Archive for May, 2008
write about it in your blawg.
I just brought home the third season of Weeds from work, and with it I have rekindled my undying obsession for Mary Louise Parker. Hmmm. What a delicious blend of talent and quirkiness. Let’s recap my journey with M-lou, shall we?
As a young lad of probably 6 or 7, I can remember being starstruck by Parker in a little film I liked to call “Tomato tomato,” which is of course the film that normal people referred to as Fried Green Tomatoes. What seven year old boy can’t recall plopping down in front of the television to watch Kathy Bates roll herself in saran wrap to entice her husband? Or Mary Louise engaging in some heavy cannibalism, and lest we should forget: Chris O’Donnel’s tragic end on the railroad tracks (I literally wouldn’t go near railroad tracks until my teen years because of this movie). A cautionary tale for all ages.
It was then that I told my mom that I had a crush on “that lady.” Not Kathy Bates rolled in saran wrap, but Mary Louise. This, I would later come to find out, was my first “gay crush.” Those stirrings gay men have toward women of substance and talent. Hmmm. Sorry mom, I wasn’t admiring her ta-ta’s, but her cinematic presence.
I took a break from Mary Louise for a while to focus more on God. It wasn’t until I was in highschool that I witnessed the brilliance that was Boys on the Side. Hello? AIDS? Lesbians? How could a young, closeted guy not find THAT fascinating? I believe this was in my “I’m secretly watching lifetime movies” phase. Oops. Mary was great, yadda yadda. But this started my other obsession: Whoopi, you’re really not a lesbian? Really? Come on. But I digress.
I admit, after doing a bit of research a couple of years ago (read: IMDB) I realized that my Mary Louise vocabulary was sadly lacking. At that point I checked out movies such as The Client (RIP Brad Renfro), Pipedream and Bullets Over Broadway among others. It’s one of the great tragedies of film that she lost out to Gwenyth Paltrow to reprise her role in Proof. Too old? Fuck that. Not enough star power? Redic.
I guess you could say I wasn’t completely aware that I was obsessed until I saw Angels In America my senior year. I guess you could also say I didn’t know what fucking mindblowing was either until I saw that movie. Before then she lauded giggles and a post-it in the back of my brain with movies like Saved!, but it was then, seeing her desperate and naked on a rooftop, pleading with her mormon husband to fuck’er that I can remember my path down fanboy lane truly began. It’s not often that the sight of a vagina can stir that much emotion in me, but damnit all, Mary Louise has got fire!
Does anyone remember this? :
It’s ok, not many people do. It’s Zac Efron playing autistic track star, Steven Thomas in Lifetime’s Miracle Run (a true “lifetime original”). Notable for it’s awkwardness yes, but also for- you guessed it! Mary Louise as his mother. I’m not gonna lie. I watched this movie, and wondered aloud in my basement “Why is Mary Louise Parker in this movie?” We all have our professional missteps. Forgive and forget I always say. But somehow I don’t think I can ever forget that.
Mary Louise was originally offered Teri Hatcher’s role on Desperate Housewives back when it was in pre-production, and as much as that would undoubtedly been genius, I’m glad she turned it down (although she turned it down because she didn’t think the show would do well. tut-tut MLP, tut-tut. Who you getting your advice from?) because she would later go on to star in the hit Showtime original series Weeds, which has quickly become my absolute favorite show on television. Next to Gilmore Girls (more on this later). Interestingly enough, the show also stars one of my other favorites from Angels, Justin Kirk (more on him later). Weeds is great. Even MKO (Mary Kate Olsen) can’t taint the fun.
Such has been my journey with Mary Louise Parker. And what a journey it’s been. I can only hope that her body of work continues to grow in such a way that will force me to continually question my own sexuality in the face of her beauty and talent. Here’s to you Mary Louise, here’s to you.
Here are some examples of her brilliance. Youtube, go!
The stuff at the beginning is only mildly useless. just wait for it…
While not all about Mary Louise, this is one of the many examples of why I love her. Just keep watching. It’s worth it. Or maybe it’s not. But either way, I fear Cher after watching this.
