Tag: entertainment

Mindful Monday

I can’t stress this enough. Talk to yourself with the kind words you say to other people.

In yesterday’s post, I shared some political buttons to note this is the week of the Democratic National Convention. Here are stickers I spotted in my sticker folder recently.

Sticking with RomCom Summer, last night, thanks to Debby’s Kindle streaming a movie for me, 2023’s Red, White & Royal Blue, on Prime, I got to hear Uma Thurman don a lovely accent as a U.S. president from Texas, and see a funny, sweet romance develop between the president’s son and a member of the British royal family.

The political buttons or stickers I’ve shared might not indicate this, but the late Eighties threw me into advocacy for the dignity, fair treatment, and push for equal rights for those with HIV/AIDS and for members of the LGBTQ+ community. I will never waver when it comes to justice and fairness. To those people in my life who’ve looked sideways at me for these things, I advocate for your sister. Your nephew. Your child. Your brother. Your cousin. Your mother. Your grandpa. Your grandchild. Your friend. Your neighbor.

Happiness…

If you like short stories, before I changed my sidebar links to various merchants, Houston-based and otherwise, I always had a link to Jeffrey Ricker’s website. ← If you visit that link and sign up for his newsletter (trust me, you won’t be inundated with e-mail from him, and what you do get will be informative, thoughtful, and often humorous, because that’s basically the man I know), you’ll get the opportunity to download a pdf file with five of his short stories.

There’s a reason why Timothy and I included Jeffrey in the anthologies we edited, and why I’ll always read him, even when he writes outside the genres I usually read. Good writing is good writing.

Yesterday, brace yourself, I didn’t watch any RomComs or any movie at all. I did other things, mainly working on my manuscript. Slowly, but progress is progress. I also took a break to glance through the pages of Keri Smith’s Wreck This Journal. I followed the direction on a double page to create a nonstop line. Then I realized it looked like “The Long and Winding Road,” so I paged through my sticker books and sheets and turned it into a journey with roadsigns (the “roadsigns” come from Adam J. Kurtz’s sticker book).


Today, along with mending Eva’s favorite dog bed, I watched one romantic comedy, my beloved Notting Hill from 1999 (twenty-five years old, geez). I was reminded again of one of my favorite lines, when Anna and William discuss Russian-French artist Marc Chagall’s painting La Mariée:

“Happiness isn’t happiness without a violin-playing goat,” Anna Scott, Notting Hill.


Damn right.

Speaking of violinists, in the Neverending Saga chapter in progress, I reference a character who plays violin. Seems like a nudge to get back to my manuscript. Maybe before bedtime, I’ll watch 1989’s Cousins with Ted Danson, Isabella Rossellini, Sean Young, and William Petersen.

Oh, yeah, bonus: In Notting Hill, Hugh Grant’s character owns a bookstore.

I passed my driving test ;)

I think I’ve driven twice since June, both times with Tom in the car as my passenger. Other than that, he’s been doing all the driving. As a result of following some of my doctor’s instructions for self-care to work on the medical issue that’s kept me off the road (a self-imposed decision), today I took a very short drive, all by myself, to pick up a couple of prescriptions and a few random other things. The whole errand took me less than thirty minutes, and I was able to drive there and back without an issue (other than feeling tense because it’s been a while). It reminded me of getting to use a parent’s car solo for the first time after I got my license at sixteen.

Baby steps. Speaking of babies…


Worked on the Neverending Saga a little today, but I also enjoyed a couple of movie rewatches. Always loved 1987’s Baby Boom with Diane Keaton and Sam Shepard. I don’t know if I thought of Sam Shepard’s small-town veterinarian (Dr. Cooper) when I wrote Dr. Boone in A Coventry Christmas, but I definitely thought of Dr. Boone when I watched the movie today.


