OOTD; Work Then 'Brothers', AKA 'You Are About To Watch Two Hours Of Tobey Maguire Not Blinking'

_ Gray graphic t shirt from Primark

_ Black cardigan from Zara

_ Belt from Primark

_ Black leggings from American Apparel

_ Scarf from H&M

_ Fingerless mittens from Urban Outfitters

_ Leather jacket from New Look

_ Assorted rings from Rings Eclectic, the Richmond Night Market and my Mom's jewelery box

_ Stud earrings by Mimi And Marge (To become my new regulars)

_ Black ankle boots from Spring

_ Black men's laptop bag from H&M (not shown)

_ 'Teal The Cows Come Home' nail polish by OPI

This was on Saturday; I worked until close, then had to race to Tinseltown to go see 'Brothers' with a couple of friends, but I'll get to that in a bit.

Nails of the day!

'Teal the Cows Come Home' by OPI. This was my favourite, until it was dethroned by 'Russian Navy', then that by 'You Don't Know Jacques' (Thought I'd posted a picture of my wearing this, but I guess not). My tastes have become more muted, haven't they?

This will be the last NOTD for awhile; later that day at work, I broke my right middle finger nail in half. It's still attached, but it hurts and I am not going to be putting nail polish remover near it any time soon.

It's sad, but at least my nails grow fast.

I also have a bit of a haul for you; the scarf in the above picture, and my new earrings. I always past that scarf in H&M and loved it, so finally I went to H&M on impulse and just bought it. it offers almost no warmth, but it's pretty.

Priorities.

I also bought these Mimi And Marge silver stud earrings.

(LOL at the close up and all my skin imperfections)

I got them because I can wear them from day to day (only I would say that about studs) and I'd never seen anything else like them. Plus they're very Lady Gaga and/or Rihanna.

There were some other Mimi And Marge earrings I wanted, that I'm thinking about.

Do I really wear earrings all that often though?

On to the movie; my friend Sara (who was the friend in this post) saw the trailer to 'Brothers' twice when we saw the movies aforementioned in the link about. Basically, it's the most intense thing ever. Literally.

So obvs, we marked December fourth, the day it came out, and decided to see it as soon as possible.

This is one of the reasons I didn't love 'Brothers'; I had expectations.
I always try to never read any reviews of a movie outside The Vancouver Sun so as to taint my idea of a movie as little as possible, or I try not to get hype up a movie in my head.

'Brothers' was good, but I wouldn't see it again.

The acting was amazing, Tobey Maguire's unblinking eyes deserve an Oscar, for serious, but the story was a bit flat.

I won't spoil anything, but I'll say that the movie tried to be a look into a captured then freed Marines eyes, but it just didn't work.

Maybe if there had been more conflicts and secrets around him; I get that it was all supposed to be in Tobey Maguire's head, but the film just wasn't that deep.

I got to stare at Jake Gyllenhaal for over an hour though, so I'm not complaining.

If you need a reason to see this movie though, see it for the child actress who plays the eldest daughter. Oh my god.

She is the best child actress I have ever seen; I thought she was on par to every other actor around her.

The dinner table scene? Everyone in the theater went dead quiet after it, even those annoying faux gangsters behind us who'd brought beer.

'Brothers' was good, but it won't be winning any Oscars, at least in my book.

One last thing, how long was that winter?

Seriously, the entire movie takes place in one season and it just never stops snowing.
I get that Tobey Maguire leaves in November, and I guess he comes back in march, but still, it doesn't snow that much.

It was originally a Danish film, so maybe it snows for that long in Denmark, but not in middle America, director.

Love.

P.S. This post is brought to you by Elsie not moving out of the shot.

Inspiration; Living In A Photo

Chances are, the life you're living doesn't correspond perfectly with the life you imagine.
Mine didn't for the longest time.

Now, I'm not saying working full time and creating portfolios for university is my dream life, but I'm doing these things to get closer to the life I want, whatever that ends up being.

But back to you; why aren't you living the life you'd always dreamed of? I know the answer for a lot of people, or for me at least, is 'I'm not living in my dream city'.
I used to hate Vancouver. Hate it with a passion. Why wasn't I from Montreal or Toronto, or Los Angeles or New York? Why was I stuck in this boring faux-metropolis?
But it wasn't Vancouver that was wrong, it was my thinking; yes, Vancouver's no Paris, Milan, or London, but it is 'the city'.
There are things to do, people to see, fashion to be gawked at, cuisine to try, events to be apart of, concerts to rock out to, and etc.

