Shit just got girly

Life is like Chocolat turns two today. That means it's been exactly two years since that lonely, post-stomach bug Saturday night, when I started my blogging career, which has since branched outside the comfortable zone of movie blogging, as I keep creating new blogs like it's crack, or something. Not that I know if it's approapriate to compare this to crack, I don't know anything about crack, I'm just trying to sound tough to compensate for the girly bug that has just struck my beloved blog. Sorry to say this but I really like this new layout. Girly is good.

What makes this anniversary even more disgustingly girly is that I watched The Notebook today, in the name of a bittersweet tradition. I'm still suffering from the silly fact that I happened to watch Dear John on the day I created this blog. And I need to have traditions, so I have to make myself watch a Nicholas Sparks film every year, every single year! It's torture. Like I wrote last year: "Shame it was indeed a Sparks movie I happened to watch on the day I created my blog, and not one of those extremely highbrow and intellectual art house films I usually watch every night. Ahem." I still stick to that statement. And The Notebook still sucked. It sucked when I was sixteen and it still does.

(Okay, there were one or two scenes that I liked, and where I might've felt a little something, but overall it's such a boring and cheesy story. It's the favorite movie of Marissa from The O.C. which quite fitting because she's equally boring and cheesy. Haha. Anyway.)

Happy birthday to my blog. Next year you'll reach the negative age of three, and I'll be watching The Lucky One. Can't wait, ha! I really need to get rid of this tradition at some point...

If you're wondering what Kate has to do with all of this; well, I don't know. But she's just so pretty.

I'm off to see America, the wonderful United States of America

 Hehe, can't get enough of these Wizard of Oz references. But hell, it's not like I'm leaving to live in Kansas every day, so I will definitely milk everything out of this situation. So I'm leaving for Helsinki early tomorrow morning, and then it's Chicago, Kansas City and Emporia. I'm flying back on 19th of December. So, I'll see you guys on Christmas!

...Not really, though. Sure, I hopefully don't have much time to watch movies and write about them, but I think you'll hear from me every now and then, anyway. And, if you find yourself missing me so much you can hardly bear it, you can always go check out my new blog, Somewhere Over The Rainbow (told you I'm a sucker for WoO references... I'm afraid they don't end in the blog title), where I will (hopefully) actively report the latest turns of my adventure.

Bye then, for now. Pitäkää Suomi pystyssä! ^^

(And just because it's now stuck on my head, and it'd be only fair if it was stuck on yours, too...)

London memories

It's now been over a month since me and my friend came back from our gleeful weekend trip to London. For me, it was a kind of reunion with the city I've been growing fonder and fonder of over the years, and which I hadn't visitited in whole two years. Here are a few photos and words about the trip. I will seriously keep it short this time. (And give you a link to another post, which I definitely did not keep short.)

*

Day 1, Friday. Our dear friend Ryanair brought us to the Stansted airport, almost on schedule this time! Hurray! The day was traditionally grey and rainy and our bus trip to centre London took so long (thanks to the traffic) that after getting to our hotel near the Waterloo station, we barely had energy to go out for dinner. Luckily there was a nice Egyptian style restaurant right across the street, so we didn't get very wet while running there through the rain. The waitress was so nice, and I remembered why I like English people so much, and the customer service. Fake politeness rocks! Haha. Afterwards we stopped by in a little corner shop, where I bought some of my British favourites: the lovely orange chocolate, Galaxy chocolate and chamomille tea.

Day 2, Saturday. My friend, although visiting London for the first time, wasn't interested in sightseeing, which I truly appreciated. I've acted as the tourist guide more than enough times already, leading my companions to see Big Ben and the Buckingham Palace and so on... This was a nice change. First we went to Camden, a huge market area which I just love. I bought a cute black-and-white dress with tiny cats in it (see the picture down below for the pattern), which has become one of my favourite pieces of clothing. Then I looked for and found all of my old favourite shops, and bought stupid funny postcards as always (one has a little dude in it, who says, "Let's go to Ikea", and another dude, laying on a couch, says, "Fuck Ikea", and I just can't get over how hilarious it is) and a traditional Star Wars t-shirt, which was not as stupid funny as usually, but pretty cool anyway. (I should propably take a picture of all the things I bought, but I'm too lazy to bother right now.)

Then we went for a walk in St. James Park, aka the bird park, which is my favourite park in London. At least it was before. My friend has an insane bird phobia, and it was pretty contagious. We draw some amused looks as we both ducked and scremed when a pidgeon flew over or something. Then we went to Starbucks and I got my Strawberry and Cream Frappuccino, which didn't taste as delicious as usually though. We drank our drinks sitting below the statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus. Then, um... Right, more shopping! This time on Oxford Street. I didn't buy anything there. There's just too many people for my taste.

On a side-street of Oxford St. there is a really nice champagne bar called Amuse Bouche, where we went to enjoy some yummy and not even insanely expensive champagne cocktails. Before getting back to the hotel we went for another drink in a bar called The Fire Station, near the Waterloo Station. It was nice, though we were a bit disappointed for the lack of firemen and a pole.

Day 3, Sunday.

