Saw Up in the Air with my brother Tim, who was visiting from Wisconsin. Wow. Excellent acting, brilliant script. I'm really impressed.
Rented A Simple Twist of Fate from Netflix. I don't know why the description doesn't say it's the Silas Marner story. The star, Steve Martin, wrote it, and credits say, "suggested by Silas Marner" -- suggested by? There were very few differences in the plot, none of them significant enough not to say "based on." The Masterpiece Theatre production of Silas Marner starring Ben Kingsley is much better. Steve Martin does an okay job, but the script makes the mistake of being funny in places where it should be touching, which I think was the same mistake he made in Roxanne.
I'm still thinking about and mulling over Roots. I loved this conversation between Tom Harvey's son Bud and the family's white friend Martha, after a mob of sheet-covered white men whip Tom:
Bud: I'm 'a kill those white men someday.
Martha: Bud, you oughtn't to talk like that.
Bud: I'm gonna kill 'em.
Martha: Bible says it ain't right to kill people, Bud.
Bud: Do the Bible say it's right o' 'em to whip my daddy?
Martha: No, it don't say that neither.
Bud: Then I'm bound to git 'em.
Martha: Which ones, Bud? Couldn't see their faces.
Bud: I'll find a way to get the ones who done it.
Martha: Suppose you make a mistake? Suppose you hurt some white folks that ain't done your daddy no harm?
Bud: I'll do what I gotta do.
Martha: Then I guess you might as well start with me, Bud.
Bud: I didn't mean you!
Martha: Well, I sure am white. I'm white as a cotton ball. And if you starts hurtin' whites for bein' white, then sooner or later you'll get 'round to me and Ol' George.
Bud: I don't wanna kill you.
Martha: Well, that's what happens when you starts hurtin' folks for the color of their skin. You won't be any better than those men who hurt your daddy.
Bud: I hate 'em. Hate 'em!
Martha: Hate 'em for what they done, not because they's white. Me and mine is white. But we love you just like our own. If you'll let us love you.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Catching up on a few movies, part 1
I'm catching up on some movies I missed.
Last night I watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and found it sad, long, and disappointing. I've never read the story on which it is based, so I don't know if Fitzgerald fleshed out the character more than Brad Pitt did, but in this telling, Benjamin is mostly an onlooker, someone who observes what's going on around him without displaying much emotion, and I found that frustrating. When his lover, played by Tilda Swinton, says goodbye in a very offhand way, Benjamin barely reacts. I had forgotten (if I ever knew) that the story was by Fitzgerald, so I spent part of the movie wondering if it had been written by the author of Forrest Gump, another story about a man who observes some of the great moments in history.
Last week I watched Up, mostly because my daughter told me her friends were telling her that the bird's character reminded them of her (it reminded me of her as well). The movie was cute at times but the story didn't seem to hang together, it seemed to have been written by a committee.
And I'm halfway through watching Roots for the first time, and enjoying it very much. I don't remember what I was doing in 1977 when it was first broadcast, and I'm not sure I had a TV at the time (I can't picture one in the apartment I was living in, but I probably had one). That year I went to England for the first time to study the early years of Thomas Paine, about whom I was attempted to write a book, and maybe I was just too caught up in my research to watch the miniseries. But it's ironic because that year I was living in an entirely African-American neighborhood (4000 block of Sansom Street in Philadelphia) for the first and only time in my life.
I've got a lot of questions about Roots, so I'm planning to borrow the book from the Library. I'm so glad the mini-series began with a pretty good look at Kunta Kinte's culture, to know where he came from. I wanted more detail on the passage, though it would have been grim, and I suspect that's why there wasn't more detail.
In watching films about injustice and tragedy, I find I hold myself back from feeling all of my anger and grief, I think because I fear the resulting sense of powerlessness and feeling of shame -- shame that I'm not willing to drop everything else I'm doing and devote my life entirely to fighting the injustice. I've found it almost impossible to watch films about the plight of Native Americans, even the ending of Dances with Wolves.
Watching LeVar Burton play Kunta Kinte is really interesting, since I was a fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation and knew him pretty well as Giordi LaForge. His performance as Kunta Kinte is so fresh and innocent, it's really lovely, and I wish they'd found a way to age him rather than have John Amos play the older man. I enjoy John Amos (most notably as an Admiral on West Wing) but he's less expressive.
Last night I watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and found it sad, long, and disappointing. I've never read the story on which it is based, so I don't know if Fitzgerald fleshed out the character more than Brad Pitt did, but in this telling, Benjamin is mostly an onlooker, someone who observes what's going on around him without displaying much emotion, and I found that frustrating. When his lover, played by Tilda Swinton, says goodbye in a very offhand way, Benjamin barely reacts. I had forgotten (if I ever knew) that the story was by Fitzgerald, so I spent part of the movie wondering if it had been written by the author of Forrest Gump, another story about a man who observes some of the great moments in history.
