Black Swan, Finals, and Waiting to be home for Christmas

So...I saw Black Swan today. And instead of sleeping, I now find myself unable to get the movie out of my head. It's still spinning.

My initial thoughts are that it was creepy and weird and awkward and scary and different and unexpected and kind of really cool. Because I do not think I can do a review justice, I will simply stick with a list of things I liked and didn't like.

Things I liked:

1. Seeing familiar faces in the dancers in the background.  Dancers from Pennsylvania Ballet were featured as extras and a couple are acquaintances of mine.  Very cool to be in a movie theater and go, "I know her!"

2. The close-up of the foot in the fouette sequence. Pretty sure those were Sarah Lane's feet...fierce.

3. Natalie Portman's acting.  Whether you loved the movie or hated it, you cannot doubt that the girl deserves at least an Oscar nom, if not a win.

4. Natalie Portman's Black Swan makeup...obsession.

5. The creepy-not-knowing-what-the-hell-was-going-on-or-what-was-real-and-not-real of it all.

Things I did not like:

1. The stereotypes. Ok, we get it...she's supposed to be a control freak and she's a ballet dancer...she must have bulimia. #annoying

2. The sex scenes. They were awkward and uncomfortable and I covered my eyes.

3. Nina's relationship with her mother made me want to vomit. I think it was definitely a vital part of the story, but the mommy-dearestness of it all just kind of made me sick to my stomach.

4. There was more blood than I had anticipated. It was fine, but just unexpected.

5. The company seemed very competitive.  Though at times, they were supportive of Nina and the other dancers, it seemed very cutthroat.  The nature of companies allows for healthy competition; however, companies are more like families than anything else.  If you don't have love and support from your colleagues, you've got nothin' and you won't survive in this world.  Although, maybe that was the point...Nina's complete inability to be normal and her disconnect from the rest of the company and her living-with-her-mother thing perhaps isolated her and fed her delusions.

Overall, I really liked it...however, all the "masterpiece" and "perfect" reviews are a little lost on me simply because it's way different watching it from the perspective of a dancer.  It's a very dark view of my world, and, while I understand it is much more psychothriller than documentary, it kind of depicts the ballet world as one that is beyond crazy, with all directors lusting after their principals and all principals going crazy over performing Odette/Odile. But in general, I thought it was a fantastic film, and I'm probably going to go with my mom over break...might leave the step-dad at home though...those sex scenes were just too much to handle...

In other news, I went to a very fun IUBT gathering on Saturday night and wore a priceless outfit...it was an Ugly Christmas Sweater Potluck and I looked absolutely ridiculous.  Have a look:

Other winners included Kiki:

Alyssa in her child's homemade sweater complete with fuzzy bear:

 

And Mara and Colleen, who matched in their ridiculous denim dresses:

Alright, I'm off to bed, now that my head is partially cleared.  Gonna pick up coffee in the morning and then hit the music library and the books hard.  Chaucer final on Thursday and Ancient Greek Culture final on Friday.  So close to break I can taste it...but I have to, you know, not fail first.  Here's hoping!  Good luck to the rest of you in the throes of finals week--I hope your paper-writing, project-finishing, exam-studying is going well...well, as well as it can, at least.  To those of you already on break, I'm jealous.  To those of you who are in the throes of Nutcracker season, hang in there...praying for you to have longevity and joy in the monotony.  And to the rest of you, I hope that you are well and finding at least a little time to yourself in this busy month of Christmas shopping, gathering, and craziness.  Love to all.

BEDA Dix-Sept...I cried in the car 3 separate times today because of songs on the radio...

Oh my gosh, how freaking cute does Diana Agron look in that picture???

Hello friends.  Today was another boring day in the life of Ellen.  My best friend from home was finally in town this weekend and we hung out last night (had dinner with her family because I'm their 4th daughter, watched bad television, and got delicious chocolate shakes at Culver's...yeah, our lives are awesome and you're jealous).  Anywho, I would have probably had another adventurous day with her today, except that she left to drive to North Carolina for family vacation this morning leaving me with my boring routine of working out, eating, and trying to accomplish something on independent study.  Terrible.  Except it was even worse today because the Y is closed so I had to drive to the Y that's the next closest and it is ghetto, to say the least.  Really old equipment, seriously run down, and I couldn't even find a decent place to do my abs.  Laaaame.  Another gym in town is offering their equipment/classes to Y members for 5 bucks a day while it's being worked on, so I might try that tomorrow.  Hopefully it will fair better.

I did teach ballet today, which was a nice change of pace.  I don't normally think of myself as a dance teacher, and I definitely don't want to make a career of it...usually I think I don't even like it, but I did have fun today and realized I'd been missing it.  We have to teach elective ballet as part of our major at IU, so this fall will be my 3rd consecutive semester of early mornings in the studio, but I'm not dreading it as much as I was expecting.  Plus, today, I mixed fun, "real" music in with the ballet piano stuff, so that was fun.  I even played "Summer of 09" by ALL CAPS...they all really liked it, which made me happy.

This evening I went over to meet my mom and Dave at my grandma's for dinner because my aunt was in town for business, so it was lovely to see her.  And we had meatloaf, which was delicious.

OMG so I cried during at least 3 songs at different times in the car today.  It was so pathetic, and I have no idea what is wrong with me.  I know I'm not pregnant...because that is just not even possible.  But I have no clue what is going on.  So weird!!!  My mom is packing up the car to drive the rest of my brother's stuff down to his college tomorrow.  It is still taking some getting used to...this whole my-brother-is-in-college thing.  Anyway...I don't have much else to report on my end.  Love you all.  Love, me

P.S. On a completely unrelated note, the trailer for Black Swan came out today, and all I can say is WTF?  I was so excited for this movie when I heard about it, but it looks like a psycho/crazy/wtfisgoingon kind of thriller, and it's confusing me.  I know ballerinas can be crazy, but this is too much.  See it for yourself here.  I'm not embedding it.  WEIRDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!

OH!  Also, I got what could be some amazing news, but it's too early to tell...ahh secrets.  There seems to be a lot of that happening today in the blog world...ahem Kristina and Kaitlyn

Currently stuck in my head: "Love Like Crazy" by Lee Brice...one of the songs that made me cry in the car today.  Ridiculous.  But such a sweet song.  I especially love the line "Never let your prayin' knees get lazy and love like crazy."  As I'm working on letting go and giving it to God, it was nice to hear this evening.