24 posts tagged “films”
Unlike most of the rest of America, I'm not really a Tina Fey fan--never have been. I don't find her funny. (And at this point, I realize that's practically sacrilege.) Do I think she nailed the Palin impersonation? Absolutely! But I do like Amy Poehler. I put this film into our Netflix queue thinking it would be some kind of goofy farce that we could snort over a few times. So imagine my surprise when I realized afterwards that I'd just watched a film (written by a man!) about two strong female characters who were the story--rather than acting as supporting players to male characters. "Baby Mama" is sort of like a fertility "Thelma and Louise." ;)
I recently came across (via Twitter, of course!) this digital series that Amy Poehler and her partners are producing for young girls called, "Smart Girls at the Party" about girls "who are changing the world by being themselves." Imagine my surprise to see that their corporate sponsor is...Barbie. There's hope for us yet, ladies. ;)
Tavis Smiley Twittered that he has Louise Hay on his show tonight (Tuesday). That got me excited since I'm a long-time Hay fan. My mother first gave me a copy of Louise's tiny book, Heal Your Body, decades ago. I still have a copy which can often by found on my bedside table. Louise later wrote You Can Heal Your Lifeo which is still a bestseller. It incorporated the metaphysical causations and accompanying affirmations of Heal Your Body. I've owned several copies of You Can Heal Your Life and always seem to give them away--in a moment when it seems like someone else needs it more than me. It's a wonderful book.
So imagine my joy at discovering that there's now a You Can Heal Your Life movie. Yay! I had no idea and it's been out about six months. You can click on that link to watch now for $4.95 or to purchase a DVD. I think the reason the marketing explosion of all things "The Secret" kind of irked me is because it wasn't new information--just new packaging. Louise and others before her have been talking about those ideas for decades.
Here's the trailer for the You Can Heal Your Life movie:
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In other news...
I've had horrible hay fever. Louise Hay believe causations for hay fever are: "Emotional congestion. Fear of the calendar. A belief in persecution. Guilt." Let's see...feeling torn about what to do about my job...worrying over finances and the possibility of being out of a job in a few months...feeling resentful over nasty things coworkers have done to me...feeling bad that I maybe don't want to work at a school anymore. So I'd say that's a check...check...check...and check. And the pollen counts aren't helping. ;)
We had a lovely Easter dinner at my brother's house. We've had glorious sunny weather, although we're expecting some showers on Wednesday. Went for a great walk late Monday morning through the nearly-deserted university campus. I'd like to say I've been plowing through all the spring cleaning I wanted to do, but Monday was a bit of a lost day. I napped away most of the afternoon in an allergy haze--but I'm feeling better today on that front.
Haven't written any poetry. In all honesty, I'm just trying to decompress a bit...and let go of the 'shoulds.'
Hope you're enjoying your week. xoxo
I really want to see this documentary when it's in full release. It will premiere May 9th at Columbia College in Chicago.
After watching the various trailers for the film on YouTube, I got curious about Amos Kennedy's website and found it here. I LOVE the motto on the front page: "We demand the very best from our clients!" We often forget that the customer service dynamic is a two-way street. But my favorite thing on Amos' website is the first paragraph under "Order Posters" here. :) I love his posters...just having a hard time deciding which to buy.
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SQUAM
One of my earliest blog friends, Elizabeth (aka Blue Poppy) has a new creation, Squam Art Workshops which will take place in September in gorgeous New Hampshire. Here's the class schedule. Registration opens Friday (March 7th).
Years ago, BP sent me a small typewriter which sits on my bookshelf. The note attached said, "You have stories to tell." She's always been a big cheerleader for me. I hope she feels I've done the same for her, because she truly does create a beautiful life, daily. I have no doubt that if you take a LEAP! and sign up for her inaugural workshops, you'll have an abundantly creative experience.
