Be optimistic. Optimism is the theme of 2011. I’ve been through a ton of shit and life can only get better. This year will be bigger and brighter. The year of the come back!

Let go. Oddly this resolution was inspired by the movie Black Swan. Natalie Portman was told to relax and loose control in order to be the best Swan Princess. In her case, she lost control and tried to kill herself, but I think the general sentiment still holds. I tend to get caught up in my head and over think everything. So this coming year I will actively work toward letting go, thinking less, and doing more. I’ve learned that I have to keep putting myself out there even if I keep getting hurt.

 

-First is Helen Hunt. She was an Oscar for Best Actress in As Good As It Gets while staring in the hit sitcom Mad About You. However after her Oscar win she wasn’t able to maintain steady work.  

-Second is Mira Sorvino. Her career hightlights include a Best Supposting Actress Oscar for Mighty Aphrodite in 1995, and a starring role in the cult classic Romy and Michele’s Highschool Reunion.

Take a good long look at the model of the right. At first glance, would you say man or woman? The model is in fact a young man by the name of Andrej Pejic. Pejic (19) is the new hot commodity in the fashion world. Strong and butch is out and androgyny is back in a big way. Shown here with Karolina Kurkova while shooting a new add campaign for Jean Paul Gaultier, they look as if they could be sisters. He has also been chosen by Marc Jacobs to head the spring campaign for the Marc by Marc Jacobs label. While it’s not my taste, if you’re looking for a “maybe it’s a girl or maybe it’s a guy” look, he is defiantly the king. Do a Google image search for Andrej Pejic and check out his photos. He REALLY looks like a woman. I can only imagine his potential if Rupaul could get a grip on him.

 

I thought I’d give a general wrap up of 2010 Movies. Easily the two best movies of the year are The Social Network and Black Swan. However if I were an academy voter, I don’t know which one I would choose as the best film of the year. It’s a very tough call because the two movie are so completely different. Black Swan is a gritty psychological thriller where as TSN is based on a true story. Before I saw Black Swan yesterday, I had the Social Network locked as the best movie of the year. But Natalie Portman changed that. Now I am very torn. I’ll be tuning in come Oscar time to see what Hollywood decided.

Kinight and Day also deserves and honorable mention as a guilty pleasure favoite. The Tom Cruise and Cammy Diaz flick is by no means an Oscar contender, but it’s just a fun movie. Cruise is cast perfectly as a crazy ex-CIA agent. Not surprisingly…he plays crazy very well.

There have been a lot of political goings on recently. To begin with, the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell program was repealed Wednesday. Basic Civil Right issues like this always make me laugh a little. I just picture our children being shocked that gay people were not able to serve openly in the military. Just like we look back at Rosa Parks and are astonished that she was not able to sit in the front of the bus. It’s seems so simple and such a basic right, how can the government be so behind the times? The analogy could be made 100 different ways. Women’s right to vote, interracial marriage, etc…all of these fights are laughably out of date. Oh, and remember when Shannon Faulkner dared to enroll at the Citadel? That too was going to ‘bring down’ the military. Now gays in the military will go the way of all the others and become everyday and common place. The way it always should have been. When we are finally awarded the same rights as everyone else (gay marriage), I imagine the general consensus will be “Well Duh, it’s about time.” So with that I applaud President Obama for bringing the military into the 1980’s.

Fashion takes many forms. A lot of people don’t understand high fashion because most of it blurs the line between artistic and wearable. However, with all that being said…some of it is still ass ugly. Take this pair of women’s shoes prominently featured in the Spring/Summer 2011 Ready to Wear show by Prada. Vogue Magazine has also featured the footwear in their recent issue. They look like corrective shoes from a 1950’s metal hospital. You be the judge. Must have or Must ignore?

I feel like I’ve lived through a war these past two years. and there have been a lot of lessons learned during all of the battles of 2010. I hope the war is over and life will go on much more smoothly in 2011. Which has also inspired me to add a New Year’s resolution involving optimism. This past year marked the end of my retail career which had lasted for a total of 8 years. I loved working at the mall for many of those years, however I should have left earlier then I did. When your instincts tell you to move on…LISTEN! But what’s done is done. I got out and that’s all that matters. The other major change this year was my move to West Hartford. Again, this was a wish I had had for many years but I lacked the budget and roommate to fulfill it. Now I’m in the insurance business and living in an apartment with my sister. A far cry from this time last year. 2010 Has also brought many new adventures in my personal life. Granted, many of the adventures I would have paid good money to avoid. But as the saying goes: “That which does not kill us, can only make us stronger.” I won’t bore you with all the details because I made a promise to myself not to use this blog as my personal therapy session. What I will say is, much of what happened this past year was about growing up and getting a clear picture of who I am and what people think of me. The good news is I’m able to laugh off some of it already, and hopefully as time passes the laughing will continue. No one knows what 2011 will bring, but I hope that it brings new friends, new experiences, and new beginnings.

Also, keep an eye out for my official list of 2011 resolutions coming soon!

The Hollywood Foreign Press announced their 2011 nominations. The Golden Globes signal the beginning of awards season. (I was going to try and make a sports analogy using ‘first round drafts’ and ‘cuts,’ but I don’t know enough about sports to make sense of it) I won’t bore you with every category and nominee, but here are some of the highlights. One thing to remember is that the Globe’s have separate categories for Comedy and Drama. I’ll start with Drama…Best Picture is a close race between Black Swan and The Social Network. Personally my vote goes to the Social Network. Best Actress will go to Natalie Portman for the Black Swan, the rest of her group is a bore other then Halle Berry. But Halle already has a globe, so give it to Portman. I’d like Jesse Eisenberg to win for Best Actor for his turn as the founder of Facebook. As for Best Supporting Actress, I’d love it if Mila Kunis won (Black Swan)…if only to think that Meg Griffin would be an award winning actress.

The comedy categories get a bit more bizarre. Apparently The Tourist is a comedy. Who knew? It got nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Actor. This is laughable. The Hollywood Foreign Press knows they need big stars to get big ratings. If they nominate Angelina and Johnny Depp, then the two stars will be much more likely to attend the show. That’s a cheap ploy and it’s probably going to work. Oh, and did I mention Burlesque is nominated for Best Picture. Way to set the bar high Golden Globes. There was one saving grace, Emma Stone was got a nom for her performance in Easy A. (Easy A was one of my favorite movies of the year) The Golden Globes also has nominations for television, but those went as expected. Glee, Mad Men and Modern Family all got their share of bids.

Last night I caught Carrie Fisher’s one woman show “Wishful Drinking.” To be honest, I could take or leave Carrie Fisher. Having never been a huge Star Wars fan, I don’t have the emotion connection with her that others do. Still, when I saw it playing on HBO it peaked my interest. It was great. I was glued to the TV for the entire show. Before this, my basic knowledge of Fisher consisted on knowing her parents, her turn as Princess Laya, and Postcards From the Edge. Oh and the fact that she’s bat shit crazy. The politically correct term is Bipolar with a dose of Electro Shock treatments thrown in for fun. Either way, she’s a funny performer who’s had a long and very interesting life in Hollywood. One of my favorite parts of the show was the visual diagram of her fucked up family tree. Her parents were the older generation’s Jen Aniston and Brad Pitt. However in their case the temptress brunette was Liz Taylor instead of Angelina Jolie. If you get the chance to see it on TV, I highly recommended it. The best word I can use to describe it is Captivating.