And So Begins the Final Countdown

EPIC, right?  If you're like me (and by 'like me' I mean an alarmingly fanatic Harry Potter disciple), this is one of the moments you've been waiting for since 2001.  It's a full decade later now, and the buzz and excitement in the lead-up to these movies still never fails to set my heart aflutter.  And I am fully expecting the run-up to this movie to be the most outrageous yet.

Anyone who's seen my Tumblr page knows that I haven't been very patient in waiting for any signs of Deathly Hallows Part 2, particularly over the past few weeks.  I have my reasons:  this is typically the time when we would start getting images in heavy volume, and possibly a trailer for the forthcoming film, and up until this week there was all but silence on the part of WB.  I remembered all too well the delays in promotions for the Half-Blood Prince film, and we all know what ultimately happened there.  Since another nine month delay isn't even on the short list of things I want to deal with, I've been getting a bit antsy. 

And then Monday afternoon rolled around, and I discovered the first sign of a change in the wind.  WB has released the first official promotional poster for the film, which you can see at the top of this post.  Additionally, we're about to get hit with an onslaught of footage from the film, according to various sources.  The DVD for Deathly Hallows Part 1 drops Tuesday 11 April, and I will be at the store probably that day so that I can experience the first scene of Part 2, which is confirmed to be included in the Special Features.  Additionally, on Thursday at CinemaCon (formerly ShoWest), there will be an exclusive screening of footage from the second film.  No specifications on what will be shown, but David Heyman will be on hand, so you can bet it's going to be pretty significant.  I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that someone will be able to smuggle in a camera to capture the footage for those of us not attending the festival. 

I think it's safe to say that the next couple of weeks will mark an escalation in the fandom, and the beginning of the ultimate hype in the lead up to HP's final onscreen adventure.  I'm already counting down the days until July 15th, but I'm more excited for the moment when everyone else starts to anticipate it alongside me.

TV Round-Up: Mixed Bag

Community:  I have to admit, this episode was again underwhelming.  I think I've just come to expect so much from any episode with such a hyped theme, and this one just didn't deliver.  It was advertised as the "Pulp Fiction" episode, but by the time it was over I was left with the very strong feeling that given the range and talent of the cast and the quality of the film in question, they could have done much more.  I think they played it safe this week, not taking any of the risks for which this show is known, and it showed.  Yes, it was probably a bit of a risk giving Abed that huge monologue about his "Cougar Town" experience (honestly, I think I was distracted throughout the speech by my own attempts to imagine Abed watching that show), but that scene actually ended up standing out as a highlight in an otherwise weak installment.

Much hype has been made about the episodes to come (I've heard rumors of a Josh Holloway appearance, not to mention the much-anticipated paintball sequel, which will either be terrible or brilliant), so I'm hoping (again) that we're just seeing the valley before we begin to climb yet another comedic summit along with our favorite Greendale students.  The show may have just gotten picked up for a third season, but now is not the time to slow down; Dan Harmon and company need to use May sweeps to prove they deserve another year.

Parks and Recreation:  This was one episode where just hearing the premise told me it was going to be hilarious.  In "Camping," Leslie takes the Parks team out into the wilderness for a night of brainstorming and bonding, and the results are pretty much what you'd expect, at least in terms of productivity.  Tom brought along his SkyMall haven, and we saw the long-awaited (at least, in my case) return of DJ ROOMBA!  What I enjoyed even more than Tom himself was the continuation of his storyline (read:  bromance) with Ben.  The two of them were really bonding there in the tent, at least until Ron pulled the plug. 

Can we just establish that April and Andy are quickly becoming one of the best couples on television right now (if they weren't already)?  Everything they do just works, and each of them has remained dimensional, resisting that dreaded trend of melding into what I like to call a "relationship blob" [think Barney and Robin on HIMYM-- should have, by all rights, been epic, but just got too boring too fast].  I think seeing Andy go to all that trouble to make April's camping experience wonderful was such an adorable moment, especially watching him dance around with the rose petals.  It was a throwback, for me at least, to the early days of Jim and Pam on The Office.

All the other elements of this episode just fell into place perfectly.  (Sidebar:  I realize I spend most of my reviews of this show gushing over how good it is; but hey, I'll stop when they stop producing the best 20 minutes of my TV week).  Leslie and Ben?  More baby steps, but I'll take it.  Ann and Chris?  Spot on, as usual.  And Ron had my quote of the week:  "Fishing relaxes me.  It's like yoga, except I still get to kill something."