Tonight, Tom and I watched 1978’s Foul Play with Goldie Hawn, Chevy Chase, and Burgess Meredith (and Esme the snake, played by Shirley Python!) during and after dinner. Tom had forgotten a lot of it, while I sat in giddy anticipation of all the different scenes that make me laugh. I think it may have one of the highest rates for movie cops destroying cars when trying to catch the bad guys of all the films I’ve ever seen.

Earlier Than Usual

Kicked off this Wednesday morning by doing an early lab run, where I told the lab tech I feel like we’re friends now because I’ve seen her several times in the last week or so. In truth, I’d like being friends with her, because we talk about stuff, always calming when someone’s sticking needles in you.

I woke up earlier than I needed to, but there was a character tapping on my brain, and since it’s the character whose section I’d been working on most recently, that’s a good sign. Fingers crossed I get a bit of writing done today.

Last night at dinner, Tom and I got on the topic of Steve Martin (we were talking about one of his movies we watched with a random assortment of friends that didn’t really catch anyone’s interest). I feel like I grew up with Steve Martin because of television, most notably his early work on “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” and “The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour.” Of movies he’s been in, I said I probably liked him in Parenthood best, probably because I really liked the movie and its cast, but I also liked him in Father of the Bride and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. I mentioned that in the romantic comedy vein, 1984’s All Of Me with Lily Tomlin is a favorite. Then I checked, and yes, I do own it, so it was last night’s movie rewatch.

Not sure what films are on the agenda for today. I may try to find one that will somehow play into the character I hope to get back to writing. She’s a true cinephile. Maybe I can find a movie that would make her laugh and believe in a hopeful ending, two things in short supply during this time of her life.

ETA:

Today, for me, a fun rewatch of 1983’s Trading Places. I read that Dan Aykroyd’s been working on putting together a sequel to take advantage of Eddie Murphy’s success in making sequels to some of his other films. Of course, the Duke brothers, as played by Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy, are no longer with us, but just as much as they’d be missed would be the late Denholm Elliott as Coleman the butler. But if Ackroyd, Murphy, and Jamie Lee Curtis reprise their roles, I’d watch it.


And for the little magpie who’s part of the Neverending Saga, I watched 1995’s French Kiss with Meg Ryan, Kevin Kline, and Timothy Hutton. Though my character’s living in 1975 in my plot, twenty years later, I’m sure she’ll be utterly charmed by this romantic comedy. I even got some editing and writing done on her behalf today.

Tiny Tuesday!

The term “epistolary novel” refers to works of fiction written in the form of letters or other documents (diaries and journals, telegrams, and in the age of technology, voice messages and e-mails). Some novels that use this device are Frankenstein, Dracula, The Princess Diaries, Bridget Jones’s Diary, and Daisy Jones & The Six.

It’s somewhat more difficult to use the technique in film, though it’s been done (the books I listed above have all been made into films, and the RomCom that kicked this off, Love Again, has mis-sent text messages as an integral part of the plot). A little less complex than the epistolary format is a familiar device in movies and novels that have, as part of the plot, misdirected, misplaced, stolen, or hidden letters.

A favorite of my die-cast vehicles, a US Mail Jeep. Did you know that in addition to the vans and trucks that are part of your streets and highways, the USPS fleet across the U.S. includes bikes, boats, planes, helicopters, and mules? I’m not one of the people who hates on the post office. =)

A found letter is important to the plot of The Love Letter (1998), one of the RomCom rewatches I’ve enjoyed. Another quiet film set in a charming, small town (with a bookstore!), I don’t know many people who’ve seen this movie. A typed letter, without the names of its composer or recipient on it, finds its way into the hands of several people in town. Each thinks the letter was meant for him or her (and one person rewrites it and offers it to a loved one as if he were its original author). By the end, we learn the identity of the writer, and there’s a lot of hopefully-ever-after among the characters.

Do you have any favorite movies or books that use letters as part of the writing or part of the plot?

