Weblog 282
July 10, 2011~ 12:00 am
I hate July and August. I was just thinking that as I'm sitting here typing, the sun's gone down long ago and it's still very hot and humid. My brain sort of 'shuts off' when the temperatures rise. I hate that.
Luckily I got to watch an enjoyable movie on Saturday evening.... Wayne and I rented 'Me And Orson Wells'. The role of Orson
is played quite remarkably by Christian McKay- an actor I'd never heard of before this film, and his Orson is impeccable! When I closed my eyes, his voice and its every tone and nuance captured the braggadocio, the theatrical bluster and the talent of Wells packed inside it. It's uncanny. Just remarkable to hear that transformation.
The film starts with 30's music. It uses Art Deco font for the credits and title-- and getting a feel for what we were about to watch, I turned to Wayne and said, "This is like a Woody Allen movie!" and he agreed, given Allen's love of that genre and the many times he's featured it over the years.
But once the atmosphere was established, the opening scene featured acting that came across as terribly corny. Much too overdone, even hammy. We both thought we'd end up hating it and filing it under 'just another over-rated piece of fluff' but as the movie progressed, we both saw that it very much captured the feel, not just the look, of an actual 1930's film, so I think the ham-handedness was intentional: so many movies of that era come across the same way. As soon as we grew used to it, we fell in love with the tale of a young man in his late teens, having the glorious experience of working with an actual genius. 'Me And Orson Wells' chronicles the ground-breaking Wells' adaptation of the play, Julius Caesar when it was performed by his own Mercury Theater players in 1937, and that was the first time Shakespeare had been offered a modern look and a new interpretation. It was wildly successful at the time, and universally acclaimed.
However the love story of the young man and an unabashedly ambitious female secretary of Wells (played by Claire Danes) was simply a distraction for us-- the screen only crackled with life when Wells was on the scene.
I truly can't decide if Ms. Danes was simply miscast, or unduly doted upon by the camera-- which spent far too much time on her face and her every expression. Though billed as a 'coming of age' story, that was the least interesting part of the plot. McKay's portrayal of Wells stole the show. The real highlight was watching the theater scenes from 'Julius Caesar' itself--- they were terrific! Gave me goose bumps.
Though McKay is more handsome than the actual young Wells
both are wonderful looking men.... piercing eyes, high, patrician brows..... intelligence. (How fortunate the makers of 'Me And Orson Wells' were able to find someone so well-suited to play that role... the picture depended on it.) So much so, that even given the silly love story woven through it, by the end we both felt charmed by a period piece that succeeded in the most important ways: it told a story, it gave us a memorable performance, and it made the past, present, right down to the joyous Benny Goodman's 'Sing Sing Sing' (which never fails to lift me high and make me want to dance.) LOL!! Orson.....
would have liked it, I think. It's good Hollywood.
As to the rest of this past week, I've been fretting about my mother, who's had 3 weeks of nosebleeds now, and a DECIDEDLY loss of hearing. (She sees the doctor on Monday, to flush her ears and check on the bleeding) but being treated with drops in both ears to loosen wax for a good flushing, they've now put cotton in her ears, which means what little ability she had before to hear the phone in her room, has disappeared completely! I'm used to letting it ring about 20 times to give her a chance to get up out of her recliner and make her way over to it, but the past two days I've tried repeatedly to call, and it's never picked up. She simply can't hear it.
I don't know if her 'isolation' due to silence has made her fragile mental skills even more shaky than usual, but her short term memory is awful. She truly doesn't recall things that happened hours before, or last week certainly. She'll be ninety one in less than 2 weeks, so I'm painfully aware there's bound to be a decline, but it seems to be happening so fast now.
That's left me on edge and feeling fretful under the surface of things. I'm unable to get her off my mind.....so..... movies.... yes, movies DO give us a place to go. It's a magical place.
We can climb up to the moon if we want to. We can feel the wind whip through our hair and the soft grass tickling our ankles as we race to the ladder, seeking just a few hours of escape to something wonderful. (I love that picture... I'd love to credit its creator, but I simply don't know their name.) But whoever you are, 'thank you'. You've made a lovely image. One I treasure.
