Notice Me, Take My Hand

Last Friday I fell into obsession. Stop right here if you're planning to see Spring Breakers aka the movie of the year. Seriously, stop right here. I mean, I think everyone should go watch it, but as AMR pointed out, my track record for things I get excited about is far less than perfect. Apparently I am an overhyper-er. But trust me, this movie is amaaaaazing. Things I've overhyped to friends that haven't turned out to be the best thing ever. Drive, the Footloose remake, Moonrise Kingdom. Apparently I know nothing about my friends' movie tastes. Well, I feel safe in recommending Spring Breakers to a select few. And by "select few" I mean everybody.

At worst it's a cultural conversation. At best it'll make you want to re-watch it. Immediately.

I realize Rotten Tomatoes is giving Spring Breakers a 65% approval rating, and that the critics' score is even lower. I realize the movie stars Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, and that girl from Pretty Little Liars that nobody actually knows. I realize it has James Franco in gold teeth. I realize these are the exact reasons this was a must see for me, but maybe a "hell on" for you. I realize you maybe saw the trailer and dismissed Spring Breakers as hedonistic trash. If it helps, director Harmony Korine did Kids and Gummo. He calls this movie a "pop poem," and that's the perfect description.

As anyone hanging out with me during the past weekend can attest, I've been irresistibly whispering "sprinnnng breaakkkkk, sprinnng breaakkk" in Franco's drawl all the time. I've also been constantly chuckling to myself about scenes from the movie. My friend and I, the only two people who may ever see this movie among our circle of friends (she's a closeted ABC Family fan and we bond over horrible television shows) have been texting each other post-watch with quotes from the movie "I just want to be baaaad." Currently I'm downloading the soundtrack -- done by Cliff Martinez, who also sheperded the great Drive soundtrack -- so I'm about to get into some Skrillex. Please save me.

To be honest, in planning to watch the movie, I was afraid of dragging people along, since the chance of this being a bomb was pretty high. But I'm happy to report that despite whatever comes out during the rest of the year, Spring Breakers will be a favorite.

Also, there is a Britney Spears scene in the movie that has to be seen to be believed. I didn't think it would be possible to beat "Fireworks" in Rust and Bone but this does it. If this is a trend, using pop songs during emotionally uplifting/downsliding moments, I'm all in. I would link to the clip but that would ruin the surprise -- and the impact. Needless to say, I've been Britney-ing all day.

• Video interview with Harmony Korine
• Pitchfork review of Spring Breakers soundtrack
• In Spring Breakers, Black Lives Matter Less Than White Ones
• Bennett Madison FAQ on Spring Breakers
• Slate Cultural Gabfest on Spring Breakers | Dana Stevens review

We went to D.C. this past weekend. It was an in and out trip, just a few days. I couldn't quite recall the last time I'd been there. Luckily the moblog pinpointed it: Summer 2011. This time around we went for the cherry blossoms -- which haven't bloomed yet, tragically -- and did a quick run by of the major monuments. The weather on Saturday was gorgeous, so warm my legs were burning up from the thermals. It might soon be time to ditch my dear friends.

I got to check out the newish MLK Memorial, which was of interest because it was made by a Chinese sculptor, Lei Yixin. If you'll recall, there was some controversy about its origins. I guess this tends to happen a lot. (The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was designed by Maya Lin.) As I've been recently struggling with the "who made what" problem, I tried to summon an opinion on memorials and who gets to make them.

The best I could conjure up was when my mom and uncle wanted to put a cross on my dad's funeral stone thing. I was vehemently against it -- my dad wasn't Christian -- and fought hard to keep it off. My reasoning was that I'd be damned if someone put symbols on my gravestone that misrepresented me. Our compromise was that there would be Christian symbology at the funeral. This story is unrelated to the MLK Memorial but that's the closest I could come to relating to it.

Here's a question we encountered: When was the Korean War? The Korean War Memorial depicts a group of larger than life sized soldiers walking through the bush on patrol. It's striking and quite impressive. Except I had no idea when the Korean War was, or really what the U.S. had to do with it. Time to Wikipedia. (Speaking of Korea, I just backed this Twinsters documentary on Kickstarter. I felt compelled to contribute due to the stirring nature of Samantha and Anais' story.)

The rest of our stay in D.C. was spent cruising museums. I hate to say it but their natural history museum beats New York's by miles. The entire museum row seems to be quite impressive as well, even though we only had time to shoot through the Hirshhorn and the aeronautics museum. Next time back it'll be the National Gallery and everything else. While at the Air and Space Museum, I was reminded of how many biographies of the Wright Brothers I plowed through when I was young. Wilbur and Orville forever.

I was also hit by memories of the days when I was into assembling model airplanes. And how about those monthly binder inserts where they gave you specs on individual planes? I had a lot of those collectable sheets. Well organized, of course. I also subscribed to one for cars and animals. I wonder if I spouted useless facts then like I do now. Probably.

• A Mirror of Greatness, Blurred (2011)
• Meet Lei Yixin, the Chinese Artist Behind D.C.'s New Martin Luther King Monument (2011)
• The King Memorial: Dreams at Odds (2007)

The other night, when I was supposed to be doing productive things, I tore through Season 2 of Game of Thrones -- watching it in reverse for the most part, moving backwards from the finale. I had just wanted to see the premiere episode of Season 3 but somehow got sucked in. If you'll recall, I wasn't the biggest fan from the get go. Those damn dragons are still babies, seriously curtailing my enthusiasm for the show. But clearly if there's episodes to watch, I'll watch them. If only to not be totally left out of my podcasts and articles.

For the same reason, I feel compelled to get into House of Cards, of which I watched the pilot and will try to clean up when time permits. In other news: I haven't finished a book in a month. Sound the alarm. Galang galang.