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Breakfast With Buddha by Roland Merullo - Reading Breakfast With Buddha is like reading a fictional account of The New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. The main idea is don't hurt don't hurt don't hurt, and don't anger don't anger don't anger. A pure distillation, and if you couple it with what I thought was the essence of this book, a statement about how to live your life,
"At some point.....you'd be asked to believe in some possibility that transcended newspaper headlines and TV shows and the opinions and assumptions of your friends. And how you responded to that would have a greater impact on your life than anything else you'd ever decide to do, or refrain from doing."
the story gives you all you need to live happily. It's really up to each person, and has nothing to do with anyone else. It's about believing in possibility not impossibility. It's about being positive not negative. It's about smiling not frowning. It's about kindness not excess. It's about simplicity not complication. I try, and I hope others will read the book and try, too. Desire to believe, makes it easier to believe. I'm still unsure about pure meditation as something for me, and know that I will probably never be a yoga person, but after reading Breakfast With Buddha, I began to "get" both yoga and meditation. For me, for now, be happy.
Hotel Iris by Yoko Ogawa - This was quite a story. From the author of The Housekeeper and the Professor, (which I loved) this is her version of 9 1/2 Weeks. I didn't really mind it, though. It's a great read, but not for the faint of heart, or those who read very literally. It's told by a 17 year old girl who lives with her overbearing mother in a small hotel they own in a seaside resort town in Japan. She meets a much older man, a translator, and you go from there..... I will definitely continue to read Yoko Ogawa.
Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea by Chelsea Handler - There's something about Chelsea that I can't watch every single night, but I do like her spin off, After Lately, and my friend Sue recommends her new sit com. I could barely get through one night of her friend Whitney, who was too over the top for me, but the book is good. Chelsea is very funny and really irreverent, and she'll say (or write) anything. It's a light read for laughs.
Win Win - This is a great little movie! It's about a small town lawyer who is also the high school wrestling coach. He's a family man, and the practice is not going so well, and the wrestling team loses all their matches. Then a series of events happen that indicate he may be able to turn things around. The cast is perfect, and I love that the main character is an average joe with two sidekicks, one average, one good looking. It's thoughtful, funny, sad and hopeful. Great for teenage boys, although Peter didn't watch it with us. It would be a good night-before-the-game/match/contest movie.
No Regrets by Ace Frehley - Ace was the original Spaceman guitarist in the rock band KISS. He's lived a wild wild life, and this is probably more of a memoir than an autobiography; he tells the stories of his life in just a very general sort of chronology, since his memories are all over the board due to years of heavy drinking and drugs. Ace owns all his behaviors and has been sober for five years. He gives his views of Gene Simmons openly. He talks about the origins of many of his songs on the KISS roster, including New York Groove which I just listened to on YouTube. That led me to a YouTube of Gene reading from his book about Ace. It was harsh, and Gene reads it in a monotone. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Gene is a super ego, and Ace was an addict. Gene is all business, Ace is all art. I love Gene's show, but it's his wife and family who make the show and have given it life more than Gene with a few exceptions. When Gene has been real, the shows have been powerful. Ace's book is a good read. Reads fast, reads interesting. Reads real.
Jane By Design - This is a new TV show on the ABC Family channel. It airs on Tuesday nights, and after only two episodes, I think it's my current favorite show, even more than The Middle and Modern Family. Let alone the Thursday line-up. Jane is a high school girl who loves fashion, and persuades her counselor to let her have an internship. She mistakenly interviews for the wrong position, and is offered a permanent job as the assistant to a difficult buyer/stylist at a designer's studio. She lives with her older brother who's out of work, and they are about to lose their house, so she takes the job and rushes back and forth from High School to job. The only person who knows everything about her situation is her guy friend from school. To top it all off and make this really fun, the guy who she's been crushing on since 5th grade is starting to take notice of her, and the cutest designer at the studio is hot for her. It's a sweet, watchable show. I want to be Jane!
All American Muslim - This TLC reality show just wrapped up its first season. At the beginning, I watched because it takes place in my hometown of Dearborn, Michigan, and my mom still lives in the house where I grew up, so it's still home to me. Then I started watching because it's a pretty good reality show. The people who agreed to do this show let the cameras into their lives in an honest way, and show that to be Muslim is similar to what it means to be any religion nowadays. These people are living the American Dream, proud to be Americans, and are not really different from any of the rest of us. Except that they are very Dearborn. I like to think that the Dearborn is out of me, whatever that means. Ultimately, I think it means that its less about Dearborn and more about my escape from the old hometown.
Young Adult - I'm not sure who else besides the reviewers, me and some of my friends (Brenda, Sue, Kathy?) will like this movie, but I loved it. For some reason I identified with Mavis and her messed up life, because that's what you're getting here, the story of a 37 year old woman's messed up life. It's not too terribly messed up, (to me; she's savable) but it's not all happy family and kids, champagne and roses either. Charleze is beautiful and just lets herself be this nutty depressed alcoholic woman and plays it well. I love when I have a lot to do but decide to escape to an afternoon movie, and then that movie was worth it.
