SpiderMan III or What I Would Have Rather Done On Sunday Afternoon...

I saw Spider Man III this past weekend and there 2 1/2 hours of my life I won't get back-and I want them back because i could have done a million things that would have been better than watching Spider Man III and that includes taking a nap or watching Hellboy again. Where do I begin with all the things that are wrong with this movie? Let's start at the beginning, with Peter Parker as Spider Man about to receive the key to city and being so completely self-absorbed that he doesn't listen to Mary-Jane trying to tell him that she got fired (don't even start with the completely stupid Broadway sub-plot and her getting fired after opening night-I guess the director figures that no one will know better, but it's insulting, really to think they don't know. Anyway...). Let's move to Spider Man flying past the American flag. I'm going to ignore all the symbolism that goes along with the flag these days and instead note that while yes, Spider Man is a hero at least to the person on the street and maybe the police, he was never a hero the those in power and who generally viewed him as threat no matter how many people he saved. Spider Man was always the reluctant hero, with power thrust upon him, who tried to do his best. He is not and never was a symbol of the American government (and who else would a flag represent?). A patriot? Yes, in the best way, meaning that he lives his life according to his values-and to have that symbolized by the flag is insulting at best. And as for when he turns bad? THIS is bad? Granted, he's not a bad person, so how evil can he be? But this is ridiculous. The black clothes, the dance with Gwen Stacey-it was embarrassing. This movie was lazily written, lazily directed and the characters were walking through their parts-there only so many times before that wide-eyed innocent look gets old, Tobey Maguire. You're Spider Man-haven't you grown-up a bit by now? If something similar happens in the third Bourne movie (and I have a bad feeling about it) I won't be happy-but it's directed by Paul Greengrass, so maybe it won't be too bad.

On the other hand, I watched Happy Accidents this weekend. I was a bit wary because A) Netflix recommended it and that hadn't worked out so well before and (see Straight to Hell, a movie I hated) and B) Its a romantic comedy-a genre I stopped liking once I realized that no one could make a good romantic comedy in which a female character was not a complete nitwit. This means I haven't watched a romantic comedy made in the last 20 years that I've actually liked. If I wanted to watch one, I would watch something made in the 30's or 40's. But I really liked Happy Accidents-and it was made in this decade! it stars Vincent D'Onofrio and Marisa Tomei-who meet by accident and fall in love...their scenes together are charming. He's sweet, funny and nice and she's beautiful, spunky and has a tendency to yell Motherfucker! when she gets angry. But something is a little off...why does he not know what perfume is? Why is he scared of very small dogs? And why does he need Dramamine all the time? And who is Chrystie Delancey? When he tells her the reason for his quirks-that he's from 400 years in the future, she doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. Is he crazy? Is he really a time-traveler? This movie is not about time-travel-it IS about love and trust and I liked it.

I also read The Eight by Katharine Neville-and it's a book about which I have mixed emotions. Overall, I liked it. I'm a sucker for a plot has a good conspiracy theory, goes on for years and puts innocent people in danger for a reason none them really know until almost the end. My quibbles are few-but I really don't like books of the "if I had only known at the time, I could have saved us all the trouble of..." or "It was 1973 and I was going to work for a little known organization called OPEC". This book is good enough that it can leave out the comments like that-and I won't go into detail detail on the anachronisms-but lets say that I don't believe a bedu tribesman in 1793 would use BOTH the metric system and say "its about a mile over that way". I freely admit that things like that annoy me but the errors like that are few and this book is well-written and intelligent. Its secret is not easily guessed until the near the end of the book-and it makes you work a bit to get it-it's more than your average thriller.

