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shadowkatPrettier day today, blue sky, passing clouds, mostly clear, in the low 80s. Took a long walk, about an hour or so, around a portion of Greenwood Cemetery. Equivalent of 1.8 miles - still sweated more than I'd like. It's the sweating that keeps me from doing longer walks.
Time was that I could walk 6 to 10 miles without any problems.
Did spot one perfect rose, a rarity this summer due to the overwhelming amount of rains and high humidity. Roses require a slightly drier, milder climate - tropical doesn't quit work for them.
Yes, a pesky house got into the picture, but what can one do?
**
Talked to mother a couple of times today.
Me: So I had an epiphany yesterday. We need to focus on the positive. See the best case scenario and stop preparing for the worst, it never works.
Mother: True, it doesn't. Just makes it more painful.
Me: Exactly.
Mother: And I'm really not that worried about the surgery. But...
Me: That's good.
Mother: I did however decide to write my own obituary. Do you want to hear my obituary? I wrote one today, just finished it in fact.
Me: Okay, you realize this is the exact opposite of what I was talking about right? This is not focusing on the best case scenario.
Mother: You'll probably think the obituary is silly or too long -
ME: We aren't supposed to be writing obituaries -
Mother: So, you want to hear it?
Me: Really not. But I have a feeling you desperately want me too?
Mother: Yep, here it goes ...(she rambles off her obituary)
I don't know why everyone's obituaries are about what they did, what organizations they belonged to, what profession they had, who survives them...and not about who they are. My mother's obituary doesn't tell you how kind she is, that she feels compassion for everyone, and doesn't hold grudges. She talks to everyone in her family and has never cut anyone off or out of her life. And will go out of her way for her friends. That she is a natural born care-giver, and a good listener. And my best friend. And if anything happened to her - there'd be a giant size hole in my life that I'd never be able to fill.
I also don't understand my parents obsession with writing their obituaries. I guess this is an attempt to assert some control over the whole proceedings? They even planned their funerals.
Me: You'll be dead, why do you care?
Mother: It's nice to know that everything is taken care of.
***
Watched two movies today. The Evil Dead and Reminiscence, neither were very good. Reminiscence was admittedly the better of the two, but it also had more money, and was done in 2020, so...plus Hugh Jackman and Twandi Newton.
* The Evil Dead - I'm not sure I can legitimately state that I watched the film. More like fast-forwarded through all the gruesome bits.
It's scary in its own way. Or mainly because Sam Rami was a devil with a hand-held camera. I honestly think he spent most of the shoot running about terrorizing his actors with his camera.
Rami was about 21 at the time, and managed to fund raise with his pals, Bruce Campbell and Rob Tapert, over $85,000 to make a low-budget horror flick in the woods of Tennessee. A good portion of the film is in the perspective of whomever is behind the camera (aka the monster) zooming in after the kids stuck in the cabin and attacking them. At one point the camera crashes through a window. The actors are realistically screaming at the camera - because they were probably terrified of Sam Rami who kept sadistically torturing them for his film. I 'd scream too - if I saw Sam Rami zip at me with his camera.
I didn't find The Evil Dead that funny or entertaining, but I'm also not the audience for this type of movie. Gory Zombie movies with a bunch of dingbat teens in a cabin trying to make out do very little for me. I don't find it at all relatable, and spend most of my time wondering why on earth anyone would whatever it is they are all doing during the film? Wales loved it, but she is the audience for this type of movie - she loved The Big Lebowski, I find the Big Lebowski annoying and have yet to make it through the film.
Watching people do dumb things on film isn't amusing to me. I can watch that in real life or on social media for that matter. Although, I guess there's something to be said for them being killed for doing dumb things, then being turned into demonic zombies. I guess its cathartic on some level. I just found it gory and kind of dumb. The dialogue is pretty bad - but Campbell's look of pure stupefied terror and the cinematography save it.
I guess I can see why it became a cult classic in the 1980s, but it doesn't really age all that well. Also, by now, the five kids go to a cabin and get picked off one by one by monsters plot has kind of been overdone, to the point that Drew Goddard directed a satire about it entitled "Cabin in the Woods". But in 1981, it was new. I recommend reading Campbell's book over watching the film.
