DUE DATE * SIP & SHOP

Due Date - The other night I wanted a movie, and On Demand had Due Date with Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianikis. Gotta see that, right? Zach is really funny, and RDJ is usually good. It's in the Trains Planes and Automobiles genre where two strangers are thrown together and have to get across the country, but can't take a plane for whatever reason. I just told you the whole movie, but it seems to move as slowly as it would take to make the actual trip. Zach is funny, but he's never been as good as he was in the original Hangover, although he came close the other night on the season finale of Bored to Death. Robert Downey Jr. needs to play that character that he played on Ally McBeal, which for me was his best role, although even that didn't last when it turned out that he was only teasing Ally because he had a secret wife stashed away somewhere. (Or was it a child and an ex-wife - whatever.....the tension would have built more satisfyingly if they'd just stuck to a formula on that one). To be fair, though, in this movie, RDJ starts out as so so intense, and really relaxes once Zach gets the car all heated up so that his dog can get high on the drive. That's actually the funniest scene, and almost worth the movie. Well, not worth paying for, but worth watching for free on HBO this month.

Tomorrow night is the Sip & Shop, and I'm in the final throws of getting ready. I've got even more new jewelry, a few pieces of which I'll put on Jewelry by Dianne Sophia right now......

THE HOUSEKEEPER AND THE PROFESSOR

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa - I know, I know....how can I be finishing books when I have so much to do to get ready for my jewelry sale on Thursday night? This book reads so effortlessly, so kindly, so intriguingly, that I couldn't resist the siren's call to turn its pages. The housekeeper tells her story simply and namelessly, yet she gives you every detail that you need to have a perfect understanding of the unique situation in which she works every day. It's told in the elegant style of Japanese authors, and it incorporates the universality of the world of numbers as experienced by the brilliant math professor and then the humble housekeeper and her son. There is much to enjoy, ponder and think about once you finish the book, so you get the journey and then the memory. I've just told you absolutely nothing about this story, but you know you have to read it, right? It's so good that I've just reserved Yoko Ogawa's other two books.

JEWELRY BY DIANNE SOPHIA

Just when I think I'm great at technology and websites and figuring out how to post just the way I want to, I discover something not quite working the way I want it to! In this case, there are two things.
First of all, I have a companion blog to this blog at diannesophia.blogspot.com
I thought that everything I've posted on that blog was also located under the heading
Jewelry by Dianne Sophia on this blog. But it's not! So to see the jewelry that I'll be selling at St. Francis' Sip & Shop on Thursday night, please go to diannesophia.blogspot.com
The above is a link by the way. The blogspot links are not underlined, and although they are a slightly different color than my regular font, they are difficult to distinguish.

Next, I also have a companion page to my Facebook page. The companion page is also called Jewelry by Dianne Sophia, and when I went to post my latest designs there, I discovered that all the posts would appear on the news feed of all my fb friends automatically. I really don't want to do that. I just want to have them look at the jewelry if they are interested in doing so. I don't want them to have to slog through the 10 or 20 new photos on their newsfeeds. Maybe I'll try just posting photos at my regular fb page, and hope that they don't go out to the newsfeed.

Above is the Rhodochrosite necklace with Custom Victorian Sterling Clasp. I love pink flowers, and the marbled pink Rhodochrosite double strand of beads with the flower clasp is lovely. Swarovski crystals and Bali Silver add a little spark to the mix. I saw the designer Valentino on TV a few years ago, and he said that anyone can wear the color pink. It lightens you up and makes you look younger. Wear this necklace with black or dark brown, or go monochromatic with pink. Either way you can't go wrong. With pink my girl is In The Pink.

A STOLEN LIFE

A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard - Jaycee's story is one of resilience and survival. She is an amazing writer, as well as an amazingly perceptive human being. This is her memoir; the story of how she was kidnapped at 11 years old, and how she lived during her 18 years of captivity. It's a mind-boggling concept to think about. On so many levels, and at so many times, things could have gone differently. It's a thoughtful and insightful account, and I couldn't help but think again about Room, which was much more of a roller coaster of a story. Both books are worth the read, if only to rethink and remember that predators are among us, and we need to be on our guard to spot them and stop them if ever given the opportunity. During the Penn State predator story, I missed Oprah. She's been the loudest continuous voice in this arena. There was a column I read in the Tribune, and the author said that we need to know what to do. Another Tribune article about sexual harassment of a female intern by older men said that this harassment is hidden in so many cases because the victims are afraid to come forward and don't feel safe about coming forward. But here's what you do, if you're a victim, if you can, and if you're a witness, especially:
STOP THE ATTACK. CALL THE POLICE.
They need to be teaching this in schools, just like stop drop and roll.
STOP THE ATTACK. CALL THE POLICE.

SIP 'N SHOP

I've only got one week to complete all the tasks I want to do for Sip 'n Shop. I want to make another one or two Leopard Necklaces, another one or two Knossos necklaces, a blue necklace, and a few more pairs of earrings. I'd love to have a few more bracelets to sell as well. I've got to shine all the jewelry up, and would love to have an explanation card for each piece. I need to channel Kelly, that stylist from The City, as I set up my display. I want to keep it simple and clean. I need to get a receipt book for the event and make a couple of signs which I'll frame in silver frames for my table. I have to get my mirror ready (I always take my lightweight full length mirror to events like this), and have a suggestion for hosts of such events to provide mirrors at every aisle or every few tables. You'll sell more stuff if people can see themselves looking great in the wares (or wears). I have no idea how the lighting will be, so I have to have one or two lamps and extension cords ready to go. I've got lots more jewelry to photograph and post, and I want to re-make my lightbox so that the white background will be brighter in my photos. OK, here I go. I'll try to post a picture of my display later today.

