OMG! New Moon!

Uhm, OMG. So, Sunday night? I went to see New Moon with my friends? And, it was totally awesome. I mean, the movie was so stupid it was ridiculous, but we had like, the best. Time. Evah.

I didn't write about New Moon on my book blog because, well, I could barely read that shit. In New Moon, Bella, dopy teenager, gets dumped by her vampire boyfriend CLEARLY because he thinks he's protecting her (from all the associated ills of dating a vampire) but she doesn't know it, and I believe that even we, the audience, are not meant to understand this very clear and outrageously obvious plot device. Bella spends a lot of time literally clutching her gut and moaning about the hollowness inside her. Then, for various reasons, Edward goes to Italy and tries to get his ass killed by the Volturi, who are like, "vampire royalty." And have British accents. For some reason. Meanwhile, Bella's bff is a werewolf, and he's like, totally in love with her.

Sounds like a really lame plot for a movie, right? It is! But, somehow, it's just about the funniest thing you'll ever see, and we all had a terrific time laughing our asses off at the slo-mo, shirtless, ridiculousness of it all.

You know, even though the Twilight series is just about the worst piece of trite, moronic literature to come out in a very long time, and I think that it is, yes, very dangerous to young women and if I were a dictator (one day!), I would have the books burned in the street - they've spurred some pretty hilarious and awesome writing and creativity. Here are some of my favorites:

Girls Just Wanna Have Fangs, by Sady Doyle

Thirty-Four Ways New Moon the Movie Is Better Than New Moon the Book

Frankly, I can't wait until the NEXT movie, the book-version of which I read approx. every 50th page. In it, even though Bella wants nothing more than to become a vampire so she can spend the rest of eternity with her vampire boyfriend, she's pretty skeeved out by the idea of marrying him. That's like, a little too much commitment.

super-weekend

Oh, my! What a weekend we had! I took the day off on Friday (I believe the appropriate term is "mental health day" and a much-needed one at that). Had coffee with a friend, did some sewing and relaxing, and then that night saw Margaret Atwood read from her new novel, The Year of the Flood. It was amazing. Then I stood in line and she signed my Handmaid's Tale while I effused. Dream come true.

Sat. we cleaned out our garage, did a little yard work (it was amazing weather this weekend in Chicago area - 70ish), then we went over to a friends house for pizza and Project Runway and a bizarre not-quite-horror movie called The Haunting of Molly [Something-or-Other].

Today we went on a bike ride in the Forest Preserve up to the Chicago Botanical Gardens. Oy! My aching toches. I think we rode about 15 miles. The gardens were lovely today, but everyone and their mother and their screaming child had the same idea, make it less of an idyllic stroll through the gardens and more of crawl through a roving mob of humanity. Oh, the teaming masses. How I detest them.

I'm sewing farm animals for some 2 year old twins that we're going to visit in NY next week - will post when I finish - think will be really cute. Here are a few pics from the gardens:

Happy Trick or Treat

Had a really nice Halloween yesterday - we got a LOT of trick-or-treaters - I was afraid we were going to run out of candy and had to start rationing. One of the kids said "Happy trick or treat" to me, and made me laugh for the rest of the day.

We had a Halloween party with the theme "Your Childhood Nightmare" and our friends had some great costumes - have a look:

M almost went as Santa as well. And then our friend G. came in dressed as a creepy uncle and I said, "OMG! I almost went as an uncle too!"

Purchasing Tickets for Football Game

Me:  Hello, I'd like 4 tickets to Friday's game, please.
Her: Uhm, Friday?
Me:  Oh, I was thinking of Friday Night Lights.
Her: That's high school, college is on Sat.
Me:  OK then.
Her: I've got tickets on the 30 yard line and
Me:  Listen, I don't know from yard lines.
Her: These are the best I have.
Me:  What time should we pick them up?
Her: The gates open at 8.
Me:  What time does the game start?
Her: Eleven.
Me:  ELEVEN AT NIGHT?!?
Her: No, in the morning.
Me:  Friday NIGHT Lights.

