rebecca_in_blue | Entries tagged with x-men

As of today, Rebecca's been officially Jewish for one month... and I'm beginning to think my Star of David necklace might as well be a sign that says, "Hello, random stranger, please approach me and make ignorant and/or offensive comments about Judaism." Here's a small sample of the things I've heard since I started wearing it:

( "The enemy doesn't want you to know this, but you can have a relationship with Jesus too!" and more behind this impossibly difficult cut. )

On a somewhat similar note, X-Men: First Class was released on DVD yesterday, and Sara, Adam, Sable, and I all watched it last night. Some funnies, mostly courtesy of Sara:

( "Rebecca has to go down with the Jews! She promised!" )

Riding my bike home from services yesterday, I saw an awful sight: an estate sale in progress at Grandma's old house! It kinda drove it all home. Everything left in the hosue that wasn't nailed down was for sale, and even though most of it was stuff I didn't care about, I hated to see strangers buying it. I snuck in and ~~stole~~ took the "Bless Our Home" plague that'd been above Grandma's mantle for as long as I could remember. I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but I just did not want to see it sold. (Update: You can see the plaque in our new apartment here.) We've also got the old, no-longer-functiong clock from her kitchen. I wish we could take more of Grandma's stuff, but we just don't have room for anything in this shoebox of an apartment. Besides, I have to remind myself that those things are just things.

P.S. LiveJournal has been a real pain lately. Making the cut in this post was damn near impossible, creating a bulleted list actually was impossible, and I still can't edit my old entries! I've been with LJ since 2007, but their editors are such a mess that I've seriously considered abandoning this journal.

TEN DAYS LEFT until the Season 9 premiere of NCIS!

Current Mood: hungry!
Current Music: Hey Jealousy, The Gin Blossoms

Hallelujah, we finally got some rain in the last few days! I was actually excited to see it. And that I live in Louisiana and am excited about rain gives you an idea of how dry it's been this summer. I also (finally) got my prompts in from ncis_ficathon. It's for a pairing that I would never usually write -- which, of course, is bound to happen when you don't ship anyone -- but I think I can do it if I make some altercations to one of my works-in-progress. I'm glad now I waited to publish it.

Exactly halfway through the day yesterday, my throat got sore and my nose started running. By the end of the day, my nose was a faucet and my throat was on fire! Ugh! So I took some medicine and crawled into bed to recuperate, not dragging myself out until this afternoon when I went to see X-Men: First Class again, this time with Sara. This time we got there early enough to see the previews, and boy, did they suck mightily. But Sara's sarcastic commentary cracked me up, especially:

Emma Frost: Where's your telepath friend?
Magneto: He's gone.
Sara: We broke up.
Magneto: He's left a void in my life.
Sara: And in my bed!

Adam and I are considering writing a crackfic to X-Men 3 (a truly awful movie that you can read my opinion of here). The other night, Adam showed me a video review of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, making fun of how awful it was, and I pointed out that Wolverine spends virtually the entire movie in a sleeveless white t-shirt.

Me: Do you think he has a closet full of them, like how Taylor Swift has a closet full of sparkly gold dresses?
Adam: Who's Taylor Swift?
Me: What?
Adam: Is he a singer, or something?
Me: Taylor Swift! Come on, you know! Mine? Fearless? Love Story? Fifteen? You Belong With Me?
Adam: *staring at me blankly*
[In his defense, he's a guy and most of her listeners are women, but still, seriously, how do you not know Taylor Swift?]

Yesterday I had an encounter with a person I went to high school (ugh, uncomfortable) and discovered that with some friends-and-relations, Grandma is somehow better at keeping up with their news than I am, even though I have a Facebook page and she doesn't even know what Facebook is.

P.S. I am thinking about joining Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Current Mood: recovering
Current Music: Cheap Flights, Fascinating Aida

Warning: This is a long post. Today has left me with a lot of things to blog about. Yes, some are completely shallow (holy cow, the Xavier/Magneto slashiness in First Class!) but some are more serious (I'm closer to becoming Jewish than ever!).

I woke up early this morning for Torah study at the temple. I almost overslept and missed it, and the weekly parsha was a bit boring, but I'm so glad I went. Afterwards, Diane (a lady at the temple who's also working towards becoming Jewish) and I had a real official meeting with the rabbi about converting. We even got to use the rabbi's office, rather than a randomly-selected corner in the social hall, which is where all our previous meetings have been. I said as I was entering, "Ooh, I've never been in the rabbi's office before." Rabbi W: "Me neither!"

