Who's scruffy lookin'?

I own more Star Wars shirts than anyone who isn't a) George Lucas, or b) a 7 year old boy has any right to. 

May you build a ladder to the stars and climb on every rung.

May God bless and keep you always, 

May your wishes all come true,

May you always do for others,

And let others do for you,

May you build a ladder to the stars,

And climb on every rung,

May you stay forever young

May you stay forever young.

May you grow up to be righteous,

May you grow up to be true,

May you always know the truth,

And see the light surrounding you,

May you always be courageous, 

Stand upright and be strong,

May you stay forever young

May you stay forever young.

May your hands always be busy, 

May your feet always be swift,

May you have a strong foundation,

When the winds of changes shift,

May your heart always be joyful,

And may your song always be sung,

May you stay forever young

May you stay forever young.

I love this song. I've been listening to it every morning for like, a week, because it just puts me in a fantastic mood. I love Bob Dylan as a lyricist (as a singer...not so much). Anyway, I wanted to share it because it makes me so happy, and I hope it makes you happy, too. 

Buy it here. 

Watch the Will.I.Am mashup/Pepsi commerical version here. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've been desperately trying to find a video of the actual song to embed, but the copyright laws surrounding it are INTENSE. You can't find a video on Youtube, I tried uploading my own MP3 and got all these "YOU ARE A PIRATE!" warnings,

so here's the best I can do (even though if you're pitch-sensitive, like me, this is heinous to listen to). 

Deal with it. 

A Gif-Heavy Review Of Les Miserables From Someone Who Doesn't Like Musicals And Never Saw This One Til The Movie.

::There will be spoilers.::

Okay, so here's the deal. 

Apart from Phantom of the Opera and Mary Poppins, I actually don't like musicals. So sue me.

That being said, let me explain my history with Les Miserables. 

I knew it was a musical about this

And that's it. Then we did a marching band show in high school featuring the music, and being the complete and utter band geek I was, I tried to read the book so I knew the story to go along with the music. 

For anyone else who's ever tried to read Hugo and failed, you can guess how that went. Also, Les Miserables the book is like, a million pages. So I Sparknoted it. I know all the characters, chapters, plotlines, and important quotations now! 

I am also going to English major hell for admitting that. 

So anyway, we played the show and I vaguely got it. 

Then, for whatever reason, we had to read the part of the book where the priest gives Jean Valjean the candlesticks, I kid you not, like four separate times in high school. I'm not sure why out of the entire book that was the only part they ever made us read (probably because little else is appropriate for a school setting, but it was HIGH school. We all knew what a prostitute was.), but there it is. So I knew all about Jean Valjean and the candlesticks, too. 

Anyway, between my very scant "reading" and knowing the music from the show we did, that was it. I had no desire to ever see the Broadway show because a) the story did nothing for me, b) the book is HUGE so the musical was, I was sure, very long, and c) it's a DEPRESSING story. I mean, it literally translates to "THE MISERABLE." 

Then I saw trailers. And there was the music, but it was so much BIGGER than a 25 piece marching band. And there was Hugh Jackman. And Anne Hathaway, and Russel Crowe, of all people. And it looked big and epic and awesome and I was like

So, naturally, I had to go see it. 

WELL LET ME TELL YOU. 

First of all, I have NEVER seen a movie that left me as heartily depressed as I was after that movie. I mean, 4 days later, I was still recovering. And I'd like to see it again, but I don't think I can. Like, it's one of those movies you can watch maybe a couple of times IN YOUR LIFE and then you're like, "Wow, I have got to stop wishing to die." 

So the opening where there's the Work Song and the ship and stuff, I was like: 

Then I heard Russel Crowe singing and I was like:

Then there was all the stuff with the candlesticks, which I could've recited if I'd known how the music went. Then like, fast forward 8 years and we're up to Fantine aka: Anne Hathaway. And it was just a depressing downhill spiral from there. She loses her job, her hair, her teeth, and becomes a prostitute all in about 10 minutes. 

Oh, and then she dies. 

