...In which our heroine previews some flicks.

Across the radar today is the trailer for Choke, the second adaptation of a Chuck Palahniuk novel to the big screen. The book is the worst by Palahniuk, although the twist was pretty neat. I am interested to see what they do with the movie, as far as maintaining plot and some of the vulgar antics in the book. Hopefully it doesn't suck and one day we'll get Survivor and Invisible Monsters, or the HBO anthology series for Haunted.

Two movies come out this week I am reluctant to say I want to see. Ever since I saw the first trailer for The Strangers a looong time ago, my interest was piqued. It has leads I like in Liv Tyler and the ever-so-cute Scott Speedman and has that "based on a true story" BS they stick on every horror movie now. But the blank faces in the trailer freak me out and it looks to be one of those slow burn gore shows, not the torture porn of Saw or Hostel or homogenized remake crap that has permeated the genre for the past few years.

...And of course there's Sex and the City. I was around 12 when the last few seasons of the show were on and I watched them. It was by no means a great show, but certainly had its moments despite a totally whiny protagonist. The last season sucked but I would be lying if I said I wasn't 100% curious to see what they do with the movie. I'm gonna get sucked into the vortex, I just know it.

...In which our heroine lets it be.

A weird Memorial Day weekend, fo' sho.

Friday was my first college party--a blacklight affair at the Delta Chi house at UC. All in all, it was pretty lame, but that's probably because I wasn't drinking. Met some a-holes from XU, stood around, and was hoped that I wouldn't be stuck at these kind of parties for the next four years.

Didn't get to listen to much of the Modern Rock 500 because of work, graduation parties, and other social engagements. What I heard was not the best list ever, especially compared to last year. And I am highly upset Shiv didn't include "The Sweater" by Meryn Cadell or "Need You Like a Drug" by They Eat Their Own, two songs time seems to have forgotten.

Sunday was interesting. Grandma got to be in the hospital for the fourth year in a row on her birthday and I went to the home of Cassie's boo. Who knows my dad. And all of his friends know my dad. I am simply "Kenhagen'sdaughter" to them. Great. Its a typical college boy house, scattered with Magic cards and no food but lots of beverages. We had fun playing Smash Brothers Brawl and I went to bed at six, having to be at work at one. Awesome. But I met my last goal I had set for high school on Sunday, right in the nick of time. I am complete in all the ascribed high school experiences now.

Work soon. Bleh. Such is life. 30 hour weeks...yay! Bob Evans owns my life for the third summer in a row.

...In which our heroine visits old friends.

There's a line in Almost Famous by everyone's favorite groupie, Penny Lane, when discussing how she stays so centered despite her "profession." Her answer is that when she gets lonely, she goes to the record store and visits her friends.

This is my favorite weekend of the whole year. I don't care that its the beginning of summer or about that damn car race.

What I do care about is the 19th Annual Modern Rock, over at WOXY.com. It is a countdown of the 500 most requested songs in the now-online station's history, from 10 AM to midnight today and tomorrow, then from 1o til its over on Monday.

When I was 12, I found a box of cassette tapes in the basement from the second and third annual Modern Rock 500s. I listened to them on the bus to school and when I went to school. I listened over and over, and eventually I loved the music. By the next year, I was taping the countdown on my own. When the station went off the air in 2002, I had 151 tapes and was never going to be able to give up on my WOXY.

The Modern Rock 500 is pure joy for me. I get to visit old friends, like the Concrete Blonde playing now, or X five minutes ago. I get to catch up with new friends too, LCD Soundsystem and Arcade Fire.

Enjoy Memorial Day with your friends. I'll be having fun with mine.

...In which our heroine reviews Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Seeing as I was the official movie maven of Odin's Word and that chapter of my life is over with, I'm transferring my reviews here.

First up is Iron Man which I saw for the second time on Tuesday. I had a good feeling about this one from the start--great cast, Jon Favreau as director, a cool hero as base material. I'm glad to say I was anything but disappointed.

