Archive for the ‘Pop Culture’
Saturday movie mania…
is kinda lax this week- I didn’t watch any movies because of my work load…
HOWEVER-
I did read a chapter ABOUT movies from Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, and decided this piece was so well said it deserved to be quoted for Saturday movie mania…
“… it’s impossible to deny that the chances of seeing an uber-fantastic film in a conventional movie house are growing maddeningly rare, which wasn’t always the case. It wasn’t long ago that movies like Cool Hand Luke or The Last Picture Show or Nashville would show up everywhere, and everyone would see them collectively, and everybody would have their consciousness shaken at the same time and in the same way. This never happens anymore (Pulp Fiction was arguable the last instance.) This is mostly due to the structure of the Hollywood system; especially in the early 1970’s, everybody was consumed with the auteur concept, which gave directors the ability to completely (and autonomously) construct a movie’s vision; for roughly a decade, film was a director’s medium. Today, film is a producer’s medium (the only director with complete control over his product is George Lucas, and he elects to make kids’ movies). Producers want to develop movies they can refer to as “high concept,” which - somewhat ironically- is industry slang for “no concept”: It describes a movie where the human element is secondary to an episodic collection of action sequences. It’s “conceptual” because there is no emphases on details. Capitalistically, those projects work very well; they can be constructed as “vehicles” for particular celebrities, which is the only thing most audiences care about, anyway. In a weird way, film studios are almost requiring moves to be bad, because they tend to be efficient.”
Would love some hearty discussion on this point, I could talk about this all day (just ask my poor mother-in-law!)
So come out you lurkers, I know you have a thought or two about movies. And I’m not asking because I care about how many comments I get, but because I REALLY need adult conversation after being home all day with my toddler. See, now you are guilted into commenting, which I don’t feel a darn bit of shame about.
Comforts
Maybe this post is coming from left field, but at this point I’m thinking you guys will take anything so long as it isn’t more poetry. (What’s wrong with you, you uncultured illiterates?!)
Ten things that I find comforting (order is inconsequential):
1. Snacks/food… I seem to have an endless love for popcorn (in a pot, I can never go back to the bag, baby) with lots of olive oil and nutritional yeast all over it; edamame (soybeans in the pod, steamed and served up with some sea salt), avocado and tomato salad (a little cajun seasoning on it), Beecher’s flagship cheese, peanut butter balls… (my husband would think it important to note here that my WAY of eating drives him up the wall and down the block. Whether my lips are smacking, he can hear the crunching, or I’m licking up yeast at the bottom of the bowl, apparently I eat like a stark raving animal. I more or less dismiss his complaints because I was raised with only a dad and brother, both of whom are the social counter of a metro-sexual man. They have hair on their chests, and its a wonder I even know how to paint my toenails, okay?)
2. Movies- as I’ve already shared, I just love movies, talking about them, watching them, whatever. I hate, however, watching movies with some one who does not share my love for movies, who sits there with that -”I don’t get it… they just had no dialog for all of 3 minutes therefore this can’t possibly be a ‘good’ movie”- blank stare. But this is about things that comfort me, not things that irk me, I so digress.
3. Reading. Currently digging through Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs, which is quite possibly the funniest book I’ve ever read. Excerpt below:
“I realize there is a whole generation of adults born in the seventies who currently play Sega and Nintendo as much as they banged on their Atari 5200 and their George Plimpton- endorsed Intellivision in 1982. I am not one of them. I agree with Media Virus author Douglas Rushkoff’s theory that home video game consoles are the reason kids raised in the 1980s so naturally embraced the virtual mentality- we never thought it seemed strange to be able to manipulate what we saw on a video screen - but I’ll never accept pixels killing other pixels as an art form (or a sport, or even a pastime). A homeless man once told me that dancing to rap music is the cultural equivalent to masturbating, and I’d sort of feel the same way about playing John Madden Football immediately after filing my income tax: It’s fun, but- somehow- vaguely pathetic.”
