A YA HIGHWAY

http://www.yahighway.com/2011/05/two-year-anniversary-giveaway.html




One of the best YA Lit websites around. Fun and informative, and with lots of reviews. Great books included in the giveaway. Check them out!!!

Equilibrium

Here goes a totally incoherent rambling and gushing discussion (so to speak) about the movie Equilibrium, because it blew my mind and I cant really talk about a lot of things that happen since that would involve spoilers. 

This movie is set in a futuristic world, where a strict BigBrother-like regime has eliminated war by suppressing emotions, where books, art and music are strictly forbidden and feeling is a crime punishable by death. The feelings are suppressed by a dosage of drugs each citizen must take at the appointed and announced time.

Christian Bale (whom I love and will watch in anything) plays one of the most feared men in the society: the Grammaton Cleric, an almost supernatural super-cop tasked with hunting down and destroying all "sense offenders" (those humans who try to hang on to their humanity by feeling true emotions and in most cases by having forbidden items (books, perfume, pictures, music etc). There are other clerics but Bale plays John Preston, the awesomest and best one (seriously, his character is awesome. there's a specific type of shooting they teach which maximizes the kill potential, and Preston is like the prodigy in that. He's so good he shoots about 20 men scattered around a pitch-black room from 1 position in the center of the room. this scene happens early on and was the moment wherein I realized "whoa, this movie is bad ass", there's also a whole bunch of other things that make him the best cleric they've ever seen and blah blah. to summarize Bale's character is the most bad-ass, epically awesome man in the entire movie [a point which is further cemented near the end of the movie, but you gotta watch to see what happens. lol], so just forgive him his faults)

Also, I totally spent the whole movie thinking Preston's kid was like a total hitleryouth, and it was only on my second viewing that I caught something that happens which was like a lil "oh, awe" moment that, well I suppose foreshadows what happens near the end.

It’s really hard to talk about this movie without going into too much detail because that would give away a lot of awesome stuff that happens. 

I would have to say that my favorite part of the movie is near the end when he's dressed in white and hooked up to a lie detector. He’s freaking out (and believe he has reason to) and the line on the detector showing his heartbeat is jumping all over the place and then all of a sudden it goes completely still and one of the administrators for real says "oh shit" and then such an awesome thing occurs that I cant tell you about, but just wait and see.

So yeah, this movie is epic and awesome and badass and has great fight sequences and blows your mind and makes you think if you would trade peace for not feeling anything. And Bale is awesome as he always is. And so is Sean Bean, but he dies, as he so often does (seriously the man dies in almost every movie he is in, wtf?)

Watch this movie!!!!

TV Shows I am Currently Obsessed with

In no particular order, here are the TV shows I currently keep up with on a regular basis. All of these shows are amazing. Well acted, well written, well directed, and most have crush worthy people in them, which is always a plus. 

• True Blood
•  http://www.hbo.com/true-blood/index.html
• Mad Men
•  www.amctv.com/originals/madmen
• Sons of Anarchy
•  www.fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/soa/
• Castle
•  abc.go.com/shows/castle 
• Glee
•  www.fox.com/glee/
• How I Met Your Mother
•  www.cbs.com/primetime/how_i_met_your_mother/
• Spartacus Blood and Sand (and Gods of the Arena) 
• http://www.starz.com/originals/spartacus
• Weeds 
• www.sho.com/site/weeds
• Justified 
• www.fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/justified
• Criminal Minds 
• www.cbs.com/primetime/criminal_minds/
• Grey's Anatomy
•  abc.go.com/shows/greys-anatomy 
• Camelot (not yet premiered) 
• www.starz.com/originals/Camelot
• Game of Thrones (not yet premiered) 
• www.hbo.com/game-of-thrones/index.html
• The Borgias (not yet premiered)
•  www.sho.com/site/borgias/home.do
• Downton Abbey 
• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/downtonabbey/index.html