the one starting again

Bonjour, mes amis!

It's been a while, eh? I think I'm just going to skip the omg-i'm-so-sorry-i-haven't-blogged-i've-been-too-busy-with-school-and-life-and-EVERYTHING-and-did-i-mention-i'm-a-senior-now? because everyone's already heard variations of that, so I'll cut to the chase:

Today's a Monday, and here's something thought-provoking for a Monday- a JJ Abrams talk on storytelling and his inspiration. The truth is, I haven't seen anything from JJ Abrams unless you count the Star Trek and Super 8 trailers and 1.5 episodes of Lost, but judging from those, everything else I've read about him or seen in an interview of his, and this talk, he's nothing short of a genius (and zealous) filmmaker and storyteller. 

His talk is one of my favorite TED talks along with Sheryl Sandberg's:

Not really bookish or anything, but I admire her. :)

I'm hoping to post at least once a week because I've really missed writing here. I just never had anything interesting to write about at all, unless you count getting to eat a Pizza-in-a-Cone in Providence, Rhode Island. (It was seriously a pizza in a cone.) I consider it one of the highlights of my Providence trip:

(More on the Pizza-in-a-Cone to come later!)

I also got a tumblr in the time I vanished. I took the title Objarkas from Plain Kate by Erin Bow which is so lyrical yet very eerie at the same. Honestly, I don't know if I'm going to be keeping the tumblr because it's a total time-sucker but it is the site which I'm updating the most right now (and there are so many beautiful things there), so if you want to see what I'm up to, I suggest heading onto over there. :)

Ciao for now,
Nonie

p.s. Goliath is coming out on September the 20th, which also happens to be tomorrow! I won't be able to read it for a couple of weeks, but still- it's finally releasing! *flails*

*Waves*

Hiya! Believe or not, I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth after seeing Harry Potter. Hurrah! There’s just been a lot of work to get done over the weekend, and sadly, I can’t find the USB cord for my camera and I really really wanted to post a couple of pictures from the midnight premieres because everything was fantastic there.


But it’s been 4 days since the release of the movie, and it seems that the USB cord itself dropped off the face of the earth, so I don’t think I can put off writing about the movie any longer for a couple of pictures.

Tee hee, I can hear some of groaning, “No Nonie! Not another Potter post! The official teaser poster for the Hunger Games came out! That's the new movie news. Get with the times already!" but hey, I never got closure on last week. :D So here’s Day #1 (or Day -3) with just a couple of my thoughts on the film:

I walked out of the theater wanting to jump in the air and cheer with happiness. That never happened before with a movie before. Of course, it’s not fair to judge it like that since this series holds a sentimental value with many people but still; we have to acknowledge that the filmmakers did a good job here. Coming from the bottom of my heart, I think this is the best film in the series. :D

I'm pretty sure most of you who wanted to watch the movie have already seen it, but I can't be too sure, so beware of spoilers!