4. Beverages… teas, espresso drinks, wine. I used to drink only water because I didn’t want to waste my caloric intake on a beverage that wouldn’t fill me up. Stop and think about that truth, roll it around in your head. Caloric intake… that was a logical and substantial reason to avoid flavored beverages completely. If you do not see something oddly self-oppressive about that line of thinking, go have yourself a beer. Have a few beers, what do I care. Who am I the police? (ah, that “Bronx Beat” is a pretty funny SNL skit)
5. Walking. I love to walk and wish there was more time for it. When you take the time to walk somewhere (or just “take a walk, which I’m less likely to do because of the lack of an end result), you smell things in the air and look around to locate the herbs or tree nearby… you see interesting aspects of people’s backyards or window panes… you have time for acorns to hit you on the head; drizzle to dampen your hair down. This may not seem like an appealing description, all things considered… but when are all things ever really considered?
6. Music. God is currently in the process of redeeming my relationship with music. This is a statement some one came up with in a theology class assignment tonight. There was a period of time in my life when music I could listen to was limited to only that which was not “secular” in origin or nature. I would have burned my classical CD’s had I been told they too were part of Satan’s plan to take down humanity. A whole half decade of my life was sucked dry of pop culture, for better or for worse. With it were many potential relationships, as any one who listened to secular music could not be a regular companion of mine lest they tempt me with their luring beat. I’m finally rediscovering genre’s and artists I used to resonate with, as well as new voices and tempos that communicate something to me, and I’m intently focused on music that does not traditionally “belong” in church because I’m fairly certain that there is no such thing as “secular” (without God, completely worldly), or if there is, there are much fewer things that truly fit in that category than most people think. Because God has a habit/characteristic of imparting Himself in the most unlikely places via these annoying little creative creatures called human beings.
7. Poetry. I realize this closely resembles reading, but I place it in a category all its own because I also like to write poetry, and because I see poetry in things that aren’t necessary known as poetry. In an argument with Hubby, I pointed out once that the difference between us is that “my world is written in poetry, where as yours is written like a manual.” So, yeah, let that marinate a while, ya big meany, while I pat myself on the back for coming up with something so inherently witty.
8. Painting- ah yes, the one thing that can so zone me out that you’ll wonder where I have been for the last 8 hours. Playing Tetris had this effect on my one time, but more consistently, its painting.
9. Practicing conversations. You know the kind I’m talking about. Those times of intense communication where Person A and B are played by leading lady, moi? Usually in whispers in the bathroom, where the two characters will surface and it will take my 2 year old son’s bewildered look to make me realize I was playing out this conversation out loud. However, for some reason these little times of practice are fairly useful in gathering my thoughts, preparing me for the time when I might have some one talking back.
10. Large natural phenomena. This is a little cliche, but just because something is cliche doesn’t mean it can’t be true too. Whether I’m in a great big field, standing on the shore of a large body of water, or looking up at a massive mountain, the sheer size swallows up whatever I deemed substantial about my life thus far and spits them back out into pea-sized Vivian staring out in awe.
P.S. It was no accident that I failed to include things like prayer here- I left that sort of thing off the list because I think it goes without saying and I would have little to add about the subject anyway.
it doesn’t mean anything. but it says a lot.
I’ve been reading more poetry lately (thank you, Multnomah County library!), so you’ll probably see more posts with poems that struck me. The following should be thought provoking for most of you…
What We Believe
Charles Harper Webb
Jesus was not the Son of God. He was a yogi
who tranced out on the cross– a fanatic like Jim
Jones or David Koresch, with better publicity.
President Kennedy was killed by the Cubans,
the Russians, the C.I.A.; Lee Harvey Oswald
was paid to take the fall. A group of evil
scientists created AIDS to wipe out Blacks,
dope addicts, homosexuals. Drug companies
quash cures to keep their profits high.
