Wondering on Wednesday

You know you are on a higher (lower?) plane of existence when you manage to spend an hour at the grocery store and you get home and STILL the only viable dinner option is the Chinese takeout leftovers.

Anyway, can’t stay long today, must get back to work. I am at that weird stage with this book where I kind of love it even though I feel like it’s sneaking into my bedroom at night and stealing money out of my wallet. Now I’m just waiting to see how it all turns out.

We watched “Capote” last night. Phillip Seymour Hoffman was amazing. I really appreciated the way the movie portrayed the change in his motivation (as he dealt with the murderers on whom he based his book “In Cold Blood”). There were a lot of places where you could feel a subtle shift without anybody shining a spotlight on it, which is not always easy to do. You know, no offense to movie scenes where someone stands in a shower and lets the water run over them and it hits them that they might not be a Good Person Doing Good Things, but it was nice to see a fresh take.

Today I am wondering.

I am wondering what to do with half-empty shampoo bottles I don’t want to finish.

I am wondering why I pulled all of those things out from under the sink, leaving under the sink very clean but the rest of the room full of bottles of Drano etc.

I am wondering if it’s going to rain and I should be putting out my plastic sheets over the more vulnerable areas of the hill.

I am wondering if I’m going to remember to call that one guy I keep forgetting to call.

Conversely, I am wondering if that one lady will ever call me back.

I am wondering how early is too early to drink 20 ounces of Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi.

I am wondering if my library book is already late.

I am wondering if the boots I ordered are a half-size too small, and if so, how can I make this determination, other than my most common shoe complaint, which is, “I can feel it touching my foot.”

I am wondering…

Wait, that might have been all of them.

If you have any answers to these questions, by all means, share.

Now, to work.

k.

4 comments March 31st, 2010

Seasons and people change.

Well, I’m pleased to report that the crape myrtle finally grew some leaves. Thank you for joining us, crape myrtle.

Last night we watched The Hurt Locker. It was good–I guess because of all the hype, I kind of expected it to blow my mind. It didn’t, exactly, but I must say that it has stayed with me. Especially the ending. I feel like I have so many good movies to catch up on.

I did indeed spend the whole weekend writing, except when I was watching a movie and ordering a pair of boots online. I have to tell you, the worst thing I ever did was memorize my debit card number. Now there is absolutely nothing standing between me, my poor impulse control, and the enticing world of internet shopping. I also bought some earrings this weekend. Because of the poor impulse control thing. The way I justify it is thusly: if I had lots of free time, I would go either/both to Target and to the fabric store, where I would surely end up spending three times what I spend by sitting at home and shopping online. Plus, free shipping on the boots! That makes them practically free.

Kind of.

Anyway, happy Monday! Guess what I’m doing today? Did you say writing? You’re so right!

But very quickly, before all that starts up, I want to mention something that has caught my attention lately.

See, I grew up in South Florida. Not only that, but I grew up sort of emo in South Florida. (Only sort of–I was like the really happy emo girl.) And I was very pale, which in the early 1990s meant you were either (1) sick, (2) a vampire (and this was well before they were cool), or (3) a hopeless dork. In middle school, I was already considered a hopeless dork, so no biggie. But when I got to high school, where people were nice, I decided to make the slight transition toward vampire. I dressed as if being touched by the sun would scar me for life–long-sleeved turtlenecks, jeans, long peasant dresses with long-sleeved flannel shirts over them, black tights, etc. For a period of time, I was actually too self-conscious about my pallor to let people see my arms.

(I eventually got over that, but it was years–probably close to a decade–before I let my legs be seen in public.)

I distinctly remember making the 1.5 mile trek home from the bus stop in the middle of a July day (like all good vampires, I volunteered at the summer school program), wearing jeans and a turtleneck.

My point is, I can’t stand hot weather. Ever since then, I have this weird conception of the year–like that it starts in October and ends in late May, and everything from June to September is wasteland. It’s a revulsion on a gut level. And when October does arrive, I get this feeling of overwhelming relief, like, “I made it!”

This is not an entirely desirable way to be. First off, I live in the desert, where summer can start in late April and last into November. Second off, life is too short to dread half of it. What can be done?

I’ll give you a little spoiler: I’m not dreading the warm weather this year.

