Currently Obsessed: Crash Years by The New Pornographers

New albums coming out this fall:
08/31/2010: The Weepies - Be My Thrill
08/31/2010: Goo Goo Dolls - Something For The Rest Of Us
09/07/2010: Sara Bareilles - Kaleidoscope Heart
09/14/2010: Weezer - Hurley
10/12/2010: Joshua Radin - The Rock And The Tide
10/25/2010: Taylor Swift - Speak Now

Other albums coming this year:
Hellogoodbye - Would It Kill You?
Until June - www
My Chemical Romance
Jack's Mannequin
Colbie Caillat
Kelly Clarkson

Even more albums hopefully coming soon (2011 and after):
Erin McCarley
Lady GaGa
Coldplay
Jason Mraz
The Killers
Lenka
Mika

Currently Obsessed: King Of Anything by Sara Bareilles

I can't wait for her next album, Kaleidoscope Heart.

Hugh Laurie on Ellen

I love Ellen. And Hugh Laurie.

On Yahoo! News

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100825/od_yblog_upshot/would-be-purse-snatcher-thwarted-by-his-own-photobomb


NEVER MIND THE PURSE SNATCHER, SHE'S WEARING THE ANTHRO SKETCHED DANIOS DRESS BY WE LOVE VERA!! or something that looks mighty like it...

I think I may be taking this Anthro ID thing too far.

Victor Fleming

He directed two classic movies, The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind, both released in the same year (1939). What an overachiever.

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir

Amazing. I wish I was a part of this.

All Caught Up!

I'm all caught up with How I Met Your Mother, and now I can't wait for the season 6 premiere on September 20! A few notable things about the end of season 5:

Episode 21 - Twin Beds. Field Game Cardigan.



Episode 23 - The Wedding Bride. Blooming Lattice Cardigan.


I love Anthro IDs!!

Episode 24 - Doppelgangers. Finally, A Fine Frenzy on HIMYM! This is when Lily thinks she spots Barney's doppelganger. I knew I heard this great song before, but it somehow didn't stick with me before. No matter. It's in my rotation now.

How I Met Your Mother Songs

How I Met Your Mother has a pretty solid soundtrack. Observe:

Season 3, Episode 12 - No Tomorrow. This is when Ted goes back to a bar and finds the yellow umbrella.


Season 3, Episode 19 - Everything Must Go. This is when Lily is trying to sell her art on the streets.


Season 4, Episode 6 - Happily Ever After. This is after Ted imagines confronting Stella after his ex-wedding. Regina Spektor is, as always, a good choice.

Alternate version:


Season 2, Episode 9 - Slap Bet. How could a list of HIMYM songs not include this gem?


Then there's also Barney's Get Psyched Mix for New Year's Eve (Season 1, Episode 11 - The Limo): You Give Love a Bad Name by Bon Jovi, Don't Stop Believing by Journey, Jessie's Girl by Rick Springfield.

Legen - wait for it - DARY.

150 Movies in 4 Years

According to my records, I have watched exactly 150 movies since I started keeping track four years ago (September 2006). Most of these I watched lounging around at home, with or without my mom, but a few I saw in local movie theaters, and others I watched in class, or in my dorm, or traveling (I saw The Dark Knight in Ithaca, NY, Alice in Wonderland in LA, Scary Movie 4 on my friend's portable DVD player in Italy, and a few others on airplanes and buses). They are a mix of Golden-Age Hollywood movies, silent black-and-white films, animated movies, chick flicks, comedies, romantic comedies, Oscar winners, cult classics, children's movies, movies in French (but none in Spanish, oddly enough), and some other random ones thrown in. Note that there are almost no horror/thriller movies on the list. I don't do scary movies. I really really wish I could watch The Silence of the Lambs, Rear Window, and Psycho, but I'm too scared as of now. Maybe later. I also learned that I can't do action movies with complicated storylines like Snatch; I didn't really understand Ocean's Eleven until the middle of the movie (but that's probably because I wasn't paying enough attention in the first half). Multiple storylines I can handle, as long as they're somewhat related (Love Actually, Babel, Crash). I also don't tend to repeat movies; I think I only saw four movies twice during these four years (Breakfast at Tiffany's, Iron Man, Rent and Up). However, although I watched most of these movies for the first time in the past four years, some were repeats from before I started the list (Pirates of the Caribbean, a few of the Harry Potters). Some notable ones (and not-so-notable ones) are not even on this list because I didn't watch them in the last four years (Finding Nemo, Amadeus, The Phantom of the Opera, Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Inspector Gadget, Spy Kids).

I saw a lot of these movies because my mom checked them out from the library. She's not really a big movie buff, but she likes Dustin Hoffman and Audrey Hepburn. She also believes in Oscar Best Picture winners (when I was small, any book I was reading would automatically get bonus points if it had a Newbery Medal on it).

I actually did not finish Blade Runner due to a technical difficulties, but I put it on the list because I watched it 95% of the way through and I rather don't want to watch the end. But I think I left out a few movies during the first half year because I kept forgetting to write them down. I thought I watched the first two Shrek movies in the past 4 years...but maybe it was earlier. I also added The Magic Flute, which is an opera that I watched in video form.

I'm actually rather surprised I watched so many, because I'm not a huge movie fan (I prefer books), and sometimes I consider them as cultural homework (or actual homework, in the case of 2001: A Space Odyssey). I think it's because I have a short attention span and I forget things easily, and it's harder to go back and remind myself of something in a movie than it is in a book. Plus in a book you just have to read all the words, but in a movie you have to watch everything. Which also makes them more interesting, I suppose.

So (drummroll please), without further ado, here is the nearly-complete List of Movies I Watched in the Past Four Years, alphabetized:

(500) Days of Summer (2009)
10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
13 Going On 30 (2004)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
27 Dresses (2008)
50 First Dates (2004)
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
A Walk To Remember (2002)
Accepted (2006)
Aladdin (1992)
Alice in Wonderland (1951)
Alice in Wonderland (2010)
American Beauty (1999)
An American in Paris (1951)
Analyze This (1999)
Atonement (2007)
Avatar (2009)
Babel (2006)
Batman Begins (2005)
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)
Being There (1979)
Bend It Like Beckham (2002)
Blade Runner (1982)
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)
The Breakfast Club (1985)
Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001)
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004)
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Broken Arrow (1996)
Bruce Almighty (2003)
C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005)
Cars (2006)
Casablanca (1942)
Charade (1963)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Chicago (2002)
Chocolat (2000)
A Christmas Carol (1951)
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008)
Citizen Kane (1941)
City Lights (1931)
Clueless (1995)
The Corpse Bride (2005)
Crash (2004)
The Dark Knight (2008)
The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
Die Zauberflöte (2000)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Ella Enchanted (2004)
Emma (1996)
Enchanted (2007)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
The Family Stone (2005)
Fight Club (1999)
Finding Neverland (2004)
Forrest Gump (1994)
Funny Face (1957)
Funny Girl (1968)
The General (1926)
Girl, Interrupted (1999)
The Gold Rush (1925)
Gone With the Wind (1939)
The Graduate (1967)
Grease (1978)
Hairspray (2007)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Hercules (1997)
High School Musical (2006)
The Hot Chick (2002)
The Hours (2002)
Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)
The Hurt Locker (2008)
I ♥ Huckabees (2004)
I Love You, Man (2009)
Iron Man (2008)
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
Julie & Julia (2009)
The Jungle Book (1994)
Juno (2007)
The Kid (1921)
La Science des Rêves (The Science of Sleep) (2006)
Lady and the Tramp (1955)
Legally Blonde (2001)
Les Choristes (2004)
Liar Liar (1997)
The Lion King (1994)
The Lion King 1 ½ (2004)
The Little Mermaid (1989)
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Love Actually (2003)
Love in the Afternoon (1957)
Ma Vie en Rose (1997)
Mean Girls (2004)
Meet the Fockers (2004)
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
My Fair Lady (1964)
The Notebook (2004)
Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
Office Space (1999)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
The Parent Trap (1998)
Persuasion (2007)
Peter Pan (1953)
The Pianist (2002)
The Pink Panther (2006)
Pinocchio (1940)
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006)
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007)
Pride & Prejudice (2005)
Pride and Prejudice (1995)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
Ratatouille (2007)
Red Eye (2005)
Rent (2005)
Roman Holiday (1953)
Sabrina (1954)
Scary Movie 4 (2006)
Schindler’s List (1993)
Shakespeare in Love (1998)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
She’s the Man (2006)
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
Shrek the Third (2007)
The Simpsons Movie (2007)
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2002)
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (2008)
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Snatch (2000)
Star Trek (2009)
Superbad (2007)
Thank You for Smoking (2005)
To Sir, with Love (1967)
Tootsie (1982)
Toy Story 3 (2010)
Underworld (2003)
Up (2009)
WALL-E (2008)
Wedding Crashers (2005)
Yes Man (2008)

My favorite movies would probably have to be:
(500) Days of Summer
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Chicago
Chocolat
Finding Nemo (not on this list, but who cares)
The Hours
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Rent
Shawshank Redemption
The Science of Sleep
Tootsie
Up

I really need more Sam's Town in my life.

I discovered The Killers in early 2008, and it was their first album that got me hooked. Hot Fuss was one of my obsessions for a while, and I've listened to each song in that album somewhere between 12 and 102 times (not including the times I used my iPod). It's still a good album, which is saying something, because I usually tire of albums quickly. I listened to their other albums briefly, only identifying a few notable songs - "Human" and "Spaceman" from Day & Age, and "When We Were Young" and "Read My Mind" from Sam's Town. I just listened to Sam's Town again for the first time in months, in its entirety, and I actually really liked it. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Sawdust. Oy vey.