God is a Big Man with a white beard who sees us
when we’re sleeping, who knows when we’re awake.
There is no God; There’s just Physics, which couldn’t
care less if a sparrow falls. Ours is the greatest,
best-governed country in the world, and needs
a top-to-bottom overhaul. Rodney King was high
on angel dust when the cops beat him.
He’d learned, in jail, a way to leap up
from the ground and break a cop’s neck instantly.
O.J. Simpson was framed by the L.A.P.D.
Laws are made to keep the powerful that way.
Religions are all superstition except ours.
Democracies and dictatorships, coups and counter-
coups are smoke-screens. Corporations rule.
The letters in our names control our lives.
A New Mexico army base hides the remains
of crashed space aliens. They have large heads,
small bodies, glowing eyes. They’re linked
to human evolution, ancient Egypt, the Flood,
Easter Island, Incas, Aztecs, Mayans, and the Deficit.
Their ship is made of silvery metal impervious
to any force on earth. They want either to save us
from ourselves, or to destroy us utterly.
Everything worked better in the Golden Age.
Restlessness? This is random.
I haven’t written in a few days, which isn’t all that typical of me lately, because of reasons I don’t even know how to pin down. I’ve been feeling as though I’m floating lately, not really here all the time. I don’t think I’m unhappy or anything, just sort of bored, tired, lethargic. I don’t know. I can take on things sometimes and try to shoulder it harder or longer than I should and I don’t stop and ask myself WTF, you know? I don’t even think I’m talking about anything in particular.
Perhaps I need more close friends and family here, of course that could be. I’m also feeling a little discontent, wanting to stop freakin worrying about money and never having enough to do or purchase the things I want, which sounds SO lame, I know. But seriously, I’m damn tired of being broke and trying so begrudgingly to be frugal. It’s a pain in the rear. You got your degrees, you got your jobs, congratulations- now you have to pay off all your debt. After that, you can work on saving for college and retirement, or paying off your mortgage if you’re lucky enough to have a home to truly call your own, which it turns out could be incredibly overrated.
And I’ve been sad lately at things I don’t think should make me quite so sad. I let Lil’ E stay up way too late last night and felt like the worst parent on the planet. I found out a close friend who I haven’t been able to really talk to in months is off to a bible college of sorts in the bahamas and I feel so bad that I knew nothing of this and all the different directions every one goes in life. Sometimes I think connections are so awesome. You go for a walk to kill time and end up meeting some one a few blocks down who is trained in landscape architecture and has awesome tips and encouragement about your organic garden. You plan for the right pet and meet a breeder who is a talkative, interesting, informative home-schooling mom, (and has the perfect pet for our family). So in these moments I want to get on this blog or remark to some one in person about how incredibly delightful these connections are- how two people end up meeting or effecting each other’s lives in a way that seems just too strange to not be Orchestrated.
Other times its connections that I mourn - one’s that are falling apart from distance and lack of cultivation. Sometimes I mourn one’s that are just fine, because its terrible events that bring two people together, like earlier this week when Lil’ E and I were walking to the park and saw a cat dying on the sidewalk. With the joint effort of myself and the mailman, we managed to read the ID tag and call the number to identify the pet’s owner’s, who it turns out had just moved in across the street from where the cat lay after being, apparently, hit by a car. It was difficult for me particularly because Lil’ E didn’t get it and kept meowing at the cat and telling me it had a boo boo. When it took its last breath, Lil’ E told me the kitty cat was tired and was going to sleep. And here in this event I connected with the mail man, as we hunched over a bloody feline corpse, because I was grateful some one else cared, grateful he had a cell phone, grateful he was another freakin adult to balance my feelings of sorrow over my child’s first death experience and make me aware of my own sensibilities.
