everybody has the right...

I had an interesting weekend. Friday night, I saw Pan's Labyrinth with a few friends. I liked it, but I thought Children of Men was better (see this post).
Saturday I mostly slept in and cleaned up the apartment. later that night, I went to see a student production of Stephen Sondheim's Assassins on campus. it was great! I had been wanting to see it for a long time (ever since I heard Into the Woods probably (one of his other musicals)). and it didn't disappoint. it's a dark comedy about the people who have tried to kill U.S. presidents. it was an interesting take on events, some of which greatly changed the landscape of our country. never underestimate truly crazy people. they can convince themselves of anything. but, as the opening number says, it's a free country - "everybody has a right to be happy...no one can be put in jail for their dreams." we'll see. a couple of the songs have been stuck in my head since I saw it and I doubt they will subside anytime soon.
we lost our opening soccer game on Sunday, but we fought hard and I think once our team becomes a bit more cohesive as the season progresses, we'll continue to improve. go Brilliant! FC!


in other news, the new Shins CD is good, I got a free poster, and it's raining (even though it was a blissful 74 yesterday).

RENT OBC!

omg. I found the best thing ever online yesterday. someone has posted a video (of arguable quality) of a performance of the original broadway cast of RENT. this is something that I just figured I would never get to see. ever. (and no, even though the movie has six of the eight original cast members it's totally not the same thing.) so even though the video isn't great, it is still amazing to me.

(oh, and I'm going to go see it in a couple weeks! the weekend after my birthday. hooray!)

new look, new stuff

ok, so you might have noticed that I have changed the template. with the move to the new version of blogger, I have been able to update and move things around easier. you will notice that I have also updated my travelogue (which is almost finished, all but the last few days are done). another thing I have added is a widget with a feed from my google reader account of things that I think are cool. so check that out. any comments on the new look?

so a new semester has also started. I'm only taking one class, so hopefully I will be able to focus on finishing up my thesis and making some progress with my writing.

it's raining and our first soccer game of the season has been canceled. I am sad because there's no soccer (especially since last night, Jody and I rented the movie Goal! and it got us all pumped for today) but I also really like rain, so it's hard to be too upset. c'est la vie.

half-marathon!

so this past Sunday I ran the PF Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Half Marathon. yep, that's 13.1 miles. I had done one before, about four and a half years ago, but that was so long ago I had kind of forgotten how long that really is. but here's the good news: it went really well! with one caveat: I pulled a muscle around mile 6. so that made the rest of the race a bit slower and more painful than it should have been. when I finished, I felt really good (except for my leg) and not hating life (as I had during and after the previous one).
my mom, step-dad, and uncle also ran the race (and I found out later that my friend Todd ran it also) so that was kind of nice. I ran the first two miles with my uncle because I luckily ran into him before the race started. the rest of the race I was on my own, with my lovely little iPod shuffle to provide some inspiration [at one point, Ok Go came on just as I needed a bit of a boost and the image of that hilarious treadmill routine really helped]. towards the end, Jody, Hwi, Katie, Angel, and Michael were waiting for me to cheer me on to the end. :) it was great to see them and give me a final push for a strong finish.



afterwards, everyone came back to my apartment for some lunch. later, some of us headed over to Jody's and spent the rest of the day in the hot tub and watched some movies. I spent most of yesterday on the couch being really sore. today it is much better and I think I'll be able to play soccer on Thursday. so that's great! thanks everyone for your encouragement!

children of men

on Saturday Jody and I went to see the new movie "Children of Men", directed by Alfonso Cuaron. first of all, it was amazing. second of all, it was hard to watch. but not necessarily in a bad way. the movie was so intense, engrossing, and realistic that you really believed what was happening. however, this futuristic society that is imagined in the film is extremely disturbing and violent. one of the most disturbing things is that if the world was faced with this premise, that we could no longer conceive children, it would most certainly descend into some kind of chaotic world, where hope no longer seems possible.
the cinematography was absolutely amazing. there were two long shots in particular that were chilling. the lack of editing on these sequences makes you feel uncomfortable, which adds to the drama of what's happening on screen.
it was an excellent film. you should go see it (unless, of course, you're one of those people who prefer only happy fuzzy warm movies. this is not for you.)

oh, and that cover of "ruby tuesday" fits perfectly. well done on the soundtrack.

happy new year!

wow 2007 is here already. that is totally crazy. the years are just whizzing by. and we still don't have rocket packs or those cars from the Jetsons (best cartoon ever). and I guess Ray Bradbury was a bit off too since we're nowhere near being on Mars.

so yeah. I guess I'm not making any resolutions this year. I'm still working on the ones from last year and those were good, so I don't see any reason on changing them. my immediate concern is really with getting ready for the half-marathon which is in a week and a half (the 14th). I procrastinate waaayy too much and it's creeping up on me. so we'll see what happens. I am confident that I can finish it, I just don't know how painful or difficult it is going to be to do it. I think I will be able to feel good if it's easier than it was last time (both in terms of during the race and recovering afterward), which was about four and a half years ago.