2009 October — Unapologetically Mundane

Monthly Archives: October 2009

I Love Miley Cyrus, and I’m Not Even Sure It’s in an Ironic Way Anymore

Posted by plumpdumpling on October 22, 2009 – 11:35 am

Filed under music is my boyfriend, stuff i like
Tagged as music is my boyfriend, stuff i like

If you don’t work with me and don’t receive a daily instant messenger reminder from me to listen to it, you may be surprised to know that my favourite song at the moment is Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the U.S.A.”.

I first heard it months ago in the background of the Max Azria/Miley Cyrus Wal-Mart collection commercial and could only make out the words “the butterflies fly away”. Naturally, I ran to Google and typed that in but kept coming up with a song called “Butterfly Fly Away”, which was decidedly not it. Not having heard a lick of Miley before that, I had no idea that this was apparently some hit from her Hannah Montana movie.

I later found the right song, listened to it on repeat all day every day, and dreamed of the day they would make an official video for it where Miley would be wearing short-shorts and cowboy boots and would be singing into a corded microphone out in the middle of a field where there’s obviously nowhere to plug that thing in. And then they did:

SO HOT! Then, yesterday, I hired a painter to re-do the lobby of my company’s office, and he randomly started telling me that he’s also currently painting the home of the guy who wrote the new Kelly Clarkson song. I was like, “Oh, I don’t really listen to popular music,” but he assured me I would’ve heard this song, and when we pulled it up on YouTube, it turns out he was right. After enjoying that, he said practically as an aside, “This guy also wrote the new Miley Cyrus song, if you know it.” I was like

IF I KNOW IT?! So what I’m saying is–there’s three degrees of separation between Miley Cyrus and me, which practically makes me one of those friends in her video. Probably the Asian one in the red bikini top.

Zombies v. Old Lady Genitals

Posted by plumpdumpling on October 21, 2009 – 9:45 am

Filed under there's a difference between films and movies
Tagged as there's a difference between films and movies

I saw Zombieland, and like Adventureland, it was entirely meant to showcase how much better than Michael Cera Jesse Eisenberg is. Kamran was worried it was trying to be Shaun of the Dead, but in most ways–many of them involving the lack of puny British accents–it was better:

1) The rules for staying alive.
2) The slow-motion death scenes.
3) The non-lame love story that actually made me like that chick from Superbad.
4) Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson.
5) But mostly Jesse Eisenberg.

The heavy metal soundtrack was an added plus, as was the hilarious cameo by the superfamous actor, which I don’t want to ruin for you in case you, like me, didn’t know it was coming. Woody Harrelson never made me cringe from bad acting, and Abigail Breslin never made me cringe from teenage acne, but a lot of the zombie killings had me wincing. In a good way.

My friend Jack’s Romanian friends thought the movie was disgusting and were shocked that the rest of us liked it, but this was the same night we saw the woman peeing in the street, so maybe we’ve just been desensitized to these things. Go see it and decide which you think is grosser.

The Canon S90 Has Been Released, and I Can Finally Move on with My Life

Posted by plumpdumpling on October 19, 2009 – 11:45 am

Filed under narcissism
Tagged as narcissism

On Clint’s recommendation, I spent all summer waiting for the Panasonic Lumix LX3 to become available somewhere other than Amazon.com, where it was listed for $200 more than at any other retailer. I put my name on every waiting list in town and was content to sit quietly for a while, but when the photos for my Degustation review turned out so much better than all of my other food photos just because of a little light difference, I realized I had to suck it up and find an alternative so I could move away from my four-year-old point-and-shoot.

What I found was the Canon S90, a digital small enough to fit into my tiniest clutch but with manual controls and a low-light setting.

The camera hadn’t been released when I ordered it from Adorama, so I was just going off these reviews. They promised a mid-September release, and it was the beginning of September, so I expected something akin to immediate gratification.

AND THEN IT WAS OCTOBER, AND I STILL HAD NO EFFING CAMERA. I seriously was Googling the release date every day and getting no results, calling Canon every day and hearing them know nothing, checking my bank account to see if the money had been withdrawn and finding I was still rich.

But then, on Thursday, the day after Canon told me the S90 would be in stores in a few weeks, it arrived on my doorstep in all of its compact manual glory. I’m still too scared to actually use it, and I may just be leaving it on auto for the first six months after I start, but YAY!

Making Friends with Perry Farrell

Posted by plumpdumpling on October 16, 2009 – 10:20 am

Filed under fun times on the subway, music is my boyfriend
Tagged as fun times on the subway, music is my boyfriend

‘member how I said that I’d legitimately never stood next to someone listening to music and recognized the band? That was less than a month ago.

Wednesday morning, I was on the green line on my way to work, and the air conditioning suddenly turned off despite the fact that the subway is UNDERGROUND in an entirely ENCLOSED SPACE that doesn’t get ANY NATURAL AIR. Without the whooshing from the vents, I was able to hear the music coming from the headphones of the guy in front of me. I listened in for a second and dismissed it as some hip-hop crap, but during the bridge, I realized that I not only knew but loved the song!

Read the rest here.