This week I’ve looked a little more at my myspace friends while I’m bored and waiting for Hubby to get back from his 7am-10:30pm work schedule. I don’t know why, but I’m always so surprised, even disturbed, by the fact that so many old and even current friends are doing such vastly different things than I. I get this snapshot, this weird MySpace thing that it is, of their “profile” and can see how they want to be perceived- what they want people to know about them. Are they edgy? Witty? Do they have lots of friends and comments, do they list a slue of fascinating books or movies in their interests? Sure we all do it, right? Without even thinking much about it, we figure out fairly quickly, though it might change as often as we change our shoes, who we want to be to the rest of the world. And in the end, the things I most want to tell people about myself but don’t because it seems so ridiculous, is that I really, really liked reading a book about pumpkins to my son today. I wonder if a lot of stay-at-home moms feel this way, like the highlight of their day was curbing a temper tantrum so they could enjoy a MUG (”for here!”) of java at a coffee shop fairly uninterrupted- I mean this is like a humongous personal feat, people! But when you look around and see other adults in the world DO NOT CARE about whether or not you got your toddler to eat zucchini, it can feel as though the entire ball of earth is a black hole that has just swallowed you up because you are completely, eerily, alone. Like, “wow, this is kinda crazy… what am I living my life for if these are my daily highlights? where is my life going? who am I? Is any one else here? Hello?” (echoes ensue, yada yada yada.)
This is only one small piece of the puzzle as I uncover this strangely not-here-but-here mood I’ve been in, hidden behind a nice tired smile and way too much talking.
Precycling?
I pat myself on the back every time I rinse a glass jar of spaghetti and toss it in the yellow bin for recycling pick up on Tuesday. But lately I’ve been thinking more and more about this bumper sticker I’ve seen that reminds us, “Reuse BEFORE Recycle”. Perhaps its out of sheer poverty that I have given this more thought, as we have, along with the A’s downstairs, moved to Portland with not so much as drinking glasses for cups.
Originally I had thought I would love some trendy “Green” dining and glassware, such as pretty recycled glass cups or bamboo plates and bowls. And if my bank account would have supported such lofty dreams, my cabinets would surely house these pillars of “Green”dom. It would have been hard for me to bite my lip when having guests over to dine, wanting so badly to point out the nifty environmentally conscience salt shakers, (for Christ’s sake!)
But alas, no one at my address makes enough to spend 7-15 dollars per plate, so my brain started a thinkin’. It was Mstroxy’s (the Mrs. A., downstairs) who thought of collecting POM teas while we are out, slowly turning them into her very own assortment of drinking glasses (I believe this might be the one positive thing we got from the Hostile Situation!) Sure enough, just two months later and we’ve all got plenty of POM glasses to go around. I’m not sure if this is the perfect illustration of Precycling, or Reuse, but bear with me.
Today I took a look at some of the things we were about to toss out. The water jug. The plastic tub of cookie dough with a perfectly good lid. Rather than tossing them in with recycling, (a noble thing, perhaps, but still a use of energy and resources that may not always be necessary), I filled the water jug up with filtered water at Wild Oats for just 59 cents, and used the cookie dough tub for some food scrap compost. (I plan to get a much bigger and more permanent composting bin, but it worked for my apple peels today.)
We have also used this approach to furnishing our home, as best as we can (and again, the catalyst for all this reuse being lack of moolah). I’m sort of obsessed with Craigslist at the moment, especially for Portland, the stuff just rocks. Our couch, side table, tv stand/console, Lil’ E’s toddler bed and toy box, our entire bedroom set, even our Ikea spice jars, all were purchased from Craigslist, a resale store or a garage sale. I’m not even ashamed to admit that we look for FREE ads in Craigslist and have picked up off the road: bamboo blinds now hanging on the windows in the living room, old wooden fruit crates that I have used for office supply bins and pantry/closet organizer, and more. Sometimes there’s a little bit of dusting off to do, but more or less this stuff is in great condition, clean and even trendy. And just think how much garbage we have NOT created because these items do not come with boxes and plastic packaging and foam and all sorts of what nots. There was no shipping gas wasted to deliver it to our home, save the ten minute drive in our sedan. AND, when we turn around to sell these items, we are likely to get nearly what we paid for them, rather than crossing our fingers for a mere 30% of the price you paid for furniture when it was new, (and, most likely, financed!)
