Showing posts with label Harry Potter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Harry Potter. Show all posts

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Thing of the Day: 2010 (Twenty-Ten)


Full disclosure: as I write this, I am watching Jersey Shore in my Snuggie, which is actually not even a Snuggie--it is the significantly more ghetto Costco version of a Snuggie, and a disgusting mustard yellow shade. When I came home for Christmas break, I found this and a similarly ugly colored forest green faux-Snuggie resting comfortably on the section of my living room couch that is usually reserved for snacks, and ever since then my sister and I have been parading around in our new garments (these "Snuggies" also have hoods. As far as I know, real Snuggies lack hoods, which is really very silly since hooded Snuggies allow us to not only be warm and comfortable but also pretend we are dementors/Death Eaters and chase each other around the house screaming normalcies such as "Expelliarmus!" and "Give-me-the-remote-us!" If I were Snuggie Inc. I would definitely implement a hooded version. Also perhaps one that comes with feet. Although that would just be a onesie...). Snuggies aside, I'm really proud of all the characters on the Jersey Shore, especially Snooki, who really seems to have matured since she got punched in the face by a stranger. I hope she succeeds in her mission to find love with a Guido on the shore. I've been thinking lately that Snooki would be an ideal character for a reality dating show. It could be like I Love New York, but Snooki is considerably kla$$ier than New York will ever be, and I'm sure she would not have to repeat her show for a second season. When I googled "Snooki Dating Show" on a complete whim I was shocked to find that Snooki totally agrees with me. Although I was thinking of something titled "Snooki's Got Nooki" or "Nooki for Snooki," and her self-chosen potential title is the considerably inferior "Snookin' for Love." Dear MTV: If you read my blog, credit, please.

A few other thoughts:

1. New Years 2010 was...interesting (And its Twenty-Ten, not Two Thousand Ten. Come on, people). After a mediocre actual New Years Eve that culminated in having to take the subway uptown because we couldn't get a cab in the 15 degree weather, we woke up in our Times Square hotel, looked around at the confetti and glitter and eager bright eyed tourists, and decided to try again. We acquired brand new 2010 glasses (bravo to the genius who designed the 2010 glasses...before seeing them we were very concerned with how the eye holes would be placed now that it was no longer 2-eye-eye-something, but, big success!), wore them for the entirety of our family style Italian meal at Carmine's, and just when we thought the evening would culminate in wine and resolution-writing in bed, some friends saved the day by inviting us to Greenhouse. New Years Take 2 was considerably more successful, thus the only resolution we wrote was: In Twenty Ten, if at first you don't succeed, pick yoself up and try again (you can dust it off and try agaiiinnnnnnn...I miss you Aaliyah). Still working on other New Years' resolutions, but they include gems such as working out more/eating less, wasting smaller amounts of time reading strangers' blogs/StumblingUpon/other internet activities, making post graduate life plans, finding useful hobbies, running half marathons, being nicer to people, etc etc.

2. Why is Avatar 3D IMAX sold out every time I try to go see it? I am completely incapable of planning to see a movie a full day in advance, so nearly every day for the past week I have woken up and checked showtimes for the one movie theater in Brooklyn playing Avatar in IMAX and found it to be sold out every single day. Can the rest of New York City really be that much better at planning than I? All I want to do is see these blue creatures everyone has been raving about so I can blog about it, but the world seems to be against me. FOMO, Avatar.

3. Staying in Times Square for the past few days (thanks, Lauren!) has really got me thinking about tourists and tourism. As a New Yorker, I hate New York tourists. I hate their stupid I <3 style="font-style: italic;">The City. But I really don't mind other tourists. In fact, I think I like other tourists. I can only assume this is because when I am in other places, I too am a tourist, but in reality other tourists just seem more intelligent than those in New York. I was really curious about what the most visited tourist sites in the world were, so I consulted my best friend, Google who informed me that NYC, which I for some reason thought to be #1 (please consult picture on right hand corner of blog), is #5. Additionally, I have only been to 4 of the top 10 most visited cities (#1 Paris, #2 London, #5 New York, #10 Rome). I wonder what it is that drives so many people to go to the same places, and who it is that decides The Eiffel Tower or Times Square or The Colosseum is that which should be seen. But whatever it is, I would like to be a part of it. Bangkok, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, here I comeee.

