II

2. Films :D


Association Meme: Comment to this post and I will give you 5 subjects/things I associate you with. Then post this in your blog and elaborate on the subjects given.


James and the Giant Peach and Babe were the first films I saw in a cinema. I can vaguely remember them. I wasn't much of an avid movie-goer until boarding school, when I had the opportunity to go out for weekends and chose the films I wanted to see. Melbourne used to have more cinemas in the CBD, but then Village moved to Crown and the Lumiere shut down...that said, there's a pretty fantastic collection of both commercial and art house cinemas here, which is great. The one about two blocks from campus shows quite a lot of foreign/alternative but also some mainstream, which is hugely convenient. And it's a nice cinema. I can appreciate a cinema, but I'm not fussy about where I see a film, whether it's on a TV or a tiny laptop screen (although obviously I prefer sans ads.)


I'm a hopeless romantic, so I love chick flicks and rom coms. However, films like No Reservations and Notting Hill suck. Bridget Jones and The Holiday are overrated (but I'll watch it.) Mean Girls is a great film, Princess Diaries is one of my absolute favourites and I adore Amanda Bynes in almost anything, especially She's the Man. I didn't think Pretty Woman was that great, but I love Erin Brockavich. Sex and the City was just annoying and long. I didn't like Four Weddings and a Funeral or Love Actually as much as everyone else - don't even get me started on My Best Friend's Wedding - but I really enjoyed A Lot Like Love and Imagine Me and You. I did not like Moulin Rougue but I did Romeo + Juliet.


I'm almost always in the mood for a lighthearted comedy. I love to laugh, which means movies that make me laugh are close to my heart. Blues Brothers and Forrest Gump are two of my favourite films OF ALL TIME. I could watch them over and over and over again. A good joke is one you can hear more than once and still find them funny. That is also the definition of a good comedy.




It's a rare film that makes me cry, but by the same token, those that do will go down as The Greatest Films Known to JAG. Amazing Grace, Becoming Jane and Changeling are three of those films. Also, I cried in Slumdog, but only because I was so happy.


I like a film that keeps me wondering, where I can't see when the end is coming. I hate a really predictable cliche. I want to be surprised, shocked, intrigued. Movies are less about plot these days - it's all revealed in the trailer anyway - and more about the BOOM. The FX. The soundtrack. The lead star. The sex scene. It's a sad day. Which is why I love films like Match Point and American Beauty.


Also? Wanted was TERRIBLE.




Animation + Disney = *squeeeee!!!* I will love almost anything by virtue of the fact that it's animation. But, I, uh, haven't seen Bambi. *cowers* A happy ending is the most beautiful thing in a film, which is perhaps why I'm a Disney girl at heart. There's just a certain satisfation and joy when everything works out in the end. So it's a cliche, I don't care; I guess it just warms the cockles of my optimistic heart. Plus animation is cute, funny, and has, you know, morals. And usually great songs to sing along to.



Old films are some of the best films ever made. EVAH. How dare you say otherwise. HITCHCOCK WAS MASTER.


Then there are the Christmas darlings, like Miracle on 34th St and It's a Wonderful Life. I mean, they just don't make 'em like that any more. Sentimental, meaningful, familial - a classic is a movie that doesn't age, and I could watch these every Christmas.


Musicals are wonderful. They're delightful, charming, feel-good, and whimsical. Plus, you know, THE SONGS. Perhaps my favourite musical ever is Phantom of the Opera. It's just so beautiful.




I. CAN'T. STAND. HORROR. Enough said.


What's your take on previews? Some people love 'em, some hate 'em.


x
JAG

I

Anahita tagged me by request because we all know I'm a tag whore.

Association Meme: Comment to this post and I will give you 5 subjects/things I associate you with. Then post this in your blog and elaborate on the subjects given.

1. Politics/Human Rights



Wow. Not vast at all. ;-)



Before last year, I didn't understand what left wing and right wing stood for, nor did I really care, until the American primaries got really interesting. I'm still not really sure where I stand in Australian politics - all I know is I'm not (the misnomer) Liberal. Australian politics just isn't as interesting as American politics (no comments from you jdl.)

I used to want to be in politics, you know. After watching West Wing I'm almost inspired to become one for the simple reason that it seems to be one occupation that can make a change and a difference in this world.



Which brings me to human rights. I always feel a little bit guilty that I'm not actually doing more. I was part of Amnesty International when I was at school, writing letters, petitioning for release of prisons and right to fair trial and the dismissal of corporal punishment and it felt good; it felt like I was working for a cause and achieving justice, somewhere, however small, in some neglected part of the globe. As it is, I've joined one.com, Get Up! and Avaaz who send me emails updating me on travesties around the world. Get Up! has actually been able to have influence within Australian media and political circles, which makes me feel like a part of something, but it's a lazy sort of human rights activism don't you think, and rather emblematic of our generation; we care, but only so much as it involves us, and we feel we can act. Technology has desensitized us, made us apathetic and passive.

x
JAG

Be the type tO help sAve a life

I’ve given blood twice in this lifetime, and I’m aiming to do it at least twice more this year.

