I’ve been living in my own head for so long, I don’t remember where the exits are.
Month: March 2002 (Page 3 of 5)
Friends recharge your batteries. Friends know all your faults and still like you. Friends finish your sentences, and you don’t mind. Friends remember the things you’ve been through together. Friends will listen to your complaining without complaining. Friends call you up right when you need to talk to someone. Friends will tell you when you’re acting like an asshole. Friends give you a mirror you don’t mind looking into. Friends defend you. Friends will let you have the last piece of pizza, even if it’s really theirs. Friends really know you.
It’s good to have friends.
I’m sure he’ll be right over
“I never once said I want him naked in a bed doing the nasty,” Rosie O’Donnell said about Tom Cruise. “I want him to mow my lawn and get me a lemonade.”
There’s been an incredible amount of hatred directed at Andrea Yates, and it scares me. I think it reflects a deep misunderstanding of what it means to be mentally ill. Douglas Cruickshank wrote a pretty good piece on this for Salon – good enough that I’m lifting my self-imposed ban on linking to them. (Other interesting stuff on MetaFilter.)
I understand that people would feel shock and horror at what she did to her own children. But just the act itself, with no motive other than her extreme illness, should prove that she had absolutely no ability to choose her own actions. Transferring the shock and horror we feel into hatred for Andrea Yates (and cries for her death or torture) is destructive both to our society and to any real understanding of mental illness.
Memo to the President:
For the last time, it’s NOO-clee-ur, NOT NOO-kyu-ler. Look at the word – there’s no second U. If you’re making plans to blow some people up, the least you can do is pronounce it correctly.
Two good movies in one week – this is unusual, especially these days.
“Scotland, PA” is a retelling of Macbeth, set in a 1970s burger joint. Maura Tierney of “ER” and “NewsRadio” plays Pat McBeth, in a series of outrageous 70s outfits. Christopher Walken is much less creepy than usual and hilarious as exasperated vegetarian police Lt. Ernie McDuff. While the setup sounds way too high-concept to be entertaining, the cast (aided by spot-on production design and a cool soundtrack) pulls it off. And any movie that includes a Yahtzee-playing birthday party scene has got something going for it in my book.
I would so much rather see an ambitious movie that doesn’t quite hit on all cylinders than a perfectly-produced Hollywood concoction with all the edges filed off.
To wash the taste of “The Time Machine” from my mouth, I watched my new DVD of “The Princess and the Warrior.” You probably haven’t heard of this film, but I think it was among the handful of good movies in 2001. A fascinating look at the role of coincidence in our lives, and how people can help each other fight their demons. It’s also a passionate love story between two people who do nothing more than hold hands.
It’s subtitled, strange, and dreamily slow moving, so I’m never sure who I can successfully recommend it to. But if you’re looking for something unpredictable and anti-Hollywood with exquisite photography, give it a chance. And let me know what you thought.
A belated but much-deserved welcome to Kevin Thompson, who brought his weblog Observations under the lucky8ball umbrella recently.
Pray for him.
Rooting around in my own archives today, I thought I would compile a list of some of my favorite posts from the past year or so. If this seems hopelessly self-indulgent, I’ll cop to that. But it was fun looking back on what I’ve wrote. Plus, it might give newcomers a little taste of what it’s like around here. Hope you enjoy them.
Rachel’s baby
The Truman Show
Defending Your Life
E-U-C-K
Touched by an Angel
Ice cold drinks
Meeting IRL
Manic-depressive Blogger
What I won’t blog
Call me Celestia
Get to know me!
We are not at war
I am a liberal
Scanning memories