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No Shame | My Own Private Twilight

I realized as the bus passed and her face on its side caught my eye that I have some questionable cinematic loyalties.  My disdain for Twilight’s immense popularity got put in check when it became clear that my heart raced a little faster as the letters on the poster ticked the OMG box.  A new Resident Evil.  Milla! Milla! Milla!

Years ago, I was clicking aimlessly looking for something to still my hand and mind, when I came upon some cable channel that figured out a new way to steal a couple of hours of my time, repeatedly.

(Sci-Fi+Action-y+GunsandZombies) x MILLA + 1/8 CausticMichelleRodriguez vs. TheMan/TheSystem/TheCompany =  Fun Times!

So, I watched.  Kinda liked.  And watched, again.  Kinda loved.

Are we talking 5stars on Netflix?  Come on, now.  No.  I don’t expect a “cinematic tour de force” from Resident Evil; I expect a good time.  Have they even all been that?  Well, actually, no.  But it’s the possibility that it could be as good a whole as all the kick-ass elements that sucks me in.  I guess in some ways I just want the first five minutes of the Matrix repeated in different ways with different people for 90 minutes.

I dig the Resident Evil series.  I just do.  I want to see some girl kicking zombie tail and going after “The Man” for causing the destruction of,  you know, errything.  Unless there is something so disturbing that it makes me uncomfortable and it unwatchable, besides Ashanti*, I’m in.

This thing I have for Resident Evil, is it Twilight tent and sleeping bag love?  Enough to spend days in line for tickets or something?  Ummm, I don’t do that.  Or let’s be clearer, the last time I slept out for tickets Prince hadn’t changed his name yet and he could get me to do anything.

It’s funny how I start to overthink the fact that I just like something.  It’s as if scary fun can’t be enough and I’ve got to slag the object of my affection a bit in the process.  How can I have “No Shame,” yet still be trying to save face?

Let me watch the trailer and get hyped again.  brb.

That worked.

Yay!  Resident Evil: Afterlife is playing at The Arclight.  We haven’t talked about how  really special I am about where I’ll venture off into the darkness, have we? Maybe later.

Tonight, I’m going to finish watching Architectures 5 and maybe, Un Prophète with the director’s commentary while sipping on yuppie Night Train aka Two Buck Chuck.  But, for real, can it be Friday?  Now.

Nikki♥

(*Sorry, Ashanti.  See Resident Evil:Extinction)

Since I’m feeling all open, I’ll admit to my other head-scratcher and publicly pout about the ones that did me wrong.

Another Questionable Allegiance & A Couple of Painful Betrayals
Underworld: Yes.  Period.  Umm, Hi Kate.  Can you tell Bill I said, “Hey?”

Alien/Aliens: Nothing exists in my world post-Fincher.  And that one hurt.  Alien vs. huh?  Seriously, why?  And please don’t even think about a prequel.  Please.

Hellraiser: After Pinhead In Space aka Hellraiser IV:Bloodline, I got off that ride.  So did the everyone else.  Hello, Direct-to-Video.

Mission: Impossible to get me back into a theater.  Wait…  Did you say Simon Pegg?

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Have You Seen This? | Departures

wow, pls tell me you’ve seen it?

Departures is such a sweet and gentle rumination on life, death and forgiveness.  While the trailer plays to the funny/heart-warming bits in the 2009 Academy Award® winner, the deeply moving film weaves a wide range of emotions with deftness and sincerity.

This truly is a film I’ll be thinking about for a long time.

If you haven’t seen it, please do.

Nikki♥

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Have You Seen? | Raising Victor Vargas

omg, pls tell me you’ve seen this.

I think I keep trying with HBO’s How To Whatever in America because Victor Rasuk is in it.  I’m not blaming the other kid, but there’s something about Rasuk’s presence and ease on screen that just draws me in.  I can’t help it.  He does vulnerable, funny, cocky, eager and ambitious so well.

Honestly,  Raising Victor Vargas is one of the best coming of age stories on film.  It’s so regular, normal LES.  It really is the everyday life of kids growing up and growing up on the lower east side.  Especially, being kids of color and it having nothing to do with drugs, guns or violence.

I’m about to go watch it again.  If you haven’t seen it, please do.  I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Nikki♥

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I Could Watch You All Day | Marc Johnson

for a few seconds, i thought* about skating again.

marc johnson (image via chocolate skateboards)

I’m kinda into skateboarding.  I’m intrigued by how so many ideas and passions are interconnected through its culture.

I love a good skate doc.  I love a great story.  I need to know how it all started and I need to know why.  After a friend took me to a screening in NYC of Dogtown years ago, I had to see everything.

