Shatter Star

Listening to: The Morning Benders, "Excuses." While the song by itself is pretty great, watching this video of them performing with a bunch of their friends is the way to go. I dig the front man and something about the way he croons (yes, he definitely croons) is hypnotizing. It's his sleepy eyes, the way his mouth contorts, his rumpled haircut and outfit. Plus the way he clasps his hands as he sings. It's all so awkwardly beautiful. I want...

Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief (2010)

Degradingly referred to as "The next Harry Potter," Percy Jackson deserves to be judged based on its own merits. Throwing Greek gods into a teenage setting is genius and there are a lot of neat ideas flowing throughout the backstory and world building. I'm about halfway through the first book and it's been entertaining. Everyone loves Olympian gods so the combination of myths and modern stuff is appealing.The problem was the adaptation of the book...

Shutter Island (2010)

The trailers make Shutter Island seem like it would be scary. I wanted it to be scary, I needed it to be scary. But it's not scary at all. The movie plays out more like a procedural and whodunit. Stop reading if you're planning on watching this movie. While there won't be any overt spoilers below, the less you know about the movie the better.There's nothing particularly wrong with Shutter Island except for the fact that you leave feeling unsatisfied....

Astro Girl

I don't think I've ever done an interview on this site but I just had to ask Realm Lovejoy some questions because she's got all sorts of interesting things going on. She's a writer, an illustrator, works in the video game industry, has great music taste, and I believe recently attended a Labyrinth masquerade ball. You heard that last part right, Labyrinth!On Realm's blog, she does a series of interviews and illustrations with authors and she did...

Dance Like Somebody's Watching

Remember a while back when I was looking for a mini-genre of movie to be into? Well, I picked assassin movies and to be honest, it's been a lot of hit and miss. That wasn't an attempted pun, really. While I soldier on and continue my assassin movie research, I realized I already have a mini-genre I'm totally dedicated to: dance movies. I don't even think my fandom qualifies as a guilty pleasure because dance movies and shows are so mainstream...

The Oak Park Story

"The Oak Park Story, the new documentary that captures the lives of a predominantly Southeast Asian and Latino community in an Oakland slum, will premiere at the 2010 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. The film is directed, edited, co-produced and co-written by Valerie Soe and co-produced and co-written by Russell Jeung, both of whom are professors of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University."Sylvie (Antisocial...

It takes two to make a thing go right

Listening to: Lykke Li, "Dance Dance Dance." Invariably, every time I hear a fantastic and catchy song that tickles the twee in me, it's from a band/singer in Sweden or Norway or somewhere near there. It makes me think I should go take a visit. I also suspect I'm a few years late to the Lykke party according to this Popmatters review.The other day, I asked the world which sounded worse: cuddling or snuggling. My respondents gave me mixed answers....

The Department of Lost & Found

Listening to: Mountain Brothers, "Galaxies." Chinese guys who rap? What was this? The MBs were the first Asian American rap group to hit it big (relatively). Over a decade ago, I saw them perform at a Taiwanese conference my freshman year and then put their CD on repeat until the music wormed its way into my head. So hearing this track now, off an album I haven't touched in years, brings it all back. So what are the Mountain Brothers doing now?...

Line by Line

Listening to: Pekka Pohjola, "The Madness Subsides." DJ Shadow sampled this for one of his songs. I think I like the Pohjola version better. It's moodier. If you like to know what samples what, this site has been blowing my mind (and sucking up my time), "Who Sampled."Lara Zielin, of Donut Days fame, asked me for three winter book reading recommendations for my alma mater's online magazine. When giving book recommendations it's always difficult...

The Nontourage

I was just lamenting the other day that for all the years my friends and I have been living in San Diego, none of us know any doormen to get us into bars or clubs for free, or to just skip the line. Sure, you can get on a sign up sheet and stand in the VIP line (a total farce since this means everyone with an email address is "very important") but nothing feels better than just waltzing right in after saying "hi" to the doorman. How do I know this?...

Like an Answered Prayer

Listening to: Madonna, "Lucky Star." The dancer on the left in the video is Madonna's younger brother, Christopher. They're on the outs now. But not because of his dancing. I don't think.A few weeks ago, while one of the NFL playoff games was going on, I was flipping around the movie channels and came upon Madonna's 1991 documentary, "Truth or Dare." I have some pretty strong feelings about MJ's recent documentary and let's just say that Truth...

Sherlock Holmes (2009)

I had forgotten how much I loved Sherlock Holmes until this movie came out. I recall working my way through the Complete Sherlock Holmes sometime when I was a teenager. While "complete" sounds intimidating, it's actually not that long, and everything Arthur Conan Doyle wrote related to Holmes fits neatly into one fatty volume.The problem with a modern day interpretation of Sherlock Holmes though, is that procedurals are now so common. Flip on...

Daybreakers (2009)

In a flood of vampire movies and culture, it's nice to find something that really captured my attention with an interesting concept. The year is the near future and most of humanity has turned into vampires. Well, vampires need human blood to stay in their prime so humans quickly become a hot commodity. We're rounded up and farmed like in the Matrix. Fun setup right? There's potential here for all sorts of allegories and twisted expectations,...