Two movies I very much enjoyed went unsolved. Oh, well.
Archive for May 31, 2007
World’s Greatest BLT
Here’s what I did:
Toast (really good toast, whole grain bread with crunchy nuts in it…good toast)
Bacon (turkey bacon, which I am not here saying to brag about my low-cholesterol goodness, because really, turkey bacon is an idea whose time has not yet come, but it was an experiment)
Fresh tomato (of course)
Sprouts instead of lettuce
And…
Wait for it…
Brie.
The brie melts a little if the bacon is hot.
It is to die.
Why the patriarchy wants us to have periods
Probably you’ve already heard about the “controversial” new birth control pill that prevents menstruation.
I’ve been wondering what, exactly, has so unhinged the far right about this pill. Part of it, to be sure, is that they oppose any form of birth control, because they’re all about women being the last ones to control their own bodies. If they ever succeeded in banning birth control pills and EC, they’d go after diaphragms and vaginal foam. Which just proves how far out these wingers are (emphasis added):
As Mary Alice Carr from NARAL pointed out, 98 percent of American women will use contraception at some point in their lives.
But is that enough to explain it? Is anti-birth control fervor enough to explain the sudden wingnut embrace of the glory of vaginal bleeding? I think not.
Here’s what I think. Women’s periods are one of the few “safe” excuses men have available to explain why bitches is so crazy. They’re afraid that they will lose the ability to say “she’s on the rag” while twirling a finger next to their heads. How, in all seriousness, can you be really patronizing if you can’t say “It’s that time of the month, isn’t it honey?”
And while I know I’m coming off tongue-in-cheek here (I can’t help it, I’m just naturally funny), my point is real. Menstruation is scary and mysterious to the patriarchy, but a handy tool of separation. The “red tent” may at one time have been woman-positive, but it’s mostly been used to limit and oppress women. Nowadays, we in the West are allowed to go to work even when we bleed, but we still manage to get shamed in a thousand subtle and not-so-subtle ways for having this part of our physiological makeup. And they just don’t want to lose a shaming technique.
Tuesday Trivia: Post-Memorial Day
1. Colored string turns the recipe blue.
Solved by TehipiteTom (comment #1).
2. The cop interviews a victim’s parents in a barn full of turkeys.
HINT: Produced and directed by an Academy Award winning actor, this movie features lots of single-scene appearances by well-known actors.
3. Personal ads written as poems.
HINT: A crime thriller that features a well known character actor singing a bit of the song from which the movie derives its title.
4. “Faye is… well, now, Faye is special, isn’t she?”
Solved by maurinsky (comment #2).
5. “The idea was to kill myself, not feed the damn fish.”
Solved by Barbs (comment #6).
6. After her field hands quit because they haven’t been paid, she replaces them with a brand new tractor.
Solved by maurinsky (comment #4).
7. A man and his ex-wife play a game of popping a ball out of her person’s mouth, and then he catches it in his mouth (and vice versa).
Solved by Amy (comment #7).
Monday Movie Review: Volver
Volver (2006) 9/10
Raimunda (Penélope Cruz) and Sole (Lola Dueñas) travel from Madrid to the village where they grew up to tend their mother’s grave and look after their aging and addled Aunt Paula. Neighbors believe that the ghost of the women’s mother (Carmen Maura) has been caring for Aunt Paula. When Paula dies, Sole discovers her mother’s ghost has returned with her to Madrid following the funeral. Written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar.
A lot of times a “women’s movie” is concerned more with men than with women. The women solve their problems by forming romances or by ending bad relationships. Volver is a different animal. While it is true that a relationship ends in this movie, and that a family’s father has had a profound influence on a character, the relationships in this movie, the failures, successes, loves, losses, and friendships, all involve women.
Almodóvar’s script cares about how sisters care for each other. He is attentive to Raimunda’s relationship with her daughter Paula (Yohana Cobo; a wonderful young actress) and how Paula connects with her Aunt Sole. The interconnected lives; the adult women and their aunt and mother, and how that is reflected and echoed in the next generation, are what’s important. No one’s problems are solved by getting laid; the only problems that are solved get there by women sitting down and telling each other the truth.
And the truth, it turns out, is colorful, fanciful, funny, heartbreaking, and delightful. Raimunda and her family drama don’t live in isolation. These people have helpful and interested neighbors and friends in an extended network. It’s kind of delightful, because people in movies and on TV generally have fewer relationships and know fewer people than real life provides. Almodóvar, though, cares about human interconnection and the ways in which we live among others, and occupy our streets and towns.
Cruz, in an Oscar-nominated performance, is stunning. The role takes her from vulnerability to strength, through sorrow, humor, anger, love, and forgiveness. Through it all she is gorgeous (of course), self-possessed, and completely complicated. I found her utterly loveable. It was pretty clear that her sister, daughter, and mother thought of her as a bitch, and yet she is utterly sympathetic. Plus, she’s got maybe the most watchable eyes in cinema.
There are times when I haven’t particularly appreciated Almodóvar’s bizarre sense of humor, but Volver is a movie that made me laugh out loud, cry, and care very much how it ended. It made me root for the characters and hope for their future. It tells its story with melodrama, with bizarre twists and turns, with murder and cancer and ghosts and illegal hair salons. The end is definitely more than the sum of its parts, and that’s saying something.
Friday Catblogging: The Waiting is the Hardest Part
My bedroom is at one end of a long hall. At the other end are the stairs. When I get out of bed in the morning, the Gang of Two gets highly attentive, anticipating the moment when I will Descend the Stairs and head in the general direction of cat food.
So when I open my bedroom door, this is what I see:
» Read more..
Fangirl Project
Via Amy, I found out about The Fangirl Project. I think it’s so cool that someone is noticing that many obsessive fans have vulvas. I’m delighted to learn that I’m their “first Bond fan” and will become a part of the project.
Any fangirls reading this site should click through and participate in the survey.
Beyond your wildest expectations
I heard this phrase on a radio ad. For, I dunno, a restaurant or club or something; “You’ll be satisfied beyond your wildest expectations.”
Sort of I feel for the copy writer. “Beyond your wildest dreams” is a cliché and it’s A Good Thing to avoid cliché. But on the other hand, no.
Dreams can be wild because they are unconnected to reality. A wild dream can involve flying over a city. A wilder dream can be flying while wearing a sparkling cape that changes color. Your wildest dream can be flying while wearing a soft, silky, massaging cape that changes color while having mid-air sex with Brad Pitt. So if someone says that they satisfy “beyond your wildest dreams” they are exceeding the limits of your implausible imagination. Possibly a naked Brad Pitt lookalike will burst out of your desert singing about flying. That would definitely exceed one’s wildest dreams.
Expectations, on the other hand, cannot be wild because they are rooted in reality. When I get into my car I expect that turning the ignition will result in the car starting. I do not expect that it will result in a passle of cute kittehs leaping out of the CD slot. I might dream that, and it would certainly be a wild dream, but I do not expect it.
So what can “beyond your wildest expectations” possibly mean? That when I turn the ignition, my car won’t just start, it’ll really, really start?
See what I mean?
Sometimes clichés serve a purpose.
Answers to Late Day Trivia
Last minute save by Ben meant no hints needed and everything is now solved.
