Arrow

So it's my day off of work, and I have nothing better to do than to stay home and browse through daytime tv. If anyone else has ever attempted this with a basic cable set up you also know that there is nothing on television in the daytime. It is just reruns of shows you thought had gotten canceled. Long story short I ended up watching CNN all day. Hey, at least it was something new. You try watching the news for more then four hours straight. It gets depressing quick. Basically the world is a bad state of affairs and the politics in America might as well be the latest bad reality tv series.

So enough of that.

After a day of CNN I was willing to watch Arrow. (Which, I believed to be a spin off show of one of the characters from the tv show Smallville.) Needless to say I didn't have high hopes for the show. Here's a rough breakdown. There are lots of spoilers.

Premise (at least the way I see it): Rich party boy gets shipwrecked for 5 years in which time he some how becomes a killing machine and formulates a plan to harm, kill, or discredit everyone on a list of enemies, that his father conveniently gave to him before he killed himself to save his son. Son gets rescued, and now he's secretly the Green Arrow, fighting back against crime in his city that looks strangly like a modern day Gotham city. Where else to have his Bat cave, sorry I mean Green cave, but his Dad's old abandon warehouse.

If you haven't noticed I have a lot of issues with the basic premise of this show. Oh and of course he can't be a supper hero without a love interest. Which in this case is a dogooder lawyer whose sister was also screwing our super hero when she supposedly drowned in the boat accident that left our Green Arrow stranded for 5 years.

Can we talk about what a terrible name for a show that is. Arrow. I mean really does it cost more to call it Green Arrow? Did you think it would sound less cool? Cause let me tell you something, I can't imagine telling someone that I am going to watch Arrow tonight and not have them give me a funny look. It's a bad name for a tv show.

All that said I still plan on watching it, that's until I get completely bored. Why you might ask, after all the disdane I just threw out at this show? Well i'll tell you.

1) Stephen Amell running around doing acrobatics that make him look like a monkey is sometimes shirtless.

2) Even though I had not heard of the Green Arrow until Smallville, it turns out the Green Arrow has been around in DC comics before the boy wonder ever appeared on the small screen. Don't take away my sci-fi credetials, you learn something new everyday.

So since it seems I have a lot of assumptions about this show I will it a chance to break some of them. I watched the pilot and the show has the potential to get better. You don't see archery in many tv shows, even though the popularity of the Hunger Games series has somehow brought it back into the spot light. Maybe in the up coming episodes the plot holes will be filled, maybe the action scenes will improve, maybe everything about this show won't be so predictable. If nothing else bring on the shirtless work out scenes and hopefully a better costume.

Watch the pilot for yourself and make up yout own mind on the show. I won't lie about why I plan on watching this show. I'm shallow and I have an interest in sci-fi/action advebture. Sue me. Enjoy!

 -SardonicQueen

Kings

In 2009 NBC brought out a television show called Kings based on the Biblical Story of King David. Below is the promo that came out with it.

My mother was a fan of this show while it aired on NBC. While the show was on she was always glued to the tv, you couldn't get her to pay attention to you at all. I tried getting into it with her but i hadn't watched the first episode. I always like to start from the beginning with television shows.

So I had some time on my hands tonight and this show came to mind. I searched for it online and found that it was on Hulu. First episode in and I am already hooked. This show is written and acted really well, even to a degree that you rarely find with shows that have come out this year. The plot makes you intrigued with where they could possible take a modern day King David story. Adaptations of biblical stories usually don't go over well production wise in this day and age. The viewer wants to see where the characters portrayed will go next.