July 11, 2011~ 5:50 pm
Well.....mum finally saw the doctor today for her ear flush..... thank God! (My sister, bless her heart, accompanied her for her appointment and said the doctor got TONS of wax out of her ears!) I hope that fixes it. I was having visions of this.....
on my next visits. Me, trying desperately to be understood and mum, disgruntled, irritable, saying..."What? What? I can't hear you! What??" (She told me she won't put up with a hearing aid, no way, no how!) She's had this problem in the past, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she won't need any sort of contraption to amplify whatever golden nuggets I'm trying to sling inside there. LOL!!!
Her nosebleeds seem to be coming from dryness and the small scabs she incessantly picks at, like a kid! So a nice saline spray and self-control-- (or MITTENS!) --hopefully will take care of that. (I know she was very diligent about it yesterday, and every time I saw those hands going toward her nose I'd say, "MA!", and she listened.) Maybe I should make a recording of me saying 'Ma! Ma!' and have it set off periodically when I'm not there. Yes..... they do become children, the aged. They surely do.
Oh! and I've been luxuriating in pictures of TREES. MYTHICALLY MAGICAL TREES over at one of my favorite sites. (This is the fantastical 'Dragon Blood Tree'-
and yes, it's REAL.) Prepare for enchantment (if you're a 'tree-lover' yourself... I think they DO have 'souls') and visit one of my FAVORITE places on the net, Dark Roasted Blend. (And browse around in there. They have some marvelous stuff. I get lost in it.)
July 14, 2011~ 8:00 pm
A good day is one in which I find something that makes me actually LAUGH OUT LOUD... and I found today's over in the archives of the 'WEBURBANIST' site, in their stash of HILARIOUS PHOTOSHOP mistakes. (They have a dozen pages of these.)
This one has a ghastly picture that's funny as is......
...but the EXPLANATION under it, is priceless. LOL!!!
(Made my day, lemme tell 'ya!)
***
(Return To Weekly Archives)
I hate July and August. I was just thinking that as I'm sitting here typing, the sun's gone down long ago and it's still very hot and humid. My brain sort of 'shuts off' when the temperatures rise. I hate that.
Luckily I got to watch an enjoyable movie on Saturday evening.... Wayne and I rented 'Me And Orson Wells'. The role of Orson
is played quite remarkably by Christian McKay- an actor I'd never heard of before this film, and his Orson is impeccable! When I closed my eyes, his voice and its every tone and nuance captured the braggadocio, the theatrical bluster and the talent of Wells packed inside it. It's uncanny. Just remarkable to hear that transformation.
The film starts with 30's music. It uses Art Deco font for the credits and title-- and getting a feel for what we were about to watch, I turned to Wayne and said, "This is like a Woody Allen movie!" and he agreed, given Allen's love of that genre and the many times he's featured it over the years.
But once the atmosphere was established, the opening scene featured acting that came across as terribly corny. Much too overdone, even hammy. We both thought we'd end up hating it and filing it under 'just another over-rated piece of fluff' but as the movie progressed, we both saw that it very much captured the feel, not just the look, of an actual 1930's film, so I think the ham-handedness was intentional: so many movies of that era come across the same way. As soon as we grew used to it, we fell in love with the tale of a young man in his late teens, having the glorious experience of working with an actual genius. 'Me And Orson Wells' chronicles the ground-breaking Wells' adaptation of the play, Julius Caesar when it was performed by his own Mercury Theater players in 1937, and that was the first time Shakespeare had been offered a modern look and a new interpretation. It was wildly successful at the time, and universally acclaimed.
However the love story of the young man and an unabashedly ambitious female secretary of Wells (played by Claire Danes) was simply a distraction for us-- the screen only crackled with life when Wells was on the scene.
I truly can't decide if Ms. Danes was simply miscast, or unduly doted upon by the camera-- which spent far too much time on her face and her every expression. Though billed as a 'coming of age' story, that was the least interesting part of the plot. McKay's portrayal of Wells stole the show. The real highlight was watching the theater scenes from 'Julius Caesar' itself--- they were terrific! Gave me goose bumps.
