Ireland is the Greatest Country of All Time

Hahaha, because he's short, get it?

Like Thread Through A Needle

Separation by WS Merwin

Your absence has gone through me
Like thread through a needle.
Everything I do is stiched with it's color.

Friday Cocktail Resurrection

I know originally Friday Cocktail was a list of cocktails that were cheap and delicious, and sloe gin is anything but cheap. But seriously, y'all need to drink this. I got it out of a goddamn Martha Stewart magazine of all places, and it's delicious.

Drink: The Scorpio

3 oz. Sloe Gin

3 oz. Ginger Ale

2 tsp. lemon juice

1/4 tsp. grated peeled fresh ginger

2 lemon peel twists, ice

Shake a strain. Serves 2.*

*Haha, just kidding. Drink it all.

My Head Is Bloody, But Unbowed

Fuck you, I like poems. Sometimes you read or hear something and it's moving. I'm not made of stone! Anyway, this is Invectus, and maybe next week I'll post some cummings or Longfellow.

Invectus, by William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me
Black as the Pit from pole to pole
Thank whatever gods my be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the full clutch of circumstance
I have not winced or cried aloud
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the Shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How Charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Best Of Cannonball 2009

Top Ten, in no discernible order:

1. The Brutal Language of Love by Alicia Eran

2. Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell

3. Living Dead in Dallas by Charlene Harris

4. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

5. In the Hot Zone by Kevin Sites

6. Revenge by Stephen Fry

7. Hell's Angels by Hunter S. Thompson

8. No One Belongs Here More Than You. Stories by Miranda July

9. Bliss by O. Z. Livaneli

10. Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer



Seriously, read these books. They're fantastic.

24 Things I Want To Do When I'm 24

1. Write a novel
   
2. move to a place I've never been before
   
3. go to the creation museum and laugh and laugh and laugh
4. cross-country road trip
5. finally read Infinite Jest, which I started in 11th grade and never finished
6. do stand up
7. get my fucking shit together
8. have an epic romance
9. volunteer more
   
10. stop scheduling my life around tv shows (aka get a fucking life)
11. learn Spanish (at least a little)
12. get a short story published in a national magazine
13. Run a 5k
14. Make a bigger effort to care about other people's life events, even if I think they're stupid
15. Be a better sister/daughter
16. Learn to cook
17. Go to the Gym at least 5 times a week
18. Have sex
19. Cook a nice dinner for my parents at least once a week while I'm living at home
20. Read a book about each of the presidents of the United States, even the shitty ones
21. Moisturize
22. Volunteer for a political campaign
23. Stop being quite so judgmental (unless it's funny)
24. Live every week like it's shark week
    

Old Birthday List - 23 Things I Wanted To Do When I Was 23

1. Graduate fucking college
2. write a novel
3. move to a place I've never been before
   
4. buy a car
5. go to the creation museum and laugh and laugh and laugh
6. cross-country road trip
7. finally read Infinite Jest, which I started in 11th grade and never finished
8. learn to bake a pie
9. do stand up
10. start using the library
11. play in the snow
12. get my fucking shit together
13. have an epic romance
14. volunteer with kids
15. stop scheduling my life around tv shows (aka get a fucking life)
16. finish cannonball read
17. build a winter wardrobe
18. learn Spanish (at least a little)
19. get a short story published in a national magazine
20. have a picnic in Central Park
21. bench press 100 lbs.
22. have more conversations with randos
23. get a little greener without being a twatwaffle about it

Films I've Seen So Far This Month (in theatres)

Whip It

Lessons learned: Ellen Page is actually a very good actress - this is the third film I've seen her in, and she's got some range. I mean, she does vulnerability hidden behind snark very well (Juno), and vulnerability hidden behind crazy castrating teen angst incredibly well (Hard Candy), but Whip It is just straight up teenage misfit vulnerability, which is a hard sell for most actresses, and she blew it away. But Drew? Oh, Drew. Drew Barrymore is bloody awful in this. I don't understand what happened - maybe because she directed herself? She's just...I mean, I want to like her, she seems like such a cool bird, but she's just terrible in everything. And we need to keep Kristin Wiig right where she is...which is as the best part of every comedy that's come out in the past 2 years. She's amazing.

Zombieland

See. This. Movie. It's hilarious, Woody Harrison = guy I'd like to bone, great kill shots, great cameos, Jesse Eisenberg is my new nerd crush, Emma Stone continues to be my girl crush, and Abigail Breslin > Dakota Fanning x 10000000000.

Bright Star

I really liked it, but I get why it's getting mixed reviews. The film relies heavily on the audience finding the love story epic, because that's pretty much all there is to the movie; so if you don't find Brown and Keats' romance to be utterly tragic, you probably aren't going to like it very much. Like most Campion movies, the shots and cinematography are incredible, and the story lacks direction and pacing. The lack of direction kind of works in this film, though, because it's not a typical story structure; it's not really a tragic love story in the traditional 'something big is happening in the world, and we fall in love around it'; rather, the falling in love and being in love is the whole story; there's no WWII holding them apart (Atonement) or epic miscommunication (Pride and Prejudice); they're in love, Keats goes away for a while and they write letters (this sequence with the butterflies is where I stopped caring about the lack of story and started love the shit out of this movie, by the way. It's visually stunning and metaphorically heartbreaking), then he comes back, gets sick, then leaves to die in Italy. It is a visual treat, and the performances are subtle and pitch perfect, and the costuming is incredible; but at the end of the day, nothing really happens, and that kind of story isn't for everybody.

