An example of me plus Imogen!

Me buying CDs today was exactly the kind of thing that gets me weird looks from people who work at the places that I buy things. In one hand the new Imogen Heap CD, the other RA, a hard metal band. The girl, and she was definitely that young, gave me a really weird look after the double take on Imogen's CD. I love that sort of look, so I smiled, explained nothing, and left. I'm entertained by little things.

New Imogen Heap! Ellipse is very good. As I suspected this album is a lot like her previous album, but still a good step forward for her style. There's still no one out there quite like her, and that gap is getting larger with each album. One thing that I was happy about was that this album actually reached back to her first album, i Megaphone, and pulled from some of the darker tones and angst from that album and made them work with her new style.

Individually the songs are great, and I'm not going to review each song, but I like them all. I've listened to the entire album, and I think it's going to take center stage in my car CD player for a while.

I will take a moment to say that at the second to last track I was happy with the entire album, but there was a little niggling voice complaining that while all her songs were great, none of them really blew me away the same way Hide and Seek had. And then I listened to the last track. Musically it's not so different from the rest of her album, but the song punched me in the gut and left me breathless. Half Life is incredible. It almost hurts me to listen to it.

So, yeah, I'm a girl, but it's a great album.

Five good movies in a row...

I've seen a surprising streak of good movies lately, so I figured I might as well talk about them. In order that I saw them, they were District 9, Inglourious Basterds, The International, Defiance, and Ponyo.

District 9. Wow, what a movie. Not what I expected, great story, well made characters, awesome effects, and generally disturbing and at the same time uplifting. No actors you've ever head of, unless you live in South Africa, but still a talented crew. I won't give anything away but to say that it is awesome and you should go see it.

Inglourious Basterds. This movie just drips with Quentin Tarantino. If you find him offensive, then you'll probably find this movie offensive, but if you enjoy his movies then I can almost guarantee you'll like this movie. Again, not at all what I expected, but probably the best Jews killing Nazis revenge movie ever made. Not exactly uplifting, but it maintains an air of humor that helps you get through the truly horrible things that happen in this movie.

The International. Clive Owen being a badass Interpol agent with the gorgeous Naomi Watts playing a NY DA working together to take down an multi-national crime syndicate funding bank? How the fuck did I miss this in theaters? The beginning of the movie is incredible, the end less so, but still good. I definitely enjoyed this movie.

Defiance. James Bond (Daniel Craig) is a Jew who, with his brothers, saves as many of his friends, family, and other Jews by hiding in a forest. It's another movie with Jews shooting Nazis, but a very different movie. It was rough, but again, I liked this movie. It was a great, and apparently true, story of people surviving in the face of severe adversity. And Daniel Craig is just awesome.

Ponyo. I have seen every major American release of a Hayao Miyazaki movie since they've been released in this country. This was, sadly, a movie designed for very young people, but even so, it was an amazing movie. The theater was barren except for me and three young women, and we all loved the movie. There were moments in the movie where I had to cringe, being old and all, but it was still better than My Neighbor Totoro, so I got no complaints. It's just further hammered home the point that I need to watch all the rest of this man's movies. Sigh. Including Kiki's Delivery Service. I will endure, I say.

Next movie on the list: G.I. Joe. I hold little hope that this will be a good movie, but I want to see it, dammit because it may still be bad in that entertaining way. Stupid movie, but stuff blows up, chicks walk around in skin tight leather, and there's a ninja. Could be worse.

What else is there to look forward to? Ninja Assassin of course. :)

Back in the saddle. And soon to be very sore.

That's right, I'm back in Capoeira classes! Run by one of my buddies from the UD Capoeira class, I'm now stretching, kicking, and doing all sorts of interesting and mildly painful exercises! Fortunately, what with the solid wooden floors, my feet weren't torn to shreds with this class, and since we're usually working in a gym, they won't be nearly as bad to break back in. However, solid surfaces provide new forms of pain, such as lowering from a standing position into a slow controlled somersault into a leg stretch. Not my favorite thing in the world. But this feeling, the nearly dead, hard to walk, totally going to be in agony tomorrow feeling is... Indescribably awesome. That exhaustion I can only get from that kind of work out, that sense of satisfaction of kicking my ass and getting through it, that joy of music and kicking and dancing... I missed this so much. And now it's back! I may get those beach abs yet!

My Job, II: The Omen

More weird job news. Apparently I'm a consultant now. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Best case scenario I just got a little raise. More likely scenario, my paychecks are bigger but my taxes are worse enough to make up for that increase. Worst case scenario, smaller paychecks and increased taxes. Most likely scenario, however, is that nothing changes at all and I just have a new meaningless job title to go with my other meaningless job title. However, you know the luck I've had with this sort of thing, so hedge your bets.

My job

For those of you wondering about my whole job situation, this is what I know: I have a job. Yes, that's all the information I have. However, there are no rumors of doom and gloom. There are almost no rumors at all, actually, which is weird. I've heard people say we might be in good shape, that it looks like the new parent company is just going to leave well enough alone for a while, which is good I guess, but there's no proof to back those statements up, so they're conjecture and little more. Back to waiting, etc. The upside is there's not immediate threat obvious, so if I do lose my job, at least it will be a surprise? That sounded better in my head.

Girlish excitement

August 25th 2009. Important date. Why? Imogen Heap's new album, Ellipse, is coming out. Based on the two songs released on the Internet so far, it's going to be on par with Speak for Yourself if not better. I'm so excited.

God, I am such a girl sometimes.

Dating! Success may vary.

So I met someone on OkCupid recently, and we decided to go on a couple dates. That whole city phobia I had once upon a time seems to have dissolved. I say this because the young woman who caught my eye lives in Philly at the moment, and going to the city was way second place to meeting her, so go me for getting better.

We went on a grand total of two dates. I really liked her. She didn't feel the spark, however, so the whole dating thing didn't work. However, I don't feel that bad about how things went. I enjoyed our dates, I got into Philly, further crushing my stupid phobia, and I definitely didn't mind spending my time looking at this girl. Wow, she was gorgeous.

I'll admit I'm mildly depressed that she didn't find me up to par, but whatever. Such is life. Dating is finding the people where the spark is there. I'm off to find someone appropriately sparkly. (Not a vampire.)