My Valentine's evening (while J was at a gig in the City) consisted of Tazo Earl Grey tea, a heart-shaped cookie (a gift from a student) and Election via Netflix...which I loved, of course...although I'll never be able to think of Tracy Flick without thinking of Hillary now. ;) I'd forgotten that Election was written by Tom Perrotta...who (six degrees of Kevin Bacon) co-wrote Little Children with J's friend, Todd Field (based on Perrotta's book).
However you spent your V. Day (not my favorite holiday--I don't like all the cultural expectations around it), I hope that for even a moment, you were the world to one person. xoxo
I read this last week when I was home sick. It was a super-quick read and kind of amusing. I remember reading about this book when it was first published, and it is an interesting story. Leary is witty, but I could see the jokes coming a mile away. But then, I'm a snooty, tough audience for humor writing. I have no right to be--I just am. ;) But if you're looking for a light, quick memoir, this fills the bill.
I forgot to mention that I went to a special screening of the documentary The Business of Being Born on Saturday morning at my neighborhood indie theatre. The information contained in it was nothing that I didn't already know or suspect, but I would encourage anyone to see it if they're wondering why the rate of C-sections in the U.S. has skyrocketed and yet we still have one of the highest infant mortality rates in the developed world. (And I'm probably a little biased toward home births--Jeffrey's son was born at home 17 years ago.) Click that link to the site to watch the trailer.
Shawnte at Hacktone Records hipped me to Sterling Harrison today. WOW!
Look, here's the deal... Nearly 30 years ago, I met a guy when I was living in tiny Blue Lake, California. He was a helluva singer (and also a very good harmonica player). He told me there were these two guys from Saturday Night Live (Belushi and Aykroyd) in a recording studio making an album, and they were gonna be the Blues Brothers. He said Belushi would call him from the studio to play tracks for him to see what he thought. Everything he told me back then--how he'd met Belushi, how he'd turned Belushi onto all kinds of soulful music--it was all true. Belushi and Aykroyd dedicated Briefcase Full of Blues to Curtis Salgado, and the title of "the original Blues Brother" has haunted him ever since (and I mean that in a good way...sort of). Curtis turned me onto SO MANY great soul singers. Artists like O.V. Wright and Howard Tate and Johnny Taylor and Otis Clay and Syl Johnson...and I could go on and on. Here's why I'm telling you this: Sterling Harrison is ONE OF THOSE GUYS. But here's the heartbreaker--he died two years ago...without ever achieving any real success. You think the music business is glamorous? There are so many people who slave away night after night after night playing tiny joints for very little money. People with BIG talent. We can only hope that those people have left behind some recordings for us to enjoy. Sterling's new (last) one is a gem. So click on over to his MySpace page or the Hacktone site or Amazon and check it out. (It's also available on iTunes and there's a link to that on the MySpace profile.) If you like soul music, this is the shit. If you like it, buy it. That's how you support good music.
Think I'm kidding about what a great a singer this guy was? Check it out...
Watch the trailer for the film...go on, it's not long...I'll wait...you can watch it here...
As predictable as it might seem, doesn't it give you pause for just a moment about what would be on your bucket list?
The blogosphere is rife with 101 Things to Do in 1,001 Days projects. (Some prefer to use 43 Things. I haven't logged into my account there in probably two years.) I always admire anyone who can be brave enough to post one of those lists on their blog--let alone start doing the stuff on them. Just making the list feels like too much commitment to me! :) But then, fear of commitment is a recurring theme in my life. I like to keep things fluid--I like to be open to spontaneity. What matters to me in this moment might not seem remotely important to me tomorrow. Does that make me flaky? Maybe. All I know is: I love beginnings. I like the rush I get from the initial essence of something and I tend to lose steam as time goes on. It's why I get bored so quickly in jobs, and why I know that I'm a project person. It's why I liked freelancing in short-term positions where I worked on a project and then was done and could move on. Doing the same repetitive tasks ad infinitum bores me to tears. No wonder I never pursued a college degree. Can you imagine? Declaring a major and staying with it long enough to actually get a degree in it? I'm just not wired that way. To paraphrase William Hurt's character in The Big Chill, "I'm not into that completion thing..." (I've always joked that the ambition gene is absent from my DNA...I think the completion one is, too.)
