Musings from a Black Woman: Inception

Joseph Gordon-Levitt was dreamy. Smiles!

(For deeper thoughts on Inception, look over here.)

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J G-L, Jiggle, Jose, Giuseppe

I'll call him whatever he wants me to call him. Just let me know.

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I was disappointed in SNL last week,

yet I am still singing, "What up with that?". Al Gore and Mindy Kaling were woefully underused in this sketch.

But Kenan was working it here, too:

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Who's excited about this Saturday night?

I am!

I hope Mr. Gordon-Levitt leaves me satisfied and smiling. From his jokes, people! It's a comedy show. At least that's what Lorne tells us.

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I would go to a movie with both of them.

Best YouTube comment, by star0shadows:

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, you are officially invited to the party in my pants.

~ ~ ~

Meaning, I would watch a movie in a theater with each of them sitting next to me. However, I think that Mr. Wood would be more interested in Mr. G-L than he would be in me. (Yes, I did watch the Season 3 premiere of Mad Men last night. Did you?) Or maybe not. I am adorable and charming, as you readers know. :)

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Manic Pixie Dream Girl

or, more on my discontent with Summer (see what I did there?).

For the titular reference, you can read Wild things: 16 films featuring Manic Pixie Dream Girls, by Amelie Gillette, Donna Bowman, et al, at the A.V. Club.

Onto the articles about the movie:

Indie Movies Can Be Sexist, Too, by Sarah Seltzer, RH RealityCheck.

Indie Dream Girls, by Doree Shafrir, The Daily Beast.

Manic Pixie Dream Girls, the Santa Claus of romantic comedies, by Amanda Marcotte, pandagon.net.

500 Days of He's Just Not That Into You, by Willa Paskin, Double X.

Previews: "500 Days of Summer" and "Paper Heart", by Alyx Vesey, Feminist Music Geek.

(500) Days of Summer, by Marc Webb, MovieMartyr.com.

From the comment section under information addict's post:

I am so sick of things written from a guy’s perspective that don’t acknolwedge that maybe the girl has her own desires, and they don’t include being with the guy, and that doesn’t make her a bitch or unfeeling or cold. It just makes her a person.

From the comment section under An Open Letter to Zooey Deschanel’s Male Admirers, by Pilgrim Soul, The Pursuit of Harpyness:

The idolizing of the quirky girl grates on me–Zoe and her ilk seem so intentionally precious and affected–but overall it fails to ignite my howling feminist rage the way the worship cute-but-dumb girls does (Jessica Simpson, Kendra, Paris, Daisy, LC, Heidi, etc).


If dudes pick Zoe and her ilk over the dumb blondes, well, that’s the lesser of the two evils, IMO. The real problem is that our media/film culture doesn’t offer them anything better or more realistic.

See. I'm not the only one involved in the hateration. Other people let that hate (or, constructive criticism) out, too, as we all should.

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Liked it?

I went to see 500 Days of Summer today, and I took notes during my experience. Here is a transcript:

I would like to see Whip It with Ellen Page and Eve!

Kristin Wiig is in two movies.

What American woman is average at 121 pounds?

It's convenient that Summer is so attractive to every man who sees her.

So Summer doesn't like you. And?

Does Summer have any aspirations? Tom doesn't care

This movie is written by men and for men who obsess over women without caring about what they want. It is all about them.

The men disparage women who deign not to be into them, unattainable women like Jordan Catalano.

I like the dance sequence! Bird!

Too much twee.

I've already seen these scenes in the commercials.

Tom wants to conquer new territory as Summer breaks down her walls.

Who needs labels, Tom? People in functional relationships, that's who.

Precocious kid.

French song and movie.

It's hard to write in the dark.

More hating on women and their clothes.

As if people have or use house phones.

Tom and Summer dress like they got their wardrobe out of Looking Indie for Dummies.

Self-consciously, self-referentially indie. And French.

Who does Tom think he is with those 1960s suits and those skinny ties? James Coburn in Charade?

I like the split screen.

With the bags full of Twinkies and orange juice, how can Tom process all that sugar?

Pickles!

What if that guy hadn't seen Summer reading Dorian Gray? Then another guy would have come along. Duh. This is the man-mesmerizing Summer we're talking about.