Zombieland

I never thought I'd be a fan of the zombie apocolypse genre (I wonder if anyone ever anticipated it becoming an actual genre), but there are some great movies out there dealing with the undead who crave human flesh! My faves include Sean of the Dead, 28 Days Later and I Am Legend^*.

Zombieland seems like a nice addition to the group and I quite enjoyed watching it. Jesse Eisenberg has made a nice transition from the horrible, unwatchable, awkwardness that was The Squid and the Whale into Adventureland and now Zombieland (both of which involve theme parks, what's up with that?) I think he's a very charming and likeable actor. How long he can milk his charming, virginal, nice-guy thing, I don't know.

Zombieland is fairly gross, in case you're wondering, and sometimes it really stressed me out because it glorifies violence in a sort of slow-mo heads-smashing way that's still really disgusting even if the person getting its head smashed is a zombie. But, it's also funny and actually has a good story. Woody Harrelson, who I usually find a little tiresome, is only slightly tiresome. V. funny guest star bit from Bill Murray.


^* I know this one's technically vampires, but, come on.

Cover Me

This weekend a certain husband and I went to Rockville, Indiana to visit his granny and go to the Covered Bridge Festival. My parents drove over and we had a really nice time visiting with everyone. Trips to Indiana are alway full of surprises - something I find infinitely amusing is how many tiny little towns with crazy names there are - this weekend Tangiers and Montezuma were on our radar. Who came up with those names, long ago? I'd like to know.
I found a pile of religious tracks and was also given one (seemingly without irony) by my own mother. No matter, I laughed heartily at them all!
(Dad, this one's for you!)

Bit sorry to miss my hometown's Fall Foliage Festival (leave a report if you went!) - but, maybe next year!

Whip It

I scored a couple of pre-screen tickets to Whip It on Thursday (I've never had so much advanced-movie-viewing play my whole life!) and I really enjoyed it.

Whip It is Drew Barrymore's directorial debut and features a slew of terrific actresses: Ellen Page, Marcia Gay Harden, Kristen Wiig, Juliette Lewis, and Zoe Bell (a stuntwoman - check out Double Dare, it's awesome). It's about a young woman who joins a roller derby team. There's nothing revolutionary about the story, aside from the fact that the entire cast is about 90% women. At a time when women are becoming scarce characters in films, the sad but true fact is that watching this movie, with a bunch totally bad-ass women (that, here's the key: doesn't exploit them, but celebrates them), is a pretty rare event down at your local movie theatre.

If you ask me, there aren't nearly enough positive role-models for young women on tv or in the movies. Watching a movie where tough girls fall down and then get back up again nearly made me weep with joy. There are some awesome lines, like the one you probably saw in the trailer:

Bliss: You guys are like, my new heroes.
Maggie Mayhem: Put some skates on - be your own hero.

That - may I be so bold? - rings like a sounding bell for a new grrrl revolution.
I'd recommend seeing it with a gal-pal or a budding young feminist. The movie also inspired me to learn more about roller derbies - I'd like to watch a game for realsies. Here's the Chicago team - Windy City Rollers, and here's LA: Derby Dolls - check out the women's names, they're effing hilarious.

Where the Wild Things Are

Last night M & I went to a pre-pre release of Where the Wild Things are at the Music Box theatre - it was a benefit show for 826 Chicago. It was very exciting because Dave Eggers was there and spoke about writing the screenplay, and then he brought out the kid who plays Max in the movie, and he was a cute kid, and people asked him dumb questions like, "Are you going to do more movies?" and he said - get this - "If the right project comes along." And then we watched the movie and afterward Spike Jonze and Catherine Keener spoke. Fancy, right?

As for the movie, I really enjoyed it. We are treated to a little back-story for Max and his family and (I can't imagine I'm ruining it for you) when Max journeys to the land of the wild things, it's a real visual treat. What comes across in the movie is the emotional fragility of the child - when Max is playing - one minute he's laughing like crazy, the next minute everyone's screaming and someone's crying. Oy, remember how that used to be?