We're always blinded by what we 'should' have, what we needed to make ourselves happy, and I lived thinking that Vancouver wasn't it. But that's lazy thinking; it's not up to the world, or your circumstances to make you happy. Want the truth? No one cares about someone who whines instead of tries. Before saying your life 'sucks', before crying out about the unfairness of it all via your Facebook notes and Twitter updates, ask yourself "Have I tried?"

I'll give my answer: no.
I didn't try for a second.
So I had an idea: take off the blinders and enjoy myself. Sounds simple enough, right?
You'd be amazed at your thoughts when they're not drowning in negativity; the main difference I found was the existence of possibilities. Instead of 'things will happen when...' it became 'things will happen'.

I know, I know. Giving yourself a whole new mindset doesn't happen overnight.
So I had a second idea; find the beauty within my home town and capture it.
You can do this any way; by drawings, painting, clothing designs, cooking, writing, etc.
But I chose photography.

A few weeks ago I set a day aside and ventured to downtown Vancouver with my camera in hand. My goal? Take at least one hundred pictures. What of? Anything. Anything I could find beauty in. I needed to prove to myself that there is beauty in anything.

And I did.

After I took those one hundred or so pictures, I put them on my computer and looked through them, putting the ones I liked and were Photoshop-worthy into a folder. From there, I photoshopped. Not much, just some colour adjustments, some cropping; I didn't want to change the images, just enhance them. Lastly, I looked at the finished fifty-eight photos, and picked five to ten of my favourites.

So what does this all have to do with you?
Do the same thing I did. Set aside a day, morning, afternoon, whatever, and bring your camera, and have a walk all over town. Take pictures of everything, until you have at least one hundred. Photoshop if you want, then pick your favourite five to ten, and post them somewhere, on a blog, Facebook, Deviantart, Flickr, even tweet them if you want.
You can even could get them printed and framed, if you're in need of some sort of original art.

I've posted the seven photos I captured that day that I loved the most; I took them in familiar places that I visit everyday, and new parts of town that if I had been to, I'd forgotten.
The only photography advice I have is to walk slowly, look all around you, breathe deeply, and see clearly.
Anyone can do it.

Basically, my point is that we never see the positive aspects of life until we're slowed down and made to look; we see so much through the lens of a camera, yet miss entire works completely with our own unadulterated eyes.
It's not where you are, it's who you are, you're attitude that makes a difference.
It's a cliché, but one I've found to be true.

Love.

MovieRave(s); 'An Education'/'Pirate Radio'

It's probably become clear from reading this blog, but I vastly prefer 'films' over 'movies'. It's just how I role, people.

There's an artsy, independent kind of theater in Vancouver's Chinatown that I frequent called Tinseltown.
Don't judge the name, I think it's cute.
Anyway, yesterday, two friends and I decided to see the matinee showing of 'An Education'; though I'd read the review, none of us had a very clear idea about the movie, one of my friends had never even heard of it, but wanted to come anyway. All we knew was that it was getting rave reviews, and that I'd hit Peter Sarsgaard.

If you go to Tinseltown you have to visit T And T first to buy snacks for the movie; it's a chain of Asian grocery stores that get stuff imported directly from Asia.
I don't know if any of you had Asian friends as kids, but if you did, you'll know that they always had the best candy.

Strawberry Pocky is my life. The chocolate ones are OK, I guess, but strawberry's where it's at.
I got nine packets for $5.00. I ate five of them v.v

My friend made us all get this Tao Ti Apple Green Tea; basically, it's green tea mixed with apple juice, but it's so much more than that.



I can't describe the taste, just try a bottle of it.
Just FYI, this picture of the bottle is the Americanized version, but the writing on the bottle I had was in Chinese.

After we were perused the candy aisles, we headed up to the theater to see 'An Education'.