Autumn? Oy vey.

As the title of this post suggests, I liked the movie, yet I had fundamental problems with the writing, and thus with the characters. In particular, the character of Summer. I understand that the character of Tom was actually in love with love and with the idea of Summer, instead of being in love with the actual woman Summer. However, I never figured out who Summer was, and I don't think the writers bothered to figure out who she was either. Her existence in the movie was wholly defined by her past, present and future relationships. Besides the fact that she had three relationships before she connected with Tom, and one relationship after that, all I know about Summer is the following:

• She is of "average height" (5 feet, 5 inches) and "average weight" (121 pounds)
• She is from Michigan
• She likes The Smiths and Ringo Starr
• She bewitches every heterosexual male she passes and subsequently generates an economic stimulus wherever she goes (yeah, I don't know)
• She has never been in love

The entire movie, which had a white male director, and two white male writers, seemed to be based on the premise of obsessing over unattainable women. Women who, if they don't return unwanted advances by men inside or outside of the workplace, are bitches. For example, before Tom and Summer get together, Tom hears from his friend McKenzie that one of their male coworkers was hitting on Summer in the copy room. Summer declined the offer, so McKenzie calls her a bitch. As if Summer existed solely to satisfy the fantasies of her male coworkers, regardless of what she wants. Conveniently, we never discover what or who Summer wants, because the writers don't bother to tell or show us.

An equally poignant moment occurs during the opening frame, which was a black screen with the following statement in white letters:

Author's Note: The following is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

Especially you Jenny Beckman.

Bitch.

The movie was created by (white American heterosexual) men, for (white American heterosexual) men about (white American heterosexual) men and their misogynistic delusions about (white American) women. This is despite the fact that the movie has been marketed to pretty much everyone in the United States, and--based on my observations in the theater I was sitting in--whose audience will probably skew female. :|

After examining the evidence, I didn't like 500 Days of Summer as much as I wish I had. But the acting was all good!

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Still my #1 blog crush:

With my luck, Mr. Smooth is probably married with two kids. Because that's how I roll. :|

Don't worry, I still heart you, too, J G-L, aka, the only reason to watch this summer's G.I. Joe.

If only Mr. Samberg had a blog.

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I don't know how many times

I watched The Client when I was thirteen years old. I was just fascinated by the film's young debut star. I even watched the movie in French on a cruise ship. So while the following news isn't exactly a shock to me, it's still sad (via Defamer):

TMZ is reporting that Brad Renfro, star of Apt Pupil and The Client, passed away earlier today at his Los Angeles home at the age of 25. The cause of death is still unknown.

With the teen idols of my youth slowly dropping like flies, I must insist that someone inform me on the status of Joshua Jackson, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Josh Hartnett, anyone beginning with J. I'm pretty sure Mr. Gordon-Levitt is still alive and kicking. And Joey Lawrence is almost as dedicated to fame-whoring as Mr. Singing Bee is. So those three should be okay

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Falling in love all over again

T Style: Men's Fashion Fall 2007, from The New York Times Style Magazine. Thanks, anonymous!



If you all can stop swooning for a moment, there is also a related article: Kid Rock, by Lynn Hirschberg.

During college I started to miss acting. I started auditioning for movies. That’s how I got the part in “Mysterious Skin.”

In that movie, you play a gay hustler. It was a bold decision to take on that role. Were you nervous?

I find it very strange when people say, “How could you make that movie?” I never had any trepidation. When I read the script, I thought the director, Gregg Araki, would want me for another part, the sensitive boy. He said, “No — I want you to be sexy.” I had not heard that a lot. I was always cast as the friend or the nice guy. It’s really great when someone says, “I want you to be the sexy one.”

Yes, it is great. Although no one ever says that to me. :( I would say it to Mr. Gordon-Levitt all the time if I could. :)

It’s interesting that critics consider it riskier from a career standpoint to play a gay hustler than a soldier in an unpopular war, or a psychotic hit man, which you play in your next film, “Killshot.”

As an actor, you have to be open-minded. That’s one of the great aspects of the job. In the real world, people make judgments all the time. But as an actor, you can’t judge. I would rather play someone who is different from me. You can’t be a bigot and be a great actor.

