"Oh, darling, I've been so miserable."

I was initially going to start this off with how my holidays were, but they were nothing short of mediocre so I'm not going to anymore.  To sum my vacation up, my parents and I (because my younger pre-teen sister doesn't like to leave her room) watched Bridesmaids. And that's it... Okay, moving on...

I really blog too much about Kate Winslet. And I apologize for it, but I'm not really sorry. Anywho, I pre-ordered HBO's Mildred Pierce DVD set probably about three or four months ago and it arrived at the beginning of the month. It stars Kate as Mildred Pierce, Guy Pearce as Monty Berragon and Evan Rachel Wood as Veda Pierce. I'm contemplating how I'm going to write about this without giving everything away... Okay, let me just say that the 344 minutes that I spent watching all five parts was probably the most intense 344 minutes I have ever spent watching anything in my entire life. And by the end of it all, I was a puddle of conflicting emotions and completely drained of whatever I had left in me. It's just such a tragic story of this mother-daughter relationship. I went to bed that night wondering how in the hell can someone betray someone who has loved them so unconditionally their entire life and has done everything for them? Are people really that insanely selfish? Do people like this actually exist?








I'm in love with my Honors American Literature class. Well, not my actual class in terms of the people in my class - because all of them (besides probably three people - including myself) seem entirely disinterested and it makes me wonder why the hell they take the class in the first place if they don't give a shit about it. I love the actual curriculum and the literature we've been reading for the past few months. We're in the 20's era of American literature - the lost generation and I am in love with it. We read The Great Gatsby last month which I've become so attached to. Also, also, also, also - I am ridiculously excited for the movie version of The Great Gatsby that comes out Christmas 2012. Leonardo DiCaprio is Gatsby, Toby Maguire is Nick, and Carey Mulligan as Daisy - what a dream team. Back to the literature aspect of this, we're in the middle of The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway and ugh, it's so great. I also love the drastic difference (but equal quality) of Hemingway and Fitzgerald's style of writing. I found The Great Gatsby to be so beautifully descriptive. However, it wasn't superfluous in the least. Where as The Sun Also Rises is very straight forwardly written, not to say that it isn't descriptive or doesn't provoke any imagery - but I find it to be very honest. I love Hemingway's vagueness and ambiguity about some matters - such as Jake's wound and whether or not it's an emotional or physical wound. It's one of those details that are critical to the story but is still left up for the interpretation of the reader.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan as Gatsby and Daisy in the 2012 release of The Great Gatsby.

Ernest Hemingway and friends in Spain, 1925. 



I feel like what has also fueled this budding passion of mine for the 1920's might have been the fact that I went to see The Artist with a friend over the holidays. It's a silent film that takes place in 1927 and further on. I went into the theatre not knowing what to expect. To be honest, I felt that there would be the possibility of me falling asleep at some point. But I was so pleasantly surprised! I actually got really into it and by the end I was wishing that this was how movies were still made.

Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo.


Oh hey back to Kate Winslet hey. I'm in the middle of reading The Reader and holy shit. I'm not even the type to go out of my way in my free time to read, but literally the first day I started reading this book, I got through 80 pages by noon. Go and read the book and watch the movie forever. I've actually been highlighting and making post-its in the story while I read and I'm just coming across so many incredible quotes so here you go:


In describing Hanna:


"It was more as if she had withdrawn into her own body, and left it to itself and its own quiet rhythms, unbothered by any input from her mind, oblivious to the outside world...she was slow-flowing, graceful, seductive -- a seductiveness that had nothing to do with breasts and hips and legs, but was an invitation to forget the world in the recesses of the body." 


"But when we had held each other for a while, when I had smelled her smell and felt her warmth and her strength, everything fell into place."




"...and she taught me not to do it bashfully, but with assurance and possessive thoroughness." 


"Hanna had been behaving oddly for days, moody and peremptory, and at the same time palpably under some kind of pressure that was absolutely tormenting her and left her acutely sensitive and vulnerable...I felt rejected, but I also felt her helplessness." 


Hanna says to Michael, "...You think it looks like you upset me? You don't have the power to upset me." (in the movie Kate Winslet also says "You don't matter enough to upset me." = dead Maya)

Michael -


"Why does what was beautiful suddenly shatter in hindsight because it concealed dark truths? ... Sometimes the memory of happiness cannot stay true because it ended unhappily."