The three of us unanimously loved it; 'An Education' is the story of a sixteen year old girl, Jenny, living in London in the 1960s. Her father presses his narrow minded views on the rest of the family, which causes Jenny to rebel by living anything French, and fantasizing about living in Paris, going to concerts, smoking, wearing black, etc. She is currently studying at a girls school to get into Oxford so she can study English, then basically meet an educated man to marry her. One day she meets David, a cultured older man. he takes her to concerts, on trips, and introduces her to his glamorous friends and his glamorous lifestyle.They fall in love, and Jenny begins to think that there may be no point in her going to Oxford if she stays with David. Obviously, things aren't what they seem and Jenny gets an education in life.

So much could have gone wrong with this movie; the plot line of an older man falling for a sixteen year old girl is creepy, point black, but Peter Sarsgaard is a fantastic actor; he never falls into the 'creepy older man zone;, but remains charming throughout the entire film. Not gonna lie, I'd get in his car if he'd take me to Paris.
The protagonist, Carey Mulligan, is extremely talented; again, the plot could have gone array if Jenny would have been a whiny, 'woe is me', type of character, but Mulligan never let's her slip into that mode. She keeps Jenny strong throughout the entire film.


This is an awesome movie, and I normally hate 'coming of age' stories; it could have been so cliché, but the actors and storytelling never falter. It made me laugh, it made me want to cry, and it made me want to bang Peter Sarsgaard.
Basically, see this movie.

Afterwards, one of my friends had a kind of date (Oooooohhhhh) and had to leave. My other friend and I, having nothing else to do except homework on her part, decided to sneak into 'Pirate Radio'.
Fact; I'd never snuck into a movie before.
I'd never had wanted to see two movies at once, or if I did, no one else had wanted to. Plus, my birthday's at the beginning of the year, so I turned eighteen before everyone else, and if I had wanted to see an 18A (Canada's version of an R) movie, my mom would have just taken me.

But we both wanted to see another movie. The problem?
We had to loiter outside the bathroom for almost an hour, since the showing times were so far apart. Luckily, not much goes on at Tinseltown, so no one was really suspicious.
We did the old 'have a conversation while walking into the new theater' technique so as to arose no suspicions.
And it worked. I'm very proud of myself.

Anyway, the theater for 'Pirate Radio' was packed.

And we were the youngest in attendance, though we probably were for 'An Education' too, I just hadn't noticed.


'Pirate Radio' is set in the 1960s, and about 'pirate' radio station that floated just off the coast of the UK and broadcasted rock music twenty-four hours a day. Apparently it was illegal to play more than one hour of rock a day in Britain at the time, I don't know why. Irregardless, the pirate's weren't really breaking the law, since they were off British soil, and 25 million British people were listening to rock everyday.

But obviously, the British government was not happy about said boats, and Kenneth Branagh hires Jack Davenport to stop them.
The movie doesn't have a concrete plot, but consists of showing the British government trying to take down the stations, and the tomfoolery aboard Radio Rock, the biggest pirate radio station.

I wanted to see this movie because I love Bill Nighy, Rhys Darby, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman; the ensemble cast in this film in incredibly strong. it's basically every British comedic actor come together in a flurry of accents.


I laughed out loud in this film, and the middle-aged men and women around me were in stitches multiple times throughout the film. It is really all ages, with the exception of Phillip Seymour Hoffman saying 'fuck' in every sentence.

SideNote;
This movie was rated PG, and there was lots of fucks and a naked Nick Frost, which surprised me; way to have an awesome rating system, Canada.
For those of you who don't know, the average R rating in the USA gets a 14A here in Canada. For something to get an 18A in Canada, it has to be pretty graphic (I'm looking at you, 'Young People Fucking').

It's so rare that I find a comedy I actually like, I mean besides 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall', and I really enjoyed 'Pirate Radio'. It had British humour, but it wasn't 'Monty Python', if that makes sense.
And everyone in the theater enjoyed themselves.

Afterwards, we got sushi ($5.95 for three rolls and miso soup!) and ice cream (Hazelnut ice cream, shaped like a pear, and dipped in chocolate), and called it a night.


Haul time! Since I am now employed, I decided to celebrate by buying myself an early Christmas present.


I'd been looking at this rong since the summer, and I finally bougt it. It's by Rings Eclectic; it looks a but like a compass head.
I love cocktail rings, and I'm super excited for this one.

QuestionOfTheDay;
'Twilight: New Moon'. Did you see it? Did you like it?
Discuss.


Love.