Look at Mr. G-L making sense.

Has Joseph Gordon-Levitt gotten arrested yet?

No More Mr. Nice Guy: LaBeouf Busted For Drunken Walgreens Loitering, and more on the story from The Smoking Gun, via Defamer

Shia LaBeouf, who starred in "Disturbia" and "Transformers," and stars in the upcoming Indiana Jones sequel, was arrested about 2:25 a.m. at the [Walgreens] store at 757 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago police spokesman Marcel Bright said.

A security guard summoned police after LaBeouf refused several commands to leave the store, Bright said.

The guard signed a complaint against the actor, who was cited on a misdemeanor count of trespassing.

Are you still loving The Beef, ladies?

Best Quote of the Day

"This kid has nothing on Joseph Gordon Levitt."

This Best Week Ever hilarity was found via Stephanie and her Soap Box.

Another Joseph Gordon-Levitt post?

That's correct. Today I went to Mr. G-L's website, HITRECORD.org, and I found the above video. What happened to the hair? I liked the hair. Now he's looking like Heath Ledger. Spooky. I wonder if he has a baby, too, like Heath does. He could have a baby and not know about it. Like in that movie. You know the one.

Watching the video reminded me of the time when a couple of my friends showed me this video: Kristen Bell and Chris Lowell Candid Interview.



They found it fascinating and hilarious. I didn't think it was that funny, because I don't watch Veronica Mars. Similarly, people who aren't into Joseph Gordon-Levitt are probably like, "Who's that weird looking dude in the cape?"

Moving on, here's a clip from my new favorite comedy series, The Big Gay Sketch Show, which I discovered while perusing my ON DEMAND cable:

Teenybopper a-go-go

It started on Tuesday night when the second-to-last episode ever of Gilmore Girls being pre-empted by the Griffith Park fire. Here is the email I wrote to one of my fellow Gilmore Girls fans right after the "Breaking News" interrupted Lorelai's yammering:

Is it bad that I screamed out loud when KTLA preempted
Gilmore Girls with the Griffith Park brush fire? No, I
think it's even worse that I want them to get back to
the show. Especially since it's THE SECOND TO LAST ONE
EVER.

How about they put a crawl underneath the show saying,
"If you live near Griffith Park, get out now." That
would be more effective, considering they don't have
any crawl right now. It's just incendiary (so
inappropriate) shots of the fire.

Now I'm getting mad for a whole other reason. There is
no actual useful information on the screen. It
literally says, "Brush Fire" on the lower right on
screen. Because I couldn't tell from the giant flames
and smoke encompassing the screen. Why don't they tell
people what to do? Stop speculating about the
nonexistent winds and the other weather you still
don't know about, KTLA news guy whose name I forgot.
Tell people if they should leave and where they should
go. And tell people if they should avoid work in the
area tomorrow.

Now there is a shot of a guy recording this on his
cell phone. Good job, KTLA. Now I know where not to go
for news I can use.

Ooh, I feel a post coming on.

And the post did come on, albeit four days later. And apparently, I wasn't the only angry TV viewer that night. My friend then left the following comment on my MySpace page:

KTLA is stupid! People are really irate on their website in the GG comment area, it is a little scary! It is like a riot online.

She wasn't the only one. The next day Defamer reported on the story. In Gilmore Girls Vs. The Wildfire, the Hollywood gossip blog expressed its deepest, snarkiest sympathy for those who missed out on the departing program. They also included some choice selections from the KTLA Gilmore Girls message board. My favorite was

you know, i cannot believe they are doing this to us.and this ghetto station doesn't even show the episodes online like abc and nbc
Submitted by: very upset

because I didn't even think of that. The CW is supposed to be so cool and hip with their Mark McGrath and their Pussycat Dolls, and it doesn't have its shows online. But the station that caters to the retirement home crowd does. How's that for irony?

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Number two: Reza Aslan. So dreamy. He was supposed to be on The Colbert Report on Tuesday, but it was postponed till July. So he was The Daily Show on Thursday. I had to drop my Daily Show ban for one night. :( I fast-forwarded through the John Oliver "I'm British" crap and got to the interview, which you can watch at the Comedy Central website. Speaking of behind-the-times internet destinations. Could there videos be any choppier?