The wild things throw rocks and trees when they play - Max is not only emotionally fragile, he's physically vulnerable. The wild things are dangerous, but they're innocent, like children, or the most immature adults you ever met. They quarrel amongst themselves and wear their insecurities on their uh, hairy gigantic sleeves.

It was beautiful, like watching a poem. I think if you're a big fan of the book, like I am, you'll be pleased. It doesn't try to recreate the book, but it very cleverly interprets it.

What to Watch

I finished a PBS documentary called Manor House that was filmed in England in 2001 (I think it was shown in 2002). It's a reality show where these people volunteer to live in an 1800 century Manor House, and some of them live as the "landed gentry" and the other work as the servants. It's a three month project, and it's pretty remarkable. The family that's chosen to be the temporary owners of the home are in hog heaven. I'm honestly not sure why anyone would have volunteered to be a servant - they literally must work for like 18 hrs a day, emptying chamber pots and lugging incredibly heavy things this way and that way. While the douche-y family talks about how special and pampered they feel, the servants downstairs are plotting the various ways they would like to murder them.

Something I find interesting is how it seems to be a natural inclination to assume that if we like, lived in another century, we'd be the owners of like, Versailles, but, it seems pretty likely that most of us schmucks would be the servants (if we're LUCKY!) The Manor House website confirms this for me with a lovely little quiz. I'm somewhat cheerfully informed: You are in Service in a Country House! AND! Not only that! But, apparently, I get PG out of wedlock and die alone in a work house. It told me that. For realsies.

If that's too erudite for you, you might enjoy Drunk History - a hilarious bit of comedy involving drunk people explaining historical events while actors like Michael Cera and Jack Black act them out. #3's my favorite.

And if even Drunk History requires too much thinking, may I offer you "Baby Dancing to Single Ladies"? You won't be disappointed.

Pledge a Protester

A bunch of A-holes in St. Louis are planning 12 hrs long protests at a local Planned Parenthood, 7 days a week. They are focused on harassing the staff and patients of the clinic. In the wake of the murder of Dr. Tiller, I hope these people aren't able to pull any shenanigans. A lot of these groups are basically terrorists and I don't understand why they aren't treated as such.


I was very pleased to make a donation to a very cool program called Pledge a Protester. I detest what they do, and it makes me smile to think that because of one of them, I've made a donation (if only I could do it in their name!) to Planned Parenthood.

11 years

Yesterday M & I celebrated our 11th year of marriage - not too shabby, right? We celebrated by taking a bunch of collage students to 6 Flags - not exactly our idea of a romantic day, but, alas, a seemingly unavoidable timing issue due to my job, the start of new school year and the 6 Flags schedule. Oh well, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and we'll go away for a weekend later to celebrate for realsies.

I haven't ridden any roller coasters for a long time and wasn't sure if it was still my bag, and was mildly distressed to find them outrageously terrifying. Why do we (by which I mean the Human Race) go to places like that? It's sort of ridiculous when you think about it. Well, whatareyougonnado? I just rode the rides and screamed my head off (M seemed to enjoy categorizing the types of screams - one he described as a "kind of keening"; another, "like a small animal being repeatedly squeezed.")

Here we are, 11 years ago:

I get high with a little help from my friends

Having an alternately outrageously fun and recovery-heavy weekend. Friday night went out with friends and then had a late dinner with beloved brother-in-law who's in town for a gig. Last night we had friends over for Beatles Rock Band - that game is really fun. I'd recommend it to anyone who's like, even vaguely into the Beatles, but espec. aficionados.

I *like* the Beatles but I don't know that much about them. It's not unusual for me to hear a song and the radio and say, "Wow, that's great, who is that?" and then a certain husband gives me a look that can only be interpreted as Who is this strange woman I married? and says, "Uhduh. The BEATLES?!?!?!" with the same inflection you would use to answer someone who just asked what planet we lived on.

Anyway, I'm discovering a few songs that I didn't really know before that I really love - Two of Us? Awesome.

