I give this movie a D for dull and disastrous

I wonder how a group of talented actors all make the mistake and end up in a sucky movie. I watched The Family Stone last night and it was bloody awful. I know Sarah Jessica Parker was just coming off of SITC and probably wanted to play a character far removed from fashionista Carrie, but seriously. Her character Meredith was dull, humorless, and worst of all, wore colorless blah gray wool suits.
The story tried to be one of those fish-out-of-water (Meredith) stories. (Everett) Dermot Mulroney brings his girlfriend Meredith home for Christmas to meet his wacky, liberal, close knit family. We know they’re liberal and ‘with it” because one of the sons is deaf, gay and in love with a black man. Another son (Luke Wilson) openly smokes pot in the house with the Dad played by the wonderful Craig T. Nelson. Mom Sybil, played by the illuminous Diane Keaton, is sick with cancer and has only a few months to live but refuses to tell the kids until after Christmas. They all hate Meredith. She wonders why. Duh.

SPOILER ALERT

Everett ends up falling for her sister played by Claire Danes. The audience sees that coming from a mile away—the way Everett’s eyes light up when he sees her getting off the bus.
Luke Wilson's Ben ends up falling for Meredith, who he said “Has a Freak Flag but is not flying it.”

The thing that pissed me off most about this movie is this: Meredith wants to fit in and so makes two giant pans of Strata (an egg casserole thing) for Christmas morning breakfast. After the BIG BLOW UP scene with all the family, she storms off into the kitchen and takes the two pans out of the refrigerator—oh no, not one at a time and places them on the kitchen island counter RIGHT BEHIND HER—she stacks them on top of one another and then Sybil and the Angry Daughter played by Rachel McAdams both go through the kitchen door and plow right into Meredith thereby spilling the Strata all over her and the kitchen floor. Various other family members fall and slide into it INSURING THAT HILARITY ENSUES. It. Does. Not. You just keep wondering “when is this pile of wasted mess over?”

Saving grace: When Sybil defends her gay, deaf son at the dinner table and tells him that he’s “more ‘normal’ than any of the other assholes sitting around this table.” It was a sweet scene.

Diane Keaton. Sarah Jessica Parker. Dermot. Craig T. I suppose I will forgive you.

The Giver

Last week LP read Lois Lowry’s The Giver, loved it, and insisted that I read it. I’m glad I did. It’s labeled a Young Adult book but I think it’s terrific for adults. If you haven’t read it, it’s about a futuristic society which at first glance is wonderful: No pain, no hunger, no rudeness (not the Book Shelf!) no war, etc.
When each child is twelve they go through a ceremony in which the Elders select a life’s work for each of them. Jonas gets selected for the high honor of becoming the Receiver of Memories and begins his studies with the “Giver.”
With each chapter I felt sadder and sadder and weighed down with this Community. Somewhere in the course of their history they chose being safe over other liberties and pleasures in life. DOES THAT SOUND FAMILIAR in this Dubya-infused life??
Anyway, LP and I both enjoyed it. Give it a try if you see The Giver on a used book shelf.
PS: Not everyone loved it. I was looking at the reviews on B&N and ran across this. I LOL’d:

Mona, I am a book worm!, July 5, 2006,
Horrible book!
I did not like this book at all. It was very boring and heard like a movie. I didn't think it was entertaining and I had to actually make myself finish reading it. That was how boring it was! I do not recomand it!

“Heard like a movie”? hm.

Questions from the Uncool

What exactly are iTunes? Can you use a plain old iPod?
I see more and more tv shows are "available on iTunes" but I have no idea how it works. Is it expensive? And how can a person see details of a television show on such a tiny screen? I think it would cause headaches. Is it expensive?

I'm thanking you.

