I can't believe I have a niece who is one year old.
Todd has one week to purchase and install my new UGA flag. Sex withheld until installation complete.
My favorite movie of all time is most definitely The Black Stallion. And it holds up well to time, too. You are making fun of me, but it was Oscar-nominated for Cinematography (Caleb Deschanel, who is Zoey and Emily's Daddy, i believe) and Mickey Rooney was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. The only sad thing about it is that Kelly Reno, the kid who plays Alec, never really did anything else and ended up a cab driver in NYC. That being said, if i ever got into his cab, he would feel like a rock star after my reaction. Um, the kids and I watched The Black Stallion last night.
Britt A. from high school is purchasing a ticket for me to attend the GA Auburn game. I will explain this another time, when I don't have to drive to Montgomery for a birthday party, but know(shon) this: It does not bode well for the Auburn Tigers.
First of all, Mom seems to be doing pretty well. Visited her in the hospital (hospy, to family in the know) and she seems better than before. Still hoping they will keep her a while longer, as she is precious cargo, and I would be afraid that Dad and I would screw things up here at the house.
2nd of all, if my father ever says he got "really good movies" at the video store, you should be scared. That usually means that you are going to be watching Iron Eagle II. Mom and Dad have a tendency to bring home the same movie over and over, not remembering that a)it wasn't that good the first time around, and b)they already saw it. Ask them how many times they have rented the movie where Michelle Pfeiffer is dead and comes back to life (or something? have not seen it.) Anyway, the answer is "tons."
That being said, I almost keeled over when the movies Dad picked turned out to be Last King of Scotland and Borat. Unfortunately for Dad, he wasn't too jazzed about LKOS until people started bleeding a lot, and unfortunately for me, that meant he talked a lot during the first half. Dad doesn't do dialogue. He does however like to namecheck the movie Manhattan, referring to it as a "social commentary," even though I don't think he knows what that means, or if he has even ever watched the whole movie. I also think that if he knew it was directed by that Commie Woody Allen, he wouldn't talk about it so much.
All of the above two paragraphs are so not the point of this post. The point is: OMG. Forrest Whitaker is really good, and really scary as Idi Amin. I am also a little surprised that the lead kid wasn't nominated. I thought he was actually really good, and you never heard that much about his performance.
Also feeling some Darfur guilt after watching it. Like, yeah, this happened in the not-so-distant past in Uganda, but here I am sitting and watching a movie while similar shit is still happening.
Must go drink another glass of wine. Do not be jealous, as it is Cecil Wine. That means that he opened a bottle like six months ago, stuck the stopper back in, and tells visitors that it is "perfectly good." Note to Palmer guests: It is wise to bring a "hostess' gift" of whatever it is you like to drink.
p.s. Love and kisses and hugs to all of you that have called and emailed and checked in on us. We love our Mama. Glad you do too.
A while ago, I read an article in Oprah's magazine, O, about an actress' favorite novels. It is a recurring article in the magazine, and my favorite part of a magazine that I actually think is really great. They ask famous people about their ten favorite books, and the people list them, and also tell what was so inspiring about them. For example, here's what Laura Linney told O about her favorite books.
I don't know what it is about that feature that always draws me in: I do have a terrible habit of always trying to see what complete strangers are reading. If I am in a coffee shop, I will look around at every person in there to see if one of them is reading something that I have never heard of before, or something i love already. I love the voyeuristic nature of looking over someone's shoulder, much like checking out a person's bookshelf at home, or their CD collection. I guess it is that peep into someone's reading choices that I like about it, and even better, the people tell you why they liked them. As if by seeing a person's reading choices, I could know what makes them tick. God, if Oprah could only get Christian Bale to reveal his favorites and why.
Anyway, I think the actress being interviewed this particular month was the love interest from the movie Pearl Harbor. (Can't remember her name, but she is so beautiful that I was sure her choices would be dumb as hell. Yes, as a matter of fact, I do hate beautiful people.) I can't remember any of the other books she listed, but in particular, the way she discussed Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials series really struck me as the way I talked about some of my favorite books. I made a note to myself to check them out next time I was at a bookstore and then promptly forgot about them until a couple months later when I happened to run across them while looking for something completely different. I picked them up and then devoured all three in less than two weeks.