Did anyone catch Glee? That so show is SO GOOD. I espec. love Jane Lynch, who I have neglected to rave about for her role in Julie and Julia as well. As the sister of Julia Child, I thought Lynch and Streep had the most amazing chemistry and they were just so charming together. Their scenes together alone where worth the prize of admission. (But it made me miss my sister all the more...) That scene where they're having dinner and Julia points to her husband and says, "Well, that's! That's who I married!" -Kills me (think is same sentiment for certain husband re: Beatles and wife).

Anywho, good friends and good times have been hand in hand this weekend and despite the fact that M and I are still lounging around in our jammies nursing hangovers, I really couldn't feel any better.

Things to say

We had a really terrific weekend at my friend's lake "cottage". Our gang of friends went and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves playing games, gazing at the lake (the brave ones taking a dip) and drinking what might be considered a ridiculous number of margaritas. Actually, it was not as ridiculous as we anticipated because M&I wanted to take 100 limes, but, in the end we only took 64. If you don't know me, I have some kind of crazy compulsion/worry about not having enough food.

On the drive through Indiana my friend and I like to text each other. This is what she wrote to me:

OMG. Just saw a sign for 'Pumpkin Fall Fest' and my cell keeps having no coverage. We don't know where TF we are. We're going to be raped and mu [some text missing]

That's what it said, for realsies.

Something has been weighing heavily on my heart. Some time ago, perhaps rashly, I blogged about cat litter. I knew it would come to haunt me, perhaps sooner than this, but I must... I MUST SPEAK OUT! Loathe I was to admit my dad was right, but his prescient remarks in comments were all too true. Again, I quote verbatim:

And you can flush it down the toilet! Now that's Gross! I can't wait to hear about the drains of Evanston being clogged-up....Headlines of the news..."Kitty Litter Stops Up Drains"! Now that's a lot of kitty s_ _ _!

Not long after that ill-begotten post of April Ought-Nine DID our pipes begin to back up, and lo, were we forced to call the plumber and spend ungodly plumber-money having it fixed.⁺ Whether the back-up was due to the kitty litter, I cannot say for sure, but we don't dump it in the toilet anymore, we just do it the old fashioned way.*

⁺Now my conscience is clean!

*Bake it into cakes and feed it to our enemies.

Some movies I'm excited about

Here are a few movies that I'm really excited about. Links to trailers.

Whip It
In theaters: October 9, 2009
Directed by Drew Barrymore, starring Ellen Page, about girl roller derbiers? Yes, please!

Good Hair
In theaters: Oct. 9, 2009
A documentary starring Chris Rock about black women's hair. Also features Maya Angelou.


Where the Wild Things Are
In theaters: October 16, 2009
Directed by Spike Jonze
Co-written by David Eggers and in collaboration with Maurice Sendak - OMG, I'm pretty sure we can trust these guys. Right?

Fantastic Mr. Fox
In theaters: November 13, 2009
Directed by Wes Anderson - whatcha been doin', Wes Anderson? Oh, making this movie? With George Clooney? Ok, then!

Jackson, WY

The last few days of our trip we stayed in a spa/hotel in Jackson - we had a lovely little luxury cabin and indulged ourselves with massages, soaks, and gourmet food.

Here we are at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar":

The Tetons

We camped and hiked in the Tetons. The best hike was back in Cascade Canyon. We saw gorgeous views, beautiful wildflowers, and tons of animals: bison, elk, prong horn antelopes, pika (at high-risk for extinction due to global warming *frownie face*), and mooses! (Meeses?)

Yellowstone

M & I got back from our trip out west this afternoon. Have been doing that weird re-adjustment thing one does when they come home from a vacation. One of the first things we did was put ALL of our clothes in the wash - they were DIS-GUSTING. One pair of pants, I couldn't even bring home - I threw them in the trash, they smelled so bad. Hiking, camping... I tell ya...

We happened to catch Grand Geyeser going off - it only goes off once or twice a day and not regularly, like Old Faithful.

