Distraction and a horrid, horrid confession

1) I haven't been able to focus on anything. This week is sort of a blitz to get my second Ph.D app in, do lesson plans for my music history class, and pass my recital qualifying jury. Then I am free and clear and can focus more on pretty things and wrapping presents.

2) I did manage to get the apartment decorated, with a little more eye candy than last year! (Pictures likely to come in a later post).

3) I really want to focus on wedding stuff, but feel like I can't right now because of this week being so busy. Sigh...soon enough!

4) Our apartment is cold, so I can only imagine how cold it must be outside right now. But golly the snow is gorgeous!

5) Just started watching Torchwood with John...dang. It's way more to my taste than Dr. Who (sorry, fellow nerds! I tried!). Perhaps I'll try again with Dr. Who someday, but I like the darkness in this series better. And the chemistry between Jack and Gwen. For real, go watch that clip. It's a real testament to the actors that they can convince me this is hot. I hate guns, the idea of firing them, and their power...but there's so much tension in the way he puts his hand on her waist to steady her stance. Plus, whoever plays Jack has killer arms and an even more killer smile.



Now, a heinous confession: I, ladies and gentlemen (and I know several sorority sisters are going to take me to task on this): I watched Twilight. I, a self-professed hater of Jane Austen, chick flicks, and all things lovey-dovey, watched this abomination of a movie.

I was going to insert an image here to spoil my big confession, but I couldn't bring myself to even download one from Google image search. All of them were all dark and moody and made me angry that I wasted 90 odd minutes of my life on this flick.

Not that there aren't exceptions to the no-romance rule in my life (Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, Prime, Stardust, even the occasional Dirty Dancing), but this is a line I never thought I'd cross. I've spent a good deal of time mocking the-what do they call themselves?- Twi-hards. Ahem.

What can I say? I was curious. And I've been enjoying the wonderfully vitrolic Reasoning with Vampires blog, which scans actual passages from the book and picks apart the awful writing. A friend posted a link to Facebook, I followed it, I was amused. I still am amused. But I don't think I'll ever take that amusement as far as actually reading the books, especially not based on what I've seen of them through this blog. So I found the movie scattered across youtube and had a go.

IT WAS HORRIBLE. Not only that, it was a horrible decision to watch it. I am one of many, many people to notice this, but Bella is completely lacking in self-esteem and yet ridiculously self-centered and mean. She begins a manipulative, violent relationship with a vampire who tells her she's like a drug to him, "My own personal brand of heroin." OhBarf. He also sneaks into her room late at night to watch her sleep, without her knowledge. Hooray! Twu-wuv, everybody!

The movie itself wasn't the issue. There are worse movies, and from what I know of the actual books, they improved on the dialogue and plot of the original. What bothers me is that the fans seem to find Edward dreamy instead of creepy, loving instead of abusive. It scares me that some young teenage girls are in their moody, dark, melancholic phase hoping to find a guy like this.

I went through that same phase, but it mostly consisted of falling for older boys who would never deign to date a 15 year old or superficially admiring the punk boys my own age for their cool hair or aesthetic alterations to their clothing. I was kind of into my studies, so as much as my journals from that period rage on about feeling invisible to boys and wishing somebody would love me, I did ok and I was kept busy with my music and my coursework. And, actually, I did date boys in high school: mostly nice ones who weren't gothic, pale, vampiric 100-year olds.

Bella and Edward are terrifying. He takes over her entire life. She lives for him, but they don't develop the characters or their relationship in a believable way. It's obsession and lust taken too far.

So, my opinion of Twilight has not changed (not that I was really expecting it to). But dear God, I hope girls can find a better romance to squee over.