We live in a house built into the downslope of a north-facing hill. This means that from November through March, our entire backyard and much of the house itself get very little sunshine. I don’t remember ever in my life noticing the change of seasons, the change in the position of the sun, until I moved to this house. Now I feel the seasons and the sunlight all tied up together, like a rhythm–like the rhythm that they are.

Anyway, if there is sun to be had, the upstairs of the house gets it. The downstairs does not. As a result, the downstairs is consistently 10-15 degrees cooler than the upper floor. This is wonderful in the summer, but in the winter it can get a little extreme.

My office is downstairs. What this means is that I spend several months a year freezing my patootie off. To avoid this, I use a space heater and wear socks and a sweater and often wear a blanket on my lap like a granny (or a baby).

Well guess what?

I’m sick of it!

I’m sick of bundling up every day and then taking the dog outside to find it’s 82 degrees. I’m sick of not being able to wear my cute dresses and skirts without fear of freezing to death. I’m sick of running multiple space heaters at once, risking overloading the circuit and losing all my unsaved work.

So this year, as the sun creeps back northward, I watch it set first in the kitchen window, then behind the wall, then in the dining room window, knowing that this means that the temps are rising and soon it will be a dusty, hot, southern California summer. Where a day that tops out at 95 degrees will be a cool treat. Where I will switch my space heaters for fans.

Where I can work downstairs in comfort! Where I can wear my cute clothes and not worry about layering!

Spring is here! Summer is coming! And for the first time I can remember, I’m glad of it.

Happy Monday.

k.

6 comments March 29th, 2010

Monday, Monday…

This can’t be a long post because I’m writing, writing, writing, but no way am I going to let a litle bit of a busy schedule interfere with 31 Days of Blogging at Least on the Weekdays or Else. I realize now that not blogging on the weekends means that my 31 days will extend into April, but I’m okay with that, if everyone else is.

The weekend was nice and quiet. Friday night the husb and I had dinner with my aunt, uncle, and cousin who were in LA for a long weekend, looking at a couple of colleges. I can’t even remember what I did on Saturday… website redesign is what I’d say if I had to guess. Then we went to a gathering at our friends’ house in honor of some good college friends who are in town from Georgia. It was a very low-key night with some delicious food, and then I got sleepy and chilled on the couch while their French Bulldog lovingly licked my feet. Sounds creepy, but it’s like his favorite thing to do, so how can you say no?

Yesterday, we went to see The Ghost Writer–oh, no we didn’t! We did that Saturday. Okay. Maybe I did web design on Friday. Anyway, this is the new Roman Polanski movie, and though I’ve seen some great reviews, it didn’t bowl me over. The production design and the overall look and feel of the film were very effective, but the story didn’t make it all the way around the block for me, if you know what I mean.

Plus, I’m not wild about supporting Roman Polanski. But that’s another blog post.

Last night we had some friends over and ate a Sunday Neapolitan Ragu, which we learned in a cooking class and have proceeded to make on a large portion of the Sundays since then. It’s insanely good, and I’m fighting myself not to go eat some leftovers right now.

So, back to writing, and hope you’re all having a great Monday! Just remember, waking up on Monday morning beats the alternative.

2 comments March 15th, 2010

Dog show and “Avatar”… a somewhat disjointed post.

So, there’s exactly one week until the voice-over begins for this dog show. We’re on a very tight schedule, much tighter than we’ve been accustomed to (not counting the same show last year, which was similarly tight).

After doing 21 of these things, I had a pretty good rhythm down. This show, for some reason, is completely different. I’ve been working like mad, and filling in scripts where I can, and leaving them blank where I must (for the time being), and the result is that I feel like an accountant in a tornado.

No, seriously, I don’t really know which way is up right now. It actually makes it kind of interesting, which is a good thing, because to lose interest when there are 195 dogs to write about (in a typical show, we have about 120) would be very bad, indeed. This is the last dog show for me in the foreseeable future. I don’t know if the show will be back next year. I guess we’ll file that under “wait and see”.

The other night, the husb and I went and saw “Avatar” in the 3-D theatre. For a pair of film school grads, you’d think we’d see more movies than we do, which is to say, almost none. We’ve sort of made a commitment to try to hit at least the big awards nominees. We saw “Up” and “Role Models” the other night. Both were cute, though “Role Models” was quite raunchy and I hereby do not recommend it to anyone under 17. Over anyone over 17 who’s sensitive about stuff like that. See “Up” instead… very similar themes, actually.