Aside from Batman Begins this is the best superhero film I've seen. Robert Downey Jr. is perfect for boozing, slick, womanizing genius Tony Stark and brings humor and heart to the part. The first 10 minutes of the movie gives a perfect idea of Tony Stark the man, and even in that intro, the origin story is far better done than in X-Men or Spiderman. The look of the film is very modern and the effect of which there are many, never feel cartoonish. Oh and the plot, the marvelous plot. Besides the whole "electromagnet in the chest" thing, the setup of Tony Stark's transformation and the circumstances that turn him into the Iron Man is so topical and so believable.

If I had one complaint about the movie, and this is a small one, its that I'll just never buy Jeff "The Dude" Bridges as a villain. Watching him lay the smackdown on Iron Man, all I could think was that he needed a Caucasian and a good game of bowling. This is one of the few movies I haven't hated Gwyenth Paltrow in, and I love that it didn't veer into ridiculous romantic territory.

Iron Man was an awesome way to begin the summer movie season and a solid film all around.

Grade: B+

And then we come to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. For me, the original Indiana Jones films will always mean childhood--watching with Dad and getting both scared and entranced as Indy saved the world once again. Raiders of the Lost Ark is the best film in the series, but my personal favorite is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Temple of Doom has its moments and a Goonie, but Kate Capshaw ruins the whole thing for me.

Needless to say, I had incredibly high hopes for the film. Dad and I, running into many of my friends, went to the midnight show. As soon as the film opens, we know that time has passed and America has entered the atomic age, the Red Scare age, and left Indy along the way as collateral damage. The opening of the film feels forced, as if Spielberg is trying to let us know immediately that its been 19 years since the last film. I couldn't stand Harrison Ford's dialog for the first bit and I was really worried it would carry through. It didn't, but whereas the performances got better, the plot didn't.

Shia LaBoeuf didn't annoy me at all, and actually did a decent job. I was thrilled that Karen Allen was back as Marion Ravenwood, one of the best tough girls in movie history, and the in-jokes to other films were nice. John Hurt and Ray Winstone were wasted in their roles, but it was nice to at least see Winstone get such a big part. (Watch Sexy Beast right now. Go. Go.) The cinematography, especially use of color, was lovely and I've come to find out that Spielberg's cinematographer went to Columbia. (!)

What didn't work was the plot. At all. There was too much humor and too little ass kickery. It all seemed too easy for Indy. And as for the crystal skulls...spoilers ahead in grey:

Aliens! Fucking aliens? Months ago I saw rumors that Frank Darabont had written a rejected screenplay with aliens, but Spielberg hated it so it was changed. Except it wasn't and George Lucas, who has a story by credit, almost ruined another franchise. Almost. In the Raiders of the Lost Ark and Last Crusade, the treasure Indy seeks is plausible to be found, real objects. But a Mayan city built by aliens with giant skulls out of gold? LAME. Matt swears that the filmmakers were just having fun, and that space is indeed the final frontier for Indy, but I still think that if that was to be the premise, it could have been more realistic. I understand that this film was kind of a joy ride, but I just don't get aliens.

The film could have been better, could have been worse. Its the least of the series, but not terrible. Worth the wait? No. But worth reliving a childhood memory as summer begins with Dad? Absolutely.

Grade: C+

...In which our heroine recounts a lovely and amazing 36 hours.

After Sunday's general gloominess about the end of school, things had to be on the up and up. They were indeed and the last day and a half or so was pretty damn outstanding.

Tuesday was not as bad as I anticipated. I said everything I needed to say to friends and teachers and said appropriate goodbyes.

Odin's Word was rough--I really wished Lakes would've been there to address Aaron, Kyle, and I, but such is life. Bekky made all the senior some very attractive cards and we all got it out with one of those life infinity moments with a sing-along to "Good Riddance." Even Alicia cried. It was really hard to walk out of that room for the last time, and I left a lot of myself there. Long weekends and tense class bells, inappropriate conversations and arguements over music, success and failure. I do believe I was ready though, as I told Kyle finally "Let's get the fuck outta here." And so we did.