We’ve got an incredibly long way to go before we can toot our horn and be “no impact” or something. In fact, the true spirit of this movement (movement?) is perhaps NOT being proud, just simply realizing the impact of your footprints on this earth and doing your best to tread lightly.
At the moment we are still eating on paper plates and using chop sticks and a few random bamboo sporks as our utensils, but I plan to start looking for random dishes of the same style or hue, putting together an eclectic mix of plates and such, like our good ol’ grandparents used to do! Sometimes I’m amazed at that generation, one that sewed the holes in shirts and brought shoes to be refurbished. No wonder they could live without Super Wal-mart!!!
For tips on precycling, check out the following:
The ReUse People
P.S. On another note, (and I have NO idea if this is supported by environmentalists at large), but when searching for a shower curtain this week (and my first choice, a natural hemp curtain, was a wopping 90 bucks!) I came across the same ol’ shower curtain vinyl. Tempted to get the extremely NO mildew version, I flipped over to see ingredients. 100% PVC. Not a huge expert on the subject, but I believe I’ve read that some countries are completely banning PVC from their plastics and I also think that children’s toys are not allowed to have PVC either. Nearly every single shower liner at target was vinyl and 100% PVC. Hmmm, I thought, that must be that really strong odor when you first shake out your new liner… nothing like a nice clean bathroom full of VOC’s! SO, this time I chose the fabric liner. I’m assuming these types build mildew faster, (just assuming) BUT, my gosh, they are machine washable! Throw them in with your linens and wa lah, it seems like a much better way to go. That’s not saying much for the water shortage, but on a strictly VOC issue, are fabric liner’s the cheap green girl’s best practice? Chime in with your thoughts if you’ve got em.
Lil’ E Sings the Blues - Blue’s Clues, that is…
This morning, Hubby and I awoke to the sound of our son, half in dream world, singing a familiar tune… later, we captured the live show:
Earth Day 07
It seems like this year Earth Day is a little more than a day to make all elementary school students clean up the playground.
From Discovery’s high def series “Planet Earth”, to Oprah, to 20/20 and just about every where else you turn on with your tube this week, its all about environmental focus. When I woke up this morning, I said Happy Earth Day to Hubby with as much excitement as any other B-grade “holiday”. I truly am excited to see more and more Americans and other industrialized countries taking steps to preserve the planet- its resources and animals- in a less human/self-centered manner.
Western awareness of issues like global warming and other effects of the ME-attitude has been furthered by recent movies, such as “An Inconvenient Truth”, “Blood Diamond” and even “Happy Feet”. Those with the large public forum and the financial means are beginning to put their talent into something meaningful, beyond pure entertainment.
Still, the process is slow. Just when I think we’re really opening our eyes in America on the whole, I go to church and find myself in conversation with a number of people who have no idea that it is Earth Day, no idea what words like “organic” or “sustainable” mean. It’s sad that this happened to me at church, too, because the western Christian church has been one of the last groups to open themselves to the idea of environmental issues, when it should truly be the other way around. Why haven’t those who claim to be Believer’s had much impact on environmental causes? Why has the southern baptist convention sat on this idea that because humans are the highest of all created things, preservation efforts should be undertaken only so far as they “effect” humanity?! The logic doesn’t even make sense… humanity, being the sister creation to the trees and animals, etc, but one with the capacity to know and love the Creator, should be the first to hear His voice, the first to act on behalf of His will; to tend to our garden, so to speak, and to care about what kind of mess what we are leaving future generations to clean up after us.