The Office:  And speaking of Jim and Pam...  I don't usually review (or consistently watch) The Office anymore, but when I read that Michael was scheming to propose to Holly, I knew that this was going to be a can't-miss episode.  And I was right.  I won't go too much into detail about it, because I think everyone who ever had a soft spot for this show should definitely check it out themselves (plus I don't want to get into more gushing and discussion of how choked up I may or may not have gotten...).  Anyway, it was fabulous; I'm really glad that the writers are giving Steve Carell the swan song he so thoroughly deserves.

Glee and How I Met Your Mother were, unfortunately, reruns this week.

Book Review: Mourning Diary, by Roland Barthes

This is a beautiful little book.  And I mean it when I say little-- the reading time came in at just under an hour.  It's mostly due to the structure of the book, which is also its premise:  each page contains a few lines, usually only a sentence or two, composed by Barthes on index cards during the two years following his mother's death. 

Over the course of some 200 entries, Barthes explores issues in relationships, grief, love, and his own mortality.  The rawness of seeing his innermost thoughts there on the page, and realizing that he wrote them while in the depths of such heavy feelings, is really what makes this book fantastic.  It is moving in a way that is subtle and overwhelming at the same time (if that makes any sense at all), and certainly relateable for anyone to whom the spectres of death and grief have paid a visit.

Some excerpts that were particularly resonant for me:

"Solitude = having no one at home to whom you can say:  I'll be back at a specific time or to who you can call to say:  voila, I'm home now."

"I write my suffering less and less yet it grows all the stronger, shifting to the realm of the eternal, since I no longer write it."

"We don't forget, but something vacant settles within us."

Nice To Meet You

"So much has to happen in order for two people to meet."
---21 Grams

I just re-watched this film with a few friends (sidenote:  I'm fairly certain I've met the quota of how many times you can sit through "21 Grams" without sinking into a depression spiral), and this quote again jumped out at me.  It was something I've been thinking about lately, and I recalled hearing someone say this, but couldn't quite place it.  I guess it was fate that made my friends choose this movie (despite my many warnings that it would kill their buzz), so that I could pinpoint its source, and muse on it a little bit more.

It's true, if you really think about it.  I don't think anything can be a pure coincidence; there is always some sequence of events that have led us to our current place in life, and if the same goes for the people we meet, then it follows that our circumstances have aligned to allow us to know one another, even if only for a moment. 

Think about the people in your life-- friends, significant others, acquaintances.  How did you meet?  What pushed you to approach them and introduce yourself, or vice versa?  Why is that the way things went, at that particular moment, when there were a million equally plausible alternatives.  What if you and your best friend hadn't sat across the aisle from each other in that awful Astronomy 120 class?  What if your boyfriend had gone to a different bar the night you two met?  What if you'd followed your initial appraisal of that girl across the coffee shop, rather than made conversation and realized how much you had in common? 

Every time we meet someone new, no matter the circumstances, we're making connections.  We're connecting ourselves, not just to others, but to the universe itself.  In interacting with the people we are dropped into a situation alongside, we are cementing our place in this moment, right here, now.  We are in essence saying 'yes' to our own existences, and to the possibilities they offer us.

I think about all the people who are in my life now, and how things might have been if I hadn't met them, if our paths had never crossed.  It's a hazard, I suppose, of being on the cusp of graduation; you think about yourself at the beginning of this ridiculous journey, and how you never could have anticipated just about everything that followed.  I am grateful, eternally, that my path has led me the way it has.  I truly believe there is no one among the people I've met who hasn't shared something with me, supported me, or taught me something, about the world or about myself.  I wouldn't trade any of those awkward first meetings for the world, knowing now how much good came from them.

I'll try to keep this in mind the next time I meet someone new, or catch someone's eye across a crowded room.  I'll ask myself, what happened to bring us both here?  What do we have to give to each other?  Maybe it's just a smile, or a compliment to brighten a day.  But maybe it's so much more.

Book Review: This is Where I Leave You, by Jonathan Tropper

This book was so strangely beautiful, because it captured something so very real about our lives.  No matter who you are or what your experiences, there is something in this story that you will find yourself able to relate to.  It's a story about loss, about losing and finding oneself, about family, and about love.  It is equal parts humorous and genuinely heartwarming, without trying too hard to be either.