• The first part was all about the dynamic of the trio, and this second part is all about Hogwarts, and Harry himself of course. It was just a bit surprising seeing Emma and Rupert not having much to do.
• Call me silly, but in the first few shots of the Gringrotts heist scene, I actually thought it was Emma under all the Bellatrix make-up. Helena BC was that phenomenal. She nailed Emma's facial expressions.
• I loved Professor McGonagall’s geeky, happy giggle after setting the statues to life. And she had the first tear-inducing line in the movie: “It’s nice to see you Potter.” The audience burst into a big “AWWWWW” when she said that.
• Fred's death scene from the book is not here. The scene they replaced it with, where he's cornered, alone and wandless, by a Death Eater, is chilling. It's horrible to watch, but so cinematic.
• I can’t even talk about the Snape vs. McGonagall duel without getting speechless.
• Actually, there are so many scenes in this movie I couldn’t talk about without getting inarticulate, just because of the sheer awesomeness of it all. Like in my notes about this movie I wrote a couple days ago, I had "EEEEEEEEEEEEE" written out next to McGonagall’s name just because I just couldn’t explain it any other way.
• Next to Alan Rickman’s name I have this random scribble. It’s not even an “EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” Just a large, random scribble on the page.
• And that, friends, should explain how incredible he was in this movie. Even an “EEEEEEEEEEEE!” can't describe him. He stole every scene he was in, and played broken-hearted-but-nevertheless-heroic Snape with perfection.
• I would like to hand over an award to the person who decided to to put in the line “You have your mother’s eyes” line in Snape’s death scene. That was GENIUS. Everyone says that to Harry, but it means so much more when said by Severus Snape. Everything else in his memories was heartbreaking, especially the scene where he's holding a dead Lily, crying, with baby Harry in the crib sobbing. Just heartbreaking.
• His death was also the most horrid. It's not shown directly, but seeing the silhouette of Snape and hearing it was dreadful. I hate Nagini.
• But hooray for Neville for cutting its head off! The whole scene is just epic. I think I cheered the loudest here. I’m very, very, very thankful that they didn’t mess up the Prince’s Tale or Neville’s role in the story. The character developments of Snape and Neville were my favorite parts of the book, so they were the two parts I was most anxious about, but they delivered. Thank you, thank you, thank you Steve Kloves and David Yates!
• Neville’s line about being mad about Luna was the cutest, and most spontaneous thing about the movie.
• I loved Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy)’s scene when he hesitates to go over to the Death Eaters, and loved Narcissa Malfoy too. The scene on the bridge where Draco and Narcissa kept on walking but Lucius turned around, looking around a bit lost and sad was a wonderful way to end the Malfoy family storyline.
• The third tear-inducing line after McGonagall’s and Snape’s was Dumbledore’s: “Harry, you wonderful boy. You brave, brave man.” Michael Gambon delivered that line faultlessly. Some people started crying so loudly that it got distracting. Heh.
• I loved how they showed a disgruntled Filch getting ready to clean up the castle during the final scenes. Once a Hogwarts caretaker, always a Hogwarts caretaker. ;)

Staring contest time.

The Technical Parts

• I’m sort of curious as to why they decided to not have the huge crowd of people during the final battle between Harry and Voldemort. To make the victory more subtle? I did like the Harry-Hagrid hug though.
• I'm also curious as to why they decided to make Bellatrix and Voldemort turn into confetti-like pieces when they died. (But evil people never die normally in fantasy movies so...hmm...)
• The screenwriting was great. They changed the book for sure, but it all fit somehow.
• But Tonks and Lupin deserved more (or they should've gotten in a line before the battle about Teddy!). Lupin's line about Teddy would appear to come out of nowhere for the audience members who didn't read the book.
• The music by Alexandre Desplat is beautifully haunting; it’s the ideal soundtrack for this movie. Just listen to "Severus and Lily," "Statues," "Courtyard Apocalypse" and "Lily's Theme."
• Um, though I love Desplat's score, I definitely burst into tears when I heard the original John Williams theme during the epilogue. Hearing John Williams sort of sealed the ending; It all started with John Williams and ended with John Williams. It was the perfect way to bring it to a full circle.
• I'm one of the HP epilogue-lovers *ducks from flying shoes* so I enjoyed how the epilogue played out here. I think they did good job aging the actors, and Albus Severus was adorable. (A couple of people did snort when Harry said his name, though.) :) I just wished it was longer though. Another two minutes wouldn't have hurt...
• Who else liked the Chocolate Frog jumping out the window like it did in the first movie? :) The little references to the other movies made me happy.

There's so much more I could talk about, but ah, I think I shall end here. :D

I think they ended the series in the best possible way. It still amazes me that they kept the series going for 10 years with almost the same cast and crew they started with. It was breathtaking really. This is a bit late, but thank you to all the directors, the crew who brought the world alive, and of course the actors, Daniel, Emma, Rupert, and all the supporting actors for bringing the characters, the ones we love or love to hate, alive. And of course, thank you JK Rowling for putting everything in motion. :D

Geekiness Alert: After discussing with friends and brother, we all realized that instead of comparing Voldemort with Darth Vader/Anakin, it should be Snape vs. Darth Vader.

Voldemort = Emperor Palpatine! Full character discussions likely to come soon. :D

Geekiness Alert over.

Tuesday Tribulations and Miscellany

the tribulations:

1) The release of Bridge of Clay by the awesome, clever, brilliant, awesome Markus Zusak has been delayed (yet again). I've read that it's supposed to come out this September (September 1st to be exact!), but it doesn't even have an amazon page yet. A little puzzled when I saw, I searched and searched the web until I came upon this answer about the book by Doubleday (Markus Zusak's publishing company).