Louder Than A Bomb - This is not your mother's high school poetry contest. As a matter of fact it's not even your high school poetry contest. Louder Than A Bomb is the name of Chicago's annual Youth Poetry Slam, and this film documents some of the contestants and teams in the 2010 Slam. It's a great movie for all ages. The poets and performances are dramatic and moving. I loved LaMar, Adam, Nate and Kevin. Nova was great too, but the young men were strong, strong, strong. Even if you don't pay attention until the end, the final poems are worth the entire movie. It's been playing on the OWN network, so you may not have to rent it.
Kris Jenner...and All Things Kardashian - I do love me a celebrity autobio. And this one is pretty good! It helps to like the Kardashians. I'd wondered just where this super woman Kris came from, and how she'd accomplished all that she has. She manages the whole shebang that is the Jenner / Kardashian family and businesses. It's a classic American success story, driven by Kris. Of course it helps to be beautiful and well placed to start, but things could also have gone the other way, so you have to admire the work ethic and openness of these people. They show a real family with ups and downs and personalities and foibles galore, but they always come back together, and you know they love each other no matter what.
Sarah's Key - Steve and I watched this DVD the other night, and both thought it was good. He was seeing the story for the first time, and I'd read the book and liked it a lot. It's a dark story, told in and about the present and the past, and the movie captured the feel of the book and brought it to life in a visual way that seemed true to the history of the events. In some ways the book was better, in some ways the movie was better. In any case, sad to read and sad to watch.
Snowflower and the Secret Fan - This story takes us to the other side of the world, and is also a story told in the present and past. The movie makers started out OK, but then the movie slowed down and became really difficult to watch. I just do not like a slow movie. With a story like this one, there is a lot to impart, and there was no reason for each scene to be drawn out, complete with slow music. It's a beautiful story of friendship. Read the book. Skip the movie.
Water for Elephants - This movie was wonderful. I'd loved the book, and wanted to wait until the details were fuzzy before seeing the movie so that I could enjoy the movie as its own story. It's an old fashioned depression and circus tale. I'd recommend it to anyone. It's the kind of movie I would have watched on TV on Saturday Night at the Movies or Rita Bell when I was a little girl watching movies with my grandmother on her red velvet sofa. I was tearful at the end in not wanting it to end, but happy to have an ending and to know the ending, and then went back to watch the beginning once again. Same as with the book.
Manhattan Melodrama - Last week, TCM (Turner Classic Movies) was better than ever. I have a whole line-up of old movies all recorded and ready to watch. I don't know how they can get better than Manhattan Melodrama, though. Clark Gable, William Powell and Myrna Loy. Clark Gable and William Powell were boyhood friends who suffered one tragedy after another. Clark is Blackie, a precocious kid always out to make a quick bit of change. William Powell is Jim, a studious boy who studies hard in school and takes it seriously. As adults, wealthy suave Blackie runs a speakeasy, and Jim becomes the prosecuting attorney. Myrna Loy loves them both. Take it from there. I'm not going to tell you one more thing, except that Mickey Rooney plays the young Blackie. By the way, who thought that encasing classic movies in bright yellow screaming packaging would entice anyone? Unfortunately, this would entice me NOT to watch or buy the movie. Here's Blackie...
The Invisible Circus by Jennifer Egan - She's the author of A Visit From the Goon Squad which I loved. The Invisible Circus is another great title, and the story and 1960s and 70s imagery are good. But somehow there is too much thought and creative writing in this one. If it could be edited more like Goon Squad, I'd have liked it much better. You don't really have to read this one. But if you do and love it, let me know. Now I've just discovered that there is a movie of this book, and I'm tempted. And, on the Jennifer Egan website, there is a recording of the pauses in rock songs. So that's a good thing about The Invisible Circus for me. I LOVE this title! Just think about it.
So for years, I've been asking friends if anyone wants to partner up to organize our homes and so then our lives. No takers. Until two days ago, when my friend Jamie asked if I'd ever want to spend two hours at one of our houses, and then two hours at the other house, doing whatever the host house hostess needed. Let's do it tomorrow I said. So yesterday, Jamie came over, and we set to work on my office/sewing room. By the time we finished, there was nothing left on the floor, and most of the tasks we'd declared we'd do had been done. She even left me with a list of things to do before she returns next week. I haven't done any of them yet, but I will. It's a pretty manageable list.
Then we drove over to her house, and worked in a few areas, with a goal of clearing off her dining room table. Again we made fantastic progress. It all goes so much faster with two pairs of hands and an extra set of legs. Not to mention an extra brain. We are both a bit quirky about our stuff, and we love organization, so we got along great. I can't wait to do more next week. I'm motivated to keep going. No photos for now. Just imagine how you've seen the sunroom in this blog countless other times....before and after. That's how it is. I'm not all the way to the after yet, but getting there.
