. When I see the latest Uggs/leggings-esque fashion trends

         13. When 3pm strikes at work and I haven't had a second cup of coffee

         14. When I come into work looking for the dog

         15. My inner dialogue, always

Claire Underwood

from here

Claire Underwood. Claire freakin' Underwood.

From the moment I saw her on the first episode of House of Cards I was absolutely smitten. I mean, I've loved a ton of stuff Robin Wright has been in (Princess Bride, White Oleander, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, etc. etc.) but nothing compares to this role.

In order of things I love most about Claire:

1. Her sass – this woman knows what she wants and gets it
2. Her hair & style – simple, sleek, bold, her hair was part of my inspiration for my own dramatic haircut 
3. She's her own, very separate person from her husband – this might be controversial but when she leaves to NYC without telling Francis and could care less if he figures out where she is. She has her own non-profit and while she relies on Francis to help maneuver more money for her cause the two are not inexplicably linked.
4. She's not an "ice bitch" as some have claimed. She's a woman who has her own business and a marriage and deals with things the way she sees fit. Honestly, if I were married to a high-level politician my marriage might look similar to hers (perhaps without the accepted open marriage, perhaps not!) and certainly she's living her own life.
5. She reminds me of Abbey Barlet! Strong, independent women behind strong political men makes for wonderful television.

Friday I will not be eating a romantic dinner, I will be stuffing my face with pizza binge-watching House of Cards season 2 for more amazing Claire Underwood moments.

♢♢

10 documentaries that will change your life

Documentaries have always appealed to my nerdiness and love of non-fiction. In recent times they've gained a wider popularity as Netflix pushes them into the mainstream. The following are some of my favorites and really highlight the wide-breadth of topics available in this format.

1.  Chasing Ice 

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A stunning film that documents global warming in such a way that even the most ardent skeptics can't deny the evidence this film brings forward. What I found most helpful, and what I have missed before, were stop-motion videos and images of the effects of climate change and putting those changes to scale. When you see a piece of ice falling off a glacier into the water it might look huge, but when a map of Manhattan is overlaid on top of it you begin to understand the real changes taking place around the world.

shows to binge watch over the holidays

One of my favorite things is to binge watch television on a dreary, lame Saturday. Since I live in a place that receives about 35" of rain annually and is apparently #1 of the Top 101 cities with the lowest average sunshine amount it's easy to justify a lot of vegging.

For Thrills:
Scandal
The Fall
Top of the Lake
Sherlock
Nip/Tuck
Twin Peaks

For Smarts:
David Chang: Mind of a Chef
Mythbusters
The Magic School Bus
How Stuff Works
Dirty Jobs

For Laughs:
Bob's Burgers
Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23
Orange is the New Black
The IT Crowd
Freaks & Geeks
The Munsters
Queer Eye for the Straight Guy

For Feels:
The West Wing
Friday Night Lights
Hit & Miss
The L Word
Rescue Me

For Guilty Pleasures (sorry not sorry!):
Bones
Crossing Jordan
Law & Order SVU
Ugly Betty
Skins
Flying Wild Alaska

things I was obsessed with in 2013

1. Making lists
2. Seeing great films (all star list here)
3. Bob's Burgers
4. Watching crappy tv on Netflix, more on that in a bit
5. Nail polish, all of the nail polish
6. Olive & mushroom pizzas
7. Trying to find out what I would rather be doing in life
8. Very recently, reading long form articles from lists Buzzfeed makes
9. Reading in general
10. Calligraphy and expanding my creative outlets

What were you obsessed with in 2013?

bob's burgers love

I love the show Bob's Burgers. Love it.

I would watch episodes back to back to back to back all day if I could, but I have to work and buy dish soap and stuff so I cannot.

I love everything about this show: the characters, the humor, the story lines, the amazing gifs they produce:

the best episode of girls

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My favorite episode of the t.v. show Girls is "Welcome to Bushwick a.k.a. the Crackcident" from season 1 — Shoshanna smoking crack, could it get any funnier? I think not.

The episode that surprised me the most, and continues to make me think about what it is to be a young, independent woman is "One Man's Trash" from season 2. In this episode, as everyone on the internet knows, Hannah goes to confess to a man (Patrick Wilson playing JoshUA) that she's been putting trash in his cans from her work and ends up staying for two nights.

This episode caused all sorts of controversy because Hannah looks like a fairly normal 24 year old woman, and JoshUA looks like a hot actor person. I have a lot of trouble with this sort of backlash for many reasons, most of which revolve around how stupid it is to assume someone like him would not like someone like her physically or otherwise. As someone who is not doing 500 squats a day, partaking in Crossfit, or otherwise going above and beyond to look like someone's idea of ideal I can say this episode made me happy to be watching t.v. and happy they showed this interaction taking place the way it did.

What stuck with me more than their physical relationship was their last interactions. Hannah tearfully admits that she just wants to be happy, and after JoshUA says of course, that's what everyone wants she explains that:

I made a promise, such a long time ago, that I was going to take in experiences, all of them, so that I could tell other people about them and maybe save them. But it gets so tiring, trying to take in all the experiences for everybody, letting anyone say anything to me. Then I came here, and I see you, and you’ve got the fruit in the bowl in the fridge with the stuff. … I realize I’m not different. I want what everyone wants. I want all the things. I just want to be happy.

In part this touches the core of my current existence. While I never made myself a promise to choose experiences over happiness that is the path of least resistance my life has chosen for the past several years. I choose partners, jobs, situations, based on adventures and how interesting they might be, not on how much joy and happiness they might bring me. I choose interactions that challenge me over those that are safe, and from those come exactly what Hannah/Lena Dunham are talking about, "so that I could tell other people about them and maybe save them". 

In college I chose to date men who challenged my views on basically everything and at times that meant my views on my own self-worth. Finding someone who creates that feeling of safety Hannah is talking about, perhaps not physically but tactilely, the "fruit in the bowl in the fridge with the stuff" has been something I myself have avoided for a very long time. I never thought much about marriage, having children, or buying a house until the last year or so; I never wanted to admit I was so stereotypical in my desires for my life, so ordinary. That, I believe, is at the center of this episode — when it's right in front of you, no matter how hip and counter-culture you are, it's hard to decide to choose a life of experiences over a life with a full fridge, a nice partner and some normalcy. 

I don't think Hannah, or I, can give up our love of these experiences any time soon but I do think admitting we want what most people want, happiness, a fairly normal domestic life is the first step towards self-acceptance. It's okay to want these things, it's okay.