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I was contacted this week by Stewart St. John, who produces original television and film content online. He is a fan of what we are doing here; to check out his stuff, just click the Stewdiomedia link on the right.
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When I made my remark about Margot Tenenbaum earlier this week, I thought it might be fun to do a top ten list of "Imaginary Crushes"-- fictional characters that you are hopelessly in love with. We haven't done a list in a while, so why not...
1. Margot Tenenbaum from Royal Tenenbaums
2. Kitty Pryde (Early Claremont and Whedon)
3. Kaylee from Firefly (Kind of the same character as Whedon's Kitty.. but anyway)
4. Lauren Ambrose's character in Can't Hardly Wait
5. Angela (Claire Danes) in My So Called Life
6. Alyissa (Joey Lauren Adams) in Chasing Amy
7. Reese Witherspoon's character in Freeway
8. Kirsten Dunst's character in The Virgin Suicides
9. Trillian in The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy (all the actresses that have played her never really "got her", unfortunately)
10. Jean Grey (Mostly Claremont's Dark Phoenix Saga and some of Morrison's run)
Geoff, what is your opinon of post-colonal criticism? I'm the midst of a thick wad of it.
Another round of obnoxious questions.
1)Do you ever play video games?
follow up: Have you ever played Bully? it the best video game I've ever played. I'm sure you'd love it.
2) Were you ever Bullied growing up?
3)Have you read Superman Birthright yet?
4)What were your thoughts on the MTV Spider-man series?
I personally thought it exploited the image of Spider-man. He's supposed to be a poor average Joe. They made him pretty boy that wore designer clothes, had a well paying job, a big apartment(yes I'm aware the same thing was in the 1st movie), and seemed like a modern day materialistic young person.
5) Have you ever read Ender's Game? My all time favorite book. Despite Card being a bigot.
6) Have you watched Patient J yet?
How do you work on you Phd at Balliol while still livin' in New York.
7) Are you a Pro Wrestling fan?
Now before anyone mocks me. I don't watch that lame as WWE crap, other than to watch my childhood hrole model Benoit. I watch Japanese and Indy wrestling.
8) Ever contemplated the actual benefit of Wolverine having a full Adamantium Skeleton, rather than just Adamantium claws? I'm guessing the main purpose was to make him more durable. Seeing that he can't get broken bone or limbs blown off, and because of that most damage dealt is easily healed by his regeneration. Although it's stated thay his powers to heal are far greater without adamantium poisoning him.
Well that's it for now. Peace
Oh and a current story I'm workin' on, using the style of art I sowed you a while back, is about a guy playing a chess game with an evil version of himself. What do you think of that premise?
A friend and I just saw a preview screening of Pan's Labyrinth. We were both blown away. It's a stunning achievement, and I can't recommend it highly enough.
Pan's Labyrinth is Guillermo Del Toro's sixth film and, by many accounts, his best (I can't really compare because all I've seen is his underwhelming Blade 2).
To quote a local movie critic, the movie explores "the imaginative inner life of a young girl while setting it against Spain's bloody civil war at the end of World War II, allowing fantasy and reality to intermingle. The film is nearly flawless in the way it sounds an elegy for the end of childhood's innocence by depicting its 10-year-old protagonist's retreat from a world turned unbearably harsh."
It sounds dark, and it is (rated R), but it's also fun. Not fun as in light-hearted, but fun as in "Wow, they've really captured the dark imagination that's missing in so many modern takes on myths and fairy tales."
Okay, I'll stop now. Go see it.
New Episode of Battlestar premieres this Sunday. I'm all caught up. This is the first one I'll see on tv.
Just found out Stephen Platt will be giving an illustration seminar at Meltdown comics in LA on Feb 24th - I'll remind you as it gets closer.
