Floods in Wonderland

The city's been experiencing a massive amount of rain these past few days.
Ate at Cafe Fiorello's before hitting up Alice in Wonderland in IMAX 3-D.

The movie was actually pretty enjoyable and entertaining to watch. Minus the awfully awkward and unnecessary dance segments they did towards the end; that just killed any moment that was trying to be created. Also, this is probably because of the trained way to view and analyze learned from my Children's TV class this past quarter, but the movie had lots of room for [mis]interpretations of gender roles, and the sexual tension between Alice and the Mad Hatter. All in all, the movie's psychotic enough to be intriguing, but I don't know if the 3-D part is worth it. In general, I'm not big on the 3-D...causes some motion sickness...

Oh Columbia

Ended up going to Columbia twice today. Both times, had food around that neighborhood:

I watched 'Un Prophete' the other day.

It was pretty interesting and enjoyable. But after about 1 hour into the film, I started to wonder if this were not just a story about high school cliques and bullies, but in prison. Also realized how distracting subtitles can be when one is trying/should be watching the visuals, not trying to keep up reading the translations. But hey, what can you do? I'm pretty sure if this were dubbed/somehow made in English, it would detract from the film.

::Pause::

어떤 때 는 그냥 포기하고 죽고싶은 기분이 들은다.
뭘해도 안되는 느낌.. 
영원히 뭐가 부족한다는 느낌..
웃는 척하면서, 사람들을 위해서, 그것도 아니란다.
모두가 문제이란다.
고치고싶어도, 어떻게해야할지.. 
어디 부터..
고칠수가있는지..
이럴 때 는,
"그만 둘까"
생각이난다.

집으로 가고싶은데..
어느 안전한 곳이 그리운데, 이미 집에 와있다.
이제 어디로 갈수있는건가..
희망이 안보인다.

Spring in NYC

Back for break since last Friday. That day, we went to a small authentic Japanese place for food.

Really really fresh. Beyond any other place (including places like Morimoto).
Got my wisdom tooth pulled yesterday, so I'm sort of in the recovering phase...buut can't wait to see some films at Lincoln Plaza (which seems to be showing some more interesting things as opposed to AMC).

Movies and Cupcakes

Up in the Air was pretty amazing. I don't generally easily say that I really like a film when I see one, but this one was... thought-provoking. It's like that friend who's ready to give you a shoulder or some words of advice, but in the form of a film. By the end of the film, I felt alot better. Watching it had somehow proven to be some cathartic process that made the whole world seem much more understandable...understandable in the sense that it's NOT understandable, under any/most circumstances. But you deal by pushing against all that's being thrown at you. You may lose at the end, but there's really no other way to sanely survive in this world without just always being ready to confront the unexpected. Loved this film.

Next up, Scorsese's Shutter Island.
Did I love it? No... but it was okay. I'm hesitant to say I really liked it, but I don't feel like I wasted my money watching this one. Lots of fun stuff going on with colors and saturation. Perhaps my concern is with how the ending seemed too.. logical and expected. It made alot of sense. But.. almost too much sense? Definitely wasn't keen on how one of the characters verbally explains everything in detail of the reality...way too many words! Shouldn't the film make us think to figure it out? I mean, it's nice to know that we KNOW, but straight-out telling us is no fun...write a book, instead. However, I would suggest people to go see this, as it's one of the fewer movies that have come out recently that isn't completely asking to be puked on.

What...?! No. The Crazies was.. inexplicably pointless. A sad wannabe of the District 9 genre. I had pretty high expectations for this, as Rotten Tomatoes showed some high reviews...unfortunately, it is true what one critic noted, about the repetitive hide-and-seek pattern throughout the 2 hours. Sure, I screamed and peered through between my fingers when the loud noises and ugly disfigured people popped out on the screen. But more than anything, I [and my friend] was left laughing at the ridiculous situation being presented. I think I expected it to be much more psychological...for what reason, I'm not sure...Waste of money watching this.

So my friends and I went to Molly's for their apparently unbelievably delicious cupcakes that make Magnolia in NYC look like crap. Granted...I've only had a Magnolia's cupcake once, and I'm not that into cupcakes in general.

 

  

  

 

This was actually pretty good! I had the blueberry cheesecake cupcake, and I stuck the cookie monster cupcake in my fridge, since there's only so many cupcakes I can take (especially in a day...). That last one is my friend's, a macadamia cupcake.
My friend and I celebrated Chicago's Restaurant Week by going to Lawry's Prime Rib, where I gracefully fell face-forward on the beautifully polished and waxed hardwood floor in front of many peaceful diners. Luckily, I landed/caught myself with my arm...but needless to say, drawing that much attention to myself is not my idea...haha.

The end of a long but great day in Chicago.