* Reminiscence by Lisa Joy, starring Hugh Jackman and Twandi Newton, is a boilerplate sci-fi noir. Reminded me a little of Blade Runner - except Blade Runner is so much better, so are the others I've seen. I've seen too many sci-fi and regular noir films. I knew what was going to happen before it did and got kind of bored by the plot. And really all there is - is the plot, not a lot of focus on character.
The world-building and set design are fun though as is the set-up. It just needed a better script and direction. Lisa Joy of Westworld fame, does a so-so job of it. And a lot of her direction and script reminded me of why WestWorld didn't quite work. There's a stiffness to the dialogue, and the characters, that also existed in Westworld.
The setup? Jackman's character, Nick Bannister, runs a business where clients are able to revisit memories or reclaim them. He runs it with a former army pal, Twandi Newton. Both are veterans of a recently completed war, and live in sunken Miami. The rich land barons live on the dam protected dry land, while everyone else lives in the flooded portions of the city. While running this business, a lovely lounge singer drops in and seduces Nick. He falls for her. Then she disappears. Which results in Nick revisiting all his memories of her - in order to figure out what happened.
The story is kind of told in flashbacks, and I'm not certain this works in regards to pacing. It's somewhat jagged, and it's hard to care about the characters - I felt emotionally distanced from them in much the same way that I did in Westworld.
At any rate - it's okay, but I wouldn't go out of my way to see it. I saw it on HBO Max - which I have until September 15. Unless I want to subscribe separately from Amazon Prime - which I can always do.
* And I finished watching America's Great Barbecue Show Down on Netflix. One of the better reality cooking competitions. (As an aside I adore cooking demonstrations, always have, and I adore anything showing me how things are mad, even if/especially if I have no interest in doing it myself.) This was a great show. Touching, humorous, with likable contestants, judges, and hosts. Also suspenseful. Loved it. By far one of the better cooking competition shows. However - I would not recommend it to vegetarians or vegans. It would upset you. It shows people barbecuing meat.
It's a carnivore show.
***
Listening to Director Robert Altman's biography - which is interesting, Altman was a bomber pilot in WWII, and his early days directing industry films, educational films, and documentaries in Kansas City and LA. He worked for Culver Films - where he directed things like How to Run a Filling Station, Football, Basketball, Industrial Safety Films, etc. He'd tried to set himself up as a writer in LA, but fell into directing. Also directed plays. And one of his first major films was a docudrama - The Delinquents in the 1950s. We also get snippets of television shows he directed such as Bonanza. Later films such as MASH, Nashville, Short Cuts, Godsford Park, etc. Apparently everyone who worked with him (for the most part) loved him as a director - but he was not a great husband. Cheated on his wife, broken things in drunken rages, and partied a lot. It's a very honest and good depiction of how people are always more than one thing.
***
Attempted to make Plantain Fritters today. They were okay, I guess. The recipe is mashed plantain with cassnova flour (or tapioca flour), mix, make into dough ball, roll out, use cookie cutter or jar to cut out various circles. Heat a 1/2 cup of ghee or your choice of fat over medium to high heat, wait until get brown and somewhat puffy, take out, put on wire to cool. Eat.
I found them to be a bit on the greasy side, and not quite as puffy as shown in the photograph. Also it made far too many. That's the problem with cookbooks - they are geared towards families of five, not single women who are cooking for themselves. Everyone can't be married with kids. There has to be quite a few others who like me out there? Right? I know there are, I've met them. But apparently none of them buy cookbooks or cook?
This is why I seldom follow recipes or cookbooks - even though I own a lot of them. They are all for more than one, and often more than two people. Sometimes five to six people. And I suck at measurements. So figuring out how to cut a recipe down to one serving is kind of beyond me.
Seriously, I live in a society that discriminates against single folks.
***
Random photo of the day...
Labor Day 2018
Time was that I could walk 6 to 10 miles without any problems.
Did spot one perfect rose, a rarity this summer due to the overwhelming amount of rains and high humidity. Roses require a slightly drier, milder climate - tropical doesn't quit work for them.
Yes, a pesky house got into the picture, but what can one do?
**
Talked to mother a couple of times today.
