Autumn Adventures

This Thanksgiving, I'm grateful for all the fun and adventure that has been thrown my way since I moved to New York. Life has been exceptionally eventful lately, so here are some of my favorite reasons why I've been way too busy to update this blog.

1. Earlier this month, I traveled to Greece with a few family members. While there, we ate obscene amounts of food, explored ancient temples and monasteries, and even stumbled upon long lost distant relatives we never knew existed. The above picture is of a monastery in Meteora, near the village where my mom’s family came from. I’ve never had any interest in being a nun before, but the scenery almost made me consider it.

2. Before my travels, I met JK Rowling, my writing idol and the queen of my childhood. Somehow, I managed to score a ticket to her only promotional event in North America for her new book, The Casual Vacancy. I really only had about ten seconds with her during the signing, but I blurted out something about how much she has inspired my writing, and she thanked me graciously. The picture is blurry, because I was too busy focusing on not peeing my pants in excitement to worry about a good photo. (But hey, I did better than the girl sobbing with joy in the lobby afterward).

3. Apparently the Gods of Fangirl-dom were smiling down upon me this month, because just days after the Rowling event, I also met Jake Gyllenhaal after a performance of his off-Broadway play, "If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet." For those of you who don’t know, I once wrote an embarrassing (but totally accurate) post about my love for Mr. Gyllenhaal. I’d had the honor of being in his presence once before, but this time we actually spoke. While he may have looked like a hairy hobo with that ridiculous beard, he was quite the gentleman, and even took a picture for me since I was juggling too many items. Sigh. Oh, and the play was good too.

4. And can we talk about all the great albums that have come out lately? I’m especially loving Green Day’s latest, Dos. Other notable albums include The Chevin’s Borderland and Pines by A Fine Frenzy. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Spoiler-free review of "Love and Other Drugs"

I finally saw Love and Other Drugs this weekend! (My journalism professors always taught me not to use exclamation points in my writing but I am so excited that I had to break the rule).

But my professors also told me to be upfront and honest about any biases so before I get too far into the review, here's my full disclosure: I totally intend on marrying Jake Gyllenhaal some day (you may remember a certain blog post where I declared these intentions to the world). As soon as our wedding is over, I am devoting my life to becoming best friends forever and ever with Anne Hathaway. So yeah, I may be a little biased about the greatness of their new movie, Love and Other Drugs.

Okay, now on with the review. This movie is adorable, but a little heart-breaking at the same time. Yes, it's a romantic comedy but even my boyfriend thoroughly enjoyed it, and not just because there were lots of boobies. (Don't worry though - for every boob shot, there's some naked Jake to satisfy all the ladies and gay men, of course). I'm not going to get too hung up on the nudity here though, because if you read any other reviews of this movie, that's pretty much all they talk about. Yes, it's there but there's more to this movie than hot bodies.

What the reviews don't discuss is how deeply moving the story is. Maggie (Anne Hathaway), struggles with stage 1 Parkinson's Disease. One particular scene, with Maggie off her meds, made me tear up a little and I (almost) never cry at movies. Another scene involving Jamie (Jake Gyllenhaal) at a Parkinson's convention is possibly one of the most powerful scenes of the film. I'm staying vague here because I promised to be spoiler-free, but the point I'm trying to make is that the Parkinson's aspect of the film is seriously played down in the trailers but it is ultimately what differentiates Love and Other Drugs from other Hugh Grant types of chick flicks.

Jake and Anne being adorable, as usual.

But let's not forget about how hilarious this movie manages to be, despite all the tears and emotion. As a diehard Jake fan, I've watched him play characters that are vulnerable, like to brood and often commit suicide. He plays those dark roles wonderfully but it is so refreshing to see him unleashing his whacky sense of humor as a suave ladies man. I hope we see this side of him a bit more frequently now. And of course, Anne is as fabulous as always. The fact that this movie is basically a 90s period piece also allows for some good jokes; the opening scene involves a Spin Doctors' song and Jamie selling boom boxes, and it only gets better from there (we're talking pagers, Viagra, a quick shot of Jake doing the macarena and a rockin' soundtrack).

