Quid Pro Quo - Movie Review

Quid Pro Quo
***--

A guy walks into a plastic surgeons office and says he's a woman trapped in a man's body. In this day and age, if the guy happens to be wealthy enough, the doctor would probably pull out a marker and start making plans. A second guy walks into the same office and says he's a paraplegic trapped in an able-persons body. Chances are, the surgeon wouldn't act as fast to pull out a baseball bat and start hitting the guy's spine.

Our line between what is justifiable as personal betterment must inevitably be drawn as our technological limits grow vastly larger. Quid Pro Quo, at it's best, begins to draw those lines.

Isaac is a partially paralyzed man, incapable of moving his legs. Working as a human interest reporter for a small radio company, he is tipped off on an interesting underground society made up entirely of disability "Wannabees." These individuals want nothing more than to have a pierced spinal cord, or a feeding tube placed down their throats. The most interesting of these is Fiona, a woman who takes an unusual liking to Isaac.

At it's worst, Quid Pro Quo turns into a melodramatic romantic drama. Isaac and Fiona are both interesting characters, and their interaction (as the latin title suggests) draws some great parallels between all relationships. Nevertheless, their relationship can't help but lack realism.

Even at a fairly short run-time, the movie still comes off as long. The pacing is, quite frankly poor, and the film never quite manages to play it's cards at the right time. There could have been some great twists here, but the movie can never decide whether it wants to be a detective film or a romantic drama. As it stands, the film is jumbled when it comes to it's subject matter, which is fascinating while at the same time is both absurd and real.

Quid Pro Quo isn't a bad movie, but the fact of the matter is that the film itself is much less interesting than the conversations it will probably elicit from it's audience. On it's own however, the film can never manage to find it's legs.

A True Triumph in Embroidery

My roommate Anthony loves motorcycles.
He also loves embroidery.
But the two together?
Now that sounds like a recipe for awesomeness.



Now if he could only ride motorcycles and embroider at the same time...

All Ears

Somebody once told me that the Big Lebowski only gets better every time you watch it.

They were totally right.



Here's a couple little gems I've been listening to lately.

mmmmmm... mash-ups...

Together As One (U2 vs Beatles vs Diana Ross vs Mariah Carey DJ Earworm

Baby Dj (Ting Tings vs. Eddie Money) - Party Ben


a lot of this guy:
Jeremy Messersmith



of course a good quantity of noah and the whale for good measure.

Give A Little Love - Noah and the Whale (via: Pasta)

Cats With Cones

I don't know about you, but crazy Japanese videos are kind of getting old.

Here.

This is what you really came here for.
Ladies and gentlemen, Cats With Cones.









Glorious.

Nose It All

I'm in an Early Christian History class this semester. It's required for everyone. Not that it's terrible or anything, it's just not very exciting.

I don't really know anyone else in the class, so really the only major activity I have each week is finding a random place to sit.

This week after class I was fortunate enough to be stopped by another classmate. We just became group members for the semester and as we talked he stopped me mid-sentence and said, "Listen, this might be a strange question, so I really hope you don't take offense to this, but, do you have any Jewish in you? Are you Jewish??"

I lowered my head in full knowledge of what he was referring to.
"It's my nose, isn't it?" I said.

"I had to ask," He replied.

To be honest, even I'm not really sure, but somewhere down my family line there has to be a guy with a huge shnoz and I just haven't seen him. The fact of the matter is, there must be some explanation for why I easily have the biggest nose in my family.

This actually isn't the first time this has happened.
I distinctly remember a time in my high school French class in which a student sitting in front of me turned around with the sole purpose of saying, "You have the epidemy of a Jewish nose." Only to turn around the next moment.

I don't take offense to it, but it certainly does cause me to look in the mirror.

After all, I'm pretty sure my nose got me a few lines when I auditioned for my high school musical Fiddler On The Roof.

My Nose Is Bigger

Some people don't necessarily know what it's like to always have a small portion of your vision dedicated to your own nose. I can always see it, even without focusing. There is always a ghost image of my nose somewhere in front of me.

The sad news? Apparently the nose keeps growing.
So what does that mean for me? Will I be nothing but a nose head one day? Will I be blinded by my own nose?
Only time will tell.

Oy vey...

Best Thing Ever... Today.

Today the best thing ever happened.



I reached into my bag of Chex mix and I found a piece of Chex unlike any other.

At first I thought it was one of those brownish wheat Chex, but then my heart was uplifted.

My friends this was the singular Chex of all Chex mixes.

Upon first inspection, an uneducated Chex mix eater would say it was badly burned in the fabled Chex mix factory (a magical place rumored to have multicolored midget workers). I knew otherwise. This particular Chex was literally black with Chex mix seasoning.

I had wondered why this bag of Chex mix had been unusually bland.

Now I knew.

For some reason the majority of Chex mix deliciousness was adhered to this one piece of Chex.

I took the time to beheld it for but a moment.

Then, I bravely took a taste.

This is what I saw.



Actually, what I tasted wasn't too far off from uncooked Ramen Noodles.
In fact, it almost tasted EXACTLY like uncooked Ramen Noodles.


But to be honest that probably wasn't the best thing that happened.
It was definitely up there, but I think it might have to tie with all the responses I'm getting to my Memento Embroidery on the Crafster page:

Memento Craftster Page

Check it.

Embroidering Memento's

I'm at it with the embroidery again.

If you didn't know, I really like the idea of taking words of phrases out of the context of movies and then placing them onto a format extremely old and traditional.

This time I really wanted to stretch my imagination with what I could put on an embroidery hoop that no one else, ever, in their right mind, would ever place onto an embroidery hoop. Ever.

Then I thought of the movie Memento.

Then I thought whether or not I should actually put the effort into it.
But then I realized if I didn't someone else just might, and they'd probably get it wrong.
So I kind of had to.

If you've never seen it, at least watch the trailer. Somewhere in it you'll probably catch wind of what I was up to.



In case you don't know the premise, Leonard is an ex-cop bent on vengeance after his wife is raped and murdered. His main problem though is the unfortunate fact that he can no longer make new memories. All facts about his investigation have to be translated into writing, with the most important ones as tattoo's across his chest, some in reverse to be read in the mirror when he wakes up.

My natural question of course was "what would the main character of Leonard in Memento do if his only way of capturing memories was embroidery?"
The natural answer is nothing, because embroidery takes friggin forever.

But say if he had a really considerate grand-mother who would embroider his sick twisted notes for him? It would at least be less painful and expensive than tattoo's.

Which brings me to my embroidery, which will undoubtedly divide the public between humored or appalled.



Yep. Leonard's most important chest tattoo, in embroidery form. Backwards and everything so he can still read it in the mirror with the rest of his tattoo's.

Here it is reversed by the mirror in my bathroom:



To really appreciate it, I suggest you picture an old lady in a rocking chair slowly cross-stitching the words while myotonic goats graze aimlessly in the fields.

Or if that doesn't work, imagine the confused faces of the people who haven't seen Memento after witnessing it hanging in our apartment bathroom.

Yes. That'll do.