If you don't feel like pressing the link, I'll spare you the news quickly: We now have to wait until 2013 for the book. Nooooooooooooo.

2) I landed on a spoilery review for Goliath. NOOOOOOOOOO The review though was only mildly spoilery, and my eyes only caught one thing before my mouse clicking reflexes started working again and I clicked out of the page. Of course, that one thing ended up being something something I was looking forward to seeing. EPIC FAIL.

I learned my lesson. I'm never ever ever going to look up reviews for it anymore.

Please excuse me while I weep and gnash my teeth on the other side of the room.

the miscellany:

1) Bill Gates read (and really liked) the Hunger Games. No really, it's true. That's pretty cool, yes? :)

2) I want to watch Super 8 sometime before it leaves the theater because it seems like the type of movie that should be seen in theaters.

A little tidbit about this movie which got me waayyy too over eager to see it: it's called Super 8 because the kids are shooting a film with a super 8 camera. (I like cleverly named movies.)

I should also mention that it came out on my birthday. That little birthday fact could be playing a big role in my increasing want to see the film more than other reasons. Heh...because really, when's the next time that a Steven Spielberg movie (a critically successful one at that too) is ever going to come out on my birthday?! ;)

3) It's happening again. Articles similar to the the Harry Potter farewell/in memoriam/good-bye articles that came out during the release of Deathly Hallows are now slowly coming out day by day.

The site I really want to point to for this is Tor, for their insightful and profound homages to JK Rowling and HP several of its bloggers are writing (as part of their Harry Potter celebration, Potterpalooza).

They're all worth a read, but some of my favorite essays are:

Bouncy Prose and Distant Threats: An Appreciation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's (or Sorcerer's) Stone

Mischief Managed: An Appreciation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Rewatching the Potter Films: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Genre in the Mainstream: The Literary Merits of Potter

The Boy Who Lived...With His Gran

Growing Up Potter

And though this essay's not part of the HP celebration, it's HP related and I've been wanting to link it since forever so, here you go:

Ron Weasley, Romantic Hero?

I would also suggest taking the time to read the comments too. Most of them are just as thought-provoking and touching as the essays themselves. :)

Hope everyone is having a good (and hopefully tribulation-less) Tuesday!

And the Oscar for Best Animated Feature of 2012 goes to...

Thanks to Shanella and Pixar (on twitter) for letting me know that the first official teaser poster for Pixar's 2012 release Brave came out! It's beautiful and intense. The title design, the lighting/sun/sky behind the title design- I'm rendered speechless.

From just the teaser poster and the concept art, it looks like the film will be sort of like Pixar + How to Train Your Dragon + Braveheart + Tim Burton all put in a blender to create a perfect mix of animation + story. :D

And let's see...since this is a Pixar movie:

• It's going to be a treat visually (If the poster can give me chills because of how stunning it looks I'm sure the movie's going to be 100 times more stunning!)
• characters are going to pretty awesome
• the story will probably make us tear up at least a little bit at the end (or as in the case of UP, maybe in the first 5 min)

This is definitely going to be a must see next summer! It really does look fantastic. So fantastic that I'm going to predict that this movie's going to be #5 on my best Pixar movies list! (#5 because Monster's Inc, Toy Story, Ratatouille, and the Incredibles are non-negotiable in my world).

The one thing I'm not looking forward to is the debating that starts whenever a Disney movie comes out. The debates are usually about two things: Princesses and Pixar vs. Disney. (When it comes to Disney princesses and fictional princesses in general, I agree with Meg Cabot. When it comes to the Pixar vs. Disney feud, I think that Pixar rocks and I can never NOT like classic Disney animation soo it's a draw between them for me.)

Hm, I can imagine the headlines already:

"FINALLY Because of Pixar, We Have A Princess We Can All Root For"

"Pixar's Brave Princess Braver than Disney's"

"Brave's Princess is how an animated role model should be"

"Pixar's Scottish Princess Takes the Cake For Best Animated Princess"

"Pixar Princess Beats Disney's Tangled Princesses"

...and etc.

(No, of course I'm not still sore about the Academy Award's Tangled snub...and Tangled's loss to Toy Story 3 for Best Song. Ha ha, what's makes you think that?!).

If anyone's going to see Cars 2 this weekend, have fun seeing the teaser trailer for Brave!

So the Hunger Games Cast Came Out...