I don't even allow myself to create a bucket list. In fact, I have an innate fear of writing down goals...period. There, I've said it. Those kinds of lists give me palpitations. Decades ago I went to a therapist to work on my fear of commitment. In our first session, he asked me to commit to 10 sessions to give ourselves a time frame to work with...but I couldn't commit to it. :) So if you're someone who has a 101 in 1,001 list on your blog, you can be pretty sure that I steer clear of your list and most of the posts related to it. Or did I not mention that even reading your lists of goals gives me palpitations? Just like I spent decades equating a marriage license with the sound of a cell door slamming (with me on the inside, not outside), I can't stop thinking that writing down goals means that I'm carving them in stone. I don't want to be held accountable for something that matters to me today but might not matter to me tomorrow.
Yet even if I could get past the fear of 'carving it in stone,' there's something bigger at work for me when I think about a bucket list, and that's this: I'm not burning with desire to accomplish things. (I see you all making L's out of your fingers and holding them to your foreheads...LOSER!) :) I'm very smart and very capable and do a lot of things well. People get frustrated with me when they ask me what I really want to do, because I always say I have no idea. That's because when I hear the question, the underlying meaning I usually hear is: what do you want to accomplish? And doing and accomplishing are two separate animals in my book.
In creative outlets, I start losing steam when it starts feeling like a trek toward accomplishment. Because then--for me--it starts feeling like a competition and like a thirst for validation from others. And then I panic. I was vociferously competitive when I was younger, but now I run for the hills when I feel competition nipping at my heels. It's been my experience that competition brings out some ugliness in people, and that's the kind of hurtful ugliness I like to stay away from these days.
So you see, I've got two big issues that come up when I think about making a bucket list: fear of commitment and fear of accomplishment. The latter brings up all my stuff about how much time and energy I've spent in my life thus far making myself small for other people's comfort and to satisfy their insecurities (mostly in the 'real' world). Even though I sometimes see blog posts about people feeling jealous of others' success, for the most part I find the blogosphere to be an accepting and loving and supportive place. Yet sometimes we seem to operate as if there's a limit on dream fulfillment--that if someone gets to have one of their dreams fulfilled that we'll be robbed of one of ours. My bucket list has nothing to do with yours and vice versa.
I sometimes get paralyzed by the thought of acquiring education or training to gain expertise in doing something. I've always loved the cliche: Fake it 'til you make it. I didn't study how to write poetry (and have no intention of doing so)--I just one day started writing what felt to me like poems.
What would I like to do before I kick the bucket? What would I like to be? I'm going to start giving that some thought. Maybe a bucket list will be a project for 2008. Maybe we could form a bucket list group. Just don't ask me to commit to it... ;)
John Mayer wrote a song for the film and released it on his blog on Friday. Check out the 11/16 post entitled "Say." There's good advice in those lyrics, because it seems to me that the first step in creating a bucket list would be to..."Say what you mean to say..."
I'd love to hear your thoughts about your bucket lists.
My apologies to any photographers whose photos I grabbed along the way and have now plugged into a web-photo collage and can't remember where I saw them so don't have proper attribution. Pick one and tell me a story about it...if you're so inclined... Actually, looking at this collage now. I'm thinking it probably speaks volumes about the person who picked these photos. ;)
They're finally making that film about Harvey Milk...and they're casting in S.F. right now...
And to take you out (so to speak), here's Brandi Carlisle singing "Have You Ever." Happy Friday...