So “Avatar” was pretty good, although the 3-D gave me a headache and waves of a vague nausea/general overall unhappiness. I kept taking off my glasses when I could and just watching the slightly blurry image. I wish I’d seen it in 2-D, because I was so distracted by trying to keep myself from feeling badly that I didn’t experience it as a whole movie.

One thing I’m going to say is, I know a lot of conservatives are up in arms about the way Hollywood portrays corporations. But it’s so weird to me, because (and I am not the least conservative person I know, we’ll put it that way) no matter where you fall on the political spectrum, a corrupt corporation is indeed a force of evil. They are the bad guy, whether you’re a donkey or an elephant. This should be something we can all agree on. Because bad corporations weren’t just good companies who grew up. They were good companies who started schmoozing and bribing and paying people off and paying fines instead of fixing problems, and mistreating their workforces, and so on and so forth. The evil corporation in “Avatar” has no regard for life. Why should we be upset about their portrayal as the bad guys?

Anyhoo. Just my two cents.

Hope you’re all well!

k.

6 comments January 7th, 2010

Oscar films, I hardly knew ye…

Back in film school, we used to see every movie that played at the local megaplex. We saw good movies, bad movies, movies that should never have been made. Part of the reason for this was that it only cost $3.75 and there wasn’t much else to do. We were also encouraged by the film school faculty to see as many movies as we could (I’m sure they were hoping some of them weren’t Speed 2: Cruise Control, but blah blah the letter of the law).

When Academy Award time rolled around, we had spirited, educated discussions. Typically I’d seen about four out of five nominees in all of the major categories, not counting documentaries and short film and all of the ones we had less than zero access to.

How times have changed! The Oscars are on tonight and the only nominated film I’ve seen is “Wall-E” (which was great, by the way). I used to get such a thrill from the red carpet, the glitz and the glamor. Now I watch it and I find myself thinking, “These aren’t movie stars! Bring back the movie stars!” I don’t care what Ashton Kutcher is wearing. I don’t care what the starlet of the week is wearing. I want Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Michelle Pfeiffer.

I’m sure if I’d seen more of the films, I wouldn’t feel so disconnected. But the films that are out now are hardly tempting. Am I wrong, or for the past few years has “misery and suffering” been a major theme in the contender movies?

Why can’t someone make an excellent film that makes you feel (gasp!) better about yourself and your life? Why can’t there be a list of nominees that wouldn’t make me squirm and cringe and want to cover my eyes?

Well, until then… at least there will always be the horrible gowns to ridicule and the awkward speeches to laugh at, and the orchestra to yell at when they cut off the poor people whose partners made super-long speeches (they should give that guy :10, no matter how long the other guy took–I wonder how many lifelong partnerships have been soured by microphone hogging at the Oscars?).

So, that’s what I’ll be doing tonight… in the tradition of my youth. And I’ll be wishing the whole time that Hollywood would get back to its traditions.

9 comments February 22nd, 2009

Rekindling a lost love (* not about the Amazon Kindle)

I have a confession to make:

I don’t really like movies.

I know this is horrible. I went to film school, for heaven’s sake. There was a time in college when the pre-husb and I had seen every single film playing at the Tallahassee AMC 20 theatre. If Hollywood had scraped a piece of gum off the back of their shoe and released it in theatres, we would have paid the $3.75 student price to see it.

That continued after we moved to LA, too. We lived all scrunched into the same apartment building with our friends (it was really a lot like Friends, actually) and on any given weekend day, someone would pop in and say, “Beverly Hills Cop 29 starts in twenty-five minutes… want to go?” and we’d all pile into a car and bust on over to the AMC 12, placing our slightly-rickety student IDs on the counter and paying the $7.50 student rate.

But at some point, something changed. I think it’s because I had a job that was so all-consuming that I began to horde my weekends. When you work until 8:30 pm every night, you come to treat your free hours as precious little jewels. I didn’t want to go to a movie. When you consider that it’s 100 minutes of movie, plus 10 minutes of standing in line and 45 minutes in the car, that suddenly seems like a big commitment.

These days, we see movies sparingly. It has to be the perfect combination of actors, directors, movie theatre, and my good mood before I’ll agree to leave home and spend two hours doing something that doesn’t involve eating or wine.

