been wondering where you are.

Been wondering where you are,
oh, sweet freedom of nothingness,
Been wondering if you'll come back,
oh, darling can't you remember why
we fell in love?
You said --
"I love you."
Three even heartbeats (and it's strange because i thought my heart would race)
later, i said
"i do, you know."

now i'm sitting up over our memories
and it's 10:56 at night
and i can't know the chill of your breath against my neck
and i can't see the sky of your eyes
if i do i'll lose myself and never want to find me again

----
too late, all lost

(500) Days of Summer: A Review

Meet Tom. He just met the girl of his dreams.
Meet Summer. She just met another average guy.
Credits to webomatica.com.

Ah, romantic comedies. So sweet! So happy! So...cheesy.
There is no need to worry too much about the cheese-overdose factor in (500) Days of Summer. There is a fair bit of the cheese, but this is moderated with a generous share of wit (think of it as good wine that pairs nicely with cheese). This is the classic boy-meets-girl tale (with excellent music) until we reach the pivotal scene in which Tom (the boy, played by the far-more-than "adequately handsome" Joseph Gordon-Levitt) smashes plates in his kitchen in a state of total depression after Summer (the girl, played by the quirky-sweet Zooey Deschanel) ends their relationship with the brutal one-liner "You're still my best friend!" From then on, it's incredibly easy to relate to heartbroken Tom, who morosely, and rather adorably, declares that "I don't want to get over her, I want to get her back."

(500) Days of Summer tells Tom's story in a twisting/turning non-linear narrative, jumping back and forth from day (1) to day (242) and back to day (39). This helps to relieve the saccharine quality of the material that the audience is watching--the "dates in the park, love scenes in the dark" type of fare--and keeps us riveted on the details of the story.

And what details! Everything from the setting to the supporting cast is thoughtfully designed. There are slow romantic scenes spiced with moments of hilarity and there are delightful secondary characters (Chloe Moretz plays the part of a smart-mouthed realist foil to Tom's sugary optimist).

Rachel Hansen, played by Chloe Moretz, gives big brother Tom a lesson in "getting-your-girl-before-she-finds-Lars-from-Norway".
 Credits to kimimimish.tumblr.com.

The protagonists themselves, too, are multidimensional and dynamic. Tom's a fledgling architect, so we see him draw his dream landscape on Summer's arm and paint his bedroom wall. He likes The Smiths and does a great karaoke version of The Pixies' "Here Comes Your Man". When asked if he really believes in love, he says, "It's love, not Santa Claus!" He also dances. Yup. He dances. Summer's a free spirit; she moves around when she feels like it and she wears the most beautiful dresses. She talks about reading Dorian Gray, and she quoted Belle and Sebastian in her high-school yearbook. We see Tom and Summer grow and change, see them in love and then disillusioned, and see them come out of their ordeal a little dented up, a lot changed, and we like them better for it. They are, by far, some of the most innately likable characters created by Hollywood in the last few years.

Last but not least, there's the soundtrack to this film. In one word? Phenomenal. With the head-bopping "You Make My Dreams" by Hall & Oates, the cheerfully realistic (and Canadian!) "Mushaboom" by Feist, and the oh-so-British "She's Got You High" by Mumm-Ra, this soundtrack's guaranteed to elicit a smile from the most miserly person you know. Go ahead, give it a try.

Hm. Pensive, profound thoughts going on?
Credits to 500days.com. 

Now I'm done ranting about how much I loved this movie, and now it's your turn to go watch it.

- (500) Days of Summer was produced by Marc Webb and distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures. I don't own (or claim to own) any of their material, which is protected by international copyright laws. Pictures used in this post also belong to their respective authors. 

favorite tunes

Carla Bruni, former First Lady of France, sings about a man named Raphael, who she reputedly fell in love with as she was dating his father:

She sings, "Four constants and three vowels, that is the name of Raphael...no anxiety, no prelude, no promise of the eternal, just love in our bed, just our lives in a rainbow."
The song is called Raphael, and can be found on her album

She sings, "Someone told me that our lives aren't big things, that they pass like the wilting of roses...But someone told me that you love me still...can it be possible?...Someone told me that destiny mocks us, that it promises us everything and gives us nothing..."

