Glossolaliac

Horn tooting

I'd like to thank god, and the Academy...

Actually, screw the Academy - we didn't win. But it was an honor just to be nominated. The Oscar-nominated documentary about the Death with Dignity campaign, in which I make an appearance, playing the role of myself, was, honorably, nominated but did not win. Regardless, it's pretty cool for me (although I thought I should have been invited to the Oscars, I mean, how hard is it to get a ticket) and outstanding for the general cause of human rights and self-determination.

An old guy once said to me, "he who tooteth not his own horn, the same shall not be tooted."

So. Toot.

Saturday night at the movies

I'm ill-equipped for children.

Physically, I've got the goods, but mentally and emotionally and financially and some other word that ends in "ly" that covers all the freaking stuff, material stuff - toys, games, clothes, things - stuff that kids generate, ill-equipped.

I mean, I can do it. Really I just thought that was a good opening sentence. What I do all day is hang out, being equipped, with child. For the foreseeable future, I'm be here, becoming more and more equipped.

Here's what happened. We watched The Hours and it was all Virginia Woolfey and love trapped and poetic and tragic and so on and I got to thinking about how writers write because they have to not because they want to and about Julianne Moore and her 1950's family trap part of the movie and how she ran away and didn't kill herself but ran away anyway because that's what she could bear but then Meryl Streep (who's awesome) was her awesome self but more importantly (for my purposes) in the movie had just one child who was studying probably at Columbia or NYU (both decent in my book) played by a very well adjusted Claire Danes.

I know. Right.

So obviously, I should sell all the baby stuff that we've outgrown or give it to friends and write the great American novel so that I don't get all mentally or emotionally or in my own crazy head trappy trapped and so my one and only sweet baby girl grows up well-adjusted and attending a top-tier school. Or maybe I should start a consulting firm. Duh.

To which hubs says: you can't ever just watch a movie, can you?

Go team Buffy

Because sparkly stalker vampires suck.

Milk

We finally saw Milk, thank you Netflix, and plenty has been written about it that I need not repeat here. Suffice it to say that Sean Penn fully inhabited that role and the Oscar was well-deserved. And yes, the background of Prop. 8 made the movie better - giving it depth and relevance that it would not have had in a different time, even with Gus Van Sant's outstanding intermixing of old and new footage.

What really struck me was this: people used to go to a place, like a camera store, and hang out and talk. And that was how movements were built.

Now, despite every coffee shop's claim to be that "third place" for which we had to invent a marketing phrase, people go to the coffee shop and sit, individually, and look a screen, their laptop or their phone, and through that supposedly connect with people somewhere else, who are meant to make them feel less alone. It's so much easier to find kindred spirits who are far away, so much harder to find them closer to home.

Of course, that ability to touch people both near and far was one of the things that made Harvey Milk so special. I hope that era is not over, and that there will be more like him.

Shiny gold bald guys

Not a bad Oscar night overall. The takeaway was these three things:

1. Said it before and I'll say it again, I simply cannot stand Kate Winslet's eyebrows. They're distracting. They're like an whole other character on her face. Nearing monobrow. Not trimmed, waxed or dyed. Totally inappropriate. Hubs says I'm being shallow. But really, she's an actress, she ought to care about shallow things.

2. Love that Sean Penn. Hooray for Hollywood as the enemy of the traditional family and all that is sacred. And isn't it nice to hear shout outs to love and elegance and equal rights in the real world.

3. Slumdog Millionaire. Haven't seen it yet but I will, and I'm sure it deserved every one.

One more thing about Buffy

I noted below that SMG hasn't done much worthwhile lately. Well, her upcoming project actually looks pretty good, so here it is: