...In which our heroine considers a career change.

No, not really, but after these acting gems found by Ben, I think even I could be an actress. We've watched them all at least thirty times...

Ryan O'Neal, Oscar-worthy


The best WTF line ever


Most inexplicable


And the best of them all, from the cinematic masterpiece known as Troll 2

...In which our heroine thinks the honeymoon is over.

It snowed today for the first time. Not much, but a few flurries. Winter has come to Chicago all of the sudden. By 4:30 it is totally dark and sooo windy. Even my midwest blood isn't ready for this.

I've already started to hibernate--tonight consisted of biscuits and gravy and There Will Be Blood. We spent Saturday in Belmont and nearly froze to death. But we did finally go to Pick Me-Up Cafe, which has the best jukebox in the universe: Tom Waits, Radiohead, the Pixies, CSNY. I could've made out with it.

The title of this post pertains to the roommates. Emily and I get along really well, which is a suprise to me considering we had our issues a few years ago. Julia is fine most of the time, she's just never here with work and school. But Kathleen...yeah, es no bueno. The first few weeks it seemed as if we'd get along the best. She is wicked cool, but there are major flaws with her as a roommate. She doesn't clean up after herself--has left dishes until they grow mold, leaves a trail of destruction around the room.

The biggest issue is that she's inconsiderate. Her boyfriend was here for like the fourth time this weekend and her solution for that was to drag her mattress into the living room. Yeah, that's awesome to walk in on. Kathleen is always in everyone's buisiness and tries to play all angles of a situation. She loves drama and lied to Emily's face tonight.

It could be much worse, but it's been a stressful situation. The girl just does not know how to take care of herself sometimes. Which sucks because she can be really awesome on occastion. The stress has translated to the whole group, and lots of little conflicts are going on. Joy.

...In which our heroine reviews "Let the Right One In," then rants.

Emily and I ventured far into the north side of the city last night to hit up a preview screening of the Swedish kiddie vampire romance, Let the Right One In.

The film follows a shy, bullied boy named Oskar who meets Eli, the mysterious new girl in his apartment complex. Of course she's a vampire and of course they form an uneasy alliance that turns into love. I won't spoil much else about the plot, but I thought the movie was good but not great.

There were some unecessary plot elements and the movie didn't get going until the second half. However, the cinematography and use of lenses was outstanding--as were the exterior shots of snow covered landscapes in addition to the color palette. The performances by the young leads were solid. I think this is a film worth seeing, but not amazing. Emily liked it more than I did, but her comment after the film spurned the main focus of this post.

Am I the only one who is incredibly tired of Twilight? Perez today was talking about how advance screenings of the film are already sold out and insiders are calling the film the next Harry Potter. The books have been in Entertainment Weekly like 47 times already and all over the film blogs I read. I take major issue with this.

I have not read any of Stephanie Meyer's books in the series and have no desire to because they bother me. Vampire novels about vegetarian vampires who wait until marriage to have sex...I do not understand. But then in the fourth book the main vampire, Edward, who I am so tired of seeing girl-worship for, has to eat his vampire baby out of heroine Bella's stomach? That doesn's seem to fit.

The author is a Mormon, and it is totally fine if she wants to write about Mormon ideas but the entire idea of vampires is inherently violent and lustful. The two cannot go together. I have plenty of friends who love the books but I just refuse to read a series of books that homogenizes vampire culture. However, Robert Pattinson who also played Cedric Diggory in Goblet of Fire is Edward and he's more than a little easy on the eyes.

After seeing Let the Right One In last night I was even more perturbed with all the Twilight madness. The film I saw features young children in brutal acts of violence--there is no filter, yet at the same time a sense of innocence and sweetness is pervasive through the film. This is why Twilight annoys me so. If you want to see a movie about vampires, see a movie about real vampires, not abstinent vegetarians.

The goth in me is just bitter I guess.

...In which our heroine presents more thoughts on the election.

After the elation of Tuesday, I needed some time to process all that happened and give a better recap of my thoughts on what happened that day, so here you go.

I had no real intention of attending the rally in Grant Park--I was very concerned about things getting ugly, as Chicago has a tendency to do--the RAs warned us about going as did my parents. But when it became apparent that the boys had tickets and we were their chosen ones, I knew that I'd be pissed at myself forever if I didn't take the chance.

I voted for the first time with no issues or no waits in line around noon on Tuesday. I swear I didn't even know Nader was running again until some guy handed me a flyer outside the polling place. QUIT IT.

We initially were going to head over to the park around 7:30, seeing as the gates were supposed to open at 8:30, but the organizers ended up opening them around 6, so we headed over, of course not before a stop at Baskin-Robbins. The streets were flooded with Obama supporters and vendors, some of them already comfortably numb. I got a free button from some weird guy who called me princess--ah, Chicago.

Getting into the park intially, on the Congress brigdes was the clusterfuck I expected. That checkpoint was first, then two more, then eventual metal detectors. This all took about an hour, but was much less annoying then the bassackwards way of getting in Grant Park they set up for Lollapalooza.

Once we were in...it was to be totally cheesy and cliche...magical. The level of excitement in the air was high, and the idea of a collective goal and optimism was totally there. We didn't have a particularly good view of the stage, but then again I never really have a good view with my shortness. The crowd cheered wildly every time CNN announced a state for Obama, and once Ohio fell, we were all waiting for the axe to drop.

