Delusions of Grandeur

Oh journal, I have neglected you horribly these days havent I? D:

Well anyway so what have I been up to? Not much exactly. But alot of crazy things have happened, well for me they are big things lol.

Thing #1. ( blah blah real life stuff... )

Thing#2. Speaking of ties. How about that World Cup huh? I love the world cup, I dont usually either find the time, patience or channels to watch soccer/football usually but I always enjoy watching the cup. But man the first few matches of the WC were hella underwhelming this year! That said, the competition really seems to be heating up now, and I cant believe I still got a horse in this race myself. and By that i mean, USA! I am so amazed at that come back they pulled in their match with slovenia, and I was so writing them off and thinking "this is why no one in USA watching soccer cause our team sucks!" and then they do THAT! and THAT! and I am like "GOOOOOOAAL!" like those crazy latin announcers on Univision lol. My mouth dropped and I wanted to scream after that ref disallowed the third goal though! WHAAAAT >( That said, I really wish ESPN would SHUT UP about it. Like seriously, they are not revealing any new info aand just keep analyzing it to death and saying the same shit over and over and gah -_-
Otherwise I've been enjoying ESPN's coverage so far, and the mix of commentaters from different european countries helps alot, since they contribute alot to the analysis and other things. and Plus, one of the UK commentaters has a sexy northern accent <3
Anyway other times I am rooting for and hope to see succeed in this WC: Argentina, Mexico, Brazil (cause I always do root for them but honestly they havent been doing their best so far), Ghana, and Germany since I was fairly impressed by their first game, although that second one, whoo boy D:. This really seems like a cup where teams that usually didnt go very far will do well. I hope it is, with the alot of the big favorite (mainly european) teams doing poorly or mediocre so far, it makes me feel like teams like Mexico, USA and Ghana (who fucked up their last game, COME ON GHANA GET IT TOGETHER!) have a chance of going the distance, if not winning the cup altogether (which lets be honest, is highly unlikely, but girl can dream!).

Thing#3. I saw Toy Story 3! It was AMAZING as far as I am concerned. It's too early for me to tell if I love it the most out of the franchise but I think it was definitely the most exciting one of all. Not to mention the most visually stunning and beautiful. I loved the theme of friendship that was constant throughout and also the themes of growing up, letting go and moving on. As someone who has struggled in the past with these very things, it resonated strongly with me. The best part though of the film was the middle section which was a hilarious excellent parody of and homage to prison breakout films. Well played Pixar writers, well played. I am sorry I ever doubted that this film would be awesome! I confess though, I am still hella skeptical about Cars 2, even though the premise does sound kind of awesome (apparently lightning mcqueen goes around the world, I love around the world stories! :D) I am also even more annoyed that I wont see any pixar original films until 2012. So Cars 2 better be freaking amazing! >(

Also as is customary pixar played an original short film before the actual film. I must say I dont think I liked this one as well as Presto 2 years ago (which they played before WALL-E) or Partly Cloudy which they played before UP last year. That said, I still liked it! and The animation was stunning, and a very creative and unique visual style was used for this particular short that impressed me even if the story itself didnt (but it was cute nonetheless).

That's pretty much been my summer so far. I mean aside from doing a bit of writing, but I'll be honest, the process is pretty slow going so far. D:
In other news though, today is my birthday! I am 22 now. Yay! Hopefully today I will get a cake from a nice bakery (instead of the grocery store bakery which is always kind of...blah) Mmmm cake. (and I just realized Leverage S3 premieres tonight! BEST BDAY GIFT EVER <33)

Taking a break from my soul eating english research essay (and my God could my professor be any MORE of a bitch? Why is it that I always end up with the really bitchy mean english profs? Its no wonder I failed my first english requisite course 2 fucking times) to do an lj post. Wee!

Psych 406 - GREAT episode. Definitely the best so far this season and will go down as one of my series favorites. All the eps except the first two this season have been winners for me but I think this one managed to make me laugh louder and harder than any of the others so far. I just enjoyed it SO much. and I loved the bollywood dancing, theme song and throwbacks. I loved that we got to see more abigail, because while I wasnt totally sold on her at first it's nice to see shawn making her more of a part of his life. Her presence also allowed for alot of added humor, which is really the best way to put her into the show. in a way that she contributes rather than detracts from the awesome. The bit at the begininng with shawn thinking raj was a psycho killer had me cracking up so badly. and the bit with lassiter trying to one up shawn was super fun. and all the continuity! callbacks to the S2 finale, and the return of boneless shawn! The dinner scene was really the crowning glory of the whole episode though, the "I see dead people" was ten times funnier in context than it had been in the previews. Was surprised by the killer, i totally thought it would be the mom! basically I loved this one so much. It's definitely getting a rewatch!