So, I've been somewhere else for a while (and totally skipped writing in March-oops) working on the usual- schoolwork, tennis, final exams, worrying about college, and whatnot, but I had to come back to lay out my thoughts about some important news here:

The Hunger Games movie has been cast (but just the main trio though)...

and it was announced back in March that Jennifer Lawrence will be playing Katniss Everdeen!

I’m absolutely thrilled about it because a) She CAN ACT (as seen in Winter’s Bone- Her character is actually very similar to Katniss’s in the movie, and she’s gotten numerous awards/nominations/*Oscar nomination for Best Actress* for the role), b) She went through a grueling audition with Gary Ross, the film’s director, and she passed, so obviously she captured Katniss pretty well, and c) Suzanne Collins thinks she’s awesome.

Yes, I'm very excited to see her as Katniss. :D

Then, just last Monday, castings for Peeta and Gale came out! Peeta will be played by Josh Hutcherson (left), and Gale will be played by Liam Hemsworth:

The good news is that when I read about casting is that I didn’t cry out/scream “What?!!!!” like I did when the Percy Jackson movie casting was released a couple years ago. My first thought was, “Okay, this can work."

And after thinking about it for a while (and seeing fan art), I believe that it actually can.***

I actually don’t know anything about Liam except for the fact that he acted besides Miley Cyrus in the Last Song and I haven’t seen that, so I can’t say anything about his acting, but I think he has the-Gale-look. He’s tall, lean-ish, has a rugged look about him, and I can totally imagine him with black hair, leather-soled boots, hunting gear, and squirrels and rabbits strapped to his belt and around his shoulders, and walking around looking a bit solemn. (And he and Jennifer Lawrence look like cousins! Yay!)

Now about Josh Hutcherson...It’s been amusing, but a little bit more shocking/disturbing to see all the hate he’s been getting (more than the other cast members) because he’s Peeta and not Hunter Parrish or Alex Pettyfer. So I really wanted Hunter to get the role, but for more superficial reasons. (I mean, he LOOKS THE PART already.) But thinking about it now, I'm really happy that Josh got the role, even though he doesn't look like Peeta, who by the way (to non-Hunger Games fans), looks like this:

JH is basically the exact opposite of who Peeta is physically. He’s got brown eyes instead of blue, really dark brown hair instead of blonde, and OMG his hair is definitely not falling in waves over his forehead. But who really looks like Peeta anyway except Hunter Parrish?

The good things about Josh: He's a little more stocky than the others, but that’s what Peeta’s described as right? Stocky not lean. Medium height. Strong enough to haul 100 lb flour bags arond. Soft-looking. Boyish. Not a pretty pretty boy. JH fits each requirement perfectly. All I have to say about his dark hair and brown eyes is that if the LOTR makeup crew transformed dark-brown haired Orlando Bloom into white-blonde haired Legolas convincingly, I have no doubt that the HG makeup crew will be able to do the same.* (There’s nothing a little Hollywood make-up and magic won’t fix!)

About his acting, I’ve seen Josh Hutcherson in almost every movie he’s been in (Zathura, Journey to the Center of the Earth, etc) and he’s a great actor (which is probably why I’m not worried about his casting). He knows about emotions, he knows how to be charismatic, and he’s good with action sequences, so there's no way he won't be able to pull Peeta's role acting-wise. JH beat out Hunter and Pettyfer (and......everyone else who auditioned), so he was much better at being Peeta than everyone else. Gary Ross and Suzanne Collins both said that they knew that he’s perfect for Peeta, that he was their first choice, and that he had great chemistry with Jenn in the screen tests, and I believe them and I have faith in Josh. He wanted this role badly, and he got it, so we should give him a chance and see what he’ll do with the character.**

No director or author wants to purposefully ruin their story, and it sounds like the HG movie team is trying to make the best movie they can. The whole cast (so far) is enthusiastic about their characters and the series (especially Josh :P), they know how big this series is and how much responsibility just landed on their shoulders to get everything right, and since Gary Ross promised to dye each character’s hair their respective hair colors, I don’t think we have anything to worry about. So...thinking optimistically, JH, Jenn, and Liam will of course blow our minds away when we see the movie opening weekend March 2012 of course.***

Meanwhile, we should trust Gary Ross's vision for the movie. He and his crew know more than us about what's going to happen. (Now I'm really excited about the trailer! :D)

Thoughts, complaints, revelations, etc about the Hunger Games movie or something of the sort? Write away below in the comments. :D

*Hey HG Makeup Crew! *Waves* If you guys are reading this somehow, you know I’ve put a lot of expectations on you. Sorry about that, but you will be able to change JH’s hair right? And make sure his hair is falling over his forehead in waves right? Because that’s sort of important to the HG fandom (*cough* and me *cough*). If you don’t change his hair, there’s going to be a lot of angry fans...

