What I Watched -- Hearts and Minds

Politics, politics, politics. But if you can get past that, there is some truly amazing archival footage in this movie. And there are interviews with lots of very powerful people, including General Westmoreland and J.W. Fulbright. Fulbright sounded smart. Westmoreland, on the other hand, sounded totally ignorant, especially (and perhaps surprisingly) compared to the GIs who had real, on-the-ground experiences in Vietnam.

I wish I had more to say about this movie, but (1) I am sick and tired, so I fell asleep for a little bit in the middle, but not long; and (2) it's hard to write about documentaries. They are what they are.

I am awesome!

Also I have allergies! (Or maybe a cold!) (That probably doesn't need an exclamation point.) (Whatever!)

I took a deposition this morning and J did not feel it necessary to contribute a single word. Perhaps I am a real lawyer now? (!)

P.S. Thanks to Other J for the replacement highlighter.

P.P.S. Everybody needs to have names starting with different letters.

Put a lid on it!

There was a client in my office today. She sat down. She adjusted her hair. She took some papers out of her satchel. She took a highlighter out of my mug of pens. She took the lid off, as though she were going to highlight something in her papers. She set down the highlighter without making a single mark -- but she didn't put the lid back on!

She didn't stop there. She realized she had left some papers in her car. So she went to get them. And she left the highlighter lying there with the lid off! I would have fixed it myself, but her boyfriend was also there, still in the office, and I thought that would seem rude.

I blame the lidless highlighter, though, for my distraction during the meeting. "You don't like the judgment you got? Okay, what did it say?" My highlighter is naked right now. "I'm sorry, could you repeat that last part?" Oh god, it's drying out. "True, that does seem a bit inequitable." Seriously, it's not going to work anymore! "Wait, did you just say Pulaski County?" And it's the only one I have!!! "I think we need to start over. Yes, from the beginning."

Okay, actually that conversation didn't happen at all. But that's how things were going in my head. Really, they're J's clients, and he wants to get me in on the work, because there are going to be some post-trial motions and possibly an appeal. Interesting stuff -- doesn't happen all that often. But since he's the only one who's reviewed the case thus far, I was just listening for my own edification. I had nothing valuable to contribute, so my distraction (which really did exist -- I am not making that part up) was of little consequence.

Back to the matter at hand though. People. A felt-tip highlighter is unlike a ball-point pen or a regular old pencil. Think of it like a marker; a felt-tip marker, even. If you leave it lying on my desk unlidded for an hour and a half while we're talking, it is not going to work anymore. Remember when you were a kid and you left all your fat Crayola markers on the dining room table with no lids, because the dog had chewed up the lids and they didn't fit the markers anymore? Do you remember what happened to the markers? They dried up. They stopped working. That is also the sad story of my highlighter.

Not that it matters, because she took it when she left. Now I have zero highlighters, working or otherwise.

Dogwood Invitational

Did I go to a regatta this past weekend? Yes I did.
Did I win any medals? Yes I did.
Was it fun to go to a regatta for the first time in a long time? Yes it was.
Are the people that I row with pretty cool? Yes they are.
Did I take a camera on the trip? Yes I did.
Did I take any pictures? No I did not.
Is that too bad? Yes it is.

It was a very busy day. We got up at 5:00 in the morning (that's 4:00 St. Louis time), had breakfast, and headed to the race course. We had a coxswain's meeting to tell us about racecourse rules and procedure (no swearing! don't cut across the course!), then rigged our boats.

Our first race was the Women's Masters 4x (quad). The race was early, and the water was the best of the day. It was a very quick race, we kept our rate up the whole time (probably higher than we should have, but that's OK), and we rowed well together. We got a silver medal!

Next was the Women's Masters 2x (double). By this time the water was getting choppy and the wind was picking up. It was a pretty sloppy row, but nonetheless we managed another silver.