An Education

Eh, I guess it was good. I mean, it was a good movie, and I think it definitely deserves some of the buzz it's getting, but it wasn't blow-me-away, omg oscar contender good. Peter Sarsgaard is amazing - so charming you forget he's supposed to be creepy until he wants to remind you; and Carey Mulligan is just brilliant. The supporting cast is a giant list of british actors whose work I know but not their names; they're all great too. Plus the music, and the 60s clothes, all very good. But I guess I feel about An Education the way I feel about most Hornby movies: I like them, but I get the feeling I don't like them nearly as much as other people liked them.

Rando

Cannonball read starts this Sunday! Woot! And...I might bail on the presidental reading jag. Not because I don't think it'd be cool* to do, but rather, there is a reason we don't remember some of the presidents, they're fucking boring; and the thought of reading about them puts ice in my veins. Whatever, I'll start, and then see how far I get through them before I chuck the biography of some guy across the room and pick up a new berkeley crime series.

Also starting this November: NaNoWriMo! I cheated a little and started an outline already, but screw you, 60,000 words is a tall order for 30 days, I need to be prepared! If you are also participating and want to be internet friends, I'm signed up as MarraAlane.

Posts I Swear to Godtopus I Will Post This Week:
1. Dead and Gone review
2. Darwin's Dangerous Idea review**
3. Cannonball best of/worst of list
4. October Movies I've Seen that You Should Too

Also, it was my birthday last weekend. I didn't do anything cool because it's a lame number, but I did eat at Anna's Taqueria (woo hoo!) and see An Education (woo...meh) in Kendall, so that was nice. Also, my mom made Apple Pie and gave me a new purse. True fact: I do not own a purse or bag that wasn't given to me by my mother on my Birthday***. She has much better taste than I do.

*And by cool, I mean something I think is cool and other people think is pretentious and lame when I'll invariably bring it up at dinner parties. Not that I go to dinner parties, but you get the point.

**Writing this review is almost as labourious as reading the damn thing. I feel like I'm writing a book report for biology class. There is a reason I dropped out of pre-med chem and dropped into rocks for jocks: Science is hard.

***With the exception of a small purple Coach clutch left in my car by one of my brother's slags. It doesn't have anything in it besides gum, and it was in the car for 5 months, so I'm keeping it. That's what you get for banging a guy in his sister's brand new car, you sloot.

Cannonball II: Electric Bookaloo: In My Pants: Not Without My Library Card: Mother May I Read With Danger

Two exciting new developments for November, kids. Firstly, it's nanowrimo again. Last year I had a pathetic showing at 10% of the required words, and I'm going to do better this year, I promise!* I think I'm going to write a mystery novel, which is an 'interesting' choice considering I'm not at all clever; but I've been reading them quite a bit lately and it's something I think can pull off stylewise, even if I lack the proper substance.

Secondly, beginning November 1st, the 2nd Annual Pajiba Cannonball Read will begin! With slightly new rules, of course. They've cut it down to a book a week (that's 52 books a year for you Yale graduates) and reviews are strongly encouraged to be a little more comprehesive than they were in the past. Which I think is a good thing, becuase I've often thrown up poorly written, ill-thought out reviews just to prove I read the damn thing, only to get ripped apart in the comments section over on the motherland. Speaking of the motherland, there will be a whole dedicated section to the books and everything! Yay for recognition of people who read!

Um...I just re-read that and realized I'm probably way over-excited for a book contest on a pop culture website, but that's ok. Also, I've been thinking for a bit about doing a theme for my Cannonball books for the new era: I'd like to read a biography for each of the US presidents. I never had to memorize anything about them in primary school, and I feel like I should be able to tell the Roosevelts apart. Which gives me 43 books, leaving 8 for random stuff I can pick up, or books dealing specifically with the era I'll be bogged down in - maybe a British study of the Revolution or the constitution or Enlightenment and Classical Liberal Theory, or something about the Civil War prison camps (that will be an upper, I'm sure), or the industrial age, the great depression, World War II, et cetera. Now that I lay it out, it sounds sort of pretentious and labor-intensive, but I've been feeling rather jingoistic these last few months, so I just may go for it.

So, that's some news. NaNoWriMo, and Cannonball read. I strongly encourage everyone to participate in the latter, even if you're not a Pajiban, because all those posters of athletes and actors in school libraries encouraging you to read aren't there for nothing**. Also, I'll soon have my reviews up for Dead and Gone and my white whale, Darwin's Dangerous Idea. And by soon I mean when I feel like it, bitch.



*Promises made on my blog are meaningless. Just ask Ellen!
**Actually, in the case of my high school, they were there to hide cracks in the aspestos walls. You stay classy, KP Regional!