Sex and the City: The Cinderella Movie

So I think I had the opposite reaction from what the movie-makers intended for everything in this movie. WARNING!! SPOILERS!! Let me break it down:

Carrie: I thought she was kind of annoying in the show, and the movie was no different. From the way she just accepts Big’s terrible proposal to get married for real estate convenience’s sake, to the way she beats him over the head with her flowers when he gets cold feet. I actually felt bad for the guy for most of the movie! And I used to think he was a … you know… lame (censored). All in all, for being a writer, Carrie is very bad at communicating and it drives me crazy.

Miranda: Also thought her character acted ridiculously. Yes, Steve cheats on her, but again I felt bad for the guy. He had a one night stand because he couldn’t get any lovin from his own wife. And I thought Miranda liked sex?? I guess it just goes to show how terrible it is to be a working mom, that you just ignore your husband and are drained of all sexual energy. Right. But I don’t entirely blame her. Steve should have spoken up if he was in such a bad place, before the cheating could occur. So I’m glad Miranda got her senses back in the end… and they all lived happily ever after.

Charlotte: The most Cinderella story of them all, which left me scratching my head. What are these producers telling us? That true, terrifying happiness can be achieved… as long as you have a happy (and sex-filled) marriage, are making a family, and don’t have to worry about money/working? Well, gee, no kidding. And how many people can actually claim these things? Not to mention, if you’re pregnant and you’re over the age of 40, aren’t there bound to be certain complications? But no, not for Charlotte. Because somehow she played her cards right and hit the Park Avenue jackpot.

Samantha: Why was she in LA?? The movie is not “Sex and the Two Coastal Cities.” The movie could have been a lot funnier (and it was missing a lot of the show’s original humor) if she had left Smith (sorry, Smith!) earlier on and come back to NY for some real hijinks. Not just staring at her neighbors so viewers got some soft-corn action. Boring. But then I just had a thought… Samantha is turning 50?? That’s like… my mom’s age (no offense intended). It’s just now that I think about it, What are these girls doing??

I’m probably coming off as very anti-feminist right now. So I have to remind myself that this IS a fairy-tale/fantasy. I think these characters exist for other women to live vicariously through, regardless of whether or not they could actually exist in real life. And apparently a lot of women liked the movie (and now they’re going to do a sequel?? What kind of storylines are left??) but I felt it too melodramatic and materialistic. And maybe the age-thing factored in—so would I have enjoyed it more if it centered around characters like Carrie’s personal assistant? Perhaps. Then again I’m reminded of why I normally steer clear from chick flicks: they’re unsatisfying. Unrealistic, predictable, and pretty clichéd. So Cheng, you should be grateful I didn’t make you watch this one with me!

Starting up the posts again

So I’ve been in the city for the summer a little over a month now. I thought now would be a good time to update on my recent-past activities (this is sad but I might have to look at my pictures to remember all the things):

--Had my bday dinner at Les Halles

--Had bday Banana Split at Serendipity

--Went to J’s house on Long Island for a BBQ J

--Went dancing at Kiss and Fly

--Saw the Cai Guoqiang exhibit at the Guggenheim with Melody. Awesome!

--Ate lots of Red Mango

--Walked the Brooklyn Bridge (twice?)

--Walked to the West Side Highway dock/park

--SHAKE SHACK and ARTICHOKE

--Ate Ethiopian food

--Watched lots of NBA games

--Visited to Coney Island, sat in the sand

--Got caught in a crazy storm/hurricane at Central Park

--Had tea and big ass scones at Alice’s Tea Cup

--Danced at La Caverna and then got Pommes Frites

--Made treks out to Brooklyn AND Queens

There’s probably more I’m forgetting.

And here’s another list that I’ve been composing in my head. I like lists, ok?

Bad things about walking home from work:

--It’s hot.

--Walking for 45 minutes makes me pretty tired.

--Other people don’t know how to walk. Get out of my way if you’re just gonna stroll!

--Certain blocks smell really badly. Seriously.

Good things about walking home from work:

--Saves me two dollars in subway fare!

--Walking is the only form of exercise I get. Ever.

--I get to walk by the puppy store on 6^th and 13^th .

--The subway is probably hotter than the air outside (but faster… meh).

And file this under both categories:

--I can go shopping on my way home.

And lastly, Upcoming Activities/Things I Still Want to Do:

--Brunch on LES including Mimosas

--See Wall-E!!

--Dim Sum in Chinatown (it’s been done before, but needs repeating)

--Take a weekend trip… upstate, Philly, DC, wherever

--Trip to Red Hook, Brooklyn (and Park Slope) via the Ikea ferry to visit Baked/Flea Market/Latino Food Vendors/Prospect Park

Mi Espanol

It has come to my attention that I may need to brush up on my Spanish if I plan on continuing to live in the city much longer. Yesterday I was pretty embarrassed that I couldn't ask a simple question to a landlady about her apartment we were looking at.