Last week I watched Up, mostly because my daughter told me her friends were telling her that the bird's character reminded them of her (it reminded me of her as well). The movie was cute at times but the story didn't seem to hang together, it seemed to have been written by a committee.
And I'm halfway through watching Roots for the first time, and enjoying it very much. I don't remember what I was doing in 1977 when it was first broadcast, and I'm not sure I had a TV at the time (I can't picture one in the apartment I was living in, but I probably had one). That year I went to England for the first time to study the early years of Thomas Paine, about whom I was attempted to write a book, and maybe I was just too caught up in my research to watch the miniseries. But it's ironic because that year I was living in an entirely African-American neighborhood (4000 block of Sansom Street in Philadelphia) for the first and only time in my life.
I've got a lot of questions about Roots, so I'm planning to borrow the book from the Library. I'm so glad the mini-series began with a pretty good look at Kunta Kinte's culture, to know where he came from. I wanted more detail on the passage, though it would have been grim, and I suspect that's why there wasn't more detail.
In watching films about injustice and tragedy, I find I hold myself back from feeling all of my anger and grief, I think because I fear the resulting sense of powerlessness and feeling of shame -- shame that I'm not willing to drop everything else I'm doing and devote my life entirely to fighting the injustice. I've found it almost impossible to watch films about the plight of Native Americans, even the ending of Dances with Wolves.
Watching LeVar Burton play Kunta Kinte is really interesting, since I was a fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation and knew him pretty well as Giordi LaForge. His performance as Kunta Kinte is so fresh and innocent, it's really lovely, and I wish they'd found a way to age him rather than have John Amos play the older man. I enjoy John Amos (most notably as an Admiral on West Wing) but he's less expressive.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Confidence
I forgot to add that my self-confidence is quite high right now, mostly from looking back at what I've accomplished over the last 7 months, with prompting from my brother Cliff: I've moved across country, taken on a very different and demanding job, found a new place for Mom to live, moved her there, and tackled and conquered her skin cancer. I'm feeling close to invincible!
And that will come in handy as I work to get in shape and lose weight, both goals I've had for a long time. I have to work to remind myself that I've spent the last 10+ years doing some things I really wanted to do -- write and publish a book, become certified in Shadow Work facilitation and coaching -- so it's not as if I've been idle (not hardly!).
And that will come in handy as I work to get in shape and lose weight, both goals I've had for a long time. I have to work to remind myself that I've spent the last 10+ years doing some things I really wanted to do -- write and publish a book, become certified in Shadow Work facilitation and coaching -- so it's not as if I've been idle (not hardly!).
2-1/4 pounds already via the savings account method
The last week of December I decided to work on getting in shape and losing weight. I had discovered how much I gained since moving to Illinois -- between 10 and 15 pounds, and I don't know for sure how many because I'd already lost a few before weighing myself -- and it really pushed me over an edge where it's unacceptable. I'm also convinced that the sciatica symptoms are in part due to being so overweight and out of shape.
I weighed myself again this morning and discovered I've lost 2-1/4 pounds already, which is encouraging, since it's less than 2 weeks.
One thing that's helping me is a mental picture I've got of a kind of savings account, into which I deposit the calories I've burned by exercising and the calories I've reduced by eating less. I calculated how many calories I'd have to burn/reduce in order to lose 40 pounds within 6 months -- my incredibly ambitious goal -- and it comes to about 800 calories per day. That's a very high number. But thinking of it as 800 calories a day is doing a better job of motivating me than trying to achieve the 40 pounds, or trying to achieve what I'll weigh if I lose the 40 pounds. It's a day-by-day goal that I can try to meet, or at least contribute to. Some days I'll be able to "deposit" only 200 calories into the account, and that's better than nothing.
I weighed myself again this morning and discovered I've lost 2-1/4 pounds already, which is encouraging, since it's less than 2 weeks.
One thing that's helping me is a mental picture I've got of a kind of savings account, into which I deposit the calories I've burned by exercising and the calories I've reduced by eating less. I calculated how many calories I'd have to burn/reduce in order to lose 40 pounds within 6 months -- my incredibly ambitious goal -- and it comes to about 800 calories per day. That's a very high number. But thinking of it as 800 calories a day is doing a better job of motivating me than trying to achieve the 40 pounds, or trying to achieve what I'll weigh if I lose the 40 pounds. It's a day-by-day goal that I can try to meet, or at least contribute to. Some days I'll be able to "deposit" only 200 calories into the account, and that's better than nothing.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Maybe the undie-bomber didn't actually want to blow up the plane
A persuasive argument offered by a reader, kindness of Andrew Sullivan's blog Daily Dish, that Abdulmutallab didn't actually want to blow up the plane, only to create terror in the US.
