Things I Love: General Assembly (August - October 2010)

[EDIT: I am editing this post before publishing and OMGWTF THIS IS HUGE. /]

It's been far too long since I've done one of these proper, so right this very moment I am sending out my unabashed enthusiasm, love, and appreciation to the Universe for giving me these (this is going to be massive, guys, like MASSIVE):

• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, every time I reread it
• Spenser, whose dad introduced me to the world of possibility that is... LACTASE PILLS!
• Ghirardelli Square, the Earthquake we ordered, the big slide at Yerba Buena, caramel apples, Jon, Sesh, Scott, Carrie, Steven, George, and Stephanie

Earthquake, pre-devouring. (Pictures courtesy of George, who has no idea I am using them.)

Earthquake, post-devouring.

Carrie gives us direction (in life).

We are not going to talk about how long it took to get this picture. We can, however, acknowledge the fact that Sesh is being more Asian than all of us (and trust me, we're all Asian - even Stephanie), and that Ben, Jay, and Eric are conspicuously missing from this picture, although maybe that's a good thing because I don't think we could've fit.

Speaking of Eric,

Thank you for the history lesson, Eric. I can't believe trollface was incorporated into my computer science lecture slides.

Key caps, which were invented so that people don't have to cover their keys with Post-It notes. (Ahem, George.)

LAST SALUTE TO OUR RINGLEADER PROFESSOR LECTURER FRIEND :(
...I notice my slip-shorts are showing here too.

This is too clever and too cute to not include.

• phở (orthography for the win!)
  
• discovering what an allergic reaction feels like (call it morbid curiosity, or the curiosity of a writer... you know, Thoreau's whole "How vain it is to sit down to write if you have not stood up to live.")
• Bobby, Ben, Bobert (I cannot stop laughing at this), and Lasertag
• thrifting at thrift prices (not you, marked-up Buffalo Exchange and Crossroads merchandise!)
• Bobby for being slightly offensive and very entertaining, and for accompanying me back to my side of campus so I wouldn't have to walk alone
  
• Gasland, a documentary about natural gas and water pollution, which, though terribly paced, was, overall, very informative and interesting

• emails that make me feel all warm and fuzzy and embarrassed
• beginning-of-the-semester acappella concerts, which have apparently become a yearly tradition for my apartment

I love this.

Damn, look at those ladies.

Disclaimer: I am not religiously affiliated. Okay.

• Daniel!!! (Incidentally, he's in the last two videos above.)
  

Daniel Learns Implosives, 2010

• Kathleen and Mihran
• my math lecturers, who are both named David, and who both fall into the top-five-lecturers-I've-ever-had-at-Cal category
  
• that Meg discovered my blog by while Googling ways to grow out her short hair
• my computer science professor, who reminds me of a cross between Bill Nighy, Professor Snape, and something quirky and amusing, like a medieval knight eating meatless meatballs
  
• sushi with Ben and Jay
• Steven not-the-TA-Steven, Courtney the TA, and Kevin the TA
  
• Tonyyyy
• Jessie
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt doing a backflip off a wall
  

Your argument is invalid.

• my mini photo sesh with Brittany for Work It, Berk
• color schemes
• Stephanie's friend James
• Nuri! whom I haven't seen in ages
• Mysterious Skin

Just thinking about this movie makes me want to cry. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is really talented, in this very subtle, concentrated way. I think the only times I haven't loved his performances were when the scripts or characters weren't fantastic to start with, like in 500 Days of Summer (character... I'm totally going to get my head ripped off for this, but I think the characterization kind of sucked, or was uncooperative) and Inception (character again, but that's because there isn't much characterization in the film at all, but he works with what he's given really really well)

• penne with browned butter and corn and leeks
  
• that I have finally figured out that my answer to "Why art?" is "for helping me unearth what I can't articulate myself, for catharsis, because art hurts, but it also heals"
• Sunshine
• Inception, again, because my brother hadn't seen it, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and slim-cut suits
• The Cove

• 500 Days of Summer, which I decided to watch after realizing that JGL is kinda talented, and having my suspicions confirmed (although I'm going to put this out there: it's a very nicely done movie - it's nice to look at (and I don't just mean Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I'm including Zooey Deschanel and Matthew Gray Gubler. And the way time is handled, and the little animated bits, and the soundtrack, and the costumes, and how the "not a love story" plot does pretty well at hitting where it hurts, and how JGL turns into a GQMF once he starts loving himself), but I felt like the punchlines were only there to be punchlines with no greater purpose, and it could have been beautiful but turned out quirky and pretty good instead)
• the 500 Days of Summer soundtrack (Anisa, I totally agree. The music is So Good.)
  

If you've seen this movie and listening to Regina Spektor's "Us" doesn't make you want to ride a bike to the corner store and buy ice cream for a nickel, you were not held enough as a child.

If you've seen this movie and listening to Regina Spektor's "Hero" doesn't make you feel like your world is falling apart piece by heartbreaking piece, you don't have a heart (or else it would be breaking, duh).

If you've seen this movie and listening to Hall & Oates' "You Make My Dreams" doesn't sound like a Just Got Laid Parade theme song to you, you don't have a soul.

If you've seen this movie and listening to The Pixies' "Here Comes Your Man" doesn't make you want to drunk-karaoke with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, you're a straight male.

• 10 Things I Hate About You, because I was indeed on a Joseph Gordon-Levitt kick, and Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles are so cute, what the heck? (And it made me realize how AWESOME my linguistics professor was for referencing this movie in class.)

Thanks to Splicd for letting me clip this because why on earth does no one have this clip isolated on YouTube?! For search engine posterity... "I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?" "I think you can in Europe!"

