I'm sorry

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I'll be back.


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(p.s. my twitter account is sucking up all my internet energies; http://twitter.com/juliaher )

FROM THE ABYSS

I'm not sure which abyss I'm talking about but I just like to make things sound dramatic. The abyss of neglect maybe.

So I have been doing a lot of things that mostly don't include the computer; I still have an empty hard drive.

I took Alex Fitzgerald to Iceland for 10 days over spring break, this picture pretty much sums up the trip:



I´ve been playing with Feather & Folly a lot and we have a considerable amount of upcoming shows. The amount became more considerable when Holly almost cut off her left thumb on Monday, so expect more singing and less guitar playing for the first couple of dates. A list of dates and locations can be seen here.

My big sis was visiting for a week which was nice and lovely. When I haven't been paying visits or receiving visits or playing music I've just been doing my schoolwork like a responsible person, getting drunk like an irresponsible person (only after I've done my schoolwork so not too irresponsible), making friends and trying to be good and happy.

And saying "you know I really should update my blog more frequently" frequently.

Reading books. Watching movies. I've been halfassedly using twitter as a place to write down the movies I watch and some other words that would be inappropriate elsewhere. I'm still not sure what I think about twitter. I think: blah.

Okay. What prompted me to write this post: I'm slowly but surely putting my homepage together. I now have an "about me" section (with an F.A.Q!) and a "links" section (and a blog, obvs.)

I wanted to ask you: Do you have a homepage that I am forgetting / you think I should link to? Or a blog that's missing from my blog-friend-links.

Also: If you have a link to me on your homepage/blog feel free to update it to go to http://juliahermanns.com/ rather than straight to this blog. Just a suggestion.

Alright! funner post next time. thanks bye.

the blogger

It's only a matter of time until someone makes a serial-killer film where the killer leaves his or her clues in the form of blog posts. They can title it simply The Blogger.

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I just watched this short documentary on Daniel Clowes. He is perhaps my all time favorite picture-story-maker. The short is by artist Dick Tuinder. He's a little heavy on the slow-mo page flipping, but overall I enjoyed this.

feelbad video of the day

There is a considerable amount of people in this world who say things like "I don't want to watch a depressing movie right now. I'm kind of down so lets watch something that will cheer me up, a "feelgood" movie."

I am not one of these people. Quite the opposite actually. If I'm feeling depressed the only thing that will make me feel slightly better is if I can assure myself that everyone else in the world is equally, if not more depressed than I am. Films, books, music; I love sad people.

Now I am not a big time quoter of other blogs, but I saw this Sophia Coppola for Dior commercial pretty frequently on TV before I came to Iceland for winter break and every time I just wanted to punch blonde candyfloss girl:



And here's what Britt at fashionista.com had to say about this:

If you’re having a good day and there’s a trip to Paris with bicycles and macaroons in your near future, Sofia Coppola’s commercial will make you want to skip down the sidewalk.

But, if you’re having a bad day and the only thing you have to look forward to is next week’s Gossip Girl, this girl’s ridiculously perfect, ridiculously gorgeous life might put you over the edge.

Exactly. What's something I do excessively? Watch Gossip Girl. That's because there are never any macaroon filled romantic trips to Paris in my near future.

FACE THE DRAWMA:

I never want to draw a single line ever in my life again.

Drawing makes me feel like shit.

You know what doesn't make me feel like shit?

Films. I will now dedicate my life to only watching films for the rest of it and figuring out a way to make a living doing just that. I suspect it will involve a pen with a light on it.

Here is a gif of me interpretively dancing about my feelings:

life plan and things you need in order to acquire eternal happiness:

I think I am trying to fix my state of "nothingness", by sleeping less for example. And doing some other things. I feel less like "nothing" right now. Maybe it's just because I went to mama's food shop though. Here is my new life plan: I will seduce someone who works at mama's. He will in turn bring me food all the time because I practically live next door anyway. very convenient. He will like horror movies and videogames and our lives will be perfect.

Now I just need someone who can teach me mad seduction skills.


joke.

Hey. I am really happy that people like to read this even though I'm writing about "nothing". And that icelandic people read this even though I'm writing in english = betraying the motherland. ACTUAL FACT = most icelandic people read english, but most foreign people do not read icelandic. It's a twisted world, I know.

Now I will talk about fun things.

Fun thing number one: Playing chess. I really want a nice chess set now. Rachael London has one and sometimes we play chess and drink tea or red wine and that makes for a very "happy sophisticated lady"-time. I'm probably better at checkers though. I will somehow acquire one of those double time sets. Then I will seduce people to play chess with me and we will drink limeade and look like this:



Fun thing number two: Limeade. Here are some reactions to my limeade:
Rachael: "Oh my god you are so incredibly good at this!"
I think that's it. Nobody else has tried it.



Fun thing number three: The brothers Quay are coming to present their films at my school on Friday! That is very exciting! If you are not familiar with them, they are basically a set of IDENTICAL twins who want to be Jan Svankmajer. If you are not familiar with Jan Svankmajer, you should be. They are almost 60. They looked like this when they were younger:



They pretty much are pretentious for a living. There latest film is called The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes, possibly the most pretentious name of a film ever. At least their pretentious shit is really good. I tried hard to find a clip on youtube that wasn't 10 minutes and incredibly pretentious but this was almost impossible. But here's one from the Institute Benjamenta, which I watched several times during my video store days.



(Parts of the beginning reminds me of Vera. She will know why.)

If you don't have patience for that, here's a short scene they did in the film Frida, probably seen by more people than all of their own films combined.



nice, yes?

Well, one can only take so many fun things in one night. I think I need to stop now.

p.s. here are some titles I considered for this post: "The Piano Tuner of Pretentious Wannabes" and "Limeade Seduction". Neither one qualified.

p.p.s. I am enjoying this book very much now, both as reading material and a headrest for when I wall asleep in class:

WATCH FILMS (WITH ME) IN NEW YORK

I just want to talk about films right now.

first of all, I went to see a really great one last night; Katsuhito Ishii's Funky Forest: The First Contact. A year ago I saw an earlier film of his; The Taste of Tea and fell in love instantly. It was kind of like an awesome Japanese version of the royal tenenbaums. Funky Forest was a bit more surreal and less traditional, but it was no less awesome. It had lots of great choreographed dance scenes and dream scenes, fun music and all around un-serious david-lynch-ish fun weird shit.

The cast does a great job (it's partially the same in both movies), plus Funky Forest notably stars Rinko Kikuchi (Babel) and Ryo Kase (Letters from Iwo Jima, Scrap Heaven). So if you have ANY interest in asian cinema (or like the royal tenenbaums or eraserhead (but don't take yourself too seriously)) SEE THIS! both films are showing right now at the Imaginasian theater in NYC. here are trailers:

The Taste of Tea (2004)


Funky Forest: The First Contact (2005)



Next up is stuff I want to see:


City of Men (Citade dos Homens, Paulo Morelli, 2007) now playing at the angelica. I really really liked City of God when that came out (and I've talked to some people who were peeing their pants over the City of Men miniseries) so seeing this makes sense.



Paranoid Park (2007). Watching Gus Van Sant fetishize little skater boys (like so many before him) and little Jenny from gossip girl be, well, someone other than little Jenny from gossip girl: sounds like a fun time. Now Playing at the angelica.



Funny Games U.S. remake coming soon. I really really like Michael Haneke. He is so wonderfully morbid and depressing. He makes the perfect films for me to watch when I don't want to watch happy shit. If you're into that and not familiar with him I recommend La Pianiste, Le Temps du Loup and the original Funny Games. Or hey, if your english is better than your french and you're too lazy to read subtitles you're in for a treat because Michael Haneke just remade his own movie in english! because he can do that! Because he's awesome! and Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet are in it! And Naomi Watts and some other people! But who really cares about them! Morbid + scary + Haneke = I'll see it.



Harmony Korine's Mr. Lonely. Yes! So exciting. coming soon to IFC center.



Frownland by some dude named Ronald Bronstein. This is some crazy shit. yes. now playing at IFC center.



...If you want to watch any of these with me, let me know soon. or if you want to tell me about good new films that I am not expressing excitement about. Or if you have questions. Or if you want to tell me I suck and that I'm wasting my life watching pretentious films while I could be doing my homework or eating more vegetables.

HIS FONT GOT SERIFS GODDAM

(click to enlarge)



maybe I would vote for him if this was his actual campaign. or if I were actually allowed to vote.

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this is all I do: sit on my couch and think about how much i have to pee, or how hungry I am, or how much work I have to do, and then I just sit on the couch for eternity thinking about it instead of doing something about it.

maybe obama can make a change in my life.

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I went to see Mýrin, or Jar City, the other day at the IFC center.



I took andrew and rachael with me. they liked it. this was very exciting for me. this was the third time I saw an icelandic film in NYC and every time it has been exciting. I don't know what is wrong with me, I shouldn't get so excited. but there is something so strange about watching a place that's so familiar but not being there at all. I guess I just like to think about these things more than other people. By these things I mean location and the difference between the two parts of the world where I spend my time. especially when I'm watching a movie like this that intentionally makes fun of one of the characters for being some sort of a "coward" or not tough because he lived in america for some time. that is funny and at the same time makes me feel uncomfortable, especially when i watch it with my friends who are american. a few things in the movie actually made them think that iceland is anti-america, but not in a super serious way. it's completely understandable because the movie did that on purpose, and we probably are in some ways. sometimes that makes a little part of me embarrassed of living here or liking it here. mostly i just want my friends who have never been to iceland to think good things about it because it's such a huge part of me and i want them to think good things about me. yes, this is something I think about a lot.

Anyway, I want to quote loosely a conversation that 2 american girls had in the bathroom after the movie:

So funny that we went to see this just because you hooked up with that icelandic dude. yeah. this was so weird. yeah. iceland is like, so depressing. because the sun NEVER shines ever, so it's just like totally depressing. and people are just angry all the time. totally.

I'm not going to comment.

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Anyway. Rita Pavone is really amazing! Here, watch her:

this one's about an american potato that sort of relates to what i just sort of talked about.


this one is just her purely being awesome:



and if you right click here you can download my favorite song by her. it is a very fun song to dance to.

you're welcome.

CAR FACE

Last night Andrew and I had a good party. Before that Jói and I went to the opening of this Michel Gondry show at Deitch Projects. On display were the sets from his upcoming movie which I am now even more excited to see because now I've been in it. It's about people who have a video store but all their TAPES go blank so they have to act out and record all the movies themselves. here's michel gondry pretending that the trailer went blank and acting it out himself.



later lots of other people came over and we played games. game night works like this: jews give points to jews, icelandic people give points to icelandic people, gays give points to their boyfriends, and despite giving each other points icelandic people loose anyway because they're foreign. everyone has fun anyway because they're drunk.

we also watched this,



Possibly my all time favorite kids' film; All dogs go to heaven (1989) is the reason why I grew up to like a) good films b) really fucked up films. All dogs go to heaven is a really fucked up kids' film about gangsters, violence, murder, intoxication, gambling, heaven, hell, poor people, and other fucked up things. But everyone is a dog. There is a Burt Reynolds dog and a jewish dog and a dog named car face. but there is also a giant homosexual singing alligator who eats people and there is a little orphan girl. Jói kept saying that the little girl had sexy legs. the little girl is supposed to be like 6 years old.

the actress who voiced the part of the little girl was 10 years old when the movie was made. she was also 10 years old when she was shot and killed by her fucked up father. this was her final film and that makes the film even more sad and fucked up.

I don't know why I'm awake at 9 the morning after I get drunk and stay up late. I think I was too thirsty to sleep. Now I'm going to wait for the other people in the world to wake up.