I take back everything I said about Rabbi W here. Today we talked for a long time, and I got a lot of the concrete answers about converting that I'd been looking for. I even got my own copy of our prayerbook! Diane works for the temple, and she gave me an old "dog-eared" one that isn't used in services anymore. But the rabbi did recommend me a book called Basic Judaism, and suggest I start picking out a Hebrew name. 1) Um, Rabbi, aren't I beyond the basics yet? 2) I already have a Hebrew name!

Afterwards, I went to Grandma's house to do my laundry, eat lunch, ~~play in her sprinkler~~ water her garden, and clear out some of her spare rooms in preparation for her move. Adam and I packed up several boxes of dead books (mostly romance novels that had been Aunt Carolyn's, and mind-numbingly boring stuff that had been Dad's). It was kinda depressing, because so many of the books were typical Dad, and most of them had inscriptions like To Jake, from Steve, Christmas 1979. Apparently he never got anything but books as gifts. And I still hate the fact that Grandma is moving.

After that, Adam, Eva, Ben (that's right, Ben) and I all piled into Muse Watson and went to the mall to see X-Men: First Class. On the drive there, I remembered some study I read about how the more passengers you have in your car, the greater your chance of having an accident. I felt it, and the fact that I'm still getting over that damned car crash didn't help. I'd never driven with that many people before, traffic was heavy, and we were on a busy street. And I love Eva to death, but she's at that age where many things elicit a loud "Oh my gosh!" or a long laugh from her. (Hmm, maybe now I know how Sara feels.) I was very relieved when I finally got us all to the theater in one piece.

Anyway, about the actual movie. Spoiler Alert! In one word — awesome. No, amazing. No, epic. Even Eva, who's in no way familiar with the X-Men franchise, was blown away. I've had such high hopes for this movie ever since I watched the trailer, and I was not disappointed. Xavier and Magneto were both perfectly written and acted, and I was surprised by now much the movie made me care about the rest of the team too. (We barely knew Darwin, but his death? Just devastating.) As a rule, I never cry at movies, but this one actually made me come close. I've always loved Xavier and Magneto's relationship, and it was sad seeing them bond immediately, and knowing where they would end up later. Especially when Magneto flashed back to his mother lighting the Hanukkah candles, and he and Xavier both started crying.

On a somewhat similar note, on the way there, we were all talking about who our favorite X-Men character was, and I, of course, said mine was Magneto. Ben muttered (because he never talks, he only mutters) something like, "Yeah, because he's a Jew."

Hmph.

No, because he's a charming, witty, sophisticated, and all-around bad-ass villain, and he's been my favorite character ever since I saw the original X-Men movie in theaters (and I saw it in theaters three times) over ten years ago! (And holy crap, does saying that make me feel old.) And besides, I think any X-Men fan would agree that Magneto is "Jewish" only in the most secular sense of the word. It irked me, which made not seem to make sense, since Sara has made much worse comments — and offered to throw me in an oven — but the simple fact is that I'm okay with it from her but not from him (or anyone else). With Sara, I know she's joking. Ben can be, and often is, a jerk.

But I can't complain about anything today. There's a beautiful song called "You Shall Be a Blessing" by the recently-deceased Debbie Friedman (who composed a lot of beautiful Jewish songs) that was performed at services last night. These lyrics have been running through my head all day: L'chi lach [rise up and go] to a place that I will show you / L'chi lach to a land you do not know of. You can hear it, not the best version but the only one I could find, here.

Current Mood: thankful
Current Music: You Shall Be a Blessing

Friday at work was a No-Good Very Bad Day... but to make up for it, Rebecca had an awesome weekend! After temple services, I finally buckled down and made pecan pie muffins for my Torah study group. I watched X-Men 2 while they were baking, in celebration of the awesome trailer for X-Men: First Class that was just released. My cousin Matthew sent me a link to it on Facebook on Thursday night, and I must have watched it a hundred times since then! I used to love those movies. I saw both X-Men and X2 in theater, and they were probably the first fanfiction I ever read. (But of course the first fanfiction I ever wrote goes to NCIS.) But after the crap that was X3 and Origins: Wolverine, I thought the franchise could never redeem itself. But this new movie might just prove me wrong! The trailer looks so amazing. Cross your fingers that it'll live up.

