Becky's Greatest Hits Vol. II

So I have to be honest here, I did want to see this movie but what REALLY made me want to see it was the Grammy performance by its two stars earlier this week.  Do they really love each other?  Were they continuing to act out their parts from the film?  Or do they simply radiate the respect and admiration from a beautifully-finished project?  Time may tell, so I guess we'll see...... But aside from all that, the film is lovely.  And heartbreaking.  I don't want to give it all away since a lot of peeps still haven't seen it, but parts of this movie will flat out hurt you if you have any experience at all with addiction.  Or loving a man or woman in music.  Unfortunately, I have experience with both.  I really appreciated the way the film addressed the beauty and optical culture of our lives today and how quickly a person can skyrocket to fame.  Can you lose a little bit of yourself that way?  It sure looks like it here. ...

Anne Tyler has for sure become one of my favorite "comfort" authors.  Her rich stories that cover spans of years with dozens of characters never disappoint.  I think my favorite part of this book was when an Iranian-American man describes how Americans are born so lucky that they are shocked when anything bad ever happens to them: "They feel personally outraged by bad luck," Sami would go on. "They have been lucky all their lives and they can't imagine that any misfortune should have the right to befall them. There must be some mistake! they say. They've always been so careful! They've paid close attention to every safety instruction - the DANGER tag on the hair dryer saying 'unplug after every use', and the print on the plastic bag saying 'this is not a toy' and the recycling pamphlet saying 'Warning: Before stepping on milk jugs to flatten them, please take firm hold of a reliable source of support." Yeah.  It kind...

There are a few things that James Frey wants to make sure that we all understand about him: ~from an early age, he has used drugs and alcohol ~he is extremely verile ~while he is sober, he misses drinking A LOT ~he is an extremely unhappy adult ~he is smarter, more deeply hurt, more real, more alive, more on fire.....more EVERYTHING than anyone else has ever been Oh, wait.  This is fiction not a memoir?  Oh, wait.  Wasn't his first memoir actually fiction too?  Hmmm.  I'm confused.  Will the real Jay/James please stand up? It doesn't matter.  His writing is beautiful, his personality is for shit.  His ego is huge, and he will probably be considered the Hemingway or Keruoac of his time.  Good for him.  All these guys can't be Wally Lamb . Also, he dissed Jim Morrison and The Doors, so he is pretty much dead to me anyway.  Boy, bye.

(Re-post from 2011.  Still true.) E-Roc: "Little Boy's a straight shooter. He'll tell you when he doesn't like something." Me: "So will his mother." (E-Roc, explaining some of Little Boy's stimming behavior while company was at our house recently. Me, chiming in with editorial comment.)

Even though it's not really my style, I like to read a political thriller every now and then just to keep my head in the game.  This one kept me from sleeping. Imagine the worst possible computer hack ever and everything it would shut down.  The simple things like credit card machines, grocery scanners, personal cell phones.  The bigger things like traffic signals and emergency systems that control water and food protections and the firewalls on banking, insurance, investments and the like.  And then the huge things like the electrical grid and the national defense system.  Yeah, all that.  That's what we're facing down in this book. Even though this book is huge, I managed to finish it in a little less than a week because I had to skim through the parts where I could tell Bill was waxing philosophically about his days in Office and his days as a Good Ole Boy down South.  I have always had an affection for President Bill, but this was all...

There's so much to love about this winter Netflix offering: the snarky wit, the dark humor, the oh so New York feel, and oh yeah, the death! I've loved Natasha Lyonne since Slums of Beverly Hills .  Her raspy voice and don't-fuck-with-me-sarcasm seems to follow her through every role.  And why not?  It works, right?  You know what I really love about this show?  The fact that Lyonne, along with the awesome Amy Poehler, created and wrote this herself.  There's something about an artist taking an idea and then walking it all the way through performance that excites me.  She KNOWS what she wants it to be and takes it there.  You go, Nadia. I can't lie.  This show does give me the slightest feeling of existential dread , but hey......it's cold outside, it's almost my birthday, I'll go with it.  Bottom line: Russian Doll is not about politics and it's worth your time.  Ipso facto, give it a look.

It is rare that I love a book and a film equally.  Even more rare that I would see the film FIRST and read the novel much later, but here we are!  I guess there's a first time for everything! But seriously, this book is so beautifully written.......it's easy to see why it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. The descriptions of everything from the big to the small.....the sights and sounds of bustling India and dirty  Boston, the mundane of new motherhood, the constant anxiety of parenthood, the accomplishment of the American Dream.  It's the kind of thing that almost seems boring until you actually live it.   All of the behavior and emotion is so visceral: the anguished pain of homesick Ashimi, the fervent drive to live and succeed by Ashoke, the awkward shyness of Gogol......you can feel it.  You truly can. And the movie....oh my.....it's just so gorgeous.  It actually takes the unspoken between Ashoke and Ashimi and illustrates to the ...