Book Commercials & Misanthropic Observations

To my big brother

Dear Alehandro

Come out here now. I am so excited I can hardly stand it. You would think that having been at your house a month ago would make it so that I do not miss you yet. Au contraire. I miss you more.

I miss that one summer we spent at the mall of America. The time we went to see Independence Day on opening day and you actually lit a cigarette in a packed theatre- when I looked, you copped this “What?!!!” Then they blew up the white house in the movie and the whole crowd went wild.

We would sit in the living room of your apartment under that 10 foot long afghan Kristi made that was large enough to be on the couch and chair at the same time.

And we would spend weekends in the dueling piano bar. Remember when I wanted Dr Mc and you said Jaeger was just the same? You were setting me up, Bra, and it worked. Oh! and how often you used the “That’s my sister” line?

That was also the summer you showed me how to eat Carpaccio and bread dipped in olive oil and cheese.

FYI

Today I started knuckling down to learn the Dewey decimal system. No particular reason; just thought it’s something I should know and I find it very interesting. I am now properly classifying my books in my book collector program.

Movie review: Alpha Dog

I am not a good watcher of situation comedies. I mean the ones where all the humor is based on someone hiding something from someone else; like when someone ends up with 2 dates for the evening and all the humor is based on close calls. Whenever I watch those with Paul, I invariably say “Why doesn’t he just tell so and so?’ I genuinely wonder why anyone would keep themselves in a high pressure situation when it could all be cleared up so easily. (This drives Paul nuts, by the way.)

We watched ALPHA Dog last night. This movie was no comedy. But it was a situation that could have been cleared up so easily. And it’s a true story.

Do I recommend it? Well, yes and no.

Yes as a study of sin. Yes as a study of a situation that honestly, until the very end could have been redeemed. ANY SECOND. And Paul and I really liked it in that we were enthralled and the time went by fast.

No, because I am still disturbed today. Still thinking about it – it wasn’t just a movie. It was shell shock. Also, knowing my usual blog friends, I should also warn you that the film holds the fourth highest total of most uses of the “F” word (367) in a feature length film, with the word being used more times per minute than even Casino. Violence, sex, completely disturbing.

But we didn’t even notice, somehow. I was just glued to the spiraling situation. “Just come clean- please! It’s only gonna get worse. You may think it’s gonna be bad if you fess up but it’s gonna be immeasurably worse if you keep going.”

And what I am ruminating on now is that’s exactly what happens when we protect a sin. When we don’t wanna get caught in a lie or an action. We just spiral. When we care more about ourselves than anything else; Or we care more about the wrong things: in this case, 1 dirtball over a 15 year old kid. In our own cases, our public image more than truth. BUT at ANY SECOND it would be better if we would just come clean regardless of the consequences.

It’s also what happens when we don’t notice how dangerous our situation is because we are interested in the sex, the partying, the feeling cool. This boy could have walked away. But he stayed. AUGHHHHH! He prefered this to going home and getting in trouble for being caught with pot. We were completely shocked at the end- we didn’t know the story ahead of time.

If you don’t want to subject yourself to the movie, read the story here. Read all the chapters, not just the first page. You won’t believe it.

http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/celebrity/jesse_james_hollywoo/1.html

Our yard is for the birds

A fun new side effect of the the dog fence we put in last year, besides the fact that our dogs are completely happy and spoiled in the sunshine all day: Birds in the front yard.

Spud would love nothing more than to catch a bird and spent her days chasing them out of the yard any time we let her out. Now that she is restricted to the back, our front yard is full of visitors. I count 11 dark litle birds with red breasts by a lazy glance out the window. Oh- one just ate a worm. I love it.

I’m going to have to go to Borders and get some backyard birding books. You know, what kind of flowers they like, tips on bird houses, what a great new thing to enjoy. God makes such cool stuff.

A book review, sort of

I finally got a hold of readable copy of Dostoevsky’s “The Possessed”.

Finally because I have been wanting and trying to read this one for years.

Wanting because each review and description of it has made me say “I gotta read that”. Granted, I am a huge fan of what little I’ve read through the years; Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Brothers Karamazov, and so am already biased and it wouldn’t take much to get me to want to read another one of his works.

Trying because I have downloaded the public domain version from the Gutenberg press, and have begun to read the penguin classics version. Both were too heavy for me. It’s hard enough to swim in all the long Russian names, each character goes by both formal names and multiple nicknames. It takes a while for me to connect them. Add antiquated language and I am completely lost.

(call me slow: I once spent a summer attending weekly Shakespeare in the Park because a good friend was in a lead role. The same play every week: “The Tempest”. It wasn’t until the 3rd showing that I was really comfortable with the language and enjoying the punnery.)

This translation was published in 1994 and renders the title “Demons” rather than “The Possessed”. I have much more to say about this book and Dostoevsky in general – I want to talk about all the unnecessary intrigue and drunken explorations of philosophy.

But my hair needs rinsing- the color has been in for 50 minutes now and it may fall out if I don’t go… I’ll have to tempt you with an enticing review later. Stay tuned- you’ll be a Dostoevsky fan yet.

Dumpster Tetris

The totally fun game where you get the most out of your rented dumpster by strategically organizing the contents as you throw things away. LOVED it.

Bye dumpster. It’s been great.

it’s “mothers day”, not “not mothers day”

Come on. Just let the moms have their day. They deserve it. (especally Mommers, who put up with A LOT and still loves us)

There is no need to “say a special word for those who don’t have children”. That’s like mentioning everybody who is not married at someone’s anniversary party so they don’t feel left out. Kinda wierd and needy, and NOT THE PURPOSE OF THE DAY.

Side note: I was once at a birthday party where a sibling threw a fit that it was not HIS birthday party and watched in complete flabberghasted awe as the parents actually re-lit the candles and allowed the brat to “make a wish too”.

It’s not ALL women’s day. It’s MOTHERS Day.

Lest you think me completely cold hearted, I do not include women who have miscarried or had an abortion in this category. They ARE mothers. It’s their day too. Just not my day - and I am OKAY WITH THAT.

I do remember that some women are not okay, are grieving and wanting children, they do need love. My intention is not to hurt them even more with this; But this is still not their day and that’s just a fact. Vetrans Day is for vetrans, not wanna-be vetrans, no matter how much they wanna-be.

Yes, I did

Yes, Mommers, I called Colleen today. (For those of you not in the know, Colleen is my biological mom. - a topic I could blog about -A LOT. But I follow this rule: if you think to yourself “hmm, should I say that?” odds are you should not say that. Keeps me out of trouble more than you will ever know.)

Happy Mother’s Day, Mommers

I love you.

A book recommend, and a blog recommend

I am re-reading Escape from Reason by Francis Schaeffer.

I just thought of another blog topic; Why I am a book purchaser rather than a library book or friend book borrower, in general. Hint: I am a re-reader.

Anyway, I often remember with gratefulness how Schaeffer grew an appreciation and hunger for art in a cold hearted cynical person like me. This is the book that did it so many years ago.

In analyzing modern trends of thought he shows how our current philosophies grew historically, often using great works of art to illustrate the thoughts of that era. I find it fascinating. When I read this book I think of my sister, Hannah, who has a passion for the arts in general that I value. I keep meaning to recommend it to her.

She just joined the blog world, here is the link: http://hannahjanen.blogspot.com/