Though McKay is more handsome than the actual young Wells
both are wonderful looking men.... piercing eyes, high, patrician brows..... intelligence. (How fortunate the makers of 'Me And Orson Wells' were able to find someone so well-suited to play that role... the picture depended on it.) So much so, that even given the silly love story woven through it, by the end we both felt charmed by a period piece that succeeded in the most important ways: it told a story, it gave us a memorable performance, and it made the past, present, right down to the joyous Benny Goodman's 'Sing Sing Sing' (which never fails to lift me high and make me want to dance.) LOL!! Orson.....
would have liked it, I think. It's good Hollywood.
As to the rest of this past week, I've been fretting about my mother, who's had 3 weeks of nosebleeds now, and a DECIDEDLY loss of hearing. (She sees the doctor on Monday, to flush her ears and check on the bleeding) but being treated with drops in both ears to loosen wax for a good flushing, they've now put cotton in her ears, which means what little ability she had before to hear the phone in her room, has disappeared completely! I'm used to letting it ring about 20 times to give her a chance to get up out of her recliner and make her way over to it, but the past two days I've tried repeatedly to call, and it's never picked up. She simply can't hear it.
I don't know if her 'isolation' due to silence has made her fragile mental skills even more shaky than usual, but her short term memory is awful. She truly doesn't recall things that happened hours before, or last week certainly. She'll be ninety one in less than 2 weeks, so I'm painfully aware there's bound to be a decline, but it seems to be happening so fast now.
That's left me on edge and feeling fretful under the surface of things. I'm unable to get her off my mind.....so..... movies.... yes, movies DO give us a place to go. It's a magical place.
We can climb up to the moon if we want to. We can feel the wind whip through our hair and the soft grass tickling our ankles as we race to the ladder, seeking just a few hours of escape to something wonderful. (I love that picture... I'd love to credit its creator, but I simply don't know their name.) But whoever you are, 'thank you'. You've made a lovely image. One I treasure.
July 11, 2011~ 5:50 pm
Well.....mum finally saw the doctor today for her ear flush..... thank God! (My sister, bless her heart, accompanied her for her appointment and said the doctor got TONS of wax out of her ears!) I hope that fixes it. I was having visions of this.....
on my next visits. Me, trying desperately to be understood and mum, disgruntled, irritable, saying..."What? What? I can't hear you! What??" (She told me she won't put up with a hearing aid, no way, no how!) She's had this problem in the past, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she won't need any sort of contraption to amplify whatever golden nuggets I'm trying to sling inside there. LOL!!!
Her nosebleeds seem to be coming from dryness and the small scabs she incessantly picks at, like a kid! So a nice saline spray and self-control-- (or MITTENS!) --hopefully will take care of that. (I know she was very diligent about it yesterday, and every time I saw those hands going toward her nose I'd say, "MA!", and she listened.) Maybe I should make a recording of me saying 'Ma! Ma!' and have it set off periodically when I'm not there. Yes..... they do become children, the aged. They surely do.
Oh! and I've been luxuriating in pictures of TREES. MYTHICALLY MAGICAL TREES over at one of my favorite sites. (This is the fantastical 'Dragon Blood Tree'-
and yes, it's REAL.) Prepare for enchantment (if you're a 'tree-lover' yourself... I think they DO have 'souls') and visit one of my FAVORITE places on the net, Dark Roasted Blend. (And browse around in there. They have some marvelous stuff. I get lost in it.)
July 14, 2011~ 8:00 pm
A good day is one in which I find something that makes me actually LAUGH OUT LOUD... and I found today's over in the archives of the 'WEBURBANIST' site, in their stash of HILARIOUS PHOTOSHOP mistakes. (They have a dozen pages of these.)
This one has a ghastly picture that's funny as is......
...but the EXPLANATION under it, is priceless. LOL!!!
"These thermals just aren’t selling, and I can't imagine why. I mean, it can't possibly have anything to do with the giant child molester heads we pasted onto the models' bodies."
(Made my day, lemme tell 'ya!)
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