THEN we get to see her orphaned daughter, Cosette, who is also the little girl in the Les Miserables logo or whatever (do musicals have logos? Emblems? What's the proper term here??). And she's all sad and orphaned and is basically Helena Bonham Carter's slave. Everyone thinks "Master of the House" is like, the comic relief, but it was mostly just vulgar and it kind of grossed me out in the movie.

But I will never speak ill of Helena Bonham Carter because she is perfection, so we'll move on.

Valjean-Jackman rescues Cosette, who grows up to be Amanda Seyfried. 

Really, the love story in this movie is about Russel Crowe and Hugh Jackman, which was totes okay with me. Russel Crowe stalks him for like, 25 years ruthlessly. They yell. They fight. They try to kill each other. It was beautiful.

THEN, enter the whole second half of the movie, which focuses on a pretty unrelated group of revolutionaries in France. Okay, they're not unrelated. The girl, Eponine (aka: world's most tragic character ever) is Helena Bonham Carter's daughter (in the film), and the guy, Marius, falls in love with Cosette/Amanda Seyfried. So it is all related. Just vaguely, by threads.  

Anyway, this part got boring and my mom and I did a lot of snarking during this bit because it was just like, love triangle between Eponine, Marius, and Cosette, more gayness cat-and-mouse between Valjean-Jackman and Javert-Crowe, and a lot of singing and plotting to start a revolution. 

The problem with revolutions is you need people to show up. Well guess what didn't happen in this story?

SPOILER ALERT:

Except Marius and Valjean-Jackman  They live by escaping through the sewers. Kind of exactly like the scene in Star Wars where Princess Leia saves everyone on the Death Star by jumping into the garbage chute. Yes I did just compare Les Mis and Star Wars. Don't even.

So blah blah, like a bunch of singing happens. Valjean-Jackman has his final confrontation with Javert-Crowe and lets him go instead of shooting his brains out, and this literally blows Javert-Crowe's mind so much that he can't even handle it and kills himself. But he does it so grossly. He jumps off a building into a reservoir or something and there's an almighty SNAP as his body breaks in half. I was like: 

So then ultimately, Cosette and Marius get married and the pain of losing Cosette causes Valjean-Jackman to lose his will to live. REALLY??

The guy survives 20 years in prison/work camp, evades Javert-Crowe for another 20 years, and he dies of heartbreak?!? SO LAME. 

Then, Fantine-Hathaway's ghost comes to usher him to the other side, where he sees the priest and all the people who died during the failed revolution. I was very bothered that in this version of heaven, Anne Hathaway's hair didn't grow back, and that paradise is basically the revolution. It's not HEAVEN at all! It's a war scene! 

And the movie just ends so abruptly. You spend 2 and a half hours working up to this epic thing and then it's just like "GASPslump" and Jean Valjean's dead and two minutes later, the credits are rolling. I was like:

And when I realized that was it, I was like:

But mostly:

It was just so depressing. There is not one happy moment in the whole thing. Everyone dies. It's dreadful.

Too long didn't read: 

So overall. The acting/singing was pretty good. Hugh Jackman impressed me. So did Anne Hathaway. Amanda Seyfried sounded like a bird, and Russel Crowe basically just barks and yells his lines, but it wasn't horrid. The costumes were nice, I guess. Everyone looked duly filthy and poor and smelly, so the makeup gets props.

Favorite characters had to be Jean Valjean, because he has the ultimate redemption story and I love that crap, and Javert, because he thought he was doing the right thing the whole time, legally and morally. I just wish he hadn't killed himself. I'd respect him a lot more if he'd just accepted that Valjean was both a criminal and a good man and gone on with his life. 

Musically, here's the deal. There are the few songs that everyone knows that are really good (Work Song, I Dreamed A Dream, At The End of the Day, Master of the House, On My Own, Can You Hear The People Sing, etc.), but everything in between is just like, disjointed notes being sung. I'm not sure how you'd rehearse for it, because it's so indefinable it'd be hard to read music for it, or pick it up by ear. I think Phantom is superior musically (and I know that's an unpopular opinion, deal with it) just because there are motifs and themes interwoven throughout the whole thing and even the "dialog songs" are very musical. Also, there is a pipe organ. 

