Oh crap I couldn't even stick it out for four straight weeks, could I? It's been a month, and a lot of things - both worth mentioning and forgettable - has happened. I'll go back and forth with real-life events, interesting reads and movies, and random shitsticks that are basically only meaningful to me. Ha ha ha.
1. Early this month, I went out with someone I met online. I can only count with my hands (one hand) the number of times I did this, and every time it happens I give it more meaning than I really should. This time around it felt mechanical like I've been doing it for the last ten years. He was a great person - cute, accomplished, and fun-to-talk-to. Our meeting was random, I enjoyed the night (for the most part), and I realized I can actually do it without feeling too attached. This realization was incredibly liberating like a valuable skill I'm finally learning how to get a hang of. I had a good night's rest for days but when I think about it I still want the real thing... with someone, someday.
2. I'm a horror/gore fan, a slowly-developing one. I used to hate them with fervour (like how I used to hate porn too. pfftt. growing pains), but the it's-too-bad-it's-good quality has grown on me through the years. I know the genre can be lame that's why when I find an intellectual, well-written, or even just well-executed, gore-tastic one, I find it really satisfying, eager to find another great one and then some. All I'm saying is it's addictive.
If you're like me, please do watch We Are What We Are and You're Next. Both films are entertaining. We Are What We Are reminds me of the restraint and build-up of Babadook, a horror film that banks on a different kind of horror: loss and isolation. The film is beautifully shot too like my other favorite thriller Stoker. I therefore conclude that visually-gorgeous horror films with slightly more inventive stories (it's hard to say anything's fresh these days) with powerful climax scenes should be the standard. You're Next comes real close but this one's more entertaining for gore fans. It serves heaps and more. It kept me on the edge my seat, genuinely scream at appropriate times event though I know what was coming (it's that good), and laugh at the gore scenes because it's fantastically creative and gruesome - exactly what a gore film should be. If you have horror/gore recommendations, please do tell.
3. I can't stop listening to Beyonce's new album. Pretty Hurts and Jealous are pretty much my new Video Games this month. Eargasm!
4. In an effort to read worthwhile things, please check out Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's short essay entitled We Should All Be Feminists. I realize that's the Kindle version. It's actually a short 2012 TEDx speech found here. I recommend the text though as it has some really great points about what it means to be a feminist "today", "right now." Adichie's words are very simple; her observations are unassuming but her points deeply resonate with me. I kept nodding in my head, agreeing to the still ongoing gender bias that exists today. We may not be that marginalized compared to what women had to go through decades ago, but I can't deny (and I can immediately recount the specific times, specific instances in my personal life) that there are still underlying double standards imposed on women today. If I think about it, it's even harder sometimes because most men think there really shouldn't be any more bitching to be had because women are supposedly already enjoying the fruits of the feminist movement. Women are not oppressed anymore. Adichie articulates the need for us to redefine gender stereotypes not just for women but even for men. We could do more in raising our children to see beyond the stereotypes and open their minds to a world where it can be alright for men to be in touch with their emotions and women to assert themselves and not be eclipsed in the shadows.
Here are some notable excerpts:
"We teach girls shame. Close your legs. Cover yourself. We make them feel as though being born female, they are already guilty of something. And so girls grow up to be women who cannot say they have desire. Who silence themselves. Who cannot say what they truly think. Who have turned pretence into an art form."
"Gender matters everywhere in the world. And I would like today to ask that we begin to dream about and plan for a different world. A fairer world. A world of happier men and happier women who are truer to themselves. And this is how to start: We must raise our daughters differently. We must raise our sons differently."
5. Oh Valentines! I woke up beaming on Valentines Day. I worked 8 hours, went to buy porkchop and wine, cooked for myself, ate said dinner, had a hot shower, wore lingerie, lit all the candles in my apartment, listened to music while drinking wine, and just chilled - consciously, deliberately. I did not feel anything except that I wanted to have sex that night. But meh I feel that way most of the time not just on Valentines. I'm having a hard time deciding whether it's actually a good thing to not feel anything remotely romantic for anyone these days. You know what - I've decided. It's actually a good thing.
Alright. Till next week! xoxo (xoxo?)
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