RIP Veronica Mars

Veronica Mars was one of the truly great shows on TV-witty and clever with a great actress at its heart, it could not be beat. Except, of course, in the ratings, where The Search For the Next Pussy Cat Doll got better ratings. Truly, the dumbing down of America when a show that has real characters, internal coherency and some of the best and wittiest lines on TV (Veronica going into a room of fellow students who are thieves who want her join them "Is this where you turn me into a vampire?"). VM had the courage to have as its heart and soul a girl who sometimes was not that nice " It's all fun and games till one of you gets my foot up your ass.". I loved Veronica and acerbic conversations with Logan "Veronica: Look at you, all helpful.
Logan: Hey, your peskiness being unleashed on Conner brings me joy. Annoy, tiny blonde one, annoy like the wind!".
And Kristen Bell was at her best when she recognized who she was and just didn't know how to stop it...and maybe wasn't too interested in stopping it. "Tragedy blows through your life like a tornado, uprooting everything. Creating chaos. You wait for the dust to settle and then you choose. You can live in the wreckage and pretend it's still the mansion you remember. Or you can crawl from the rubble and slowly rebuild. But if you're like me, you keep chasing the storm". Bell could sell her emotions with just a look on her face-you didn't need to hear her say her heart was breaking because you could see it. I hate to say goodbye to Veronica and her father (I have to admit that when they both found out that he was her biological father when there had been some doubt...I teared up) Enrico Colantoni and Kristen Bell made one of most believable father/daughter relationships I've seen, while Jason Dohring was, by turns, charming, hilarious, touching, mean, infuriating and always with a smart mouth and witty remark which usually hid how pain he was in. Goodbye, everyone...I'll miss you. But anyone who hasn't seen this show should go and get the first season on DVD now-I mean it! What are waiting for?

Pop Culture Edition

Let me preface this by saying that I've spent what seems like most of my life (at least 20 years) disagreeing with everything Jerry Falwell ever said. I'm a female Democrat who has always believed that women deserved the same opportunities as men-and it always seemed the me that the rules at Liberty University (no pants, no dating, etc...) were designed from 2 viewpoints-one is that women can't take care of themselves and the other is that men can't control themselves, so women wearing skirts is an unbearable temptation for men-so no tempting...(funnily enough, this is the same as in Islam and is the reason women are supposed to wear the veil). That said, i can't imagine Falwell would like the picture on the front page of today's Washington Post... this picture http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/print/asectionfrontimage.html

Is this girl really waiting in the line to pay her respects to Jerry Falwell? She's a far cry from the sweater/pearls/modest skirt typical of Liberty University. She looks more like she wandered away from the local Wicca meeting and got lost- shouldn't she at least put some shoes on?

James Thurber and me

I felt like I grew up reading James Thurber-or at least hearing him quoted. My Dad is a big fan of Thurber-we had a subscription to The New Yorker when I was growing up and there was always "well, Thurber said..." along with the "well, Shakespeare said..."-my family loves to quote. There was also a TV show based on Thurber's life that came on when I was a child-it was called My World-and Welcome To It (my family and I may have been the only people who watched as it lasted barely a season). So, considering all these points, it was a shock to me to open up his short book My Life and Hard Times and realized he died before I was born. How could this be? My Dad and I always talked about The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and how much we liked Thurber's cartoons and how he gotten along (or not) with Harold Ross, Dorothy Parker and Alexander Woolcott-my Dad loves talking about that sort of thing. How could he have died before I was born when it felt like I grew up with him? Nonetheless, it is true-and I only recently read My Life and Hard Times, which I heartily recommend. It's a very short read with not a word wasted. It's hilarious, with quite the portrait of his family and their genius for bizarre adventures in the night-time. How often did a story start "it was late at night and I was taking a bath, or "It was late at night and my brother decided to play a joke on our Father"? What was up with these people they always chose the middle of the night to create the mayhem for which they had such a talent? These stories of his family (and Ohio State and the draft) are short, sweet and lesson to short-story writers everywhere on how much can be done with very few words. I have to say though, that my favorite part was when he talked about traveling to far-away lands, and wanting to have an air of Conradean mystery (yes, I love Conrad too) and instead of having people look at him quizzically or with a wondering eye-they followed him to try and sell him baskets...he was no mystery to them.

So go read it-and while you're at it, go read Saki's The Open Window-it's a story for which I have a great affinity....

