Up Too Late: An Endless Search for Mr.Right & Other Important Things in Life

It's been a while since I've last blogged. Too many things have happened for me to write about on here, so sadly, the last few weeks will have to remain a mystery for some obvious and other, more complicated reasons.

Nevertheless, I will summarize in one-sentence segments some of the points I thought important to mention:

-A young man in his late twenties, from Philadelphia, drove for 36 hours and got on two ferries, traveling from Philadelphia to Augusta, Maine and somehow made it to Nova Scotia, got the ferry to Newfoundland and made it to St.John's on Thursday. The intelligent polyglot [speaks six languages... Dari, Farsi, Spanish, Portuguese, English and Turkish] found a place to stay for the night, then headed to my workplace and came to talk to me about becoming a volunteer there. He said he had run away from the US so he wouldn't go to Iraq, and, to quote him, to "dodge the draft". I was moved and touched by this young man's enthusiasm to contribute to the community to which he had just moved, but I felt he was too nervous to speak to me at that moment. He, as we chatted, insisted he show me the photos of his deployment in Iraq... He played an instrument he had brought along, a saz-like instrument he said is a traditional music instrument in Asia.

-My best friend, princess Ivana and I found ourselves disclosing our most personal stories, only to find out that we had much more in common than I had thought we had. It's good to know that I'm not alone, when it comes to going through family issues. She and I had a trip to Cape Spear and took tons of photos, mostly of her...

-My camera will be making it to the ER sometime this week. It had a slight accident last week when a young girl from a children's summer program that I visited dropped it and then, upon realizing she had caused some damage, continued on as if nothing had happened. I hope it lives to see the day of taking another photo soon...I miss taking pics.

-I bought Breakfast on Pluto and The Dying Gaul on my way back from the hair studio... Breakfast on Pluto is certainly one of the best films I've seen in a while. Patrick Kitten Braden, aka Patricia Kitten Braden, is a transvestite who spends half of her life trying to find her mother, who abandoned her at birth. Through her narrative, we see the Irish-English divide in Northern Ireland, but also the contrast between the rural naiveté and the urban cruelty and coldness in human relationships. It's heartwarming story that I thoroughly enjoyed... I haven't seen The Dying Gaul yet.

Labels: adventures, Friday, friends, movies, St.John's

Those that know me well knew that a couple of years ago, I used to watch Amelie every second Saturday of the month. I still watch the film every now and then and Yann Tiersen's incredible soundtrack can cheer me up and sadden me anytime, no matter what mood I'm in (he recently organized a youth film festival in Gaza to an audience of 10.000, which made me an even bigger fan of his...a distraction from the daily life is what those youth so desperately need).

This last week, I saw 에스다이어리, or S.Diary, a 2004-produced South-Korean film about a young woman whose thirst for reciprocated love is never quenched, despite her rather lengthy search. The story begins when Jini (Kim Sun-a) receives a journal from her mother, who thinks that now that her daughter is of age to date other boys, she should write about them in her journal. The misfortunes and happy times, love- and sadness- filled moments that Jini goes through as she is dumped repeatedly by the men who feel overwhelmed by her love is touching, sad and so realistic.

To get some satisfaction, Jini devises a plan to get back at her ex-boyfriends. What I liked most about S.Diary was that in the end, despite a marvelous plan that works out to perfection, Jini discovers that it isn't revenge she is after, but love and that in a unique way, every one of her former suitors loved her. This sudden "A-ha!" moment comes just before the credits roll, and I just loved the fact that so much could be said in one short scene...

Today, as I showed the town to a friend visiting from Saskatchewan, I had a chance to think about the storyline, especially since Jo and I were in the car with Jan and Cilian, a couple that broke it off two weeks ago, but are still still trying to remain friends. They had three major fights throughout the day, called each other terrible names, to the extent that Jo and I felt that we were perhaps in the wrong place at the wrong time.

S.Diary has become my new Amelie.

Labels: movies

This week, I have the following films/shows on my video playlist:

1 - 1984 (1984) Faithfully adapted from George Orwell's novel on a futuristic totalitarian society. Funny that he thought it was futuristic.


2- Sophie's Choice (1982) - The film I am really looking forward to seeing [i have read and heard so much about the book]. Meryl Streep's performance got her an Oscar.
I am looking for something to validate the existence of my own ghosts by exploring Sophie's nightmares ....

3- Sabah (2005) - Hmmm, what would life be without filmmakers who make the hijab the synonym of repression? I can't wait to watch this cute, Canadian, idealistic, semi-political romance [I know, i know...funny, though, anytime religion gets somewhere, no matter how innocent the work may be, it reeks politics and political "ideals"]

4- Little Mosque on the Prairie, episode 2 - I want to check out the second episode to see if the show gets better. It's great for non-Muslims and for me, there is some novelty to it, but so far, I have not found it to be impressive, except of course, for my wannabe-husband Zaib Shaikh, who funny enough, played a gay character in a movie [if only i could remember the title]

Labels: 1984, dvds, george orwell, little mosque on the prairie, mongrel media, movies, sabah, sophie's choice, videos