• being ridiculously late to linguistics, but not later than Daniel
• getting ring-sized as a 5 or 5.5, and the sales assistant who said "Are you mother-daughter? Only a mother would say that" about my mom remarking on how unbelievably huge my feet are (I'm a 7.5. Really, Ma?)
• my new Miz Mooz oxfords
  
• parfaits
• my new HTC Aria
• lamb
• bright lipstick
• the fellow who graded my cellular automata Python project for patiently answering all my curiosity questions
• the Python tutor I decided to "try to attach myself to" as suggested in the self-paced courses orientation, because he was totally like "...Were you at Lasertag?"
• Sunshine, Aaron, Victoria, the 38L
• my brother, for coming home just for my birthday
• escargot
• garlic mashed potatoes and glazed carrots
• Brick, which I decided to watch because, um, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and which I discovered is really entertaining (SUCH A GOOD SCRIPT) because it's so stylized (in the tradition of film noir) that it's borderline cheesy but it somehow manages to toe the line of cheese without crossing it, and is instead just really fucking classy (also, you can kind of see some of Arthur in Brendan, which is JGL playing it straight, and JGL's crying makes my heart hurt, although it hurts more in Mysterious Skin)

Not to mention Joseph Gordon-Levitt totally reminds me of Darren Criss as Harry Potter because their mops of hair look identical.

• when I find my contacts after dropping them
• blog comments and emails :)
• Kim, Minnie, and Jessica, because sometimes I wake up to this:
  

HAHA I take it Kim reads this blog once in a while...

• Tylenol
• Mark
• Daniel and our library expedition
  
• what I refer to as "kitchen sink" soup
• poached peaches
  
• being able to breathe through my nose (one of those things you don't appreciate until you've had it taken away for a while)
• Quotenik
• curry of the variety that makes your nose run
• my brother, who taught me everything I know about being kind
• Garden State, because Natalie Portman is solid gold, Zach Braff for an achingly good soundtrack, and the slightly cheesy, very well-done script

• Glee in general, even if it's extremely cheesy (no "Grilled Cheezus" pun intended), for things like

HNNNNGGGG

DAMN, CHARICE.

Lea Michele is so pervy-hot.

I actually liked this cover more before the episode aired...

OMG SO PRECIOUS WHERE IS MY FAKE-BLOND NA'VI-SPEAKING FOOTBALL PLAYER?

• also, for Chord Overstreet's mouth holy shit that's huge
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• finding out Darren Criss is indeed going to be on Glee (OMG ONLY TWO OF MY FAVORITE THINGS EVER, COLLIDING INTO AN AGGLOMERATION OF TOTALLY AWESOME THIS CALLS FOR VIDEO SPAM)
  

I've seriously had this cover of "Belle" stuck in my head for two weeks straight.

I can't believe no one in the audience knew the lyrics to "Granger Danger"!!!

"The Coolest Girl" is my theme song.



I never watched "Duck Tales" as a kid, but this is super catchy.

Just some dude who makes weird covers of Disney songs, who does that? Muggles hate that shit. He's just a douchebag, he's like... I don't know, he's like Jesse McCartney.

• Speaking of Darren Criss's rendition of "Stutter" (which by the way was really catchy even as sung by Joe Walker as the must fucking terrifying version of Umbridge EVER in A Very Potter Sequel), I've found myself thinking "I'm really thankful for butter" more than once while cooking in the past few weeks...
  
• an academic plan that doesn't make me scared and full of loathing, that doesn't make me feel more useless and scared than excited, but does make me excited and a little bit scared
• Urban Decay 24/7 liner, which will rescue pretty much any post-crying mess
• Clueless, for 90s fashion, Paul Rudd, Alicia Silverstone, Brittany Murphy, and total cheese

• showers, which are incredible (again, something you only appreciate when you haven't had one in a while)
• pretending to be a T-Rex with Stephanie
  
• watching Everything Is Illuminated, because I rather like the soundtrack, and it makes me appreciate the book that much more, although I must say that this is the best introduction I have Ever seen, and it totally captures book!Alex:

• MEN. Because Tom Hardy has Lips©, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a GQMF, and Darren Criss's voice is like a Disney song laden with promises and innuendo. And sex. But first, I will have a slice of this:

[via Men In This Town]

And this fine specimen of a man:

BAM! You're pregnant.

The following interview with Tom Hardy makes me respect him so much, although I think the interviewer is kind of being a jerk because I think it's pretty obvious Tom kinda doesn't want to go there, but he keeps poking at him.

And he has the most bizarre, unplaceable accent:

For those of you too lazy to watch, here's an excerpt:

INTERVIEWER: How do you control your - your - the turmoil within?
TOM HARDY: Knitting.
INTERVIEWER: You're a knitter?
TOM HARDY: No.

INTERVIEWER: What would you like to knit first?
TOM HARDY: A hat.
INTERVIEWER: Nah, that's too boring.
TOM HARDY: Gloves?
INTERVIEWER: Nah.
TOM HARDY: A cat.

Before we start the Joseph Gordon-Levitt-lovin', we're gonna have to have some vintage!JGL up in here:

Rawr.

Don't worry; I'll tell you when JGL in a suit gets old.

This is precious.

I think the title says it all: Joseph Gordon-Levitt rolls down 53rd street in a giant plastic bubble.

And I think I've spammed you with enough Darren Criss for one post, though if you're like me and hardly ever click through people's embedded videos, the one thing I BEG YOU TO WATCH is Darren Criss's "Stutter." Because it will make you fall in love with him. Because he fucking WROTE THE SONG! AND THEN PLAYED IT! AND SANG IT! And impregnated you with his voice.

I feel better already.