Friday, August 29, 2008

The Bella Cullen Project



Out of all the Twilight-inspired bands that have popped up lately, The Bella Cullen Project is my favorite. I think it's awesome that three teenage girls can put together a band and really commit to the music. The songs are really fun to listen to; very light and simple and beautiful. If you love the Twilight series, you will really enjoy listening to them. Here's your QotD, the lyrics for one of their songs.

Switzerland

Jacob, please don't go
I love you, I do
I'd follow your tracks through the snow
just to find you, it's true

'Cause I am Switzerland
The neutral starts here
I'm gray matter
Between a field of red
and a river of sun
I'm content to be the middle of
my two loves

Edward, can't you see?
I'd die without you here.
I'd cease to exist
So never let me go, hold me so dear
I know you'll always be here

'Cause I am Switzerland
The neutral starts here
I'm gray matter
Between a field of red
and a river of sun
I'm content to be the middle of
my two loves

Why can't I love both?
Why do I have to choose?
They're both a part of me
and now they're both singing the blues



Also, here is the link to their site. You can get their music off itunes.

http://www.thebellacullenproject.com/index.cfm


Thursday, August 28, 2008

Animated Buffy

!!!! This was on the past horizon, but never really panned out. Too bad too. It would have been grrrrreat! Check out this promo trailer that popped up online recently.

A New Browncoat


Ok, I know, I know! But I just can't help myself. I love my new show too much. I'm sorta angry with myself for not trusting my fellow Joss fans before. I could have discovered this glorious love so much sooner. Ok, I am being dramatic, but whatever. That's my gig. Sorry for the lack of updates, but again, I doubt anyone missed my ramblings overly much. Here are some awesome Firefly quotes to make up for my recent absence. And some shiny pictures! Enjoy!


Kaylee: (pointing to a pink frilly dress) "Say, look at the fluffy one!"
Zoe: "Too much foofaraw. If I'm going to wear a dress, I'd want something with some slink."
Wash: "You want a slinky dress? I can buy you a slinky dress. Captain, can I have money for a slinky dress?"
Jayne: "I'll chip in."
Zoe: (to Jayne) "I can hurt you."


Mal: "Does, uh... does this seem kind of tight?"
Kaylee: "Shows off your backside. Did you see the chandelier? It's hovering."

Harrow: "You have to finish it, lad. You have to finish it. For a man to lay beaten... and yet breathing? It makes him a coward."
Inara: "It's humiliation."
Mal: "Sure. It would be humiliating. Having to lie there while the better man refuses to spill your blood. Mercy is the mark of a great man. (lightly stabs Atherton with the sword) Guess I'm just a good man. (stabs him again) Well, I'm all right."

Book: "I am a Shepherd. Folks like a man of God."
Mal: "No, they don't. Men of God make everyone feel guilty and judged."

Mal: "Well, look at this! Appears we got here just in the nick of time. Whaddya suppose that makes us?"
Zoe: "Big damn heroes, sir."
Mal: "Ain't we just!"



PS: Do we really believe that David Boreanaz is frightened of chickens and that's why he didn't take the lead role of Mal? Cause there was a chicken in one of the pilot scenes? Cause if so...wow.



Monday, August 25, 2008

Life



Good morning blog readers! I finally finished Confessor, the final book in Terry Goodkind's 12 book Sword of Truth series. I've been reading these books for over 10 years now. It was a good run, though a long and drawn out one. I was happy with the end, so I guess that's all that really matters. Here's a excerpt from the end of book, so don't read any further if you want to but haven't yet found time to read this book. This line is all Richard Rahl.


"To exist in this vast universe for a speck of time is the great gift of life. Out tiny sliver of time is our gift of life. It is our only life. The universe will go on, indifferent to our brief existence, but while we are here we touch not just part of that vastness, but also the lives around us. Life is the gift each of us has been given. Each life is our own and no one else's. It is precious beyond all counting. It is the greatest value we can have. Cherish it for what it truly is."