Here's M in front of the terraces at Mammoth - they were amazing, like another world. Nearby was a hot spring which fed into a river - we went for a soak there - it was so fun, the river was freezing, but this boiling water was puring into it. It felt delicious!

This was one of my favorite views - the repetition of these tall lodge-pole pines - so different than the forests I grew up with!

When there's something strange...

Special husband has been playing Ghostbusters on PS3 recently and admitted that it's a bit boring. We're now watching the movie on dvd. I can't help thinking that if this movie were made today, it'd be amovie about like, the psychological consequences of containing ghosts - you know, to like take all these spirits and lock them in a vault. In any event, it's true that they just don't make songs to go along with movies like that anymore.

Last week I saw a lovely play at the Steppenwolf called UP by Bridget Carpenter. It's based partly on this guy and partly on this guy, but what I took away was that sad but true reality that you can't escape our socio-economic paradigm. Unless you like, move to a commune or something. Or buy a farm in Minnesota and live off the grid. I figure I'd last about three months on a farm.

You scream, I cream

Over the weekend M & I went with some friends to an very interesting dessert shop - here's a pic of what it looked like (shamelessly stolen from my friend's fb):Those are classic KitchenAid mixers with metal tubs attached to them - at the other end - guess what? Friggin' liquid nitrogen. You order ice cream or yogurt flavorings, even color; they pour in cream and whatnot, turn on the juice, and a few seconds later, Bob's your uncle. Ice cream verdict: Not bad. Venue name (i cream): ick.

Funny Farm

Had a great weekend at my friend A's ancestral farm house in rural IL - just had the most fun hanging out on porches, playing games and chatting with everyone!

We went to an Amish quilt auction. Amish people make good donuts, but they are very strange AND they wouldn't sell me one of their bonnets.

We like to hug
When people leave, they have a cool tradition: ringing this old school bell!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Saw HP and the H-B Prince today. Wanna hear how lame I am? Wanted to go on Friday night, but couldn't get tickets until 9:55 was too sleepy to go. Am old.

Anywho - I really liked it! It probably wasn't my favorite (that's #3), but it was fun to watch - I thought this one was so full of detail, I loved the shots of the great hall, the various offices, the evolving love stories... I just recently re-read the book, and I think they did a pretty good job of sticking to the key parts of the story - even added a bit (without giving too much away: fire, field) that was super-cool.

Helena Bonham Carter and Alan Rickman were just delicious - they must have been having the time of their lives, and Jim Broadbent - what an actor, he's so terrific.

Ah HA! So, it IS true - the final book will be split into two movies, released Nov. 2010 and May 2011. I was just talking with my sis about this today and we agreed that it would be best if they released them like, max, one month apart, but... whatever. If only we had been consulted. *sigh*

cow pie

Here are a few pics from my trip to IN last week. We saw these lovely, friendly, lickity brown swiss calves that were as soft as cats (tongues like cats too!)

Isn't little M the cutest thing you ever saw? He was "feeding" the cows by dumping straw on their heads.
and here's moi and my adorable sister! I miss you, C!!!!

Summer Movie Madness

I've seen a lot of movies in the past few weeks and way behind on my bloggin'! More to come later on my trip to IN after I download my pics and see if there's anything great in there to share.

Saw Moon several weeks ago with husband in an outflux of wifely generosity when really wanted to see Away We Go. Sam Rockwell plays an astronaut who's been on a solitary mission for, I forget, three or five years - I don't think I'll ruin it by telling you that he finds a man who looks just like him on the moon (you'll learn that much from the trailer). The story is a kind of mystery with a rather interesting exploration of the concept of identity. It's obviously going for, and I think achieves, a real 2001 vibe, complete with an all-powerful robot that follows him around and talks to him. Rockwell kills.

Away We Go seems to be the indie favorite du jour and was certainly one of the best movies I've seen recently. Featuring John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph and written by Dave Eggers - how could you go wrong? Simply amazing supporting cast, including Allison Janney who almost steals the show as an unorthodox mother and friend. For me, it rather wonderfully captured that perhaps universal idea that Everyone Is Completely Bonkers Except Me and partly the ol' I Certainly Wouldn't Raise MY Kids Like THEM. As my friend J.D. wrote on my Facebook: the two leads were, well, they were basically US. True that.