The novel opens with Judd, a man whose fiancee has recently had an affair (with his boss, no less), and left him.  He is living the typical pathetic post-marriage life (basement apartment, take-out food, weight gain and self-pity, for starters) when he gets the call that his father has died.  What's more is that he is expected to sit shiva (a kind of group mourning period in the Jewish tradition) with his siblings and mother for the next seven days.  Of course, this would be all too easy if they didn't all want to strangle each other.  And thus we are promised a few laughs and guaranteed hijinks.

Tropper takes us through Judd's week, highlighting the most important interactions which, in the end, all come together to form an almost unexpectedly cohesive picture.  He comes to an understanding of sorts with Jen, his soon-to-be ex-wife, resolves decades-old issues with each of his siblings in turn, and arrives at a new understanding of both his parents and himself.  The book's conclusion has a lot of resolution, but still manages to leave a few of the big questions hanging, kind of a do-it-yourself ending.  All we know at the last page is that this week has changed Judd and by extension the people he loves, and though we don't know quite where he's headed (and neither does he), the choices are clear. 

Overall, this book is incredibly witty and well-articulated.  Tropper illustrates so clearly the emotionally stunted family, and explores the possible causes for all the discord in a way that seems so natural and easy that it's impossible not to lose yourself in it.  None of the characters are completely sympathetic or villainous, which only makes them more dimensional and intriguing.  I've heard good things about Tropper in the past, and now having read this I will be sure to pick up some of his other works at my earliest opportunity.

TV Round-Up: Transitions

Well, finals are over and that means I’m back.  I’ll be honest, even if I had been able to find the time for this, nobody was really bringing it hard enough for me to take interest.  Up until this past week (I’m talking about 3/14 to today), Glee was mediocre at the best of times, and the other shows I care about were in post-sweeps hibernation.  But my reward for all the studying, interview prep, and other miscellaneous nonsense was a week of television at its finest, everything a distraction ought to be.  Here we go:
Glee:  There are so many wonderful things to say about this episode, most of which have already made it to the Internet, and more specifically to Tumblr.  I’ll start with what I’m fairly certain was everyone’s favorite part of “Original Song”— the realization of Kurt and Blaine’s adorable romance (not to mention, one of the best TV kisses I’ve seen in quite a while).  It’s been a rarity this season for me to watch any one clip multiple times, but the adorable factor is just too much, not to mention the way Blaine’s sincerity just squeezes my little heart.
My close-second favorite scene, though, is one not everyone was crazy about:  the Quinn/Rachel confrontation in the auditorium.  Not only was the acting above and beyond my expectations for this show (especially Dianna Agron’s), but the content of the scene was something that I was not expecting, but was a pleasant surprise all the same.  Quinn may come off as a bitch to most people who aren’t reading into it like I was (and she definitely could have approached the topic better), but what she ended up expressing was so meaningful that I would hate to think that Rachel took it the wrong way.  Quinn is not the naive small-town gal we’ve all underestimated her to be; she knows she’ll never escape Lima, and she’s accepted that her life will amount to a whole lot of settling.  What she won’t stand for is seeing someone who has the ability and the drive to go so much farther (that is, Rachel), limit herself all for some guy (and especially given how much of a jerk Finn’s been lately, I have to agree with Quinn).  I like to think that Rachel understood this, at the very least after penning her song (which, yes, I’ve listened to an embarrassing number of times since), but my worry is that the writers will mash her back together with Finn and forget that either girl had a moment of revelation during this episode.
Overall, this may just be one of my favorite episodes yet.  It definitely makes me feel a little more justified for all the nonsense I’ve endured (especially the past few weeks), knowing that Ryan Murphy and Co. are capable of this level of television.  Please, oh please, let them follow through on the promise they’ve shown for the remaining six episodes.
Community:  To be honest, a fairly forgettable episode (though my standards have been stuck at “high” since the Dungeons and Dragons installment).  I have higher expectations for the end of the season (I recall last year at this point being where they struggled, too), so we will have to wait it out and hope that Jeff and the gang find a new way to wow us in the lead up to finale season.
Parks and Recreation:  Harvest Festival day finally arrived, and I, like Leslie, could not have been more psyched.  This episode had all the ingredients for a first-rate laughfest, accented nicely with relationship developments all around.  The April and Andy conflict was a typical sitcom staple (one says those three words and the other can’t return them), but I did like the fresh color of Ron being the one to forcibly resolve it.  What I liked best, though, was of course the continuation of the slow build between Ben and Leslie.  I’m just going to say right now that if for some reason this doesn’t pan out, the writers are going to have at least one highly disappointed viewer on their hands.
The supporting characters were charming and quirky as always, and I must say, I think I kind of like Ann being single and pathetic; it suits her.  I am intrigued to see what this show has in store now that the Harvest Festival (an event I thought would surely be withheld until the finale) has concluded.  Perhaps the fall-out will bring some kind of development we aren’t expecting.  As long as the show keeps chugging along at this tidy little pace, though, I have no complaints.
How I Met Your Mother:  An impeccable comeback, to be sure; funny and heartwarming in equal measure, and of course, filled with wonderful acting.  John Lithgow made an appearance in this week’s episode, because why wouldn’t the Trinity killer be Barney’s father?  He and Neil Patrick Harris pushed each other to truly fantastic performances, and I really felt like everything in this episode resolved itself exactly the way I would have wanted.  I’m interested to see where the tail end of this season is going— this episode seemed to indicate that we’ll be leaving both the Barney/father and Marshall/grieving subplots behind, and the only things we know for sure are coming are the impending bust-up between Ted and Zoey, and that mystery wedding from the premiere (which we still don’t have a confirmation is even happening in Season 6).  So as to what’s next, it’s anyone’s guess at this point, but I for one can’t wait to find out.