THE MARRIAGE PLOT

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides - When reading a book by Eugenides, I always get the feeling that the story is somehow autobiographical, because he gets so into the minds of his characters. One is in the mind of the character, hearing what the character is thinking, almost feeling what the character is feeling. In this case, he lets the reader into the minds of two of the characters, and part way into the mind of a third. Sometimes this book got too into itself for me, like when the characters would think about the books they'd read and mentally review them, and apply them to their lives. This happens a lot in the book, and it's annoying, except Eugenides is such a good writer that you want to keep going on. He even addresses this very thing near the end of the book!
"......was like reading certain difficult books. It was like plowing through late James, or the pages about agrarian reform in Anna Karenina, until you suddenly got to a good part again, which kept on getting better and better until you were so enthralled that you were almost grateful for the previous dull stretch because it increased your eventual pleasure."
Except for me, I'd rather have very little dull stretch and all pleasure. Who wants to wait anymore? He's a very studied, intellectual, clever writer. A good old-fashioned writer's writer with modern subject matter. And at the end, I smiled.

THE NIGHT BOOKMOBILE

The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger - Audrey wrote the marvelous The Time Traveler's Wife, which was also a good movie if you'd read the book. I expected this book to be a novel, but when I found it, it was in the 741 section of books because it's a graphic novel; illustrated like a children's storybook. One look at the enticing cover art, and I knew that this was a book for me. It's a story about a woman who goes on a walk that may be a dream, and what happens on her walk, and in her dream, and in her life, and how they all intersect. It's also about books, and it takes place in Chicago, and it's especially for lovers of books. I liked this so much that I'm going to read it again before returning it to the library.

I've just reread The Night Bookmobile, and wanted to include some of the author's "After Words" about the book. She asks "What is it we desire from the hours, weeks, lifetimes we devote to books? What would you sacrifice to sit in that comfy chair with perfect light for an afternoon in eternity, reading the perfect book, forever?"
Good Question.

In one week, on Thursday, December 1st I'm going to be in a holiday fair, selling my jewelry. It's called Sip 'n Shop, and it happens at St. Francis school in Wilmette, from 6-9 pm. I've been making necklaces, bracelets and earrings for weeks, and finally straightened up my dining room table bead studio, so that I could photograph the pieces, so that I could post them to this blog and to Facebook. Tomorrow I start posting and
publicizing. Yea! Sip 'n Shop will be a fun time. Complimentary admission, cash bar and a raffle, in addition to the vendors.



GARDEN STATE * UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE

Garden State - When Peter read Catcher in the Rye for school last month, and I read it for the 20th or so time, it was as good as ever, but since it was for school for Peter, there was more to the story. There was thinking and analyzing Holden in a big way. Then there was even more, because Peter's amazing English Teacher had the class watch Garden State with Zach Braff. In this movie, the main character, Andrew Largeman, returns to his home state of New Jersey for his mother's funeral. Andrew has been away for nine years, (since the time his parents sent him to boarding school), and has come home to face his demons. Natalie Portman co-stars as a girl he meets in a waiting room. It has the feel of a reunion movie, as Zach catches up and spends time with the friends he left behind. Peter wrote a paper about Holden and Zach and how they were sent away from their families (society) for being and acting "different". Now he and his English teacher have ME thinking in a deeper way about Holden and Andrew.

Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman - A few weeks ago there was an obituary in the Trib for the woman who wrote Up the Down Staircase, a book I'd read a couple of times in my youth, as part of my love of books about troubled high schools (To Sir with Love, Blackboard Jungle, etc.). This modern version includes an Introduction by the author, written in 1991, (the book was originally published in 1964) wherein Bel Kaufman writes about her writing process, and how the themes in the book still resonate. It's amazing that in spite of all that has changed in American education, so much of it is still the same. The students still want to make a personal connection with their teachers whether they know it or not, and the teachers want to mold young people into confident adults. Simple, yet so complicated.

BITTER IN THE MOUTH * LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS

Bitter in the Mouth by Monique Truong - I loved this novel about a girl who not only hears words, but gets a taste in her mouth for each word she hears. It's an extremely distracting way to live, especially when the tastes are bitter or don't combine well, one after the other. There are all kinds of family secrets and questions that occur to the reader, and one wonders whether a thread or two has been lost. No threads are dropped in this story though; by the end of the book, all loose ends are gathered up and sewn back into the tapestry. I wouldn't mind a second installment of Lindamint's life. What happens to her and the other characters after this? It's a question that she herself would ask.

Love and Other Drugs - Steve and I watched this on On Demand recently, and I must say, pretty as she is, Anne Hathaway can be overwhelming. I loved her as a meek character in The Devil Wears Prada, but as a leading lady she's too much. In this case she dominates Jake Gyllenhaal which isn't easy to do. All that said, it's an OK love story about a guy who gets a pharmaceutical sales job and the broken girl he ends up loving. The funny parts can be funny, and rather than one heavy-set male side kick, there are two heavy male sidekicks. Maybe because the makers wanted it to be more real-life? I say just let it be a movie, folks. If you miss it, you won't really miss it, even if some reviewers gave it lots of stars.