Weblog 302
November 27, 2011~ 12:30 am
The "stuffed holiday" is done and gone. Sunk low in the sky and disappearing completely from the horizon until next year.
And guess what? I left my camera with the few photos I managed to take, sitting downstairs at my daughter's house. LOL!! I can't show even a glimpse of the day, but the food and the company were wonderful. A lovely feast, and for once- I didn't over-eat to the point of pain. (I yet remember the year when I could barely move in my chair without feeling like something would RUPTURE. Moderation must come with age.)
I worked Friday and got things nicely cleaned up. It was quiet in the office with so many choosing it as a personal day, so concentration was easier but it left me kind of disoriented on Friday evening (which felt like a MONDAY evening after being off) --and I stayed up too late, IMMERSING myself in luxurious free time, tweaking my computer, reading --and looking forward to a movie for Saturday.
Alas! The film I'd chosen, having heard great things about it ('award-winner, etc) --and having watched a very MISLEADING preview the week before, I can safely say that having watched it, it's possibly the WORST FILM I've ever seen. Truly dreadful. (In fact, if anybody tries to entice you into watching
..... RUN in the OPPOSITE DIRECTION as fast as you can. I don't believe I've ever suffered through so many minutes of people sitting around and not saying much, TONS of close-ups of faces.... everyone looking bored.
It is the slowest moving film EVER because it had no actual plot-- till the director decided to slap one in there with more loose ends than a plate of spaghetti. By the end-- 'something happened' alright-- but so implausibly, it was ridiculous: a movie in which NOTHING is ever explained-- the film simply 'stops'.
I was so shocked. (Wayne had already gone home... the damn DVD simply 'quit' about 40 minutes into the film) but I got it going again after he left and (sadly) watched the rest of it, and when 'the end' flashed up on the screen and the credits started rolling, I was sitting there open-mouthed and saying- "YOU HAVE TO BE F*CKING KIDDING ME!!!"
Which leads me to make this observation: not all 'quirky, indie films', even ones with good reviews, are worth watching. This 'stinker' had been billed as a dark sort of mystery about a young fellow at loose ends who drops out of his forensic studies at a university, and returns home to Portland to live with his sister. Shortly thereafter his ex-girlfriend turns up missing and he becomes a self-appointed sleuth. (The previews showed shadowy glimpses of what looks like white-slavery or something going on; perhaps underworld involvement in human trafficking, something along those lines.) I expected 'seedy edginess', tension and suspense, but it had NONE OF THOSE THINGS.
What it did have is plenty of wasted footage watching twenty-something, bored young people BORING THE HELL out of the audience. I'll tell you what I'D LIKE TO SEE....
The actors, the producer, the director, everyone involved with the film, 'best boy', everyone-- all strapped into movie seats- eyes pried open like Malcolm McDowell's were in 'A Clockwork Orange'
and be FORCED TO WATCH that turkey about 40 times straight till they're all stark raving insane. Believe me... one viewing, unstrapped, was punishment enough; I'd throw a rotten tomato but the film didn't even deserve that. Ashes... perhaps ashes heaped over it. Then salt.
That's my story.... a turkey on Thanksgiving and a turkey Saturday night. I'm off poultry for a while.
The one very sweet thing that happened however, is that I found another Nestle's Crunch bar tucked into my purse unbeknownst to me, by my granddaughter. Finding that... counts for a great deal indeed. It does much to balance the otherwise bullsh*t way most things turn out. It's the small things that make us happiest, of that I'm convinced.
November 29, 2011~ 9:00 pm
I took some Christmas decorations over to mum's today after work- (after tearing my way through a FOREST of cobwebs in my basement yesterday afternoon, digging through cartons of the stuff I haven't used in about six years now since I gave up decorating this place) and I picked out a light-up gingerbread house and a light-up porcelain tree, a Victorian baby doll, a big Christmas stocking and a few other small doodads. I hung them on her door, sat some atop her TV console, her end-table-- and all the while, watching her blink and scowl. LOL!!!