Josh Gad (left) was hilarious as Jamie's brother, but let's be real here: they're really supposed to be related? Did the casting director have eyes?

Sure, there are a few clichés throughout the film but the overall fresh take on love, the fantastic cast and the emotional story make it completely worthwhile. Love and Other Drugs is bittersweet, and it will make you laugh, cry and totally wish Anne and Jake would date in real life.

Yeah that's right, don't even try to tell me this isn't worth 9 bucks.

If Jake Gyllenhaal ever somehow reads this post, I will totally deny that I wrote it.

Photo courtesy of IHeartJake.com

Back when I was a freshman in high school, my friend Laura made me watch Donnie Darko for the first time. Little did she know that she was about to change my world forever. As a hormonal and boycrazy teenage girl, I was immediately enamored the movie's star, Jake Gyllenhaal.

Now, eight years later, not much has changed. Sure, I have a wonderful boyfriend who I love very much now, but in all fairness, Jake was in my life first. And yeah, I could give you some more intelligent reasons for why Jake is one of my favorite actors other than "omg he's so cute!!" but I won't get into it here. Overall, my admiration has just grown stronger. This is true love here, people.

So anyway, a few weeks ago my friend Ali forwarded me this email:

After reading, I had a slight heart attack, argued with myself about being logical (shouldn't spend more money when I have terrifying student loans looming over my head) and following my heart (it's TRUE LOVE, c'mon!) In the end, of course I could not resist and so we bought tickets. Next thing I knew, it was Saturday night and Ali and I were sitting in the theater, right in the center, three rows from the front.

The event was fantastic. I know I've been sarcastic and poking fun at myself throughout this post, but I mean this part in complete seriousness. The event was put on by the New Yorker, so I admittedly felt out of place in such a potentially pretentious crowd, but everyone was so pleasant. Jake is such a charming, classy and down-to-earth guy. For example, when director Ed Zwick first came up, they didn't have a chair for him and Jake immediately offered to stand and leapt to his feet. (Don't worry, they found an extra chair.) Plus, he's hilarious. If you haven't seen interviews with him before, get to Youtube right now - after you finish reading my post, of course.

The New Yorker's film critic, David Denby, started out asking Jake questions about growing up in a show business family and about college. Then the questions moved on to different points of his career, starting with City Slickers, and touching on films like Donnie Darko, Brokeback Mountain and Zodiac (they showed clips from all three). Jake discussed how he chooses movies that make him feel something when he reads the script ("At the end of reading Love and Other Drugs, I was crying. At the end of reading Brokeback Mountain, I was crying. At the end of Donnie Darko, I was throwing up.") He discussed how he makes decisions about his character, different parts of the acting process, etc.

They were discouraging camera use but pfff, like that would stop me:

Then they started talking about Love and Other Drugs, Jake's new movie which will come out in November. Now, I normally try and act like I don't care about romantic comedies (even when I totally do) but let me just say, I am so excited for this movie. Besides, it's supposed to actually be good, so hopefully I won't regret admitting this later. Anyway, during this part, director Ed Zwick came up. He seemed like a chill guy, so I liked him.

Then it was time for the audience to ask questions (props to that girl who declared Bubble Boy as her favorite movie!), and then sadly, time to leave. One lucky old man managed to lean across the stage and shake Jake's hand before he left, but that was it. (Okay I confess, I was seething with jealousy. Lucky bastard.)

Oh and finally, about the beard. I hate it in pictures but it is honestly more forgivable in person. Jake's beauty shines through all the fur. But still, the dude needs a razor right away.

So Ali and I went home, giddy and disbelieving that the night had actually happened. Now that it's over, I am seeing the world in a whole new way. It's like Jake's brilliant beauty has made everything else seem a little bit duller. I look forward to our wedding. (Just kidding. Maybe.)

Slight change of plans

I've got some THRILLING new for you all. I've decided to broaden the focus of this blog a little bit. I will still post mostly about music but I'm also going to talk about other entertainment and pop culture topics as well. I've been contemplating this for a little while, just to spice things up a bit, and then this weekend, I saw Jake Gyllenhaal IN THE FLESH and now I need a place to write about it.

So hold on to your butts and I'll be posting about Gylls soon.