Spiralbound Pixels

This looks awesome.

Apple – Trailers – SHINE A LIGHT

A great story about a woman who reclaimed her body through redefining her relationship with food: No Bread, No Worries: The Gluten-Free Girl

One of the great things about The Gluten-Free Girl is her absolute joy in eating and living. Even those who don’t have celiac’s disease like her, can find inspiration through her writing.

This is a personal reminder to myself to be mindful this holiday season – food is to be savored, relished and shared with love with friends and family.

Happy (American) Thanksgiving to the few reading this! May you eat, drink, be merry and have fun with those you love.

There is an interesting discussion going on at ask.metafilter about the twist in “The Illusionist”, and whether it was successful. Lots of spoilers, so proceed with caution.

I liked this comment a lot:

But on an emotional level — for me at least — it’s a love story. The howdoneit angle is secondary. Think about it as a love story for a minute: it’s a pretty clear-cut example of boy-gets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-wins-girl-back again. To me, that’s inevitably going to be an engrossing formula, if the storytellers set the romantic tone well and if I’m attracted to the protagonists.

For me, all the magic stuff was a backdrop. It gave the movie a gothic feel, like “Wuthering Heights” which, for me, is a love story about Catherine and Heathcliff. The windswept setting just makes adds spice to the romance.

I agree with all the flaws mentioned, but this really hits it on the head for my personal experience – and makes me think of how my film-viewing style has sort of morphed into this over the years: the movie doesn’t have to be perfect on all levels; if it makes me feel, evokes a big emotion – distaste, love, wonder, thrill, terror, dislike, silliness – then it’s a good movie. This is why I consider both “Requiem for a Dream” and “Anchorman” to be great movies. But it doesn’t mean I will ever watch the former again, and the latter, I watch a few times a year.

So, Monday, November 12, 2007, marked a couple of significant firsts for me: first concert since Camille’s birth, first concert with my sister, Olivia, first long solo trip for me, first Tori concert in the new millennium. Maybe I’m reaching there, but you get the idea. I was freakin’ psyched for this show.

Olivia’s awesome housemate and friend, BJ, helped organize the trip and treated tickets for me, Olivia and Jerome. Orchestra, row J, people. I could have thrown marshmallows at sweet Tori if I wanted to!

And then venue – best sound I’ve ever heard for a live band. BJ described hearing a concert there as not just hearing it from the source on stage, but feeling the sound surround you. And it was just like that. I called Pete during two songs, and during “Cooling”, he said he got chillbumps. It was really that good.

One of the most fun parts of the evening was after the concert. After spending an hour in the parking garage (we’re guessing because of some confusion with the system for paying to leave), we drove by Tori’s tour bus. A nice crowd was there, so we stopped and waited. And waited. And waited. Slowly Tori’s crew trickled out, and finally, an hour or two after the end of the concert, the goddess herself made her way out. She waved and smiled and called, “I love you”’s back to us, but did not stop. She tucked herself into her tour bus. And then we waited some more. Finally the tour bus took off, and we waved goodbye. Sure, it was a thrill to see her, but secretly, I had the most fun just chatting and laughing with Olivia, BJ and Jerome.

Full song list, clips, photos and concert accounts at the amazing undented.com

The awesome music blog stereogum, maintained by Scott Lapatine, posted all the clips from the recent Radiohead.tv, which I tried but could not access when it was live. Looks like the Radiohead guys have some fun and play most of their songs from In Rainbows (currently my most favorite album) live.

Graboid

I was a little cautious when first trying this out because, honestly, it seemed too good to be true. But after downloading a couple of movies on my free account, and getting my account resurrected by super-quick and friendly customer service, I’ve decided to stick with this and explore it for a while.

There’s a nice selection of movies and tv shows available on the free account, and you get a generous 4 gigs a month to download.  That comes to about 4 movies.

I haven’t read much about this on the Internets so far, good or bad – would love to hear others’ experiences.

Cloverfield trailer

This is the new movies by JJ Abrams, and it looks deliciously horrifying and apocalyptic.

Oh shizz, I could spend so much time here. It’s a DIY-ers paradise with projects that run the gamut from recipes to painting a car.

This is a beautiful example: The Perfect Paper Airplane

I might just have to make this tonight.

In two days, I drive up to see Olivia, and we’ll be going to see Tori Amos together in Nashville on Monday. All craziness and her tendency to look like she’s fellating microphones and whatnot aside, I think she’s an incredible musical craftsperson; she’s amazing live (as seen below in the clip of her singing “Real Men”; and the fact that she has legions of (obsessively) devoted fans without having had one hit is pretty impressive.

YouTube – Tori Amos – Real Men Live

Twenty-nine years ago, Mom and Daddy woke me and my brother up in the middle of the night, so they could drop us off at a friends’ home. I didn’t realize it then, but Mom was in labour, and they still had to drive an hour and a half to get to the hospital. When they got there, Olivia was just about ready to make her appearance, and there was a fire on the floor below the maternity ward. She made it into this world, safe, sound and screaming.

Two days later, Daddy brought us to the top floor of the building next to the hospital, and Nick, my brother, spelled out “She’s pretty” with stones so Mom could see from her window. And Olivia was and she still is, heart and soul and inside and out.

We’re six and a half years and several hundred miles apart, and we’ve had our personal ups and downs, but we are connected by a bond that is too strong for anything as trivial as those things. She’s my sister, my soul-friend and she understands me like no other.

I love you, Olivia. I can’t wait to see you.