Watching this show and getting so wrapped up in what could possibly happen next makes me also really pissed off. Here you have an example of a really great show that got canceled. NBC tried cash in as much as possible on this show, moving it from one night to another, and eventually canceling and rejecting the idea of another season. Seriously NBC, you couldn't keep this well scripted, well developed, and well acted show, but you can play reruns of Two and a Half Men. Don't get me wrong, Two and a Half Men minus Aston Butcher is hilarious. It just riles me up to think that stations like NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox control what we airs on television but have the audacity to say that they base their decisions on viewership. I call bull on that one. The average American does not watch television anymore. You know what they do. They record their shows on DVR, they watch their shows online, they wait for it to come on Netflix.

Big stations are just looking for big money and I highly doubt they are making money off of television programs the way they used to. I am rambling but I really am pissed of that shows like Kings, like Firefly get cut off before their time for shows with more viewers. How about we keep the intelligently done shows and tell the people who want to be zoned out on Big Brother for an hour that they should go get some fresh air instead. I realize that my argument is not sounds but I mostly just wanted to pour out my outrage. Now I will go back to watching Kings. Try it you might like it too.

Birchbox 3: July 2012

For the month of July, birchbox matched their theme to Glamour magazines and celebrated the five senses. I'm all about using beauty products to engage my senses, so this box was a hit with me.
I recieved the following:

Prime: Movie Review

Originally I was going to write a movie review on Bad Teacher or Step Up Revolution (aka Step Up 4). You know, some movie that is more recent than Prime. But last minute I changed my mind. Maybe a review on the previously mentioned movies will come later. Now onto Prime.

 ******Warning: Spoiler Alert******

This 2005 movie stars Uma Thurman, Meryl Streep and Bryan Greenberg. Can we take a moment to talk/gawk at Bryan Greenberg?

Okay. Had your fill? Moving On.

Greenberg is 35 year old Nebraska native, singer, song writer, and actor. You may know him from One Tree Hill, October Road or his most recent television show, How to Make it in America. He also stars in Prime as the 23 year old love interest.

So back to Prime. I had friends who had watched and talked about this movie before I happened to randomly sit and watch it on television. Peoples comments spanned from "there was a lot of sex in this movie" to "its the perfect crazy mother movie". Basically, a 37 year old divorced woman falls for a 23 year old artist. As their relationship develops she confides in her therapist. But the therapist turns out to be the guys mother! And instead of his mother ending the therapy sessions she continues to listen to all the gory details of her sons relationship. And I mean all the gory details.

So to my thoughts of this movie. I always heard about all the crazy amounts of sex in this movie. I watched this on television and just assumed that they cut out all the sex. Out of curiosity to see how much of this movie was cut out when played on television, I watched the movie again on Netflix. Now I wasn't expecting a porno but I was expecting some Unfaithful caliber sex scenes. Unfaithful is a movie notorious for its hot and steamy scenes that don't cross into the line of porn. I got nothing. Cable didn't cut that much out of the movie; there wasn't really any sex in this movie. I bring this up because this is one of the main comments I always heard about this movie. Now that I have seen this movie for myself I have to come up with some sort f explanation for other peoples commentary of this movie. I am going to assume that most people watched this movie with their parents and therefore any instance of making out or about to get down and dirty is too much to handle. Its like when watching the movie the Namesake with your parents all of a sudden its become a full on porno. When watching by yourself, there are some mediocre sex scenes thrown in for no reason because they definitely weren't there in the book.

Secondly, the trailer makes this movie out to be so freaking funny. Don't get me wrong, the movie is funny but not in a romcom, I-am-laughing-more-than-half-of-the-time, while I am watching this kind of way. It is more funny in an indie film, throw in a couple of awkward funny moments kind of way. This movie lands more on the romantic side than on the comedy side.

Thirdly, and this is a HUGE SPOILER if you have not seen the movie, they are not together at the end of the movie. Now as a 23 year old woman watching this movie I was icked out by the idea of dating and being in a relationship with someone who was 37. Sue me, I am shallow. But by the end of the movie I didn't get why they couldn't be together. They seemed perfect for each other to me. Did I miss something? I mean by not ending up together, you just put the audience through all your drama for no reason. I barely remembered that the mom was even an issue in the relationship. It was always an age issue. What was I suppose to learn from this movie again?