I saw Public Enemies, the John Dillinger film, in Indiana, which was rather appropriate because everyone I know in Indiana has a Dillinger story. When I was a kid my friend unwrapped a gun (!) from a cloth and told me it had belonged to him. An erstwhile uncle claims his grandma had gone on a date with him. (If you've got one, leave it in comments, please!) It's a surprisingly boring movie that rather plods along despite bank robberies and prison break-outs. The fabulous Marion Cotillard is underused. I once again broke my No Movies With Less Than Two Women Rule - and I paid for it! (See also: Moon.)

Saw My Sister's Keeper with my mom and sister with the slightly bizarre but not unusual gleeful anticipation of bawling our eyes out. The promised tear-jerker did contain a few heart-string pulling moments, but, for the most part it was ridiculous, manipulative and contrived. The three of us, quite familiar with the emotional devastation of a family member in a near-death experience called bullshit on most of the film. Also stars Alec Baldwin who I'd been watching nightly in some Thomas the Train thing (also staring a v. creepy Peter Fonda) with beloved nephew - I managed to stir up a few illicit snorts by whispering "See you in Shining Time!" (not quite sure what that even means) at the end of the movie.

back home again, in Indiana

I've been in Indiana for the past week visiting my family - beloved sister and nephew are visiting and having the best time talking with little M and hanging out with C. Every day we've been here, have had a rash of visitors and go everywhere in huge packs. Is fun.

Highlights include:

drinking coffee every morning and admiring M and his various talents

showing folks the video I made: An Aunt is Born

a visit to a local creamery with some youngsters

Setting off fireworks with me da'

Lowlights:

a soggy 4th of July ):

My M couldn't stay the whole time

A crazy ultra-conservative church service (excluding the baptism of K's C, which was lovely)

I'll be sad to head back tomorrow - but looking forward to seeing my husband and have a fun weekend lined up in the hinterland.

Our city ruined, and sorrow evermore to sorrow added

There are a couple of interesting articles in the NYT about the new museum in Athens that houses ancient art right at the base of the Acropolis - apparently it's amazing (Greece is near the top of the list of Places I Want To Go). Art critic Michael Kimmelman reviews the space and brings up the issue of the most glaring missing pieces - the Elgin Marbles - which have been in the British Museum since 1816. In case you're less aware of early 19th century British/Ottoman art history, Elgin stole them all those years ago, and then sold them to the British govt.

Blow-hard Christopher Hitchens (who I agree with on this account) rightly calls for the frieze pieces to be returned to Greece, especially now that they have an excellent facility to house them. (For a long time, the claim was that the marbles were better cared for in England - an imperialist argument if I ever heard one!).
I think it's great that the Acropolis museum is re-opening the conversation about the return of the pieces to their home. These are hard decisions and if it did happen, a great reshuffling might occur in museums all over the world, but I think people have only to look at the relative success of the policy on the return of Nazi looted art. While a museum or individual's return (no refunds/no exchanges) of a piece might be a momentary financial hardship - what it earns the individual or organization is a lot of respect for doing the right thing.

O my country, O unhappy land,
I weep for thee now left behind;
now dost thou behold thy piteous end;
and thee, my house, I weep, wherein I suffered travail.
O my children! reft of her city as your mother is, she now is losing you.
Oh, what mourning and what sorrow! oh, what endless streams of tears in our houses!
The dead alone forget their griefs and never shed a tear.

   The Trojan Women
   Euripides
   415 B.C.E

the thing about my baby

Poor Michael Jackson hasn't been much more than a punch line the last few years, but his sudden death is reminding me of all the good times we had together. Like many people, Thriller was the first real album (I'm talking about a record) I ever owned (really was shared by me and brother and sister) - we would carefully place it on my parent's gigantic sterio and try to impress each other with our moonwalks. The truth is the guy had a real influence on my love of music, dancing, fashion (uh, as a kid), and even you know, being an invironmentalist and a good person... Sure, he was a wacky, but his music was joyful and innovative.