And at the top of the 10 o'clock hour instead of announcing west coast states, CNN announced Obama as President. There have been few other times in my life where I've felt so purely happy. There were hugs and tears and shouts--the atmosphere was fantastic. We danced and waited for the man himself to make an apperance.

A McCain fan I am not (even less so for Palin) but his speech was well done. Obama finally took the stage around 11...and you know the rest. Screaming "yes we can" with 200,000 of my close personal friends was pretty damn phenomenal. If you watch the video embeded in the last entry, the camera shows Lane and Julia at the 12:58 mark, and I'm just too short to be seen.

As for Obama himself, I am far from thinking he is America's savior. Last night's South Park did a great episode on that very thought. Obama is still young and does indeed lack some experience. I don't know if all his plans for reform will work--some may fail miserably. But when my family asks me why I voted for Barack Obama, the answer is simple. I see in him a desire for a change, an ability to hope for the best and strive to fix things that I didn't see in John McCain. I see a vision and I see hope. I see a first-generation American who is going to attempt to make my life better. And that's all I need to hear.

The stage crappily viewed, I'm short, deal with it


A few folks attended the rally


I just like this one


Everyone loves liberal girls


Liberal boys...they're okay too, I guess

...In which our heroine makes history.

Yes kids, of course your trusty heroine has awesome friends, one of which (Ben) who was kind enough to give his +1 for the Obama rally tonight in Grant Park to her.

It was fucking awesome--no other way to say it. The electricity in the air was buzzing as soon as we left our building, which is about eight blocks from Grant Park. The total elation when CNN cut to an Obama victory at 10 PM was as fantastic as anything I've ever experienced.

I saw history get made. I saw the first black President of the United States give his victory speech blocks from where I go to school.

I saw it. I was there.

The defining moment of my generation took place right in front of my eyes.

...In which our heroine lets the narcissist out.

I would be lying if I said it was a totally awesome Halloween weekend. It wasn't. For whatever reason, we all caught a case of bad karma and it definitely put a damper on things. Wes got robbed in Grant Park, Samson stumbled home by himself at 5 AM, Lane and Emily both got sick...But the best reality check of the weekend came from the fact that Ben got busted on Halloween for pot. Him getting written up was unfortunately what we all needed in order for us to realize we need to calm it down for a while. Still, I felt absolutely horrible that it had to happen to him when we've all broken the building rules.

But nonetheless, we still found time to look cute.

The roommates: Julia, Kathleen, Robert Plant, and Emily
A fratboy and Sarah Palin
Some droogs, because nothing says Halloween like homicidal rapists

Me and the Columbia BFF, Kelsey before Rocky Horror

These two studmuffins, Ben and Lane, are the objects of mine and Emily's affection, I know you're jealous

The apartment in proper Halloween fashion
Hey, for once Bugs gets to be the emo kid

Paulie and Juno, adorable

...In which our heroine reviews "Zack and Miri Make a Porno"

Despite yesterday being Halloween, I absolutely had to go see Zack and Miri Make a Porno. From the moment I heard "Seth Rogen in a Kevin Smith movie" I was smitten.

Long story short, I loved the film. I would go as far to say that it's Kevin Smith's most heartfelt film, even moreso than Chasing Amy. It also happens to be his dirtiest film--everyone's used to lots of sex talk in his films, but now we have pretty graphic sex scenes to go with the talk. I'm amazed he appealed it down to an R--I think it probably should have been NC-17.

The trailers for the film make it seem like all humor no heart, which becomes a nice suprise when you see the film and it is just so goddamn cute. Yes, a cute Kevin Smith movie. Like take your girlfriend to go see cute. Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks have amazing on-screen chemistry, just like the old friends they play in the film and their relationship seems totally realistic. And the supporting players--Smith regulars Jason Mewes and Jeff Anderson, along with Craig Robinson from "The Office" and real porn stars Katie Morgan and Traci Lords, provide the usual, fantastic supporting cast you'd see in a Kevin Smith film.

There are definitely a couple of moments that border on pure, conventional cheese, but only a couple. But, there are two scenes in the film that totally elevate it. Spoilers in the black. Zack and Miri finally do make a porno in the film, but as Zack says "they meant to fuck and ended up making love." The sex scene between the two on camera is the most genuinely sweet I've ever seen. It doesn't feel at all as something forced, more like you're intruding on something you shouldn't be watching. The awkward fumbling, the nervousness, the excitement--it feels so real it'll stop you in your tracks. It was also nice to see a legitimately hot sex scene between two actors that aren't drop dead goregous. The other great scene is the day after the sex, when Katie Morgan asks Miri if she can hook up with Zack at a party. Miri reluctantly says yes, and the wordless exchange of looks between Zack and Miri as Zack makes his way to the bedroom without Miri is phenomenal. It didn't hurt that Kevin Smith set the scene to "Hey" by the Pixies.

The film's been getting average reviews, but I think it's much better than that. I really want to see it again, if not only for the ginormous crush I have on Seth Rogen, made all the worse by the character of Zack. Besides Clerks, this is easily my favorite Kevin Smith movie.

Halloween, which ended up on a reality check, was not the best ever. I'll have pictures and stories tomorrow.