Really, my opinion is this: we love the musicals we grew up on. Unless we just like musicals, like the entire cast of Glee. I don't. But I knew the music from Phantom before I even had any idea what the story was about. And the people I know who love Les Mis say the same thing about their lives--their parents loved the show so they grew up around it. I don't know. Overall, it's worth seeing. Just bring prozac/ice cream/whatever antidepressant you prefer . I didn't cry, I just wanted to stop existing after I saw it. The singing wasn't awesome, but it definitely could've been worse. 

And Phantom of the Opera is better, so see that instead if you have a choice. :)

Tim Burton would be so pleased.

Can I just take a moment to express how THRILLED I am that stripes (vertical, no less!) were smattered all over the Spring runways?

(The answer to this highly rhetorical question is a resounding and emphatic "YES!" by the way.)

Top left: Les Copains; Bottom Left: Balmain; Center: Juicy Couture; Top and Bottom Right: Moschino

Marc Jacobs

Michael Kors

YAY YAY!!! I'm so excited. I hope the trickle-down effect takes place and cheap retail stores will be positively overflowing with striped things of all kinds! Maybe I'll even find an affordable version of my dream purse (STILL want this!). 

I made a Polyvore set with some wearable ways to incorporate the stripe trend without looking like a Tim Burton movie reject. And all the items are under $50 (except the yellow Jimmy Choo flats...sorry!)! Click to see the set item-by-item. 

Stripes Spring '13 by insidemypumpkin featuring a striped tee

AHH! Love it!!

PS: Can we also talk about how Betsey Johnson's show must be the ultimate dream for every runway model? Look how HAPPY they all look! 

 And what's with the random but totally awesome props?? Monkeys, glitter, kids in strollers wearing Grouch Marx glasses, LIVE PIGS?!? (sounds like a "Stefan" sketch from SNL)

If I ever become a model (hah!), remind me to only walk Betsey Johnson's shows.


(All photos taken from style.com)

Happy New Whatever.

So, it's 2013. New Year's.

I actually dislike New Year's. I wish I was one of those people who scintillates optimism at the turning of the years, but I don't. I sit there and I'm like, "Okay. I'm another year older, another year I'm still not doing all the grand and glorious things I thought I'd be doing," etc. I just get down on myself because instead of being able to see the things I DID accomplish, I tend to notice the things that still lie beyond my grasp. 

I wish I saw New Year's like this, but mostly I see it like this:

I also dislike the making of resolutions, but I'll list the things I'd like to change anyway. For posterity and all. 

• Be more forgiving. Forgiveness is a theme that's been weighing heavily on my mind, and I can't seem to escape it (went to church this morning, and BOOM. The message was forgiveness). I'm such a bitter person (my name literally means "bitter," so I can't escape that, either). I'll hold a grudge until the day I die. I still get worked up about crap that happened to me IN MY CHILDHOOD, not to mention the more recent things. So this year, I want to work on forgiving and letting go of the things that still hurt me. I won't forget. Like Mr. Darcy, "My good opinion, once lost, is lost forever," but I can work on letting go of negativity that no longer serves me, and probably never did in the first place. 
• Write. I have stories that I absolutely NEED to finish. Especially one. I've conceived every part of it except the title. And actually, it goes along a lot with the forgiveness. Writing is therapeutic, but like therapy, it's hard. Writing, particularly what I want to write, is like drawing venom from a wound. The story is boiling over, seething from every pore, and I need to get it out, no matter how unpleasant the experience may be. By this time next year, I'd like to have it finished. 
• All that stuff about being more fiscally responsible and eating better and exercising more. Who doesn't make these resolutions, though? If intention could make me thin, healthy, and rich, I'd be freaking Scarlet Johansson (without the nude pics). Alas. 

Clearly, I'm fighting with my pessimistic self. When people ask, "Are you an optimist or a pessimist?" I never really know how to answer. "Recovering pessimist" seems to work most times. But I'm relapsing on the day of the year when you're supposed to be most optimistic. Forgive me for not being all glittery and excited, but I do sincerely hope that the New Year brings all of us what we're looking for. And if it doesn't, then I hope we're at least a little enriched by the journey of searching all the same.