Why I Want the Draft Reinstated

Calling for a draft when we have an all-volunteer army right now is not a very popular position to take, but I have my reasons. the first is that I really don't think most people in the United States are feeling the pain of the war in Iraq. We don't have to save metal or scrimp like they did in WWII, or have victory garden, so all extra food, metal and cloth could go to the troops. We don't see the dead coming home in coffins, like we did during Vietnam, and we don't see as much of the war in Iraq as we did during the Gulf War-this administration has done an admirable job of shielding most average Americans from feeling the pain and agony of this war-it doesn't take much an effort to avoid it. My friend D said to me today that she didn't understand why, with me living in Washington DC, there weren't protests on a weekly basis against the travesty that is the war in Iraq. But with most people not feeling the pain and the burden being mainly on the lower classes (who joined the military to get an education or to get out of the small town or just to see something different), who can't get out and protest-most people aren't experiencing the fear and agony borne by the military and their families.
That's why I think we need the draft-and I wouldn't be surprised if it happened, but I think the Bush Administration is going to do everything it can to avoid it. The so-called May Surge is not working, so what happens next? If we have a draft reinstated, you better believe that all those upper and middle-class boys are going to get out there and protest-and so will their parents (I personally think their parents would LOVE an opportunity like this to get out and protest). Once the upper and middle-classes start feeling the pain, and their sons and daughters start dying far away in the Middle East, I believe we would see massive protests on an almost a daily basis here in DC. I would hate to see more people die-too many are dying now. But the people who are dying now are almost invisible, except to their friends and family. Yes, it's in the papers and on the news but it doesn't get nearly the coverage the Vietnam or the Gulf War received. This war has been long and bloody and that is not about to change-but if you bring in the sons of the privileged, I believe that we would really see a sea change in the feelings of the American public about this war-and it may be the only thing that could do it.

Some Gossip

Okay, as I had a request for some gossip-here's all I've heard...

That Tom Cruise has Katie Holmes on a very tight leash and her Scientology minders go with her everywhere-how creepy is that? Speaking of Scientology (and I'm always happy to do that-I find them endlessly fascinating in a bizarre and scary way) here's a link to the story behind the recent dust-up between the BBC and Scientology. It reminds me of years ago when I read Premiere (back when it actually had information wasn't just sucking up to studio heads)-they had a big investigative piece on Scientology and it caused no end of problems for the magazine.

Here's the link- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/panorama/6655207.stm

In other news-I keep hearing that Brad and Angelina have broken up (but I just saw a picture of them at Cannes). Frankly, I do think it will happen just not quite yet. A second X-Files movie? Again? I keep hearing this, but frankly I won't believe it until it's actually in theaters. Does that make me the skeptic? And honestly, I don't care about the Hollywood starlets-Lindsay Lohan is a good actress when she isn't boozed and coked up (although why would I want to see her new movie? I like Jane Fonda, but a movie that makes light of sexual abuse? I'm not surprised as Garry Marshall directed it, the same man that took a movie about a hooker and turned it into Pretty Woman but the whoe thing just repulses me). Scarlett Johannsen is pretty-and occasionally she can act but lately it seems she just gets cast for being pretty. And don't get me started on Kirsten Dunst, who has taken a strong woman from the comic book Spiderman and turned Mary-Jane Watson into a wuss. It's infuriating and I can't decide if it's her fault or Sam Raimi's or the writer's but someone needs to take the fall for it.
And here's a link to fragments of a Gawker musical about Rupert Murdoch...but first a small Rupert Murdoch story of my own that you may find funny.

Many years ago, when I had just started working at my current job and my friend M, (who I was living with at the time) had just started working for the PR agency Fleishman-Hillard, he was working on the account that was doing the roll-out for the Fox talking heads show on Sunday morning-and the big party for the show was after work at the Capitol Grille. The food was wonderful and there was an open bar..and a huge salad bar-style spread of seafood. It was quite crowded, so I had to elbow my way to the fresh shrimp-it wasn't rude (I don't think) but imagine my surprise when I pushed pass someone, only to have him turn and look at me in surprise...and it was Rupert Murdoch. I have to say that I wasn't sorry about elbowing him at all and M thought it very funny. Also, the kid who played the son on Married with Children (a show I avoided at all costs) juts got busted for pot in New Smyrna Beach, right near the public beach. As this is where my parents spend every winter, I wonder if it's anywhere near their condo-that's pretty funny.
Anyway, here's the link to the Gawker musical and it's classic.
http://gawker.com/news/media-matinee/fragments-from-rupert-the-musical-260881.php

And if I hear anything good or have my own interpretation of events, I'll pass them on. I do have to say that after seeing the new Rhianna video, I don't think Jay-Z will ever marry Beyonce-geez, all you have to do is look at it and see that he produced it...it's pretty clear what he thinks as it's right up there on the screen.