Now the important stuff:
Diahnna Nicole Baxter - Satacracy 88
Selma Hayek - Desperado
Rosario Dawson - Sin City
Rachel Weisz - The Mummy
Madeline Stowe - 12 Monkeys
Franka Potente - Run Lola Run
Uma Thurman - Pulp Fiction
Karen Allen - Raiders of the Lost Ark
Audrey Tautou - Amelie
Halle Berry - Swordfish
Troy - Pan's blew me away. Probably my favorite of the year. Or Children of Men.
Damn you, Winderbaum! You stole Amelie from me. I meant to includer her. I actually met her at a screening of A Very Long Engagement. And yes. She's THAT adorable.
Children of Men was remarkable and it only has one gigantic flaw: The amazing cover of "Ruby Tuesday" that Michael Caine listens to is only available on Itunes if you buy the whole album.
Mitch, I'll gladly give you Amelie and add Erik Larson's Mary Jane Watson to my list: http://www.anthonysnyder.com/Images/Category_2/subcat_99/elsm21p5.jpg
Ah, to be eleven again.
Ha! Those pajamas sure look... comfortable.
See the problem with this is that crushes on fictional live action characters are hard to separate from crushes on actors. Nevertheless, in no order and this top ten list will have 14 entries:
1. Erin E-Surance (An add icon ripped off from Samurai Jack, but she has pink hair and I love her).
2. Joanna Garcia in the sitcom Reba.
3. Megyn Price in the sitcom Grounded for Life.
4. Linda Cardellini in Freaks and Geeks.
5. Diane Lane in Unfaithful.
6. Zooey Deschanel in Hitchhicker's Guide (thanks Mitch).
7. Chris Bachalo's Jean Grey.
8. Julie from the Maxx.
9. Lauren Graham in Gilmore Girls.
10. Maura Tierney in Newsradio.
11. David Tennant in Dr. Who (A nice suit and nerd glasses with red converse sneakers -- genius!).
12. Charisma Carpenter in Angel season 4, when the actress was allowed to gain some weight since she was pregnant.
13. Jennifer Morrison from House.
14. Ryan Reynolds from Blade 3.
Patrick: post-colonial criticism has nothing to do with the study or appreciation of literature. It is a kind of social philosophy that reduces literature to examples. I wouldn't mind its existence in a philosophy department, but when the people who do it call themselves English Lit people, we have a problem. It must be stopped. Walter Pater and Wallace Stevens will save us.
Pat: 1) almost never, save tetris. 2) yes. 3) no. 4) didn't see it. 5) didn't read it. 6) every week I say I will, and it is only a click away, but no I have not. 7) no. 8) no.
Troy and Brad: I will.
Oh! and Margaret on West Wing and Carol on West Wing (Leo's secretary and CJ's secretary).
I don't find it that hard to separate from crushes on actors. For example... I LOATHE Kirsten Dunst in the Spider-Man movies, but I love her in Virgin Suicides. That's gotta be script/character right?
Also, Linda Cardellini in Freaks and Geeks is a great one Geoff. I'd give a siginificant amount of money to have another season of that show.
Geoff: Okay. I just read that list of crushes. You werre right about it being bad for me being unwilling to except not knowing the answers to certain things, but I guess it's safe to say I was partially right about that one thing, Right?
but Dito of Jennifer Morrison, or rather Dr. Cameron. Jennifer does seen to bright really. lol
Ahh...I think Postcolonial is obviously influenced by cultural studies, and is a pretty nebulous term in of itself, and perhaps I don't know its full influence on academia (but I did go to a university where that was the forte, and specifically went abroad to avoid that approach for a while), but that seems unduly dismissive of a pretty rich avenue of thinking.
I can imagine a poor use of it to "reduce literature to examples", but any track can be that useless. If nothing else, it's probably necessary to get at certain writers affected by postcolonial issues...and touches on topics anytime to cultures talk (translation, etc...) It's probably more useful as a topic of lit studies (and nebulously a movement) than a theory track, but bane of it all?
I tend view theories as toolkits mainly. And then again, I went to Wesleyan, and this is bread and butter to me.