Yihaa! Sunday! The concert day! If I haven't made it clear enough, the purpose of our trip was the Glee Live concert we had tickets for (well, we DID have them, in the end...). The concert was in the evening, and to set ourselves into the right mood, we decided to go to the Imperial War Museum (pretty much next to our hotel), and see the Holocaust exhibition. Haha. Good thinking, girls... I'd been to the exhibition once before, but the effect wasn't at all disminished. We walked out of the Museum with quite long faces and our thoughts pretty far away from the awesome fact that we would see the Glee cast live in just some short hours.

Luckily, the remedy was near. It was an awesome, sunny day, so we went to buy ice cream and sat down on the pretty lawn area next to the Museum. Then we lay down in the sun and listened to some Glee music from my MP3 player and watched the airplanes fly over us in the cloudless, blue sky. And there was the right mood again. We stayed there for quite a while, until finally made our way to the O2. Below is a 15-second taste of what we experienced there, but to read the whole story do click here. And no worries, there's no more of my lousy, shaky video clips.

Day 4, Monday.

After the concert, we were supposed to go to the hotel, get our things and walk to Victoria Station where we'd take the bus to the airport. Our flight would leave at 7 am, you see. Well... We thought, 'Oh we don't have to leave just yet, let's take an hour-long nap'. After the hour-long nap, 'Another hour won't hurt, we'll still make it'. And then, 'Aw, let's sleep some more and take a cap, screw saving money'. So that's what we did. And well, after all that money we'd already spent, a dozen pounds more didn't hurt too much.

Catching up!

I'm not dead! I'm just extremely preoccupied with everything else but watching movies and blogging. The combination of the most awesome summer job in the world, not so awesome summer studies and the fact that a month from now I'll be in Emporia, Kansas, has kept me quite busy. Anyway, here's something I've been up to:

I'm watching Roswell! Haha, this is weird. I gave in to the odd need that was sparked by Paul and borrowed the first season from a friend. Yeah, I've only seen two episodes so far, and yeah, I haven't been addicted or blown away in any way (I must be too old, after all), but it's still kind of fun. The best thing is that I don't find the protagonist annoying at all, like I was sure I would! First time for everything!

Also, I watched the first season of Sherlock, which is a modern day adaption of the ever so awesome and captivating British detective. And I loved it and I want more, more, more, now please! Team Benedict Cumberbatch/Martin Freeman works so flawlessly, and their cooperation is almost more entertaining to watch than Team RDJ/Jude Law's! Almost. I'm still being loyal, so far. Anyway, series two is to be aired this autumn, so yay!

My New Year Resolution is going through a rough time. I'm half way through, but it's not looking too good. I did watch Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid last month, and yeah, I did like it, kind of, but just fell into the old habbit of cutting my toenails while watching and sharing my attention with several other activities. Which is never good. So I haven't been able to write a post about it, and I've declared June another big FAIL, like May and 8 ½ was. Shame on me, shame on me. This month I should watch Citizen Kane, and I'm only hoping there won't be a third FAIL in a row. Because that would be just pathetic.

Posts about London and the Glee Live are still in their initial stages, but I'm being hopeful. Maybe after tomorrow's exam I'll have break before starting the final assignment of the summer: an essay of eighteen pages. Whoo, can't wait!

And last but not least... The Deathly Hallows pt. 2 is coming, and it's coming fast! I'm in a hurry to finish the book before Wednesday 00:07 am. The end is so near it's almost here! Boohoo! Or hurray! Or whatever. Both, I suppose.

Kill me now... so I can die happy

Here's just one reason why.

This wasn't the exact thing I saw, and I didn't see it this close, but you get the point. If I've seen Chris Colfer do the Single Ladies dance, what else do I have to live for, really?

I'll write a huge and elaborate post of my weekend later on, when I'm not so freaking exhausted and my brain functions a little better.

But anyways... Greetings from Loserville! It's one damn happy place.

A Comeback Attempt 2.0.

A quote from my last post I wrote on April 28th:

"P.S. Can I begin my Wappu now? The exam book says no. Everything and everyone else says yes. I'm confused!"

Well, I did begin my Wappu pretty much right after posting that, and even though the party went on a few days longer than planned (which was just awesome, I love when things go so not according to plan!), I can't really blame it for my weeks of absence. And I don't think there's really a need to blame something or someone, there's just been a lot of things to do and think about and get your head distracted with. This is now my second comeback attempt (first one was right after my Wappu but I never finished that post) and I'm not saying I'll be super productive from here on (because there are still a lot things and thoughts and distractions), but I'll do my best not to appear dead.

A random and shamelessly unrelated picture of a flying Darren Criss. I needed a picture and this is what I first found. Let's just say, for example, that this symbolizes me jumping back in the game, to the blogging front, full of glee and ideas and enthusiasm! ... No, let's just be honest and say that I just love to look at him.

A year in a life: Life is like Chocolat turns one!

 
Exactly one year ago it was a Saturday. The day was coming to an end and I didn't mind, as it was one of those less fun and exciting Saturday nights; I was still recovering from a particularly nasty stomach bug and I had no other company than my flatmate's cat (which I almost forgot to feed as the night went on). So, I was pondering over my options: I could kill some more time aimlessly wondering around the wonderful world of internet (meaning: updating my Facebook homepage), or pop on some movie of the same level of quality as the one I'd seen before that day (Dear John), or... maybe I could create a blog?

