Elementary, Dear Watson!

So, I'm not really sure how I came upon this, but earlier today I found out that director Guy Ritchie is in the process of shooting a new film adaptation of the beloved Sherlock Holmes mysteries set to release in 2009. Now, while I have absolutely no objections to Robert Downey Jr. (I deeply respect his talent and skill), or to Jude Law, but as the brilliant detective and his astute doctoral companion, I just REALLY do not think that they are adequate:


In fact, it kinda makes me very indignant. I think this is mostly because I am a purist. Yes, a purist to the written works themselves, but also to the flawless portrayal of Holmes' character by the incomparable Jeremy Brett.


Jeremy Brett (seen above with the amazing David Burke as Doctor Watson [later replaced by the equally as astounding Edward Hardwick]) is the definitive Sherlock Holmes. It seems almost superfluous to try and recreate the character of Holmes when it has been already imagined and realized so perfectly. I just feel that Downey and Law will be unable to meet the precedent Brett and Hardwick set long before....
However, as the great detective said himself, "The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession.” So perhaps I shall just have resign myself to believing that maybe it won't be as horrific as I think it is going to be.....

Pushing of the Daisies

Last year, thanks to the promptings of a good friend, I discovered the magic of the television show Pushing Daisies. It is a truly magical series, filling your heart with beauty, warmth, love, and a delicious cherry filling. The show centers around one sad and lonely young man, Ned (played by the ridiculously adorable Lee Pace, who is also in my current favorite movie The Fall), who discovers at a young age that he has the power to bring dead things back to life. However, he also discovers that once he brings that dead thing back to life, he can only let it live for one minute or some other living thing in the near vicinity must die in its place. Also, if he ever touches the resurrected thing again, it would die forever, never to be brought back. He teams up with private investigator Emerson Cod who has discovered Ned's secret, and they solve murders by resurrecting the victims for one minute in order to get clues or identifications. The real plot twist comes in when Ned's childhood sweetheart, Chuck (or Charlotte Charles) has been murdered and he chooses to resurrect her for more than a minute, essentially giving her a second chance at life. The only thing is... they can't touch, otherwise he will have killed love of his life! Augh!

But cute-ness ensues. :)

Besides the witty writing, and the endearing characters, the visual aspects of this show are astounding. Every episode is filled with "Tim Burton-esque" aesthetics that give the audience a sense of wonder and playfulness. I highly recommend borrowing or buying the first season (though it was cut prematurely short by the writer's strike) and watching the second season on Wednesdays at 8pm on ABC. While its still on in any case. I just saw on the news that ABC has cut this show from their lineup next year. After the current season, Pushing Daisies will be gone. Finito. Good-bye-o. Adios. Sayonara. I am severely distressed. This show is a breath of fresh air amongst the otherwise toxic waste dump known as TV programming. GRRRR!!!!! I am... just.... so sad...

More Star Trek

Because I'm just THAT nerdy. Yep. When I go see this in theaters next May, I am going to wear my awesome homemade shirt with the command insignia that I stitched onto it. Yes I will. I mean come on. I'm totally prepared for all the weird and disdainful looks. It couldn't be much worse than dressing in a Star Wars shirt, Dwight Schrute glasses, braiding a small strand of hair by my neck and going to see Clone Wars right? Right? And while Clone Wars is a pretty epic film in itself, (can you say Jabba the Hutt's gay uncle Ziro the Hutt, who sounds like Truman Capote?? HECK YES! mmhh...ehem....) I think I can safely say this looks much more epic:



I'm really excited and yet... kinda hesitant. I hope it's good...

Sometimes...

don't you feel like this? That's what I thought...
:)

Just to name a few...

Okay. I know. I haven't posted in a REALLY long time.



Well, anyways.... My time has been consumed by school. College is super exciting and also scary. There are so many awesome new people to meet and so many awesome things to learn, think about and discuss. However, for me, I'm still at a place of uncertainty, and I guess that's what makes the whole experience just a little scary. I'm caught between two different paths and very unsure of which way to go. I feel frustrated with myself because I am unable to choose which direction I want to go, and I feel frustrated because I feel sometimes I have to live up to my own expectations and the expectations of others. But I don't want to feel this way anymore. I want to go and just try some new things. I want to honor God through the talents and gifts he has bestowed upon me. I want to continue to grow and mature as a person, to learn to love better, and to be willing to sacrifice my pre-conceived notions in favor of recognizing God's truth. And hopefully, to have some fun along the way.

On a somewhat happier note, here are some things that have made me very happy recently:

I watched this movie last night and was reminded of how absolutely amazing it truly is. Its a movie called "Spirited Away" by the Japanese master of animation Hayao Miyazaki. I love all of his films (at least the ones I've seen), but "Spirited Away" has a special place in my heart. In this film Miyazaki takes his audience to a "Alice in Wonderland" slash "Wizard of Oz" type of world inhabited by an assortment of strange yet beautiful landscapes and endearing characters. "Spirited Away" forces us to look at the world in a more mature way (just like its heroine Chihiro), but allows us to maintain our child-like wonder. I'm not a huge fan of anime, but Miyazaki's films are, to put it simply, masterpieces.

For a couple friends (we've had this stuck in our heads for two days!):

                            

Seriously, how awesome is Mr. Tilney? If you have no idea what I'm talking about, please go read "Northanger Abbey." Do it. Do it NOW!! :)


I decided I'm going to re-read either "Lord of the Rings" or "The Hobbit" over interterm. So excited!!! I just have to survive the rest of this semester... ha.. ha... yeah... but I'm working on an video art project right now that I am excited about working on, so hopefully it will turn out well... if it does, maybe I'll post it on here. I just finished a stop-motion animation recently as well... and hopefully I can post that too. It was actually pretty difficult to do within the time constraints imposed upon me. I basically did all of it (except shoot the photos) in one straight 8 hour period in the computer lab at school. My eyes really hurt by the end of the day....

I've decided I'm a hippie at heart. I went to an awesome place on Friday with some friends called "The Lab." It's a bohemian-ish "anti-mall" down in Costa Mesa with a few boutiques and a cafe called "The Gypsy Den." Quite frankly, it awesome. I love funky clothes, indie-retro stuff, folk music (Cat Steven!) and Man, I am such a hippie....


While at "The Lab," my friends and I were reading some beautiful poetry. Blows my mind:

Men's curiosity searches past and future
And clings to that dimension. But to apprehend
The point of intersection of the timeless
With time, is an occupation for the saint—
No occupation either, but something given
And taken, in a lifetime's death in love,
Ardour and selflessness and self-surrender.
For most of us, there is only the unattended
Moment, the moment in and out of time,
The distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight,
The wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightning
Or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply
That it is not heard at all, but you are the music
While the music lasts. These are only hints and guesses,
Hints followed by guesses; and the rest
Is prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action.
The hint half guessed, the gift half understood, is Incarnation.
Here the impossible union
Of spheres of existence is actual,
Here the past and future
Are conquered, and reconciled,
Where action were otherwise movement
Of that which is only moved
And has in it no source of movement—
Driven by daemonic, chthonic
Powers. And right action is freedom
From past and future also.
For most of us, this is the aim
Never here to be realised;
Who are only undefeated
Because we have gone on trying;
We, content at the last
If our temporal reversion nourish
(Not too far from the yew-tree)
The life of significant soil.

-T.S. Eliot from "The Dry Salvages"