Lately I've been having the strangest dreams, many of them quite violent. I blame it on my recent consumption of several Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes, but normally that sort of thing doesn't bug me. Then again, I think vampires movies and such are sucking my soul from me. Or maybe that's just the Twilight series....anyway, these dreams have me wondering whether I have a seriously disturbed subconscious or something.
Dream #1: I had a dream that a ninja-like man was throwing knives at me. I was dodging them, then I caught one and threw it back at him, successfully hitting him in the stomach and killing him. I'm not sure if I've ever killed someone in a dream before.
Dream #2: I was on a boat with some people and a girl slipped and her head went down into the water where the propellers are and she came back up without a head...it was gross and rather bloody.
Dream #3: I was on a plane, but there were no seats - just a swimming pool. A really deep one. They announced over the PA that everyone had to swim for the entire flight. We were all in the pool, swimming around, when people started disappearing. There was a whale in the tank with us, and it was eating people. I was swimming all over, trying not to get eaten, but not able to break the rules and get out of the pool.
Odd much? I never have violent dreams like these. After having these dreams I made a decision. No more Buffy. It was kind of a hard decision for me to make. I want to see what happens between her and Angel. I know what happens (I read it on wikipedia) but I want to see it happen, ya know? Oh well. I made a pact with myself. It has now been two weeks since I last watched Buffy, and I have not had a violent dream since. No more vampires for Jenny (excepting, of course, Mr. Vampire, the Hong Kong Kung Fu vampire movie). I had already long ago given up Twilight (I won't rant about what I dislike about the series here, but perhaps someday it will come out). It's kind of a bummer because Buffy is actually a really well-made show. I'll just have to stick to David Boreanaz in Bones then. Not a bad option :).
I had another odd dream last night though...I had just finished watching
Baby Mama with my mom. And in the past week I've watched both
Look Who's Talking and
Look Who's Talking Too. Maybe that's why last night I dreamed that I was pregnant. It was so odd. I didn't feel any different than I do now - I just had a rather large baby bump. And then I went into labor, but there was no pain. I was just chilling in a hospital room, waiting for the doctor to come deliver my baby. But there were no contractions and I was totally calm. There was no father of my baby. I didn't see or think about one the entire time. It was definitely weird.
New topic of conversation: what is it with guys and their cars? I mean seriously. I can understand being fond of your car - naming it, talking to it, these are things that I do. I name nearly all of my inanimate objects (Tom the iPod, Sophie the laptop, Harold the Printer, etc). But guys seem to have a deeper connection with their car. It like it's their girlfriend. Some guys treat their cars better than their actual girlfriends. They pour hundreds of dollars into it to make it bigger or faster or better. I have yet to meet a girl who does the same with her car. I'm just happy that my truck runs and has air conditioning. Boys like to take apart their cars and put them back together again. They're always looking for the next best thing for their car - bigger tires, a bigger subwoofer, a more powerful engine, more speed, a DVD player, a GPS - the list goes on and on. I do understand why they do it I guess. Their car is a big toy for them that they can show off to all the other boys. It makes me laugh though because I don't know many girls who are severely impressed by a majorly pimped out car. It's kind of like how a guy isn't really impressed by a girls' clothing. Sure, they like girls to look nice (and girls appreciate it when a guy has a nice car) but when it comes to the nitty gritty details boys could care less about what a girl wears. It's all about showing off for the other boys or the other girls. Sure, as in everything, there are exceptions. I'm sure there are girls that are way into cars, and perhaps that makes them more attractive to guys. There are guys that are way into clothes too - I'm not sure if that trait makes a guy more attractive though. But sometimes I look at the cars some people drive and the clothes some people wear (including myself) and think, "wow, you could feed an entire family in Africa with the money you poured into that." It's all about moderation, isn't it? Taking care of yourself and taking car of others in the best way you possibly can.
Summer is time for movie discovery, and this summer I have found several new favorites. In theaters, I fell in love with
Toy Story 3 and
Knight and Day. I loved them both for very different reasons because they're obviously very different movies.
