Thank You for Smoking

I recently had the opportunity to watch/purchase one of my favorite movies for class, Jason Reitman's Thank You for Smoking.

Brief Synopsis: Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart...quickly becoming one of my favorite actors) is a lobbyist for the tobacco industry. His ability to charm the media is quickly established as he entertains a crowd on the Joan London show, somehow winning them over despite the shows obvious objective being that the tobacco company. Somehow Nick's take on defending one of most hated industries in the country makes for great comedic performances.

There are additional great performances by William H. Macy, J.K. Simmons, Rob Lowe, Katie Holmes, Maria Bello, and David Koechner.

Seriously one of my favorite movies, mainly because of its educated humor and seriously good story line. If you haven't seen it yet I highly recommend it. I am not doing this movie any justice so here is the trailer.

Pledge

I was scrolling online (http://www.popsugar.com/) and came across this myspace video for Change. The video feature various celebrities, similar to the vote campaigns during the elections. The video features celebrities pledging to make the world a better place through environmental action, humanitarian aid, smiling more, etc. The video is mainly a show of support for the soon to 44th President of the United States of America. That his campaign for change will not go without the support of the people.

Check out the video its actually nicely done and as for me? I am going to rest up to watch our soon to be new President get sworn in!

MySpace Celebrity and Katalyst present The Presidential Pledge

History...

History is one of those funny things. There's people's life history, the history of a peoples, the history of people, the history of the world, etc. Well today (1/20/09) history is going to be made.

Personally I look across my own short life history and it seems I have lived through and seen so much - new millennium, war (2x), September 11...and now I have lived to see the first African American male become President of the United States. Not only do I feel such pride to be an American, but also to be apart of change. The America I pray for continually strives to achieve better, is not happy with mediocre, does not accept inequalities, and supports everyone's voice regardless of social or economic status. A country that tries to improve upon its problems.

No country, society, or even individual is without fault. The problems lie when there is no strive for change. I hope and pray for change in this country (and the world) for the better.

1/20/09 History is going to be made...I can feel the change in the air already and I am embracing it

Love Story

So apparently all my friends are addicted to the Taylor Swift song "Love Story." Perhaps its the cynic in me that can't quite grasp the mass appeal. Now don't get me wrong I think she is one of the most talented new singers out there and I have loved her other songs -- it's just that "Love Story" feels so forced somehow. The "pop" version is a bit catchier with a stronger beat throughout the song and particularly at the ending, and its this version that seems to be getting the most air play near where I live.

The lyrics just didn't do it for me. Perhaps it doesn't help that while I still find the idea of Romeo and Juliet to be romantic its still very tragic. Two teenagers fall madly in love and are forbidden to see each other so they commit suicide. Call it the psychologist-in-training in me to find the story more tragic and less romantic. I feel that there are quite a few thirteen year olds who are in the throes of first love who wouldn't find the story completely applicable to their lives...enough said. But there is the element of forbidden love/star crossed lovers/destiny/soul mates that continues to draw people to this play.

I recently saw the video. Gorgeous costumes and makeup on Taylor Swift. The ending was a bit too Pride and Prejudice (the one with Keira Knightley) for my taste but the look to the video was very romantic and wistful.

So that's my take on Taylor Swift's "Love Song." That isn't to say I haven't already downloaded both the country and "pop" version of it and haven't listened to it on heavy rotation trying to figure out its appeal.

P.S. If you like "Love Song" you should definitely download "White Horse" off of her same album...while not quite as romantic and a little more realistic in my opinion (keeping in mind the singer is still a teenager) I find myself absolutely loving this song. And yes it was recently used in Grey's Anatomy

Joaquin Phoenix....

So apparently Joaquin Phoenix (star of Walk the Line) has not only decided to quite acting but to go into music...specifically rapping. Now I'm all for people branching out into their artistic fields and discovering new aspects of their creativity, but Joaquin as a rap artist just doesn't seem to go together. New pictures of Phoenix as a musician show him sporting quite the beard along with a slightly "fully figure." There are plenty of actors who attempted to go into music and crashed and burned horribly so I am all for rooting for this talented individual ---I just was not expecting the genre to be rap.

Additionally his brother-in-law Casey Affleck is going to documentary Phoenix's foray into the music world. So in case I miss his live performances or continue to doubt how serious he is about acting there will be DVD proof soon of his commitment. I give it a good year before I get to see him back on the big screen, but in the mean time it will be interesting to see what he has to offer the music world.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090116/film_nm/us_affleck;_ylt=AnnLzGxe.VvK8T98.Tr3u6ZxFb8C)

Stardust

I happened to pick up Neil Gaiman's Stardust at the library the other day and promptly proceeded to devour it within a few hours. The story is about an ordinary town called Wall that borders a magical world called Faerie. The worlds are separated by - what else - a wall. In the town of Wall a young man named Tristan Thorn attempts to win the heart of his true love by retrieving a fallen star. Unfortunately for Tristan this star has happened to fall on the other side of the wall. Unbeknown to Tristan he has birthright to cross over into this land (this is explained at the beginning of the novel) and he goes on a quest to search for the fallen star. Along the way he meets a host of interesting people (some alive and some dead) who are also out looking for the star. In true Gaiman fashion the story has a nice sense of humor along to the magical realm.

I quite enjoyed this novel, as it felt like fairy tale for adults. I am not quite sure if I would have enjoyed this book more if I hadn't already seen (and fallen in love with) the film adaptation. The film and the book diverge on several points in the plot. Additionally I felt the film flowed a bit better for my taste (or my lack of attention span). In particular ---tiny spoiler perhaps...you've been warned--- are the difference in the endings. While I felt the ending the movie was happy and romantic, the novel ending was a bit more realistic and quite sad. Either way I thoroughly enjoyed this book...quick read. But for those who don't I still highly recommend the movie, as I felt that were somewhat different in pace from each other.

Cartoons Rule!

Recently I have seen cartoons making their way into the world of makeup. I absolutely love that unlike previous tries at nostalgia and the beauty world - this makeup is gorgeous and translates into the adult world.

Too Faced

Too Faced came out with their So Smurfy Eye Shadow Collection channeling the Smurfette in all of us. Complete with blue and pink eye shadow -- I absolutely love it!

on10

on10's Disney Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Lip Balm Set completes my childhood fantasy of wanting to be a Disney princess. The set comes with nine different tins and each has an SPF of 15. Something to keep winter lips from getting chapped while still being insanely cute...count me in!

You can get both at Sephora (www.sephora.com)

Billy Mays Competition Part 2

I saw it coming when that Sham Wow commercial came on (see earlier post) and now Vince is back with yet another infomercial, this time for something called the Slap Chop. I say that Vince and Billy Mays should go head to head in some kind of infomercial challenge...now the question is, would anyone pay $9.95 for it? Perhaps if they threw in something else, like free shipping and handling...and maybe a sham wow.

Happy New Year!

Here's to wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2009!