Where Have All the Good Stories Gone? (2/2011)

 In a month when I’ve been hit with the unfortunate news that two members of the “Jersey Shore” cast have or will be publishing books in the coming months, I’m forced to wonder whether we have in fact hit out literary rock bottom as a society.  It’s discouraging to say the least to walk through a bookstore and realize that some of the bestselling “authors” are in fact some of reality television and celebrity gossip’s biggest stars.  And what makes it sting all the more is reading good literature on my own time and knowing that most of my peers, and probably even fewer of those younger than myself, will ever get to know the beauty that is traditional English literature.
I recently completed my journey through the Jane Austen collection. Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey were the last two on my list, and once I’d read one I couldn’t wait to pick up the other.  I promised myself that, because Austen’s novels are so wonderful and few, I would wait as long as possible between books so as to put off the moment when I realized there was nothing left of her magnificent prose to read.  That the library happened to have both of these two books available simultaneously seemed serendipitous, though, so I broke my own rule and devoured both novels in the course of ten days.
The results were as I anticipated:  I was sucked into the vivid nineteenth century world that Austen paints so effectively, sympathizing with characters with whom I would never think I had anything in common, and even more uncharacteristic for me, I rooted for their happy ending to the very last pages.  It’s just the magic that her books work on me— I fall into them so wholly that I lose sight of the fact that none of it should be relatable for me, but I don’t care.
I wish more of today’s writers could be like that, could have that kind of influence over me.  I wish any of today’s writers, especially today’s popular writers, could invoke the kind of feeling I get when I read Jane Austen, and could invoke it in kids who are slaves to the Internet and television, kids who’ve been bred to care about nothing other than themselves.  I wish there were still high standards for what passes as literature in today’s market.  I think about how hard Jane Austen must have worked and how hard she must have fought to get her words read, and it makes me feel embarrassed and ashamed to see the bullshit in the front of Barnes & Noble, vapid celebrity faces grinning at me, like they know exactly who they’re taking the opportunity away from, and relish it.
Maybe this bitterness comes from my own aspirations, but I think I’d be irked either way.  Just because someone is famous doesn’t mean they are necessarily good at anything (even the thing they purport to “do” for a living), and we should stop throwing our attention at people just because they’re good-looking, or worse, stupid.

Who Is This Girl, and Why Is She Here?

I'm currently trying out re-locating from Tumblr, where I've had a blog for about nine months now.  I like Tumblr for all the colorful distraction, but I don't feel like it's the right space for posting long wordy entries, as I'm wont to do.  So I'll be making the move over to Blogger in what I suppose is an experimental phase, to see if this is more the place for me.

What are the sorts of things I write about?  Well, anything, really.  The name of the blog is "There's Always Something" because I feel that something can always be said or thought, and my goal is to express those things in as wide a spectrum as possible here on my little space on the web.  I do television and film reviews, opinion pieces, book reviews, the occasional fashion blurb (usually restricted to just awards shows, but who knows), and I've been known to post entries on an array of things that have just caught my interest.  I'm going to upload the most recent entries from my current blog, and then we'll go from there.  If you're reading this, I'd love to know your thoughts on any parts of this blog, and I hope you're up for joining the conversation!