Toy Story 3 made me cry - and that's not an easy thing to do! I sobbed towards the end. That is one powerful piece of work. The Toy Story movies have been especially fun for me because they have been released for the most part in tandem with events in my life. The first one came out when I was little, Andy's age, and Andy's world with his toys was very much similar to mine. I went through
Toy Story 2 in the following years when it was released. Then, as Andy leaves for college and has to leave his toys behind, I find myself away at college too. It's been fun to experience that, much like how the Harry Potter books and movies have been released at appropriate ages for me. I still remember being at Quickwater girls camp in the summer when HP 6 (the book) came out. Harry received his OWL results and I received my AP test results. We were both 16. It was awesome. I guess Toy Story is just another essential aspect of my childhood, like my good friend Harry Potter. Now,
Knight and Day was an entirely different movie. No, it wasn't perfect. But I had so much fun watching it that it didn't matter. There were moments when they hit their target dead on. I love Tom Cruise as an action hero, especially when it's a bit tongue-in-cheek.
However, the biggest summer movie discovery made I owe all to Netflix. They recommended it, and at first I wasn't interested. Their little one sentence blurb did not do it justice. I decided to watch it, still going through my 80s phase, and I will forever be grateful. The film was
Crossing Delancey. Now, this movie got me emotionally involved in a way that I haven't been in a long time. I dunno, maybe it's because I was watching it at 3 AM after a long night of editing. However, I watched it again the next day...and the next...and the next, and I think I have watched it a total of 6 or 7 times in the past two weeks - it has never gotten old. I could still watch it again. And I probably will.
What is so great about
Crossing Delancey? Let me 'xplain. Firstly, it was once a play. That usually means that the dialogue is awesome, and it holds true in
Crossing Delancey. I find myself thinking in its quotes all the time. The characters are vivid and lovable, even if they're infuriating or despicable. That is good writing right there - if you can make the villain delightfully horrible, then you know you've got it good. I call him the villain, but really he's not that - he's just a slime ball. Now, good dialogue falls flat if you don't have a superb cast to deliver it.
Crossing Delancey's biggest strength is the performance of its actors. Amy Irving is wonderful as Izzy (I call that name, by the way - from henceforth none of my siblings can name their children Izzy or any delineation thereof), and I found myself identifying with her and at the same time finding her infuriating - does that say something about me? The supporting cast is marvelous, but my favorite part of the film and perhaps the biggest reason I can keep watching it is Peter Riegert's performance. He plays Sam, the man Izzy should choose to be with. His performance is spot on - I watch scenes just to see his facial expressions. He is charming and unassuming. And since I have been on a bit of a Peter Riegert streak (surprise surpise). I have since watched him in
Local Hero, which was also a very good performance, bits of
Oscar with Sylvester Stallone, and in the role probably most people I know would recognize him in, the police lieutenant in
The Mask with Jim Carrey. I just love him as an actor. I discovered that he is in a version of
Gypsy with Bette Midler and I have been trying to find a copy of it but I can't seem to get my hands on it. He plays Rose's boyfriend and even sings in it - I can't wait to see it. I'm just going to have to wait until Netflix provides it for me I guess. His performance in
Crossing Delancey is what sold the movie to me. I'm pretty sure that I would marry his character in a second, that is if he converted to Mormonism :)
Now, I know most of you who read my blog are probably friends and family who read to hear about my life, not my movie obsessions. Since it is summer, though, my movie obsessions are much of me. Ask my roommate Bonnie - she's witnessed this whole 80s/
Crossing Delancey phase first hand. She even watched
Crossing Delancey with me. The movies I like say something about who I am. I think that's true of everyone. When you identify with something, the way I identify with
Crossing Delancey, there's some truth in that movie that resonates in your life too. People who enjoy romantic comedies like them because they want that sort of romance to happen to them, or they have a romance that they see elements of in the movie. I dunno, maybe I like
Crossing Delancey because I secretly want to be Jewish (culturally, not religiously. I definitely am a Mormon and will never be anything else). Or maybe I just think Peter Riegert is really cute in the movie. I do think that, but I think it's something more. I think that I am at a point in my life where I am having to come to terms with my imaginations of who I should be with - the romantic writer who says all the right things and has the right lifestyle - and the reality of who I should be with - the down-to-earth, real guy. I am not in a relationship right now, but I think this has been a common issue with me and who I date. I often like the guys that would never go for me and ignore the good ones that are interested. And sometimes I wish I could hire a marriage broker, as Izzy's Bubby tries to do in the movie. It's like it's said in the third Twilight movie - the advice that Bella stupidly ignores and the reason I don't like the books or movies - "You have to learn to love what's good for you." I think we all go through periods of our lives where we have to learn this lesson.
Anyways, that was probably more than any of you wanted to know....but that's my life, so deal with it :)