So I did, and 365 days and 208 posts later... it's a Sunday night and I just watched The Last Song. As you can see, I've come a long way. Haha. No, but I actually watched it on purpose today, kind of to celebrate the occasion. Maybe I'm beginning a tradition here! ... One twisted and lousy tradition it would be though, because I've never been too fond of Nicholas Sparks and the films adapted from his books - kind of the opposite. Shame it was indeed a Sparks movie I happened to watch on the day I created my blog, and not one of those extremely highbrow and intellectual art house films I usually watch every night. Ahem.

I also wistfully gave up the pink-ish Chaplin layout, and returned to the roots of the blog, so to speak. For the first time, the banner matches the name of the blog, and I quite like this new look. (Not sure about the font, yet, we'll see if I'll get used to it...) Also, I recreated my first profile picture ever. I kind of wish I'd saved pictures of the various layouts my blog has been through during its first year, because they've indeed been quite various. And varying of quality, too, haha.

Blogging has become a dear hobby for me. Though recently life has all too frequently been getting in the way of the whole blogging business, this is still an activily I choose to spend some of my time with, even when it's scarce. (Yeah yeah, I should definitely be studying for an exam right now. In a minute...) Reading other (movie) blogs is also not only entertaining, but also helpful in stretching that Must See list on and on and on and on. I can honestly say blogging has inspired me to watch more movies both in number and variety.

So finally, I'd like to thank every single person who has ever read my blog, especially those who take time to comment once in a while! I'd probably keep doing this without no readers at all (it's been quite therapeutic, really, and fun!), but of course, knowing there's someone to share your thoughts with is more than motivating and makes it worthwhile.

So, thanks, y'all! You rock! Virtual drinks all around! Let's keep blogging! ^^

Hey solitary Saturday, I've missed you

  What a nice day today! One of those I haven't had in a long time. One of those filled with nothing else but movies! Ah! I've missed days like this! Well, I did go and do an exam in the morning (if noon can still be counted as morning) and I even did pretty well, I think. During the exam I spotted a boy who looked just like Jesse Eisenberg, and I also fell into some sweet nostalgia, because the girl who sat in the seat in front of me had perfume on that reminded me of the smell of the hotel in England I used to work in. Weird.

 

Then I came home and then I watched three movies and then I rewatched the latest episode of Glee (insert multiple hearts here) and then I began to write a post while trying to decide which movie to see next (too much, Mr Schue? Not even close!). I think it'll be Benjamin Button, though I'm not quite sure if I'm up for it this time of the day.

 

 OR I could just turn off the lights and lie on my bed and listen to the Glee version of Blackbird over and over... because that sounds wonderfully sane.

Oh, what is this post about anyway? ... I honestly tried to come up with something, but no. But I'd count it as a major achievement that I'm actually writing an actual post! Even if its topic might yet be a bit undetermined. And will probably remain so.

Now I think I'll take a chance and put Benjamin Button on. I'll just keep thinking about the prize (the 20-year-old-looking Brad Pitt) that'll be waiting for me in the end, and I should be able to sat it through. I have to enjoy myself tonight, because tomorrow I again have to face the reality which includes A LOT of school work and no time for four movies a day.

Have a good night, y'all.

The Academy just doesn't get it

One of these days the Academy will get it right. Sooner or later there will be a year when everyone agrees with me and I won't have to moan about anything. Meanwhile, I won't be holding my breath, and instead  just give a quick account of my last night.

On Saturday I put my 'grand plan' on action and stayed up until four in the morning, thinking it'd then help me survive the following night. Well, as wondefully clever the plan was, it fell flat as I was up and ready to go at ten the next morning. So, with a poor night of sleep behind me and my inexplicable inability to take a nap preventing me from properly preparing myself, I swigged down a can of energydrink and hoped the Oscar ceremony would once again prove to be the best drug. It did! After the shortest six hours of the year were over, sleeping felt like the worst idea ever. I was even hoping for an early lecture to attend to. There weren't any, unfortunately.

So I had to force myself to sleep a few restless hours. But only a few. Which is why I won't be writing a proper post about the ceremony and the results today. I'm simply not capable. Only thing I'm capable of is staring at the clock and hoping it'd be ten already, so that it'd be okay to go to bed. The post will have to wait until the weekend, I'm afraid. There is just too much of everything right now. And not only too much time before bedtime. (I realised today it the last day of February. Which means that, according to my New Year Resolution, I should see Mulholland Drive today. However, I'm not stupid enough to do that, so I excuse myself for violating my own rules and see the film some day when my head isn't so hazy to begin with.)

One or two words about the Oscars, however. I was quite happy about the results, and felt the great minds were really thinking alike this year. Then two of the most important awards went where they shouldn't have gone, so that's that, the Academy clearly doesn't have enough great minds in their midst. Unlike majority of people, I liked both Anne and James. There were quite a few funny moments and I'm still giggling thinking about Russell Brand and Alec Baldwin's "You just got INCEPTIONED!" and Twilight the Musical. There we some really nice dresses, I think Scarlett Johansson and Hailee Steinfield's were my favourites. It was an awesome night, and next year is way too far away.