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Religious and Political Views Ensue...

So, obviously, within the first couple minutes of my road trip to Charleston with Lucas (it's complicated, don't ask) we start into an argument. This one started with Lucas throwing out some racist comment (and he calls me RACIST!) about Jewish people (something about being cheap, so original, sheesh) and me jokingly asking him not to insult my people (I'm half Jewish, on my mother's side). He went on to insist that I wasn't really Jewish...

Lucas: "Did you have a bar mitzvah?"
Me: "Well, no...but I went to a couple..."
Lucas: "Then you're not really Jewish".

I will cut out the boring back and forth banter, but the conversation ended this way (also, your QotD):

Lucas: "...not only did his Uncles give him thousands of dollars in a trust fund, but his father took him to some sacred mountain in Israel. And God knows how much THAT cost...".


Friday, August 22, 2008

The Chain



Today's QotD is from an early issue of the Buffy Season 8 comics. This is one of the few comics that doesn't actually have Buffy in it. It centers on a Buffy decoy who gives her life for her cause, for Buffy's cause, and to help her sister slayers. This section is at the very end of the issue, written from the unknown slayer's point of view. It was an excellent issue. #5, I think.

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?"
But that's not the point. There's always a name. Lincoln. Hitler. Ganghi. The name can inspire terror, awe... somtimes great things. But there's millions of people go into making a name. People facing things they couldn't imagine they would. In the moments that matter, even our own names are just sounds people make to tell us apart. What we are isn't that. The real questions run deeper. Can I fight? Did I help? Did I do for my sisters? My comrades, children...There is a chain, between each and every one of us. And like the man said, you either feel its tug or you ignore it. I tried to feel it. I tried to face the darkness like a woman and I don't need any more than that. You don't have to remember me. You don't even know who I am. But I do.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Into My Own

Into My Own
by: Robert Frost

One of my wishes is that those dark trees,
So old and firm they scarcely show the breeze,
Were not, as 'twere, the merest mask of gloom,
But stretched away unto the edge of doom.

I should not be withheld but that some day
Into their vastness I should steal away,
Fearless of ever finding open land,
Or highway where the slow wheel pours the sand.

I do not see why I should e'er turn back,
Or those should not set forth upon my track
To overtake me, who should miss me here
And long to know if still I held them dear.

They would not find me changed from him they knew--
Only more sure of all I thought was true.

-For my Dad.-

Newest Twilight Trailer

Twilight Trailer

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Firefly



Ok, so I discovered my becoming/soon-to-be obsession; Joss Whedon's Firefly. I am a HUGE Joss fan, as most of you know, so I am sure you are surprised that I have never actually seen even one episode of Firefly. It just isn't my genre. I'm not really partial to westerns or science fiction, let alone the two mixed. I come to find that even a show that is completely out of my preferred genre, as long as it's Joss, I'm going to love it. And I do. I love it. I love Nathan Fillion and the whole cast. I love the writing and the grand sets. I love the COMMENTARIES! My rather substantial rear barely left the couch last night after I finally received my box set in the mail. I was sucked in, from the very first battle scene, from the faith-destroying look that Mal gives us as he realizes that no matter how hard he fought, in the end it was all for nothing, that he was being betrayed by the cause he would have happily given his life for. That look was it. As his people died around him, he stood stone still, as if at that moment all the good was washing out of him. It was hard to tear my eyes away from the screen long enough to get a nice big bowl of low-fat ice cream, but I managed. It was even harder to turn it off and make myself go to bed, but sleep is necessary for me to function. So, special for you today, a couple quotes from my new favorite show.

Jayne: "Testing, testing. Captain, can you hear me?"
Mal: "I'm standing right here."
Jayne: "You're coming through good and loud."
Mal: " 'Cause I'm standing right here."

