Apparently over a hundred million people watched the Superbowl yesterday. All of those people saw the ho-hum ads; that sweet onside kick that I didn’t even know was a legal play; the record-breaking kicks; Drew Brees, misty-eyed, holding his baby after the win. (Spoiler alert, the Saints won.)
Six of those people were feasting on taquitos, nachos, eggrolls, homemade quiche, bruchetta, chips & dip, and grapes in a feeble attempt to ward off immediate heart attacks.
Six of those people spent the halftime show flipping back and forth between The Who and the Puppy Bowl.
And those six people witnessed the greatest thing to ever grace the Superbowl screen:
THAT GUY’S MUSTACHE.
Work-week lunches can make or break a good day at the office. Sandwich with fresh deli meat, mayo, and lettuce? Great, except when you’ve had it for the last three days, and you’re running late and don’t have time to wash the lettuce. Cup O’ Noodles? Fast and different, but about as filling as a pretzel. (And not an Auntie Anne’s pretzel, either.)
Theoretically, the supermarket is full of delicious and filling lunch alternatives. Pastas, soups, even microwaveable sandwiches are all waiting out there on the shelves – for a price. So which ones are worth it?
For you, dear reader, I am going to find out.
For the next two weeks I’m going to sample some potentially awesome lunches, and I need your suggestions. Chicken alfredo? Soups? Frozen paninis? Lunchables? If your lunch hour is dull and you’re curious about some newfangled food you saw on TV, and want to know if it’s worth your money, tell me about it and I’ll give it a try.
IT IS FOR SCIENCE.
And because I’m bored with sandwiches.
But mostly science.
I don’t really know how many parts this will end up having, but I want to talk about what moves you to write (or paint, or act, or draw, or whatever). Some creative types are lucky enough to have an actual person who acts as their muse, who inspires them and encourages them and who blesses them with a wave of creativity every time they enter the room. Others have a song, or a painting, maybe another book or a movie that gets them into gear.
For me, music is huge. Ever since I discovered Itunes (which is sadly a lot more recently than the general population – as in, about three years ago), I’ve been slowly amassing a collection of different playlists for different writing moods. There’s the “Chill Writing Music,” which has songs from the Princess Mononoke soundtrack, a few of the super-emo Ani Difranco tracks, and “Hold On” by Tom Waits (which is literally the most depressing song ever sung). There’s “Fight Scene Music,” featuring fun stuff like the trailer music from “Pirates of the Caribbean” and some fight-scene songs from “X-Men” and “The Matrix.” It also contains the kind of music your mother worries about – like “Bodies” by Drowning Pool and “Voices” by Disturbed.
Jessica gave me the idea to make character playlists when you start a story. We used it while we were working on a superhero comic, and I applied it to the book I was working on for my thesis. I can be extremely abstract when I’m plotting a story, and having music that reminds you of what a certain character is supposed to be like helps me focus.
But no matter what I’m working on, I have a handful of songs that set the mood for writing.
“How We Operate” by Gomez (from “Live from the Mountain Vol. 12″): This is a live version recorded for an alternative station in Seattle. It sounds pretty similar to the original, but with no drums, which gives the whole thing a much more wistful vibe.
“Shh” by Frou Frou: I probably should have been able to figure out that Imogen Heap and Frou Frou are the same person. The sound is almost identical – mellow, mystical stuff with an occasional techno beat. “Shh” is one of my new favorites, possibly because the lyrics are about two people escaping some life-threatening situation: “don’t make a sound, we’re not safe yet.” (Nobody seems to actually know what this song is about – sex and alien abductions are top choices – but whatever.) I’m a sucker for last-stands and noble sacrifices, so I dig this song.
“O…Saya” from “Slumdog Millionaire”: This song is just awesome. Good beat, interesting vocals (M.I.A collaborated on the soundtrack), and a good dose of metal guitar riffs, just in case.
“Ritornare” from Cirque du Soleil’s “Corteo”: This whole show was gorgeous – women performing on huge gold chandeliers, a married couple doing an aerial straps routine, and the whole thing performed on a dusty, antique-feeling set. The music (all in Italian) was also gorgeous, and lots of those songs are great for writing.
Beethoven’s “Symphony 7 in A Major, Opus 92: Allegretto”: I first heard this when it was used in the trailer for “The Fall,” and that particular part of the song gives me shivers every time. Plus it’ll always be associated with the movie, which made very little sense but was extremely beautiful. If anyone knows any other classical music that sounds like this, send it my way.