beautiful trifles

I have never seen pastry so delectable...I did not take ^ that picture, but I have been to the Laduree Paris bakery where these little treasures (called "macarons") are made. They are as delicious as they look, and worth the trip to Paris. On the topic of delightfully beautiful things, here are a few more wonderful selections from Laduree:

Food porn. That's what this is.

tangled up in you

There are people in life you meet that you just know will be bad for you. People oozing with charm and laughter and magnetism, so much so that you just want them all to yourself. You stare and you're distracted, you want and you're so lost--how could you, small and ordinary and dull, know her at all? Your heart, your breath, it's all putty in his hands--and you don't even care. You do stupid things for her sake, want to be the way that he is. And before you know it, you've given a part of yourself away, and want it back but you don't really; you're tangled up in him.
And he'll toy with you. They'll laugh and charm with you, play the game older than us all with the same grace they approach everything else. You remind yourself she's bad for you. You tell yourself to get over it.
And then you go right back to the first place, where you laughed and charmed, and were charmed. And you're enchanted, changed--and you don't know how to become disenchanted, unchanged.

favourite tunes

One of my favourite songs.
Brendan James, "Get It Right".

twilight and all its charms

"And so, the lion fell in love with the lamb."
"You are exactly my brand of heroin." (Stephenie Meyer, Twilight)

It's that sort of writing that earned Ms. Meyer a fortune (100, 200, 300 million?) and a fan population larger than the population of Canada. I know. It baffles me, too.
Like every other female I know between the ages of 10-40, I went through a phase better known as "Twilight insanity". Looking back, it is incredibly difficult to discern the root of said insanity.
Was it Ms. Meyer's dazzling writing? (For those of you who consider Twilight literature, consider too the number of times the word 'dazzling' appears in the first seven chapters.)
Was it the setting? Dreary Washington? Not likely. Was it the plot, characterization, theme--or the bloody vampires?
Nope.
It was the idea of perfect, unattainable love. The idea of Twilight is irrefutably attractive, undeniably magnetic--the idea of a beautiful, self-sacrificing, wealthy superhuman waiting in the wings is addictive. It's so addictive I spent a three days and two sleepless nights sprinting through the first three books of the "Twilight Saga".
The idea of Twilight is decadent, laden with suggestions of forbidden fruit and all.
The things that Edward Cullen says are most definitely swoon-worthy, if cheesy. It doesn't matter if the writing is belaboured, or if his comments are so surreal they'd echo with insincerity in reality. What matters is that he says it, and he means it. If Edward Cullen says, "I'm going to annihilate that guy who made a pass at you," he's going to do it. If Edward Cullen says, "I will never make you cry," he will actually never make you cry. And if he does, he is liable to give himself up to vampire murderers.
When we make mistakes, and we all do, we say, "Well, we're human." The idea of Twilight takes that edge away--the characters of Twilight are superhuman. They are above human. They do not have to bend to the demands of most human weaknesses. Meyer's protagonists do not even have to trade their consciences for their superhumanness--they don't kill humans, and therefore the reader is not forced to chastise herself (or himself) for moral degradation when she falls in love with the protagonist.
The best part is that Meyer's protagonists are not impervious to all human weaknesses--they think, and more importantly, they feel. And it's that fact that makes them more irresistable than ever--the fact that unromantic human qualities, like ugliness, gluttony, fallible eyesight, hearing, and arguably digestive systems--can be eliminated but the romantic qualities--emotion, love, jealousy, affection, beauty, grace, speed--are maintained or even upgraded...
I'd be lying if I said I don't love Twilight. I'd be lying if I said I don't want an Edward Cullen of my own. But here's the kicker--and Twilight's insurance policy--vampires, and all superhuman creatures, don't exist. Therefore, no one can call Meyer's creation completely unrealistic--because how could anyone know if vampires are achingly loving or not? Meyer has simply shown us what could be--one , an inexorably delicious one, of infinite possibilities.
Meyer's vampire world must not exist, but in the realm of the imagination, all can exist--and the idea of perfect love lives on, spinning dreams and delaying reality.