After pausing, rewinding and playing the tape numerous times, I went to the MySpace page for Reza Aslan's Intellectual Groupies, and left this comment:

Oh my gosh, he was so cute last night on The Daily Show. I loved when he said, "Nobody talks to the administration. It's a closed bubble." And then he moved his hands in a bubble formation. He was looking at Jon, but it felt like he was talking to me.

Supposedly Mr. Aslan is getting married. That's disappointing. Because I'm sure his upcoming nuptials are the only thing that is preventing me from dating him. Not the fact that I don't know him. Or that I've never met him. Or that I wouldn't convert to Islam for him, completely ignoring his passion for his religion, even though he compiled a history of Islam, and has pushed the book on us for two years. No, his marriage is what is stopping us from being together. At least he probably won't get lanced in the future. Which brings me to number three...

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I was in Borders today, perusing the latest issue of Ms. Magazine like a good feminist on a budget. Then the shiny black cover of anthem magazine caught my eye with the headline, "Joseph Gordon-Levitt Goes to Iraq, Kisses Men, and Robs a Bank." Ms. went back on the shelf as I got my paws on anthem. You can read part of the interview here and look at a couple poses from the photo shoot, too.

I liked his take on the questions asked about his sexuality:

"This is kind of embarrassing, but I recently put my name into a search engine and someone posted, is Joseph Gordon-Levitt gay? and the answer posted was: Is he an alien? because I played [one on 3rd Rock]. Right now I'm in Toronto playing a psychopathic murderer. And recently I played someone who was in the U.S. army in Iraq. So it's like, what's harder? Kissing a dude or killing people? I would hope that I can feel at least a bit of the horror of what it must be like, when I was playing a soldier, how hard it must be, the hell they go through. So, kissing Topher Grace is like, whatever."

But right before that excerpt in the print version, Mr. G-L talks about creating a website for soldiers in Iraq where they can post their own videos about their experience. Mr. G-L has gotten tired of the "news" people sitting in a studio talking about what is supposedly going on over there, instead of simply asking the people on the ground. A celebrity actually doing something constructive about changing our society, instead of demanding that we do something silly like buy a yellow bumper sticker or use one sheet of toilet paper to wipe? Amazing. Watch your back, Clooney.

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Who else loved The Office on Thursday? It was all about the Pam speech. My favorite part? "Pam, that was amazing. But I'm still looking for someone with a sales background." Oh Michael.

Is Oscar really going to "try girls for a while"? If done right, that would be a funny episode.

The End of April

What an entertaining week.

First, my personal business. I am no longer watching The Daily Show. (Yet I am still watching Entourage. Go figure.) No, it was not the John McCain "IED under the desk" interview earlier this week. Nor was it the "look at Senator Harry Reid squeezing Speaker Nancy Pelosi's breasts" PhotoShopped clip that Jon thought was hilarious. It was the Baghdad wall segment on Wednesday, where the show used Aasif Mandvi to assert that if you leave large slab of cement exposed long enough, it will get tagged by Latino heritage graffiti. What a crock.

I am so done with Jon Stewart's hypocrisy, his lecturing others about their intolerance, injustice and discrimination, while he seems unable to hire or invite anyone as a guest on the show who isn't a white male. And if he does encounter someone female or nonwhite--but never both--he goes out of his way to announce how hot they are, or only talk to them about racial issues. Or in the case of Mr. Mandvi, get one brown guy to tell the jokes about the other brown guys. Like Alberto Gonzales.

In happier news, I have found Designing Women again. It's back on Nick at Nite, every other day maybe, at 5:00 am. The other days Murphy Brown is on at 5:00 am. Apparently Nick at Nite has made a pact with Bill Cosby, Will Smith and the rest of the Black Crusaders, along with Roseanne, to play their hit shows ad nauseum. Now I love Fresh Prince as much as the next American. Although I do prefer the episodes before they got rid of Janet Hubert-Whitten. But must it be on all night every night?

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Onto the articles I found this week.