So what inspires you creatively? If it’s music, what songs do you like to listen to?
Before I get back to the most exciting movies of the year, I have to take a moment to scold Brendan Fraser.
Come on, man. I defended you from the beginning. I was with you through the first two “Mummy” movies. I dug you in “George of the Jungle.” I approved of your decision to do “Inkheart,” even though you looked like you hated yourself in the poster, because my sister loved that book. You did “GI Joe” and the third Mummy and I said they could at least be fun. But when “Journey to the Center of the Earth” came out, everyone remembered you were in that awful Looney Tunes movie and turned on you.
Cheer up, Brendan Fraser, this is the best thing to happen to you in a while.
And still I stood up for you! Your boyish good looks! Your winning grin! Your wry sense of humor!
But then you had to go and do this:
Kevin and I watched that last night. And I looked at him when it ended and said, “That is absolutely the worst trailer I’ve ever seen.”
So we’re done, Brendan Fraser. Until you go back to making cheesy action flicks where you belong, we’re done. So long, and have fun with your CGI skunks.
Sigh.
Okay, back to the good stuff.
One last note about “Alice in Wonderland” – the costumes are done by the same gal who did “Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events” (and “Chicago” and “Sweeney Todd”), Colleen Atwood, who is pretty spectacular.
Now for the rest of the year…
First up, A-Team (June 11): I am from the generation that’s only familiar with “The A-Team” because of that one Family Guy episode and the ubiquitousness of Mr. T. I don’t even know what the original premise of the show was, other than possibly four vigilante kind of guys who drove around in an 80s-tastic van. All I know about the remake is that Liam Neeson is in it, chomping on a cigar, and so is Bradley Cooper of “Hangover” fame. I don’t even know who they cast in Mr. T’s role, and I only hope that he doesn’t try to replace Mr. T, because he won’t even come close.
(All right, all right, hang on a minute, I’m sorry, it has to be done: “I PITY THE FOOL WHO HASTA REPLACE MR. T.”)
Also, in the trailer – okay, let me see if I can remember this right – they escape a plane that’s blowing up by hopping into the tank that’s on board, which parachutes through the air, and Bradley Cooper sticks his head out the top to gun down the attackers.
Yep.
Toy Story 3 (June 18): It’s more Toy Story. It’s about growing up and loss and all those heartbreaking things Pixar manages to make clear and beautiful and fun. It’s MORE TOY STORY YOU GUYS THIS IS AMAZING.
The Last Airbender (July 2): The TV show was amazing. I was thrilled to hear they were making the movie – a little wary when I heard M. Night Shyamalan was directing – and downright frustrated when they cast white kids in practically all the lead roles.
This is the cast from the TV show:
The kids in blue are from the Water Tribe, which is based on Eskimo cultures. There's a healthy does of Asian influence, too.
The peak of all this insanity was when Jesse McCartney was cast as Zuko, the scarred and furious and very Asian archnemesis. The rest of the Internet pretty much exploded. So Jesse was replaced with…
Dev Patel! From “Slumdog Millionaire!” Again, not the guy who springs to mind first when you thing of a vengeful teenage villain whose father tried to kill him, but at least he’s not Jesse McCartney. And at least he can act.
At any rate, the effects will be spectacular, and the casting has improved somewhat, so I’m game.
Green Hornet (December 22): I think a lot of people were incredulous when Seth Rogen (yes, the dude from “Knocked Up”) announced he wanted to make a comic book movie. But he quickly proved he was serious about it – apparently he’d been a fan of the Green Hornet for ages, and he’s lost a ton of weight for the role. From the set pictures that have surface online, this looks like a dang fun movie.
Fighting crime in zoot suits!
Retro ride!
As for the skeptics – look, if Val Kilmer could play Batman, and Nicolas Cage could actually get a role as a comic book hero, Seth Rogen can pull off Green Hornet.
Tron Legacy (December 17): I haven’t seen the original. I’m still not exactly sure what it’s about. All I know is that Jeff Bridges is back, the footage showed at Comic-Con used “Separate Ways” by Journey which as we all know is an automatic win for anything, and this trailer is mind-blowing:
Okay, well, I can’t embed the trailer, but you should go watch it.
It’ll be in 3D.
Happy New Year, y’all!