Wacky Olympics were fun, despite the atrocious banana snot pudding. (Thanks Dusch.) We found that it takes at least 5 IB students to light a grill and that Fuse + 5 hotdogs = a nearly vomiting Kevin. It was a nice, child-like way to end high school.

I had a moment though, going back into school to get my stuff. It was mostly empty and it was especially hard going into Dusch's room for the last time as a student and opening my locker for the last time. How much angst and joy I have found in those hallowed halls of PHS. And I left it all behind. Thank science for Albertz whose plastic bag shirt kept me from crying as we drove away for the last time as students.

Matt and I did the 2:30 show on WLHS Lakota Radio, 89.9, with his friend DJ Meredith. Ever since I visited Barb Abney in the WOXY studios in seventh grade, its been a dream of mine to be on the radio. And I got to do it yesterday. I was kind of disappointed at the music selection, but I played "Being Simple" by the Judybats and a cool live version of "Drive" by R.E.M. We talked about my #1 geek obcession (trust me its a long list) Joss Whedon's Firefly and the best band ever (either The Beatles or Led Zeppelin by the way.) It was a cool experience and something I was lucky to have gotten to do.

After that Senior Awards night seemed interminable but I was thrilled to get Outstanding 2-D Artist and Outstanding English Student, the latter of which I also got Freshman year. In, and out, with a bang. I got a $1500 scholarship which will pay for books and film processing next year. Not too bad I guess.

There was only one way to end yesterday and the rollercoaster of high school's end, and that was by visiting an old friend--Dr. Jones I presume. Midnight shows with Dad have been a highlight of my childhood and we hadn't gone to one in a really long time so it was a nice time for us. Official review in the next post.

Let's see: last day of school, Wacky Olympics, being on the radio, racking up some bling, and going to the late night double feature picture show. Not bad at all.

...In which our heroine laments.

I'm done.

Tomorrow is my last full day of high school. I just got done crying for an hour over teacher thank yous. "Bittersweet Symphony" by the Verve came on just as I was signing my last letter. I was going to write out underclassmen thank yous but there's no way, not tonight.

I want high school to end. I don't want high school to end. I am on the bridge between the two and soon I have to step to one side. I am running there and clinging to the edge.

For the record, I further hate my iTunes shuffle which just decided to play "Good Riddance" by Green Day. Thanks a lot. Now I'm really in a good mood. What the eff.

I am not alone. I feel terrible and great. I am happy and sad.

"Cause it's a bittersweet symphony, that's life."

I am ready.

...In which our heroine complains about the unecessary sequel.

I like a sequel as much as the next cinephile. I really do. Some franchises get to shine with another movie-- Evil Dead 2, X-2: X-Men United, The Empire Strikes Back, Aliens.

But Hollywood has really got to stop with the unecessary sequels. When I saw Bruce Campbell in 2006, he had a list of sequels and remakes created by studios in the past year or currently in production. There were 56 films on his list.

I'm ranting today because of two sequels that just piss me off.

First, and significantly less offensive is Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Don't even get me started on how episodes I-III almost ruined my love for the originals but just in case those didn't suck enough, let's make some more! Watch the trailer, but any Star Wars film that has a main plot point of "the kidnap of Jabba the Hut's son" will not be seen by this Katydid. PLEASE STOP GEORGE LUCAS. I will give this a slight break, as its aimed at kids, but the characters in the trailer all look gaunt and scary.

Far more offensive is news that they are making a sequel to one of my favorite films, Donnie Darko. It took me several viewings to fully understand the movie, and it is magnificent in its singular sci fi/teenage/cult self. And now there's a sequel coming. Cinematical has the full story, but the movie will be called S. Darko and follow Donnie's little sister who served the purpose only of being insulted at the dinner table.

WHY oh why do we need a sequel to Donnie Darko? Cult movies DO NOT work well in sequels (ever seen the sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, called Shock Treatment? Yeah, no one else has either.) Only some lightning can be captured in a bottle once.

...In which our heroine makes a mixtape.