Gossip Girl 301 - very meh episode. not much to comment on. I mean everyone is as beautiful as ever if not more so. not crazy about vanessa's hair atm though. I am interested to see how things devolop now I think they have set up some interesting plot lines. Well except for serena's plotline which is really uninspired and frail and made me wonder if the writers even really tried at all. chuck/blair at the end was cute but i feel like I should have cared more than I did. I dunno chuck being so openly sweet is a little weird. I need to adjust. Next week looks better though. Georgina returns!

Glee 01-03 - I recently started watching this show a week ago and I am enjoying it so much! This and Psych are the two shows that just fill me with pure joy everytime I watch them. I love the music aspect of Glee and I say this as someone who hates musicals normally, never cared for broadway productions, and never saw an episode of highschool musical in her life. Yet somehow I just love this show. It's quirky, it's hopeful, it''s funny, it's fresh, it's got GREAT musical numbers and most of all it has a really lovable cast of characters and some hilarious dialogue. I think 103 was the funniest episode so far. Sandy with his stalkerish love of Josh Groban and Keisha (her name is probably not keisha but she is the spitting image of my former classmate keisha) falling in love with the flamingly gay Kurt was especially hilarious.
Seriously this kid is so bright and shiny it's blinding, how anyone could not immediately realize he is gay just amuses me beyond words. While not!Keisha was dense, I felt with Kurt still having trouble saying he is gay even when it's so apparent. Admitting it is still hard even when your not really stealth about it. I remember in my english class from 2-3 years ago. ( thus begins the tangent )

Anyway this is just my way of saying that Kurt's feelings were a nice mirror to real life. It's nice to know between all the crazy dance numbers that these are really human characters. Also props to the glee casting people for such a diverse cast. It's one of the most diverse on tv I think. Cant wait for ep 4!

Life S1: I heard alot of things about this show, by the time I considered watching it, it had been cancelled which is usually the point where I go FORGET IT because the last thing I want is an inconclusive ending. So I put it off for a while. I eventually stumbled unto an article that talked about the finale and it seemed like most of the bigger loose ends would be tied up. So since I was running low on tv to watch, I decided “oh hell why not”?

I am so so glad I checked this out because it is really good! It’s compelling, emotional, raw and just this is so much better than 98% of television right now I cannot believe this was cancelled. That is just heartbreaking to know, because this is an amazing powerful story and it has so much more depth to me than most crime dramas on tv( Life is what they gave him, and Life is what he got back )

On paper it sounds like any other crime drama that is clogging American airwaves lately, but in execution it is as different as can be. I keep thinking if Life had been on a premium cable or a cable channel it would have lasted longer. Still, I am enjoying what is out. This is really a beautiful, powerful, moving, brilliantly written, uplifting drama. and I recommend it to everybody! I havent started S2 yet but when I do I'll come back and post about it. Hopefully it can keep up this level of greatness.

Hello kids! I saw the BEST MUSICAL EVER, the other night. What's it called you ask?
Why it's

A VERY POTTER MUSICAL OF COURSE!

I recommend this to EVERYONE. But especially potter fans. I havent read the books in a while but everything was hilarious to me, it's a great great musical put on by a bunch of college students and recent grads. There's plenty more info about what the musical is, who the people behind the production are as well as the cast and why they did this at their youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/StarKidPotter. you can watch the whole play there too if you like

You can find some gifs, caps and a download link to an avi file of the entire play here:
http://bigmamag.livejournal.com/187397.html
also the dude who plays voldemort has a totally slammin bod wtf. Voldemort should not look attractive! Srsly I am so glad he got to be shirtless for almost the ENTIRE time. Speaking of shallow things, the dude who plays harry in the musical (Darren Criss) is approx 24982092x more attractive to me than Dan radcliffe ever was. But then he DOES play guitar! and can sing soulful power ballads! Seriously this was just a funny musical to me until the next to last song "You're not alone" and that was the point where I was like HOLY CRAP these guys are truly talented! It does take talent and effort to set up something like this but these arent just practical jokesters armed with prep school uniforms and access to instruments and sound equipment. They are the real deal and they could totally do serious musicals if they wanted to, they got skills, but they simply chose to make a silly musical about harry potter and show it for free. How awesome IS THAT? (I am so keeping an eye out for future projects from these guys. these are our generation's puccinis, tchaikovskys and mozarts...no rly.) and also the girl (yes girl: Lauren Lopez) who plays Malfoy? HYSTERICAL. After the play she was totally my favorite. So so funny. Everyone was great but I think she and Darren were the stand outs.