If God built me a home, and I went in and trashed it to make myself as comfortable and profited as I could imagine, how would that reflect my respect and love for the Builder?
So for today, have a little “Faith Flection” about what it means to live like you aren’t the only living thing in the universe.
Big Box Mart
Check out this musical parody about companies like WalMart- I couldn’t stop laughing…
I know I say this a lot but… something to think about.
Also, another entertaining segment - watch The Meatrix films for some not so appetizing facts about America’s good friend, the Dairy Industry.
Things to munch on…
1. Wednesday night, (which means LOST, duh,) was purty cool- in a “what the heck?” sorta way. I was rebuked for talking too much by the other attendees of our little Lostie get-together… something I really must work on. But, hey, it made for a dramatic and memorable night, for better or worse. Sorry guys! Only human.
2. Anna Nicole’s death was quite the ironic surprise to see on the news… and then quite the annoying “beat a dead horse” after about a day. Take the damn DNA, bury the corpe, figure out who the daddy is (if you can), and make him pay child support. (I don’t care who the heck gets the dang money so long as the baby is taken care of!) Then pray that the baby grows up with the closest things to loving parents possible. What NOT to do: keep putting this on the news when there are truly more important things going on in the world, after all.
3. Freezing temperatures outside another thing that we could say ENOUGH! to. I love the cold and don’t wish for that 9 month summer any time soon, but this FL girl is not used to it for this long. Lil’ E doesn’t even own enough pants for this.
4. We went through a scare this week, thought we would be forced to move and freaked that we aren’t ready to buy but would also hate to rent due to various reasons. I didn’t even manage to get 30 hours of work in this week due to worry and research on preparing for moving— and all for not because our current landlord is now willing to sign us into a year lease so we have some security when the place sells. (We had only monthly security since our year lease was up over 2 years ago- so when they decided to sell and some buyers might be looking to move in, we realized we only truly had through whatever month we had paid on to stay!) SO-THANK GOD! (really.) We can stay on our current plan to try to get out of debt and save for a home and buy at the “right” time, … whatever that means.
5. Hubby finishing up school this semester- all signs point to graduation this April and possible MBA aspirations soon after. My own graduate school goals are up in the air– beginning to think I should go for a degree or grad certificate in Instructional Technology rather than Creative Writing. I know. I’m one big dichotomy, I swear. And I can’t even spell.
6. We participated in a community event this weekend, (not something we think outside ourselves enough to do often). And this community event wasn’t exactly something that would earn us charitable or neighborly partipation points any time soon- it was the Kiwana’s Pancake Festival. (noooo, I didn’t eat any pancakes and forgo my dietary restrictions- but I did take some pics of my “boys”)
7. Watching the news right now and, believe it or not, I’m much happier seeing news about Bill Murry being in Tampa for some golf game than more news about Anna Nicole.
8. Church was really good this morning. That Pastor Tim packs a mean sermon. Not that he’s mean. Quite the opposite.
9. Speaking of church, I’m reading more into my book, and thought this quote a good one to share:
“…unfortunately, so much of what we’re currently fighting against (’we’ meaning the church in America for starters) isn’t the real enemy, and so much of what we’re fighting for isn’t the real prize. Largely we’re fighting to get something back — a lost status as the civil religion of the West, control (political, too often) over things that are out of our control, a priviledged position as the favoured religion of the Empire, protection of the middle class from the lower and upper classes, and so on. These are futile fights. We’re also focused on fighting symptoms like abortion, promiscuity (hetero or homosexual), divorce, and profanity. We might add terrorism to the list. But these are not the disease. These are in many ways the symptoms of the very disease that we inadvertently tend to support, aid and abet, defend, protect, baptize, and fight for — a system sick with consumerism, greed, fear, violence, and misplaced faith (in the power of the Economy and the State and its weapons).”
10. I have no idea why I counted to ten in this blog except for the sheer backdoor it created so that I can now stop.