Mal: "Well, what about you, Shepherd? How come you're flying about with us brigands? I mean, shouldn't you be off bringing religiosity to the Fuzzie-Wuzzies or some such?"
Book: "Oh, I got heathens aplenty right here."
Mal: "If I'm your mission, Shepherd, best give it up. You're welcome on my boat. God ain't."

Inara: (pissed) "What did I say to you about barging into my shuttle?"
Mal: "That it was manly and impulsive?"
Inara: "Yes, precisely. Only the exact phrase I used was 'don't'."

Zoe: "Proximity alert. Must be coming up on something."
Wash: (alarmed) "Oh my god. What can it be? We're all doomed! Who's flying this thing!?" (deadpan) "Oh right, that would be me. Back to work.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Dark Rivers of the Heart

Quick and easy today. Another poem from The Book of Counted Sorrows, by Dean Koontz.

All of us are travelers lost,
our tickets arranged at a cost
unknown but beyond our means.
This odd itinerary of scenes
--enigmatic, strange, unreal--
leaves us unsure how to feel.
No postmortem journey is rife
with more mystery than life.

Tremulous skeins of destiny
flutter so ethereally
around me--but then I feel
its embrace is that of steel.

On the road that I have taken,
one day, walking, I awaken,
amazed to see where I have come,
where I'm going, where I'm from.

This is not the path I thought.
This is not the place I sought.
This is not the dream I bought,
just a fever of fate I've caught.

I'll change highways in a while,
at the crossroads, one more mile.
My path is lit by my own fire.
I'm going only where I desire.

On the road that I have taken,
one day, walking, I awaken.
One day, walking, I awaken,
on the road that I have taken.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Losing Keys

Today's quote of the day is dedicated to someone irreplaceable; a leader, a pusher and a do-er. Someone who always sees the silver lining and who always exclaims that the "glass is half-full, dammit"! If he had mantras and mottos, they would be "Fight for what you believe in!", "Stop whining!" and "No excuses!". He sounds like a hard man, but in reality, he just wants to be the best man that he can be and he merely expects the same out of everyone he meets. His happy places are in a crowd of laughing friends (laughing due to something witty or clever he just said), a dive bar, and any place within his five mile personal bubble. This QotD (Quote of the Day) is dedicated to someone stubborn, hard-headed, entirely too prideful and who loves Chuck Norris just a little bit too much. This is a dedication because my world, our world, would be a darker place without him, despite how he drives everyone around him loony-bins, especially me.



"Losing Keys" - By Jack Johnson

Don't worry
Everybody in the room notices you
Sit back and relax
The night is early
We are about to overdo it
So come and tell me something that you've already told me
Cause everybody's heard our lovely stories
I hope that some of them are true

I've been losing lots of keys lately,
I don't know what that means
But maybe I've been better off with things that can't be locked at all
I've been feeling kind of sea sick lately,
See you reaching to me gonna save me
You were me, I would much rather take the fall

The world has its ways
To quite us down
The world has its ways
To quiet us down comes the rain
Down comes our spirits again
But down comes the strength
To lift us up and then...

Been going up when now
For too long
Forget how
To let go
Seems too hard
Too late now
To turn around
The world has its ways
To quite us down
The world has its ways
To quiet us down comes rain
Down comes our spirits again
Down comes the strength
To lift us up and then...

Friday, August 15, 2008

Time is Running Out


I'm feeling in a musical mood today (not an actual musical mood, just a musical mood...oh never mind...), a Muse mood, to be more specific. Ever since an old friend brought them to my attention and ever since Stephenie Meyer first put them on her reading playlists, I have loved listening to this band. They are great for any mood you might be in and you never get tired of listening to their songs. Here's one of my favorites.