The Salton Sea

But first-I'm wending my way through Golden Witchbreed by Mary Gentle-it's quite good. Well-written and interesting-with all sorts of intrigue and plotting-the sort of thing that happens when a woman from Earth goes as an envoy to a pre-tech planet. But are they pre-tech? Evidence survives that seems to show that they are post-tech, and living through the aftermath of a devastating rule by a cruel race who used them as slaves. My only quarrel with this book is the title (come on-no one could do better? And as usual-the oh-so-cheesy cover. I swear, I'm going to start a company that designs decent covers for these books so no one gets embarrassed by reading them in public). And the sequel to the Berlin Noir trilogy (The One From The Other) was also good, except for the fact that I thought Bernie Gunther was acting like an idiot. I saw what was going to happen and how he was being used-how did someone who lived though the Nazis and a Russian POW camp, was both a policeman and a private detective and in the German Army, be such an idiot? Bernie was relatively smart in the Berlin Noir trilogy, so him being relatively stupid in the book was disappointing. For all that, it was well-written and evocative of its time-and I still liked it.
The movie I watched last night was The Salton Sea and I got it because I like Val Kilmer. I think he can be a very good actor-and I try to ignore the bizarre stories of how he behaves on the set-it gets tiresome, hearing all those stories about how Method actors stay in character the whole time and won't let anyone look at them or talk to them-how pretentious can an actor be? Regardless, I will always love Val if only for Real Genius and The Doors. Yes, he was hot in Top Gun and practically the best thing in a really stupid movie but it did not showcase how good an actor he can be-but The Salton Sea really gives him a chance to shine. This is not a movie for people who like a nice, linear plot. It's confusing and difficult to follow-with some random and creepy scenes of meth users, with some violence thrown in as well. And yet, I liked it. Val's character is two-fold. Is he the detective trying to find out who killed his wife and playing the trumpet in a jazz bar? Or is he the speed freak punk rocker who uses for three days straight? Is he both? Neither? The speed freak is also a spy for the police-looking for meth dealers and the detective is still covered with the speed freak's tattoos. Kilmer does a great job playing both-he looks just as home in the user's leather pants as he does in the detective's suit and tie. I also give props to Vincent D'Onofrio as the violent, drug-dealer Pooh Bear. He was almost unrecognizable with a covering on his nose, some weird prosthetic teeth and a southern accent-only the voice gave him away.You can't watch this movie and hope for a tidy resolution (the beginning really gives the end away) but it's still a very good story.

Some Notes on Fashion

I never met Isabella Blow, who died recently. We didn't exactly move in the same social circles-she being a British muse/socialite/fashion icon and me being from a small town in the Mid-West who dreamed of beautiful clothes. And yet, I vividly remember the first picture I ever saw of her, wearing a hat made of coins that draped down over her face. I wondered who this woman was, who could wear a hat like that with such insouciance. And the pictures of her kept coming-in a dress that seemed to be made of metal, like something from the 1941 version of Robin Hood that Olivia DeHavilland wore in that movie, both modern and medieval. And all the hats-as the muse of Philip Treacy, she had hats that obscured her eyes, her face or were a wisp of fabric, a feather,or spelled out her name. she viewed fashion as costumes, as a show and she dressed by her own rules. She was never thin or beautiful (or, as it turned out, rich) but she had more style and verve than anyone I had ever seen. The best comment I read on her after her death was a friend who was meeting her at the airport to go on a fashion shoot and said "I was no shrinking violet and had dressed up, but Issie...she was wearing a cape and a tricorn". I wish I could do that-I'd love to have a tricorn.

