2014 Reading: Shockaholic

LOOK! I finally finished this book!

This was the one I started before Egghead. It was such an easy read, but it took me 5ever because of all the running around I've been doing to look for a job, and moving back in with my parents, and just generally being a pathetic, unemployed loser. I am lame. I accept this about myself.

I got this book because, as I've said previously, I LOVE autobiographies by people (celebrity or not) who have been on drugs. I don't know why that it, but it's another one of those little quirks that you just have to accept about yourself and move on, otherwise you'll make yourself miserable and spend all your time and money on therapy. Ain't nobody got time for that.

Carrie Fisher is hilarious. I had already read her previous autobio Wishful Drinking some time ago and I just knew that anything else she put out was going to be hilarious. She's just the right kind of nutty to make you laugh, while only feeling slight discomfort at her sense of humor (I have a similar sense of humor, so I was totally fine with laughing, often out loud).

Shockaholic was pretty much focused on her life before and after the events of Wishful Drinking. She yo-yos back and forth between early early childhood with her parents to after the completion of her book and all the shit that happened then.  She pays a lot of special attention to her dad and their individual issues, then their combined issues.

The main subject at the beginning of the book, however, was the concept of practice of ECT (shock therapy basically, just with a more technical sounding name) and how it helped her with her manic depression. The subject actually made me put the book down and think for quite a while about ECT. According to Fisher (ugh, that sounds like a college paper sentence) shock therapy can mess with your memory and the storage part of your brain. She forgets things frequently and has even forgotten words!

I think, as someone who pretends to be a writer (alone, in the dark, where no one else can read it), that is the part of ECT that would scare me the most. I may not be the most loquacious person in the world (but, hey, I know that word means) but words are very important to me. I read them, I write them, I speak them, and I try to learn and use new ones whenever possible. So, to hear that something can take words away from me, that is just about one of the most horrible things I can think of.

The whole thing made me sit back (in the dark again, because that's how I roll) and think about it. Is it really worth it to go through all of that? I've struggled with depression all my life, not quite manic and definitely not the worst I've seen, but it still effects my every day life on a regular basis. Would I want to get rid of that and come out happy on the other side, but at the expense of my memory and my capacity for language?

Maybe I'm reading WAY too much into this, but, hey, that's what books are supposed to do, right? Make you think about shit?

Shitty 80's Horror Movie Review: The Curse (franchise)

Sorry this is a day late. I've been busy. I just moved and I've been running around with job interviews and packing and shit. I am le tired.

Alright, so...

I have a reason for watching this movie. It is not a good one, but damnit it's a reason.  Wil Wheaton, someone who I think is hilarious and awesome, said this film was the worst mistake he ever made. Now, with me, when celebrities say things like that, OF COURSE I have to watch them! (See: Misha Collins and his hatred of Karla)

This movie was weird. And usually I like weird, but this one just... Wow.

The Curse (1987)

Curse II: The Bite (1989)

Yeah, the sequel was no better... I don't even think it was meant to be a sequel, but they just stuck the title on there anyway as an after-thought.

EDIT: HOLY SHIT, I just found out there's a third one... I'll put it on the list.)

Shitty 80's Horror Movie Review: The Fog (franchise)

I do have to say that these movies were really just so that I could slow down after watching such long franchises. I didn't particularly enjoy them, but I didn't particularly hate them either. They were both just kind of blah for me.

The Fog (1980)

The Fog *Remake* (2005)

I did think that the remake was a giant pile of shit, though. Made no sense to me whatsoever and might as well have been called something else since it hardly resembled the first one anyway. Just one of those remakes that people scorn at because taking a shitty movie from 20 years ago and making it worse... well, that's just the lamest thing ever.

Shitty 80's Horror Movie Review: Poltergeist (franchise)

This is one of those movies that I know, at some point in my life, I've watched at least part of, but could never quite remember what it was actually about other than the scene where the clown doll tries to drag the kid under the bed.

Nope!

The sequels are just ridiculous. They kept forgetting people! I think someone once mentioned to me that the girl who played the older sister died before the second one came out, but they didn't even TALK about her or hint that they even remember that the teenager existed.  Then the third one was the just the little girl, because apparently everyone just abandoned her so she had to go live in the city with relatives.

Poltergeist (1982)

Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986)

Poltergeist III (1988)

2014 Reading: Egghead

I know it's been a while and I just want to point out that while this may be the 7th book I've finished this year, it's actually the 10th book I've started. I'm still in the middle of #9 and will hopefully have that done soon.

I was so excited to get this after seeing Bo Burnham's comedy special "what." that I literally tore through Egghead in about an hour (it's a book of poetry so it wasn't that difficult).  His sense of humor is very similar, if not more dark, than mine, but he also tacks on strong emotions near the end that kind of make your eyes water when you read them, like "I Fuck Sluts" (actual poem in the book) or "The Light":

When I die, I hope I don't see a bright light.

Those give me headaches.

After a long life, I don't want to stare into the sun.

I want a calm blackness--

the same shade that coats the back of my eyelids. 

("The Light" from Egghead)

And then you get to things like "Dog's Poem" or "Donald" or "No to Drugs" and just go right back to laughing (or snorting, however you choose to express hilarity) until the next one comes along.

The illustrations in the book (done by Chance Bone) are reminiscent of the illustrations in Shel Silverstein books from when I was a kid, some can be cute and funny while others are just disturbing. They fit with the poems most of the time, but I have to admit being a little confused by some of them.  I realize now that some of them may have just been chosen as space fillers, but at the time of reading, it kind of took me out of place as I was trying to immerse myself (and doesn't THAT sound fancy?).

It's a pretty thick book and it makes me wonder how long he's been collecting these particular gems because though most of them are not THAT long, the book is chock full of poems (even after the epilogue, he still squeezes one more in there). Were these years and years worth of work and editing or is he the kind of guy that can do this in an hour and still be a genius?

I could probably go on some more and name off more of my favorites, but that might take up more time than I'm willing to allow for such things. I got stuff to do, you know? (Like watch 'The Following' and cry at my continued unemployment). Important stuff.

I will however leave you with this poem which, for some reason, made me pause significantly longer than the others while I was reading because, and like I said, I don't know why, but it spoke to me on an emotional level.

They say adults have no imagination. Not true.

Just instead of dinosaurs and spaceships, they imagine 

silence and the new babysitter bent over the coffee table. 

("Imagination" from Egghead)

*NEW VIDEO!* Let's Talk About: Teen Wolf

Why did I let myself get dragged into this?

Why do I let Tumblr pull me in to things that I previously had no interest in?

(Ew, that last one ended in a preposition...)

P.S. It should be noted that I made and edited this video before the last two episodes aired so there might be some changes that I would have made if I hadn't already jumped in with both feet trying to get some videos down and ready in case I forgot to film one week and needed back-ups.

The spot for least favorite episode would have DEFINITELY gone to the "The Fox and the Wolf" because that episode bored me to death. The flashbacks about the Nogitsune took WAAAAAYYYYY longer than they needed to and I just really wanted to see some more evil!Stiles, because apparently that has become the driving force in my life.

There were also some shots in last night's episode that I DEFINITELY would have added to the collection of pictures of evil!Stiles giving his evil looks (the ones that make certain parts of me do the rumba).

Why do I love the hollow-cheeked, drugged-out, dark under-eye circles look on him so much?!?!

Derek looks good with it, too...

Shitty 80's Horror Movie Review: Halloween (franchise)

This was one of those movie franchises that everyone always brings up when you're talking about crappy 80's horror movies (even though the first one came out in '78) and I always got a lot of shit for never seeing it sooner. I mean, come on, Jamie Lee Curtis, scream queen...

Except for the whole never-dying thing and the fact that he keeps coming back from the dead over and over again, the concept for the first movie in the franchise is completely plausible. Kid with certain mental problems (sociopathy, most likely) kills sister and gets put away, breaks out and targets teenagers. His lack of conversational skills and his downright fascination with his own work (like that scene when The Shape just takes a step back and looks at the kid he's just killed like it's a piece of art) point to something in that area.

I liked the first one. The others, not so much. Especially when they started just ignoring the timelines and making shit up.

Halloween (1978)

 Halloween II: The Nightmare Isn't Over (1981)

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)

 Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)

Halloween V: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)

Halloween VI: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)

Halloween VII: H20 Twenty Years Later (1998)

Halloween VIII: Resurrection (2002)

Halloween *Remake* (2007)

Halloween II *Remake* (2009)

Yeah, and as you can see, the remakes were not really my favorite things in the world, but I tried to look at them objectively with my film student hat of appreciation.