"Time Is Running Out"

I think I'm drowning
Asphyxiated
I wanna break this spell
That you've created

You're something beautiful
A contradiction
I wanna play the game
I want the friction

You will be the death of me
You will be the death of me

Bury it
I won't let you bury it
I won't let you smother it
I won't let you murder it

Our time is running out
Our time is running out
You can't push it underground
You can't stop it screaming out

I wanted freedom
Bound and restricted
I tried to give you up
But I'm addicted

Now that you know I'm trapped sense of elation
You'd never dream of
Breaking this fixation

You will squeeze the life out of me
Bury it
I won't let you bury it
I won't let you smother it
I won't let you murder it

Our time is running out
Our time is running out
You can't push it underground
You can't stop it screaming out
How did it come to this?
Oh



Thursday, August 14, 2008

Doomed



So, due to the blackness of my own love life swirling around my head every second of the day, I'm feeling the "doomed relationship" today. I mean, is there anything better than a doomed relationship? It's forbidden and doomed and all...dramatic. It's like a car wreck, you just can't look away, even though you REALLY don't want to see it. What can you do but watch and wince and half cover your eyes in a pitiful attempt to shield your fragile psyche from the traumatic event. You watch it, and your eyes are never the same. You live it...and you are never the same. So, here's to the best doomed relationship I have ever seen and loved and been traumatize by.


Buffy: No, if you have something to say, say it. Angel, drop the cryptic, you're scaring me.
Angel: I've been thinking... about our future. And the more I do, the more I feel like us — you and me — being together is unfair to you.
Buffy: Is this about what the Mayor said? Because he was just trying to shake us up.
Angel: He was right.
Buffy: No. No, he wasn't. He's the bad guy.
Angel: You deserve more. You deserve something outside of demons and darkness. You should be with someone who can take you into the light. Someone who can make love to you.
Buffy: I don't care about that.
Angel: You will. And children.
Buffy: Children? Can you say jumping the gun. I killed my goldfish.
Angel: Today. But you have no idea how fast it goes, Buffy. Before you know it, you'll want it all. A normal life.
Buffy: I'll never have a normal life.
Angel: Right. You'll always be the Slayer. But that's all the more reason why you should have a real relationship instead of this- this freakshow. I didn't mean that.
Buffy: I wanna go.
Angel: I'm sorry. Buffy... you know how much I love you. It kills me to say this.
Buffy: Then don't. Who are you to tell me what's right for me? You think I haven't thought about this.
Angel: Have you? Rationally?
Buffy: No. Of course not. I'm just some swooning little school girl, right?
Angel: I'm trying to do what's right here. I'm trying to think with my head instead of my heart.
Buffy: Heart? You have a heart? It isn't even beating.
Angel: Don't.
Buffy: Don't what? Don't love you? I'm sorry. You know what? I didn't know that I got a choice in that. I'm never gonna change. I can't change. I want my life to be with you.
Angel: I don't.
Buffy: You don't want to be with me? I can't believe you're breaking up with me.
Angel: It doesn't mean that I don't...
Buffy: How am I supposed to stay away from you?
Angel: I'm leaving. After the Ascension. After it's finished with the Mayor and Faith. If we survive, I'll go.
Buffy: Where?
Angel: I don't know.
Buffy: Is this really happening?



Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Interview with Stephenie Meyer

In-depth, major question-answering interview with Stephenie Meyer on Breaking Dawn. Mostly for my gals (you know who you are).

Breaking Dawn

I can no longer hold off my instinctual desire to shower you with Breaking Dawn quotes. I held off as long as possible, but I'm only human. So, here are some of my favorite Breaking Dawn moments. Live them, love them, thank me later. *As always, this book was written by Stephenie Meyer. These are her words.

