Cherokee Sage Woman

Just a short recommendation for an obscure film 'The Secret Lives of Dentists'. It's a surreal take on the complexities of marriage. A 10 yr marriage between 2 dentists with 3 kids, that reaches a breaking point when one 'strays'. The impasse & decision making that goes into 'Do we stay or do we go now?' Some of the lines are haunting.. 'If I ask her questions, it takes us to a whole other place where I'm afraid to go. It changes things'. Ahhh fear.
Denis Leary plays an alter-ego who'll crack you up.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

I also saw 'Phantom of the Opera' on the big screen last evening. And those tunes will be swimming in my head for days on end. It was a little draggy during the obligatory swordfighting.. but I suppose they had to put some testosteroni stuff in there, for their male audience too. The costumes were fabulous!
"Close your eyes, Let the music set you free, Only then will you belong to me.." See? It's in my head..

Yesterday my computer malfunctioned & was offline all day. Big deal, right?
Then why did I have this niggling feeling that great things were happening behind that blank screen, & I wasn't party to it?!
All day long I anxiously pressed the keys that would in return pop up the 'error' message.. locked out of my own messages!
I watched a movie.. I paused said movie & rebooted the machine.. fruitless.
I wondered if family & friends would grow concerned about my absence in their email box.. might jump to the conclusion that I'd been raped & pillaged in the night (while my husband was gone on his business trip).
It wouldn't be long until my phone would be ringing off the hook with frantic calls from those worried & concerned souls. (I did get 2 telemarketers & a call from Angi.)
It's strange how the daily habits of plunking on the keyboard can make one obsessive/compulsive when taken away from that venue.
While I get dressed for work, I know I have a 15 minute span between the time I place hot rollers in my hair, until I have to put on make-up. So I use that time to write a final email to folks. What to do w/ that freaking 15 minutes??
I resorted to eating.
So there you have it, if not for the internet, I would be a 300# nail-biting worrywart. Thank god Dan came in early last evening & flipped the magic switch that opened the portals of this ether-world. I can now bliss out on my fix of 'net.
Whew..

As we speak, some old dead trees are coming down in the backyard. As the cutters remove the branches, they hit the earth with a tremendous 'thud'.. the earth shakes. It is a re-awakening of sorts. I imagine that the 'live' trees surrounding these 2 dearly departed are saying, 'Hey, I'd better shape up.. this could be my future..'
And I am reminded that we sometimes have to clear out the dross, the dead.. to make room for new life, new promise.
Where the trees stood, the sunshine will have new access. I can plant palms, crepe myrtles, fruit trees. New life for the sacrifice of the old.
Just as in human form, we 'make way' for the newer generations. Our voices become more faint as our progeny steps up to the collective plates. This is how it should be.
Just a typical Sunday here in the sunshine state.. another sh*tty day in Paradise.
And all is well.

On this depressing day in history.. let us find some source of Light in the world. Thanks to a lovely friend Chris who brightened my email box with this website;
www.positivepause.com
Watch it & grant a glimmer of hope into your dreary day. It is cloudy, overcast, foreboding.. here in the sunshine state today. Appropo for this, our sad inauguration day.
How I would love to be in D.C. with the protestors, turning my back as the neo-nazis drove by in parade. But I will have my own time of private mourning.. while finding some tad of gratitude that Jebbie-boy & Katharine Harris are out of state for the day.

OK, one more film recommendation. I'm sure you think that's all I do these days.. & you may possibly be right. It gets my mind off the twin tragedies of work & politics. Anyway, I watched a 1999 film called "Limbo", with one of my favorite actors David Strathairn. He can be dark, smarmy, sexy, always mysterious-looking. Mary Elisabeth Mastrantonio plays an aging lounge singer in Alaska (yes, parts of the film feel like a 5th grade National Geographic film for the travel bureau of AK) Mary has a frustrated artsy teen daughter, who self-mutilates. David is a handyman-come-retired fisherman with a tragic past. And of course they all gravitate towards one another. The screenplay itself is stilted & high school play quality much of the time.. but the saving grace is the surprise ending. Blew me away..

I do hope you find ways to bring solace to your own personal 'Dark Thursday'. The topic of conversation last evening in the nurses station was, 'Where can one go to be safe from the H bomb that the world's ready to drop on the US?' Light banter..
I think the final vote narrowed it to Argentina, Brazil, or Venezuela. Rightwing nuts in the group says one must be at least 400 miles offshore from the continental US. Good to know..

Oh my.. you all know that I dearly love discovering a film I've never heard of & realizing that it's pure gold. I love films that are smarter than me.. that make me reach for the symbolism.. that refuse to let go of my mind, after having viewed them.
'Northfork' is one of those films. If you've already seen it.. why in the world didn't you tell me about it?! If you haven't, well darling.. you simply MUST!
This flick came out in '93; stars a beaucoup of top names.. some in large roles, some cameo. James Woods, Peter Coyote, Anthony Edwards (think ER), Darryl Hannah, Nick Nolte.. on & on.
The premise is an old Montana town founded later 1700's, is going to be turned into a lake, thanks to a dam, in 1955. The G-men are out scaring, threatening, evacuating the townsfolk, so they can win a little lakeside property. Nolte is an itinerate minister who helps childless couples adopt orphans. And the movie revolves around this one particular sickly orphan who sees symbolism in everything. In one moving scene the minister has the couple view the sickly child from a window, because he doesn't want the boy to get excited about having a new family, if they aren't serious about taking him. The 'father-to-be' says, 'We can't make that decision just looking at him through a window! He isn't a puppy, for god's sake'. The minister shakes his head & says, 'I think maybe that's what you should be looking for.'