For the love of Stars Hollow, will someone please cancel 'Gilmore Girls'? by Maureen Ryan, Chicago Tribune. Hear hear! There there! The last episode, "It's Just Like Riding a Bike," was so hetero. Must everything in every character's life revolve around hooking up with a member of the opposite sex? Yes, Seasons 2 and 3 were rooted in the Rory-Dean-Jess love triangle. But there was so much more going on.

Now I actually have to sit and watch Sookie accept that her husband deceitfully impregnated her, and forgive him for it just because he wants her to. Um, no, David Rosenthal. In the real world, if Sookie didn't want to have another baby, she would have explored all of her options. Lane would have, too. Even in Stars Hollow, sex has consequences. And not everyone is ready for a baby. Or two. Or three. If your husband lies to you about getting a vasectomy, and you know that at one point in time he wanted "four in four" i.e. four kids in four years, and you are now pregnant with his unplanned child, you have a right to be angry at him, for as long as you want. If Jackson can't deal with that, he can leave. It's not like he is giving birth to this baby.

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Paparazzi on Camera, by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, on CollegeHumor, via Pajiba.


Even those Mr. G-L is not on camera, I still squee when I hear his voice. He's so cute! I hope he isn't a racist puppy-kicker. He probably smokes, though. Boo.

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U.S. gender pay gap emerges early, study finds, by Ellen Wulfhorst, Reuters.

A dramatic pay gap emerges between women and men in America the year after they graduate from college and widens over the ensuing decade, according to research released on Monday.

One year out of college, women working full time earn 80 percent of what men earn, according to the study by the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation, based in Washington D.C.

Ten years later, women earn 69 percent as much as men earn, it said.

Even as the study accounted for such factors as the number of hours worked, occupations or parenthood, the gap persisted, researchers said.

"If a woman and a man make the same choices, will they receive the same pay?" the study asked. "The answer is no.

Well then.

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Oregon Governor Starts Week on Food Stamps, by Julia Silverman, ABC News, via Yahoo! News.

Accompanied by reporters and food stamp recipient Christina Sigman-Davenport, Kulongoski headed straight for a display of organic bananas, only to have Sigman-Davenport steer him toward the cheaper non-organic variety.

The governor pined wistfully for canned Progresso soups, but at $1.53 apiece, they would have blown the [$21 budget]. He settled instead for three packages of Cup O'Noodles for 33 cents apiece. Kulongoski also gave up his usual Adams natural, no-stir peanut butter for a generic store brand, but drew the line at saving money by buying peanut butter and jelly in the same jar.

"I don't much like the looks of that," said Kulongoski, 66, staring at the concoction.

I don't like the looks of that either. Ew. But I wouldn't pass up some food stamps. There are times I'd like some meat and potatoes. Vegetables, too.

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on the record, by pigeon, at Taking Steps, via one of the newest Sites I Like, Feministe.

...i didn’t expect the duke case to shake me so much. i feel like i hear about, talk about, read about, think about rape every day. i like to think i’ve built up some callous at this point, a tough, thick covering to take the edge off...

...now you hear the news, following “three boys innocent” with “she was never raped” and liar and whore. and no one seems to notice that the accused men’s innocence has nothing to do with whether or not she was raped, only that they didn’t do it. she called 911 for a reason, she went to the hospital afterwards, the examination supported her claims of sexual assault. we have no reason to think those results were wrong, no new information to contest it. perhaps she picked the wrong guys from the line-up, but that has little to do with what actually happened to her...

I could quote, quote, quote, but y'all should read the whole thing for yourselves.

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Recycling While Brown, by amardeep, Sepia Mutiny.

The Indian-American poet Kazim Ali teaches at Shippensburg University, which is a little west of Harrisburg, PA (and not too far from where I myself teach).

On his website, he recently described how his “suspicious” behavior led to his entire campus being shut down. The behavior in question? Recycling. He was doing nothing other than dropping off a stack of printouts of poems to be recycled when someone from the campus ROTC called the police...

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Lastly, in Hollywood news that's too vapid for the room, both from the LA Times, via Defamer:

Power plays -- for a food court table, by Nicole LaPorte.

Century City is under attack. In a "300"-like assault, two silk-shirted waves of flashy Hollywood agents have infiltrated the Westside's most famous — and famously nondescript — office-park neighborhood, hitherto best known for a mall (the Westfield) and a hotel (the Century Plaza).