But lately, thanks to TiVo, I’m sorta kinda climbing back on the movie wagon. But not the Die Hard at the Senior Center movie wagon.

Oh, no, I’m going way back.

I’ve been TiVoing and recording classic movies on TCM, AMC, and the Fox movie channel.

In the past few weeks alone, I’ve watched The Devil and Miss Jones, Gentlemen’s Agreement, We’re Not Married, Brigadoon, and To Sir With Love. I started National Velvet this morning. And yesterday I scrolled through the next few weeks’ worth of lineups and picked out another four or five films in the coming weeks.

It’s not that every movie made in the 1930s through 1960s was brilliant. It’s not even that everything still airing is brilliant. It’s just that something inside of me loves the classics. In high school, I used to wake up early on the weekends and watch whatever was playing on AMC.

It helps that we just got the TiVo that can hold enough standard-def programming to keep you watching for eight weeks straight. But even if we didn’t, I’m sure I would find myself going through my season passes, unchecking the marks next to the easy-to-stare-at reality shows to make room for Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Gene Kelly…

It takes me aback, a little, that I’d forgotten how much I love watching the classic films. It makes me wonder what else I’ve let escape me over the years.

And you never know, maybe in thirty years, they’ll be airing Indiana Jones Goes to the Mall of America on TCM. Right after the oldie-but-goodie where the guy scrapes the gum off his shoe.

What are your past loves? Is there anything you’ve let go that you want to get back to?

11 comments January 18th, 2009

Learning from the (hilarious) mistakes of others.

A few years ago in a book store, I spied a book called I HATED, HATED, HATED THIS MOVIE, by Roger Ebert. It was a compilation of his low-star and no-star reviews. I read a couple of them, and it piqued my interest, but I didn’t buy it. I’ve thought about that book for years, and last week I finally ordered it. It’s out of print, so I had to get it used.

As soon as it arrived, I immediately devoured it (figuratively). SO funny. Here are some excerpts:

North
“I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated hated this movie. Hated it.”

Jaws the Revenge
“What shark wouldn’t want revenge against the survivors of the men who killed it?”

Armageddon
“What is it about cinematographers and Liv Tyler? She is a beautiful young woman, but she’s always photographed flat on her back, with her brassiere riding up around her chin and lots of wrinkles in her neck from trying to see what some guy is doing.”

The Ghost and the Darkness
“Some of the lion attacks seem to have been staged by telling the actors to scream while a lion rug was waved in front of the camera.”

And so on.

It only took me a day to get through the reviews of the movies I’d seen. Soon I suspect I’ll go back and read the rest. But something interesting came out of the process:

I learned something.

I can’t quite articulate it, but I can tell you that it has a lot to do with stock characters, unsatisfactory motivation, disappointing climaxes, and the way information is conveyed about the plot.

I just feel somehow that I’m more aware today of *something* that I wasn’t aware of before I read these hilarious reviews of hilariously bad movies. It’s probably like reading a really bad book — all the bad parts and awkward phrasing jumps out at you, and then, if you’re a writer, you’re hyper-vigilant about those things when you go back to your own work.

One interesting tool, mentioned repeatedly, is the question, “Is this more interesting than watching a documentary about these characters eating lunch together?”

Hmm. So, anyway, I highly recommend this book, especially for movie buffs.

I’ll close this with a bit from the Very Bad Things review:
“If you think this movie is funny, that tells me things about you that I don’t want to know.”

Ha!

March 7th, 2007

Five movies I wasn’t supposed to like.

Current mood: bouncy
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

1. “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” — blood, men on a boat, cannons, blood, men on another boat blowing up the men from the first boat… but what do you know? It was a pretty good movie.

2. “Garden State” — me + film school / reactionaryism = I am not a fan of indie movies. I’m just not. I mean, I liked “But I’m a Cheerleader” for a lot of reasons. Critical darling “Sideways” didn’t do it for me, on a number of levels. But “Garden State” was really, really good. I liked it. And it even has Natalie Portman in it, which is typically an automatic “thumbs down”!

3. “Two Weeks Notice” — the husb and I are the only two persons on the planet who preferred this movie to “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days”. TWN: fun! funny! Hugh Grant! HTLAGI10D: nooooooo.

