Bechamel in Marseille

My faithful xanga readers….I’m afraid I have some sad, tragic news. I will not be posting for the next 10 days. I will be in the lovely city of Navajoa, Mexico toiling away in the hot sun building a girl’s dorm, while sweating the nights away teaching adorable mexican kids how much Jesus really loves them. It’s Rosemead Youth’s first ever mission trip and because of this wonderful oppurtunity, I sadly will not be able to post…..

BUT, the good news it I will post one more movie review before I go!

The movie: Whale Rider
Synopsis: The movie focuses on the Maori tribe of New Zealand. The tribe is looking for a leader using the signs of the whale an ancient tribal customs. However, the descendant of the tribe leaders have fallen to a girl when her twin brother dies in infancy. She is the brightest in the whole village, however the patriarchial society prevents her grandfather from accepting her. The struggle between her and her grandfather go on, until in the end, he accepts her as the new leader.

The movie’s setting was gorgeous. (New Zealand is my new dream destination!) The scenic shots were gorgeous and made me sigh (damn dirty crowded so. cal beaches)

The acting was impressive, considering this movie was most of the cast’s first. The little girl was moving as I got drawn into the story as she rode the whales or stood up to her grandfather.

Overall, the movie was gorgeous and a nice change of pace from the usual teenage movie filled with crude sexual innuendos and bad humor. It was a little slow, but still good. I would recommend it to those who can sit through a thouthful movie.

Song of the moment: Rooney-Mellow Song

It’s no surprise that lesbians like to watch lesbian pornography. But the big news in a new study is that they also get turned on by watching heterosexuals and gay men have sex.

And straight women? They like it all, too.

The findings confirm what researchers have suspected for some time — women may prefer to date one gender or the other, but they get sexually aroused by both.

Men, on the other hand, aren’t nearly as flexible. Straight men like to watch women have sex, and gay men like to watch men. Case closed.

“This may well be relevant to the flexibility of female sexuality. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is one reason why women transition more between sexual identities than men,” said study co-author Michael Bailey, chairman of the psychology department at Northwestern University and author of “The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism.”

In his study, completed over several years, Bailey and colleagues recruited 69 men and 52 women, both heterosexual and homosexual, to watch two-minute snippets of X-rated movies in a laboratory.

The men hooked themselves up to a rubber-band-like device that detected erections by measuring the thickness of the penis. The women used a small device that shines a light into the vagina and detects reflected light. According to Bailey, the vagina becomes darker during arousal.

The videos featured various types of sex (vaginal, oral and anal) and various types of partners (male-male, female-female, male-female).

The researchers will report their findings in an upcoming edition of the journal Psychological Science. They released an early report this month.

Heterosexual men were most stimulated by watching lesbian sex, followed by heterosexual sex. The gay men responded most to male erotica.

But the women — straight or lesbian — tended to enjoy watching all the types of partners have sex. Only 63 percent responded most to sex involving their preferred gender, a much lower number than among the men.

The study findings confirm the experiences of many women who find themselves suddenly developing a new sexual orientation, said Lisa Diamond, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Utah.

“With women, the experience of sexual attraction doesn’t revolve around the gender of the partner as it does around other things,” she explained. “Women say, ‘I didn’t think I was attracted to women , and then all of a sudden, boom!’ This fluidity does not appear to be as common among men.”

The next step, Bailey said, is to study sexual arousal among bisexuals. Initial research suggests that bisexual men share something in common with straight and gay men — they’re significantly aroused by one gender more than the other.

(So stop calling me a dyke! The grass is green on both sides of us!)

I am officially going nuts.

I finally got some sleep last night after two insomnia driven night. It seems like all the thinking I should have been doing for the last 19 years was finally hitting me last night as I mumbled over and over again while picking hair off the bathroom floor.

I am going nuts…..

After the insomnia days…..

OK, another movie review for my adoring fans…..

The movie was Punch Drunk Love. I was a bit hesitant at first because as funny and hilarious Adam Sandler might have been in the past, the term “serious actor” never comes to mind. SO I kept an open mind as I delved into the world of Paul Thomas Anderson (the director)

Basically, the premise of the story is about Barry Egan, played by Adam Sandler. He suffers at the hands of 7 very annoying and very humiliating sisters who puts him through a lot of abuse. This has led to a man-childlike qualities and also the reason why he has uncontrollable rage. When he calls a sex hotline one night, it leads to a world of trouble as the girl (and other characters like her boss played by the ever brilliant Philip Seymour Hoffman) demands money from him. In the meantime, he finds a loophole in a free mileage promotional offer from a pudding company in which he racks up over a million miles. He meets a girl from his sister’s work who is just as twisted and quirky as he is. Something sparks between them, even though it is certainly odd. For example, before they make love this conversation happens:

Barry: You are so beautiful. I love you so much I want to smash your face in with a sledgehammer.

Lena: I love you so much I want to rip out your eyeballs and suck on them and then punch you in the nuts. 

 SO it is certainly an odd couple, however, the love story blossoms wonderfully as Barry finally finds love, even though he suffers with all these new emotions because of it.

What can I say. The movie was brilliantly directed. The cinematography seemed effotless as the play on lighting and shadows was played to the movie’s overall wonderful effect.

Adam Sandler blew me away with his performance. After Big Daddy and Mr. Deeds, I would wonder when he would do some serious acting. The talent boiled underneath him, but was somehow never uncovered until this movie. He walks a fine line between neuroticness and man-childness (?) which was so convincing that your heart ached for him when he cried, or you cheered when he finally kisses Lena. Emily Watson gave her usual wonderful, muted performance as the chemistry between them was very believable and very passionate.

Overall, this is a wonderful movie, I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for the unconventional love story.