Bottom line Prime is a good movie. Watch it if you haven't seen it. And I may be biased because Bryan Greensberg is in it and I could stare at him all day.

Kdrama Drinking Game

I just finished watching a drama called Can Love Become Money and I think one of the show's secret goals was to include as many kdrama cliches and or tropes as possible. In honor of that I decided to compile a list of some common drama tropes and make them into a drinking game. I do not recommend following all of them all of the time, as depending on the show you are watching this could lead to alcohol poisoning. However, I do recommend making up drama specific ones. Like for Boys Before Flowers you can drink every time someone drowns/has a water related injury.

Image Credit: kimchidramas.net

1) Drink when the characters drink. Specifically, when someone drowns their sorrows in soju shots, take few sips yourself.
2) Drink every time there's a flashback to something that happened in the same episode
3) Drink twice if the flashback is of something that happened in the last ten minutes
4) Drink three times if the flashback is literally to the previous scene. As in something happens, a character exits and then immediately flashes back to what just happened.
5) Drink every time a character stares meaningfully off into the distance
6) Whenever there is a staring go-round (multiple characters meaningfully stare either in the same shot or in the same scene), sip your beverage through the entire stare-go-round.
7)Drink every time the parent of a main character (usually the heroine) loses all their money/goes into debt
8) Drink when the mob/money lenders show up
9)Take a shot for each birch secret revealed.
10) Drink for references to other shows (if you can catch them)
11)Drink when someone (usually the annoying second female) wails "oooopppaaaa" to get her way.
12)Drink if someone gets water thrown in their face
13) Finally, sip your way through the kdrama base system. That is, one sip for first base (the wrist grab), two sips for second base (actual hand holding), three sips for third (the backhug), and four sips for a home run (a kiss!). Bonus drink if the kiss looks good and not like two faces smushed together.

So there is my -possibly hazardous- Korean drama drinking game. Obviously there's a lot more I could have done, but I tried to stick away from things that are clearly built into the premise (like prickly on the outside, lonely/vulnerable on the inside chaebols and forced cohabitation). That said, happy drinking/watching!

America Runs on Dunkin'

So I like to think that I am not one of those New England snobs that thinks that New England is Gods greatest gift to earth and that there isn't anywhere else worth living on this lively planet of ours. You know who I'm talking about. When the word scenic gets thrown down like the royal seal of New England. But I am going off on a tangent.
When teainacan told me that she hadn't found a Dunkin' Donunts in Iowa I was shocked but I conceded. In some states Tim Hortons, Krispy Kreme and a variety of other donut shops dominate the cheap coffee and donuts industry scene. Her response was that she hadn't seen any cheep coffee/donut shops in Iowa at all. I swear to God my response seriously was " but America runs on dunkin'"

So two things about that
1) clearly I secretly am a New England snob and think that New England is the shit. And no where else can you pull off saying science 11 times in a day while looking at fall foliage and have each view be more picturesque than the next. There is something about New England that just touches the soul. But that's just my opinion.
2) what great advertising on the part of Dunkin' Donuts that subconsciously even I thought Dunkin Donuts was all over America when really its a New England staple.

Now I am not saying Dunkin Donuts serves the best donuts, the best coffee or the best tea. I am saying for under $5 I can have a pretty satisfying breakfast, a sweet treat, or a on the road sugar rush. They don't advertise excellence. They advertise simplicity, which in New England that counts for a lot.

So next time you are in New England teainacan your Dunkin' fix is on me.