Link: Trailer for X-Men: First Class.

Saturday got off to a rough start. I woke up very early after a disturbing dream in which me and all my friends from the temple were being rounded up by Nazis. It left me quite shaken, so I went into the living room and watched TV until I dozed off again. Then I got up at nine to head to Torah study. One man there, Si, has a deep gravelly voice like Johnny Cash, and I just love listening to him read. I think if he ever recorded an audiobook of reading the Torah, he could scare straight a lot of people. My muffins were a hit. I think either 1) the batch I made for Thanksgiving 2009 (the ones nobody ate) were just freak duds, 2) everyone except my relatives likes my muffins, or 3) they really do suck, and the folks at temple were just too polite to say anything. Or maybe I'm overthinking these muffins.

Link: Recipe for pecan pie muffins.

After Torah study, I went on a long, glorious bike ride all over the neighborhood. The weather was cool and sunny, the sun was shining, and Rebecca loved every minute of it. (It's hard to believe that there were icicles hanging off my car just two weeks ago!) It was the best sort of bike ride, ambling all over, listening to the same song over and over again -- this time it was "We Belong Together," from Toy Story 3. When I came home, I actually said to Sara, "I feel so fresh and alive!" (Even though I was probably all sweaty and smelly.) She had gotten a gift card to Chili's, so we went there for dinner that night. I usually always get the same dish there, but this time I tried something new, and it wasn't half-bad.

Link: "We Belong Together."

Today we all went over to Grandma's for spaghetti and birthday cake for Aunt Celeste. We stuffed our faces and talked about Stephen King books, and I took a few pictures. I've been fiddling with my camera a lot lately, trying to figure out how to keep the subject focused while blurring the background. I eventually realized that the trick to it is the zoom. It's difficult, because you have to adjust the zoom depending on how far the subject is from your lens, and how far the background is behind the subject. If I ever have kids (a mighty big if, I know), maybe I'll have gotten the hang of it by then. I just hope I'll have moved on from this old camera!

This was the best shot I could get today. Yes, I did edit it on the computer, and the contrast is too severe, but I still like it. Notice how the background behind Eva is slightly less focused than she is? Maybe one day I'll know how to make this happen without having to edit it. I still can't believe she's a teenager now!

After Grandma's, I went swinging in the park with Josh. We talked about NCIS, and he was confused when I told him I let my sister name my car Muse Watson, after the guy who plays Mike Franks.

Current Mood: mixed
Current Music: We Belong Together, Randy Newman

I saw X-Men 3 in theaters today with Adam and Sarah, who love the first two X-Men movies as much as (if not more than) I do. I had worried that the balance of action, drama, and comedy that marked X-Men and X2 was too perfect and delicate to continue into a third film, and all my fears were confirmed. I suppose I should have seen it coming. This is a letter I e-mailed to Adam last summer:

June 20, 2005.
Hey, Adam, Sarah's latest issue of Entertainment Weekly has an article on X3. Read this!

"Fox's Marvel-ous band of mutant freedom fighters have done their fair share of evolving lately. After original helmer Byran Singer opted to direct Superman, Matthew Vaughan stepped in ... and then stepped out. An X-insider says Vaughan wanted to stay in Britain. X3 starts shooting in Vancouver in August. With Fox determined to meet a Memorial Day 2006 release, Rush Hour's Brett Ratner was quickly hired to shoot a script on which he had no input. "Other directors might have been wary," says producer Avi Arad. Adds Ratner: "It wasn't like there were any mistakes to clean up. It was all fantastic." The entire X-cast is returning, including Hugh Jackman (now also co-producer of the film) and Halle Berry in an expanded role. Joining them: Kelsey Grammar as a furry blue genius named Beast."

OK, my hopes for this movie has been pretty much dashed. Hiring a director on the spot who wasn't even involved with writing the script or developing the characters? Rushing production to make a summer 2006 release? Bringing back Halle Berry? Put them all together, and they spell death. I thought Berry wasn't doing X3 because she didn't like Storm's small role, but I Miss Oscar isn't sitting so pretty now that she's realized she has a crappy eye for material -- Gothika? Catwoman? -- and so now she's sticking with a good thing, and the producers are bringing her back because she's a big name. What does this prove? That Fox doesn't care about satisfying fans, just making money. Prepare to be disappointed.

