Category: Film

two movies, two fan pics and a song

Come As You Are – three disabled guys go on a road trip to a brothel in Montreal with Gabourey Sidibe as the driver. Jeff and I laughed our asses off. It tries to speak to the difficult truths about autonomy and pleasure and love without talking down to disabled people and for the most part succeeds. There are a number of interesting twists on the trope of the magical Black woman, most of which land deftly, but you can tell white people, non disabled. wrote it. Also Jeff called one of the main plot points about thirty seconds into the road trip so full marks for observation. Cried at the end so hard the top of my head nearly caved in, full marks to me for being a drip.

(Several months later read what disabled people said about the movie, and HOO BOY did I drop the ball on not seeing the ableism here….) Please read this.

First Love – Funny, horrifying, over-the-top, stylish and touching all at once, this ensemble bloodbath with a happy ending is utterly worth seeing just for how fast it moves and the clockwork intricacy of the plotting and fight scenes, and for how it casually integrates the cultural differences of the principals into the action. (Chinese gangs vs Japanese cops vs. Yakuza vs. extremely confused but survival-oriented lower-class civilians.) One of the characters is floridly psychotic and hallucinating due to drug toxicity for a good chunk of the movie which just adds to the ‘not knowing what the fuck is going to happen next’ thrill ride of it all.

I’ve added a tag to the song “I’m going to have to ask the smart people to leave”.

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AU Castiel with suit and tats

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AU Dean Winchester with piercings and tats. Art available on Etsy at https://www.etsy.com/shop/JackieDeeArt

I am not a fan of age regressed fan pics for these two actors (Misha Collins and Jensen Ackles) so these pics make me very happy.

Not too much to report

Watched Avengers Endgame. I found it quite enjoyable compared to most of the superhero movies out there, a good exit from the franchise(s) for Scarlet and Robert.

Jeff is enjoying the performance of Ned Dennehy as Paddy in Glitch on Netflix. Apparently when he was cast, the director was ‘looking for the best looking actor in Ireland and Colin Farrell wasn’t available’. One can characterize Mr. Dennehy as many things, but good looking in the standard issue way is not one of them. LOL

Also he was Hastur in Good Omens; he was fricking fantastic. His screaming is really epic.

Walked to Timmy Ho’s yesterday with Jeff; I’m well in train for getting 150 minutes of walking in, and when I’m walking Alex to school I’ll be getting a minimum of 300 minutes a week in with a school aged child in tow so I imagine I’ll instantly be in shape for that.

Anyway, I think I’ll head off to Timmy Ho’s again; I really enjoyed that coffee yesterday and what can I say, I’d enjoy the walk before it gets so hot we melt.

That feeling when

Jeff calls the new Hulu show “Burn Tarot” and expects Jeffrey Donovan to be doing voiceovers “When you’re a psychic,” and you laugh so hard you pull a rib.

Some irritated person threatens to call the Site Leader (basically GOD ON CALL) when you warn them that work requests will be slow tonight because you’re at 50% staffing and your response is OH WOULD YOU PLEASE we’ll need her help sorting through all the work requests that were in the system AHEAD OF YOURS. That was 3/4 of an hour ago.  Yeah, you guessed it, no call. Just as an aside I actually paged the Site Leader yesterday and she didn’t answer, so make of that what you will. She probably pulled an Allegra and when she didn’t recognize the number didn’t pick up lollllol.

People who work nights and complain about the workload and do a shitty job and sleep in the ER until 5 am when they wake up and pretend to do more work are on the receiving end of one of your pointier emails.

I have 64 likes on my Supernatural fic and 4 kudos and I’m thinking I KNOW SOMEBODY LIKES MY WRITING and Jeff says my interest in slash fanfic for a show I don’t watch equals zero, interest in MMCo = 100% and you just think squee.

You’ve invented a fanfic universe in which you have a McGuffin to make any character pairing possible (with a lot of effort, but possible).