You see..... the trouble was..... it wasn't my sister Kathy doing it. Kathy is going to have both knees replaced on Thursday, and she'll be out of commission for several weeks, and mum is in knots worrying about it. She's getting feistier by the day. (That's her way or 'worrying'.... she carps.) She knows it..... I know it, so it's like water running off a duck's back when she turns picky and fretful. "I don't want that there..... I can't get at my cookie tin!"...."Don't you think that's a bit too much?"....."That doll is pretty, but she doesn't look Christmas-y, does she?" On and on. It's just not 'right' because it's not the way Kathy would do it... meaning: "I'M SCARED SH*TLESS ABOUT HER HAVING THIS SURGERY AND HERE YOU ARE PRATTLING ON ABOUT CHRISTMAS!"
I have to take her with a grain of salt. My position in her eyes is definitely 'the second stringer'. I realize that what I am... truly ...is a 'baby of the family with middle child syndrome'--that's the only way to describe it. Kathy was navigating streets at 4 years old (and probably making lists and maps as she did it) whereas I am a 'fly by the seat of the pants' personality, so mum doesn't feel as secure with me at the helm. (Hell.....I don't either!) LOL!!
When I got back home, I slipped into a robe and began net-cruising for relaxation, and I found a perfectly delightful site. A British version of 'The Onion'; so much of their satire resonates with my own opinions, so I loved it. Click on the bee
to visit 'THE DAILY MASH'... (I LOVE that title)... to read what they have to say about 'privitization'. (You know.... those institutions that should rightfully be funded out of the common coffers because they benefit ALL of us, but are instead given over to private enterprise because that's yet another way for capitalism to both FLOURISH, aaaaand.... they get to wear the good guys white hats to try and fool us.
The Mash's satiric take on the subject, using bees as their example, had me grinning great big appreciative grins. (And while you're there, have a look around. Mind you, the language is a 'bit salty' at times, but oh hell... salt adds to the flavor, sissypants.) Have fun!
***
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The "stuffed holiday" is done and gone. Sunk low in the sky and disappearing completely from the horizon until next year.
And guess what? I left my camera with the few photos I managed to take, sitting downstairs at my daughter's house. LOL!! I can't show even a glimpse of the day, but the food and the company were wonderful. A lovely feast, and for once- I didn't over-eat to the point of pain. (I yet remember the year when I could barely move in my chair without feeling like something would RUPTURE. Moderation must come with age.)
I worked Friday and got things nicely cleaned up. It was quiet in the office with so many choosing it as a personal day, so concentration was easier but it left me kind of disoriented on Friday evening (which felt like a MONDAY evening after being off) --and I stayed up too late, IMMERSING myself in luxurious free time, tweaking my computer, reading --and looking forward to a movie for Saturday.
Alas! The film I'd chosen, having heard great things about it ('award-winner, etc) --and having watched a very MISLEADING preview the week before, I can safely say that having watched it, it's possibly the WORST FILM I've ever seen. Truly dreadful. (In fact, if anybody tries to entice you into watching
..... RUN in the OPPOSITE DIRECTION as fast as you can. I don't believe I've ever suffered through so many minutes of people sitting around and not saying much, TONS of close-ups of faces.... everyone looking bored.
It is the slowest moving film EVER because it had no actual plot-- till the director decided to slap one in there with more loose ends than a plate of spaghetti. By the end-- 'something happened' alright-- but so implausibly, it was ridiculous: a movie in which NOTHING is ever explained-- the film simply 'stops'.
I was so shocked. (Wayne had already gone home... the damn DVD simply 'quit' about 40 minutes into the film) but I got it going again after he left and (sadly) watched the rest of it, and when 'the end' flashed up on the screen and the credits started rolling, I was sitting there open-mouthed and saying- "YOU HAVE TO BE F*CKING KIDDING ME!!!"