They are children's books, supposedly, or maybe young adult, although the last book gets a little out of what I would consider the realm of children's fiction. They are set in present-day Oxford, but with so many layers of parallel universes in the books, they sometimes have an almost Victorian sensibility that then throws you for a fantastic loop. Like other beloved children's novels by Rowling, Lewis, and even Tolkien (yes, i am throwing the comparison out there!), these books create their own world, similar enough to our own to be believable and so completely different as to capture the imagination completely. I loved everything about them - from the not so elementary emotional subjects tackled, to Lyra, the smart little cookie of a protagonist. The antagonist is as love-to-hate as Cruella DeVille, and the other characters, (including humans, animals, and witches) are all so real you could reach out and touch them. The books are three of my favorites, and the thing that most impresses me about them is that I could have read them at ten and enjoyed them just as much as I did in my early 30s. They have that quality that I adore in a novel - the ability to work on as many levels as the universes contained within.
After finishing them, about the same time as the last of The Lord of the Rings trilogy films arrived in theaters, I thought to myself,
"Dear God, please make a movie of these books. Wait. No, God, please don't. There is no way that I can bear another of my favorite books distorted and watered down and ruined for me on the big screen. I don't think the success of the LOTR film adaptation can be repeated."
I go through this all the time at the thought of favorite novels adapted for the big screen. At times, though my desire to see the film is there, I will just pretend it was never made, knowing that some director's vision will never match what I have created in my own mind of what a book looks, feels, and sounds like.
I experienced both sadness and excitement when Todd told me they were making The Golden Compass into a film. For the last year or so, I have loosely followed the casting for the film. (Nicole Kidman as Mrs. Coulter - Brilliant choice! Sam Elliott as Lee Scoresby? Perfection. Some newcomer with the god-awful name Dakota Blue Richards as my beloved Lyra? I shudder to think what the result will be.)
And then today, Todd sent me the following link to the director's teaser trailer on YouTube. I debated watching it. To watch it is to change the image I have in my head of Lyra and the rest forever.
I totally watched it. It looks really great. Even Dakota Blue, although she looks nothing like I imagined. Gollum looked different than I imagined, too, though, and I really like him now.
Cool stuff, but I am kind of glad there was no internet when I was reading other childhood favorites. I may never have learned to drink, or lost my virginity, or gone off to college. I think I would still be sitting up in my room reading some WikiNerdOPedia.
"The only true currency in this bankrupt world... is what you share with someone else when you're uncool." - Lester Bangs
Damn. Should have named Dogwood Girl "www.theonlytruecurrency.com."
Kids and husband left around 3:30. I fucked around with my dying motherfucking DVR and cable for thirty minutes or so. Turned music up really loud. Removed all vestiges of life with children from my view. Then I put on mascara and switched my stuff from rather large Old Navy backpack Sharpied with "Rollie" and "Tiller" on the straps to my petite Kenneth Cole purse. (Note to Mike: This reminded me of a pair of jeans I had that you wrote on with a Sharpie, and also the Army hat you had in high school/college, again with writing on it, that I always tried to steal. Remember what they said? I cannot for the life of me.)
Went to Kroger. Bought two bottles of wine and one Martha Stewart spring gardening magazine. I want to plant stuff and watch it grow, for the second spring in a row, but with the house on the market, it is just container gardening all the way. Went to Outback. Ate petite filet, baked potato, and salad with blue cheese, along with rye bread, and a glass of cabernet. Crikey. Read Martha Stewart magazine and lingered over meal by myself.
Drove home. Came inside. Loved on dog. Went upstairs to put on PJs. Came downstairs. Bestowed treats on pets. Poured glass of wine. Sat on floor and pulled out DVD baskets to decide what to watch. Really wanted to watch American Idol. (The Shame!!!!) Decided on either: St. Elmo's Fire. Say Anything. Some Kind of Wonderful. Almost Famous.
Almost Famous won out.
Almost Famous is one of those movies that I never really get tired of. Todd makes fun of me, but I love Cameron Crowe. Can't help it. He is sentimental in all the right ways, and few of the wrong ones. Even Elizabethtown was bearable. Not perfectly executed, (Brit as an American? Fucking KIRSTEN of wet t-shirt Spidey action DUNST ??? Please.) but perfectly well-meant.
I got nothing much else. Kinda drunk. Listening to music and blogging. Totally uncool.
Think that's bad? Tomorrow night I am having dinner with my parents and wouldn't be upset if they wanted to spend the night and play some cards. Because that is what the uncool, non-DVR-capable, Amish-like do on a Saturday.
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