I was also supposed to row in a Mixed Masters 2x, but C, my rowing buddy, had to attend to more important matters. Let me explain: we were on our way down to Oak Ridge on Saturday. We were nearing Paducah, KY, on I-24 when he got a call from his wife that their daughter (who was very pregnant) had high blood pressure and the doctors decided to induce labor. So we put C in a rental car, pointed him back to St. Louis, and sent him on his way. His wife had booked them on a flight to Seattle, where said very pregnant daughter lived, that evening.

With C gone, I was going to row the Mixed Masters 2x with a stand-in, but the races were just too close together. By the time I got back in from the Women's Masters 2x race and got the boat ready for the Mixed Masters 2x, they were already lining up our race at the starting line. So we scratched that, which I think was a good thing anyway; it gave me about 10 minutes to breathe before race #3.

The last race of the day for me was the Women's Masters 1x (single). Despite the fact that C had left us, we still had his boat, and I rowed it for my race. It was my first time in it, and it is quite lovely. It is new and shiny and bright red and I got lots of compliments on it! The race, unfortunately, was not quite so lovely. The wind had continued to strengthen throughout the middle of the day, and it was ugly. I almost bit it a couple of times on the way up to the starting line, and once during the race even! (For the non-rowers, imagine this: I am on the water, in a boat that is 27 feet long, 10 inches wide at the water line, and weighs 30 pounds. My oars, which stick out about 8 feet from the sides of the boat, act like sails whenever the wind blows. And the wind was blowing 15 mph. Not pretty.) It was a feat to stay upright, but actually ended up being fun because I had a good sprint against the girl in the lane next to me. She gained on me through the middle of the race, but I took it back in the last few hundred meters to get a third silver medal.

After that race, we got into de-rigging and loading the trailer straightaway, and then hit the road by about 1:30. All of this is by way of an apology: Sorry I don't have any pictures.

But you can see where we were rowing, thanks to Google Maps:
The "B" is the Flatwater Grill; it has a wonderful view of the starting line. We had dinner there on Saturday night. I got the House Salad & Artichoke Souffle, which was beyond delicious! The "A" is the Oak Ridge boathouse -- you can see where they have a little lagoon with a bunch of docks for launching and returning. The course was wonderful! It had 6 fully-buoyed lanes, so 8 lanes if you needed to put boats on the outside, and also had permanent stakeboats at the starting line and a finishing tower for the refs. I want to row there again!

If you don't believe me, results for Sunday should be posted on Regatta Central shortly. Look for the "Oak Ridge Dogwood Invitational."

Songs from my Birthday List

The best song I discovered. You go, Beyonce!


The best worst song I discovered. It's an awesome dance song!

Happy Earth Day

In Memoriam

RIP, K.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo -- Take 2

It's satisfying to really want to tear through a book, like I did with this one. Larsson, while perhaps not terribly eloquent with the prose, is nevertheless a great storyteller.

This book is classed in the Fiction/Literature section, but is really a mystery. It's one of those mixed-up stories where everybody is a suspect with red flags a-flyin'. And really, almost everybody is a suspect. It's a closed-room mystery. Basic plot: a disgraced financial investigative journalist is hired by a wealthy old man to "write his autobiography," which is code for find out what happened to his niece when she disappeared 40 years ago. The catch is this: the wealthy family lived on an island, and the only route on/off the island was blocked at the time of the niece's disappearance. Someone who was on the island at the time knows what happened; it's just a matter of figuring out which person, whether they're still around, and what they can tell us. Along the way, we discover all sorts of other nasty details about the family, and learn about the life and adventures of our intrepid hero and his pouty, punky, conniving research assistant.

I got totally wrapped up in the characters (especially the punky assistant -- she's always up to something), and in the whodunnit. Now I can't wait to read the second one!

What I Watched -- District 9

J and I watched District 9 on Sunday morning. Really, the reason I watched it (sci-fi is not my thing) was because it was nominated for a number of Oscars. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. And after having seen it, I can conclusively say that I'm not sure. My best guess is maybe just that it's Peter Jackson, and he does movies with lots of noise and explosions and body makeup. But Best Picture? Are you serious? From this, I have concluded that 10 is too high a number when it comes to Best Pic nominees, because this film should not have been in that bunch.