Birchbox 2: June 2012

The theme of June's birchbox was travel and ironically my own travels kept me from receiving it until July. Still it was a wonderful thing to come home to.
This month I got:

Stila's One Step Bronze. First of all let me say this was huge. In fact I'm pretty sure the packaging was full size, which is impressive. On the other hand, bronzer is something I don't really use. Whether it's from reading too many vampire novels as an impressionable teen or trauma from burning until I had blisters, I tend to prefer my skin to stay in it's natural, pasty form. On the other hand, I got this bronzer at the most tan point of my year-- a month in California helped-- so I felt like I could apply it without having an orange head on top of a rosy beige bod. And indeed the bronzer was not orangey! Or otherwise my family has been lying to me.

Unblened, kinda blended, super blended.

 The "one step" in the name is not because most bronzers are multistep processes but because the bronzer is also supposed to function as a primer for foundation, an illuminator, and has skin friendly things in it. I haven't used it under foundation since the closest things I have to foundation are Korean BB creams which come in pale and alabaster, so I haven't experimented with that. Mostly I've just applied to my whole face. With that it gives a subtle, but sparkly glow. It makes me look healthier according to my brother. I've also tried to use it to contour. That effect has been so subtle that I'm not sure there is one. That's probably because my application method is extremely amateur. I still can't see myself reaching for it all too often, but the bronzer does what it says it will and doesn't break me out. Also the packaging is bomb.

theBalm's Staintanic in beauty queen. Like the bronzer, Staintanic is a multiuse product; it's both a cheek stain and a lipstain. It gives a very subtle wash of color both ways. I appreciate that it's low-drama as a cheek stain, but wish it had more color on the lips. The texture is nice, like a gel and it dries a little more slowly then I was expecting. Everytime I use it as a lipstain I think "what a pretty color!" and then a few minutes later, possibly because it's seems so natural, I feel like I'm not wearing any lip product and wish I were. I think I would turn to this to balance a very dramatic eye look.

Cleanwell cleansing towelette. On the one hand, this is super exciting since having a cute little towelette to clean everything and anything appeals deeply to the germaphobe in me. On the other hand, there's only one making it a kind of cheap sample. On my nonexistent third hand, the stila sample is huge. I've been anxious to chose exactly the best moment to use this, which hasn't turned up yet. I might end up buying a pack just so I can keep this one special forever and still enjoy herbal cleansing towelettes.
Juliette Has a Gun, Not a Perfume. I loved this. They say it's "not a perfume" since instead of being a composition, this is just a single note ambroxen. My careful interent research says that ambroxen is a synthetic fragrance made to replace ambergris.  It smelled both warm and cool to me. It has both a cool, synthetic character and also the warmth of an amber. I also love the packaging of Juliette Has a Gun. Ive thought seriously of buying it, but something in me says I could buy a gallon of ambroxen for the same 85$.

Hoodwinked

The television show Battlestar Galactica (2004) is a great example of how main stream home viewers can be hoodwinked or trapped into watching a SciFi television show. Once in a while a network or a team of producers can pull this off so seamlessly that a viewer can watch an entire series without categorizing a show as Science Fiction. Lost is another example of this.
Webster dictionary defines Science Fiction as fiction dealing principally with the impact of actual or imagined science on society or individuals or having a scientific factor as an essential orienting component. In the television world this means that there are a group of people or a niche that are interested specifically in Science Fiction media. Many people, not having a true understanding of what science fiction entails, simply imagining dorky people with no friends deeply engraved in imaginary worlds, so they tend to shun anything openly claiming to be SciFi oriented. 
Then you have a show like Battlestar Galactica that was so well made that people who never had an interest in science fiction were hooked. Part of the reason for this phenomenon was that Battlestar not only showed on the Sci Fi channel but also aired on NBC, a major network and during prime time hours. NBC hardcore marathoned the show from season start to season end. They showed back to back episodes leaving people nothing else to watch during prime time. Some people turned on their TV to their favorite channel and had no clue what they were watching. But as the drama of Battlestar unfolded they were hooked and wanted to know what would happen next.
The beauty that surrounds Battlestar is that it was intelligently done. The show does not focus on technology or fancy gadgets. The show focuses on people, creating characters that everyone can relate to and root for. There is an underlying darkness to the show that fans appreciate also. The majority of television is very light hearted, bright and happy go lucky. In Battlestar you have to work for those happy moments and they mean so much more to you. 