Additional rewatches so far:

1993 and 2003

Sunday Sundries

August 11 is the anniversary of the birthdate of someone I watched many movies with: Craig, good and funny memories with him, Lynne, and Tom. I couldn’t count the number of times Lynne would suddenly say, “Oh, yeah, I remember this movie now; I have seen it before.”

Craig in his movie-watching, napping, gift-opening chair.


We were watching those movies on such small TVs in those days! Jess and Greta with the TV/VCR tucked in the corner.

It’s also the anniversary of Marika’s birthday, someone with whom I agreed on very few movies. I never saw any with her, but the one she sent a DVD of so Tom, Tim, and I could watch it with Mark G Harris and Nurse Lisa while they were visiting was a complete bomb with the rest of us. Marika was disappointed, but even if we didn’t like the movie, we had fun. And popcorn.

As I shared yesterday, going forward this will be my RomCom Summer. I’ve had a couple of conversations recently about romantic comedies, and yesterday I jotted down a quick list of modern-era movies I’ve seen multiple times that can fall into the category, even if they have other elements like suspense, action, or drama.

After I made the list, I checked the shelves to see if I own the movies. That’s a sure sign that I either have watched or intended to watch them multiple times. There are more on the shelves missing from the group below, but as I said, these were the first titles I wrote down without a lot of thought, and I do indeed own all of the DVDs. They’re arranged alphabetically.

I’m eliminating Sliding Doors, Doc Hollywood, Desperately Seeking Susan, and The Truth About Cats and Dogs from the summer watch list since I’ve seen all of them within the last one to three years. I own others not shown here farther back in the queue if I run out of movies to watch (doubtful). I’ve seen those four so many times and they click the right boxes for me: couple chemistry, quirkiness and/or humor, good writing, the endings I hoped for, and settings I enjoyed.

Crossing Delancey is a quiet, warmhearted movie with a woman learning to trust herself, a pompous author (bring it on!), and a humble but not humbled possible love interest. It’s been a long time, so definitely a good opportunity for a rewatch. Layered characters are always a plus for me. I remember it as feeling like “smart” writing.

Foul Play is one of those movies that makes me laugh a lot. The love story is not as key as the comedy and suspense, but even in her more problematic movies (Overboard), Goldie Hawn never misses with me. Writing is not the first thing that comes to mind with this one–it’s the slapstick. Will watch again this season.

Love Actually: I regret that so many people dislike this movie. It’s not a simple romantic comedy, and it holds a lot of heartbreak, but I like its big cast, multiple plot lines, and the love stories, regardless of how improbable, sad, or silly some of them may be. One of my favorite things is the battle that repeats over this movie (“It’s not a feel-good holiday movie!”) and Die Hard (“It’s not a Christmas movie!”) every December on social media. The ultimate triumph is the first person who said, (paraphrased) If you hate how Alan Rickman’s character behaves toward his wife in Love Actually, you can celebrate the fate of another character he plays in Die Hard! True enough. I’m happy to rewatch Love Actually and I think I’ve seen Die Hard in its entirety once, possibly twice. (Also, I usually enjoy movies that have any kind of writer in them just to see how they’re written–it’s all very meta.)

Vying for the top spot in my personal RomCom category are Moonstruck and Notting Hill. FAMILY is key to both of them: the families we’re born into (Moonstruck) and the families we create (Notting Hill). Nothing about either movie misses with me; I love them both unconditionally, and not only are their leads shiny, but the supporting casts are full of gems. Will always rewatch both films. I think Notting Hill is one of two on this list that have bookstores in them. Always like a movie with a bookstore.

Kudos to Julia Roberts for making it on here twice thanks to Notting Hill and My Best Friend’s Wedding. Of course, she has many more romantic comedies, and I’ve probably seen them all, but My Best Friend’s Wedding made this list before the others because it offers more to me about the value of friendship than romance thanks to both of the men in her character’s life. Cameron Diaz shines in her role. Will definitely be part of my summer rewatches.