I tend to contextualize everything in my life around music. I’ve been doing this since I was around 12, ever since I really started getting into music. My favorite English teacher, Mrs. Harding, understood this and I wrote two major papers last year around songs.
I’m not the only person who does this. Chuck Klosterman does it. Joe Meno does it. Stephen Chbosky does it. But the person who does it and understands it the most is Rob Sheffield. He writes for Rolling Stone and his book, Love is a Mixtape, came out this past year.
In the book, Sheffield writes about his relationship with his wife Renee, his musical (and otherwise) soul mate. The book is written as Sheffield listens to mix tapes that epitomize their relationship. It’s often painful to read, as Sheffield uses music to deal with his grief and his descriptions of certain songs will. It’s a great book, full of musical references and sweetness—it certainly made me cry.
The thing that really stuck from Love is a Mixtape, however, was a quote towards the beginning of the novel:
I have built my entire life around loving music, and I surround myself with it. I'm always racing to catch up on my next favorite song. But I never stop playing my mixes. Every fan makes them. The times you lived through, the people you shared those times with--nothing brings it all to life like an old mixtape. It does a better job of storing up memories than actual brain tissue can do. Every mixtape tells a story. Put them together, and they add up to the story of a life.
This quote sums up my life to a tee. The very reason I fell in love with music was because I found a box of old mixtapes. Since then, winter of sixth grade, music has been what I turn to constantly, perhaps the only companion I can always count on. Music and memory are synonymous in my head and one rarely goes without the other.
With all that being said, I’ve made a list of 101 songs that sum up my past four years in high school. I don’t love all the songs on the list, but all of them hold a memory for me, and some of the memories aren’t so great either. Nonetheless, I felt like I had to make a genuine list, not just one in my head, to record all the songs that meant something to me as I moved through high school.
So here’s the list. Most of the songs won’t mean anything to anyone else but me. This is the ultimate high school mixtape, which would take up six of my supercool Memorex cassettes, broken into four convenient categories:
-People and Places: Songs that make me think of individuals or events.
-Years: Songs that sum up an entire year, that make me think of summer nights with the windows open or frosty mornings waiting for the bus.
-Concerts: From concerts I’ve attended
-Firsts: The first time I did things in high school. There were a lot of these things.
-Transcendent: The songs explain the ends of things.

People and Places:
Nights in White Satin- The Moody Blues
Paint in Black- Rolling Stones
The Time Warp- The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Smells Like Teen Spirit- Nirvana
Bela Lugosi’s Dead- Bauhaus
Love Will Tear Us Apart- Joy Division
Mr. Wendall- Arrested Development
California Stars- Wilco
Build Me Up Buttercup- The Foundations
Wait For You- Elliot Yamin
Fire and Rain- James Taylor
Stand by Me- Ben E. King
I Will Follow You Into the Dark- Death Cab for Cutie
The Distance- Cake
Modern Love- David Bowie
Lover I Don’t Have to Love- Bright Eyes
Backstreet’s Back- Backstreet Boys
Step Into My Office, Baby- Belle and Sebastian
Across the Universe- The Beatles
Is This Love- Bob Marley
I Don’t Really Love You Anymore- Magnetic Fields
Book of Love- Magnetic Fields
New Year’s Day- U2
Cruel to be Kind- Nick Lowe
Knights of Cydonia- Muse
Surrender- Cheap Trick
Johnny Appleseed- Joe Strummer
Anyone Else but You- The Moldy Peaches
Fake Empire- The National
Level- The Raconteurs
Need You Around- Smoking Popes
Free Bird- Lynyrd Skynyrd
I Could Be Good For You- 707
Hey Jude- The Beatles
In The Cold Light of the Morning- Placebo
The Bitterest Pill- The Jam
Last Christmas- Wham!
Jungleland- Bruce Springsteen
Creep- The Afghan Whigs
Sunday Bloody Sunday- U2
Dig for Fire- Pixies
The District Sleeps Alone Tonight- Postal Service

