it's not life that matters but the journey...

Sunday night 8:45. Another weekend has bitten the dust. It wasn't a bad weekend, nor a very exciting one. Almost the same as usual. Friday night I watched a bunch of tv shows and drank some wine. Saturday I chatted on the phone with my mom for an hour, and my sister for an hour; and I also texted on Facebook with my friend Joie in Sacramento for almost an hour!
I had two private adult lessons - one in the morning and one after lunch -- and in the afternoon I went for an hour-long walk, which felt so good! The weather Saturday was nearly spring-like - I didn't even need a coat. After my walk, I watched the newest Supernatural , which I found to be quite - Interesting - for lack of a better word!

I thought this episode was more funny than scary - it was mildly reminiscent of some of the bad 80's horror films, in which dolls or other inanimate objects come to life and kill people. And I admit, mannequins have always freaked me out, ever since I saw an episode of The Twilight Zone years ago in which mannequins come to life - though in that episode the mannequins don't hurt people, they just come to life in order to go out into the world and experience life as humans. Still, the concept of mannequins of any kind coming to life is just - as Dean put it - "creepy"! Oh, and while we're on the topic of classic Dean humor - something I thought was hilarious in this episode was when Sam was relating his conversation with the first victim's wife. The wife had said what a great guy her husband was, going to church, donating to charities, even rubbing her feet while they watched Glee - to which Dean replied "I just threw up in my mouth." So Dean hates Glee - what a bummer! I admit Glee can be a little cheesy, but that's exactly why I like it! Overall it wasn't a bad episode, except for that horribly nauseating little montage of images of Lisa and Dean, set to terrible music, while Dean was driving back from visiting her. I just wish he'd get over her and get back to his old self. This season started out pretty bad, but besides the occasional annoyances it's getting better. Plus, next week's episode looks pretty hilarious.



Saturday night I ended up watching The Social Network . My sister had mentioned wanting to see it when we talked on the phone - and I admit I've been curious about it too - and I have wanted to know what the buzz is all about ever since it won Best Picture at the Golden Globes. I had intended to just watch a little bit of it to see what it was like - because I really didn't expect to like it. However, once I started watching, I was totally and completely engrossed.

When I first heard of the movie, I wondered why anyone would want to watch a movie about the creation, and creator, of Facebook. It's just a social networking internet site, and Mark Zuckerberg is just another lucky billionaire, right? But honestly, under the artful direction of David Fincher, The Social Network is a fascinating, fast-paced, and intriguing film; and this film made me realize that even though I don't like Facebook for what it's become, the way that it inundated the culture and lifestyle of people all over the world, in a relatively short time, is a major historical legacy. Through incredibly creative storytelling, Fincher managed to take what I thought would be a relatively mundane subject and turn it into something of a mysterious puzzle, almost like the suspense films that he's become famous for ( Zodiac, The Game, Se7en, Fight Club...): he interweaved scenes of Zuckerberg's legal depositions with flashbacks of Facebook's inception and creation and explosion into a website with over a million users and a huge financial empire. I think that's what made the movie so good. Fincher turned this "drama" into a "suspense mystery" of sorts. The mystery of how a very young guy, with few friends and little money, could become so successful by inventing a social networking site! Of course I'd never even known that Mark Zuckerberg had been involved in two lawsuits, one involving some athletic twins who thought he stole their idea, and one with his best friend and business partner, the co-founder of the site, Eduardo Saverin, who was played by Andrew Garfield (the next Spiderman!). I've only seen Jesse Eisenberg in one other movie - a very small movie called Roger Dodger . So I guess he did a pretty good job as Zuckerberg. He surely didn't have much emotion or personality - maybe that's what Zuckerberg is really like.

As good as it was, though, I'm not entirely sure that The Social Network is Oscar-worthy. But then again, the Oscars are such a political endeavor that it doesn't really matter what is good or worthy these days. I haven't seen any of the other nominated films, except for Inception , which was much different, and which I thought was equally artistic, if not even more so. Fincher and Christopher Nolan are both amazing filmmakers - which is why I'm pissed that 10 films are nominated, but only 5 directors - so Nolan was left out! I won't be watching the Academy Awards - I'm in Japan. But I'm not sure I care anymore anyway.



Well I think I had more to write about, but this has become an epic post. It's now 9:48 and I have to work tomorrow. so good night... and hope everyone had a good weekend, wherever you are.