4. “Ruby in Paradise” — a weensy little indie film made in Florida, starring a young unknown named Ashley Judd. I saw this movie as part of an Independent Film class and I have no idea why, but I was glowingly happy and peaceful for like three days. Ashley Judd has failed to have that effect on me since, although her sister’s remix of “I Want to Know What Love Is” is pretty damn glowacious.

5. “Proof of Life” — the movie that turned America against Meg Ryan. I don’t even think people were supposed to watch this, much less like it. But I did both. And not only does it feature Russell Crowe, who is very hunky in a way that appeals to me for no apparent reason, but it has that other guy, who played Meg’s husband, and he was great, and the movie just kind of worked for me. Plus, and I can say this because no one who hasn’t seen that movie is ever going to go out of his or her way to see it, the ending is quite satisfactory in that they don’t make you really like all of these people (David Caruso! it gets stranger and stranger) and then slaughter them all. Unlike “Master and Commander”, which I liked anyway.

So sue me!

PS – ..6: “Lost in Translation” — don’t know why. Just liked it.

November 23rd, 2006

Last night I dreamed about zombies.

Current mood: sleepy
Category: Life

I don’t remember much of the dream, only that it was scary (** good God, speaking of scary, Winston just growled like a freaking Rottweiler for about fifteen seconds straight… I don’t know what he was growling at, but let’s hope it was the cardboard box in the living room and not a zombie). Anyway, the zombies were mean and hungry and we were all at one of the cathedrals we went to in Dublin, only it was dark and scary inside (and outside). It was also some kind of hotel or shopping mall, and I vaguely remember wanting to stay in my room. And I was late to get back on the tour bus, but I figured they owed it to me to wait.

Maybe that’s why I hate leaving my house. You know, zombies.

What a horrible place the world would be if there were zombies wandering all over the place. I did enjoy the movie “Shawn of the Dead”, kind of. We had to watch it with subtitles, because the accents were so thick. And before watching that movie, I didn’t know that in addition to sounds I can make when things are funny, and sounds I can make when things are scary, I have a completely unique sound for things that are both funny and scary.

In other news, if I don’t start working on my Christmas quilt soon, it’s going to be a very odd Valentine’s Day quilt.

Winston is like the world’s living teddy bear. I love how people at work just come in and want to be near him. And he’s so sweet to them. It’s so comforting to have him around.

I’m sleepy.

October 24th, 2006

Zombie Bait

Last night we took Miss A (visiting sister) out to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery for what is known as a cemetery screening, sponsored by Cinespia. We saw “To Have and Have Not”, starring Bogie and Bacall. What dialogue in that movie! The pacing throws you, but the zingers keep flying and it’s really something.

Interesting setting. There must have been somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,000 (live) attendees. These screenings are apparently facilitating a renovation and restoration of the cemetery itself, including reopening some areas that had been closed off since the Northridge quake in ‘94. We sat on a large, open lawn and watched the film projected on the side of a mausoleum. You’re not allowed to wander the cemetery, although they do encourage you to come by during the day sometime and have a look around. It’s the first cemetery I’ve ever seen where so many gravestones have likenesses of the dead on them.

If you can believe the man who runs the cemetery (and I don’t see why you can’t), there were lawyers prowling, taking photos, and trying to organize a class-action lawsuit over the whole thing, for the infliction of emotional damage.

This is ridiculous to me. First of all, while I do respect the grief of those who might still be hurting and might be stung at the thought that Granny’s final resting place is only a few hundred yards away from a (graveless) lawn where 2,000 people come to hang out and have a nice quiet Saturday evening… Hollywood Forever was in shambles until they started doing this. Their endowment had been embezzled and squandered and the place was in ruins. Now they collect about $20,000 a week through the entire summer, money that goes primarily to keep the place looking lovely.

Second of all, class-action lawsuits are completely sleazy to me. Entirely in existence for the lawyers to collect their 40% of the take.

Third of all, it’s not like it’s a rave. It’s a subdued, respectful, and almost reverent event attended by people who like classic movies. I rather like the idea that when I am dead and buried, people might stop by wherever I happen to be and enjoy spending an evening under the stars with me. And Bogie and Bacall.

So phooey on people who haven’t got a sense of the lightness of being. And phooey on litigious lawyers who haven’t got anything better to do than sue the pants off everyone.

June 12th, 2005