Is it worth it??

I've had this calendar for years. Every morning it gives me very good advice about eating healthy food. Most days I ignore it. Lately, I've been trying very hard to heed the happy children on my calendar. I discovered the Zip n' Steam bag which allows one to steam vegetables in the microwave. That and microwaveable rice make the whole cooking healthy food at home on a regular basis thing seem doable. So i've been buying fresh vegetables and cooking and steaming...

...and now i have teeny little black bugs all over my apartment. Thanks a lot, fruit and vegetables.

Full Disclosure

So, i spent the last weekend of the summer hanging out at the park. I did entertain elaborate plans of going to the beach or driving up to....OK, i have to be honest. that photo up there looks like i just pulled out my phone and took a casual snap of what was in front of me, which is what i did, but then i had to fix it. Look below at the original picture and you can see how i tweaked the setup. i felt like i needed some color in the middle. also, i wanted more plastic cup. i really wished i'd fanned that US Weekly so you could see some of Shannen Doherty peaking out from underneath the hummus.


I never claimed to be normal.

Welcome Back

wow! i haven't posted anything in a loooooong time. A lot has happened this summer. I went up to Omega for a songwriting workshop that couldn't be beat, and I just got back from visiting everybody up at the lake. I used lots of sunblock, but i never did break out the bug repellent. that's the second time i brought that with me and didn't use it. does bug repellent expire? does it work on "city bugs"? can i just rub it on my kitchen counter? i'd like to repel bugs now because i'm starting to feel bad about killing them. i feel bad about it, but i still really, really want to.

summer went by fast this year, didn't it??

August: Osage County

My sister, Joan and I went to see August: Osage County last week. I thought it was eh. Maybe it was because half the cast abandoned ship after the Tonys. Maybe it was because it has been compared to A Long Day's Journey Into Night. I just didn't think it was great. I thought it was funny, but play-funny not funny-funny. These are tropical birds! [go to 5:36] strikes me as the kind of line that wouldn't get that big of a laugh if it were in a movie or on a sitcom—well, it would on a sitcom bcs they'd add it with a laugh track. I wonder. Does the audience at a play, knowing how much they paid for their ticket and how long they'd have to wait to get in to see the play again, does that make them want to like it so much that they laugh extra hard and kind of over-enjoy a play? there was a woman sitting in front of me who was practically laughing at the lighting cues.

I guess i was just expecting more. It didn't have the poetry of an O'Neill play or the vulnerability of a Tennessee Williams play. I pretty much knew everything that was going to happen before it did, including what saucy put-down was going to come out of Mom's mouth. Again, it could've been the performances. I was lucky enough to see The Producers with Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane. I can imagine that after seeing it with John Stamos and Tony Danza you might wonder what the big deal was about. I know i was disappointed when i found out i wouldn't be seeing Mr. Katimski from My So-Called Life, although i was happy to see Jim True-Frost and he was great!

P.S. I'm not equating Estelle Parsons and the rest of the new people with Tony Danza, i'm just saying cast changes can have a big effect on the experience.

Did I really need to buy the movie Chicago? Not really, but it's so easy to buy stuff on iTunes and I really wanted to see Cellblock Tango and youTube wasn't cutting it.
P.S. i knew that i recognized Deborah from MILF Island as Sheila from A Chorus Line. NOW i know why she looked so familiar when I saw her in A Chorus Line. She's "Squish"!
P.P.S. "Pop" and "Squish" are my faves.

Wicked Betty

Great Ugly Betty episode this week. yes, it was a repeat but it was the first time I'VE seen it. Lots of Wicked, a very silly and inappropriate allusion to the civil right movement and Marlo Thomas. I love that in the beginning of the episode they did a little Marlo homage. When Daniel is pressuring Betty to tell him who she's taking to see Wicked she points waaay across the office at Gio and says, "That Guy!" :-]

What the...???

Last week i did the weirdest thing. I forgot how to get the key out of my door. i thought there was something wrong with the key and then i finally realized...after having the problem THREE TIMES...that it has to be horizontal i was trying to pull it out when it was vertical. Why i all of a sudden lost this memory that's always been second nature to me is completely beyond me. This didn't even happen when i first got the lock. Is my brain taking nothing for granted? Am i subconsciously craving change? Or just losing it?

Enchanted

I saw Enchanted last night. Boy, were they lucky to get Amy Adams! I'm not sure if that movie would've worked with anyone else. It was cute. I kept wanting Idina Menzel to turn into Elphaba and start flying around though. The "extras" on the DVD were pretty useless.

In rereading this post i realize that it sounds like i didn't like this movie and i did. i really thought it was very cute. i thought amy adams was great and james mardsen was really funny and i remembered that patrick dempsey is kind of nerdy in a good way.

