Wrapping Up May 2014 | Happy New Month!

May was an odd month - I don't have any classes anymore so basically, I sleep for hours, spend most days either in the hammock or working at the local supermarket (the first thing is awesome, the latter sucks) and watch a bunch of movies if I'm not meeting friends. Nobody has suggested studying to me yet... well, okay, some have. I will start this month, there are still three weeks until the exams so I'm good. The greatest news I have for you is that I finally found an au pair host family... in Anchorage, Alaska! So I will be moving way up north in August and honestly I have no idea how I will handle blogging and all that jazz for the following 12 months. So be prepared for a hiatus. As a little compensation, I will host an Alaska-centered blogathon during June and July so look out for that post pretty soon. And no worries, the podcast is definitely going to continue. Speaking about which, we finally found a way to get all of our old episodes on iTunes and Stitcher. If you follow us on iTunes or the Apple Podcast app, you need to unfollow the old feed and search for Across the Universe Podcast. You should find the up-to-date feed with all previous episodes. (Let's hope so!)

WATCHED FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME

THE LEGO MOVIE (2014) 8.3 | This was my most anticipated film of the year so it was bound to disappoint just a little. But there was definitely awesomeness in here. HAZAARON KHWAISHEIN AISI (2003) 5.0 | Big let-down for me, very uneven and bland. EK THA TIGER (2012) 7.5 | Once in a while, a really stupid movie is really good. PARZANIA (2005) 8.9 | Much more shocking than watching the news and the reason why I watch movies instead of watching the news. CAT PEOPLE (1942) 7.6 | Very atmospheric and effective for a rather short film with rather unknown actors. THE BLOB (1958) 6.7 | I generally like B-movies but this one was a tad meh. Great intro song though. THE HOST (GOWEMUL) (2006) 8.9 | One of the most impressive monster films I've seen. There's something about South Korean cinema. THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (2014) 9.7 | Epic in pretty much every way. LAGE RAHO MUNNABHAI (2006) 7.5 | Fun but just silly enough to make me like instead of love it. MUMBAI MERI JAAN (2008) 7.7 | Your typical Indian realistic drama with some great performances that save it. GULAAL (2009) 8.0 | Stylized as hell and probably very deep. In another mood I would've completely loved it. THE GOOD ROAD (2013) 7.9 | Very slow and heavy - it almost made me angry. But there's something fascinating about it. B.A. PASS (2013) 7.8 | A movie that is growing on me more and more. There's something about these stories. 8 1/2 (1963) 8.8 | Italian cinema is sexy and knows it. REAR WINDOW (1958) 7.8 | It's hard to talk about this movie without gushing about Grace Kelly. MUSICAL CHAIRS (2011) 6.9 | Enjoyable fluff that's sort of better than the rest. LA VIE D'ADÈLE (BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR) (2013) 8.0 | I love-hated it but the love part sort of won.


RE-WATCHED WITH THE PURPOSE OF INTENSE EXAMINATION

THE LUNCHBOX (2013) 8.8 | Holds up pretty well and I'm so happy this got released on DVD in Germany. DUMBO (1941) 8.0 | Absolutely disturbing. HARRY POTTER 1,2,3,5,6,7,8 - 10.0 | Yes, Epic Harry Potter Night (or rather Day) happened and we watched everything minus the fourth movie.

AMOUNT OF FILMS WATCHED: 26 (APRIL +12)

AVERAGE RATING: 8.2 (APRIL +0.3)

SHORTS AND TELEVISION

FULL CIRCLE (2008) | I finally gave Alex Withrow's shorts a watch and really enjoyed them. This one was very quiet but still interesting. EARRINGS (2012) | Definitely more approachable than Full Circle and very well-made. THE GREATER GOOD (2014) | Fan-made, non-profit short on the fight between Dumbledore and Grindelwald. Pretty impressive for that!

HANNIBAL, S. 2 FINALE (2014) | Trying to come up with a better word than "yummy". Oh well, let's just stick with that. PENNY DREADFUL, TWO EPS (2014) | Looking good so far, especially after all the Gothic stuff we read in the last years of high school. SUPERNATURAL, HALF OF S. 3 (2009) | Still awesome. 

LITERATURE

criminalnails.blogspot.com

JUST SAYING (2013) by Rae Armantrout **** | The first step on my quest to read more poetry. It was rather hard to get into but I liked most of the poems a lot. FIGHT CLUB (1996) by Chuck Palahniuk | Favorite book-to-movie adaptation ever. And the book is epic on its own too. EINE UNBERÜHRTE WELT (2008) by Andreas Eschbach *** | Some German sci-fi stories. I didn't love all of them but there were some pretty cool ideas here. 

and finally, TIME FOR A VIDEO

Reading Fight Club and surfing through some globetrotter blogs plus all the fresh air and free time evoked some deep, philosophical dialogue with myself (not loud, just inside my head... I'm normal). Anyway, this video was one of the steps on that, shall we say, enlightening journey. Anything I say now will sound even more pretentious.

Tell me about your month. Or don't. You are not your blogger profile. The comments you write end up writing you. Maybe.