Friday, Sweet Friday

It's Friday evening and I'm sitting on the couch at home with young Avery Jane next to me. The smells of dinner are wafting in from the kitchen and I can hear Suzanne discussing the merits of bangs with Maryn. (Maryn wants them, Avery doesn't. Avery will probably get them, Maryn probably won't.) Parker is asleep in her room.

The sun has been shining quite a bit this week and it's been nice. The days have been getting incrementally longer and even though we're still in the middle of frozen cornfields, I feel spring slowly approaching. Like a train you can see from a long way off, it's slowly coming along.

Monday I get my first big load of papers. It's been all small assignments, quizzes, one page write-ups, etc. so far but Monday and Tuesday I'll be be collecting eighty-something papers from my students. Sigh. Hopefully, all the work we've been doing and all the groundwork we've laid together will make for a less-painful reading process. We shall see.

The new episodes of Lost have been pretty satisfying so far. Terry O'Quinn deserves all sorts of awards for his performance as old Locke, sideways Locke, and Flocke (Fake Locke). He's just really impressive in his portrayal of three different characters that are all the same person and yet not. Like springtime, I feel the answers to the big questions of Lost somewhere near on the horizon.

I've been working on a document for my dissertation committee - kind of a pre-prospectus thing - and it's killing me. It's hard to stop thinking about school or whatever else and focus on writing. My brain is in teacher mode most of the time, not student mode, and it's hard to get it pointed in that direction. I need to though. I'm already a month and a half into the semester and I need to start producing something concrete. I've read a couple of books about independent American cinema and they've been enlightening, giving me a little bit more of a vocabulary and sense of context for placing Richard Dutcher's films in that world. But there's lots more I need to read.

Anyway, all of that business aside, there are more interesting and important things in the world. Like this:



How awesome is that? What you're looking at is 16 pounds of pure baby goodness. She's rolly-poly, smiley, and generally hilarious. She's good to have around. I have decided to name her plush, fuzzy blanket "Anna" which is short for anesthesia because it puts her to sleep. I crack myself up.

Under the Radar

You know what movie I think is way under appreciated? Guarding Tess with Nick Cage and Shirley Maclaine. It was on TV the other day and it reminded me of how much I liked it and how under-the-radar it is. Have you seen it?

Cage plays a secret service agent assigned to protect Shirley Maclaine's former First Lady. It is by turns funny and heartfelt. Maclaine, of course, plays her usual prickly, mouthy persona while Cage's character is simultaneously irritated and tender toward her. The twist of having the former First Lady kidnapped and held for ransom is a little incongruous but the phone conversations Cage's character has with the President alone are worth the price of admission, laced with profanity though they may be. So give it a try. Put it on your Netflix queue and let me know what you think. Any other movies out there that are under appreciated in your opinion?

This One Is for Suzy

toothpastefordinner.com

(I should clarify that it's Suzanne who can hear a housefly eating in the next room. She's not the one making all the sounds.)

Still Here

I don't have a lot to say but the sheer, crushing weight of that two-week old post is killing me so I have to replace it with something.

There are two things of note I need to mention: The season premiere of Lost and James Cameron's Avatar.


Avatar first. I felt an obligation to see it.

I'm Mr. PhD-candidate in film and seeing as how this flick was being talked about as the NEXT BIG THING, I felt like I had to see it to keep up with the times. James Cameron, the director, is a gargantuan jerk. I've read enough interviews with him and articles about him to know that he is not someone I would enjoy spending time with. Titanic's visuals were impressive but the story was trite, the dialogue was corny, and I just didn't think it deserved to be as big of a movie as it was. So, frankly, I was kind of hoping Avatar would be a little bit of a failure or that, at least, I'd see it and not like it very much. Unfortunately, neither of those things happened. It is the biggest money-maker of all time and, sadly, I thought it was totally freakin' awesome to watch. It was exhilarating and more accomplished visually than anything else I've ever seen. The word that kept coming to my mind as I watched it was "complete." The picture was complete as in there were no silly effects that stood out and drew away from the overall effect. There was no Jar Jar Binks, no crappy green-screen line around performers, no disconnect between the actual and the virtual. As much as I dislike Cameron's ego and self-indulgence, he has created something that backs him up. The narrative isn't anything particularly new - you might as well call it Dances With Aliens -- but the dialogue wasn't embarrassing and the characters were likable. Between Star Trek's Uhura and Avatar's love interest, I think Zoe Saldana might be my new sci-fi girlfriend.



Lost: The premiere was last night and it delivered. I won't go into any details for those who still have it waiting on their DVR but I will say that, after 8 months, it was a satisfying, twisty-turny kick-off to what I hope will be an excellent final season.

In other news, Parker continues to be fat, cheerful, and perfect. Maryn is in a children's choir, she and Avery are both in swimming, Suzanne has her hands full with Parker and helping some of the ladies she visits from church, and I am working my stupid face off teaching six classes while still trying publish the campus literary journal and work on my dissertation. You'd think I'd be skinnier than I am with all that work.