Netflix and I hung tight until I’d seen as many docs as I could get my hands on.  The good and the not so good.  I watched a lot of skaters**, but I wouldn’t watch the skate videos.  I wasn’t that into watching the action of it.  For hours.

Here’s one reason why.  I have this thing I might have told you about called secondhand embarrassment.  A component of said condition is the onset of freakish sympathy pains.  The last thing I want to see is some guy repeatedly not landing a trick.  It hurts me to watch folks come down on a handrail wrong or, I don’t know, see heads meeting concrete.

It’s not that I didn’t like the act of skating, I was just particular.  In Dogtown, they were able to capture, in still images and in motion, these moves that made it look like the entire crew had consulted the wind to choreograph this beautiful dance.  I hadn’t really seen that in other videos I, briefly, watched post-vert dominance.

Since moving to LA, I see kids skate all the time.  I guess I started paying more attention to the every day beauty of it.

I don’t remember the exact sequence of events that led Yeah Right! to the top of my Netflix queue, but I’m glad it was there.  The DVD is ancient at this point, but the timing of when I got it was perfect.  Because while watching it, somehow, everything changed.

After it clicked, all the guys were really interesting.  But, there was something about  Marc Johnson.  The way he skated was aggressive and graceful.  Not necessarily elegant, but aware.  Seriously, I could watch him skate all day.

The first two clips below are from Lakai’s 2007 masterpiece Fully Flared.  There’s an effortless precision where balance seems to be a post-trick afterthought.  While his presence is draped in skill and technicality, interestingly, Johnson reminded me of a dancer.  A tap dancer.  If the 70s era Surf/Skate kings (and Queen, Peggy, I see you) were ballet, than Marc and this generation of street skaters are following in Savion’s footsteps. Thumbing their nose at convention, using tradition and technology to forge a new landscape.

The Epicly Later’d below is, also, worthy of multiple viewings.  Because it’s interesting.  He talks about the pressures and challenges of his experience as a pro skater. (♥: Mmmm hmmm. ) Stop it.  There are clips from Wednesdays with Reda on The Berrics, too.

Okay.  I think I need to go look for more Marc Johnson clips.

Nikki♥

*Remind me to tell you about the last time I was actually on a skateboard and why the thought of skating goes out as quickly as it came in.

**I watched a lot of skaters because… they’re hot.  My kinda hot.  See, I said it, again.

MJ Fully Flared – Pt 1

MJ – Fully Flared Pt 2

Epicly Later’d – language, people. be warned.


Savion Glover – 2007 Channel 4 piece – London

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Awww. Thx, Wednesday!

taking the time to make note of a few things that make the days extra sweet.

Do you ever smile at the clouds?  I can’t help but be amazed by the beauty of the sky.

Apparently, I’m in hyper-adoration mode for tangelos and Sandra Juto… The comments on her wrist worm giveaway remind me how small the world is and how great the internet is at connecting people.  It’s just everyone listing their favorite movies.  It warms my heart a little when someone else talks about how much they love Me and You and Everyone We Know, Before Sunset, Strictly Ballroom and all things Almodovar.

Esthero… One of my favorite singers, ever ever, posted a song that leaves me with a tear stained face.  There’s such beauty in its simplicity.  Black Mermaid stirred something.  It not only made me happy,  but it moved me to use those moments, so easily wasted, doing what I’m here to do.

Nikole Herriot, of Forty-sixth at Grace, makes and photographs such beautiful cakes.  I want to make more cakes.  I want to make lots of pretty cakes.  I want to forage for antique bundt tins.  (♥: Okay, breathe.) Innnnnn.  Ouuuuuuuttttt. Thx. I needed that.

Still working on booking a trip to visit relatives while the William Eggleston exhibition is at the Art Institute of Chicago.  I don’t really own a coat.  So, I just need it to be, you know, warmer.

Uh-oh!  I can get a bit of stellar photog right here in Beverly Hills.  Gursky at the Gagosian opened last week.  Sweet!

Counting the days… The Art of the Steal opens this weekend here in LA.  It looks like I’m about to get on an emotional roller coaster.  Dr. Barnes and his collection changed the way I see and appreciate art.

Ahhh, the art of making me happy.  It’s a challenging craft that I’m learning to practice every single day.

Nikki♥

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Oscar Congrats! | The Cove

i kept asking, for real?, like the screen was going to respond.

Yay!  I saw The Cove last week and was mesmerized.  It really played out like a great spy flick.  More Bourne than Bond.  It was all clandestine operations and night vision cameras to show you what was going on in the one tiny area in one tiny town in Japan.  And how we play a part in the senseless slaughter of dolphins.  And how we can be a part of making a change.

