A little "Something" for you =D

Does it get any cuter than this? I would argue that no: it doesn't.

Orange!

Bubbly gold.

Balloons! 

It's real!!! 

(If you are a girl, and you don't get the picture above...I weep for your childhood. What did you read???)

"Books are the perfect entertainment: no commercials, no batteries, hours of enjoyment for every dollar spent. What I wonder everybody doesn't carry a book around for those inevitable dead spots in life." - Stephan King.

Truer words have never been spoken.

"It's because she doesn't know why"

I've been so grumpy this evening. For absolutely no reason what so ever. It's like that scene in Shenandoah when Charlie (the old guy) is talking to Sam (the young guy) and he's telling him about being married and how to treat his wife and he says "sometimes she'll be crying and she won't tell you why. It's because she doesn't know why." Those are the words of a wise man. Girls get stupid emotional for no reason at all. SO I am now sitting at the computer with my ear-buds in listening to jazz and scrolling through Tumbler and Pinterest. It's helping.

Some of the things that have stood out to me:

 Even just the idea of water - especially the ocean, is always calming and pleasant.

For one thing I think this kitchen belongs in the house below, and for another doesn't it just look so peaceful?  Give me this with a record player, some good jazz records, chocolate, a nice sympathetic dog (who's name would be Gatsby) a book of Fitzgerald's short stories and a suitcase with some super comfy jeans a few t-shirts and an old pair of sneakers and I would be so happy for a week or so. 

But as it is I'll settle for a good nights sleep =).

"Gatsby? What Gatsby?"

I saw it last night!!! Oh my goodness. It was SO good! It wasn't word for word, action for action from the book, but some how even the things they added - Tom showing Nick his trophies; shots of Gatsby, Nick and Daisy hanging out at Gatsby's house and so on - were so in tune with the book that it felt like, rather than being a slightly stilted carbon copy (like the 1974 one) it captured the feeling of the book to perfection.

Carrie Mulligan - as I already prophesied - was the most wonderful Daisy. Her eyes were incredible. Completely sensitive, she managed to show everything Daisy seemed to be feeling and then suddenly something behind her eyes would drop and you would see what she was actually feeling and then that something would come back up and she would seem once again charming and sweet and untouchable. It was an incredible performance. She was exactly as Daisy should have been.

And Leonardo DiCaprio. Wow. Where to start? He was amazing. At one point in the book it talks about Gatsby's smile - I'm not sure where my copy of the book is so I can't quote it exactly, but it is quoted exactly in the movie and that smile is talked about as seeming to be super intimate. As though at that moment you were all that he was thinking of. You and your comfort and when he smiled he seemed to "believe in you like you would like to believe in yourself." (that one is a direct quote) And DiCaprio did it. It was perfect. It truly did seem exactly as it was described. The picture can't capture it. It just can't. Also Gatsby was described as an incredibly hopeful man - I think that it actually says something about him "embodying hope". It's my belief that hope is the hardest emotion to portray when you're acting. It's such a spontaneous feeling in reality that it is incredibly difficult to "fake". But, once again, he did it. He was perfect. 

It truly was one of the best cast movies I've ever seen.

And then of course we must talk about his house. His house.  Oh my word. His house.  The opulence of it all was incredible. The pool, the front hall - which had this amazing staircase, and this magnificent chandelier hanging over a beautiful piano. Wide open windows, beautiful gardens, fountains, a private beach. It was absolutely fantastic. In the real sense of the word. Meaning almost fantasy-ish and impossible. Which in truth it was. It embodied his fantasy and wasn't really real. That is not to say it didn't actually exist, only meaning it was sort of a backdrop to the strange facade he played out. The facade that was his life. The life he had planned out for himself ever since he was a boy.

 And the parties. Again, wow. I don't think they used a single truly '20's song, they definitely used the soundtrack to give it a more modern feel, and yet it was perfect. Again, it was all about creating a mood for the movie. So the parties were set in the midst of hip-hop music, and it gave it exactly that crazy, pumped up feeling. As if anything could happen. Could and did.


And the clothes. Oh my word. The clothes were amazing. Two of my favorites are below. I couldn't find a very good picture of the one on the bottom, it was this amazing floor length robe that she was wearing over a swim suit. She looked incredibly beautiful.

 

There was so much more to this movie that I can't even begin to describe. I didn't get to sleep 'till roughly 1:30 - the movie ended around 12:00 - 'cause there was just so much to think about. Hemingway once said of Paris "It's a movable feast" and that was just how I felt about this movie. When it ended I literally sat there for a few minutes with out really realizing it was over and it took a few minutes longer for me to realize that there were tears pouring down my face. The entire movie was phenomenal.

"Something"

Sometimes we need something. We don't really know what it is, we just know that something in us is calling out for another unknown "something". We have given this feeling many names; boredom o restlessness, teenagers tend to say they "can't find anything to do" and so wander around the house. I have a different theory though. My theory is that there is something inside us - I call it a pocket next to my soul - that needs a steady diet of beauty, and when it doesn't get it, it slowly empties, and needs to be refilled. The feeling above mentioned is when this "pocket" empties and is, well, for lack of a better word, hungry. If you read this blog regularly you may have noticed that every now and then I post seemingly random and unconnected pictures and quotes, most of which are from the internet. I make these posts when I am feeling the need for something beautiful, because the time when it's easiest to sympathize with the starving, or pray for the needy is when you yourself are feeling down. These posts are me remembering that other people need beauty in their lives too, so I try to give them a little bit. 

I know my writing 'can't fill it. But I can put some beautiful things all together, I can be a sort of - medium, I guess. I can help. At least, I can try. 

So, next time you're feeling "restless" listen to some really good music - some of my favorites are Mat Kearney, Nora Jones, The Civil Wars, Mumford And Sons and Jack Johnson's Only The Ocean - take a walk, read a good book - I tend to go for Fitzgerald, but not everyone likes him, or just sit some where quiet and think for a little while. I promise you'll feel better. 

More prom pics.

So Sam finally sent me the pictures we all took on his camera, that are actually at prom. They're almost all pretty blurry, but they're fun =).

There were so many cool cars!!!

Sam looking dapper =P

I promise we were just drinking green apple syrup and ginger ale.

She's very cool =D

Green apple syrup and ginger ale.

RED!

There was a Rolls Royce. THERE WAS A ROLLS ROYCE.

Two of my best friends =)

I stole Matteus's hat.

Our beautiful Camero.

They did get a picture of all four of us, it just hasn't been posted yet =/.