And why, do you ask, is it already 2:30 of the next day, and you haven't done any of the items on the list or even taken the stuff we staged on the dining room table downstairs? Because last night after I left Jamie's house, I had a burst of energy, probably due to the warmish weather for January, and did a bunch of returns and shopping. Including Trader Joes, which I needed. Came home, read the paper, watched Bad Teacher. This morning, I was my usual non-morning person, and was trying to read quickly through my current book, then went for a nice walk with my friend Nancy S., then on the way home saw that my dear next door friend Kim was going to be filling up the landfill with PERFECTLY GOOD STUFF! I love Kim, she's an artist and she went to Michigan and she's really really fun and funny and a loving person, which makes her stuff all the nicer. I called her, and she apologized for the land fill, but just wanted it out. Guess who took almost all of it. Right, me, the person who doesn't want anymore stuff. Except the little stereo system and speakers, which I am going to email one of my Freecycle friends about right now. Done. The freecycle friend (acquaintance, really) has a pre-teen son who loves to take apart appliances and things to see how they work. Then if they can't get the thing working, they responsibly recycle all the parts. I love that. Now what am I going to do with Kim's stuff? Some of it I might use, since lots of it is organizing shelves and containers. The rest....to my garage sale. I'll put it all out to the universe of garage sale buyers who love a treasure, and who love to help me not have to take one thing back into the house. Coming to a driveway in May. Then I took my shower, then I came in the office to do some ironing, sat down to the computer while the iron warmed up, and the rest is blogging history.
...a few minutes later........I shut down Firefox, and went to the ironing board, and I had left the iron flat on the leg of my black around-the-house sweats. So now there is a big brown burned iron imprint under my knee on the right leg. I'm wearing them anyway, though, cause I don't want to iron another pair. If anyone around here notices, I'm going to try to convince him that I bought them that way.
Bad Teacher - Hilarious. Cameron Diaz plays a selfish gold digger and partier who's stuck teaching in a middle school. Everything works in this movie, and it's really funny, and you find yourself pulling for her which is really strange and what makes it so good. I watched the DVD unrated version rather than the theatrical version if that makes a difference. It's that fun raunchy comedy genre with lots of actors you'll recognize from TV and other fun movies.
The Dilemma - This one is skippable. I kept falling asleep during it. Something about the story and all the performances is mediocre. It needed to be more fun without being an eye roller. It's usually pleasant to watch Vince Vaughn, though, so that's what kept me going. You know, falling asleep, waking up, rewinding back to where you think you left off, propping your eyes open watching a little more, falling asleep, jerking awake, rewinding, and so on until it's done hours later than if you'd just been able to stay awake! I watched it on On Demand, but had I seen the cover, maybe I would have passed.
Unbroken - A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand - Wow. Louie Zamperini. This is an incredible American biography. This story is an inspiration to all those who think it's not possible. He proves that just about anything in life is possible, that miracles can happen, and that a human being can withstand untold pain and suffering. It starts out as a running story and ends up being a story of survival and what happens afterward. It's so well written that you'll forget you're reading a book and that someone actually wrote it. Laura Hillenbrand has a way of taking the author out of the story and letting the story wash over the reader. Impeccable.
My dad was in World War II as a naval officer, and he would never talk about the war. We have a log that he kept as the ship's navigator, but maybe it's a personal log; it's very on point, and there are no stories in it. (I think. I am going to have to track it down and read it from cover to cover). World War II was another one his well-kept secrets. What a strong man he must have been to have kept all the secrets that he kept, and just go about his life, living, working, saving, reading (he was a voracious reader and would have LOVED Unbroken) enjoying his friends, taking care of his family, and avoiding controversy of any kind. He loved tv and movies, and had very few possessions. What he did have was neatly stored and taken care of. I have the dictionary he won in the sixth grade as the school champion in the Detroit News Spelling Bee. He also had his high school report cards and used to show them to me. He treasured a little Brownie statue that I painted in 1st grade, and I have that in my china cabinet....more valuable to me now than the other stuff. He rarely lost his temper and was a pretty quiet guy. We'd ask him what he wanted for his birthday or Christmas, and he'd say "I just want you to be good, honey". And later he'd say "I just want you to be happy". Now it's the same thing I say to Peter, and he doesn't get it either. Yet. I hope that someday Peter says the same thing to his child, and that child someday reads this blog and sees that happy and good can make for a life worth living.
Laura Hillenbrand also wrote Seabiscuit which was recommended to me over and over again, and although my Uncle Peter used to own a race horse or two and we used to spend a lot of time at the track, I never wanted to read it because the name sounded funny (doesn't resonate with me somehow) and I didn't think a story about a horse could be so long and still interesting. I didn't see the movie, either. Now that I've read Unbroken, I cannot wait to read Seabiscuit and to see the movie. I'm sure that I'm in for the best.
It's January 2, 2012, and on January 1st we made progress here. Peter helped organize and purge some of his clothes, and then we worked on the school supply cabinet in the basement. He's so like my dad. Just wants what he needs and nothing else. A hard worker and a minimalist. It was a good start to the new year, and I hope that we can keep the momentum going today.