Betsy

My cousin Betsy died yesterday of ovarian cancer. She was 51 and a great example of someone who followed her “bliss.” She was an actor for 24 years. After getting her Bachelor’s at Indiana University, she went to University of California at San Diego for her Master’s and then settled in Chicago and acted in regional theater for years before moving to Kansas City where she and her husband acted in and directed many productions. She had a twelve year old son named Aidan. I feel for him—losing your mother at such a young age.
As a kid, I always enjoyed visiting Betsy’s family at their Indiana farm. We kids loved to throw out baled hay from the barn loft, and swim in their muddy pond. We all thought that was a hoot.
When she and her older sister were teenagers, they seemed very glamorous to me. Both of them knew from when they were young that they wanted to act. And both did, to relative success I might add. My aunt and uncle were very supportive of all their kids. They were fine examples of parenting.
Both Betsy and her sister Laura made their livings doing what they loved. How many people are lucky enough to say that?
As many cousins do, we kind of lost track of each other and only exchanged yearly Christmas cards and letters. Even so, I’ll miss her. She was a very cool person. Bye Betsy.

Putting your virtual pet on your blog

Helping the less fortunate:

First you have to decide where you want your animal to show up on the blog. Initially I made the mistake of putting the code at the bottom of the template code, so Bob & Bob showed up at the very end of my blog. You had to scroll all the way down and they were hanging at the end. Hanging at the end can be painful. So I decided the best place would be after my blog profile. So here’s what you do:

Go to the Adopt a Virtual Pet Link.
Adopt your pet.
Press finish and it will take you to Step 3 in the process.
Cut and Paste the entire code in the box that’s marked “if you are using MySpace, Friendster or Freewebs”
Now, sign onto Blogger.
Click on your blog and go to Template.
Scroll down about ¾’s of the way past all the gobbledy gook . . .Blogger header, post, comment ,
You should see something like this:

$BlogMemberProfile$

!-- End #profile –

After that line press Enter a few times to create a few blank lines.

Now Paste in the Virtual Pet code that you Cut

Now press Save Template Changes

Now Refresh your blog and then Bingo-Bango, your Pet Appears!

Bob Squared

Like several other Shelfers I have adopted cyber pets. A purple Monkey named Bob and a pink Llama named Bob. The Llama will say hi if you double click on him. Give them both some love!

Oh! Reno 911's season premiere was last night and was splendid: Dangle is auditioning for a Reno remake of West Side Story. Complete with Bob Fosse's "JAZZ HANDS." And Weigel is preggers by a sperm bank donor. Don't know yet who her baby daddy is, but Dangle, Jonesy, Garcia AND Junior all looked as if they'd made deposits at the sperm bank and received the $31, orange juice and a cookie as thanks.

Lazy Sunday

What a lazy Sunday. I slept until 9. Got up and made coffee and watched Samantha Brown on Little Palm Island resort in Florida. I love Samantha Brown. If I wasn't so incredibly sane I'd be her stalker.
Then I cleaned out the cat's litter box, and dusted. As you all probably know by now, I hate dusting. I've instructed all those who live here, including the cat, not to shed or molt or leave their skin particles around so that they'll drift onto the television, coffee table, etc.
I'm thinking of getting one of those ionizers. They're supposed to cut down on dust AND freshen the air. Probably a gimmick though.
I had leftover Special Rice for lunch and a piece of hot pepper cheese. My Diet-that's-not-a-diet is going pretty well. My clothes are loose and I can pull down this pair of jeans I'm wearing without even unzipping and unsnapping them. Only 300 more pounds to go and I'll be rail thin with a huge head like the Hollywood Lollipop Girls Nicole Richie and Mary Kate. Maybe they'll invite me to go clubbing with them!
Anyway, I watched part of Columbo on the Hallmark Channel. I'd seen this episodet fifty million times before (it was the one with Anne Baxter as a movie star who wanted to kill a gossip columnist-writer and ended up killing her assistant instead) so I turned off the TV and went out and moved some plants around. I dunno. They looked pretty sad when I dug them out and replanted them. I watered them in well so maybe they'll make it and maybe they won't. Eh.
Instead of reading my semi-intellectaul Mockingbird book, I took the current National Enquirer out on the porch. Stedman Graham, don't you know, is considered writing a Tell All about his and Oprah's long affair. The gossip is that they are splitsville but Oprah is depositing HUGE amounts of money into his bank account to buy him off and shut him up. One of the Super Secrets that Stedman is set to spill? OPRAH IS A DIVA and expects everyone to AGREE with her or GET OUT! She wants to be waited on hand and foot. You'd never know this if you watch her show
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