There are no words. Just… Fantastic.
There are a saddening amount of quality MLP videos on the internet right now. If anyone can find me her golden globes speech… I’ll give you a crisp two dollar bill.
MTV delivers
I for one have always been an opponent of the evolutionary process that facebook has undergone in the past couple of years. From the smallest changes in layout, to the monstrosity that was newsfeed. Like everyone else I’ve learned to live with the changes, and even grown to love some of those applications. But what recently came to my attention was the “people you may know” sidebar feature. Now facebook awkwardly sifts through your friends’ friends and decides that maybe you should friend them as well. Akward, right? Right.
But useful if only for the sheer amount of nostalgia that comes with seeing the formerly pimpled faces of once beloved high school classmates superimposed to the right side of your facebook homepage.
People like Mark Primeano and Tiffany Scott whose sheer amount of cruelty was only offset by the mind blowing amount of ignorance that they displayed on a daily basis. I can only pray that my little asian visage doesn’t pop up on their “people you may know” bar.
Between the horrible memories that their pinched little facebook profile pictures brought and MTV’s The Paper (more on this later) I’m so glad that I’m not back in high school.
Sometimes I think I’m way lucky that I attended three different high schools before graduation, because I was only mildly immersed in any of the bullshit that went on. While it sucks that I never developed a really “tight” group of friends throughout those years, looking back on it now, I can’t say that I’m lacking anything that any of my collegiate friends possess. I have the five or so kids I still talk to on a regular basis, and a lingering fondness for my senior prom. Other than that however, high school was always a take it or leave it experience for me.
I should write a book though. Seriously. Getting suspended for touching some girls boobs. Getting sent to a mental hospital for catching a case of the “gays,” moving out at seventeen. I’m a lifetime movie waiting to happen. I never even had a cellphone.
But I don’t regret any of it, because I’m a hell of a lot more functional than a lot of the wastes of space I’ve met since graduation.
How can you not miss that?
MTV, I commend you. Not since Laguna Beach have I been more annoyed by “real life” high school students. Annoyed and enthralled that is. I could eat up their upper middle class goodness all day long. Good thing I have so much free time, because that’s basically what I’ve been doing lately.
Thank God So You Think You Can Dance is back. I’ll probably be talking a lot more about that as soon as the audition process finishes up. Oh goodness what a summer I’m in for…
You do strange things when you live alone.
No subtext to that title. I really do. I do really weird shit because I know that no one will come home and catch me. I’m really not even sure I can talk about it on wordpress, because in truth I only skimmed through the content guidelines, and I don’t want to risk it. What I will do however, is give you a little insight into what my days consist of when I’m not working.
10am- Awake briefly to close the window. It’s too cold.
11am- My phone rings. It’s the regular ringtone, so I decide it’s not worth answering.
12pm- Finally wake up. Turn on the telly.
(I’d like to take a moment and personally thank MTV and VH1 for constantly showing re-runs of ANTM. I eat that shit up)
1pm- Flip between Meerkat Manor (adorable) and ANTM. Same difference really.
2pm- Flip between Meerkat Manor (still adorable) and ANTM. Still similar.
3pm- Re-heat some stir-fry from last night.
This is where shit gets weird, because one of the first things that left when my roommates did was my understanding of how food works. Suddenly I’m mixing, and crunching, and combining things that shouldn’t be mixed, crunched or combined. I decided it would really be a great idea to use my stir-fry as dip for my potato chips, and hey- maybe it would be a swell idea to inhale a dab of ranch with each bite. Disgusting? A little, but I when you’re alone, and no one is judging you, you think what the hey.
4pm- Made an orange juice and vodka. Began looking up recipes that involve alcohol.
Um. So as you can see I accomplish a shit ton on the weekends. To be fair, all that tv watching was mixed in with a lot of youtubing, facebook stalking and blog reading.
I’d like to say that all this is somehow creating an atmosphere of self-discovery, but I’d be lying.