I'm such a nerd that I joined ontdpigfarts soon after watching the musical. If you like it I suggest you join the comm too. (I got sorted into ravenbawww! apparently this means I'm classy. I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO BE CLASSY! YAY)

and Props to ohvienna for pimpin this in her lj or I'd never have known ok I would have probably known about eventually since nothing stays secret for long in fandom but it would have taken much longer! and watching it so made my day. It will make your day too guys! OMG watch it!

Skins: My God I'm sure you are all sick of whining about how much Season 3 annoyed me but I really just want to say this one last thing then I swear I wont bitch about Skins ever again (or rather not until S4 next year)
I finally saw ep 7 from S2 which is Effy's episode and it was not only amazing and emotional and hella dramatic but Effy was SO fucking cool in it! and what kills me about it she was ten times more interesting, active, likeable and well developed in that SINGLE episode than she was ALL of season 3!( let the bitching begin.. )

For some positivity I want to say that I am enjoying Season 2 of skins SO MUCH. I am like glued to my comp screen and I'm already down to the last 3 eps if though I only started watching yesterday. I cant say that it's more cohesive than S1 and it's definitely more melodramatic but I really do feel convinced by all the emotions exploding all over the place. S2 is alot more intense and dramatic than S1 but still manages to have quite a quirky sense of humor. ( more S2/1st gen cast squee )

I'll probably post one more time about skins when I see the rest of S2 and after that it's back to blogging about other things until January (when S4 starts airing and yes i'm watching it cause I'm a masochist and also love JJ and Naomi too much not to)

Leverage 05 - I LOVED THIS EP SO MUCH OMG. ( I'm Monica freaking hunter and I'm on a hunt for the TRUTH )

College resumes for me in 5 days. :(

I saw the new Harry Potter movie today and it was so good that I decided to blog about it!.

You know i've seen the last 5 movie installments in this franchise. and I dont remember hating or even really disliking any of them. The first two potter films were nice but not especially memorable (but i could say the same for the first two potter books though I actuallly liked the 2nd one alot) and the 3rd one was filmed in a very interesting way and is possibly my second fave potter film. the 4th one was alot of fun but was basically shot like a major action film. The 5th one had some beautiful shots but the scenes shifted SO fast and the film just felt like all over the place and i barely remember it. But this one is easily my favorite of the bunch and I think is the first harry potter film to really impress me. This film actually MOVED me, the other ones entertained me but this one made me got me in the heart. I cried and I freaked out and I laughed and I was just utterly completely sucked in.

( Something wicked AWESOME this way comes.... )

So so much awesome. Basically a great film, I recommend it to EVERYONE, whether you read the books or not but especially if you did. It actually managed to renew my love for Harry Potter for a whole 3 hours. I might even actually read the 7th book now cause I never did (but of course I read all the spoilers) and now I really feel like I wanna know how events proceed now rather than wait the 5 years the next two films will take and yes TWO cause someone had the bright idea of splitting the 7th book into two parts.

Hello flist~ I want to talk about all the exciting things that have happened to me lately but the fact of the matter is, nothing exciting has happened. I suppose I should be upset but I confess I've been enjoying books enough lately not to care. Speaking of which!

Books: I thought about posting more reviews but for now I'll just list out what books I've read so far lately. Books are in the order I've read them. The ones I really liked have a star/asterisk next to them.

( The list! )

I might not write reviews for everything but I do want to share my impressions for all of them down the road.

Tv: I've not been watching very much lately but yesterday I did watch the premier of True Blood's new season and the show is as trashy and bloody as I remember and I love it! ( True Blood S2-1 )

Also Surpersizers Go....which I've been watching lately. Is a VERY awesome program. It is in a nutshell about a very funny lady who does radio and a very gluttonous man who is a resturant critic and their adventures in the past culinary exploits of England. Period dress and incredibly ridiculous antics on behalf of our intrepid hosts make appearances as well. As Hilarious as Sue and Giles are, I watch for the history and culinary focus of the show, it is a surprisingly educational show despite being such fun to watch. Superiszers returns started last night and I dled the lovely first ep, where sue and giles go back to the 80's! Very good timing considering the recent craze for 80's things jump started by A2A in the UK lately. I cant wait to see it, their costumes looked hysterical.

Dramas: I havent watched much dramas this season, part of this is all the reading and UK tv watching I've been doing, the other reason is that dramas just sucked this season. Speaking of sucking, ( Thoughts on MR BRAIN )

I'm debating on whether I want to check out Toma's drama, Majo Saiban. I rarely feel disappointed by anything he's in, so I might just watch it for him.

A drama I have been watching and actually enjoying so far is Black & White which is a very awesome TW drama that I recommend EVERYONE watch. It has everything! Gun fights, intrigue, shadowy organizations, mobsters, mercenaries, cops, humor, ANGST, love, dangerous ladies, vic zhou AND very hot hate!sex. You cant go wrong really. Unless your name rhymes with sorry and you hate vic zhou, but it's not like I know anyone like that...
The thing I love about B&W the most though is the large cast and how expansive the world of B&W feels, despite the big cast I rarely felt overwhelmed cause they manage to balance that with the plot and introduce characters gradually as they become important. It's very tightly written and exciting tv, and a nice change from all those cutesy romantic dramas Taiwan is known for.

Hello flist. I have risen from the dead! Or more like finally decided to leave my little hole in the floor away from everyone. At least figuratively. I needed to be away from people for a while for reasons I dont think are worth elaborating on. But yeah it's been a little melancholy and isolated on my end lately....more so than usual that is.

My exams for the record, ended last week and I start taking math classes next week. I will be having a busy albeit not exactly exciting summer full of books, gardening, cooking, math classes and some sorry attempts at learning Japanese via a book I checked out at my college library. I wanted to take some painting and graphic design programs this summer, and a guitar class but that will just have to be put off for another time. Since I want to use this summer to cultivate my mind, body and herb garden.
One of my goals this summer is to lose 20 pounds. That sounds like alot to lose in just 4 months, but it's very doable. and if I miss the mark and only lose 15 pounds, it wont be a total failure. The long term goal is to lose 30 pounds all together but for now 15-20 is a good start.

An amazing thing happened yesterday,( actually finished a book for the first time in forever, blah blah this is about books... )

In other news, I have so far attempted to watch 2 Jdramas from this season's offerings (Shiroi Haru and Meitantei no okite) and I have not liked either one. Meitantei was for me a complete dissappointment, I expected a smart self aware drama that was about a quirky detective who solves difficult mysteries. I thought there would be some satirical elements, some nice offbeat humor but ultimately a show with some substance, some wit, some kind of gravity to it. Meitantei however is just a total farce. It's shallow, cliched and it beats the viewer over the head with everything. Wtf kind of show TELLS you before it starts that it's about to parody a bunch of mystery archtypes/tropes? To make it worse, the whole thing was almost identical to 33pun tantei which at least managed to be funny. Something meitantei cant even do. Though both shows fail as mystery shows, and that's the problem. If you are writing a mystery show, regardless of whether you are trying to satire other mystery stories or not, you should still manage to come up with clever engaging mysteries! STUPID WRITERS! and As for shiroi haru, I just found it totally dull and predictable. I can already tell they are gonna make sachiko be haruo's daughter. So watching a drama about his bonding with her and trying to uncover the truth about his gf's death is kind of not that interesting at all. As far as jdramas go, I will try one more drama this season and if it turns out to be shit, I'm done till fall.

So flist here's where you come in, I'm not sure what's good and I lack the patience to dl everything so which of the following jdramas should I check out next? I will of course be watching MR.BRAIN when it finally comes out because duh it's got Kimutaku how can I NOT watch it? Hopefully it'll get better ratings than Konkatsu did, geeze poor Nakai XD.

Been a busy week or so, Here's a recap of what I've been up to for the past few weeks-

Firstly my lj has undergone a MASSIVE make over. I changed the layout and made edits to my interests, my communities, my userpics, my profile and did some locking and unlocking on various journal entries. Even my name changed now. I just got tired of the same old "Taima: crash of thunder" thing.
==========
I recently got into an indie jrock band called "Baseball Bear" and as it is indie AND Japanese there is of course not much info that can be found about them. at least not in english of course. but all you really need to know, is how awesome their songs are.