Geoff: OI!!! just cos we're engaged doesn't mean you get to steal MY CRUSHES
I was the one who introduced you to Freaks & Geeks because I was in love with Ms.Cardellini and I am also the one who forced you to watch the David Tennant Dr. Who episodes because of my undying love for him!!! And let's not even get started on Zooey Deschanel. You are in sooooo much trouble! But it doesn't matter because they will all love me more if they meet me cos I'm the cute one and we both know it ;-P
I'm more or less incapable of separating the fictional character part from the people who play them, so all I have is Kitty Pride, Dido, and Amelia. And Rachel Weisz in...wait, no, that's lust.
oh and David wears WHITE converse, thank you very much. Here are my crushes, but they more about the people not about the people they play, so I guess it doesn't count:
1. Drew Barrymore -(whom I have met) The Wedding Singer
2. John Cusack -Lloyd Dobbler AND Martin Blank
3. Zooey Deschanel -from Elf, The New Kid and Hitchiker's
4. Linda Cardellini - Lindsey from F7G but not as Velma. Not Ever.
5. John Hannah - Sliding Doors/The Mummy 1&2
6. Boyce from Green Wing (I forget his real name)
7. Hugh Laurie - A Little Bit of Fry & Laurie/House
8. David Tennant - Dr. Who
9. Dule Hill - Charlie from West Wing
10. Kate Winslet - Heavenly Creatures/Hamlet
11. Sean Astin - Sam LOTR/ Goonies (yes, I know. SHUT UP)
Hey everyone. If you live or been to NYC and love Architecture then I have a blog on my myspace which may be of a little bit of interest. I visit NYC about 2 to 3 times a year and I walk everywhere. I made a personal list of what I consider the most amazing structures in NYC.
http://blog.myspace.com/130472835
HCDuvall: Babe Ruth once said "In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is." In theory you are right that post-colonial studies has good things to say. In practice, not so much. Or someone was hiding all the good stuff from me so that every time I bumped into post-colonial theory it rubbed me the wrong way. I will say this: post-colonial theory has never expanded my thought on my favorite writers (Stevens, Pater, Ashbery etc) though I am sure it is very good on some writers.
You are also write to say that a theory is just a tool. The problem is that a lot of folks have only the one tool. As the Greek proverb goes "To a man who has only a hammer, everything is a nail." I keep meeting post-colonial people who have only the one hammer. But you are right: I should not blame the group for the sins of a few.
Jonathan: thanks.
We're going all time here right? I don't think I could do 10 from right now.
1) Rebecca Gayheart -Beverly Hills 90210 (shut up)
2) Rosario Dawson - ... just about everything she's in.
3) Rachael Lee Cook - She's all that (shut up)
4) Britney Murphy - 8 Mile
5) Kelly LeBrock - Weird Science
6) Audrey Tautou - Amelie
7) Aishwarya Rai - In Anything, my wife mocks me about this one... she ripped out a page from today's paper.
8) Angelina Jolie - in Hackers
9) Death from The Sandman
oh and I had late posts in both X-men Annual threads, though the 1st one is a little old by now.
Also Geoff, was also wondering if you played Videogames. I'm working my way through Zelda: Twilight Princess on Wii and have been thinking about the interesting relationship between genre and software versions. I mean, Zelda is essentially the same game as it ever was. Some of the mechanics and the presentation have had massive changes, but the text is always roughly the same.
Also playing Metal Gear Portable Ops on PSP. And in one of the opening (maybe the 1st) "cinema's" Snake asks if "this is an official Fox Mission?" and is told that it is, this is a meta message to the game-player, telling them that even though this is a PSP game it is an official chapter in the Metal Gear Cannon (Unlike the Metal Gear Ac!d games which were officially a sidestory)
I don't think that there are a lot of people looking at game storytelling in any serious way, but I think there's a lot in there to think about. And I'm not even talking about interactivity with the story as games with a stronger story tend to have less interactivity.
Here's my list:
Veronica Mars. Repeat nine times.
I didn't like Pan's Labyrinth. I found it bleak, depressing and yes, it's too damn SERIOUS!!!!
Ping-- I'm with you on Rachel Lee Cook. And, >sigh< She's All That, which I own.
Ping: I do not play videogames. I would like to, but I only have so many hours in the day.
Mitch: this Crush list was quite fun. Thanks.
I like this game, I'll throw my ten in no particular order:
Veronica Mars (Veronica Mars)
Tru Davies (Tru Calling)
Jessica Biel in Blade Trinity
Ainsley Hayes (West Wing)
Loreli Gilmore (Gilmore Girls)
Jessica Alba in Sin City
Lois Lane (Smallville)
Buffy (Buffy the Vampire Slayer-tv and film)
Eva Mendes in Hitch
Tina Fey on Weekend Update ( I know it isn't fictional but she wa sso snarky on that, I ate it up!)
Tru Davies is a good one
Also add Vanessa Marcil - Las Vegas to my list.
I have read some lazy post-colonial readings. But I loved Said´s Orientalism when I first read it and once I was gonna write a paper about Dracula that was post-colonial-influenced.(it wasn´t the only influence).
I have read some pretty bad Wallace Stevenish criticism too.
And at least the Ashburyplay Heroes could I think be a point if you would look at it Saidwise.
I don´t think post-colonialism has been served well by forming it´s own disciplin though.
Patrick: Regarding Pan's bleakness, I'm going to quote something critic Manohla Dargis wrote about Children of Men. Pan's "may be something of a bummer, but its the kind of glorious bummer that lifts you to the rafters." At least that's how it worked for me. But not for you, obviously, and that's fair enough.
Ping: OOH, I love Aishwarya Rai! She's def. a hotty
I miss being able to watch Bollywood movies on telly, now I have to go to specialty stores to rent them.
Here's some more things I'd like to get your insight on.
1)What do you think about the Superboy/Conner Kent/Kon-El character?
-I thought it was a good well developing character. Mainly because I was a fan of the character since when he came out when I was about 7, and he grew up along with my generation. I did think they never played up Superman's faternal care though. He treated Conner as a buddy, and not a son, and technically he was his son.
2)Did you like the DC animated universe shows(Justice league, etc.) TV shows.
3) What's better, House MD or Grey's Anatomy?
4)What do you think about the Bart Allen(Impulse,2nd Kid Flash,4th Flash)character?
-Again I grew up with the character and saw him grow into the new Flash, Though Wally's still the best Flash. I'm sure most will agree.
Also...
5)How do you work on your Ph.D. While still living in New York?
Yeah, it occurred to me after posting that the postcolonial approach is limited to some of your interests, and if you met someone who only did that, it would reduce stuff to examples. Basically what Butter said. I limit my wide dismmissals to Objectivism. Heh.
It also occurred to me, on the topic of crushes on this thread, that I am still basically in love with Faye Wang's character from Chungking Express. It's also possible that I'm in love with everybody who's every appeared in a Wong Kar Wai movie though.
No prob Geoff. What's absolutely brilliant about his thread is all the things we are discussing simultaniously: Pan's Laberynth, Post Colonial Criticism, Imaginary Crushes, and on top of all this, you are getting yelled at by your lady. God bless the internet and God bless us, everyone.
"this" thread. Oops. No edit button.
Pat: 1) no opinion 2) There were some great Batman Animated episodes 3) House 4) no opinion 5) because I am mostly finished, I just have to wait for my supervisor to look over the thesis, then I submit.
Mitch: I can't understand why the switch to blogger beta does not involve a way to edit comments.
In the off chance that somebody's still reading: an updated list.
1) Willow Rosenberg
2) River Tam
3) Fred Burkle
4) Veronica Mars
5) Kitty Pryde
6) Shego
7) Angela Chase
8) Any character played by Natalie Portman
9) Any character played by Sophia Myles
10) Any character played by Leelee Sobieski
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