Giving blood is surprisingly easy. I’ve never really had a problem with needles,

as I’ve received numerous vaccinations over the years. It really doesn’t hurt – believe me, if it was any kind of painful I wouldn’t be doing it for kicks – and it’s pretty straightforward. You fill out a form about how no, I haven’t shared needles or think I may have contracted AIDS or lived for more than 6 months overseas. Then you have an interview, which is basically about your form, and get your blood tested - just a prick on the finger – to see if your haemoglobin levels and blood pressure are fine. Then you go and lie down on this chair which is kind of like a dentist’s but more conformable and less scary, because there are other people lying around doing the same thing. The nurse picks an arm with the most prominent vein showing near your elbow, inserts the needle (which is quite small) which is attached to a tube which they tape to your arm which feeds to a bag resting on scales which shows how much blood you’re giving. You don’t have to look at it if you don’t want to – there’s a TV, and the radio’s on, and there’s magazines lying around, and if you’re feeling really social you can talk to the person next to you like I did when I gave blood on campus (she was a fourth year arts student, and it was her fifth time). They give you a little foam heart to hold in your hand to squeeze occasionally to make your blood pump faster. You give about 300-500ml, and in all it takes about 10-15min. If you’re a first timer, they like to keep an eye on you, so you hang around a bit more to make sure you don’t faint or whatever, then you get a snack, a drink and leave.

While one in three Australians need blood, only one in thirty – because, you know, there are all those requirements about not being pregnant or over 70 or under 16 or having heart problems or recent tattoos – actually do. I give blood because I can, and because if I were ever in a situation where I need a blood transfusion, I’d hope that someone had given it for me.

x
JAG

2 Years

Some of the things I've been blogging about in the past year:



[Click to enlarge]

It's been an interesting year - endless parties, turning 18, getting a job, fitting into college, not going on exchange, those exciting elections, discovering the American Dream, exploring my other half, overcoming crippling self-pity, affirming my belief, finding my political voice, fighting with the university to do a double major...
















































Hookahs + belly dancers for a friend's 20th


























Battle of the Bands

























Hanging out with my cousins




















Hale'iwa, Hawaii




















Dressing as a clown for Sideshow Week! Yes, I wore that impressive afro green wig nearly all week, everywhere - around the CBD, coffee crawling, bowling + galactic circus...I wore so much the freshers didn't recognise me without it! If you can't guess - I was a clown, of course =)

























Moomba festival

























Trivia Night - our table were Flappers!



















Good times with Gemini picking out the ugliest dresses we could find in Myer. Gemini's actually looked good on her! Oh, and cuz you can't identify us by our lovely legs, that's yours truly on the right in the charming pink number (what else?!)

So whilst I'm hugely proud that my blog has made it thus far - I never had such humble expectations when I began it this time two years ago in a little room in a boarding house in my final year of school - and I've had so much fun during that time, it's been a bittersweet journey (god I hate that word, it's become a cliche.) The hardest thing I've had to deal with in this last year has been my grandfather dying. He suffered a stroke - his second - not long after we got back, and it was downhill for him healthwise from there. He passed peacefully yesterday morning. I still can't - don't want to - believe it.

x
JAG

The Canyon When it Snows

While we were at the Grand Canyon, it snowed! There was snow on the ground when we drove in, late on our first night, and when we woke up the next morning, it was snowing! For a snow-loving-and-deprived Aussie, this was a beautiful and amazing thing. Because we'd never driven in snow before, and didn't really want to, we decided to walk up to the gate of the Park to see if it was open and what the conditions were like up there for parking and so on.




















Yes, we were literally walking by the side of the road. We were really very lucky that no one skidded off the road and hit us...



















It was truly like a winter wonderland...





















































This tape amused me no end.



















Beware elk! We never actually saw any, but we did see a young deer...

x
JAG

Dallas, TX

Thanksgiving Sq, Dallas, TX, asked an interesting question: what one thing are you most grateful for?

























Gorgeous little chapel.



































































Stained glass ceiling, absolutely beautiful.

























Thanksgiving ring.
























Liberty bells.


x
JAG

A New Low in Journalism?

Inappropriate? Disrepectful? Or just fine?
































Could he sue for this? It's kind of a backhanded compliment to promote him solely under the premise "our new neighbor [sic] is hot," objectifying him and disregarding his intelligence, passion, idealism and ambition.

x
JAG

View from the Top

Flying into the beautiful Sydney. It was somewhat cloudy, but then as we flew over the harbour, the sun came out.
























The Harbour Bridge and CBD









































x
JAG

Photography that matters

I want to take photos that change the world, or in the very least someone's state of mind.



































Photos that aren't just beautiful, but shocking, tantilising, entrancing, moving.

x
JAG