"I felt at ease in my own body."




"But I felt rejected, exiled from the real world in which people lived and worked and loved."




I went into Sephora the other day with the objective to buy a Lancôme foundation. I was getting tired of how mask-y my MAC ProLongwear had been feeling as of late and my usual NC25 has become too light for my skin. I've also recently read that French makeup brands have a more accurate variety of skin tones. So I figured I would try and swap my MAC for Lancôme. I get to Sephora and start testing a bunch of shades on my hand and my face. Then an employee approaches me and asks if I need any help, I just tell her that I don't really need help, and that I'm just looking for the right shade. "What are your problem areas?" she asks me. I tell her that I'm not really sure, acne probably (I mean, what the hell else do people buy foundation for besides to conceal acne and dark spots/discoloration??). She tells me that I should really be looking at Clinique's Acne Solutions foundation because it's supposed to help with acne. "Oh! So, it has salicylic acid?" I asked her and she just stared at me for a bit until I said "...to help clear up the acne." She then nods her had and goes "Oh yes, yes, yes." I reluctantly went to the Clinque counter incredibly disappointed because I didn't want Clinique, I wanted Lancôme (#whitegirlproblems). She then gets another employee who, poor thing, didn't know very much English, to help me find my right skin tone. We find the right skin tone and she goes to the back to find if they had any extras as they had run out in front. Turns out they didn't have any left but she gave me a sample to take home and told me to come the next morning when they should have more in stock. Ugh, I didn't want to leave at all because I had this awful feeling of coming into the store with a purpose and knowing exactly what I wanted and then having to leave without it. I ended up saying "fuck it" and I bought the Lancôme foundation anyway because it's my money and I can buy whatever the hell I want with it. It's an incredible foundation, by the way. So super smooth and light and non-greasy, and it matches my skin tone perfectly, my awkward milky-yellow skin tone... I guess my point of writing this was because I was kind of pissed at the woman who was trying to help me. She just kept interrupting me and wouldn't actually let me explain to her what I was looking for. She just had this awful attitude that she knew more about makeup (which is bullshit because she didn't even know what salicylic acid does!) and that I should buy whatever she told me to. She was more pushy than helpful. But it's okay now because I have my makeup :).

I'm going to write about my love of Lana Del Rey again because qurlfran is blowin' up my Tumblr dash. I love it though! I think she's incredibly talented, her voice is so unique - it kind of reminds me of T-boz of TLC. Anywho, her new song "Born to Die" is incredible - I can listen to it forever. And someone has mashed up Lana's "Video Games" with Lady Gaga's "Yoü & I" which didn't really appeal to me initially but holy shit this song gives me chills for some reason. So. Good.








Friday night I went to go see The Iron Lady with a friend. I saw the preview for it when I went to see The Artist. I don't even know where to begin, you guys. Meryl Streep is just the most magnificent woman, I swear. It was incredible, of course her accent was perfect but her entire embodiment of Margaret Thatcher was beyond anything I had ever seen. Down to her walk and the way she looked around the room, she was Margaret Thatcher. Everything about this movie was fantastic, one of the best, if not, the best film I had watched all year. The way it was directed and filmed was perfect, the cast was perfect, Meryl Streep was perfect. Everything about this film was absolutely perfect. The goddamn font for the credits was perfect, you guys. The way her story is told is very unique, I really enjoyed it. It was the kind of movie where I would get these waves of emotion throughout the film but it was never enough to make me cry...until the end, that is, and I couldn't hold back anymore and let loose one of the ugliest cries I ever had. I can't recommend it enough. If Meryl Streep doesn't get nominated at the very least for an Oscar for Best Actress, or win for that matter, then I've lost faith in the film industry forever.





I'm basically just really happy that Meryl Streep and Kate Winslet exist.

UPDATE: baby qurls won at the Golden Globes <#3333333435345645676575  hoooorayyyyy!!!



4 comments:

  1. love maryl streep, she's a very good and "versatile" actress!

    http://rueoh.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. lovely post...these women are simply seductive...thanks for sharing...
    thank you for your lovely comment dear...your blog is amazing...i'm following...hope you keep in touch too!!!

    a kiss from the
    cocobloggers

    ReplyDelete
  3. I can't wait to watch all three of these!

    http://styleservings.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete