Filed under: Uncategorized
I am very fascinated by this man:
One Matthew Gray Gubler, the erstwhile Special Agent Dr. Spencer Reid on CBS's Criminal Minds; Hilarious Intern from The Life Aquatic
Why?
Well, I mean, there is the obvious: look at him.
He plays one of my favorite TV characters on one of the best enduring shows on network television (see caption). I find his doe eyes, scraggly hair, and the cane he sports both on the show and in real life (due to a knee-crushing incident) utterly compelling. I can’t really put my finger on exactly why besides the fact that as far as intellectual funnypants people go, he seems tops. (CALL ME, Matthew. We’ll go grab smoothies and talk about Wes Anderson).
I kid, I kid.
But seriously.
Also, check out his website:
Right? Is he not super-creative and very enjoyable?
Right.
And do tune in to Criminal Minds if you don’t already. It’s on CBS Wednesday at 9:00 EST. It’s a brainy, brawny, thrill ride of a show.
Filed under: Uncategorized
I have woefully neglected this blog for several months!
I hereby resolve to remedy the situation with numerous new posts. All two of you readers, fret not! I shall bombard you with content shortly!
Filed under: alyssa, movies | Tags: Marion Cotillard, musical, NINE, Rob Marshall, sexy
is 'OMG' inappropriate as a caption for this??
NINE.
Judi Dench, Marion Cotillard, Sophia Loren, Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, Penelope Cruz, Fergie (?), and Daniel Day Lewis. Directed by Rob Marshall. In a musical.
OH EM GEE.
I’ve known about this for awhile but it’s been so hush-hush lately, probably so that the forthcoming publicity blitz will be epic and uncontrolled, and with a CAST LIKE THIS they would really hardly even need to advertise.
Despite this bizarre Vogue cover wherein Nicole, Marion, Penelope, and Kate appear to be photoshopped in and weirdly posed, allegedly shot by Annie Leibovitz in Malibu, I AM SO EXCITED TO KNOW MORE. Here’s the trailer; see for yourself! Nine is based on the Broadway show 8 1/2 which in turn was based on the life of Frederico Fellini. So there promises to be lots of Italian hotness, singing, fishnet-slinging, lipstick-smearing, dancing, and knocking of boots. Which to me sounds a bit like if Moulin Rouge were set in the 20s and 30s with a little bit of Chicago thrown in, and is probably a stupid simplification, but hot damn.
I apologize for the grammatical atrocity that was that sentence.
Also, I have the biggest girl crush on Marion Cotillard. Actually I have raging crushes on most of the cast, except for Fergie–how in !@#$ did she get to be in this stellar cast? Maybe she kicks ass in the role, I haven’t any idea. Anyway: Ms. Cotillard. I have been mildly obsessed with her since A Good Year or whatever, which was decent, but my crush intensified with La Vie en Rose and Public Enemies. That talent! Those bluebell eyes! Silky dark hair! Pomegranate lips! That VOICE! What talent!
<3
Ahem. I apologize. Did I delve into a bit of hyperbole there with the whole lips thing? Yes. Yes. Forgive me, reader. But you see the picture to the left, correct? Okay. Well. See how hot and punk rock and still intrinsically French and chic and lovely she is? She is seriously nearly tied with Keira Knightley at the top of my Unabashed List of Girls I Love.
So. Nine comes out on Christmas Day. You can bet I will be at the opening.
Filed under: movies
…and I subsequently have an orgasm.
the new issue of Harper's Bazaar, featuring Tim's take on haute couture
I’m just saying.
Whoever had this idea at Harper’s is one smart, ghoulishly-chic, campy person after my own heart.
Click here to see the complete photo shoot, and make sure you don’t miss Tim himself appearing in a dead clown suit at the end.
You love me now, right?
I know, I know. Enjoy.
xx
- Another image from the shoot
Filed under: Uncategorized
The smoldering David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel
So, the suspense isn’t killing me anymore.
Now, it’s just freaking annoying.
BONES is one of the best shows on TV, so come ON, Fox, nobody watches this show for the cases or the procedural blah blah, even though that is far and away among the most original on any network. No, dear Fox Network, we all watch for the witty banter between the cast of quirky, beautiful people, and most of all for the achingly good sexual tension between Booth and Bones.
Enough of the tease, please. We promise we will still watch if they actually hook up.
The season 4 finale was quite good, acknowledged–but no more alternate/coma reality. We want the real thing.
Sincerely,
BONES fans.
Filed under: Uncategorized
so, this blog is rapidly becoming a MIKA blog. I am aware of the fact and the implications. And guess what? I don’t caaaaarreee.
I have the album, have had it for two days now, couldn’t tell you how many times I have listened to it because it’s been playing nonstop.
It’s brilliant. Can’t wait till Oct. 20! I will be at the Riviera Theatre in Chicago and so will he. So there.
Toy Boy: a clever, biting ditty. Enjoy.
Love Dan Brown or hate him, ther’s no denying his absurd amount of success. His latest offering, the third in the Robert Langdon series, is called The Lost Symbol, and its first printing (!!!!) was 5 million copies. Let me just start by saying most books are lucky to get a first printing of 5,000. Craaazy.
I happen not to be a great Dan Brown fan, but I can acknowledge his talent even if I find his writing irksome. Regardless, even the most devoted fan must admit that the plots are formulaic.
To that end, the folks at Slate have brought you this hilarious Dan Brown plot generator that “takes a city and a shadowy organization and spits out the plot of the next volume in the Robert Langdon chronicles.” It’s snarky, hilarious, and oh-so-fun for those of us who pretend to be literary elitists.
Enjoy.
PS One of my plots involved the US Postal Service and Chicago. Also, you can choose organizations like the Boy Scouts of America from the drop down menu. Hilarious!
Filed under: music
MIKA + paint = lovely
Anyone who knows me knows I love MIKA like no other current music act.
His new album The Boy Who Knew Too Much is released this coming Tuesday, September 22nd, and his tour kicks off soon thereafter.
I’m sorry, MIKA tour? HELLO. I plan on catching him on the Chicago leg October 20th, covered in glitter, wearing loud colors and possibly having lollipops braided into my hair. Why? Because that’s what you do at a MIKA show. Of course.
Check out his web site at www.mikasounds.com and various videos on youtube, if you don’t believe how awesome the sound is. Think everything you loved about the 80s, everything that brings a smile to your face, and every urge you’ve ever had to jump up and down in a glitter waterfall like the rock star you wish you were.
Yeah, it’s like that.
Also, here is the new official video for the single “We Are Golden”:
Oscar Wilde
I chattered a few posts back about my research into the gay “underworld” of the Victorian world, and I thought I’d delve into it a little more today. The discussion, that is, not the underworld. 
About six months ago I stumbled across a little book called Teleny, or the Reverse of the Medal–rather, I finally got my grubby little hands on it, being printed rather fickley by a small press as more of a curiosity than a standing work of literature. Having just actually gotten around to reading the thing (my pile of Wildean research material is both impressive and time-consuming, and included Neil McKenna’s brutally lovely The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde), I was stunned beyond belief that the book isn’t better known.
Michael Sheen as Robbe Ross in the 1997 film 'Wilde'
Whether or not Wilde is actually the author of the piece, which may arguably be considered the first gay erotic novel, is a matter of scrutiny. Most scholars agree that he at least contributed, or perhaps dictated a few passages, while some maintain that he wrote it exclusively for Leonard Smithers, the original publisher, under a condition of anonymity. Having read it, I find it hard to believe that he wrote it alone. His style is there, but in patches, epecially in the descriptions of places and people–the dialogue, however, does not all ring as his. I favor the theory that he contributed. Wouldn’t surprise me if Robbie Ross had a hand in it as well.
Anyway, I digress from my point! Expecting a rose-hued romantic story from my favorite wordsmith, I instead found myself immersed in a world of greedy obsession, fatal orgies, scathing melodrama, wanton Bacchanalia, and almost supernatural love. Camille des Grieux and Rene Teleny, the story’s lovers, are doomed from the get-go, but their story reveals a lot about how fin-du-siecle homosexuals viewed themselves.
Camille makes the declaration while narrating his story to an unnamed confidante that (paraphrasing) ‘The world expects us to, if we cannot be good and moral, to at least make a show of goodness and propriety.’
Later he also expresses that he did not believe he and Rene commit any crimes against nature, when nature had planted the seeds of his love in the first place.
I mean, besides the shocking pornographic content, it’s really a beautiful piece, even if its authorship is up for debate. This plus the aforementioned Secret Life of Oscar Wilde have pretty much rerouted the new drafting of my project Vespertine. So, thanks a lot, awesome research tools, now I have lots of new writing to do.
But I can’t help being a little excited.
Filed under: alyssa, movies | Tags: fall, fall movies, Fame, Imaginarium, movies
I love fall. A lot. The air is crisp, the sun is golden-red, the corn is tall and the air smells like burning leaves, the fashion is fantastic–and I can finally whip out my beloved sweaters, boots and jackets–and fall also brings the best movies of the year.
Now, I love a good summer film, but once the leaves start to turn I practically live on IMDB and the local cinema. What can I say? I love movies. This fall brings us new Soderbergh, The Informant; a perhaps redemptive Megan Fox flick, Jennifer’s Body, which promises to resurrect the 80’s horror/teen female empowerment genre which I admit I love; the obligatory Jennifer Aniston rom-com, Love Happens, which may or may not be awesome; the much-hyped and, in my opinion, unnecessary Fame remake, and what looks to be a breathtakingly wonderful Where the Wild Things Are. Of course Hilary Swank brings us the obligatory serious biopic of the year with Amelia, and we’ve got Clooney and McGregor to look forward to in The Men Who Stare at Goats. But the one flick I’m looking forward to more than anything else?
Heath Ledger in 'Imaginarium'
Yeah, it’s “that movie,” if by “that movie” you mean Heath Ledger’s last, and uncompleted, film. Luckily for cinephiles, Ledger fans, and Terry Gilliam, the movie was still completed with the help of Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell, who each played a different facet of Heath’s character.
I can’t even begin to try to explain this film. Watch the trailer, and keep your fingers crossed that we actually get to see it here in Middle America, as it may only be slated for a limited release.
Here’s the official synopsis:
“Dr. Parnassus has the extraordinary gift of inspiring the imaginations of others. Helped by his traveling theatre troupe, including his sarcastic and cynical sidekick Percy and versatile young player Anton, Parnassus offers audience members the chance to transcend mundane reality by passing through a magical mirror into a fantastic universe of limitless imagination. However, Parnassus’ magic comes at a price. For centuries he’s been gambling with the devil, Mr. Nick who is coming to collect his prize — Parnassus’ precious daughter, Valentina on her upcoming 16th birthday. Oblivious to her rapidly approaching fate, Valentina falls for Tony, a charming outsider with motives of his own. In order to save his daughter and redeem himself, Parnassus makes one final bet with Mr. Nick, which sends Tony and Valentina and the entire theatre troupe on a ride of twists and turns, in and out of London and the Imaginarium’s spectacular landscape”
And the trailer:
