Category: words mean things (Page 17 of 223)

Listening to…

“After All,” Dar Williams

So go ahead, push your luck
Say what it is you’ve got to say to me
We will push on into that mystery
And it’ll push right back
And there are worse things than that

‘Cause when you live in a world
Well it gets in to who you thought you’d be
And now I laugh at how the world changed me
I think life chose me after all

Thanks again to David, who gives me the song titles to his mixes when I ask him.

Here comes the bride

Further proof that the late non-lamented Mrs. du Toit doesn’t need gay people to desecrate the holy sacrament that is heterosexual marriage.

How many times do I have to say it: you can’t make this stuff up, people.

In America

My heartstrings were extremely sore after being plucked so viciously for the two-hour running time of “In America.” I have nothing against tragedy, emotion or even sentimentality in movies; but I think they have to earn it.

You have to get to know characters first, to understand how and why these bad things are happening to them, before you can care enough not to feel manipulated. “In America” starts right in with the down-on-their-luck Irish family whose young son had fallen down the stairs and died, and goes hurtling along from there. You can’t catch your breath between dewy shots of the (admittedly incredibly cute) young daughters, the long-suffering mother, and the tortured father. Throw in the strange-yet-cuddly giant black neighbor, a preemie birth, ridicule over homemade Halloween costumes, and an ice cream parlor full of transvestites, and you have a recipe for weepy disaster, as far as I’m concerned.

If this movie had just dialed back the tears several notches, the expressive acting and story possibilities might have come forward. As it was, not so much.

Shadow world

Still looking for a conservative weblog I can read without wanting to hark up my lunch every time I hit the page. Any suggestions would be appreciated. (I know I asked this a while ago, but I couldn’t find the post, so I don’t know what suggestions people made then. Sorry.)

This is prompted by Dean’s World’s latest slide from self-parody into some sort of shadow world beyond parody. I’d like to believe there are some people across the smoking chasm that used to be the “middle ground” that have a tiny semblance of civility, thoughtfulness, and common sense. Not holding my breath.

You can’t make this stuff up, people

“I think George Bush is going to win in a walk. I really believe I’m hearing from the Lord it’s going to be like a blowout election in 2004. It’s shaping up that way.”

–Pat Robertson, on The 700 Club

Best comment on Atrios about this:
“Why does God hate America?”

Best Movies of 2003

1. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
2. Lost in Translation
3. The Station Agent
4. Spellbound
5. American Splendor
6. A Mighty Wind
7. Capturing the Friedmans

Words Mean Things Guilty Pleasure Awards for 2003

1. The Core
2. Terminator 3
3. Equilibrium

Virtual reality

When you’re sick, food is weird.

I love food. And these days I look at something fantastic, like the bars my mother made for me over Christmas, and I can understand intellectually how good they are. But I have absolutely no interest in eating them. It’s like I’m looking at my refrigerator through some sort of virtual-reality helmet.

I think there are people to whom eating is just a mechanical function – they eat to live. There are people who honestly “forget to eat.” I’m not one of those people. So being sick takes away something essential from my personality – that pleasure you get from eating something wonderful, or even just something familiar and comforting. (I make some killer homemade macaroni and cheese, for example.) More than anything, that’s what’s making me impatient to feel better.

Be your own calendar

Have you been reading Margaret Cho’s weblog? If not, you’re missing out on something great. Case in point: her New Year’s Eve post. Read it.

Why do people keep writing things better than I ever could? Damn.

Ahead to 2004

I wasn’t going to write a year-end post, but I just finished watching Kenneth Branagh’s “Henry V,” and it gave me a burst of energy. 2003 didn’t start out much better than the execrable 2002, but in the last quarter things suddenly picked up. I met someone very special to me, and I’ve been getting quite a few new clients.

Traffic on the weblog has been going slightly upward all year as well. I’m so grateful for the people who continue to come here and read what I have to say. I’m also grateful for the people it’s allowed me to meet, and the charge I get from being able to write whatever and whenever I want. That is a great gift.

All my best to you and yours in the new year.

Giving Andy his due

My abject hatred of Andy Rooney is well-documented on this site. But there was one thing the freak-eyebrowed old gasbag said that was right: when you have the flu, the only time you feel better is when you’re standing in a hot shower.

True, true, true.

UPDATE: Consumer endorsement of the new year – DayQuil. Good stuff, Maynard.