Most people don't realize that Battlestar Galactica is a remake of a television show from the 70's that also had a great following.Starbuck, played by Katee Sackhoff, was originally written as a man. Shocking I know. Battlestar Galactica (1978) can be found on Netflix if you would like to take a peek. It is pretty hilarious to me.

Essentially this show bases itself on a concept that everyone can relate to even if they are not a "SciFi" fan. People's genuine struggle to survive and deal with the consequences of their actions. Yes this show can be thought of as dark and dreary. Teainacan likes to say its like watching a puppy get kicked over and over again. I disagree, its more like watching someone heal after a bad trauma or accident. It ain't pretty but it is amazing.


Can you tell that Starbuck is my favorite character? So because I am way too in love with this show i tend to ramble and gush with no real point in sight. If you take anything away from this it is this: give every show a chance, you might like it when you get hoodwinked.


-SardonicQueen

Drama vs Manga

image credit: wiki.d-addicts.com

Hana Yori Dango, which translates to Boys Over Flowers, is something of an East Asian pop culture phenomena. It started as a manga which ran from 1992 to 2003 and spawned an anime, a Taiwanese drama (2001, called "Meteor Garden), a Japanese drama (2005), and finally a Korean drama(2009). Of the many interpretations I have seen the first episodes of both the Taiwanese and Japanese versions, the whole 25 hours of the Korean version, and read more than half of the manga (so about 6 years worth). I'm going to be considering the Korean drama and then manga, since I've seen more of them and more recently.

Novel vs. Film

A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks

Now I have been a fan of the film A Walk to Remember since it came out in theaters in 2002, starring Mandy Moore and Shane West. I am a sucker for a good love story. I recently ran across the novel in my public library and took it home. Sometimes I pick up a book from the library and don't ever bother reading it, returning it when it is due back. But one night I couldn't sleep so I started reading A Walk to Remember, it was the closest book I could reach without getting out of bed. It's a pretty short read. It's one of those books where if you sat in your house and did nothing else for a day, you would be done by dinner time. I read it over a couple of days at radom times of boredom.
I have to say that I was not a fan of the novel. My sister thinks it is because I am attached to the film. This may be true. I usually do prefer to  read a novel and then watch the film. It usually put the film in a better light for me. I can forgive certain inconsistencies because I can see the connections through the novel. Instead I found myself annoyed with the main character, Landon Carter, through the entire novel. He reminded me somewhat of the character Pip from Great Expectations in the sense that I kept expecting more from both characters but those moments never arrived. Don't get me started on the character of Jamie Sullivan who might as well have been an angel in disguise in this novel. The entire novel was just too sugary and had way more characters bursting into tears than I was comfortable with. I have to say that this has put me off reading another Nicholas Sparks novel for a while. But I started reading this novel with a lot of expectations and prejudices, so whatch the film and read the novel and form your own opinions.

