I agree with those people who say you can watch the last 5 minutes of a basketball game and not miss much. The rest always plays out the same. One team goes out ahead then will there be a successful comeback.
I think Rafa is having hair replacements.
I noticed today that I change the toilet paper roller mechanism to a new roll in much the same action as it appears (on TV) that you jam a new clip into a gun - in either case it makes one ready for dire situations.
I have a cat, but I am not becoming a real cat person, I find.
I love Korean horror movies.
If you read this, please pray for my mother - she has requested it in one of her more connected moments.
I think many people do not realize the repercussions of the years with non-presidential elections.
that's it
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Hollywood
There are three things I would change in Hollywood were I ever to have such far reaching power as a Goldwyn, or a Zanuck did in the golden age.
1. Writers - PLEASE never use the phrase "....so what are you saying?". I am so sick of being treated like a numbskull who can't understand it the FIRST time it is said and this mechanism of having some information repeated drives me nuts. Did The Three Stooges ever have to resort to this? I am a beginning blogger who never took a writing course and it has become obvious to me.
2. On the other side of the coin is the phrase "it's complicated" which explains NOTHING. Now it is even the title of a movie and I can only assume it is a movie about nothing, and that I pray does not use it in the dialogue over and over.
3. Why are MOST Sandra Bullock movies about a character who experienced some sort of tragedy as a child and is a lonely loner who builds walls between herself and the world. I have not seen her Oscar-nominated performance this year because a white family rescuing a black character just seemed too Clarence Thomas-like, and also a bit retro in this day and age. Movies where she plays these damaged characters would include "The Lake House", "The Proposal", "While You Were Sleeping", "Miss Congeniality", "Murder By Numbers", "The Net" and probably others, but I am not checking her IMDB page. I LOVE Ms. Bullock, and when she has ventured away from these characters I love her even more.
So please, Hollywood, elaborate on the complicated details in a plot..... but only once, we'll catch on, and if not we will replay it ..... and Sandra - please depict characters in either all out comedy, drama, horror, or whatever genre you choose, but please, with no lurking childhood trauma.
I am tired of being unable to enjoy any movie or TV show once it has used the two phrases mentioned above, though I must admit to Ms. Bullock, it has become almost catnip to me to go see your movies and find out if the damaged childhood cliche is there. So I guess kudos you in in a way.
1. Writers - PLEASE never use the phrase "....so what are you saying?". I am so sick of being treated like a numbskull who can't understand it the FIRST time it is said and this mechanism of having some information repeated drives me nuts. Did The Three Stooges ever have to resort to this? I am a beginning blogger who never took a writing course and it has become obvious to me.
2. On the other side of the coin is the phrase "it's complicated" which explains NOTHING. Now it is even the title of a movie and I can only assume it is a movie about nothing, and that I pray does not use it in the dialogue over and over.
3. Why are MOST Sandra Bullock movies about a character who experienced some sort of tragedy as a child and is a lonely loner who builds walls between herself and the world. I have not seen her Oscar-nominated performance this year because a white family rescuing a black character just seemed too Clarence Thomas-like, and also a bit retro in this day and age. Movies where she plays these damaged characters would include "The Lake House", "The Proposal", "While You Were Sleeping", "Miss Congeniality", "Murder By Numbers", "The Net" and probably others, but I am not checking her IMDB page. I LOVE Ms. Bullock, and when she has ventured away from these characters I love her even more.
So please, Hollywood, elaborate on the complicated details in a plot..... but only once, we'll catch on, and if not we will replay it ..... and Sandra - please depict characters in either all out comedy, drama, horror, or whatever genre you choose, but please, with no lurking childhood trauma.
I am tired of being unable to enjoy any movie or TV show once it has used the two phrases mentioned above, though I must admit to Ms. Bullock, it has become almost catnip to me to go see your movies and find out if the damaged childhood cliche is there. So I guess kudos you in in a way.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Signage
I love to look for interesting use of words, odd combinations, oxymorons and I am a stickler for correct word spelling and pronunciation.
I admit in elementary school to taking out the largest books I could find on Library Day - and once getting home to find out upon finally looking at the titles, that I had checked out two of the same book based on the thickness alone. I have since become overly focused on words and content as a result.