4. Speaking of New York, I just finished a wonderful novel, Let The Great World Spin, by Colum McAnn, and in one paragraph it summed up exactly how I feel about the city: "New York had a way of doing that. Every now and then the city shook its soul out. It assailed you with an image, or a day, or a crime, or a terror, or a beauty so difficult to wrap your mind around that you had to shake your head in disbelief. He had a theory about it. It happened, and re-happened, because it was a city uninterested in history. Strange things occured precisely because there was no necessary regard for the past. It had no need to belief in itself as a London, or an Athens, or even a signifier of the New World, like a Sydney, or a Los Angeles. No, the city couldn't care less about where it stood. He had seen a t-shirt once that said: New York F*ckin' City. As if it were the only place that ever existed and the only one that ever would." Oh, New York. Every time I think I am over you, you reel me right back in.

5. For those who are not interested in great books, a great movie: I just saw Up In The Air. It made me think, a lot. Additionally, George Clooney is beautiful. If none of this convinces you, it is currently the highest rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes, which is the only real place to criticize movies. Go see it.

6. And finally, or those who are uninterested in great movies, great TV/great eats.
Double food porn tonight: The menu that I'm currently obsessing over, and the premiere of the White House episode of Iron Chef America on The Food Network (Bobby Flay + Mario Batali + Michelle Obama?! Leaving on the TIVO queue forever).

As usual, this blog post failed to have a concentration. So for new beginnings' sake, Thing of the Day: 2010.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Thing of the Day: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince


Last night, after over a year of waiting, I finally had the chance to travel back to my beloved Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry and see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I have a lot to say about the Harry Potter movie so I have to throw in two quick Muggle facts before I do so:

1)The lovely people at IAC have decided I am not only witty but also fashionable, so in addition to reading my frequent rants and raves about life on The Daily, the single-digit following of my blog can also skim my musings on trends, style and shopping at ProntoStyle. My posts are the ones by Nikki B (duh) and offer insight on things I am wearing and things I would like to be wearing. These posts make me sound a lot more stylish than I actually am, but I am having a great time writing them and they are leading me to do even more internet shopping at work than I did before. Nonetheless, yay awesome internship duties!

2)Yesterday afternoon I got into an almost-physical altercation with a postman! Alright, it was a postwoman, but W-T-F! Aren't these supposed to be friendly people? "The milkman, the paper boy and evening TV?" Postpeople are always portrayed on television to be bastions of kindness and neighborliness, not scary obese women who elbow you out of the way at the subway.

Now that that has been said--Harry Potter.

Harry Harry Harry...I am up there as one of your biggest fans. Seriously. My BBM name for the past three days has been "Viktor Krum." And although my BBM status is still "Hogwarts," I must say the last time I was so disappointed was when I pretended to be asleep on my couch and watched my tipsy-from-Christmas-dinner parents wrap my presents under the tree and precariously perch them in a messy heap (yes, I am Jewish. We're just fun).

There were, of course, some high points in the movie, which I will proceed to lay out in (short) list format.

-Ron's Quidditch game. Frankly, I'm impressed with any scene in which Ron doesn't fail at something because he is clearly the least awesome character. Proof? Rupert Grint got swine flu. But Ron looked almost attractive up there flexing his Wizarding muscles.
-Ginny tying Harry's shoe. Ginny Weasley, you little slut. I don't know if it's a Wizard thing but J.K Rowling CERTAINLY didn't have a shoe-tying scene in the book. You might as well have bent down and handed HP a condom.
-Creepy baby-Voldemort. Ugh, I said his name. Anyway. I am not a fan of horror movies but the only thing that really really scares me is creepy children. Ever since I realized my little sister looks suspiciously like the little girl from the ring (or did, when the movie came out. My little sister is actually kind of hot now and I don't think I like it), I have been obsessed with creepy evil movie children and whether they are convincing. Baby-Voldemort? Good. Little girl from Orphan? Bad. Very bad.
-Lavender Brown. Lavenderrrr. You were this film's saving grace. Whoever this chick is ("Jennifer Smith"? have a less exciting name,please), she was brilliant. Simply brillz. She was hilarious and phenomenally convincing as Won-Won's crazy girlfriend. I foresee many drunk/annoying best friend roles in her future. (Think vomiting best friend in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, but cuter).
-Dumbledore's fire-thing in the evil cave. HBP, did you even have a special effects budget? This was the only cool and badass thing that occurred ALL MOVIE. Where was the Death Eaters vs. Dumbledore's Army fight scene? Where was the escape from Privet Drive? I know we're in a recession, but Transformers II seemed to be able to conjure up all the explosions it needed! Come ON, HBP!

