tammytoes

the midwinter blahs have set in with a ferocity. there are still big dirty piles of snow on the corners. february promises to be the sort of cold that’s hard to describe – as always. this is the time of year i dread the most: the hours compress together and it’s hard to take a breath from so much to do in so little time. going out feels like a chore and the adventure of the days seems to have just been sucked away.

that’s bleak, i know. which is why, so close to the shortest, but longest, month of the year, i have to pause and create a list. of things that make me happy. so here goes:

steuben’s. sam brown. broken social scene. film: good, bad and indifferent. fears about the big city. knowing that my niece donated my 5 boxes of girl scout cookies ordered via the internet to a food pantry in roeland park, kansas. knee socks. couch conversations. long, strong kisses. the blog-o-verse. skating fast. stretching in the middle of the day. star wars dreams. spontaneous brunch. worthwhile projects. meetings that end early. tax refunds. glitter. crafty friends. that marvel civil war is finally starting to end so i don’t have to keep buying crossover titles. kurt russell (oddly enough, he makes me really happy right now). commitment to passion. honoring volunteers. underscheduling, a rarity. living room karate. fucking fugazi. discovering that i completely missed a ‘me first and the gimme gimmes’ country cover album last fall (how could i miss that?) and doing a dance around the living room in anticipation of buying it. my fearless friends who are facing their transitions: seeing beginnings where endings exist, reconciling the endings themselves. spinach. matinees and good, salty popcorn.

fantastic.

My brain shorted out sometime around Thursday at 9 pm. The only solution was to spend a lot of time in suspended cinemation this weekend. Here’s the wrap-up.

Deja Vu
After an utterly craptastic day at work, I shut off the computer and ran out the door early enough to catch a 4:15 showing of Deja Vu at the local second-run theater. It was me, my popcorn, my Mr. Pibb, and Denzel Washington for two hours. (This, I’ve realized, is the greatest way to start a weekend.) I should just ‘fess up on this: I actually liked Deja Vu. Like, I was genuinely entertained. In fact, I was so entertained I didn’t even realize it was a Tony Scott movie until after I looked it up online a few minutes ago. The film’s formula is to mix cop-thriller with barely (and probably not-at-all) plausible time-travel sci-fi premise. Silly, huh? Yep, silly. But somehow it all kind of works. It’s junk food film that you won’t feel too guilty about enjoying. Denzel Washington can carry this kind of movie in his sleep, but – let’s face it – he’s a good sleeping actor. He kind of oozes sex appeal in this movie because he’s just so smart, so compelling, so charming, and so believable. I have to give props to Adam Goldberg, who plays smarmy uber-genius time machine creator dude: he’s funny and in his seventies-inspired undershirt/denim/beard combo, he looks like a Jewish Serpico (during the movie, I kept thinking: “Serpico’s a good rocket scientist!”) And, finally, there’s a really sweaty Jim Caviezel as a Timothy McVeigh-type-patriot-terrorist. From Jesus to divinely-inspired nationalist terrorist: is anyone else out there kinda worried about this guy?

Anyway: extra bonus points for for a cowbell reference and a production set in post-Katrina New Orleans (even devastated, the city retains so much of its character that it’s quite a character in the film).

I will totally arm wrestle to defend my position on this film.

Sherrybaby
One reason, really, to see Sherrybaby: Maggie Gyllenhaal. This is dependable indie-film formula: take a rising start who can really act, and build a tiny, “truthful” film around her or him. It’s a refreshing formula that reminds us that big budget productions are often too big: there’s not enough investigation into the everyday, the short stories that reflect larger dynamics of the internal and external worlds of it characters. The problem with Sherrybaby is that its world is just too small. Gyllenhaal is absolutely fabulous in this movie and her performance keeps you watching. Otherwise it’s just not a strong picture. But it *is* a performance worth seeing. On top of that, the prolific character actor Danny Trejo gets a really nice break in this film. It’s great to see him play a thoughtful, caring man – and not a thug, convict, rapist or contract killer. Sadly, Giancarlo Esposito is completely wasted in this film. Alas.

An Inconvenient Truth
I must be the last liberalish person on earth to see this film, so I probably don’t need to tell any of you regular tammytoes readers to see it. But I have to really give props on this one: for a film that’s essentially a long powerpoint presentation, it’s damn good and awfully, awfully terrifying. For someone who considers herself reasonably educated about global warming, I was SCHOOLED. Seriously. I really wish we could have seen this much charisma and fire from Al Gore during his presidential run, but I’m glad that he’s showcasing it now on the climate crisis issue – here’s hoping that even a slice of the Fox News demographic checks out this film.

I like that Al is very gentle when he basically tells us that global warming will spell the end of life on earth as we know it within the next 100 years. It’s nice. What I didn’t like is that Melissa Etheridge performs the theme song for An Inconvenient Truth. It’s every bit as annoying as you can imagine. And then some. The DVD has a nice “wanna see all the horrible shit that’s happened to the environment since the film was released in 2006?” extra. And a video for the horrible Melissa Etheridge song (shudder to think).

I loved that the DVD has a PG warning before the film for “Mild Thematic Elements.” Like the END OF LIFE ON EARTH AS WE KNOW IT??? Gah!

I’m glad I drive a Civic.

Happy Birthday, Neil Diamond! I just had to listen to some Cracklin’ Rosie on the way from practice to celebrate.

Today is the 34th anniversay of Roe V. Wade, so I’m participating in Blog for Choice day. Let’s be relieved that we’ve survived another year with choice intact (unless, of course, you count all those women who live in locations where abortion providers are too afraid to practice).

The day’s task is simply this: I’m supposed to tell all you tammytoes readers why I’m pro-choice. So here goes.

I won’t use the language of “rights” for explaining my thoughts on this – that framework is perilous, at best. I’ll stick to making this pragmatic and clear.

• Abortion is one viable option in a spectrum of reproductive health options that should be available to all women and men, regardless of their income, education, location, age, demographic, sexual orientation or marital status. To deny a service simply because a vocal minority of people find it offensive denies very substantive medical options to patients who are undergoing a staggering diversity of life circumstances.

• A civilized and intelligent society should not force its citizens to breed.

• Privileging a fetus with sovereignty over the woman who carries it grants a subjectivity to the fetus with the most devastating consequences: it denies the subjectivity and humanity of sentient human women. Can we live with ourselves knowing that we’re denying a woman’s ability to make decisions for herself about her body?

• I trust women to make the most appropriate decision for themselves. I trust women to do this and I respect their ability to do this.

I am unapologetic about my feelings on abortion and reproductive health. I will not carry the moderate banner of “pro-family, pro-child, pro-choice.” Does it matter how I feel about families or kids? No. What matters to me is that being pro-choice is not a choice at all. For the sake of myself and all other women: access to abortion is non-negotiable.

In a country that’s increasingly apologizing for intelligent and informed policy to a minority of small-minded zealots, we must not step back from this issue.

it’s snowing again. again and again. everyone in denver looks vaguely stir crazy and the talk of the town is all about how this isn’t like colorado. the roads have caused practice to be cancelled and the only way to cope is to drink red wine, eat chocolate cake and watch ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ all afternoon.