Just recently I have been horrified to find that I have spelled and pronounced a word incorrectly all my life. It is so difficult now for me to correctly talk about or write the Gershwin composition "Rhapsody in blue" when for 50 years or so I was convinced the word was "Rhaphsody". I don't know why something like this bothers me so, but it is like being followed around by someone scratching their nails on a chalkboard when I think of it. All is not right with the world.
I walk around town daily and I love to read the signs put up announcing events or just the names of shops, and the juxtaposition of these words. The other day I saw that a new after school program with the big sign "KIDS AFTER SCHOOL" had opened its doors right next to a shop selling items one might expect to come across at Hogwart's, named "HEX". So one storefront filled with felt boards and phonetic posters, desks and AV materials stands next to the storefront with, to name a few items, candles, voodoo dolls, and books of spells. Interesting choice of locations for both establishments.
Also saw a clever upcoming event poster for "Churchapaloosa" and a bumper sticker stating "What if the hokey pokey really IS what its all about?" I imagine people who write these are similar to those who also write greeting cards and T-shirt slogans, spending hours to find the exact fit of words to item in a sort of "Mad Men" minimalist style.
However, my all time favorite signage occurred by pure geographic chance. It is on a street in the metrowest area of Massachusetts and at the end of that street, there are two signs placed one directly above the other announcing "BLIND DRIVEWAY" - "DEAF CHILD". I wonder if the Department of Public Works employee who put those signs there as part of his list of jobs for the town, thought anything of it.
I would never be able to excel at such wordplay, but I sure do enjoy it, and for now, I guess I will sign off.
I admit in elementary school to taking out the largest books I could find on Library Day - and once getting home to find out upon finally looking at the titles, that I had checked out two of the same book based on the thickness alone. I have since become overly focused on words and content as a result.
Just recently I have been horrified to find that I have spelled and pronounced a word incorrectly all my life. It is so difficult now for me to correctly talk about or write the Gershwin composition "Rhapsody in blue" when for 50 years or so I was convinced the word was "Rhaphsody". I don't know why something like this bothers me so, but it is like being followed around by someone scratching their nails on a chalkboard when I think of it. All is not right with the world.
I walk around town daily and I love to read the signs put up announcing events or just the names of shops, and the juxtaposition of these words. The other day I saw that a new after school program with the big sign "KIDS AFTER SCHOOL" had opened its doors right next to a shop selling items one might expect to come across at Hogwart's, named "HEX". So one storefront filled with felt boards and phonetic posters, desks and AV materials stands next to the storefront with, to name a few items, candles, voodoo dolls, and books of spells. Interesting choice of locations for both establishments.
Also saw a clever upcoming event poster for "Churchapaloosa" and a bumper sticker stating "What if the hokey pokey really IS what its all about?" I imagine people who write these are similar to those who also write greeting cards and T-shirt slogans, spending hours to find the exact fit of words to item in a sort of "Mad Men" minimalist style.
However, my all time favorite signage occurred by pure geographic chance. It is on a street in the metrowest area of Massachusetts and at the end of that street, there are two signs placed one directly above the other announcing "BLIND DRIVEWAY" - "DEAF CHILD". I wonder if the Department of Public Works employee who put those signs there as part of his list of jobs for the town, thought anything of it.
I would never be able to excel at such wordplay, but I sure do enjoy it, and for now, I guess I will sign off.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
US football
I hVe been watching pro-football all my life, having come from a part of the US where college football never gained a foothold, it has always been the pros that I followed.
his year when the J-E-T-S were in the AFC division final it of course brought back memories of Broadway Joe and the upstart Jets of 1968. That super bowl III win 48 years ago really started my lifelong calling as a sports fan.
Growing up I had mt room covered in posters of Joe Namath, Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, Stan Smith and Arthur Ashe (my contemporaries had Bobby Sherman and David Cassidy on their walls and I had to explain over and over who these people were that I chose to have on my walls). I still have the mangled programs from the Knicks series against the Celtics in the 70s. In fact I chose to go to college in New England so I would still be able to follow my beloved Knicks in the papers since they were in the same division as the Celtics. No thank you University of Michigan and Penn State. Boston University here I come.