Oooh, not long before ten o'clock, now. I will sleep so well you won't believe it.

Photos from dailymail.com.

Some pre-Oscar sentiments

Tonight's the night! And I figured this might me a good time for me to wake the blog up from its sudden hibernation. Life's been a bit of a roller-coaster recently... February was a bit weird from the beginning, and as if my poor head wasn't already spinning badly enough after the news that I'll be spending the fall in the U.S., the next day my grandfather passed away and my spirits were hurled from extreme high to extreme low in a split second. So I took a little break from blogging. But life resumes. And so does blogging.

Now, the Oscars. I don't feel as well prepared for the big night as I sometimes have been, and as I should be. I hadn't even had the time or the mood to feel excited until yesterday, when I was planning tonight with a friend and I realised how cool and awesome it will be once again. I haven't seen as many of the Best Picture nominees as I was supposed to, as I've only seen six instead of the possible eight: didn't go see True Grit because of all the recent mayhem and Black Swan won't come to my local cinema until next week, damn it. Winter's Bone will probably never even make it this far and frankly, I don't give a damn about The Fighter. I haven't seen many boxing movies but I've seen enough to know they're not for me.

I also forgot to print the Oscar ballot from IMDb, so I scribbled my predictions down on a piece of paper. And no, I will not share them with you, at least not yet. I think this year my goal with the predictions is to get none right. I mean, of course Toy Story 3 will win every single category it's nominated in, right? (Well, it'll win some. But not all. Though it damn well should, says I.)

Some positive things. 1) Due the said lack of time and mood, I also haven't been following the experts' predictions as much as usually. Which I've found quite nice! Maybe some of the results will even surprise me a little. 2) RDJ will present! 3) Tonight I get to stuff myself with food until I bloat, because that's a significant part of the Oscars. 4) I was able to stay up late last night, so tonight should be a piece of cake. Not that it's ever been particularly challenging. As soon as the show begings, sleeping is the last thing on your mind.

Aw, it'll be awesome. I just hope The King's Speech won't win the Best Picture.

I'm coming, Dorothy!

Howdy, folks. It's been a bit quiet here in my blog for some days now. Actually, the whole month has been a bit unusual. I have seen so few films I'm a bit ashamed of myself! And though some of them have been very good ones, I haven't managed to write posts about them. There's been school and stuff and school and other, um, distractions. So, with a promise that this blog will NOT turn into a personal diary anytime soon, here is one more post about everything besides movies. Please bear with me.

So, today I learned that I will be spending next autumn term (well, I guess I should now learn to say 'fall term') in the Emporia State University. In Kansas. In the United States. Of America. Oh my! I've never been in the States (in fact, I've never been outside Europe), so I'm more excited than I can even say. Though I'm still waiting for the news to really sink in. That'll take some time. Meanwhile, I'll keep randomly freaking out, and continue the failed attempts to study for an approaching exam and to finish the essay that was due a week ago.

But yeah. Kansas, baby. I promised a friend I'll read Wizard of Oz in the plane. Maybe that'll help me survive that painfully long flight.

Saturday in three pictures and thirty seven words

Learn the art of Kyykkä. Three games played. Three games lost.

Have a break from drinking. Enjoy Kurt and Burt.

Dance Macarena so that your muscles are still sore on Monday. Go to sleep in the morning.

Wild Wild Weekend

... Or not so much. Except the part with the ghost. Which I'll get to later.

Just took a picture, because I needed one, because this is how boring the post would've looked otherwise.

So, not a very wild weekend. Though wilder than the last one, which I spent alone watching movies, never leaving the flat. This weekend I did leave the flat every day and actually watched some of the movies with other people. Rock 'n' roll!

On Friday I spent the evening watching Sex and the City (I'm not a fan, but I have to admit, there is a certain charm to that show) with my flatmate, while stuffing our faces with candy (and after all the sugar almost made us sick, we had a sandwich and then some more candy again). We were planning on going to sleep early, embarrassingly early for a Friday night, and we did try, but our neighbours (or more likely half of the whole building, by the sounds of if) were having a party upstairs. It was a birthday party for someone named Claudia. We know this because the walls are apparently like paper. Or maybe we just have very, very loud neighbours. Anyway, so much for good night's sleep...

On Saturday I got up at 9 (unusual) and went to the gym (even more unusual) with my flatmate, whom I'd told to drag me with her. It was quite fun, actually, I don't know why I dread those places so much! Later I went to see The Social Network, because they happened to show it again in our cinema and because I felt like seeing it again. And it was, again, goooood. Though my tooth was aching the whole time, which was annoying and distracted me from letting the movie fully absorb me in. Well, that dentist appointment is only a few weeks away... Gee, if I told them that my tooth is turning blue or beginning to grow feathers (or something) would they take me in earlier?

Today I went to do some shopping, because I hadn't bought any clothes in a disturbingly long time, so I bought some and now I can only wait for the spring so that I can actually wear them. Just now I watched Karate Kid with some friends and I cracked up over Jackie Chan's line "Rock 'n' roll" and The Great Wall of China, because in the Ricky Gervais show An Idiot Abroad the guy calls it 'The Alright Wall of China'.

Oh and now the exciting part! There is a spirit or a boogey man of some kind living in our flat. Today a pot of my flatmate's pea soup had moved from the freezer to the fridge all by itself. Neither of us remember using the freezer today, and the pot was still all frozen. So we have our very own house ghost! (Or alternatively, one of us has a very poor memory.) Anyway, I'm thinking and hoping it must be quite a mild and good-spirited ghost, because it only wanted us to have some soup. Good intentions, though I loathe pea soup and the pot was on my side of the fridge. (Oh great, now I'm scared again and my flatmate is not home. Pull it together, woman!)

EDIT// Oh damn! I meant to publish the post on Sunday, put it turned 0:00 just as a pressed the button.

EDIT2// ... I guess now we know why I usually write about movies and not my life. With all due respect to my highly interesting life.

The Circus (1928) - Charlie needs a hug

directed by Charles Chaplin / starring Charles Chaplin, Merna Kennedy, Allan Garcia

Last summer I was positively addicted to Charlie Chaplin, watched most of his full-length films and loved them to pieces. Now, after a little break from the wonderful black-and-white world of the Tramp, I realised there's still so much for me to see. So I watched The Circus, one of Chaplin's less known full-lenght silent films. Next to City Lights, The Gold Rush and Modern Times, The Circus is usually left unmentioned. Such a terrible shame, I say! Talk about unfairly underrated... Though it didn't top City Lights in my book, I'd definitely place it somewhere right below it, with The Gold Rush and The Kid.

In The Circus our dear belowed Tramp gets a job in a travelling circus, after accidently being discovered by the ringmaster, while chased by the police to and from the stage. The crowd loves his unintentional comedy, so the ringmaster gives him a job as an assistant property man to keep him around, Tramp being unaware that the circus prospers thanks to him. The ringmaster also has a daughter, whom he abuses all the time. Tramp befriends with her and soon developes romantic feelings towards her, too. But then there's the handsome robe walker, who steals her heart...

When it comes to Chaplin's silent films, it's unnecessary to point out that they're funny. But I will anyway. It doesn't really make much sense that I laugh aloud at someone falling down or lifting his hat or being chased by a horse. I don't know how he does it. But no one does it like him. Also, the element of melancholy is always present in Chaplin's films. That's what gives them depth and makes them stand out as profound, touching and relatable stories. As much as I loved the comedy of The Circus, I loved the ending the most. It wasn't a happy one like the ending of City Lights, for example, but it's very close to topping that in my book. Just perfect.

By the way, if you have too much time and want to waste it on something silly, you might want to take a look at the Charlie Chaplin time travel mystery, which was started just last year as a man claimed he's found a woman talking to a cell-phone in a scene of The Circus. Haha. Someone is a bit desperate in finding some excitement in life.

Now... If a picture ever gave you a terrible urge to hug someone, it's the picture below. Just look at poor, poor Charlie. The production of The Circus was reportedly more difficult than any other's of Chaplin's films. At one point a fire destroyed the whole set (the picture was taken that day. Aw, poor thing. Just look at that face and try not to feel sorry for him) and some of the already filmed material was also destroyed due to some techinical hitch. In addition, Charlie was going through a very tough time in his personal life, being in the middle of a rough and public divorce from his second wife. Reportedly, he had to go away in the middle of the production to recover from a nervous breakdown. And yet... look at the outcome and marvel what he still managed to create in the middle of that mayhem. I'd high-five Mr Chaplin if I could! Or maybe give him a hug first.

P.S. I was watching Chaplin the other day during the Christmas break and my 20-month-old nephew walked into the room. It happened to be the bit where Charlie shows the boxing scene from City Lights to one of his wives (don't remember which one... Sorry Charlie, but there were quite a few of them) and I was about to pause the DVD, before he'd demand me to put Cars on or show some Bob the Builder clips from Youtube. Instead, he looked at the Tramp jumping up and down in the boxing ring, and started to laugh! Afterwards, he'd come to my room again, imitating the Tramp's jumping, and as I understood and showed him the clip from Youtube, he wanted to see it again and again. I was one proud godmother! I might be failing (so far... I'm not giving up!) in brainwashing him into Toy Story, but at least he has an excelent taste in silent films!

P.P.S. Today I noticed Voddler is full of Chaplin's less known short films! Yay! I know what I'll be doing from now on before going to sleep... Half an hour of laughter will guarantee you a good night's sleep.

P.P.P.S. Currently I'm trying to convince myself that 105 € is not that much money and certainly an amount that could be spared from a student's monthly budget. Look at this. Ten of Charlie Chaplin's greatest films, plus a documentary, all in one package. 105 €. It's not really bad at all when you think about it, is it...? That's less than 10 € per DVD... I'm so close to ordering it right away... All I need is some excuse. Shame my birthday's not until June and I already kind of bought myself a Christmas present...

P.P.P.P.S. In a few weeks I'll see The Gold Rush with the music played by a live orchestra! Can't wait!

"I'll give you fifty dollars a week. Sixty! ... I'll double it!"
"Nothing less than a hundred."

ACHOOOOO!

Greetings from the land of runny noses and spinny heads! Flu and fever are definitely nice, welcome company to have any day, especially on the last days of your holiday. So, it's been a bit quiet on the blogging front (...or whatever), but I've been tremendously productive, I've rewatched the first two seasons of Skins (the only ones worth rewatching, none of that Genaration Two rubbish for me, please) and just finnished the first series of Extras. That's what happens when you are too tired to even get up and turn on your laptop... Today I did, which means I'm probably getting better, hurray.

Anyway, I'm just letting the world know I'm still alive, though hardly kicking, and there will be proper post. Soon. Really.

Time to put on Series Two, and the freaking hilarious Orlando Bloom episode... Hahaha, that ought to cure my flu, if anything will.

P.S. Me and Quentin Tarantino both agree that Toy Story 3 was the best film of 2010! Great minds think alike, eh, Quentin, buddy? We agreed about number two, as well, The Social Network. Though my number three didn't appear on his list at all... Forgot something there, Quennie? Maybe he just didn't see Inception, hmm...? It's on DVD now, so be sure to watch it! You can borrow my copy, okay? It's quite good really, though I can see that some people might prefer Jackass 3-D to it... Okay, now I'm just rambling. It's the fever, so don't mind me. Extras it is...

The Annual Post-Christmas Gloom

Every year Christmas is awesome. Every year it's so jolly, merry, gleeful and happy. Every year you look forward to it for weeks, for months, even. And every years it's over far too soon. By Boxing Day you get sick of hearing carols on the radio and the Christmas tree is just waste of space in the living room. Just today I was unable to finish a slice of ham on my plate, which probably means that Christmas is officially over. Don't know about the rest of you, but for me, that's always a bit depressing. 361 days until Christmas... 363 days until the annual post-Christmas gloom. Sigh.

Anyway. I had a lovely Christmas. And quite satisfactory movie-wise, too. Santa heard my wishes and so I already got to re-live the awesomeness that is Toy Story 3. One of Santa's little helpers (read: my brother) surprised me (not really) on Christmas Eve, as he casually grunted that I'll get one present later. My guess is he'll just finally hand me the money and tell me to go buy the Inception DVD myself. Oh well. It's the thought that counts, right... I also got one of those '1001 films you must see in your life' books, which is awesome! So far I've only seen a humble 111 films from the list, but the book is very motivating! Maybe now I finally manage to sit through 2001: A Space Odyssey and various other, eh, not-so-inviting classics...

I've watched a big bunch of movies during the past few days, and I'll probably write shortly about them when I have a moment. I'm also trying to write a summary of the year and develop my resolutions for 2011. (2011...? Gee. Slow down, time, will you...) Oh and last night I finished The Complete Lost Marathon! Hurrah! Next I'll probably rewatch the first two seasons of Skins (my friend brought them for me from England, awesome!), and then it'll be season two of either True Blood or Mad Men. Oh and I'm not even half way through The Chamber of Secrets... I clearly overestimated myself and the amount of things I wished to do on my holiday. Too soon I have to start worrying about all the damn essays and exams I failed to do before Christmas... BUT NOT YET.

Oh let it be Christmas already...

...Because I could use a vacation. Good news are that there's only one and a half months to the merciful break from this hurry. Bad news are that before that I have about a million essays and analyses to write and tasks to finish and French words to learn.

Thanks to this insanity, I've hardly had time to do things that are really important. Like watch Lost. Or concentrate in the new Beauty and the Beast Diamond Edition I picked up as soon as it was available. Or go and greet Robert Downey Jr. in the cinema. Or finally get  one of my eternal reading projects, aka The Lord of the Rings trilogy, over and done with. Or actually watch movies and write post about them.

Well. At least there's snow. And at least the latest Glee episode was FREAKING ADORABLE. (Kurt, ah! Beiste, ah! Mr. Schue, ah! Artie, ah! Puck, ah! Mike, ah! Sue Sylvester, ah! Everyone, ah!)

To materialism and beyond!

Who wouldn't love buying things? ... Okay, that was a rhetorical question. Anyway, most people would agree that owning things it quite nice. At least when they are new, in one piece and not in your way.

Materialism topic 1: Yesterday I finally got around to buying a new cellphone - the last one was literally dying in my arms. So I bought the phone that matched best to my strict criteria: 1) cheap 2) not ugly 3) comes is a nice colour, and most importantly 4) has a place for a cellphone strap. You see, I'm not a big fan of cellphone jewelry, but this summer is bought the most awesome strap from the Helsinki airport, as you can see in the left. Mörkö rocks!

Materialism topic 2: Today I went to buy a warm cap, because I couldn't find any in my flat and my brain was freezing as I cycled to school this morning. Anyway, I walked past the toy section, and what did I see! A Buzz Lightyear! I real-size Buzz Lightyear! Would it be too embarrassing to ask one for Christmas, haha? I wouldn't play with it (much), just put it on my shelf to 'complete my room' (as they said about the bowl in Remember Me). And it freaking SPEAKS! Buzz Lightyear to the rescue! It speaks Finnish though. Anyway. I haven't been this excited about a toy since those awesome Darth Vader helmets!

Anyway, now I'll go maybe eat my sixth joulutorttu. My roommate baked lots today and aaah aren't they heavenly! Then we lit some candles. And maybe played some Christmas carrols on Youtube, but I'm not telling you that because that's slightly embarrassing. It's never too early to start Christmas, right? After all, it's only two months away...

Everyone's favourite Kate + some catching up

The lovely, lovely Kate Winslet has a birthday today! I usually don't bring up people's birthdays, but since I've been starving my blog for a few days now, I thought this could be a nice excuse to write a post. And she really is quite lovely, isn't she? I could make a habbit of just posting a random picture of Kate Winslet on the days I have nothing else to say. Yeah, she's lovely. Happy birthday, birthday girl!

Also, I added the most popular lables to the sidebar and apparently I talk too much about Lost. Nah, well, soon I've said everything I have to say about the sublject, and then I'll probably shut up for a while. Anyway, the Complete Marathon is going quite well, I'm two episodes away from finishing season 3! Looks like the more school work I have, the more Lost I watch. Makes sense, really.

The last book in The Hunger Games trilogy is also almost finished. Well, there's still a hundred and something pages left but I think I'll wait for tomorrow night and then dig in for the last time. Wow. Why do good books end so soon? ... Maybe because they are good? Duh.

This post is starting to look like a news broadcast of my life, so I might as well keep going:

I'm currently working on a massive post about my favourite actor and I'm putting a bit too much time and energy on it, but since it's not just a favourite, but THE favourite, it's only fair that I do.

Today I wrote a causal analysis on 3D movies and I can tell you it's one of the crappiest texts I've written in a while.

I also tried to learn French by listening to one of those educational CDs while I was cooking lasagna, and my French upstairs neighbours were singing Beatles very loudly and not very well, and I thought about turning the volume up and really pissing them off, but I didn't.

I think French is really difficult.

I'm looking forward to Saturday and a friend+boyfriend's housewarming party (they've lived in the flat for five months now, but who cares) and I could gladly just skip the rest of the week and jump straight to that. Motivation, where are you?

That concludes our broadcast tonight. (Isn't it great to sometimes write shamelessly beside the point? Speaking of which, we got an unusually cool assignment at school - to sit in a cafe or some other public place for 45 minutes and just... write. That'll be, eh, interesting, I'm sure...)

EDIT // I just got a kick out of this... If Facebook existed years ago. Haha. "Oh it'll be a killer alright."

Disneyland... where every Cinderella story comes true (or so they say)

The 5-year-old me used to watch Beauty and the Beast all the time. In the beginning of the video there was an advert of Disneyland (and of course I always watched the ads - that's the beauty of the old VHS casettes, skipping the ads just wasn't that simple). The ad showed kids hugging Mickey Mouse, a gorgeous fairytale castle, and all my favourite princesses come to life, waving and smiling in their beautiful dresses. The place seemed to me like another world - a land far far away - and sometimes I suspected if it was even a real place. Seeing that magical place with my own eyes remained a dream until this month. I had been waiting for it for many long years - an ideal opportunity for disappointment to occur - but I loved it. I don't think anyone can be disappointed in Disneyland. Because it's pretty damn amazing.

We went to Disneyland on the fourth day of our trip, it was a Sunday. My friend worked there for a summer two years ago, and lucky for us, a friend of hers works there this summer, too, so we got in free of charge! Which was awesome, naturally, though I'd been more that happy to pay the price if I had to. 40 € is a small price when we're talking about fullfilling childhood dreams.

We arrived to the park soon after 10, that's when it opens. I was pratically jumping up and down of excitement, grinning like a madman and sighing of pure wonder. We first went to the Walt Disney Studios, which is a smaller park next to the main park. We chickened out from trying the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, and went for a Studio Tram Tour instead. It was a cool and fascinating ride to the "backstage" of film making - we saw some film props and sets. The most awesome thing was a staged "action film shoot" with an earthquake, explosions and a surge of water. (They had also built a little bit of London along the ride, and I had a feeling I should go there again, soon...)

Then we entered the Disneyland Park itself. And it was WONDERFUL. We walked along the Main Street, packed with shops and little cafés and there was a train driving through the park with this very disney song playing (inside information: the staff practically want to shoot somebody or themselves everytime the train comes and the song's played, haha, don't blame them) in the background and some characters dancing and waving aboard it. We saw Woody and Mr Incredible and Mickey and Lilo and as you can imagine, I was pretty close to heaven.

Disneyland is divided into four lands with different themes. First we went to Discoveryland, with future and space themed things. I was happy find a Star Wars spaceflight stimulator, which was a lot of fun, I still don't quite understand how those things work, because it sure felt like we were going up and down and forward - and jumping into hyperspace! There was also a French speaking C-3PO, which was weird, especially as he still talked with his "right" voice. Hmm. Cool.

Next... Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, whoo! We sat in these small wagons and had to shoot as many evil aliens as possible. I was pretty good, I must say, for a first-timer, and we sure defeated Zurg! By then we were getting quite hungry, so what's a better help of not Pizza Planet! Like in Toy Story, get it? Hahaa! It was 17 € for pizza buffet, but well, I liked the place a lot, as it was decorated to look like the restaurant in the movie. And cool toilet sings as you can see on the left!

