Mini Update

I don't have time to do a full weekend update right now, but I had to share one moment from this past weekend with you folks. Allen and I were driving back from my sister's place last night (after watching the Emmy's...yawn) and Santa Monica Blvd in WeHo was slow b/c lots of the streets were closed off to us regular, non-industry people for various after-parties. Anyway, we were about to cross Robertson when an intoxicated gay man runs out into the street. He holds his hand up, gesturing for us not to run him over, which we, in a moment of bad judgment, agree to. We come to a stop only to find that he has also come to a stop. Right in front of our car, where he proceeds to pull his pants down and moon us. That...was not a pretty sight.

DVD Review: Thin

This documentary about a group of women who struggle with eating disorders was shockingly depressing. Of course I expected it to be sad, but I suppose I was also expecting some sense of hope at the end of the film. Lauren Greenfield films this at a treatment center in Florida and follows the patients as they try to recover. Some of the women are "restricters" -- usually suffering from some form of anorexia -- while others are purgers, aka bulimics; some women are a combination of both. All of them have very distorted body images.

Most of the women/girls there (some are just 15 years old) are forced to leave because their insurance runs out and there is no money to continue treatment. Even girls who have been inpatients for over nine weeks are not ready to be on their own. When they leave, they tend to fall right back into their habits of restricting or purging. Nothing motivates them to get better, even the thought of leaving their children motherless. Many of them express that they'd rather die than be fat.

Despite constant supervision, strict rules and an ultra supportive community of doctors, psychiatrists, nutritionists, therapists and other patients, these girls aren't able to maintain their recovery. Once they leave the inpatient program, most of them quickly lose all the weight they had struggled to gain. There was a woman who was so committed to her recovery that she moved her family to Florida so she could continue outpatient treatment. Her first night back at home, she orders a salad for dinner and you see her picking bits of Parmesan cheese off the lettuce. She goes home and eventually purges everything. The update says that she lost a lot of weight afterwards and had to check into the center again. She's supposedly maintaining a healthy weight now, but it's probably because she is still an inpatient (the film doesn't specify).

Watching the girls eat was eye-opening. As an American female, I've struggled with weight issues for what seems like my whole life. I think about how many calories something is or how much fat it contains. I don't weigh myself, but I do try to make healthy choices most of the time - with my main motivation being avoiding gaining weight. That being said, my body image issues are nowhere NEAR what these girls struggle with. Eating their first meal in the center is extremely difficult, it involves lots of support, usually with the girls crying, shaking and generally feeling horrible. It's as if someone had a gun pointed at their heads - it's that terrifying.

In the end, this documentary is enlightening, but it's just so friggin' depressing. None of the girls that the film focuses on gets better. It seems like these girls need constant support and structure. They can not do it if they're on their own. Treatment is very expensive and limited treatment (or even extended) doesn't seem to help in the long term. I kind of wished that the film had at least one girl who made it and improved just so there was a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. If I were a girl seriously struggling with an eating disorder, the message I'd get is that I can't win the battle against my own body and mind.

If this subject matter is remotely interesting to you this DVD is worth renting.

Volvo Recharge

This car is totally awesome - too bad it doesn't have a chance of being on the market until after 2017. It's a completely redesigned "car of the future" with four separate motors in the wheels, rather than having a transmission in the hood of the car. Also, you charge it at home when electricity is inexpensive and you can always choose to purchase renewable or "green" energy. Watch the youtube video for more info.

The C-List

"Comedienne" Kathy Griffin won an Emmy for her show "My Life on the D-List." The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and E! released a statement that her speech will be cut and censored due to offensive language. Um...here's part of what she said:

"a lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus."

She went on to hold up her Emmy, make an off-color remark about Christ and proclaim, "This award is my god now!"

WHAT is the point of fighting the war -- Operation Iraqi Freedom -- if someone as insignificant as Kathy Griffin can't open her big mouth and say whatever the hell she wants?

The comedian's remarks were condemned Monday by Catholic League President Bill Donohue, who called them a "vulgar, in-your-face brand of hate speech."

Really, Mr. Donohue. I find it much more offensive and vulgar that the Catholic church basically condones child molestation. Your leadership fails to report abusive priests to the police, instead choosing to transfer them from city to city, where they molest more and more children.

There's nothing I hate more than censorship. Even the most vile human beings have a right to speak freely. As far as I know everyone has the right to choose not to listen.

Full article on CNN.com.

DVD Review: Blades of Glory

This movie was just pure silliness as expected. It's funny if you're looking for an easy laugh - it's no Knocked Up. The costumes are hilarious and one of the funniest moments is when Will Ferrell has to lift up Jon Heder and you can see him grasping his butt cheeks. Poor Jon Heder will always be Napoleon Dynamite to me.

Real-life married couple Will Arnett and Amy Poehler play a brother/sister World Champion figure skating pair. They're pretty funny in a make-you-slightly-uncomfortable way.

Weekend Update

This weekend was low-key. I wish I had gotten more sleep though.

Friday
Went to Library Alehouse in Santa Monica for the first time. I'd heard great things about this place and have been wanting to try it for a long time. It was...disappointing to say the least. I think we may have just had a bad experience and hopefully it's not bad like that all the time. First, when Allen and I arrived, Fara & R had already been waiting over an hour for a table when they had been told it would take around 45 minutes. Then, they seat us at a table meant for two, so it was a good thing we weren't getting any food - there wouldn't have been room! The service was extremely slow and just poor in general. I got a sampler of beers ($7 for five 4oz. samples) and the waiter recommended one that tasted like rotten ass. I'd give them another chance and hopefully it'll be a better experience.