For those who know nothing about it, the basic plot is this: an alien spaceship lives in the sky above Johannesburg. The aliens (derogatorily called "prawns" by the humans) who came out of the ship are relegated to an awful slum, the District 9 of the title. Then the humans get the smart idea to remove the aliens to somewhere new: District 10. Inevitably, the sh** hits the fan. One white South African gets sprayed with alien goo and starts to morph into a prawn himself. He creates a tentative alliance with Christopher, the alien whose goo caused the morphing problem; they are both trying to get the goo back from the humans in order to accomplish their various ends.

There was (of course) lots of political commentary in the movie. All the business about life in slums and the division between humans and aliens could not have been more obviously a reference to race divisions and apartheid, especially since they went right ahead and set the movie in South Africa. At a couple points in the movie, you see the inside of a lab where humans are doing experiments on the aliens, which reminded me of the Nazis. References abounded.

And let's not forget Mumbo, the Nigerian warlord who lives in District 9 among the aliens and runs the black market there. He and his band of vigilantes are feared by aliens and humans alike. Nobody messes with them because they are ruthless. Perhaps no one told Peter Jackson this, but there really is a Nigerian warlord named Mumbo, and he was just being himself. Maybe that explains what happens to those extras who disappeared during filming...?

Anywho, if you're into sci-fi and like to see people get vaporized by alien ray guns, by all means, watch this movie. If that's not your bag, don't bother.

Mike Duffy's

Whoa, sorry for the delay. I have been both busy...and incredibly not. I'm almost finished with my book, though! But back to the matter at hand:

On Friday, L and I met at Mike Duffy's for a drink.My plan afterwards was to head out to K's house for dinner. Mom called and asked me to stop for a last minute grocery item, which I did (with L in tow). And thus emerges the picture of Miss (Schnuck's) America! I am classy. I think every Miss America winner should get one grocery item of her choosing in a plastic bag, to go along with her tiara.Mine was cocktail sauce.

Pretty Flowers

What I'm Reading Now -- The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

I know, I know. I'm supposed to be reading The Drunkard's Walk, and I am! But this book came in for me at the library, and I really want to read it! In fact, I got it from the library once before when it was on 7-day loan, but I didn't get to it. So now it's a 14-day loan, and I'm really hoping I can finish it in time! I'm about 75 pages in so far, and it's totally engaging already.

I have been hearing about this book nonstop at my bookstore since it came out in the US a couple years ago. The author died in 2004 and these books - this is the first in a trilogy - are being published posthumously. The second, The Girl Who Played With Fire, came out last year. The third, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, is due out in May.

What I Watched -- Food, Inc.

Mom, K, J, and I watched Food, Inc. on Friday night. Notwithstanding the fact that Mom and K fell asleep during parts (Mom had already seen it and K was on painkillers), I thought it was interesting. It is a good idea to know where your food comes from, even if it's disgusting sometimes.

Having said that, though, the movie definitely has a more fanatical bent than, say, Michael Pollan's books. (He is interviewed in the movie, but so are lots of other people, including a farmer whom Pollan writes about in The Omnivore's Dilemma.) Pollan is very reasoned and logical and makes a good argument. Food, Inc. was, I felt, more just a collection of people shouting and waving their arms to bring attention to the state of food quality and the food supply system. Fair enough, because attention should be paid. But shouting and arm-waving do not a convincing argument make.

One thing that Food, Inc. does have over Pollan's books is visual imagery. If you read one of his books and had trouble conjuring up an image of the chicken slaughter at Polyface Farms, watch the movie. You get to see it. And lots of other stuff, which you may or may not actually want to see.

Dinner at Bar Italia

On Thursday, I went to dinner at Bar Italia with mom and L. I can't believe that it was the first time they met, even after all these years! We had a lovely dinner -- everything was delicious, as always.