(And yeah, the first part of “Deathly Hallows” comes out in December too, but it kind of goes without saying that I’m looking forward to it.)
January and I have never really gotten along. We had some fun times in England – calling Tess from a pay phone in Bath, spending hours writing in pubs, buying entirely too many books, and trying to figure out the secret code systems Linnaea was using to evaluate the attractiveness of passersby – but back in the Land of the Free, things tend to drag. It rains for weeks on end. (Today was the first truly sunny day of the year, and I couldn’t actually look up during my lunchtime walk because it was just too bright for my maladjusted winter eyes.) The cat only loves you for your food. Work is slow and getting up at 6:30 is just not much fun.
Which is why I’m very excited that it’s almost February.
Superbowl Sunday is approaching and I might even be looking forward to the game, depending on whether the Saints and/or Vikings make it in. We already have a menu planned (alas, Trader Joe’s, for you are too distant and we cannot have spanakopita) – I freely admit my favorite part of Superbowl Sunday is having an excuse to eat five hundred different appetizers.
And I told Kevin we should do something awesome for Valentine’s Day. I’m thinking paintball. More likely we will end up getting takeout and renting a movie, but, y’know, it’ll be something different. And different is nice this time of year.
Luckily I had a new idea for a book a couple weeks ago, so that’s been keeping my desperately picky creative side occupied. I get a lot of writing done during my breaks at work, and once I finish playing Fallout 3 (uh, just another couple weeks, I swear – I can quit whenever I want – ) I’ll buck up and start writing more in the evenings.
The huge advantage to the end of January (other than it’s nearly February) is that we’re no longer leaving for work and getting home in the dark. The sun is rising while we drive downtown, and it’s still light when I leave. And assuming the rain lets up, it’ll only get lighter!
Yaaaay.
How are the rest of you holding up? What do you like to do to shake off weather-induced gloom? Do any of your live in places where the winter blues aren’t a problem?
TripAdvisor emailed out this list of ways to help with the recovery in Haiti. They say adversity brings out the best in us, and even amid the morons who want to know why Haiti didn’t help the US with Hurricane Katrina, it’s uplifting to see that the first instinct worldwide was to send help. From what I’ve read, things are going to get a lot worse before they can get better, and it’s already unimaginably bad. If you’re able to give, take a look at these options and see if they strike your fancy.
The American Red Cross: www.redcross.org
Text “Haiti” to 90999 to donate $10 (billed to your phone)
The United Nations World Food Program: www.wfp.org
The Salvation Army: www.salvationarmyusa.org
Action Against Hunger: www.actionagainsthunger.org
Project HOPE: www.projecthope.org
Partners in Health: www.pih.org
Well, it’s the hardest part following actually sitting your butt down after several days of saying “Dang, I should really do a new post.”
I guess it was only five days, but one of the reasons I started this blog was so that I had something to hold me accountable to writing every day. (The cat just declared war on the blankets at the foot of the bed. Nothing provoked her. Kevin has put his book down to watch incredulously: “I’m not even moving!”) Obviously the “every day” thing was a stretch, but I absolutely have to keep to once a week, or I’ll forget my password.
Tomorrow will mark the start of my third day at work, and my first check-in with my supervisor. It’s going really well so far, and it’s infinitely superior to Video Store Job, partly because no one is allowed to wear cat-eye contacts here. Hopefully I’ll be starting my own research project soon, but in the meantime I’m contenting myself with copying and scanning and the usual temp work. Everyone is very nice and very happy to have me do their copying for them, and I even heard my supervisor cuss at her computer, so I think I’ve found a pretty good place to spend the next few months. Kevin and I have worked out our carpool system, and even though it would be nice to run errands during lunch, the hour at my desk is a good excuse for me to work on a new book idea.
And speaking of books…the book I’ve been working on for nearly the last two years has, uh, become ornery. We’re not speaking at the moment. I spent the last month or two trying potential new settings or plot frameworks or characters, anything to make it do what it was supposed to do, but every time I just got frustrated. I’m not writing it off completely (hurr hurr), but I am taking a good long break to work on something else. We even went to Borders this weekend so I could find a good mythology encyclopedia for research, and I found a truly fantastic one on sale for only $5. It covers all the aspects of a myth or a heroic story – the hero’s quest, founders, gods, etc. – and even explores myths by region, like Southeast Asia. Kevin also found a coffee-table book about the history of weaponry, on sale for $10, and I convinced him to get it (aka I got it myself) because it would be excellent research material. (It features a curved dagger from India whose name translates to “the kiss of the scorpion.” How awesome is that?)