Read it here.
Read it here.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Star Trek, the original series
(As I understand it, Trekkers use the abbreviation TOS for this series, which for some reason really impresses me - that they've got a special abbreviation for it!)
I've been watching the original Star Trek series from Netflix, and also reading Star Trek Memories by William Shatner. I don't have much of an excuse for either :D except curiosity. I picked up the book after watching the TOS episodes in broadcast order and noticing that Spock was really different in the first few episodes, and that McCoy had much lower billing in the credits. How did the show morph into its eventual tug-of-war between the two characters, I wondered.
This isn't my first time watching the series, I first came across it in reruns in college in Connecticut, and I've seen episodes from time to time on late-night TV. Some early episodes are so bad they're laugh-out-loud funny. But others are still thought-provoking or interesting in some other way.
As I said, I can't offer much of an excuse, but I'm enjoying myself. Shatner's book is also very funny in spots, which may be him or his co/ghost writer.
I've been watching the original Star Trek series from Netflix, and also reading Star Trek Memories by William Shatner. I don't have much of an excuse for either :D except curiosity. I picked up the book after watching the TOS episodes in broadcast order and noticing that Spock was really different in the first few episodes, and that McCoy had much lower billing in the credits. How did the show morph into its eventual tug-of-war between the two characters, I wondered.
This isn't my first time watching the series, I first came across it in reruns in college in Connecticut, and I've seen episodes from time to time on late-night TV. Some early episodes are so bad they're laugh-out-loud funny. But others are still thought-provoking or interesting in some other way.
As I said, I can't offer much of an excuse, but I'm enjoying myself. Shatner's book is also very funny in spots, which may be him or his co/ghost writer.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Thoughts on sciatica, and apologies for desultory blogging
Sorry to have been such a desultory blogger. I've been trying to puzzle it out, actually, because it usually feels good to tell 'somebody' how I'm doing and what's up with me. I guess it's got to be fatigue - I'm often tired from taking care of Mom.
There's also the issue of spending time seated at the computer - I've got sciatica at the moment, am doing a lot to try to get rid of it, and spending time sitting down at the computer doesn't help.
I'm curious about the sciatica, actually. Louise Hay says it's fear of the future and fear about money, which is certainly true, but it's also not new, while the sciatica is new. One thing I find helpful when figuring out what a symptom 'means' on an emotional level is to look at what the net result is - what does sciatica prevent me from doing, or encourage me to do more?
It's not bad enough to put a full stop on anything I do, but it does discourage me from spending a lot of time sitting at a computer, and driving, all of which I was doing a great deal of until a few months ago.
When thinking about this last night, I realized I am most comfortable when moving around, so I could say that sciatica encourages me to be constantly in motion. But wait, that's really tiring!
I'm having trouble finding a comfortable way to watch Netflix films - even lying flat on the floor, giving my back a hard surface, doesn't always work. It's challenging to rest.
Sleeping is getting much better with my new bed, though. I discovered that I picked up an idea somewhere that I should drink a lot of water during the night (probably to flush out lactic acid), and it means I wasn't sleeping more than a few hours before needing to go to the bathroom. So I've stopped that and am sleeping 5-6 hours at a stretch, which is wonderful, though I wake up more stiff, I think.
There's also the issue of spending time seated at the computer - I've got sciatica at the moment, am doing a lot to try to get rid of it, and spending time sitting down at the computer doesn't help.
I'm curious about the sciatica, actually. Louise Hay says it's fear of the future and fear about money, which is certainly true, but it's also not new, while the sciatica is new. One thing I find helpful when figuring out what a symptom 'means' on an emotional level is to look at what the net result is - what does sciatica prevent me from doing, or encourage me to do more?
It's not bad enough to put a full stop on anything I do, but it does discourage me from spending a lot of time sitting at a computer, and driving, all of which I was doing a great deal of until a few months ago.
When thinking about this last night, I realized I am most comfortable when moving around, so I could say that sciatica encourages me to be constantly in motion. But wait, that's really tiring!
I'm having trouble finding a comfortable way to watch Netflix films - even lying flat on the floor, giving my back a hard surface, doesn't always work. It's challenging to rest.
Sleeping is getting much better with my new bed, though. I discovered that I picked up an idea somewhere that I should drink a lot of water during the night (probably to flush out lactic acid), and it means I wasn't sleeping more than a few hours before needing to go to the bathroom. So I've stopped that and am sleeping 5-6 hours at a stretch, which is wonderful, though I wake up more stiff, I think.
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