Go put your top fave songs by Michael Jackson on Top Five.

Where you at?

Well, folks, all of a sudden, it got really hot 'round these parts. Chicago summers are all to brief and close to what I'd call unbearable. (I'm a spring person. And a fall person.) But, winter is so long and unbearable that we're all contractually obligated to squeeze what we can out of the summer whether we like it or not. If that means sitting outside in the blazing sun getting bitten to death by mosquitoes, that's just how it goes.

Last weekend M&I went to the local street fair. We went for the elephant ears but stayed for the heatstroke. A little girl looked covetously at my snowcone. Without thinking, I offered her some. Both her parents and I sort of died inside as she took a big bite.

Really excited about ma soeurs impending visit to the midwest AND a little time off work! It's been a long time (for both!)

Commenting at all time low - are you out there?

I like

A few things that made my day:


'ja ever see anyone rock gold lipstick like that?

and an awesome short story published on McSweeney's by my friend Liz!

a pox!

Went to see Drag Me To Hell. I was pretty cautious about going to see it because I don't like scary movies, but friends insisted it would not be scary-scary, but ridiculous and over-the-top, a-la-Evil Dead. It IS ridiculous, and it was fun to see it in the theater with a few drinks under our belts. Also it's very amusing to order tickets: Drag me to hell, please!

Despite the fact that its just a silly movie with some over-the-top "horror" gags, it nevertheless put me in mind of some serious thoughts, surely out of the purview of the film-makers (or, perhaps, exactly what they intended, who knows?)

My first reaction was (the Special K classic) a feminist reading. A young woman, on enacting the first rotten deed of her life - turning down an old gypsy woman for a loan - in an effort to make herself more appealing for the assistant manager position at her bank - gets damned... TO HELL! See, she gets punished for defying the cultural norms for women by exhibiting behavior both ambitious and not generous and kind. In the course of being cursed (to hell) by the gypsy, like, a gazillion things get pushed and thrown up into her mouth. Well, believe me, I could go on and on. Insert your own interpretation of the repeated image of the tortured young woman with all sorts of things forced into her mouth...

Second reaction was well, if you'll permit me a foray into religious talk - the movie is silly and ridiculous, mainly because the threat (that she's being, literally, dragged to hell) is not, presumably, pernicious, being, presumably, a myth. I have only recently decided that I don't believe in hell, and, honestly, used to take the whole thing fairly seriously, so, for me, it was actually quite interesting to see the subject (eternal damnation) treated lightly. Un-believing in something, it turns out, is a long process. Another subject on which I could go on and on, but maybe best not on the ol' blog.

Oh My

Oh my, what a weekend... M.'s grandma, as I've mentioned, is in failing health and moved to an assisted-living-type apartment about 6 months ago. This weekend we went to her house to begin the process of cleaning it out, so that it might be sold. She was there to help go through things, but, it was a difficult process, because aside from being frail and old, it was fairly agonizing for her to look at the mass accumulation of stuff from her life and make a decision about what to do with it. I can also tell you that it sure ain't fun on the other side either - to shove an object in front of an old lady and say, "Keep it? Trash it? Sell it?"

The whole thing was fairly torturous and we barely made a dent in the stuff. I'm not sure how this is going to work out.

I have a pretty bad habit of taking a relatively small problem (ie. our society doesn't have great options for our elderly) and ending up at total apocalypse (ie. we're all going to end up living in caves, illiterate cannibals). But, honestly, after that, I wanted to come home, take everything we own to a local shelter and start a self-sustaining garden in our 10x20 backyard because we're all GOING TO BE LIVING IN CAVES AND EATING OUR OWN SHOES SOON.

If anyone has some advise on how to handle the moving of grannies (emotionally or otherwise), I would be interested to hear it.