I think I'm ready for bad things now.

-Hermione. Emma Watson, really? I like you a lot as a person, think your recent Burberry ads are flawless, and can't wait to stalk you in NYC next year, but Hermione's pout in this movie could rival Serena Van Der Woodsen's (in terms of how many times it showed up--not in quality, of course). During the scene where she cried, my fellow Potterphile Jackie and I actually laughed at how bad of an actress EW is.
-Lack of battle scenes. See above. Do I need to plan a fund-raiser to acquire more money for the special effects budget of The Deathly Hallows? I don't think I can handle an action-less final installment. Vanderbilt has an unusually high endowment. Say the word, JKR.
-Complete abandonment of 3/4 of the novel. Why did the director spend 10 minutes on a made up scene in which Harry flirts with an afro-ed Muggle and decide to leave out crucial Harry-Snape, Harry-Dumbledore and Harry-Ginny interactions? I haven't read the sixth book in a while but even I knew things were awry. Also, the "fire in the Burrow" scene? DIDN'T HAPPEN.
-Harry and Ginny's "kiss". I have kissed my cab drivers goodbye more passionately at the end of a long night. For serious, I am pretty sure she didn't even slip him the tongue. First you tie his shoes, then you kiss him the way I kiss my middle-aged Moroccan strangers? Ginny Weasley, are you a ho or a tease?

I could go on, but I think I will instead nurse my sorrows by re-reading The Half-Blood Prince and reveling in the fact that although the movie was supremely sub-par, the book remains a work of unbearable genius. Overall, if not for an amazing adult cast (Helena Bonham Carter & Alan Rickman were flawless), and some awkward British humor, I would give this movie a solid thumbs down. As of now, I am tilting my thumb downward, but inverted up at a 45 degree angle. It looks a little weird.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Thing of the Day: Literature


I have decided that starting this summer and continuing over the next few years, I want to read every novel that has won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Man Booker Prize. Three very important events sparked this lofty goal:

1. My roommates have started a book club for next semester. We are reading Franny & Zooey for our first meeting, which will take place on the Sunday we get back to school and continue taking place every other Sunday, pending that more than half of us can rouse ourselves from Saturday night hangovers. Maybe they will take place every third Sunday. Or maybe we should just aim for Mondays. Guys?

2. When driving home from LBI on Sunday night, I dug Are You There Vodka? It's Me Chelsea out of my roommate's back seat and proceeded to read 100 pages on the way home. This would all be fine, since Chelsea Handler is my personal hero and I aspire to be just like her when I grow up (Why, you may ask? The woman has managed to write a best-selling novel based entirely on her love of drinking AND star in a popular television series based entirely on her disdain of stupid shit. And she has a pet midget. What I would do for a pet midget! Except I think I'd want an Asian one)--but, I have already read Are You There Vodka. Thrice. Four times if you count the re-read in the car. And despite necessary re-reads to learn how to behave exactly and precisely like Chelsea, I find it silly to read the same book more than once or twice at most. Nonetheless, I find myself doing this all the time.

3. J.K Rowling is not planning on writing any more Harry Potter books. When I Googled "8th Harry Potter book" the most reputable source I got reporting possible developments was The Gryffindor Gazette. I plan on contacting The Gryffindor Gazette ASAP to inquire about any potential need for guest columnists, but future post-graduation job if being Chelsea Handler's second in command doesn't work out aside, this is bad news.

These three combined facts, plus my desire to be able to tell people that I have read every Pulitzer and Booker book and then have them revel my intellectual superiority, has led me to print out a list of the books in question (40 Booker and 60 Pulitzer, a sweet O.C.D-friendly 100 books), cross off the ones I have already read (10.5. I started Disgrace by J.M Coetzee and hated it) decide which one I am going to read next (Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout), and plan a trip to my favorite bookstore, Strand, today before yoga.

Intellectualness(Intellectuality? Spellcheck, why are you telling me this isn't a wordddd?), here we come.