I Started a Thing

My name is Jenni. I'm going to do things. And I'm going to put those things on here. YOU CAN'T STOP ME.

[butterfly-effect]

The film editor to Mad Max is a woman! The editor to this gorgeous, incredibly visually coherent movie is a woman by the name of Margaret Sixel, who has NEVER EDITED AN ACTION MOVIE BEFORE. Talk about rising to the occasion! George Miller said of her at the Cannes press conference that he wanted her to edit it because if guys did it, it would look like every other action movie out there. “She’s here to keep us from embarrassing ourselves,” Miller laughed. He continued, “The movie is like rubix cube; we needed someone with a lot of brainpower and a low threshold for boredom. She did not allow any repetition in the movie.”

[jennitownsend]

Nice weather, good walk, pretty mural. I cut off the name of the artist in the picture... mei something??

[jennitownsend]

Last night I did bugger all. Oh wait... before I did bugger all we went to a cafe so Bianca could get her last Vin Chaud before she has to make it herself. I figured I may as well try it and found that it was extremely sweet... but the others are not this way according to the hot wine conoisseur…

“We did see a canon name "The Misanthrope" which I think is an excellent name for a weapon of destruction.”

[jennitownsend]

Well, we haven't done much really, but I thought I may as well do this anyway. Last night 12 Monkeys was actually on, as opposed to replaced by Van Helsing. Ahh... I forgot how funny that movie is... it is so good. I love Terry Gilliam... does anyone know if he wrote it or not? I missed the…

“I also got a 10 euro dress... um, I seem to have a sudden penchant for dresses of late. But I like it.”

I’m all about dresses now. Pants are a rarity. 

[jennitownsend]

I love Paris... and the Parisiens!! Last night I had an amazing experience. As we were coming home from the internet we decided to get some cheap Asian food from a "traiteur." We also got some drinks from a small supermarket. Somewhere along the line there I dropped my wallet. I had many things…

“He had found it in the metro (whick is bizarre, because I am certain that that couldn't be where I dropped) and he lives in this area and so guessed that I was staying at this particular hostel because I had an American drivers license and a student ID. I was estatic... I feel a little guilty that I maybe didn't give him enough thanks... like a present or something. Amazing luck... Oh! It was such a good feeling!!“

[jennitownsend]

Last night Bianca decided that it was high time that she tried absinthe. Full stop. I could see her reasoning being that it's Paris and all that, and I was a little curious myself and so we ventured to go buy some. I had neglected to mention it to her but I remember reading that it has an aniseed…

“I sat by the window listening to my iPod. There was a moment of almost pure ecstasy as I sat with a drink and some pringles at a Parisien window listening to the Velvet Underground. I couldn't think of anything I'd rather be doing. It was very perfect in its simplicity.”

I still want that shark t-shirt that says “I will eat you so much”...

[jennitownsend]

It's very sad to see my precious purple boots slowly disintergrate into nothingness and darkness and... nothingness. I wore them to death though, so I feel I got my 25 dollars worth. Anyway, mast night was nothing special. They have a TV downstairs in the hostel and they were playing Goldmember…

“They have something called Paris Plage which is pratically a bunch of activities and there is even an area where they have put sand and beach chairs for people to relax on. It's point is to bring the beach to Paris apparantly. So, after relaxing in an un-beachy part of the Seine we walked along this area of plageiness.”

[jennitownsend]

Quite like London. Well, unfortunately we didn't get a chance to meet up with our Londoner because she lives in Islington and it takes an hour or so to get into central London... and yada yada yada, conflicting times. Ah well, we survived and still had a good time. We decided to go the British…

“After finding that there was nothing in close proximity we caught the metro to the lovely Luxembourg gardens. We found the first piece of grass that came into our sight and laid down... but then a controller dude got us up and we had to move to the place were you are allowed to lie down, which was further away. We made ourselves comfortable again and slept, with various reawakenings to change position or to go in and out of the sun. It was very nice.”

[jennitownsend]

I found Bianca in the place I was supposed to - in fact, she beat me! She was early for something.. woot. Anyhoo, we wandered along Camden High street to get to the bar that this band was playing at. It was still too early for the bar to be open though so we tried to go find a nice bench to sit…

“They are called the Infadels and I was very impressed by them. I'm not quite sure how to describe their sound... it was a little of everything. But it was certainly good. They got me a-moving. And Bianca too. And that's talent for the first time either of us have heard of them before. They had great stage presence too... made it fun to watch.“

[jennitownsend]

Moonlighted as a concert photographer last night.