If you haven’t been watching the bad girls club this season, you’ve been missing out. Probably one of the most underrated reality series on television. I mean, it’s everything you want in a reality series, without all the pretentiousness of all those other shows. It doesn’t promise redemption, or learning, or growth or any of that shit, it just gives us the good shit. They put a bunch of socially deficient women in a house and gives them a lot of money and booze. COME ON. How can you not see the brilliance of that? They don’t even try to hide the fact that they’re shoving a bunch of mildly psychotic, alcoholics together into a house, because you know the Real World does that. It’s like, “oooh, let’s watch a bunch of people learn to coexist.” Who really watches the Real World to see that. They want to see the crazies unleashed. And that’s why I love the Bad Girls Club. Because it doesn’t pretend to be anything but.
Girls. Each one of you is a star.
I know what it takes.
I always find time to wish i was writing, but my follow-through is getting worse and worse lately. Now, for a quick emotional inventory:
+ Ok, so I keep wobbling on London. I mean, it’s obviously a little bit late for any kind of wobbling, but in terms of how I feel about the whole situation, there’s been a lot of wobbling. Excited/worried, mostly. Another country? What?
+ I’ve been smoking way more and working out way less than I should. This changes Monday.
+ I recently traveled to Champaign with Chris to visit his (and I’d say at this point my) friend and bar hop a little. And while I had a lot of fun, and thought a lot of thoughts, one of the biggest things I’ve taken out of that weekend is to begin worrying about the GRE. Yikes!
+ It’s hard to feel pretty when you have abnormally pretty friends. That’s kind of pathetic to say, but y’know, shit happens. Whoops, there goes my self-esteem!
+ Speaking of being gay, I’ll be able to do the whole Chicago pride thing for the first time since high school. I’m legit excited about that. “legit.” Any takers?
That’s about the extent of everything that’s running through my head right now. Shallow? Maybe? Some say deep.
also, I just remembered this. Sometimes, when I give nicknames to my buddies on AIM, I just substitute their full name. But no matter what, they always put the quotation marks. So when I see Tiffany sign on, it says “Tiffany’ signed on, like it’s some shady fake name. It’s like my buddy list is some douche bag who’s like, “Hey man, ‘Mark’ just signed on. If that is his real name.” It’s like, fuck you Buddy list. They are real, and that is his real name. (I actually don’t have any friends named Mark, but I do have a friend named Tiffany). That probably wasn’t as funny to anyone else but me, but I thought I’d share.
Thou hast sassed.
Probably not right. But whatever.
Tudors: A terrible, terrible epic series. What I expected to be a sweeping period drama turned out to be poorly acted soft-core porn.
I don’t mind so much the sex, not since The Champaign Gang have I seen such a concoction of poor writing and sad acting. Jonathan Rhys Meyers’ naked bottom cannot even save this show.
To be fair, I did have a good time while watching it. it’s entertaining if only for it’s failure at remaining period in any sense of the word. The source material is also just fantastic. If you’re like me and enjoy historical epics as much as I do, you’ll at least derive some amount of pleasure from the story itself. The female characters too are also very compelling. I’m not sure whether it was the writing or the acting, but both areas soar above most of the male characters. Come to think of it, it might just be Jonathan Rhys Meyers who are terrible.
Meh. In other news, I’m staying in Decatur, and Kate and I are taking a weekly yoga class. This is my life.
I found this on Tiff’s blog… Um, she didn’t tag me. She hates me. So I’m not gonna tag her.
The Middle Name Game:
Here are the rules:
1. You have to post the rules before you give your answers.
2. You must list one fact about yourself beginning with each letter of your middle name. (If you don’t have a middle name, use your maiden name or your mother’s maiden name).
3. At the end of your blog post, you need to tag one person (of blogger of another species). (Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they’ve been tagged.)
Here goes . . .
asian. Ok, that was cheap, but I have another “A” coming, so I have some time to think.
ok, i’m already completely uninterested in this game. I’ll come back to it later.
Life: maybe attending.
The end of the school year has always brought with it the most general mix of elation and depression.
In three months I’ll be in London.