Sleepless In Seattle is a movie lover’s film: its writing, its homage to other movies, its directing, casting, and music. I think that’s why it edged out the other Meg Ryan possibilities that I know are on my shelf (You’ve Got Mail and When Harry Met Sally). I really, really want these two characters to get together. I’ll have to watch it again to make sure they do. =)

Saved Only You last for this discussion, though it’ll be the first I watch. I’ve seen it the fewest times and remember its details the least (and I often mix it up with a different romantic comedy). Still, as I wrote those titles down yesterday, this one insisted on making the cut, and I know there has to be a reason for that (is it Marisa Tomei’s charm? The way I always pull for Robert Downey Jr. to thrive?). I’ll probably do an ETA after I’ve watched it later today.

The promised ETA: Only You: completely worth the rewatch. This movie is 30 years old. How’s that possible? Favorite things I’d forgotten: Contrasting scenes at the airports at the beginning of the movie and the end in the way American and Italian airport workers responded to, “The man I love is on that plane!” Also, the Italian location shots: Posto molto bello! When I was putting the DVD back on the shelf, I pulled out another not on the list in this post.

Do you have favorite romantic comedies? I wonder if I own them.

Laid Back Saturday

Back in mid-July I experienced two or three “symptoms” which I easily attributed to stress caused by weather and the power outage, among a few other things. But those things resolved and the symptoms didn’t, so I saw a doctor. She suggested four possible causes, made two suggestions/referrals, and also ordered labs to check for a couple of possible infections. At least one of those infections was diagnosed from those labs, and we’ve been trying different medications to get it cleared up.

Today, new lab results came, and it looks like I’ll be taking it easy for a while longer. (Of different possible culprits, one of the referrals did result in a smaller dose of one my regular meds, so we’re seeing if that helps with the symptoms, too, and I’ll see a specialist the end of September for the third possible culprit.)

I know all that sounds vague and there’s no crisis here, just an ongoing attempt to help me feel like myself again. Which I definitely don’t, and it comes with limitations. So reading books, watching movies, and coloring may last for a while, because it’s a struggle to write except brief notes of things I want to remember when I have the energy to dive back into the Neverending Saga.

This morning, I watched a romantic comedy I really enjoyed on Netfix, Love Again (2023). It didn’t do well at the box office, but I think a lot of movies have struggled with that post-pandemic. I read nothing about the movie before I clicked on it and got a nice surprise that Celine Dion actually has a part as a “fictionalized version of herself.”

It was so good to see footage of her at the Olympics. Her resilience and perseverance in light of her health challenges are inspirational. She was written into the film’s story arc to good effect, and I really enjoyed the other actors’ performances, including a strong supporting cast. This is one of those movies I wouldn’t mind having as a DVD on my shelf so I can see it anytime the mood strikes me. Definitely classifies as a desirable rewatch.

I remember saying this was going to be my Ethan Hawke movie summer, but that plan got derailed for several reasons and is on hold. After this morning’s movie, I’m switching my summer theme (in Texas, summer doesn’t end in August) to RomCom Summer. More about that tomorrow on Sunday Sundries. Next feature from my personal shelves is Sweet Home Alabama (2002), which I probably watched before and liked well enough to buy a used DVD. Since it’s Alabama, and it’s Reese Witherspoon, and I see Candice Bergen, Jean Smart, and Mary Kay Place are in it, as well, all favorites, I’m game to see it again.

ETA: Yes, had definitely seen it before. Not sorry about the rewatch, though.

Thursday Thoughts

I did watch my Fried Green Tomatoes DVD yesterday evening, realizing that I’d never watched this extended version before. Then, before bed, I watched the extras including at least one filmed-but-unused scene (I loved it, and it was similar to a scene in the book which I’d found particularly moving), the director’s commentary, and interviews and thoughts of many of the actors. It triggered such a yearning for me to teach this novel along with the film, and all the ways I could encourage students to analyze and break down storytelling devices and choices. As a result of that yearning, I tormented Tom for at least an hour-long discussion of it after he finished work today (just one of who knows how many reasons our friends call him “poor Tom”).