I have inherited a peculiar sports watching gene from my father. I remember watching football on TV with him and during a big play as the player approached the end zone and the announcer's voice reached a fever pitch - my father (seated as usual on our piano bench) moved in the same direction as the potentially scorring player until he went right off the end of the bench and landed on the floor. This necessitated him watching sports with the volume turned off, and I find myself doing the same thing.
I remember once my parents were entertaining some of their friends and the talk had turned to football - however, my father being host then left the room to make and serve cocktails to their guests. Upon his return he was unaware that the topic of conversation had changed to Charlie's Angels, and he promptly said, "when it's on TV I have to turn off the volume because I get too excited watching it" which resulted in perplexed silence and some early departures.
So, do I think it is strange that I put a Red Sox game or tennis grand slam final on the TV in my bedroom with no sound, and if the score is close, watch it with binoculars from the other room? Absolutely not. It is nature AND nurture in my case.
Sometimes it is great to have your home team crash and burn and be able to enjoy the sport for the sport, as it will be with this year's Super Bowl. The binoculars are in their case. I am ready to watch the game close up.
his year when the J-E-T-S were in the AFC division final it of course brought back memories of Broadway Joe and the upstart Jets of 1968. That super bowl III win 48 years ago really started my lifelong calling as a sports fan.
Growing up I had mt room covered in posters of Joe Namath, Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, Stan Smith and Arthur Ashe (my contemporaries had Bobby Sherman and David Cassidy on their walls and I had to explain over and over who these people were that I chose to have on my walls). I still have the mangled programs from the Knicks series against the Celtics in the 70s. In fact I chose to go to college in New England so I would still be able to follow my beloved Knicks in the papers since they were in the same division as the Celtics. No thank you University of Michigan and Penn State. Boston University here I come.
I have inherited a peculiar sports watching gene from my father. I remember watching football on TV with him and during a big play as the player approached the end zone and the announcer's voice reached a fever pitch - my father (seated as usual on our piano bench) moved in the same direction as the potentially scorring player until he went right off the end of the bench and landed on the floor. This necessitated him watching sports with the volume turned off, and I find myself doing the same thing.
I remember once my parents were entertaining some of their friends and the talk had turned to football - however, my father being host then left the room to make and serve cocktails to their guests. Upon his return he was unaware that the topic of conversation had changed to Charlie's Angels, and he promptly said, "when it's on TV I have to turn off the volume because I get too excited watching it" which resulted in perplexed silence and some early departures.
So, do I think it is strange that I put a Red Sox game or tennis grand slam final on the TV in my bedroom with no sound, and if the score is close, watch it with binoculars from the other room? Absolutely not. It is nature AND nurture in my case.
Sometimes it is great to have your home team crash and burn and be able to enjoy the sport for the sport, as it will be with this year's Super Bowl. The binoculars are in their case. I am ready to watch the game close up.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Introduction
I enjoy the writings of David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell, Woody Allen and the like, and for years, I have jotted down those odd items that you hope to someday coalesce into the type of wonderful, hilarious essays produced by these writers I so enjoy.
That is why I decided to start a blog, and those of you looking for anything close to the brilliance of the writings of those I named above, have most probably set their expectations way too high.
I do not know what to expect, ARE my observations as interesting to others as to me? will I find others out there who will give my attempts at essays a read? indeed, can someone whose last writing class was in 1975 and has since been a teacher, secretary and medical transcriptionist, aunt, avid sports, television, and movie fan, and is trying to learn not only blogging but cat ownership at the same time have success at this venture.
Having seen the movie Julie and Julia (or was it the other way around) I decided to try.
Stay tuned.
That is why I decided to start a blog, and those of you looking for anything close to the brilliance of the writings of those I named above, have most probably set their expectations way too high.
I do not know what to expect, ARE my observations as interesting to others as to me? will I find others out there who will give my attempts at essays a read? indeed, can someone whose last writing class was in 1975 and has since been a teacher, secretary and medical transcriptionist, aunt, avid sports, television, and movie fan, and is trying to learn not only blogging but cat ownership at the same time have success at this venture.
Having seen the movie Julie and Julia (or was it the other way around) I decided to try.
Stay tuned.
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