*****Spoiler Alert*****

So as I was reading the novel I started jotting down the differences and similarities between the novel and the film. First one that hit me like a brick. The novel was written in 1999 but set in 1958. The film was made in 2002 and set in 1998. All of a sudden Jamie Sullivan goes from getting chemo therapy in the film, to there being nothing the doctors could do for her in 1958 but ease her pain with medication. The type of cancer is the same though. In both the novel and film she has an incurable form of Leukemia. I would show you my list of difference but it is kind of long and I doubt anyone would actually read it. I will give you the highlights instead.
The play that is put on in the film by the school and written by one of the students, in the novel, is actually written by Jamie Sullivans dad as an anti Christmas Carol story that the high school puts on every year. Jamie's dad created an anti Christmas Carol story because he didn't like that Scrooge spoke to ghosts. He thought ghosts where too morally ambiguous and that speaking to an angel sent a better message. He also didn't like how Scrooge was forgiven for all the wrong he did in one fell swoop. He believed redemption had to be earned and that's what the play is about. That and the play incorporates how much Jamie's father missed Jamie's mother. In my opinion the play is much more screwed up than I originally realized from watching the film. In the novel the kiss never happened in the play. Great job screen writers because that is one of my favorite scenes.
Obviously because this book was set in the fifties Landon's best friend is not that obnoxious black kid but I appreciate the introduction of other ethnicities in the film even if they are token. Landon may be a jerk in both the film and novel but in the novel he was applying to the University of North Carolina as opposed to not thinking about his education at all until he realizes that Jamie is dying. In the film this makes him want to be a doctor. In the novel Jamie actually tells Landon that he should become a pastor. At this moment I was like WHAT? Who do you think you are telling a seventeen year old boy that you would like it if he became a pastor. Pushy much? Low blow Jamie Sullivan. Low blow.
I should stop now but I've got so much more to say. Landon does the play in the novel as a favor to Jamie, she basically guilts him into it. That whole plot line in the film about the boy who really wanted to be a part of Landon's group of friends never happened in the novel. In the novel Landon asks Jamie to prom as a last resort because he can't find anyone else who hasn't got a date already. Landon's parents are still together in the novel. And also Landon is the one who hangs out in cemeteries not Jamie in the novel. Last but not least Jamie doesn't have that cute bucket list that made for great scenes in the film, in the novel. The one thing that defiantly stays the same though is that they get married at the age of 17 because it was her dying wish to get married by her father before she died, actually in the same church as her parent in the film but close enough. OK I'm done. Whew. Here's the film trailer

Music Tidbit: Only Hope, the song Jamie Sullivan sings in the play and everyone remembers from this movie is actually an original Switchfoot song that Mandy Moore did a cover of and put out a single.

-SardonicQueen

(So i'm a little crazy about films and books)

Birchbox 1

What could it be?

For those who don’t know (which is probably most people) birchbox is company that, in addition to having an online store, sells a subscription to a monthly cosmetics sample kit, called a birchbox. This is pretty much all my hopes and dreams (samples! mail order! cosmetics!) so I’ve been wanting one forever. So I was beyond thrilled when one of my friends got me a subscription for my birthday.

The Women and The Vault

SardonicQueen: In the 2008 movie The Women, the vault is the metaphorical place where the women place their secrets. Even in the movie their secrets don’t stay sealed in the metaphorical “vault”.

TeaInACan: No secrets tend to coming flying out of the vault at light speed... as secrets tend to do in small groups of friends.

SardonicQueen: As time progressed after watching this movie we began to use the phrase “the vault” in the most in appropriate fashion.

TeaInACan: And the most random. Just in casual conversation: “oh this goes in the vault” or “put it in the vault.” Not because anything had to be secret; just because it’s fun to say.

SardonicQueen: Here is the place for our thoughts and “secrets”, for our musings about the world, and most of all for the things that make us laugh. Like our weird inside jokes.

TeaInACan: And the things we're passionate/ridiculously obsessed with: music, food, cosmetics, tv-shows, movies, and books.

 TeaInACan is on the left. SardonicQueen is on the right. Mystery friend is in the middle.

Why the URL you and me and everything we like?

-Well there is a movie directed by Miranda July called  Me and You and Everyone We Know. It is a supper cute movie from 2005 staring Miranda July, John Hawkes, Miles Thompson, Brandon Ratcliff, Natasha Slayton, Najarra Townsend, Carlie Westerman, and JoNell Kennedy. It tells the story of two people attempting to figure out their lives. Which is perfect for Teainacan and I since we just graduated from our undergraduate college and are forming the next stages in our lives.

The trailer for The Women (2008)

 The trailer for Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005)

 We solemnly swear to abuse phrases from movies. ;)