There was also an interview with Fannie Flagg, and she spoke of the years a writer spends alone in a room with all those characters. You never actually feel alone; they are your people, your friends, always there with you, their level of enthusiasm at your same level. It’s why you feel protective of them when other people ignore, misjudge, and criticize them.

Then I went back to something I started last night and finished tonight. I thought of the kitchens in Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (novel and movie). I thought of the kitchens of so many women from my life… Mother, Aunt Lola, Aunt Drexel, Terri, Debby, Mary, Pollye, Granny H, Gran, Elnora, Lynne, Liz, Amanda, Lil, Audrey, Debbie, Juanita, Carreme, Helen B, Kathy, Helen L, Chris, Geraldine, Amy, Pat, Lindsey, Rhonda… There are, of course, also men like Daddy, Jerry, David, Timothy, Jim, Steve, Jeff, James, John, Craig, and Tom. I know I’m leaving out names (a couple even deliberately–they won’t know or wouldn’t care). These kitchens are where we cooked, baked, ate, shared stories, sat around the table, played games and cards, shared confidences, laughed–OH, the laughing–and even shared our tears and troubles now and then. I thought of the kitchens of my characters, who are carrying on that tradition, as I try to carry on the tradition of storytelling through them.

An homage to the kitchens that nourish our lives in far more ways than only the food they offer us.

As I colored, I imagined stories attached to items on that cabinet and realized I could write a novella using those.

Diversions


Since I’m still resting and not up to being creative and definitely lacking energy, I sought a comfort read sometime Monday and pulled this off the shelf, finishing it late last night. I’d guess I’ve read it more than once through the years, and I remember having questions AS I read it the first time, but not after I read it, and it surprises me the confusion people still discuss online about the plot and the characters. Fannie Flagg (actress, comedian, novelist, screenwriter, and director, born in Alabama, and has long made her home in California) does a great job of switching between narrative voices, including an omniscient narrator, as well as characters’ points of view, and newspapers and community bulletins from several locations. The timeline, non-linear, covers various years from 1917 to 1988. There are also a number of settings, some are fictional, most are not. Here’s a list for you to guess which is which: Warrior River, AL fish camp; Atmore, AL; Chicago, IL; Roanoke, VA; Birmingham, AL; Troutville, AL; Atlanta, GA; Whistle Stop, AL; Montecito, CA; Marianne, FL; Valdosta, GA; Slagtown, AL.


The book was released in 1987, and by the time I got a paperback version in 1990, probably highly recommended among the bookstore staff I worked with, there was already an abundance of love for it, including newspapers and literary reviews, and two significant Southern writers, Eudora Welty and, not shown here, Harper Lee, who said about it, “A richly comic, poignant narrative.”

One thing that happened as I reread it was that I constantly saw the faces of the 1991 film actors especially Cicely Tyson, Jessica Tandy, Mary-Louise Parker, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Kathy Bates. Tom, Mother, and I didn’t get to the movie early enough and were forced to sit too close to the screen. I never like this, to the point that I remember both times it happened in 1991: The Prince of Tides and Fried Green Tomatoes. It was very overwhelming to see Barbra Streisand’s intensity at gigantic size, and Kathy Bates, who was filmed specifically to look overweight because it’s part of her character’s storyline, was also visually daunting.


The novel and the film have many differences. It’s possible some of the confusion people express about “who did it,” or the way they blend two distinctly different characters into one, or gloss over truths about some characters, is because they only ever saw the movie, because those things are pretty clear in the novel. I’ve decided to give the DVD a watch today since I just read the book. Fortunately, everyone will be at laptop-screen scale.