So I’ve spent the weekend roaming through these books and playing Fallout 3 (and cleaning the kitchen and finally taking out our Christmas tree). We also brought out the new crockpot (Kevin’s original one was, uh, redistributed when his sister graduated) and made a rather disappointing cheesy beer soup. I am okay with both cheese and beer, and even onions to an extent, but this soup was literally a giant bowl of onion with beer and a little cheese mixed in. Hopefully this week’s chicken fajitas will be more successful.
One last thing – Vanessa over at Chicken Soup for the Dorky Soul has started a project for the new year which is pretty much guaranteed to make you feel better about yourself. See what it’s all about here and send something in!
2010. It’s so much more satisfying to say. Twenty-ten. We’re finally in the “twenties” now – it’s like the millennium has grown up, matured beyond its “two-thousand” stage. My coworkers have been talking about how incredible it is that Y2K was only ten years ago. You know what else happened ten years ago? “Say My Name” by Destiny’s Child. “Bye Bye Bye” by N’Sync. “Gladiator” won Best Picture. Florida screwed up the vote.
I think Time Magazine called the ’00s the worst decade ever, and while I think that might be a little extreme (1930s, anyone?), it’s pretty clear that everyone is ready to move on and start doing things differently. Every new year presents a chance to check the path you’re on and alter it if necessary. Everyone needs time to evaluate what they want out of life and how to go about getting it. But people tend to quail in terror at the phrase “making resolutions,” which has been slapped onto an important and really not-that-scary goal-making process.
Personally, I’m awful at keeping resolutions. I haven’t officially made any in years, because I end up letting them slide and feeling horrible about myself and giving up and deeming myself a loser. This isn’t healthy or fun or productive. Instead, I’m trying to work little reminders about my larger goals into my daily life. I want to write more. I want to keep working on my relationship with Kevin. I want to do well in grad school. (Well, I want to get into grad school first, but that’s beyond my control now.) I want to live creatively and happily, which means allowing more time for the happy creative things I enjoy doing, like writing and photography and (hopefully) learning how to collage. To accomplish these things, I’m starting to schedule my time better and think about what will really make me happy (and ultimately be the best use of my time) before I sit down to Mario Kart.
I also have to work on avoiding certain things. I’m trying to eat fewer fatty foods. I’m trying to spend less time sitting silently in my cubicle, because my small-talk skills desperately need work. I am determined to reduce the time I spend in pity puddles. (It would be nice if I could reduce the amount of time I spend in front of a screen, but on top of work, we have three new video games in our apartment and it would just be a waste of money if they went unplayed.)
The other problem with resolutions, other than their ability to scare you into quitting before you can even start, is that some of them get repetitive. Maybe this is the fourth year in a row you’ve resolved to work out more, or quit smoking, or become blindingly stylish, or whatever it is you want to do. Maybe you just want to add a little flavor to everyday life, or maybe you really truly want to make a huge change and this is the year you want to do it. Whatever your goal is, put up reminders. Ask your friends to monitor your progress. And at all costs, avoid getting yourself down about it. Nothing hampers your progress more than you telling yourself you can’t do it. So loosen up, type up a goal in huge font, stick it up somewhere, and get started on accomplishing something. For general guidance, inspiration, or just food for thought, here are two lists of suggestions for this year.
Things To Avoid
-boring walls
-cholesterol
-typos
-complacency
-traffic tickets
-cigarettes
-paper cuts
-hopelessness
-biting your cheek
-hangovers
-cheap chocolate
-jealousy
-car accidents
-that negative “friend”
-unused or underused calendars
-movies by the Wayans brothers
-self-criticism
Things To Do
-hug
-read
-take the stairs
-take the scenic route
-paint
-eat
-see good movies
-find new music
-try new recipes
-say hi
-donate food
-write letters
-get a plant (and/or keep it alive)
-play Scrabble
-volunteer
-see live music
-ask for the raise
-ask for time off
-bake something for someone
-write
-journal
-go on walks
-be thankful
-do crosswords
-do sudoku
-be a role model
-be a model in your closet
-find a charity to support
-dust
-indulge in Chinese takeout
-have a little faith
What are you hoping to accomplish this year? Are you making any resolutions? Come, let us discourse.