"I could get used to this," I said.
"Don't tell me you've gotten over your dancing issues?"
"Dancing isn't so bad - with you. But I was thinking more of this, " - and I pressed myself to him even tighter - "of never having to let you go."
"Never," he promised, and he leaned down to kiss me.
It was a serious kind of kiss - intense, slow but building...
I'd pretty much forgotten where I was when I heard Alice call, "Bella! It's time!"
I felt a brief flicker of irritation with my new sister for the interruption.
Edward ignored her; his lips were hard on mine, more urgent than before. My heart broke into a sprint and my palms were slick against his marble neck.
"Do you want to miss your plane?" Alice demanded, right next to me now. "I'm sure you'll have a lovely honeymoon camped out in the airport waiting for another flight."
Edward turned his face slightly to murmur, "Go away, Alice," and then pressed his lips to mine again.
"Bella, do you want to wear that dress on the airplane?" she demanded.
I wasn't really paying much attention. At the moment, I simply didn't care.
Alice growled quietly. "I'll tell her where you're taking her, Edward. So help me, I will."
He froze. Then he lifted his face from mine and glared at his favorite sister. "You're awfully small to be so hugely irritating."



How did people do this - swallow all their fears and trust someone else so implicitly with every imperfection and fear they had - with less than the absolute commitment Edward had given me? If it weren't Edward out there, if I didn't know with every cell of my body that he loved me as much as I loved him - unconditionally and irrevocably and, to be honest, irrationally - I'd never be able to get up off this floor.

But it was Edward out there, so I whispered the words "Don't be a coward" under my breath and scrambled to my feet. I hitched the towel tighter under my arms and marched determinedly from the bathroom. Past the suitcase full of lace and the big bed without looking at either. Out the open glass door onto the powder-fine sand.



Edward's golden eyes were empty. "It probably just leads back to the house."
"Then I'll meet you there."
At first I thought he would let me go alone, but then, as I moved a few steps away, his blank eyes flickered to life.
"I'll come with you, " he said quietly. "We'll met you at home, Carlisle."
Carlisle nodded, and the others left. I waited until they were out of sight, and then I looked at Edward questioningly.
"I couldn't let you walk away from me," he explained in a low voice. "It hurt just to imagine it."
I understood without more explanation than that. I thought of being divided from him now and realized I would have felt the same pain, no matter how short the separation.
There was so little time left to be together.
I held my hand out to him, and he took it.





Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Lay All Your Love on Me

It seems like everyday we go around, whether we are already in love or not, and point out the qualities that we want and/or don't want in a lover, a boyfriend/girlfriend, a husband/wife. We spend our days searching for and seeing the things we think will make us ultimately happy. We read books, we watch movies, we listen to our friends tell us about their ultimate happiness they were finally able to find. We dissect these things and slowly, over years of practice, years of guessing and checking, we make a list of what we NEED to survive in contentment with another person. I have that list, in the back of my mind, everyday. It unconsciously drives and moves my everyday decisions. It tells me to either move closer or to create distance between myself and other people. It tells me what I should or shouldn't love. WHO I can survive loving, WHO I can't survive loving. What will work and what won't work. This list will crumble the wall I have placed around myself...or it will enforce it. As you change and grow, the list can change and grow. Things you wanted when you were in college will not always translate to what you want when you are working in a 9-5 job. With each new person you meet, date, love and heartbreak over, you change and so does your list. And somethings that change, can never change back to the what they were before. It's a life lesson that I know deeply. Somethings that break, can never be put back together again in the exact same way they were before. Not saying that they can't be put back together in some form, it just won't be the same form as before. Because by that point, your list has changed and there is no going back.

I picked this song to, for one, keep in the musical vein, but also because this song gives a good example of part of my list. It gives a good example of most women's list, I would dare to venture. It reminds me of the beginning of a new relationship; all passion, irrationality and raw emotion. However, in this musical's context, it comes right before a wedding. We all would like to see all that passion, etc to continue on past the honeymoon stage. It seems right that way.