Which leads me to make this observation: not all 'quirky, indie films', even ones with good reviews, are worth watching. This 'stinker' had been billed as a dark sort of mystery about a young fellow at loose ends who drops out of his forensic studies at a university, and returns home to Portland to live with his sister. Shortly thereafter his ex-girlfriend turns up missing and he becomes a self-appointed sleuth. (The previews showed shadowy glimpses of what looks like white-slavery or something going on; perhaps underworld involvement in human trafficking, something along those lines.) I expected 'seedy edginess', tension and suspense, but it had NONE OF THOSE THINGS.
What it did have is plenty of wasted footage watching twenty-something, bored young people BORING THE HELL out of the audience. I'll tell you what I'D LIKE TO SEE....
The actors, the producer, the director, everyone involved with the film, 'best boy', everyone-- all strapped into movie seats- eyes pried open like Malcolm McDowell's were in 'A Clockwork Orange'
and be FORCED TO WATCH that turkey about 40 times straight till they're all stark raving insane. Believe me... one viewing, unstrapped, was punishment enough; I'd throw a rotten tomato but the film didn't even deserve that. Ashes... perhaps ashes heaped over it. Then salt.
That's my story.... a turkey on Thanksgiving and a turkey Saturday night. I'm off poultry for a while.
The one very sweet thing that happened however, is that I found another Nestle's Crunch bar tucked into my purse unbeknownst to me, by my granddaughter. Finding that... counts for a great deal indeed. It does much to balance the otherwise bullsh*t way most things turn out. It's the small things that make us happiest, of that I'm convinced.
November 29, 2011~ 9:00 pm
I took some Christmas decorations over to mum's today after work- (after tearing my way through a FOREST of cobwebs in my basement yesterday afternoon, digging through cartons of the stuff I haven't used in about six years now since I gave up decorating this place) and I picked out a light-up gingerbread house and a light-up porcelain tree, a Victorian baby doll, a big Christmas stocking and a few other small doodads. I hung them on her door, sat some atop her TV console, her end-table-- and all the while, watching her blink and scowl. LOL!!!
You see..... the trouble was..... it wasn't my sister Kathy doing it. Kathy is going to have both knees replaced on Thursday, and she'll be out of commission for several weeks, and mum is in knots worrying about it. She's getting feistier by the day. (That's her way or 'worrying'.... she carps.) She knows it..... I know it, so it's like water running off a duck's back when she turns picky and fretful. "I don't want that there..... I can't get at my cookie tin!"...."Don't you think that's a bit too much?"....."That doll is pretty, but she doesn't look Christmas-y, does she?" On and on. It's just not 'right' because it's not the way Kathy would do it... meaning: "I'M SCARED SH*TLESS ABOUT HER HAVING THIS SURGERY AND HERE YOU ARE PRATTLING ON ABOUT CHRISTMAS!"
I have to take her with a grain of salt. My position in her eyes is definitely 'the second stringer'. I realize that what I am... truly ...is a 'baby of the family with middle child syndrome'--that's the only way to describe it. Kathy was navigating streets at 4 years old (and probably making lists and maps as she did it) whereas I am a 'fly by the seat of the pants' personality, so mum doesn't feel as secure with me at the helm. (Hell.....I don't either!) LOL!!
When I got back home, I slipped into a robe and began net-cruising for relaxation, and I found a perfectly delightful site. A British version of 'The Onion'; so much of their satire resonates with my own opinions, so I loved it. Click on the bee
to visit 'THE DAILY MASH'... (I LOVE that title)... to read what they have to say about 'privitization'. (You know.... those institutions that should rightfully be funded out of the common coffers because they benefit ALL of us, but are instead given over to private enterprise because that's yet another way for capitalism to both FLOURISH, aaaaand.... they get to wear the good guys white hats to try and fool us.
The Mash's satiric take on the subject, using bees as their example, had me grinning great big appreciative grins. (And while you're there, have a look around. Mind you, the language is a 'bit salty' at times, but oh hell... salt adds to the flavor, sissypants.) Have fun!
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