1. We have a new member of the family at ChezNaked. Much to the chagrin of Stella (especially Stella) and Buddha, I decided that we needed to rescue a cat. Zelda had found herself in a rather unfortunate situation and as I've often found myself in similar spots and hoped that someone would be kind to me and offer me a home, I opened our hearts (well at least mine, at first) and home to her.
At this point, everyone is getting along far better than I ever expected would be possible. Stella and Zelda even share nose kisses in the mornings when they get up. Let me share that before Zelda entered our lives, Stella was positively convinced that all cats were alien creatures that had to be obliterated. Period.
Stella hasn't quite made the connection that the cats she sees in the neighborhood are actually the very same alien that is now residing inside her house, but maybe we'll get there eventually. At least she's fond of Zelda, Zelda (whom I was told would absolutely NOT ADJUST TO LIVING WITH DOGS) adores the dogs and best of all, I haven't seen a MOUSE in the HOUSE since her arrival.
2. Did you know that if you were lucky enough to live in Utah, (oh if you were only so very lucky) that you could actually hire a NINJA to do your dirty work for you (or maybe even just come clean your house?).
According to his advertisement, he will do almost any job. He is one ninja, he works alone, and he will not work out of state. So, honestly, you have to live in Utah if you want to hire this particular Ninja.
I'm so tempted to hire him. To walk the dogs. In his Ninja outfit. Off leash. Stealthily. So no one gets in trouble and no one gets caught. Because, you know, isn't that what Ninjas do?
Or maybe he can just come clean my house. In his Ninja outfit. Stealthily. So I don't even realize it is being done. I like the element of surprise. Especially when it comes to a clean house. Just ask anyone whose ever come and visited me. Surprise! It's not clean!!
3. I had the pleasure of seeing Away We Go on Wednesday night at a free screening here in Salt Lake. I was already excited to see the film because the director is Sam Mendes. I've been a huge fan of Sam Mendes since my days at the Donmar Warehouse in London way back in the 1980's. The man overflows with talent. Like a volcano.
I know that there are those out there who take umbrage with Sam being from the United Kingdom and then coming here and making movies about angsty AMERICA when he isn't even American, but I believe that sometimes the clearest mirrors come from those who are outside looking in.
Plus, I really believe that while films like American Beauty and Revolutionary Road are set in America, the stories are universal and Sam Mendes leaves room in each film for us to breathe in our own experiences, live our own stories.
Which is why I adore him. He gets out of the way in his films.
I was delighted with Away We Go. Truly. I leaned forward in my seat to capture every word. That, my friends, is testament to the screenwriters, newly married David Eggers and Vendela Vida. I have been a huge fan of David Eggers since A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius hit the shelves all those years ago (he signed my first edition copy by drawing a picture of a cute fat pig!) and before that with McSweeney's. I've had a subscription as long as I can remember. I feel like I've eaten his words for breakfast. So when I learned, during the credits of the film, that it was he that had written a script where I truly just didn't want it to end, well, I was not suprised. Because I never want anything David Eggers to write to end.
I wanted this film to keep going. I just did. It's that good. My favorite film of the year so far.
4. I never had Farrah hair. Nor did I own her famous poster. As a lumpy very white kid from the East Coast, I did envy her sun-kissed California tone and glow and that dazzling smile of perfectly straight white teeth. More than anything, Farrah made me want to be a girl from California. To me, that image from the 1970's is still the image that comes to mind when I think of a California Girl. It's crazy, yes, since I actually lived in California for more than 20 years and know, honestly, that California Girls, like all women, come in every conceivable shape and size and color.
I never really watched the Jackson Five on television. The song, ABC, though was truly part of the soundtrack of my childhood. Shake it, shake it, baby. Come on girl, show me what you can do. I thought when Thriller came out, that the Michael Jackson/Quincy Jones combination was perhaps one of the most powerful singer/producer combinations around and watched in awe as that album took the globe by storm. I saw Michael Jackson at Wembly Arena in London and am grateful that I did for the performance factor, alone. But then I got terribly angry with him when he outbid the Beatles themselves for ownership of their own catalog of music and I will admit that I continued to lose admiration for him as he seemed to become more tortured himself. I feel that perhaps that wasn't my kindest or best self. Of course I didn't know him. How could I know him? It is precisely because I did not know him personally, did not know his own demons, did not understand who he might truly be, that I should have sent nothing but kindness towards him.
As a child, the sounds of Johnny Carson's tonight show were often the lullabye that sang me to sleep at my grandparents' cottage on Cape Cod. The cottage was tiny. Our whole family plus the grandparents and often all the boy cousins, too, crammed into just three rooms. The old black and white TV in the corner of the room would be tuned to Johnny with a patchwork quilt of small children in various stages of slumber lying prone before it. I always did my best to stay awake for the whole show. It was so smart (to me, the four,five,six,seven year old) and funny and I just loved Ed's booming belly laugh and how very much he loved Johnny. He was familiar, in the way that all my Irish relatives are familiar, and honestly, the sound of his laugh could always bring me home.
5. Love is fire. But
whether it's gonna warm your heart or burn your house down you can
never tell.
(I will love you. Always. Thanks for you). 26 june 2009