Up and The Fall

Saw a couple of great movies lately! Caught UP in 3D - absolutely gorgeous film and I highly suggest it. It has an unlikely plot, particularly for an animated film ostensibly for kids: it's about an older gentleman who's recently widowed and about to lose his home. Aside from awesome visuals, it's got a tight little plot and is sweet and heartwarming. The oldster, as you know from the trailers, attaches a bunch of balloons to his house and flies off, along with the local neighbor kid, who becomes, I don't think I'm ruining this, something of a surrogate child for him.We were there with our local neighbor kid, something of a surrogate child, who seemed a tad freaked out by some of the scenes and a bit overwhelmed by the 3D (she's one of those newfangled kids that hardly watches any television). Afterward she claimed to have "loved it". Auntie K may be a bit shy of inviting youngsters to the movie in the future, though.

Husband rented The Fall on blu-ray - it's another gorgeous film featuring The Pie Maker, which was alright by me. Reminded me of Alfonso Cuarón's A Little Princess, which you really must see. My affection for the Pie Maker grows ever stronger. Oh, hello. His next movie also has Colin Firth. Thump. Thump. Thump.

amazing

You know what never ceases to amaze me? How many people choose to live their lives like complete a-holes. It's like, no where in the path of life do certain people (you all know 'em!) slam on the brakes and, you know, turn around the jerk train.

*shakes it off*

I just watched the pilot of Glee and it's GD awesome. It's on hulu if you missed it. So what if they're totally ripping off Election? It's a really good movie.


I've also been listening to that Adele cd, 19, on permanent replay on my 'pod. My fave is "Best for Last" - OMG, that gal can sing! I also really love "Right as Rain".

Change of plans

Well, we were meant to go to Devil's Lake this weekend for a camping trip, but rain in Wisconsin caused us to cancel our plans. I was sad about it, but I suppose it would have been miserable:
Quick about face and instead went out for some fine dining and, I'm telling you, the best gnocchi in the entire world. Do you ever stress out about the correct pronunciation of the word gnocchi? I do. Merriam-Webster helps us answer all things (I say it the second way.)

So, last night after dinner, we drove our friends back to their place in The City around 11:30 and all these people were outside, walking around as if they weren't completely exhausted, like me and M were. I guess that's proof that we are now officially old and officially suburbanites, just how shocked we were by all those people!

anxious

Ho, boy, the last few days M & I have been very anxious because our own special one, Miss Kaya, hasn't been eating very much. I bet in the last week, before yesterday, she ate maybe 1/3 cup of food. We took her to the vet and, thank the dear goddess in heaven, there's nothing seriously wrong with her. After two trips to the vet, and a couple of injections, she's finally starting to eat again. Whew! I seriously thought I was going to loose my mind, I was so worried! She's still not feeling herself, but I think she's getting better.

In other news, I submit a new list of top 4 over-rated things. In lame attempt at humor, I think I offended 80% of people I know with my first one. My new list:

1. College degrees
   
2. Big boobs
   
3. Respecting one's elders
   
4. Crap, I forgot the other one
   

what is wrong with me?

angry

I was surprised to see another Pushing Daisies on my DRV last night - I thought we'd seen the last of that show. The best part was Kristin Chenoweth singing Hello. I've watched it like 6 times. I think this second season is really weak, esp. compared to the first, but I have to hand it to them with the costumes, the covers, and just plain being original.

Been very upset about the murder of Dr. George Tiller by what is nothing less than terrorism. What I find so hypocritical is how many anti-choice groups are condemning the murder, but, meanwhile, they promote this type of violence with their politics of hate. If they really condemned his murder they wouldn't stand for the everyday harassing and denigrating of the women and men who work, volunteer, support and fight for women's rights.

One of the many things I despise about the anti-choice extremists is that they don't give two shits about decreasing abortions. If they did, they'd actually support safe sex and organizations like Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of reproductive health care in the US. What they're more interested in doing is degrading the rights of women and promoting a culture of fear and shame. The murder of Dr. Tiller, in his church, exposes them for what they are.