Autopia - a track where you can drive with these little cars - was where my friend used to work. She spotted a familiar face at the entrance and ta-dah! we got to walk right past the kilometre-long queue. I felt a bit guilty, looking at those little ones patiently waiting for their turn, but mostly just like a damn V.I.P., haha.

Next we went to explore Fantasyland, a true fairytale world, which also included the famous castle. Which apparently is Sleeping Beauty's! It was pretty nice inside, too. I think I maybe could manage to live there, if I really really had to. Hmm-mm.

(RIGHT: Someday my prince will come! And if not, at least they can't blame me for not looking.)

Fantasyland is all about princesses and classic tales like Peter Pan, Dumbo and Alice in Wonderland. We spent quite a lot of time there... We spotted Cinderella, next to a long queue of kids wishing to meet and pose with her. What a summer job! At least her smiling muscles are on top shape after a few months.

Peter Pan's Flight was a ride starting from the Darlings' bedroom, across the London skies (it looked so nice, stars above and city lights below, cars and all, and Big Ben, naturally), second star to the right and straight on till morning to Neverland. It lasted all too little time compared to the wait on the queue, but I guess that's kind of a must-see. There was similar ride in the world of Snow White. The part in the forrest with the monster trees was just as scary as in the film, and I might've screamed just a little. Hmm. We tested Mad Hatter's Tea Cups, too. And even dared to spin a little, though not like a bunch of guys, who spinned their cup as fast as they could, all the time (also, there were five of them in the cup - there were three GIRLS in our cup and it felt a bit crowded) - no wonder that one of them fell right down on his knees as he exited the cup. That was a sight, haha.

Let's move on to Adventureland! First we walked through an Aladdin house, or Le Passage Enchanté d'Aladdin to be specific. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril is a rollercoaster, which we entered hesitating a bit, and not only because of all those suspicious stories about it being broken all the time and stuff. But we got out fine and it was fun!

Pirates of the Caribbean was surely my favourite in the whole park. We sat on boats and floated through the world of pirates, battles and wild parties. Cool! Yo ho, a pirate's life for me and so on. Afterwards at the shop we met two Finnish girls, and I was happy to do my business in Finnish, as weird as it was. (For that matter, it was nice to speak English for a change, Disneyland was the only place I didn't just let my French-speaking friend to do the talking for me. Everyone were tourists there, so it didn't matter, haha.) I bought a cool key chain, it was like Davy Jones' key from The Dead Man's Chest. What else did I buy... Not as much as I thought I would! Ha, a Buzz Lightyear straw! Haha, I know, it was a real impulse purchase. Then some chocolate coins I don't want to eat because they're wrapped in Disney characters, oh and Mickey Mittens for my nephew! He doesn't really appreciate them yet, but oh well, he will. Haha. I do, at least, if he doesn't.

Last, Frontierland with cowboys and pioneers. We only had time for Big Thunder Mountain, another rollercoaster, more traditional one, but maybe even more fun! Twice the track went through a pitch-black tunnel, which was cool.

Seeing the familiar characters 'in real life' was obviously one of the highlights of the day. At one point we happened to walk past the Central Plaza, right at the beginning of a 'Disney Showtime Spectacular', meaning characters jumping and dancing and singing about friendship and solidarity and... ratatuille. Haha.

Oh, and of course the parade! Or the parades, to be exact. First one at seven and second around eleven, just before the final fireworks show. In summary, the parade was this: characters from the most beloved stories - everyone from Simba and Woody to Mary Poppins and all the princesses, of course - riding by, wawing and smiling and generally just being very cool, while all the best Disney songs are playing in the background. Simply wonderful! I wasn't supposed to take any pictures, afraid that I might miss something just concentrating on my camera, but no, I needed to eternalize some of those moments. And I did, when ever the idiots people in front of me weren't standing to photograph. (You're on second row, you sure you HAVE TO stand?) Anyway.

I loved the parade, and was happy to see the other one later, too. It was, again, awesome. The vehicles they were riding (I don't know what to call them) were all lit up fabulously and everyone had their happily ever afters - Beast was a human again, Ariel was human... for a change (that ungrateful little... hmm) and so on. One prince, don't remember which one, had a pretty amusing style to wave. Like the royal wave, but exaggerated. Haha. Finally, there was the fireworks show, which was sweeeeeeeet. I guess there was some belt-tightening going on, because the show wasn't as grand as it reportedly had sometimes been, but sweeeeet anyway. Ah! Then we had to leave. That was the only part that sucked.

Shame to end this post with a picture of the mermaid brat I declared as the most annoying Disney princess just a few posts ago. But it was the only decent picture I've got. Oh well, let's call this making amends.

... Okay, no. Here's one more photo. I feel better now.

(Aww. It's so preeeettyyyy. Mama get me one please pretty please!)

In summary: It was awesome, wonderful, magical, escapism at its very best. I felt like a child, and was free to do so. I will go back, because I want to and I have to and I need to. Also, I want a time machine so I can go and kiss the ground under Walt Disney's feet.