The invaders consist of two rival armies. The Creative Artists Agency minions were the first to land, having moved into their gargantuan new headquarters at 2000 Avenue of the Stars in January. Then, on Feb. 20, International Creative Management staked its claim to the territory, moving into three floors of the MGM Tower...

...But that's small change compared with the tactical maneuvers required for eating lunch. Imagine, if you will, Armani-uniformed agents standing in line with soccer moms at the Westfield mall's food court or balancing plastic trays loaded up with beer-battered chicken or Fuddruckers fries. "With all the suits and sunglasses, it feels like "The Matrix: The Food Court," joked manager-producer J.C. Spink ("A History of Violence").

And with such brazenly public dining come perils. "You can't really talk business because you've got CAA right there. And they've got us," said an ICM agent, who spoke on condition of anonymity (silence is the agency policy when dealing with the press). "I've heard people at CAA having their conversations — you can hear everything."

And,

Revenge of the Hollywood desk slaves, by Nick Confalone.

FOR FOUR weeks in April of 2006, I was an Internet celebrity. In one industry, in one city, I was a star. The blogs went crazy. Defamer was all over me. National Public Radio wanted an interview — but I turned them down. My site got more than a million hits in 24 hours.

It all started one morning the previous December, the same week the Hollywood Reporter listed the 100 most powerful women in Hollywood — the trade's equivalent of a swimsuit issue...

...Over the phone that morning, I gossiped about the list of 100 Powerful Women, women I'd never seen before. I didn't need to see them. The list said that looks don't matter, only power.

But because we have little or no actual power, the opposite must be true for assistants. If an agent gets a new assistant, the first thing my boss always wants to know is, "Is she hot?" I looked around our office and saw not a single unattractive assistant, and that's when it hit me: Don't the assistants deserve a list too?

I pulled out my credit card, registered a domain name, and Hottest Hollywood Assistants.com was born.

Happy reading!

Ooh, one more video. Sen. Mike Gravel at SC Debates 04/26/07, via YouTube. He's telling like it t-i-s.



Put your hand down, Joe Biden. When Senator Gravel said "top tier," he did not mean you.

This Thing is No Longer in Diapers

Friday's Cheers and Jeers from Daily Kos:

Democratic leaders in the House juggle hearings:

Let's see... I'll need room number two tomorrow for the Prosecutor scandal testimony.

Can't. Walter Reed scandal's in two. You'll have to use room number three.

But three's being used for the FBI illegal spying investigation. What about room one?

No good. That's for the Katrina hearings. Oh wait, never mind, that's Lieberman's committee...nothing scheduled there. You can have room one.

Hold up there, pard'ner. I reserved room one for the Valerie Plame scandal. Use room four.

Nah, four's taken. Investigation into bogus reasons for going to war.

Five? Nope. Torture scandal's in five.

Six? No can do. War profiteering scandal.

Seven? Nope. Subprime lending scandal.

Eight? Sorry. Abramoff scandal.

Nine? Booked. GSA scandal.

Ten? Nope. Boehner ethics scandal.

Boehner? Really?

Shook down a Girl Scout. Made off with 43 bucks and a case of thin mints.

How about room eleven?

That's the men's room. But it's wide open.

Fine. I'll take it.

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In other news, I am done with October Road. I couldn't get through the second episode. I love you, Bryan Greenberg (and you, too, Mr. Minkus), but Bryan, you do not have enough acting talent to carry a series, especially one this poorly written.

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Open memo to Joseph Gordon-Levitt:

Please do a movie that makes me laugh. 10 Things is one of my faves, but I've already seen it at least 20 times. This depressing Lookout, Shadowboxer, Brick indie oeuvre isn't doing it for me. I don't care what those Sundance people are telling you; bring back the funny. Don't make me have to get my fix from buying Seasons 2-6 of 3rd Rock.

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Finally, Daily Show, you are on notice. Mr. Stewart, hire some new writers and some funny correspondents I can relate to (John Hodgman, Larry Wilmore, and Rob Riggle: don't worry, you're all safe), because your show is this close to SNL country.