Here's my favorite
a live performance of Matsuri no Ato and if you like that one then you can find a bunch other videos for them linked to the same YT page. I'd recommend: dakeshimetai, changes, aishiteru, crazy no kisetsu ga, and manatsu no jouken.
==============
Next, my love for western television has been rekindled with new force, particularly my love for UK tv dramas. They are short, they are well written and best of all they are chock full of ENGLISH ACCENTS WOO! Seriously, so far I've watched Life on Mars S1, most of S2 and all of Ashes to Ashes S1, the spin off for LOM. I know spin off makes people go EWWW, but it's a really great show and manages to be different enough from LOM. I've also become insanely fond of Philip glenister and John simm cause of these shows. and I spent last night perusing forums for LOM and A2A, and watching a bunch of guest appearances of Glenister on various talk shows. It is SO nice to be able to understand everything that is being said on a talk show for a change. ( More blabbing about UK shows under the cut )

=======
thanks to A2A and LOM, I've been listening to nothing but 70's and 80's music for the past week. and I have no regrets! *goes back to dancing to the Stranglers*
=======
As far as American tv goes, I'm really into Leverage (a show on TNT) and The Mentalist (bizarro procedural drama on CBS). I will definitely be making posts for all my current show obsessions, down the road. But I want to actually finish some or most of my assignments before I do. Since knowing me I will ramble on immensely XD especially for Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes.
=========
I've been hella busy with school work, I'm seriously up to my neck in assignments. My English essay, art museum assignment, art project and presentation is on Monday (which I told the teacher I wouldnt be able to make it because I'd be in Virginia. Except. I'm not. XD). Anyway, this is partially why I've been avoiding LJ and MSN lately. The other reason would be all the shows I've been watching in between working. But pffft who needs human interaction when you have TV!
==============
Thanks to all the shows I've been watching lately I have a affinity for the crime genre lately. If this keeps up I'll be watching The Departed and Resevoir dogs soon. or rewatching Pulp Fiction cause I've been wanting to rewatch for the longest time now. Sam "the man" Jacksooooon!
=========
Well that's all.

So friends and fangirls, the summer season is upon us! and So with that here's what I will be considering for the summer season and also how I'm faring with the dramas from last spring so far.

So for spring, I dropped Hokaben and completed Zettai Kareshi and Last friends so far.

Last friends: I think the less I say the better. I dont want this to become a big angry ranting post. I think most of us who stuck with the drama till the end felt some level of disappointment and I know a few people who felt betrayed even by the ending. For me it was really like a slap in the face. and that's all say about LF now or ever again. I will say though Juri and Eita were amazing in this from start to finish and it was almost worth suffering through this drama to see them in it. Almost.

Zettai Kareshi: It started out with so much promise. It had a really strong start and I was so sure it would be enjoyable from beginning to end and wrap up itself nicely. Later in the season it started losing it's spark and I was beginning to worry for how it would end...and sure enough the ending was immensely disappointing. It did follow the drama's ending to an extent. but honestly I just found the whole thing a big waste in the end. I do know people who were moved by the end and didnt see it as bad so much as a bit shocking. I just saw it as a letdown and fairly predictable since as Maya Miki's chara said, you cant have a relationship with a ROBOT. I also still feel sad that nerdy scientist and hot bartending lady didnt hook up ;_;

So far I'm still watching Osen and Rookies. I just recently dled eps 6-7 for Rookies and 5-6 for Osen.

Osen: So far I am very much enjoying Osen and I dont really have many complaints about it at all. I just really love the character interactions and everyone is defined and distinct despite being support charas in uniform who could easily blend into the background and become nobodies but I distinctly remember every character and even the parts of their personality. I really love that one waitress who looks gaijin. she's kind of hotheaded which i find really cute. I hope she hooks with osamu's character before the end. Uchi is seriously A+++ in this drama. I dont care what anyone says IMO he's a way better actor than ryo was, is or ever will be. I love how Uchi's character becomes like a friend for Sen, it's clear that everyone kind of idol worhips her in a way except for Uchi's chara who sees her as a normal girl. It's very cute.

As for Rookies I'm having fun watching it. It's a very melodramatic drama but I appreciate it's heart. and also it's many scenes of Ichihara Hayato looking DEAD SEXY. I also find it hilarious that big bad Shinjo (shirota yuu's character) cries as often and randomly as a hormonal pregnant woman.

( As for summer dramas... )

Before I wrap up this post I would like take a moment to flail about my most recent Jdrama obsession. TIGER AND DRAGON!!!!! My god words cannot describe how much i adore this drama and I've decided rather than making this post any more obscenely long I'd rather just give it it's own post. BECAUSE YES IT IS THAT AWESOME. It also will give me a chance to flail about the newfound fascination i have with rakugo thanks to this show. as if I need more obscure geeky obsessions -_-*
Speaking of newfound obsessions. whoever told me capsule was a fucking awesome band deserves a pat on the back now because THEY ARE AN FUCKING AWESOME BAND er duo I dunno wtf they are but it's awesome. I love bizzaro retro/mod thing they have going. the songs delightfully surreal too. I'll be making another post for that as well. SO MANY GREAT SONGS EEE <3