I wanted to ask if we could move in on May 1st. So I tried something like, "Pueden se mueveren primero del Mayo?" Which is terrible, and even worse with my accent. Later I tried to think of how I should've said it, something like "Quieren movarse a este apartimiento en el primero del Mayo, okay?" (Because OK is universal). Trying to conjugate verbs on the spot like that was way too stressful. And she only sort of understood... she kept saying, before May is ok, so we were like, does that mean the lease starts April 15th? And all to no avail because we wanted to shop around some more.

I seem to recall another time when knowing Spanish better would have been helpful. And according to our Big Onion tour guide, the greatest number of immigrants to the city right now is Dominican people. It's pretty sad that four years of high school Spanish gets me no where in the real world. Although part of the reason it's so hard is because my brain keeps interjecting Chinese words, since that's the other language I'm used to thinking in. Like, Women yao... movarse... zhege fangjian... And so on until I pretty much resort to English. Failure!

How people can speak more than one language fluently is a great mystery to me, especially if they learned the second language as an adult. But I know it's possible (for instance, our broker speaks English, Japanese, Arabic, and Hebrew) so I'm trying not to give up hope. My brain just needs to compartmentalize things better, or something.

I like maps: Where I've eaten

I hope this works. This is what I do with my time when I don't want to do anything related to school work.
View Larger Map

*drool*

Oh my god, I want all of these dresses. Except the ones that were worn at the Oscars.

http://www.style.com/fashionshows/collections/S2008CTR/complete/thumb/VERSACE

my favorite is the last one:
ok now I'm going to watch Project Runway. Can't they just show us the Bryant Park collections already??

random

Has anyone else besides me seen the cover of the most recent New Yorker? If not I will attempt to show you:

This is the life of a book. Actually, I feel like they are trying to tell me that this is soon to be the story of my life. Me, specifically, of course. (In case you can't tell what the last pic is, there are two hobos burning the book for warmth. Yah.)

Not that I've written anything of note lately. But I could become any of those people on the top row: writer, agent, or editor. And for what? The book's just going to end up in a trash can somewhere.

Unless..... unless something can be done about this whole, I don't read thing. Did you know that only 57% of adults in this country say they read a book in the past year (just one book!). That's ridiculous! (Says the girl who just spent several hours on Facebook updating iRead to include 70 something books and is right now restraining herself from adding more).

Anyway, in light of all this I found this article extremely interesting: http://www.newsweek.com/id/70983 and I know it's long but it's so intriguing! And possibly the reason for the New Yorker's cover, or at least having something to do with the death of the book.

Because that's what we're coming to, people. No more paper, no more moldy pages. Oh my God, what will this mean in terms of having to buy textbooks for school?? Needless to say, just because the first version of the Kindle is doing so well, that doesn't mean we'll be loosing the need for books anytime soon. But in the not so distant future, I think books will be a relic akin to vinyl records, and instead of the transitional medium of CDs, we'll have some magic device that contains all our books, magazines, music, Internet, and God knows what else in one handy dandy contraption. I personally can't wait.

just a normal thursday

Or so I kept trying to tell myself yesterday. I got up for my 9:30 recitation somehow, and then when I came back to try and nap those plans were foiled. Alas, I ate lunch and headed off to the Museum of Natural History instead.

I had to wait forever for the C train to come, and there were all these groups (gangs, really, but not) of teenagers standing around on the platform too, being loud and carrying balloons, stuffed animals, flowers, you name it. Thanks guys. That made me feel special.

But the museum was really cool. I kept thinking of Stephen Colbert being an astrophysicist the whole time I was doing my Cosmic Walk thing. But the best part was when I came home and and Sam said he would take Rachel's extra ticket to the Rufus Wainwright concert so that meant I could go too! (Cuz I didn't want to go by myself).

Anyway, then after my siesta I had something to look forward to. We trooped up to Radio City Music Hall and the concert was pretty frickin fantastic. Didn't quite take my mind off the holiday, but it was certainly better than sitting at my computer being angry and sad and not getting any work done. Plus Rufus and Sean Lennon did a Beatles tribute, Across the Universe, and that was sweet.

I think I'm still gloomy with leftover holiday blues though. That, or I have a lot of work to do this weekend and that thought in itself is just depressing. But I have to say, the city itself it good right now. Museums, concerts, and tonight hanging out at friends' apartments, going to a club. Not bad for February. If only I didn't have such a long TO DO list.

And you
said
watch my head
about it
...oh no oh no no kidding