The cinematography is superb (who can go wrong w/ Montana landscapes?) The film strays from simple black & white, to sepia, to a pale coloration.. but you always feel the starkness of the contrast. It has a very '50's feel to it.

I do hope you give it a view & let me know what you think! It could certainly be a grand topic for Psychology 101.. & a lesson in Death & Dying.
Kudos to Michael & Mark Polish! Filmmakers extraordinaire.

I was watching the news last night when they aired one of the military's new propaganda ad to 'Get Out The Vote' Iraqi-style. They seriously should have consulted with Bruce Springstein before unloading this steaming pile of caa-caa on the airwaves. The stench can be smelled all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
So here's the scenario.. imagine a background of Pachelbel's Canon in D minor.. imagine white doves escorting the Bradleys, MIAI armored tanks, Humvees (w/ armor of course), and all the big guns; as they wind their way pell mell over hill & dale, skedaddling like frolicking children, removing their pesky presence back to from whence they came. Was this all just a bad dream? Sure it was.. see the whispy fog rolling in.. softening the edges of this heart rending scene? It's AMERICA! And we're on the run! We saying, 'There's your liberation.. see ya.. loved your show.'

Then, flash to scene 2.. a band of playful Iraqi children kicking a ball around in a peaceful desert. No bombed out buildings, no residual hunger or clothing needs. And no nasty little prostheses that 1/3 of the children are wearing as fashion accessories these days. Just a friendly game of kickball in the newly vacanted field-of-dreams. Wow soldiers! Thanks for the nice clean up & the sporting goods!

Well, you know what? The Iraqis aren't buying that heap 'o dung either. Some have created their own commercials which shows the blowing up of cars, tanks, ammo, trucks. It aint pretty, but it aint trite & demeaning either.
Somewhere between the two polar ends of this Emmy Award Winning fiasco lies the simple truth.
We broke it, we fix it.
Then we apologize & exit.

Coming soon to a town near you! Shock & Awe.. y'all.
50% of us ask for your forgiveness.

It's that time of year again.. 1st Monday of the new one, so therefore one must face their mortality, look deeply into the mirrors of who we really are, assess the damage done by the preceding year, & then exclaim, 'Oh Dear God!'
Where to begin.. what to do.. which book to buy.. which foods to shun.. & which diet is the current chic one.

Well pooh on that. I have no less than a dozen books on my shelves, including Atkins, Pritkin, Sommers, South Beach, Endocrine, Blood Type, Sugar Addict, Makers, ad infinitum. They all sound like 'sure things' & they all suck.
Everything will work for the 1st week.. even the bingeing on a single food fad. We lose that 1st 5-10 lbs & we start planning the new wardrobe.
Well hold up there pardnah.. it's the end of the trail.
Comes the week-end & you rediscover the joys of fast foods, restaurants, or dealing with a spouse who cooks. End of weight loss.

I have gone to the store, after selecting 'Low Fat' as my dreaded diet of choice. I have surrounded myself with raw veggies, bland soups, tasteless chips, fudgebars that are reminescent of frozen styrofoam (sure, you've had that before!)
I will lose the obligatory 5-10 lbs. I will rejoice that the waist of my pants is no longer cutting off my circulation. And then I will succumb to the creamy sauces & French specialties that will befall me at the 12th Night dinner this week-end.

I have looked my mortality in the eye, and she is pleasingly plump.

The headlines get more Orwellian with each passing day. And I amaze myself by my ability to still be shocked by some of the unreal happenings in this 'Bushit' era. Today the paper talked about how we are seeking secret places to keep political prisoners detained 'for life'. Admittedly, they have no further use to us; we have tortured every single piece of information from them. But we aren't quite ready to let them go. So the rules must change & it must be 'okay' to hold these poor souls (now 6000 & upwards) until they die. Without enough charges proven against them to ever bring them to court, we will bless our own method of punishment.

The whole thought just numbs me. These men & women (and no doubt, children) are simply guilty of whatever the CIA has contrived against them. No charges filed, just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.. and for that, they will die.

Think back a couple of hundred years to our Revolutionary heros. These fellows were INSURRGENTS, folks! They were the REBELS that bucked against the system & won our so-called 'freedoms'. They mutinied, resisted, defied, disobeyed, REVOLTED & were labeled terrorists by their mother country. And so began our secession & the development of Democracy (or shades of what it could have been). Who do we think we are to try & recreate the colonization of our 'empire' in a soverign country like Iraq?

Shame on us.. and God help us to see a light in this dismal quagmire.