Years:
Ceremony- Joy Division
Creep- Radiohead
Layla- Derek and the Dominoes
I Write Sins Not Tragedies- Panic! At the Disco
Honey White- Morphine
Everybody Knows- Leonard Cohen
My Sweet Lord- George Harrison
The Hand That Feeds- Nine Inch Nails
Hey There Delilah- Plain White Ts
Johnny and Mary- Placebo
One More Cup of Coffee- Bob Dylan
Melissa- The Allman Brothers Band
Mother- Danzig
Bitches Ain’t Shit- Ben Folds
Yr. Mangled Heart- Gossip
I Feel You- Depeche Mode
Temple of Love- Sisters of Mercy
There is a Light That Never Goes Out- The Smiths
Black Metallic- Catherine Wheel
Swamp Thing- Chameleons UK
Neighborhood #3- Arcade Fire
Cortez the Killer- Neil Young
Know Your Rights- The Clash
Imagine- John Lennon
Bad Time- The Jayhawks
Notorious- Duran Duran
Standing Outside a Broken Phonebooth with Money in My Hand- Primitive Radio Gods
Rise- Public Image Ltd.
More Adventurous- Rilo Kiley
The Promise- When in Rome
4th of July- X
The Mercy Seat- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Where the Wild Roses Grow- Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue
Umbrella- Rihanna
Earth Angel- Death Cab for Cutie
Monkey Gone to Heaven- Pixies

Firsts:
I Write Sins Not Tragdies- Panic! At the Disco (repeat)
Stairway to Heaven- Led Zeppelin
Wrong Way- Sublime
Burn- Usher
The Artifact & Living- Michael Andrews
Fire Woman- The Cult
Eleanor Rigby- The Beatles

Concerts:
In the Kitchen- Pomegranates
Harder Faster Better Stronger- Daft Punk
One More Time- Daft Punk
Wake Up- Arcade Fire
World Where You Live- Crowded House
Persuasion- Richard Thompson
Sway- Bic Runga
Time is Running Out- Muse
Gloria- Patti Smith
Smells Like Teen Spirit- Patti Smith
State of Love and Trust- Pearl Jam
Yeah- LCD Soundsystem
New Grass- Talk Talk
Jean Genie- David Bowie
Stop Me if You Think That You’ve Heard This One Before- The Smiths
Spitting Venom- Modest Mouse
The Seed 2.0- The Roots
Young Ones- Peter Bjorn and John

Transcendent:
Can’t Hardly Wait- The Replacements
In a Lifetime- Clannad and Bono
Float On- Modest Mouse
Good Riddance- Green Day

...In which our heroine introduces herself.

So I've finally decided to give this blogging thing an honest go. I feel that its a good time to start as some things in my life are ending and a lot more are beginning.

What's to know about our illustrious blog host? Well I graduate high school in less than a month, which is dually fantastic and horrible.

In the fall, I'll be attending the only college I really wanted to go to, Columbia College, which is in Chicago. I am going to pursue my passion for film there--lately I've been thinking Cinematography for a concentration.

I am passionate about all things pop culture, mostly film and music. This is mostly the fault of my parents, who like to pretend that I was named after a family member, but I know the real reason was due to Steely Dan's album "Katy Lied." I never stood a chance to not lead a rock n'roll lifestyle.

Thus the name of this blog--I'm just Katydid, off for some adventures in the big city.

What else is to know...I could do one of those dumb Myspace surveys and tell you all about how much I like puppies and the color fuschia, but that really won't help you know me as a person. But here's a brief overview of things to know:

-I've worked at Bob Evans, as a server, for two years when I was supposed to just work for the summer. All things considered, its a pretty decent job.
-Photography is a major interest, something I have come to love over the past two years and something I plan to keep up in college.
-Most of the time, its much more cathartic for me to write my feelings than vocalize them.
-I wish I had more time to read.
-I'm a night owl who always has time for 3 AM trips to the hookah bar and Waffle House.
-Despite being an atheist, I would like to think that the majority has at least the capacity to do something good in them. I summarize this belief with a quote by Dylan Thomas: "This is the world: Have faith."

That's a sufficient intro to me, I think. So stick around if you'd like to read about the pratfalls and successes of my first year away from home, in a major city, as I try to swim with sharks. Should be fine. I hope.