Margo At The Wedding

This movie was disappointing. It was a waste of some great acting [not by Jack Black though]. I can't put my finger on exactly what was wrong with it [except Jack Black] but here's one thing. It seemed like a husband's idea of what's going on between his wife and her sister and not what would actually go on between two sisters. Sister's don't talk about f***ing each other's husbands. We're a lot more subtle and confusing than that. There are scenes in Hannah and Her Sisters that are accurate. The scene when they're having lunch and Holly is passive-aggressively punishing Hannah by only ordering a salad, while the sister who really is f***ing Hannah's husband is trying to be really nice to her which only kind of freaks Hannah out and makes her uncomfortable. That's what sister's are really like. They don't say, "you ruined my life, you're a crazy bitch." What fun would that be? Plus, you know you're gonna have to hang out with them again, so you tend to keep the cards closer to the vest.

This is reminding me of one of my biggest movie disappointments to date, Ghost World. This may surprise you because it wasn't a bad movie at all. It just wasn't the story I wanted to see. The Ghost World stories in the comic book, Eightball captured that time in female friendships when dealing with boys and differing levels of ambition can break up the best bff's. The growing gap between the two girls and the tiny little things that mark it's progression are a truly sad/beautiful thing to see. So i wasn't super-psyched that it turned into another coming-of-age/quirky love story. There aren't that many movies about females fighting that feel authentic [Romy & Michelle's High School Reunion being an exception that leaps to mind]. So it makes me sad when I see such good material thrown away. Steve Buscemi was great, but he's always good. They could've made a whole other movie out of Eightball stuff for him to be in and left the girls alone.

My Friend Barbara: A Novel in Three Parts

I was recently having a conversation with my friend Julie about the topic of her next book. I thought she'd probably win a whole bunch of fancy book awards if she wrote a book about me. She seemed to think that everyone out there probably knew as much as they needed to know about me from the things she's already written in her current book, Please Excuse My Daughter, and the stories she's done recently for The New York Times Magazine, Glamour and Redbook. I kind of disagree, and so right off the top of my head...here is a list of interesting, unexplored topics about me:

Foods That I Can't Have In My House
Books That Have Made Me Break Up With Boyfriends
Movies I've Watched More Than 10 Times
Jokes That Only Work On Babies
Why I Love The Beach, But Hate The Summer
What My Ideal Apartment Looks Like
Classes I've Taken Since Officially "Graduating" From School
Bands I've Been In [Both Real & Fictional]
Reasons Never To Have Your Own Dogs Or Children

That's just the tip of the iceberg!
Please feel free to comment on things someone should write in a book about you [i never get any comments and it makes my blog feel lonesome].

Lost

I have about 6 episodes of Lost on my Tivo queue. The season's over and everyone knows everything that happens except for me. The reason they stack up is because I have to pay attention when I'm watching Lost. That's why The Riches sit in the queue as well. I think The Wire used to sit longest of all [sniff, how I miss you Wire].

anyway, these days i usually only have about 20 minutes or an hour to watch TV and it's usually while I'm eating dinner. I can't pay attention to all those flashbacks and coincidences and double-crossings whilst enjoying my Tofu Lasagna!

Oh Lost, why are you so interesting?

Viewing Update

Am now totally addicted to Ugly Betty.
I'm rooting for Nerd Love to triumph. Surprise, surprise.

Betty

Henry

Betty + Henry

Willy Nick's Show

Here's a picture from our show at Willy Nick's. Sorry i haven't been keeping up my blog. Anyway, the show was really, really fun. We started an hour late because there were some people still eating dinner where we were supposed to be setting up. I guess I wouldn't want to eat my dinner in 15 minutes, but that didn't stop us from loitering around their table until they left. Once we got started it was noisy and fun. Thanks for coming to the show Jenn and Neil! and thanks for the great pix Neil!!

Lars and the Real Girl

Just watched this last night and wanted to to tell you all how much i LOVED it. When Juno won Best Original Screenplay i had a funny feeling someone was getting gyped and now I know who [I liked Juno, but I thought the writing was fun, but a little glib and amateur. The performances carried that movie for me]. Anyhoo, Lars and the Real Girl was so quietly uplifting. I don't know if i believe the world works the way it does in this movie, but i want to. I don't want to give away the storyline so I'll just talk about it generally. There's a very short scene in the beginning of the movie that exposits the whole situation beautifully. Lars is talking to his brother and you find out what their family was like. What dad was like, what happened to mom, why Lars is the way he is. And it's very natural and unforced. There are key phrases and scenes throughout the movie that just flow out very naturally. I just bought the whole thing. I don't mind if a movie seems fake, but it's got to be that kind of a movie. This story could have been played much more for laughs. That probably would've been a safer choice, so it's really nice that they went the real route and pulled it off so well.

There's one moment when Ryan Gosling moves in a way that makes you remember that he's a hotshot young actor and not Lars. It's like the ONE WORD that Emily Mortimer says that reminds you "hey, she's got a british accent in real life". It just points out the fact that for every other moment of their performances they're really being someone else.

I can't say enough good things about this movie. i LOVE, LOVE, LOVED it. Let me know if you agree/disagree.

P.S. For some reason, I also got a kick out of the fact that the doll looks exactly like Angelina Jolie.

Viewing Update

THE LOOKOUT: [dvd] This movie didn't quite work. I was interested in seeing it bcs i like Joseph Gordon Levitt, but i think he may be at the root of my problem with the movie. i don't want to give too much away, but i think his character is supposed to be more pathetic and handicapped then he was coming across. He came across as too cocky and arrogant and the story suffered because of it. It was a fairly interesting movie though. Jeff Daniels kicked ass as the blind roommate.**

30 ROCK: [tivo] Not my favorite episode ever, but not at all bad. Jack struggling with his demotion was great. I'm a little bit angry at Floyd. I don't know if I can be friends with him yet.***

THE OFFICE: [tivo] I kind of think Stanley deserves to be fired...and divorced. It was a solid episode, but not super-hilarious.**

THE RICHES: [tivo] Now that The Wire is over, this is THE BEST SHOW ON TV. It's too bad the writer's strike shortened the season though, bcs it definitely seemed rushed. The one thing i'm not buying at all is Dahlia's parole officer having the hots for her and i'd like to think they'd planned a little more character development there that we didn't get to see. Now i have to wait god know how long for the next season to start up. The good news is that it seems like Jared Harris will figure prominently in it [best Andy Warhol portrayal ever].****

Stacking Up...in a pile on the floor and in my tivo queue...Away From Her, 1 episode of Lost & Lars and the Real Girl.

Radiolab: Deception

Heard something very interesting on Radiolab this morning that ties right in with one of my Key Conundrums. Which is...

(Talent = Success) < (Confidence = Success)

So the episode was about deception and what happens in the brain when people lie, etc. So they got to this part about self-deception, and they told the story of these two scientists who developed a test. They asked people extremely personal questions that [if one is being completely honest with oneself] should all be answered "yes". like, "have you ever doubted your sexual adequacy?" What they found was that people who answered, "no" the most were better at sports, better at business, happier, less depressed. It seems that lying to yourself is healthy. So grab those rose-colored glasses and go out there and kick some ass because YOU ARE GREAT!

Coming Soon!

Right Out Louds t-shirts.
Man-style, girlie-style and lots of colors. STAY TUNED!

Viewing Update

Hi guys! Just thought i'd catch you all up on my viewing.

UGLY BETTY: [dvd] This is a cute show, but the episodes are a little long and a little repetitive for me. after a while it starts to feel like i just spent the whole day reading Archie's Pals & Gals. A little goes a long way with this show.***

LOST: [tivo] Why is Ben so evil?! Will Desmond be able to save Penny? Will Ben kill Desmond trying to get to Penny [he'd better not!!] Lost is getting so Soap Opera! That's not necessarily a great thing. enough with the loved-ones-in-danger plotlines. let's get back to the trippy stuff.**

Stacking Up...in a pile on the floor and in my tivo queue...The Lookout, Away From Her, 2 episodes of The Riches

The Right Out Louds at The Cutting Room

Hi Guys. The Right Out Louds played an after-party for a Tribeca Film Festival Premiere. The film was Guest of Cindy Sherman. If you're interested in art, photography, cable access programming in the '90s or male/female relations you'll probably enjoy the movie. My favorite "character" was David Furnish as himself. I was the only Right Out Loud to go to the screening. From what i hear the guys all took naps. I took my girls from work with me and met up with Gina. we had a lot of fun pretending I was a rock star...telling people I was saving my voice, etc. I should've gotten a picture of me and Gina too. I'm so bad at thinking those things!


Anywaaaay, Jen's hubbie took lots of pictures of the show so i'll post more as soon as i get them.


If you want audio you'll have to come and see us play Willy Nick's on May 10th.

I'm back!

This is a shot of my desktop at work. This is going to be the remedy to the clogging of my Blog. The old software i was using required that i post only from my home computer. there were ways to work around it, but it seemed like a real asking-for-trouble kind of situation. [BTW, those apple genius bar guys are usually pretty great, i highly recommend] ANYWAY, the fix is switching over to this online google-based program. now i should be able to just log in where ever i am and let you guys know what's up.

YAY! stay tuned.