Your daughter calls and tells you she got a job, a good job, in a union environment, close to home and you’re dancing around like an idjit.

You think ‘I’m actually going to miss this job’. I mean, I quit a month ago and I’m still working here, it’s insane. And some of the people are so much fun, I come in early just so I can interact with them.  Others, well, you know how it is.

I’ve almost paid off my credit card debt and I did it with money I earned.

You forget to tell your mother that you received and deposited the cheque she sent you… a month ago.

You watch the Wrong Box again.

I’m putting it in my pile of movies to watch when I’m feeling icky. Because watching it put a bounce in my step. Figuring out that John Larroquette based his performance in the Librarians in part on Ralph Richardson’s tremendous turn as Joseph Finsbury; (so many classic lines among which ‘the playing of games, with balls of varying sizes’ never fails to crack me up), marvelling at Peter Sellers’ false nose and moggy filled apartment (at one point he mops up an ink blot with a kitten’s ass); drooling over the set dec and costumes, which are lovely, and the script (done in part by Larry Gelbart whom you may also know as one of the creators of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and M*A*S*H the tv show, also family faves), the hilarious and stylish music, with a score by John Barry, also a fave of mine (his theme for the Persuaders was one of the highlights for me on tv when I was a teen); John Mills’ voice; the ridiculous train derailment; Tutte Lemkow, the professional villain, and his entirely mute performance as the knitting mad Bournemouth Strangler. Anyway, if you haven’t seen it, and would like a film that amuses without cloying, it’s really, really good.

So yeah… all in all I’m having a good week, and writing 15k words in 4 days was… interesting. Graphomania is a helluva drug. I was literally pacing when I wanted to write and couldn’t, and that’s PSYCHOMOTOR AGITATION folks.  Perhaps the sun is coming back and making me twitterpated.

 

 

 

Mommishness outbreak

Keith came over last night, in a rather unhappy state.  His unhappiness made me cry – I cry at the most ludicrous things these days, but I’m not inclined to feel shame about it – and I stuck to the issue, which was his state, not mine.

We reviewed his life situation for stressors. My very flat recital of them at one point made Keith laugh, which he hadn’t done since he arrived, and concluded with, “And if I know you, not a day goes by when you don’t think, “Is today the day I’m going to lose it?” And then he laughed loud and long and said, “Got it in one.”

His feelings are real and justified against his situation.  They are not to be mocked or bulldozed over.  I listened more than I talked. I provided advice, but after 10 minutes of mom time, one beer and the first hour of The Right Stuff he was much more regulated when he left.

I told him that he should think about going back to school.  He said, “I could teach.”

I was amazed.  He actually could, he explained it. I told him to apply ASAP. And to think about school in January.  He said, “There’s no money,” and I said, “Commit to a course of action and the means will appear.” Of course that means elders conferring regarding the means, but hey.  If people hadn’t helped me out financially for no good reason at certain points during my life I wouldn’t be in the pleasant position of getting to worry about my kids.

When he was born a friend paid for a full astrological natal chart.  The results: He is an old soul.  He’ll either be a great teacher or a petty criminal, specifically a drug dealer.

Since this was the first time anybody in the woowoo divination game had said anything negative in my experience, it kinda stuck with me. I mean who predicts that your kid will be a drug dealer? Given Keith’s abstemious and cautious nature, it’s probably one of the funniest arrows ventured at the future I’ve ever heard of.

Spoilers sort of

Don’t go to see Jason Bourne.  It’s a classic example, as Jeff and I agreed, of an action movie in which every single element is perfect but the script.  So I’m not going to say anything about the plot such as it is but I will spoil the movie for you by telling you not to go.

Warcraft

I expected to hate it and it was quite enjoyable. This is the movie… I only ever watched Keith play the game.

Mike called after the soccer semifinal and of course Germany finally won over Italy in the shootout. We went to pho at Miss Saigon across from Metrotown. I’m now contemplating having it for brekky.