Current Mood: angry
Current Music: Sunny Came Home, Shawn Colvin

My English professor has assigned us each to do a presentation on a literary magazine. I'm presenting something called The Missouri Review tomorrow, and the ironic thing is that while I was scrolling through their archives, I came across a poem they published a few years back titled "X-Men"! How cool is that? I'm so going to pass this to the class.

"X-MEN," by Nicholas Allen Harp

Today in the School for Gifted Youngsters, Xavier's lesson plan calls
for sex education, the hows and whos, wheres and whens dispensed
delicately, his bald brow furrowed serious, his students wide-eyed,
chuckling, unabashedly alive and constantly, at risk from you-name-it:
G-men, invasive telepathy, Plutonian radiation, slack-jawed villains,
and now, he can't believe it, gonorrhea, pregnancy, AIDS, each
contemporary malady less innocent than the one before, a curriculum
chock-full of acronymic woe and code -- IUD, HIV, RU-486 -- too many
physical choices in the modern world, Xavier thinks, too many forces
stitching lifeforce inextricably to doomed youth, their piss and vinegar
mutated into glowy juice, concussion orbs, optic blasts, blizzards
summoned by sheer merge of will, their bodies already breaking out
from under themselves, pushing and yanking their skins like the
colleague they call Fantastic, their young lives catapulted into flight
(literally, he thinks, flight) to some fate he cannot, despite his infamous
prescience, predict, a factored variable he'll have to follow, patiently,
like a serial; the X of a xenophobic country, lonesome X-mases,
X-ratings, the X's and O's he'll send his students when he expels them
to the dangerous world.

Current Mood: nervous
Current Music: I Don't Wanna Be, Gavin DeGraw

Well, let's see, what is there to write about? I've just finished studying for nearly three hours solid, and right now I'm zoning out in front of my two favorite screens, the TV and computer. Sara and I rented The Chipmunk Adventure when Mom was here, so I've got the lovely chorus of a bunch of voices singing "We are the boys, we are the boys, we are the boys of rock n' roll" in pitches so high that I can hardly understand the words.

This semester doesn't look to hard, but it is requiring a lot of reading. I'm taking two literature classes (one conducted entirely in the French language, the other taught in English by a French professor), plus a poetry, philosophy, and religious studies. My religious studies professor happens to double as the rabbi at the temple in my hometown on weekends. My philosophy professor will be exploring "classical questions" through "contemporary film," which means we'll be watching stuff like The Matrix while we're studying questions like, "What is reality?" and etc. It'll probably be enjoyable, but not as easy as it might sound.

I read in Sara's Entertainment Weekly that they're making a sort of X-Men spinoff entirely about Magneto! Squee! I mean, could that possibly be any more exciting? I just really, really hope that no one screws it up. Singer's not involved, and neither is Sir Ian. It's about Magneto escaping from Auschwitz, coming to America, meeting Xavier, and etc., so I guess you really can't expect Ian to show up, unless maybe he appears at the beginning and end as the old Magneto telling the story. I wonder who will be playing the young Erik? The kid who opened X-Men did a pretty good job, considering that he was only onscreen for a few minutes. I think he's about Adam's age, so maybe they'll recast him, but I doubt it.

Speaking of X-Men, I watched last week's episode and actually understood it! It sort of recapped what's been going on for the last few weeks, which I appreciated.

That's really all I can think to say, so I'm going to work on my JM Barrie paper now.

Current Mood: geeky
Current Music: She Will Be Loved, Maroon 5

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"Merlin, I'm tired of being a Jew! It's nothing but trouble!"
Rebecca runs off to hurl herself in the Thames.
Rebecca's mind is spinning with the fanfiction possibilities!
Rebecca hopes the salt mines aren't so salty tomorrow.
Rebecca blames Ratner!
But Rebecca hates doing presentations! Ugh!
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on your journey, i will bless you...

...and you will be a blessing

Entries tagged with x-men

"Merlin, I'm tired of being a Jew! It's nothing but trouble!"

Rebecca runs off to hurl herself in the Thames.

Rebecca's mind is spinning with the fanfiction possibilities!

Rebecca hopes the salt mines aren't so salty tomorrow.

Rebecca blames Ratner!

But Rebecca hates doing presentations! Ugh!

Recent News From Rebecca