Saturday
Ran errands at Costco, where I picked out some new glasses. I hope I don't look too nerdy in them...

Sunday
Went to watch 3:10 to Yuma starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale. It's probably the best western I've seen (I don't usually like westerns) but it still didn't blow me away.

Both leading performances were solid, as expected. It held my interest the entire time so there are no complaints on that front. I'm not entirely sure why I didn't love the film, but I definitely didn't hate it. If you're interested in seeing it, go for it!

Also went to visit the kids this weekend. My little niece has got to be just about the most precocious three-year-old on the planet. As we were looking at the fish tank (their new puffer fish, Rice, was the subject of our curiosity), my niece says, very nonchalantly, "Daddy's fat. Daddy, why are you fat?" We all burst out into uncomfortable laughter and shock, saying, "M! Why did you say that?" but her concern was genuine. Needless to say, Daddy didn't answer in front of all of us.

I'll update with DVD reviews later.

Jessica! Jessica!

Laguna Beach
Seeing as I'm completely hooked on The Hills, when a co-worker offered me Laguna Beach: Season 2 I practically clobbered him to get my hands on the DVD set. Last night, I sat down and watched eight episodes in a row. I was actually really shocked by how bitchy and catty Kristin Cavallari is. I mean...I had only read about her in the tabloids when she was trying to hook up with Nick Lachey after his separation from Jessica Simpson. I didn't really understand that she's the biggest snob in the whole world. I might dislike her more than Heidi.

You must watch this if you've ever seen LB:

Labor Day Weekend Update

Friday
Allen and I decided to take advantage of the long weekend and drive to Vegas...to get some much needed laundry done! We left LA around 9ish and pulled into LV around 2.30am. Traffic wasn't too bad, but we had decided to take a different route and it turned out to be a little longer/slower than expected.

So my father has a house in LV in a little gated community - except the gate had never been enforced until now. We showed up in the middle of the night and of course the front gate is closed and locked. There's no guard or anything, just a piece of paper taped to the keypad saying, "Pick up your remote at X location Mon-Fri 9am-5pm. Call Jane Doe with any questions." Um...we were screwed. I notice there's a door to walk through and I try to give that a shot. I push some random buttons and it opens (although, i had been pulling and it turned out I needed to push, so i'm not sure if my button-mashing helped anything). I'm thinking, okay, the gate to exit is probably just pressure sensitive or has a sensor or something, so I walk over to that side and start jumping up and down, waving my hands - to no avail. Finally, we just leave the car by the gate while we move stuff inside (luckily my dad's house is fairly close to the gate), thinking we'd just deal with parking the car somewhere later. We're already out of the car and near the house when we see a few cars coming in (it is vegas after all) and we try to flag them down so they can open the gate for us, but apparently Las Vegasians aren't very trusting or friendly so no one stopped. Finally, someone was going OUT so we started running towards the gate. Allen jumped in the car while i physically held the gate open. I held one side open enough for my car to squeeze thru, but just as Allen was approaching the gate, the other side started opening too and was about to hit my car! I'm frantically motioning for him to back up and he does, just in the nick of time. Then the gate is wide open so we just drive on in. Finally!

Turns out the gates stay open from 8am to 5pm (or something like that) and we just followed a car in after the gates closed.

Saturday
Did five loads of laundry in the morning. Then, starving, we headed to the South Point hotel's buffet lunch - only cuz we know it's super cheap. (Hey, I'm not used to paying for anything in Vegas and especially hate the idea of paying for food.) The buffet was okay, not the best quality we've ever had, but for $7 each it wasn't a bad deal.

Did a little shopping at Target, took a nap and then headed to a mall on the strip just to stretch our legs for a bit. After browsing the shops, we hit up In N out for dinner (yum!) then we went bowling. I was doing pretty good at the beginning of the first game, but then things went back to normal. I broke 100 so it wasn't that bad (unlike the 45 i got one time).

Sunday
Decided to have brunch at the Silverton hotel's buffet (bellini brunch!). It was a little pricier at $16.99 per person, but well worth it. They had yummy food and homemade-tasting ice cream (not sure if it was actually homemade, but it wasn't dryers or anything).

Bummed around, did a little more laundry, and headed out to the Primm outlets before heading home. We decided to eat dinner in Primm instead of trying to find something on the road back to LA (we don't eat fast food except for In N Out). We asked around and a salesperson suggested the cafe at the Primm Valley Hotel & Casino. We gave it a shot and I got a monster-portion of spaghetti and meatballs, a dinner salad and garlic bread for...$5.95!!! It tasted decent too! Allen splurged and got the jumbo shrimp dinner for $8.95.

We finally hit the road around 9.30pm and were home in LA by 12.30-1am. :O)

Monday
Our apartment was way too hot to stay in all day so we went to Barnes & Noble to browse the books and leech air-conditioning. Flipped through this interesting book Allen spotted called PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives.

It all began with an idea Frank Warren had for a community art project. He began handing out postcards to strangers and leaving them in public places -- asking people to write down a secret they had never told anyone and mail it to him, anonymously.

The response was overwhelming. The secrets were both provocative and profound, and the cards themselves were works of art -- carefully and creatively constructed by hand. Addictively compelling, the cards reveal our deepest fears, desires, regrets, and obsessions. Frank calls them "graphic haiku," beautiful, elegant, and small in structure but powerfully emotional.

Some of the secrets are silly, like a woman who puts boogers in her husband's soup when she's mad at him (gross, I know), but some are sad secrets about self-loathing, betrayal, abuse and guilt. Check it out if you have time. You can also check out his blog, where this all started.