[jennitownsend]

Well, the last time I signed off I presumptiously announced that I was going on the Jack the Ripper walk... hah! Laugh, laugh. Although I will swear to you that my watch was right that morning, I got hideously confused and left at 8 when we should've left at 7. You should've seen me on the…

“I then went next door to the Modern Tate museum, free entry might I add (you had to pay for the Frida Kahlo exhibit but my care factor for Frida Kahlo is up there with Nikki Webster... except with a lot less hatred.) It was very cool. I saw "Weeping Woman" in person, finally. Now I have satisfied the desire to see the two Picasso paintings I like in person. I can move on to become a better person. It was very similar to Pompidou in a way, except there was Rothko everywhere... but I suspect that I like Pompidou better (probably because Rothko and I aren't the best of mates.)”

Here begins my love for the Tate Modern.

[jennitownsend]

Of course my knowledge of the monopoly board and its orientation helps me none. Last night we decided to try and find this Steeles pub and the old Cid and Ben haunts in Belsize park last night, but we didn't really want to pay the £2 to go on the tube we decided to walk. But then it started…

“But then it started raining and raining and raining. We never actually made it... which is a little disappointing. It was funny though to see us stumble into an underground station after sprinting through the rain looking like the thing from the swamp.”

[jennitownsend]

I'd like to think of myself as a Camden styley now. Well, we have arrived in Londres. Woot! The bus ride was nothing amazing but definitely not as horrible as I expected it to be. We went across the Chunnel on the ferry where there was a music video jukebox thingy and House of the Dead 2 to…

“I silently thought of the "South London Slasher! He slashes one way, he slashes another, he slashes diagonally, he's like connect four in dagger terms!" and smiled gleefully at the keep left signs. I woke Bianca when we crossed the Thames then soon got to Victoria station and on the tube to our hostel. It was approximately 6am or 6:30... so absolutely nothing was open. There was a guy with the greatest eighties Duran Duran 'do at the ticket counter in the station. I was suprised he was bothered enough to coiff it up so much in the morning.”

I'm pretty sure I meant Flock of Seagulls... The folly of youth.

[jennitownsend]

Well, we did get the laundry done... but not last night as planned. We got back and sat down and suddenly became ridiculously lazy. We met some people from South Africa but then retitred to our room. Well, I did. Bianca went to a café to do "creative writing" and I antigoned in the hostel and…

“This morning we chatted to the saffas again and was entertained by their obessession with pain (bread in French but said English, so "I'd like some coffee with pain" and "lots of pain for breakfast")”

[jennitownsend]

Last night, while sitting around the courtyard of the hostel we decided to go to a movie. Our intention was to go see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in French but that failed miserably when we learnt that the last French version was at 5:30 and it was already 7. So we decided to just go see…

“This was great, funny and left you warm and fuzzy inside. And this is the result after most of what was said flew straight over my head. Luckily, some of it was set in London so there was English. But it was also set in Russia and so we had to read the French subtitles in order to understand the Russian speaking! It was very entertaining. There was a bit that when he did stupid things, another him would come in playing a recorder. It's hard to explain but very amusing.”

I still really bloody love this movie, even after seeing it with subtitles.

[jennitownsend]

My goodness that is so annoying. I was nearly at the end of my spiel when it deleted itself... ARGHHH. but nevertheless I will truck on. The night before last we did nothing exciting. We hung out at the hostel, basically. We had met a very amusing guy called Truckston (or is it Truxton?) and he…

“I did gain a new book, much to Bianca’s disdain. Truckston was packing to leave and was giving away the things he didn’t need to take with him. This was an Albert Camus book called La Chute and it’s in French. Aparantly, he is similar to Satre and that’s why he offered it to us. I just happened to jump on it quicker than Bianca. It’s also good because it has annotations of French words that he didn’t know - so perhaps I won’t need a dictionary to read it.”

Still haven’t even cracked that book (but I kept it because memories).

[jennitownsend]

I was naughty today... but it is my own moola!! Last night was nothing exciting... I went back to the hostel and hand-journalled while I waited for Bianca to return. Then I cooked dinner and then got absolutely whooped and checkmated by Bianca in a game. It was almost too easy... it just seemed…

“After that we wandered around some more and found ourselves in a shop called "Mim." Our main attraction was the name. Mim. Catchy, non? Mim. Anyway, I found this cool dress that reminded me of Gywneth Paltrow à la Royal Tenenbaums and it was only 16€. Mim.”