New Camera Obscura album out today!

The new Camera Obscura album, My Maudlin Career, comes out today. I’ve already been listening to it and it’s great. Tracyanne is at her sweetest and saddest. No, there are no smash hits along the lines of Lloyd or Let’s Get Out of this Country but maybe I will not get sick of these songs from over-listening then. Some of my favorites so far are: “You Told a Lie”, “The Sweetest Thing”, and “Honey in the Sun.”

Everybody wants to be John Hughes these days

Last night I saw Adventureland This is the story of a college grad who is about to go to Europe and then grad school at Colombia…until his dad takes a pay cut and he must get a summer job in his home town, rather than touring ancient cities and ruins with his roommate। Since this spoiled intellectual has never had a real job before, he’s only qualified to work at Adventureland। Here he meets a handful of quirky and doomed characters। He starts dating Em (Kristen Stewart) but she has some things going and well...I don’t want to give it away।

The movie has a nice theme-park-in-the-80’s feel and a few hilarious lines, mostly delivered from Martin Starr। Overall, I’d say it was okay though। Being that Bill Heder and Kristin Wiig were in it, I assumed it was going to be more of a comedy। I wonder if they cut out some of Kristin Wiig’s part because she mostly just stood in the background next to Bill Heder। She did have one really funny part though that was thrown in there।

I think I spent the whole movie trying to imagine it was really 1987। It’s possible that short of having a 6-year-old Kerry go on one of the rides, they weren’t going to convince me। Even though The Wedding Singer was so over-the-top I feel like it was more convincing, maybe because the 80’s were over-the-top too। Or maybe it was because young people today look a lot like young people in the 80’s so they partly left them the way they are। They did a really good job with the clothes which were very bright; pants were very high। They got the hairstyles right but they could have been fluffier and more out of control। Also, Ryan Reynolds didn’t really fit in with his beef-cake-iness। I liked Kristen Stewart though and believed her as the troubled/edgy college student। Let’s do a comparison, shall we?

Anthony Michael Hall from Sixteen Candles vs। Jesse Eisenberg and Martin Starr

AH

1. Hair is higher Notice,
2. not everyone in the 80’s actually wore ringer t-shirts। AH went with the loose button-down alternative, ala Tom Cruise।
3. Total skinny nerd, definitely doesn’t work out
4. Not intellectual, just bad with girls
5. And…for some reason, in real 80’s movies the nerds had Kevin Bacon from footloose kind of confidence

JE and MS

Hair is flat and in place, more 70’s

Wearing everyone’s fav 80’s throw back t-shirt

Even for skinny guys, they look pretty fit to me!
Intellectual and get with girls
Not confident…These guy are starting to sound more like studs: smooth hair, buff, cool shirts, smart, and modest! What more could Em want in a man?

एडिटिंग इस वेइर्द सॉरी इ'ल फिक्स थिस लेटर

Same-sex Marriage Victories

From NYT.com: Gay Rights Groups Celebrate Victories in Marriage Push
I was caught by this statement but people do actually feel this way: ““It’s a bad day for the country,” said Brian Brown, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage, a group established to fight same-sex marriage. “There is a palpable sense that something has changed and people need to get active.””
I hope he is right and that something has changed.
“Polls suggest that Americans remain divided on the issue. A CBS News poll last week found that while 6 out of 10 Americans think some form of legal recognition is appropriate for same-sex couples, only a third think those couples should be allowed to marry.”

NEWS FLASH!

if you haven't already heard, i got locked inside my apartment building today. the door just wouldn't open. it was scary and weird. i had to climb down the fire escape just to get out and go to work and was late because of it. you'll be glad to know that the door knob has since been fixed.

also, last night MTV played "docudrama" (whatever the hell that is) about the life of pedro from the san francisco real world. it was so bad! basically, it was actors re-enacting the real world. the acting was terrible and puck wasn't even that dirty or gross. it looked like they just found some blonde frat boy and put him in weird outfits and told him to pick his nose and be mean to pedro. even though this was an extremely silly and strange thing for MTV to put their time and money into and then play during lost (it was 2 hours and the second hour was at the same time as the new lost episode), it was sad and kind of moving. pedro was a good guy and the first real-worlder to have a message and attempt to make the show less vapid so it's nice that they are trying to remind people of him and his story. i'm sure it's part of their whole GYT campaign. it's sort of random but i guess pedro is a connection between them (MTV) and AIDS. i don't know if there are many others. they used to play that real sex series, where they would talk to random people about their sex lives and how having unprotected sex made their lives more difficult by leading to diseases and unplanned babies. they should play those. it was cool that they used to care and do stuff like that and it would also be an awesome blast back to the 90's. 

let's now go back to before the "docudrama." in yet another attempt to improve the quality of my life, i got an expensive haircut yesterday. now i've done this before and was unhappy with the result but this particular stylist was highly recommended to me so i took a chance. i must say, i'm very very happy with the results and hope to show off my new do very soon.

goodnight!

Let's Get Out of This Country

Hello everyone in the interweb,

i haven't updated my blog in a while and i'm starting to feel pretty bad about myself as a result. that's what i get for starting a blog i guess. while some are updating their blogs several times daily with funny quips, cool new bands and discoveries, and crazy videos my blog collects dust and the details of my life remain a mystery. 

well, let's catch up then. bill and i saw camera obscura at the bell house. they are awesome! we got there late because i had class and the crowd was so "whatever" about the opener that we got right up against the stage. the sound wasn't great but the band were all dolled up in their best thrift wears.  new songs are wonderful and i can't wait for the new album which comes out on the 21st. 

the weekend was nice. we went to the jersey city craft fair and got some cool stuff.  then my ex-roommate's surprise b-day dinner. sunday my aunt and cousin came to check out the apartment.  

kerry's to do list:

1. sign up for yoga

2. get a hair cut

3. get contacts

4. think of things to do when emma is here

5. go see i love you, man

6. get a library card (even though i will probably never use it because i have more books than i can read. 

7. stop eating brownies everyday. but i love them. no - stop!

alright this episode of how i met your mother with the teen wolf is f'n hilarious! you know what else is hilarious? aziz ansari. you should love him like bill and i do. 

right now i am reading the tenderness of wolves by stef penney and i love it. this is one of the fiction nominees for QPB's New Visions Awards and i'm really into it. it takes place in the back woods of canada in the 1800's, revolves around a murder, has a religious commune, and a bratty teenage boy. i'm also reading 2666 by roberto bolano. this book won the national book critics circle award of 2008 and i'm reading it for book club. it's a heavy read and i am not that far in yet but it's also very good. it's about the publishing world and is tightly packed with deep thoughts and philosophical debate about relationships and also art. but based on the description on amazon a lot more happens than what i have seen thus far. 

living in jersey city is good. i know you were wondering. i've been here for 1 month now and i love having a whole apartment that is mine. i love the neighborhood and feel really at home here. lucy is also good. i know you were wondering about that too. i was worried that she wouldn't have as much room to play and be crazy but she just bounces off the furniture. really. 

till next time. i'll be reading, trying to be productive, and also trying to spend an acceptable amount of time being social.

2008 in pictures - prospect park, new orleans, dublin

prague, melissa's b-day, and family lunch