dear miramax,

You were well respected while the Weinstein brothers owned you. Your children were purely driven by faith and beauty, and I loved you for it. You taught me how to to expand my creative vision without any fears. You produced heroes out of the obscure, the wallflowers, the unwanted. You were true to yourself, and made the best out of your name (and many others). I even considered naming my future babies Miriam and Max, because I'm such a loser.

Let's just remember your good years. We all knew your death was inevitable when those Disney assholes took over. They are just money-hungry people that use kids to bribe their parent's money. They've disgraced Walt's name. Don't worry, I will continue to love your films with all my heart. And I might still suggest your parents' names to my pregnant friends. Maybe.

Rest in peace.

Glass (clink!)

Over a year ago, I designed a portrait poster of one of my favorite mucisians, Philip Glass.

And tonight, I was able to give it to him in person =D (while being a couple feet away from Ira!).

A Behanding in Spokane

Martin McDonagh has a new play coming out. It's Reason #1539 why this year is starting off so great. We got tickets to find Walken's missing hand. I AM ECSTATIC.


Christopher Walken, Sam Rockwell

Goin' Home

I'm a sucker for mellow playlists.
Great film, great soundtrack.

Most Listened of 2009

Here are the top 15 songs of 2009. Not necessarily the best, mostly addictive. I gathered them from Itunes (work & home), Last.fm, and Pandora. Not sure if I've been listening to a lot more or a lot less music this year. I find radio shows the best to listen to while working. Time goes by faster. This coming Friday will be my last concert of the year (Fanfarlo). First 2010 concert will be Owen Pallett aka Final Fantasy. Whoo hoo!



1. Au Revoir Simone- All or Nothing
2. Andrew Bird- Oh No
3. Phoenix- Liztomania (Rome and Countdown came close)
4. Neko Case- People Got a Lotta Nerves
5. Great Lake Swimmers- Various Stages
6. Samamidon- Tribulation
7. Dead Man's Bones- My Body's a Zombie for You
8. Fanfarlo- Fire Escape
9. M.Ward- Chinese Translation
10. Bowerbirds- In Our Talons
11. Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson- Relator
11. Fionn Regan- Put a Penny in the Slot
13. The Antlers- Kettering
14. The National- The Geese of Beverly Road
15. Megafaun- The Fade

Saturday Night

... Live marathon. Watching Best of Chris Farley.





Rip to both amazing dancers.

My New Muse

The Mandolin! Most of my relationships with the string family disappointedly became summer flings. I hope this one won't! Fortunately, winter is almost here. I decided that this mandolin will be a girl. Named Eliza, as in Doolittle.

Classic Ariels

Extremely excited to see Neko Case on Monday. Why are red heads so awesome? If only my Irish boyfriend was a ginger...

Neko Case, Christina Hendricks [Mad Men], Woody Allen, David Bowie (a few among many greats).

hit replay

Pat and I were shopping last night and decided to go to this Vietnamese restaurant. It was actually where we had our first date. We haven't been there since.

And it just so happened that we were both wearing the EXACT SAME OUTFITS as last time. Him in his gray polo and jeans, me in my b/w plaid dress. Whoa...

-
In other news, Dead Man's Bones is playing at LPR tonight.

In Cahoots

The MoMa is presenting a retrospective on the works of Spike Jonze until October 18th.

Last night I attended a tribute to Maurice Sendak at the museum. They screened a short documentary titled Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait on Maurice Sendak. It's a home-video styled film Spike Jonze made while visiting Maurice's house in Connecticut. Spike came up and introduced a bit before the screening. While he was speaking, I realized that the night wasn't about the celebrated works of Maurice Sendak. The night was in tribute to a great friendship developed through the love of creation between these two artists.

Spike loves Maurice so much that he wanted to share a piece of it. Inside of Maurice's home is filled with tiny little pieces of his life. He still keeps all the hand-made toys he built as a little boy. The toys are about 70 years old now and still cared for with tenderness. Maurice is very honest when it comes to death. He has been obsessed with it since the time he was 4 years old when the Lindbergh kidnapping took place. It was when Maurice accidentally saw a published photo of the baby corpse that he realized how fragile life is. This early acknowledgement of death created a dark sense a maturity that centers who he is as an artist.

After the documentary, Maurice Sendak and Spike Jonze came onstage for a conversation.  Maurice told long stories about the people and friendships he misses. He talked about how he never intended Where the Wild Things Are to be a children's book. He spoke about the people and critics that hated him for it. Maurice also remembers being personally insulted by a famous psychologist at how corrupt the book is. Ironically this psychologist committed suicide a few years later. It makes me wonder where the hate comes from in the angry mothers and church groups that threatened Maurice. And why they are vehemently against any one's own right to self-express? Sigh, a simple question with its long string of complexities.

Maurice was hilarious with his usual sarcasm and wit. But he was also extremely serious when it came to making life his art (and vice versa). His work is made up of his loved ones. His memories live within the illustration of the characters he create. It was almost painful listening to Maurice being light about death. He knows that his time is ticking and still have many things he wants to do. Seeing him scrambling and coughing up with tears in the end made me feel guilty. It also helped me realize why it was important for Spike Jonze to film this documentary; to share Maurice Sendak with us.

"... an isolation of life, doing books, doing pictures and it's the only true happiness I ever enjoyed in my life. It's sublime. To just go into another room and make pictures. It's magic time. Where all your weaknesses of characters and blemishes of personalities and whatever else torments you fades away... I'm trying very hard to concentrate on what is here. What I can see, what I can smell, what I can feel. Making that the important business of life."