And as for Tim Gunn joining Liz Claiborne-thank God. When I was growing up, you could always count on Liz for something nice-a well-cut jacket, nice pants and good-looking sweaters. They weren't fashionable but they were basic and reliable. But about ten years ago (maybe more) the clothes became stodgy and old fashioned. The cut of the pants and jackets never changed (and a word on the side-please, ladies, give up the pleated-high waisted pants. They aren't comfortable and they are aren't flattering. The nice pair of lower-rise pants is a million more times comfortable and flattering. Speaking as someone who pulled her older sister into the dressing room and made her try on a pair of lower-rise pants, I know whereof I speak. Please give them a shot. You won't be sorry) and colors transformed from fashionable to old-lady pastels-and as someone who has a hard time wearing pastels, I resented it and gave up even looking at those clothes. And then a funny thing happened-I went to the Liz outlet with my mom and sister over Christmas-and while there were still the boring pastel sweaters, there was a cool brown, brushed cotton jacket, with a nice cut (mine and I wear it all the time) And a dark-red leather jacket, short and cut close to the body (my sister's). And brown sweater, sort of hippie-ish with woven sleeves and a black sweater, woven like a delicate spider's web. It was refreshing. And now Tim Gunn is going to be advising them and they've bought Narciso Rodriguez's line (I'm sorry-they can whatever they like about the President of Liz being instrumentel in buying Narciso but Tim Gunn HAD to have something to do with it). It's always good to see a fashion line reinvent itself, so I'll watch with interest to see what happens.

Science Fiction and Literature

I'm sure I've made it clear that I love science fiction. If you were to meet me, I think you'd be surprised, because I don't think I look like a science fiction geek as I have a good haircut and care far too much about my clothes. My friend D told me once that he couldn't believe I liked science fiction as much as did-and how did I reconcile that with the love of clothes? I told him that I loved a well-made objects and that I loved both a well written book and a beautiful piece of clothing. he made fun of me for that but the truth is just don't know. I love them both-I just do and there's no way around it. Maybe it's because both appeal to my imagination-fashion sells a fantasy and ideas just as much as a good science fiction (or indeed any really good book) does and maybe that's what I like about both of them. But what has been irritating me lately (although it's a positive thing) is science fiction's move into the mainstream. Everyone is writing a science fiction lately-even Cormac McCarthy just won a Pulitzer Prize for Literature and Oprah picked that same book (The Road) for her book club..so what bothers me? It can;t be called science fiction, because that's apparently the kiss of death and means it's slated only for an audience of teenage boys. So instead it's called "Post-Apocalyptic" or " vision after a nuclear war" or " a fable of the future (this is from a review of The Handmaid's Tale). And what's in the top sellers at Amazon? An Harry Potter book (I keep trying to tell my sister who doesn't like science fiction that this IS science fiction, but she doesn't really listen) and a novel by Michael Chabon about a lost colony of Jews living way out in Alaska. Science fiction has joined the mainstream, but alas, it is the fiction that dare not speak its name.

In Fashion Today...

I love Spring in Washington-it's warm and sunny and all the badly dressed people come out to play. I admire the people over at Panda Head who find people out on the street who look good and prove that Washington is not fashion-challenged. I, on the other hand, always see badly dressed people. And by that I mean:
1) That wearing the mustard-tweedy sports jacket (it was really ugly, words don't do it justice) along with the blue shirt (it was okay), dark pants (ditto) and the salmon-colored tie-which really was hideous and pulled the whole thing together in its awfulness. He would have looked good on a date with
2) The woman who wearing the nice navy sheath dress-it had a v-neck in front and back, fit her well....until I looked down and saw she was wearing black stocking and black Adidas with it-on a day when it was 80. And they could have invited to go with them...
3) The woman I saw on my way to work this morning. She was weating a perfectly nice 3/4 length brown coat. it was cotton, lightweight and fitted-I liked it. Unfortunately, she was wearing with it a pair of ratty brown pants which were so short that I could see her brown socks and ratty black sneakers. If you want to be ratty, that's fine-but please don't wear the nice coat the really ragtag stuff-it ruins everything.