ALMOST 3 weeks now, no coffee. Jeff says you can have a small amount every month or so, but I figure twice a year if that will be good enough for me.

New orthotics are working out well, I’m very pleased.

Elie Weisel is dead the same week Trump used AntiJew imagery on his Twitter feed. God is most assuredly an iron.

walkies

Ran into Kirsten at Deer Lake Park yesterday.  Her sister has a three legged dog too, which is very kind of them both.  Keith and Paul were accompanying me.  We saw a coyote as we entered the park which makes all the people who ignored us because they were wearing headsets rather amusing in a sick way.  Hey, we tried to tell them but they just wouldn’t listen.

After I got back I mowed the whatever it is that’s growing on the property.  It is no longer grass in the front yard, and the mere act of turning the mower around created immense divots in what’s left of the turf. The back isn’t so bad but it doesn’t get so dry (we never water). The house is a tear down, so we’re never going to get new sod. C’est la vie.

I got the orthotics, and twice crossed the Pattullo Bridge, which is under construction and an amply proportioned clusterfuck at the best of times. WHILE I was trying to get across the mofo’ing bridge northbound, a guy leaned out of his truck and said in a heavy Arabic accent “I give you three thousand dollars cash right now for your car” and I casually explained that it wasn’t going to happen, and he started upping the bid, reaching five thousand, leading me to explain that it a) it wasna my car and b) it was not for sale for any price. Then the traffic shifted and I stopped having to deal with him. Wish I’d taken the camera, Jeff might have been entertained by the convo.  Entertainingly, these convos always happen more in the summer.

Went and got beer and groceries and a few treats, and we ate store chicken, home made salad and corn on the cob for dinner.

Forgot to mention that we saw a grouse by the side of the road when we went up Mt Washington last week.

I will be adjusting to the orthotics by wearing them about two hours a day until I’m completely used to them. They feel pretty comfortable but I’ll know better how they are later.

Watched Eye in the Sky and Wave. Very much enjoyed both movies, but I liked Wave more since it is a classic style disaster movie, leaving no trope unturned, but effectively and non-cheesily played out.

 

 

countermeasures

What a fucking disaster of a review.

Eventually the movie review will be gone, so here’s a quote.

 

What’s it like for him to be alone for years? Is the sheer solitude a burden? Is the simple lack of human contact a cause of psychological derangement? Are there exercises that he does in order to ward off hallucinations, to control inner voices? And what are those voices? What does Mark say to himself? What does he think–or feel? Is there anything that he has to overcome in order to remain mentally sharp and emotionally stable?

oh my FUCKING GOD you asinine critter, don’t you think astronauts are SELECTED for their ability to stay sane in these circumstances?  It’s called WORKING THE PROBLEM.  They don’t show him masturbating, although disposing of the consequences would be a funny couple of minutes, and they don’t show him crying, or hitting things, or any of that stuff. Any sane person knows it happened; we don’t need to see it.

 

THE IMPORTANT THING ABOUT THIS MOVIE WAS NOT THE PERSONALITIES of the characters involved.

It was in their ability to work problems.

The author of this review, who’s a chump’s own chump, is under the impression that science fiction fans – a demographic that is rapidly approaching everyone who is not a religious fanatic, hermit or killjoy – want to see another movie with people talking about their feelings or their interior lives.  No, we want to see a SCIENCE fiction movie. Not a movie that waves its hands when it comes to science but one that says you have to understand orbital mechanics to link up with a flying object in the Mars gravity well. Where mass and math and persistence and grit make survival possible, make triumph possible, make the unification of the world in its concern for a single human being possible.

The ’emotional tenor’ of the movie is SIMPLE.

We’re going to take our feelings, and we are going to set them aside, and WORK A FUCKING PROBLEM until it is done.

And despite the whitewashing of the movie, and yes it’s true, ethnicities were changed and that’s notable, something was preserved that I think is more important.  A young black mathematician gets called a steely eyed missile man by the Hermes crew, which is, without a word of a lie, the highest praise you can give a technical man in a space crisis situation. A generation of black kids will be dreaming of Mars based on this one sentence in the movie.  May the great parent of the Universe give a line of reasoning to Richard Brody, since he could really use one.

The emotional tenor of the movie is simple.  Why do people rescue other people.  BECAUSE WE ARE SOCIAL.  Now leave me alone, I’m working a solution that’s going to help other people.  You can assume I have an interior life. Because we all do.

Happy Pluto Flyby and Bastille Day

763 words on a new chapter.

Watched Girlfight, an excellent, excellent film.  Very glad Jeff pulled it out of the pile for me.

In about half an hour I’m going to go pick up Keith from the ferry.  Maybe we’ll stop off somewhere on the way home if he’s not too bagged.

Tim Horton’s is threatening to make poutine.  I will stick to the Spud Shack or Anny’s, merci bien tout le monde.

Blerg

I am reading Patton Oswalt’s Silver Screen Fiend and IT’S OUTSTANDING.  Borrow it or buy it and read it.  Won’t say more, don’t have to.

And I have Caitlin Moran and the Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines to look forward to after this.

I can feel the well of my writing soul going dry, and there’s nothing to do but fill the cup at someone else’s spring.

Or have some more Great Blue Heron coffee. Yeah.

I have a couple of potential songs in the queue and since I’m ahead of schedule I’ll pause.  I practiced a good long time yesterday, it was very pleasant.

Paul and Keith are off to the Island this weekend.  Yay for family visits!

Today is Keith’s nth birthday, and glad I am I gave birth to him n years ago, about three hours from now.  I am more glad that we live in the same town/time zone, because he continues to be a good soul who takes no shit from me, and that is a good thing.

Back to Mr. Oswalt, who in his book is lodged firmly in the midnineties catching up on classic cinema.

No hours logged

Keith has done his download.  Paul and I broke up years ago, but that doesn’t really set a timetable for when Keith processes it, so that is what it was about.  My final comment to him was, “I understand it takes a while to process things, and you might wish to consider talking about it sooner than later.” So, all good.

No hours logged last night.  I honestly think I forgot to put it on, which is weird, because I loaded in more distilled water. So I feel a little sludgy this morning.

I think I will make waffles.

Saw Louis Malle’s Crackers with Keith and Jeff yesterday – it is a most wonderfully strange movie.  Many aspects of the script you couldn’t get made today.  Wallace Shawn as Turtle is amazing.  Donald Sutherland as the would-be supervillain is hilarious.  The scene where he’s expertly blowdrying his hair had my eyes popping. The film is not very highly rated and I enjoyed it anyway, mostly because I had no idea what was going to happen next. Also, a young and sizzling Christine Baranski wears a startling array of lovely lingerie, and that by itself is worth seeing.

Wild

I was deeply moved by, and greatly enjoyed, this movie starring Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern.

On my brand new seven star Unitarian movie rating scale, it’s a seven out of seven.

It’s essentially a feminist hero’s journey, without being preachy or intellectual. Some drugs and nudity.

Whineypants

I just backspaced over a thousand words of whining.  THE WORLD IS A BETTER PLACE.

Only one thing has happened recently worth reporting.  Keith came over yesterday.  I said, “I’m so happy to see you I’m going to clean my glasses so I can see you better.”  He’s rewatching Ken Burns’ Civil War with us.

 

 

Into the Woods

Saw the wussified, bowdlerized, defanged and diznified version of Sondheim’s Into the Woods last night with Sue.  I enjoyed it.  Chris Pine ripppppping his shirt off in the Agony song was pretty funny, and Emily Blunt was bloody marvellous, but really all the cast was good, and I enjoyed it.  I’m actually glad I saw it on the big screen as it is quite pretty.

Also I ate poutine and drank beer (except for parties I’m not keeping it in the house anymore).  Now I’m going to get up, make coffee and get stuff done.  Since there is literally no more episodic tv to watch unless we’re rewatching SG1, which is okay too I guess.