Mom had the cacciucco aromatico, which was loads of seafood in a red sauce. L got my old standby, the pollo agro dolce, which comes in a super-dark and delicious balsamic reduction sauce. I had one of the nightly specials: risotto with sauteed leek and breaded pork. Mom and L got the cappuccino anna for dessert, and it was beautiful! 4 layers/flavors/colors in a champagne glass! Sadly, we did not take a picture :-( You'll just have to go and try it yourself!

My new purse!

Don't you love it???

What I Watched -- Julie & Julia

Anyone who has ever tried cooking something that they're not sure they can quite pull off can relate to the cooking adventures of Julie Powell. She lives in modern Queens, and is stuck in a rut. She needs a project, and settles on this: working her way through all 524 recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 365 days. Julie's culinary adventures give her the focus she was looking for, but it's not always smooth sailing -- neither in the kitchen of her tiny apartment, nor in her marriage.

The parallel story is that of the woman herself, Julia Child. Meryl Streep got a Best Actress nod this year for her portrayal of the American in Paris, who ventures into the world of cooking mostly for lack of anything else to do in her new city. She discovers that she has quite a talent for cooking, and also makes wonderful friends that way.

The movie doesn't have quite the level of food photography found in something like, say, Tortilla Soup. But there are lots of tidbits given verbally; for example, you have to pat meat dry if you want it to brown properly. You learn the first steps to boning a duck (in case that's something you ever want to do). You learn how to cook live lobster, or how to kill them first if you don't want to cook them live. Lots of fun, if you're into that sort of thing.

It's a cute movie -- not too serious, fairly predictable, but entertaining. Meryl Streep is great as Julia; Amy Adams is adorable as always.

It's Unclear Where We're Going

Yesterday C (my rowing buddy) and I braved 90 minutes on the water despite the very strong winds which tried to swamp our little boat. The wind was unsuccessful; however, the fact that it was windy sets up today's thing to ponder.

Because of the wind, boats (and there were a lot of them) were going every which way, disregarding the normal traffic pattern, in an effort to find the best water. C and I were coming around the turn at the tip of the "island" (it's a peninsula these days) near the southern end of the lake, to head north along the fairly calm western edge. Coming the other way around the tip of the island was a flotilla of Wash U boats. Their coach called out to alert us of their presence. C, who by virtue of his position in the boat is responsible for keeping us from crashing into things, said this to me: "I saw them, it was just unclear where they were going." Me to C: "isn't it always unclear where they are going?"

When I said that, I meant it literally. Coxswains tend to have trouble going straight, or following a shore, or finding a dock, or doing really anything that they are responsible for doing. So it would be unclear where they were going because wherever they were pointing their boats was probably not the place they needed to be pointed.

But, as we kept rowing along the shoreline, I kept thinking. (As anyone who has tried to engage in deep thought while you are also exerting yourself physically can tell you, this leads to philosophical questions that often seem brilliant at the time, but actually make no sense at all. Regardless....) Is it really clear where any of us are going? Even if we have a goal and think we know where we're going, how many of us really end up there in the end? I'm going to venture a guess and say probably not many. (Think, for example, about Dominique Browning. She was a high-powered editor at House & Garden magazine, until Conde Nast Publications decided to shut down that magazine and she lost her job and her focus. Talk about being unclear where you are going!)

Close readers of my blog will remember a previous post with a similar theme, as a result of a trip L and I took to the art museum. Clearly, I have not yet discovered the answer. I will need to keep rowing and pondering.

What I Watched -- Inside Man

Inside Man is a bank robbery movie, but not in the way that you would expect. The good guy isn't all good, the bad guy isn't all bad, the victim is actually not a great guy, and, as it turns out, no money get stolen from the bank that gets "robbed." Interesting. It's also a fun look into the sneaky lives and questionable ethics of the super-rich (fictional, but still).

And then there's the cast, which is impressive, to say the least: Clive Owen as the bank robber; Denzel Washington as the hostage negotiator; Jodie Foster as the fixer; Willem Dafoe as the NYPD captain in charge; Christopher Plummer as the bank owner; and all directed by Spike Lee.

