Wherein I defend 2 romcoms

Reading Entertainment Weekly's "40 Bad Romantic Comedies" lists (there are two.) Most of the movies I haven't seen, because I'm pretty good at avoiding bad movies. But I (and most of the commentors) have to disagree with two choices:

Two Weeks Notice is one of my favourite rom coms. The hero is irredeemably stupid, and that's a rarity in romances. And the heroine is consistently frumpy, ethical and intelligent. It's a great combination.

The other one we all defended was Head Over Heels, which I just saw on TV this week. It's not a good romance, but it's a great comedy. The heroine is an art restorer, but she lives with four models, and they're trying to figure out if the hero is a murderer. He doesn't even appear on screen much, because most of the movie's goodness comes from watching the dumb models. If you made a movie about Zoolander's roommates, this would be it. I love comedies about Groups of Dumb Guys (Judd Apatow movies, The Hangover, etc.), and it's a nice change to find a comedy about a Group of Dumb Girls. I totally recommend.

Michael Jackson in white face blackface

Have you read the story yet about the blackface routine done on an Australian game show, and Harry Connick Jr (who was a guest judge) 's reaction to it? Good for him, for stepping up and saying something right then, on the show.

click here

Update on my life

OPINIONS
I don't understand this Nobel Peace Prize thing. Very silly. The guy is in the middle of two wars, not to mention he would have only JUST got in office when he was nominated and had therefore done nuthin' up until then, not to mention what's he done that's so peace-prize-worthy? Clearly the Nobel PP is as reliable a marker for "good work!" as an Oscar.

SAVING YOUR LIFE
All the managers have to take First Aid training at my work, and I'm the virgin--I've never had any training at all. That's always made me nervous, so I'm glad to finally be doing it. I had my first day today, then a second one next week. Here's what you can now do in my presence:
- get burned
- get a cut
- slice off your thumb
- choke on something
- go into shock
- become unconscious
- get a nosebleed
But don't have a heart attack until after next Friday. Fernando's jealous. Because he works in a hospital where every nurse has advanced FA training, they only give the orderlies CPR.

Did you know?
- In Quebec you're legally obligated to stop and help someone in distress.
- But you're protected by a Good Samaritan Act if the person sustains some other injury while you're helping them--protected from being sued.(My trainer said only BC doesn't have a Good Sam law, but that's not the case according to internets.)

DREAMS
On the other hand, it's a bad idea to go for a nap when you get home from a day-long session of First Aid. I had the WEIRDEST dreams/nightmares than I've had since the time I dreamed my plane crashed into a building. It meandered through many weird things, all vaguely themed on First Aid, but ended with a monster who wanted to eat me. And it was okay if he only ate a bit at a time, but I was afraid he'd eat me completely so I was calling around trying to get someone to pick me up and give me a lift out of there.

OLD BOOK
Taking a small break before I rework the synopsis.

NEW BOOK
Breakthrough! I finally figured out which Shakespeare-Henry-V character will be the Male Romantic Lead in my story. And I've also finally got a handle on said Male Romantic Lead. It's very exciting. This was one of the sticking points in my book (the fact that I want a love story in my book, even though I'm basing this on Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V which are not romances.)

NOMBLY
I'm fairly resigned to a Nombly-less life. My campaign to make the other cats hang out with me more seems to be working--I'm seeing more of them, and not only at feed time. I think Sherry's a bit confused though. "Why do you suddenly find me so fascinating? Oh well, extra pets. I'm in."

MUSIC
Good haul at the library today:
- Malcolm X soundtrack (used to have on tape)
- Best of James Bond (in case I'm missing a song or two)
- Stormy Weather: The Music of Harold Arlen (wrote lots of famous Cotton Club type songs)
- Bryan Ferry doing Dylan covers
- The Neptunes Present... Clones
- Morcheeba
- last Alanis Morissette album (figure it's worth a listen)
- Public Enemy's It Takes a Million...

I'm killing it, I'm killing it

I know, all my posts right now are "ooer I love this song!" That's what happens when I get back to working on my writing. I just listen to music while researching, plotting, brainstorming.

Happy by N.E.R.D.


You see I'm happy (happy)
Things are lookin good now (good now)
I feel so alive( so alive)
I'm on overdrive (overdrive)
I'm killing it, I'm killing it

Canadian winter car chase

posted on a friend's facebook page

"Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could."

- Louise Erdrich, The Painted Drum, p. 247

(She came across it on Amanda Palmer's latest blog post.)

Sandra, our Lord and Saviour

Fun writing resource! This site shows lingo that would have been in use in a given year. I want to have a diary within the next story I write -- passages from the diary of the character's great-grandmother. But what I'm going to attempt is a funny diary. A 1918 version of Georgia Nicholson.

Mind you, the language isn't much different from my grandmother's. Maybe I should just be hanging out playing bridge with her and her cronies. "Boy! Take a gander at that. I sure am keen on that." Hm. Needs more work.

Speaking of Georgia Nicholson, if you recall her little sister always invades her bed along with her posse. In this book, the posse consists of "Scuba Diving Barbie, Charlie Horse, a parsnip" and the cross-eyed kitten Gordy. The sister has also taken Georgia's statue of Jesus, put him in a frock, and is calling him Sandra--Barbie's best friend.

I'm on book 6 and haven't gotten tired of the series yet. Maybe because each book is short and only covers about half a year in Georgia's life, so it feels more like reading one long book. Or watching an episode of a tv show each week.