Lay All Your Love on Me


SKY

I wasn't jealous before we met
Now every man that I see is a potential threat
And I'm possessive, it isn't nice
You've heard me saying that smoking was my only vice
But now it isn't true
Now everything is new
And all I've learned
Has overturned
I beg of you

SOPHIE

Don't go wasting your emotion
Lay all your love on me

It was like shooting a sitting duck
A little small talk, a smile and baby I was stuck
I still don't know what you've done with me
A grown-up woman should never fall so easily
I feel a kind of fear
When I don't have you near
Unsatisfied
I skip my pride
I beg you dear

SKY

Don't go wasting your emotion
Lay all your love on me

Don't go sharing your devotion
Lay all your love on me

SOPHIE

I've had a few little love affairs
They didn't last very long and they've been pretty scarce

SKY

I used to think that was sensible
It makes the truth even more incomprehensible

SOPHIE

'Cause everything is new
And everything is you
And all I've learned
Has overturned
What can I do?

Don't go wasting your emotion
Lay all your love on me
Don't go sharing your devotion
Lay all your love on me



Monday, August 11, 2008

Wicked

I have to admit, getting back into the groove of the work-thing was difficult. I was barely able to make it out of bed this morning. Nothing much going on this week, so not much motivation to get up. I did however forget to mention the release of Breaking Dawn in my motivations for last week. That was a biggie. I finally finished it last night, probably making me the slowest reader of the book among all the fans. But hey, I was in New York City, I had a good excuse. It was amazing, just as expected; excellent ending and just how a reader wants to end such a great series.



Anyhow, I am going to fight against my urge to shower you with Breaking Dawn quotes and instead go against the expected. In mourning for the one thing I wasn't able to do in NYC, here's your quote of the day from the musical Wicked (Charlie was kind enough to burn me the CD and I haven't been able to listen to anything else ever since first inserting it into my car's CD player).


I'm Not That Girl


ELPHABA:


Hands touch, eyes meet
Sudden silence, sudden heat
Hearts leap in a giddy whirl
He could be that boy
But I'm not that girl


Don't dream too far
Don't lose sight of who you are
Don't remember that rush of joy
He could be that boy
I'm not that girl


Ev'ry so often we long to steal
To the land of what-might-have-been
But that doesn't soften the ache we feel
When reality sets back in


Blithe smile, lithe limb
She who's winsome, she wins him
Gold hair with a gentle curl
That's the girl he chose
And Heaven knows
I'm not that girl


Don't wish, don't start
Wishing only wounds the heart
I wasn't born for the rose and the pearl
There's a girl I know
He loves her so
I'm not that girl




Friday, August 8, 2008

Your Mom's on 49th Street!

When I first stepped out into the sunlight from the Penn Station subway and looked around at the city of New York for the first time, I had two words for it: crowded and overwhelming. That first day was the worst, I must admit, but things went uphill from there, thankfully. As the days past and I saw more and more of the city, more and more words came to me: amazing, eye-popping, awe-inspiring, beautiful. The list goes on and on. By the time my trip was almost over, I was split in half. One half wanted to "get the hell outta this crazy town!" The other half never wanted to leave. The lights, the people, the stores, the buildings...I could look at them all day and never feel bored or unimpressed.

I found heaven while I was there. The first time I walked around Times Square at night, I was like a mythological dragon curling it's body around it's vast pile of riches. The lights and the billboards and the stores were like gold and silver and jewels to my eyes. I wanted to wrap my mind around them and never stop staring and never give them up. It was difficult to leave that final night; with all the lights and excitement swirling around me. It's a sight you will never forget.

I found hell there also. It was dream-like, walking from my newly discovered heaven to this newly found hell. Just one flight down and the air turns sticky and outrageously hot. You can barely breathe and there are people crowded everywhere. The subway. Horrible place. Too bad since that's where I spent most of my time while I was there.

I want to give a shout out to my two tour guide, Charlie and Kristina. You guys are the best! Thanks for showing me your city and walking around with me until our ankles fell off.


Here are a couple pictures from my adventures.





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The views expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.