I woke very early on Tuesday morning...with a cold. It took me awhile to figure out it was a cold. I rarely get sick. I'd been sneezing and blowing my nose for what seemed like hours before it dawned on me that it was more than 'allergies.' I've got weeks of sick leave banked, so I used two days of it to stay home on Tuesday and Wednesday to take care of myself.
I haven't felt like doing much the past couple of days, except try to make myself comfortable. I've spent a lot of time lying on the couch, lying in bed (both reading and dozing), watching TV. I've gone through lots of Kleenex and imbibed plenty of herbal tea and water and juice, and the first day I even had a Jamba Juice Cold Buster with an extra immunity boost. I have no idea if it helped, but it sure felt good going down my scratchy throat.
By 4:00 yesterday, I was feeling antsy. I was tired of lying down, tired of reading, tired of watching movies...tired of being passive. Jeffrey was doing some chores outside, so I threw on some clothes and walked around the corner to Peet's to grab us a couple of gingerbread lattes. (I like their version--not too sweet.) It felt really good to be outside. Thankfully the weather has been gorgeous while I've been recuperating, so I've had the front door and windows flung open to let in lots of sun and the low 70's air.
It seems odd that (with the Veterans Day 'holiday') I've had five days off. Between sleeping half the day on Monday and then being 'laid up' the past two, I really let go of the 'shoulds' for a few days (not that I like to spend a lot of time with them to begin with) and just got back to basics: sleep and self-care.
Yesterday afternoon I found "The Enchanted Cottage" on Comcast on Demand. I hadn't seen it in years. Spoiler alert: if you've never seen it or plan to, you might want to skip this clip since it's the final scene. When J arrived home from work, as he walked through the living room he looked over and asked, "What are you watching?" "Shhhh! It's a pivotal scene!" I'm sure to him it looked like some incredibly corny movie from 1945...to me it's a paean to the power of love. Behold...
There's been a lot of dialogue going on over at Michelle's about the nature of blogging and our feelings around comments and the sizes of blog readerships. You might want to check it out if you haven't been following along. It's a complex mix of emotions that surrounds this unique community, isn't it?
And I'm still curious to hear if anyone's got a personal anthem they'd like to share. See this post.
I'm re-entering the workforce today and thankfully only have to work two days and then I'll have nine days off for Thanksgiving break. Staying home with a cold for two days allowed me to get completely back to basics, and on some levels I think I really needed that. It was a time of...STOP...slow WAY down...be STILL...just...BREATHE.
However you spend your day, hope it's enchanted. xoxo
Rather than write an actual post for Sacred Life Sunday today, I'm going to offer up a sacred buffet for you to sample from...little morsels from here and there...
Today's prompt at Sunday Scribblings is "left and right." Here's my take...inspired by a couple of posts I read early this morning at Jennifer Lee's Life Unfolds blog that reminded me of a Myers-Briggs test I'd once taken. I surfed through months and months of Jennifer's blog this morning. (I hope she doesn't think I'm a stalker!) :) I was directed there by a link at Jamie's Starshyne Productions blog--another great blog I've been reading regularly for quite awhile, but haven't often commented on. I've vowed to correct that. Jamie also has a great blog called Wishcasting. Have a wish and want a safe place to 'put it out there' and have others affirm it with you? Then check out Wishcasting.
We watched Canadian actress Sarah Polley's most excellent Away from Her with the extraordinary Julie Christie last night. It's a beautiful and thought-provoking film, and we were both touched and moved by it. Jeffrey said this morning as we were lying in bed that he was still thinking about it. Here's a short clip of Sarah talking about her film...
Lori-Lyn continues on her YouTube-documented 100 Days Challenge. I've greatly enjoyed watching her videos--so many great tips and insights there.
I really related to Solbeam's "Collapsed Cairns" post: "...I get the opportunity to wake up (again and again) in the same bed, to the same set of realizations, wondering, “…didn’t I already come to these conclusions?” and if so, where did they go?" Indeed.
