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Monthly Archives: April 2010
Cat in the Sun
How do you make decisions? Me, I use my “active imagination.” I imagine each possibility and research it fully, really getting into the mindset of, say, a round the world bicyclist. The gear, the flights, deferring student loan payments, missing friends. And then I take a reading. Is this really the direction I want to go in? How do I feel when I say this is what I’m doing? I poll friends and family, declaring my intentions and recording their responses. (i.e. “I’m going to Bangladesh next year to teach English at a women’s high school, will you watch my dog?”) Scott has caught on to this method and agrees to nearly anything, knowing the likelihood of its actually happening to be nil. I fear the boyfriend has also figured out this technique.
Despite all this scheming and dreaming when I actually make decisions, they come from a completely separate part of my brain. Practical calculations and transactions are executed swiftly and without fuss. Loved ones are trusted to be on board. It’s like a magic trick where there is a lot of business (shuffling cards, rabbits in hats) up front to distract the eye while the real work is smooth and out of sight.
What does this have to do with a sleeping cat? I would like there to be less smoke and mirrors and more resting and pouncing.
Scoop by Evelyn Waugh: Book Review
Recommended by Pat and Henry Leuchtman, this cynical and very funny story of poor William Boot, nature writer and heir to the threadbare family seat in Boot Magna, who through no fault of his own becomes a lauded foreign correspondent in a made up country in a made up war.
Very interesting to me as I have recently made a mild (and so far, unsuccessful) attempt at journalism for Jesse’s magazine. Writing for money and public consumption is both harder and easier than I thought. Sure, you make things up. But which things should be made up and which should be fact?
Posted in book review
Tagged book review, evelyn waugh, journalism, scoop, writing
Freedom Manifesto by Tom Hodgkinson: Book Review
The boyfriend gave me this book and then seemed surprised when I declared my intention to quit my job and take up a bohemian vagabond lifestyle. It’s his own fault. Librarians need to be very careful about those little rectangles they throw around.
Miles from Nowhere by Barbara Savage: Book Review
This memoir by Barbara Savage of her and her husband’s 28,000 mile ride around the world in the late ’70s has a strange tone: she’s forever classifying people, friendly/unfriendly, generous and stingy- this starts in the US where we learn how mean people are in North Dakota compared to the nice Michiganders. She is not an adept writer, but she is a dedicated one and you root for her while she builds stamina and grace under very difficult conditions.
My year so far has been thrilling in a quiet, easygoing way. My big move was into an apartment upstairs from Carina, lifelong friend. Then there’s the boyfriend- but falling for someone I already knew and cared about has been a fairly straightforward process (so far). This must be why I’m covertly engaged in the American national sport: Escapism. Daydreaming about the big adventure around the corner when I’m already well deep in the adventure of right now. I’ll be at the bike store 10AM tomorrow. And then I’ll start to explore the strange new world I moved to: Somerville.
State and Main: Movie Review
PRODUCER: How are you getting along with the locals?
DIRECTOR: Like dykes and dogs.
Alright fine I love David Mamet. This is a cynical film about making a movie in a small town. And it’s also an old fashioned romantic comedy. Alec Baldwin sleazes around town and Sarah Jessica Parker is the needy emotional vacuum leading lady. It was filmed in Manchester by the Sea, pretending to be Vermont by keeping the cameras pointed inland.
Philip Seymour Hoffman plays the writer and Rebecca Pidgeon is an unflappable small town bookstore owner as the real heroes of the film about purity? and second chances. Mamet gets to have it both ways, cynical and hopeful, mistakes made and redemption found.
Posted in movie review
Tagged david mamet, movies, screenwriting, state and main, writing
New Digs
Here is the new kitchen, a week ago when I made 6 egg linguine. Today I’m home sick and only have the energy to lie on the couch and look out the screen door. I love the new place: snug and sociable floor plan. Carina gave me a still warm loaf of rye bread for lunch. I made a good decision.
