Jawbreaker

(FYI, this photograph of me is old and dates back from the time when I was packing to move. You might be able to make out the large boxes in the background, where I'm trying to wrap my things up. I like the shinyness of my blue jammies shirt. Don't I look really dour? The entire moving process was irritating... it still is. I've never had such mixed emotions before: happy to have my own place and independence but irritated at the hassle of packing and moving. I wished that my stuff could just materialized at the new place.)

Last night, I asked Mike if he would mind going down to the local video store and renting a movie, something we haven't done yet. We both noticed a small video store down the block and, with the profusion of college students in the area, I am hoping it would be one with great selections. He didn't object and figured the walk would be good for us, despite the heat. However, he was in no mood to watch a movie and suggested I rent one that he wouldn't have to watch.

The video store was all I dreamed about, but smaller. It is in no way as good as "That's Rentertainment", our beloved video store back in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, but it will do. The titles are well selected and they have a generous foreign film section. I wish their anime section was larger (two small shelves), but you can't get everything, right?

I indulged myself and rented Jawbreaker, a film that I heard was similar to my much beloved Heathers. It was a film that Mike certainly didn't want to see, especially since he didn't care for Heathers. I had some doubt to how similar Jawbreaker would be to Heathers, being the major star was Rose McGowan (who is certainly not as great eye candy as Winona Ryder), no real male stars (read: no Christian Slater-ish character.. that evil was portrayed by Satan-in-heels McGowan) and a cameo appearance of Marilyn Manson. But, seeing the film even knowing it would probably be bad was something that I wanted to do ever since I saw the poster up at the West Coast Video store. There was something about the poster that I couldn't get out of my head. I guess it was the bright colors and the fact that I didn't find any of the three women on the cover good looking (except Rose McGowan... but only marginally my taste at that). The two belly buttons glare at me in a creepy fashion.

The film itself can be viewed with the fast forward button depressed. It wasn't as good as Heathers by a long shot. It wasn't particularly funny and I found I could easily guess the characters' next lines. The acting was... well, you could guess that. Most of the film consists of the female characters strutting sexily down the main corridor at the high school. There are two sex scenes in the movie. One was mostly of a topless guy sucking on a popsicle (he was all muscley and ew). The other was far more interesting, but that's because Marilyn Manson was in it. He was dressed in a playboy suit and had a creepy moustache. I think his cameo was the highlight of the film. That and the time that the shy, introverted girl became "popular".

I did like the Xena/Hercules-esque touch of adding little extra sound noises when a character would do a particularly stressed action. Like tap another character on the shoulder would be accompanied by corresponding xylophone sounds. It was cute. But not cute enough to be engaging. I know that in my high school, we had popular kids and unpopular kids, but I never think it is as serious as the way films like Heathers and Jawbreaker make it sound. No one I really know is striving to be part of the in crowd. No one can "make" someone popular. It seems to me like it just happens. You're in or out and nothing can change that, even changing your ways.

Horror stories from the home front

I found this picture in my files today. It's of Mike removing the decorative border around the guest room (which we use as our current bedroom). We had painted the upstairs and the living room walls and we needed to paint the guest room, which we've been putting off because it has this funky decorative border. I asked my parents if they put it up and they firmly denied it. So, I had to assume that the previous tenant put it up. We planned on smeaking some wall paper loosener stuff on it and peeling it after the paper had softened. We put it off.

And put it off.

And put it off.

Finally, I suggested that we just try and peel it off as best as we can and if we need to, we'll get the wallpaper softener. On the day I suggested it, my cousin was at the home and interested in helping paint. So, Mike got up on a ladder and started to peel it off...

We quickly discovered that it was hardly sticking to the wall. As a matter of fact, the previous tenant had fastened it to the wall with scotch tape instead of wetting it and really fastening it to the wall.

Incredible!

Mike peeled it off without a hitch. He painted the room with my cousins' assistance.