The Pop Culture Addict’s Blog

I have been happily enjoying my ipod shuffle with its 1 gig of memory or 242 song capacity. I’ve given up knowing the titles of every song as there is no display. Sometimes I’m not even sure of the artist. I mean, I think I know but then I learn I was mistaken. Anyway, my fascination and affection for new technology is way ahead of my means. So I’ve learned to be patient. Well, my day has come to enter the era of watching videos on my ipod. I’ve watched on other PCA’s ipods ooh’ing and ah’ing at the bright, crisp colors of album covers, tv shows and music videos. Now, I can ooh and ah as I watch my very own ipod nano. It is so darn cute. It’s just a slip of a thing. But the places it can go! I’ve already had the pleasure of being entertained by old eps of Aliens in America while on a long plane ride. I watched an old ep of How I Met Your Mother too. These few eps and Jack Jack Attack were all I had loaded aside from music. So for my upcoming trip, I have rented Nancy Drew to watch.

Incidentally, one of the plane movies was none other than August Rush. So I finally got to see it. Yes, it was overly sentimental and highly improbable. But Keri Russell was very appealing as were the others – Freddie Highmore and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. You have to suspend your disbelief and think of it as a fairytale. I can see why it was the number one movie in Korea. Korean taste does tend to run in the overly sentimental realm or some over the top facet. Anyway, it was a sweet movie. Not for everyone. In fact, another PCA told me just watching August Rush on the place without the sound made her mad, annoyed and somewhat nauseous. LOL. Anyway, I can check that one off my list now.

Speaking of Asian taste, I also saw Stephen Chow’s latest movie CJ7. It was released in mainstream theaters. I don’t think many non-Stephen Chow fans will go to see it. Even the fans of Kung Fu Hustle, Shaolin Soccer or God of Cookery will have some reservations seeing it due to the lack of martial arts. There is a tiny bit of kung fu but not much. Still, it was funny and sweet and little bit sad.

This season of Lost just keeps getting better and better. The most recent episode explaining what happened to Michael and Walt (sort of) was so well-written! It’s like they had the challenge of explaining his absence and return and they wanted to do it right. The ep totally exceeded any expectations I had. You can watch for yourself at the ABC site. I’ve also been enjoying New Amsterdam (you can catch eps at the Fox site). I like the guy and I like the way it is sort of like Angel in that he has lived for hundreds of years and can integrate his life experience into doing good in the present. Oh, I also checked out hulu.com to see what was available. I guess if you don’t have a lot on your dvr queue like I do (most notably 8 eps of One Tree Hill just waiting to be watched) or have not recently started re-watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel on dvd from the beginning, as I have, then you would find plenty to watch for free at hulu.com. I went looking for Cupid, that Jeremy Piven show from a while back which I never watched but heard was right up my alley. It was not to be found. Still, I think many will be entertained.

So I was recently in Cabo where I never expected to go – I really think of it as JLo’s hangout or where the girls from Laguna Beach and Newport Harbor vacation. It was beautiful. Balmy, breezy, revitalizing. I wanted to share a couple of pix.

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This movie Penelope was based on a YA book by the same name. I hadn’t heard of it until the movie came out. But something about the movie looked very appealing to me so I took my first chance to see it. Christina Ricci was very likable as the title character Penelope. It was odd to see James McAvoy, as the love interest, and Richard E. Grant, as the father, act with American accents. They were both likable as well. Reese Witherspoon, who produced this movie, got to play a minor character role which she seemed to enjoy. Anyway, it is a predictable tale but it was cute.

Next, a fellow PCA noted that I was looking forward to reading The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World by E. L. Konigsburg and made sure I got a copy. So thanks are in order. I enjoyed the story very much. ELK writes about these seemingly annoying and potentially unlikable characters who get fleshed out and the reader becomes attached to fully. Afterwards, I felt compelled to round off my E. L. Konigsburg bug by re-reading From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Father’s Arcane Daughter and Journey to an 800 Number. These happened to be what I could locate on my bookshelves. I did run out and get a copy of The View From Saturday which I thought I had but was mistaken. Anyway, E. L. Konigsburg is a fantastic writer. After my flurry of re-reading, I started re-reading Snakes Don’t Miss Their Mothers by the incomparable M. E. Kerr. It is such a warm, funny story. She is good at building tension in her narrative arc and making us work to take the always worthwhile trip to resolution-ville.

Two more things I wanted to mention. I was able to check out Patrick Stewart as Macbeth. He was excellent. The entire production was very strong. Visually interesting. I liked the modernization of the witches. Did I mention earlier that I recently saw Macbeth the opera by Verdi? So the story was fresh in my mind. Anyway, that Shakespeare, he can be a downer but one can’t deny the universal themes of power, guilt, conflict as explored in Macbeth.

One last thing, last week’s ep of Lost was unbelievable. During it, I had to marvel at the writing and acting. I was 100% riveted. Desmond was great; Jeremy Davies character became more interesting; and Sayid was a good friend. Oh, and Penny and Desmon 4eva!

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