Homegirl Quel (kel) in Austin

Fitzgerald Still Giving Me Life

This afternoon I saw the preview for The Great Gatsby. My son witnessed my excitement and watched me text my sister. Running, he followed me in to my bookshelf to find my copy of the Fitzgerald classic with all the underlined sections and circled words with the definitions scribbled beside them. On page 46 of the paperback is where I learned that "bona-fide" means genuine. Feeding off my excitement, my son asked if he could read it too. He is five. I explained to him how I first read this book in high school and fell in love with the story. How I often refer to Gatsby in conversations and think of the character more often than that. Gatsby's life and especially his end is so tragic. He essentially dies in the pursuit of wealth that he never truly enjoyed, to impress and a woman who would never truly be his. I didn't say all that to my son though. I explained to him how it feels to read a book and to see it in your head so clearly that when you see it with your eyes, like I did on the Gatsby preview, you know it instantly. I looked up from where I was standing in the kitchen and knew those images were Gatsby before I even knew what the trailer was for. My son was so excited that he asked me if there was a movie for How to Eat Fried Worms . We're reading my old copy from childhood now. After a quick IMBD search on my iPhone, I answered yes. He said, "I cannot WAIT to SEE IT!"

Questions:

1. How much do I love that I'm passing on my enthusiasm for reading on to my son?
2. How much do I love that Leonardo DiCaprio is Jay Gatsby?
3. How much do I love that Jay Z is producing the soundtrack?
4. Does Jay Z see any similarities between himself and Mr. Gatsby? Rags to some-would-say-shadily gained new-riches? Lavish parties? King of New York? Entertaining the people and whatnot? 
5. Am I the only one who even cares about the irony of him being involved with the project?
6. How much do I love that Beyonce and Andree 3000 have collaborated again and the new song is on this movie soundtrack?
7. How much do I love that Baz Lurhman is the director?

Answers to all of the above:

1. smh

I haven't been this excited about a beautiful book to film since Memoirs of a Geisha.

I heart the movies.

A Sneak Peek At Disney Planes!

Oh my word. I missed the Disney excitement growing up. Never been into the princesses. But dammit if I'm not excited about the stuff my boy likes. First Cars, now Planes! What is Disney/Pixar stock like these days, because I might as well get something out of this. Happily spending my dollars. I'm going to show this to my son tonight. He is going to flip. Then I'll have to put up with him asking everyday if it's out yet. So, I kinda have a decision to make. To show or not to show. As genuinely excited as I am, I'm sure I will show it. We'll both just have to count down opening day together.  First there was Disney Cars, now Planes! Oy!

Just Felt This Flick: Pariah

When I got home with my latest Red Box rental, I wasn't totally sure what to expect from this coming out film about a black teenage lesbian living in New York. I had recalled seeing a trailer for it on Facebook around the time the film was released. I had also read about the acclaim the film has received. Still, having never seen a story like this one told on film, I sort of braced myself for some over the top stereotypes and kind of simplification and dumbing down of a very complex issue. Don't judge me for my low expectations of a black film. I know there are good black writers, directors, producers and actors putting out great work constantly. Somehow, it seems like the black films that make it to the masses are usually not those great ones. So I was skeptical.

I pop the film in, it opens in a lesbian strip club, blasting music about a very female body part. I'm thinking, ooookay so we're jumping right in. Moments later, Alike (ah-lee-kay), played by one of my new favorite actresses, Adepero Oduye, is on a bus ride home after the club with her friend. Both girls are dressed like boys. Alike urges her friend to get off the bus before her stop. Once her friend is gone, Alike removes her boy clothes and puts on her gold hoop earrings before walking into her home after curfew. Somewhere between the moment when Alike slid off her do rag and put in her first gold hoop, I was hooked. 

This film, written and directed by Dee Rees, tells the story of a high school girl who is tyring to find her identity as a lesbian. The girl has never had a girlfriend, but knows that she wants one. Her tragically Christian mother (tragic in that it hampered her capacity to love her daughter unconditionally) and emotionally absent father are both afraid to confront what they already know about their daughter. Her sister accepts her for who she is, but Alike's friends have their own idea of who and how she should be. Her journey towards understanding and self-acceptance is beautifully chronicled in Pariah. Aside from the female body part song, the soundtrack to this film is amazing. 

I talked about it with my BFF on our vlog, GirlDidYouSee. Here is our conversation...

Please join in and share your thoughts on our Youtube page, or here if you don't have a Youtube account.

Have you seen Pariah? 

Girl, did you see this new Vlog!

So. My best friend, EssBreezy, and I were on the phone one day talking about Julia Roberts' film, Eat Pray Love. I had seen it months ago and she FINALLY saw it and we had a blast sharing our reactions to the film. We both love Julia Roberts, so there was the gushing about that. We both love food (one of us-->EssBreezy<-- more than the other), so there was the gushing about the 'Eat' part of the film in Italy. We share similar, some would say feminist, views and so we went on about our issues with how Julia Roberts' character made some of the decisions she made. We rehashed this film just like we do most shows and films we watch, going from shallow to deep and laughing from the gut along the way. After we got off the phone, I was still laughing. My husband asked me what was so funny when the phone rang again. It was Summer. She was like, "That was fun! I really enjoy our rehash convo's. We should record them." And so Girl, Did You See...? was birthed. 

In our first video, we rehashed the Season 3 Finale of Basketball Wives. The ones that followed were a 3-Part video on our opposing reactions to the film, The Help. See? Shallow...Deep. All the videos mentioned here as well as the ones to come can be found at http://www.girldidyousee.blogspot.com.

Please check us out! And Follow us on Twitter @GirlDidYouSee so you won't miss what we see next time.  We would love to hear your thoughts about what we saw.  Tweet us and let us know you watched it too! 

Here is our first video...