I’m not chaining myself to anything.  I’m not a ‘Save The Whales’/PETA kind of person.  But, what’s great about The Cove and Food, Inc. is how they encourage you to know more about the treatment of animals by just telling a compelling story.  Not beating you over the head with rhetoric, guilt or hysteria.  The choice is your to make.  You’ve been informed.

The great thing about the docs is that they will hopefully get more exposure because of the awards coverage.  Both have helped the evolution of my understanding of the role I play in the treatment of animals, either actively or passively.  I’m thinking more about how we share the planet.

See The Cove.  And if you haven’t seen Food, Inc., please do.  Watching both films is time well spent.

Nikki♥

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I Almost Forgot | The Oscars & Little Britain USA

this is soooo not safe for public consuption.

So, Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett won the Oscar for Original Song.  During his speech Bingham said, “I love you more than rainbows,” to his wife.  Now, it seems on twitter people are snickering because of it.  It didn’t sound sappy to me because I thought he was doing what I did A LOT last year.  A take on the sketch below from Little Britain USA.

This is so not safe.  Nor is it for the faint of heart.  It still slays me.

Nikki♥

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my favorite mistake | my first quiche

it was wrong from the start, but i kept on anyway.

I’m into the idea cooking from what’s in the fridge.  Now that I actually put things in it, I don’t want some random food blog induced epiphany that will send me to the grocery store.  You know, I quite like the grocery, but too many things are going to waste with each trip.

I knew I had eggs.  I’d remembered David Lebovitz’s post on French tart dough. And there’s this scene in I’ve Loved You So Long that is just the family at dinner, but it is stuck in my head.  So, I decided that I wanted to make a quiche.

I watched a Martha clip.  Pulled out Georgeanne Brennan’s French Veg Cookbook.  Then, I opened the fridge.  Tah-freakin-dah.  Homemade goat cheese, scallions, garlic chives, and crushed ginger.

The nikki bit. I didn’t follow a recipe for the eggy bit. (♥: Really?) I used 3 eggs.  Buttermilk and plain yogurt replaced the cream.  I added in a tablespoon of flour.   Salt and pepper to taste.  Then I added the eggs and chopped garlic chives.

Well, what happened? I wasn’t using a tart pan and didn’t evenly work the dough in the pan I was using.  Hey, it was my first ever crust. So, when it came out uneven, I had the urge to, you know, touch it.  Poke it, rather and made a hole.  I wasn’t going to chuck it and start over.  So, I just put in the scallions and goat cheese.  Poured the custard and and stuck it in the oven for a half hour.

Favorite mistake, huh? Ummm, yes.  This is good and super onion-y and garlic-y.  I will have to brusha brusha brusha before I speak to another human.

Nikki♥


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inspired by beautiful losers

sometimes, i feel like i’ve been waiting for permission to let go of supposed to and to allow myself to just do and be. (♥:Permission granted.  Get on with it.)

Watched: Beautiful Losers.

(artwork via beautifullosers.com)

For me, it just might be worth owning a copy.  Why? It’s a fascinating doc about a group of artists who created their own paradigm.  I spent the first half of the movie itching to make something and the second half not wanting it to end.

Nikki♥

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you know i like you, right? | julie delpy

i had breakfast with friends yesterday and saw Julie Delpy.

I know how I want to start everyday.  Good food, friends and conversation.  Le Pain Quotidien was sigh-worthy.  A bowl of cafe au lait, asparagus/goat cheese omlette, bread and jam.  Simple.  Delicious.

She was there when we walked in.  I noticed her but, didn’t realize it was her until I was seated. 

Oh.  Hey.

There’s something about her.  Sure, it could be the French thing.  The multi-hyphenate thing.  You know, she’s a writer-director-actor-musician, right?  It’s interesting.  She was beautifully normal.  Not in the “they’re just like us” schadenfreude-y kind of way, but in that normal way that ages and doesn’t rely on being beautiful, but just is, anyway.

My JulieDelpyThing has a lot to do with Before Sunrise and Before Sunset mimicing these interesting markers in my life.  I still remember how seeing Sunrise with Chris J in DC led to this really cool day of traipsing around Dupont Circle, flirting with bike messengers and meeting up with our friend, Lisa.  It became one of those carefree days where the world is all possibility.

Before Sunset makes me happy every time I see it.  In many ways, I see a part of me.  Talk-y, overly analytical and neurotic.  The dull ache and disappointment in what could’ve/should’ve been and never was in Sunset gets nudged to the side by a knowing hopefulness that takes over the last act.  It’s a well-written ride through the streets of Paris that I love to take often.

Julie Delpy is smart, funny and talented.  Like her.

Have you seen 2 Days In Paris?  I need to rent that again.

Nikki♥

Before Sunset

2 Days in Paris