** Disclaimer #1: I am NOT JH’s agent who stole Nonie’s Blogger account to put her client in a positive light or a devoted JH fangirl (definitely NOT the latter!). I just think he shouldn’t be judged so quickly and be given a chance. He won over Suzanne Collins (and Peeta’s her character), so who knows? Maybe by the time we see Josh in March, we'll all be saying,"Hunter Who?"

*** If the movie doesn’t turn out so well, and everyone ends up being horrible, then that just means I wasted the whole post (hopefully) boosting everyone's morale about it, but I actually think it’ll turn out well. I think Suzanne Collins being in the movie crew will mean that the movie will go in the right direction and it certainly looks like it is so far. :)

P.S./Disclaimer #2: If the movie doesn't end up being too good, and you've raised your expectations about the movie because of this post, but are disappointed in March, then I am not to be blamed. Personal opinions are opinions of that person alone, and I am just stating mine. Heh.

Linky Links

Just some links I’ve been wanting to share (some for a looong time):

Stephanie Perkins’ post about her journey as a writer is so inspirational, and then Kiersten White’s post about dumb girls made me rethink some things...

Attolia fans: I found this page on the Queen’s Thief fansite, Sounis, that shows the gorgeous concept art for the Conspiracy of Kings cover. It’s amazing to see how much work goes through making the physical book itself and be able to look behind-the-scenes.

Dean Hale (Shannon Hale’s husband) wrote this heartwarming post on his blog, Dread Crumbs.

Congrats to Shannon Hale herself, for being mentioned on NPR on her birthday! :)

Choco, in In Which a Girl Reads recently wrote about her favorite underappreciated books. Mine? The Courageous Princess by Rod Esponisa (a lovely graphic novel), Sammy Keyes (my favorite mysteries when I was in middle school but no one seems to have read these!), and basically the rest of Wendelin Van Draanen’s novels. What are yours?

Scott Westerfeld put up some footage of a real Tasmanian Tiger. It's strange to think that they're not really roaming around Australia anymore.

Want to know what books topped the NY Times bestsellers list during the week of your birthday? Find out on Biblioquest’s International! Some bestselling books on my list are The Chamber by John Grisham, Disclosure by Michael Crichton, and Beyond Peace by Richard Nixon. :D What books came out during your birthday week?

James Dashner's right. I really, really liked the King’s Speech. Yeah, I’m jumping on the bandwagon, because wow, everything was just so elegant: the acting, cinematography, the music...

Speaking of the King’s Speech, the Oscar/Academy Awards nominations came out a couple days ago if you haven’t seen them yet. The nominees aren’t as predictable as I thought they would be, so I’m really looking forward to February 27th now. ;)

But it looks like the academy made a huge mistake with the Best Animated Feature category because why isn’t TANGLED there??!? I mean, Toy Story 3 is going to win anyway, but a nomination is a nomination, and it was a critical and box-office success! (And...I unquestionably adored every bit of it.) It deserves a nomination! :(

*sigh*

Anywho, in a somewhat related note, Meg Cabot back in December wrote about the Princess Thing. It’s worth reading. :D

Anddd, that’s all for now. Ciao for now! I'll have a review of Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly very soon...

-Nonie

Which Disney Princess Are You?

It's a tie!

	You are part Cinderella. You are hard-working and never complain, however, your trust is sometimes misplaced and people sometimes take advantage of you. Still, you are beautiful inside and out, and one day you will realize it and find true love.
	You are part Pocahontas. You defy convention and sometimes do what is considered taboo. Unfortunately, others do not always appreciate your differences, so it's good that you are so strong-willed. You are loyal and you believe in fate. Your true love will find you one day.

Wow, I wasn't expecting that! I would've liked to be Ariel or Belle, but Cinderella and Pocahontas do sound like me, pretty much. I think I'm more like Cinderella than Pocahontas though, but I like them both!

(more awesome quizzes @ brainfall.com)