Despite its mystery-and-suspense premise, there are actually some interesting moral issues in this movie. Pay special attention to Christopher Plummer's character, and his interaction with Jodie Foster. Then ask yourself what his character could have done differently all those many years ago, and whether it would have accomplished anything to do so.

Botanical Gardens

Flowers, flowers, everywhere!

On Saturday, L and I ventured off towards the Missouri Botanical Gardens. Despite a forecast for rain, it looks like the drizzle ended early, and it's shaping up to be a beautiful day today! We spent a lovely couple of hours strolling the paths and looking at the just-blooming flowers!

Post-op K gets more flowers!

From K's friends D and M, in a margarita glass! With straws!
From R:
From Mom and E:
And Mom made us an Easter basket!

Post-Op K

K had her ACL surgery yesterday, and her leg is now all wrapped up from toe to thigh. She is on some wicked painkillers which make her dopey and sleepy (like the dwarfs -- dwarves? -- whatever), and she is eating lots of candy and junk food which E and I brought over.
She also got some beautiful flowers from E:From Dad:From E and Mom:Get well soon!!!

What I Watched -- Girl, Interrupted

If you've ever been curious about mental instability in girls, Girl, Interrupted is for you. The movie is based on the true story of Susanna Kaysen, who spent 18 months at McLean Hospital, where she was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.

In the movie, Winona Ryder plays Susanna; Angelina Jolie plays Lisa, a sociopath and repeat runaway from the hospital. Lisa antagonizes everyone in the institution, including Susanna. She unabashedly shouts out their true problems to the world, no sugar coating allowed.

It is through her relationship (such as it is) with Lisa that Susanna is finally able to face her demons. To my mind, the most interesting scene in the movie is one of the last. -- SPOILER ALERT -- It's the night before Susanna is going to be released. Lisa steals Susanna's diary, in which she's written her true thoughts about Lisa and the other girls in the hospital, and reads it aloud. When Lisa and Susanna confront each other, Lisa screams and begs and wonders why no one will ever tell her what her problem is, after all these years that she has spent telling other girls what their problems are. So Susanna does. She screams back at Lisa, acting toward her exactly the way Lisa had done to all the others.

The next day, Susanna is released from the hospital, and Lisa lies strapped to a bed, wearing a hospital gown. But the question I had was this: The two girls seem totally different throughout the movie. Lisa constantly appears to be totally out of control. She acts out physically and verbally. Susanna is a writer. Her battles happen inside her head and in her diary. But in the end, are they really all that different?

What I Watched -- The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is the true story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, or Jean-Do, as he is known to his friends. He is -- was -- the editor of Elle Magazine in France, until a stroke left him paralyzed from head to toe, with the exception of his left eye.

Communicating only by blinking, Jean-Do calls in an outstanding book deal, and uses it to tell the story of his life with "locked-in syndrome." Through the story and flashbacks to his earlier life, you see the amazing contrast between the vibrant, fun-loving, carefree (but still responsible) man living it up in Paris, and the immotile man confined to a bed or a wheelchair in a hospital on the northern coast town of Berck-sur-Mer.

Two things about Jean-Do's story are astonishing. The first is that the story is not depressing. I mean this in a couple of ways. One is that, despite the obvious sadness for his lost life, Jean-Do (at least in the movie; who knows about real life?) does not pity himself in his new condition. He just sets about his task of writing, once he figures out how to do it. Another is that, despite his job in the crazy world of magazines and modeling, his three children out of wedlock, and his free love, Jean-Do cares for his aging father, sees his children and their mother, and maintains what appears to be a stable life. His injury occurred by no fault of his own; he was not drunk or on drugs. He just had a stroke which -- don't get me wrong -- is sad, but not depressing.

The second astonishing thing about Jean-Do's story is that he was able to compose and edit his book in his head, and remember it well enough to have it transcribed one letter at a time, in a manner that seems terribly tedious to those of us who retain our writing and typing faculties. Even if his mind was "locked-in," it was still pretty incredible.