Me: So I had an epiphany yesterday. We need to focus on the positive. See the best case scenario and stop preparing for the worst, it never works.
Mother: True, it doesn't. Just makes it more painful.
Me: Exactly.
Mother: And I'm really not that worried about the surgery. But...
Me: That's good.
Mother: I did however decide to write my own obituary. Do you want to hear my obituary? I wrote one today, just finished it in fact.
Me: Okay, you realize this is the exact opposite of what I was talking about right? This is not focusing on the best case scenario.
Mother: You'll probably think the obituary is silly or too long -
ME: We aren't supposed to be writing obituaries -
Mother: So, you want to hear it?
Me: Really not. But I have a feeling you desperately want me too?
Mother: Yep, here it goes ...(she rambles off her obituary)
I don't know why everyone's obituaries are about what they did, what organizations they belonged to, what profession they had, who survives them...and not about who they are. My mother's obituary doesn't tell you how kind she is, that she feels compassion for everyone, and doesn't hold grudges. She talks to everyone in her family and has never cut anyone off or out of her life. And will go out of her way for her friends. That she is a natural born care-giver, and a good listener. And my best friend. And if anything happened to her - there'd be a giant size hole in my life that I'd never be able to fill.
I also don't understand my parents obsession with writing their obituaries. I guess this is an attempt to assert some control over the whole proceedings? They even planned their funerals.
Me: You'll be dead, why do you care?
Mother: It's nice to know that everything is taken care of.
***
Watched two movies today. The Evil Dead and Reminiscence, neither were very good. Reminiscence was admittedly the better of the two, but it also had more money, and was done in 2020, so...plus Hugh Jackman and Twandi Newton.
* The Evil Dead - I'm not sure I can legitimately state that I watched the film. More like fast-forwarded through all the gruesome bits.
It's scary in its own way. Or mainly because Sam Rami was a devil with a hand-held camera. I honestly think he spent most of the shoot running about terrorizing his actors with his camera.
Rami was about 21 at the time, and managed to fund raise with his pals, Bruce Campbell and Rob Tapert, over $85,000 to make a low-budget horror flick in the woods of Tennessee. A good portion of the film is in the perspective of whomever is behind the camera (aka the monster) zooming in after the kids stuck in the cabin and attacking them. At one point the camera crashes through a window. The actors are realistically screaming at the camera - because they were probably terrified of Sam Rami who kept sadistically torturing them for his film. I 'd scream too - if I saw Sam Rami zip at me with his camera.
I didn't find The Evil Dead that funny or entertaining, but I'm also not the audience for this type of movie. Gory Zombie movies with a bunch of dingbat teens in a cabin trying to make out do very little for me. I don't find it at all relatable, and spend most of my time wondering why on earth anyone would whatever it is they are all doing during the film? Wales loved it, but she is the audience for this type of movie - she loved The Big Lebowski, I find the Big Lebowski annoying and have yet to make it through the film.
Watching people do dumb things on film isn't amusing to me. I can watch that in real life or on social media for that matter. Although, I guess there's something to be said for them being killed for doing dumb things, then being turned into demonic zombies. I guess its cathartic on some level. I just found it gory and kind of dumb. The dialogue is pretty bad - but Campbell's look of pure stupefied terror and the cinematography save it.
I guess I can see why it became a cult classic in the 1980s, but it doesn't really age all that well. Also, by now, the five kids go to a cabin and get picked off one by one by monsters plot has kind of been overdone, to the point that Drew Goddard directed a satire about it entitled "Cabin in the Woods". But in 1981, it was new. I recommend reading Campbell's book over watching the film.
* Reminiscence by Lisa Joy, starring Hugh Jackman and Twandi Newton, is a boilerplate sci-fi noir. Reminded me a little of Blade Runner - except Blade Runner is so much better, so are the others I've seen. I've seen too many sci-fi and regular noir films. I knew what was going to happen before it did and got kind of bored by the plot. And really all there is - is the plot, not a lot of focus on character.
The world-building and set design are fun though as is the set-up. It just needed a better script and direction. Lisa Joy of Westworld fame, does a so-so job of it. And a lot of her direction and script reminded me of why WestWorld didn't quite work. There's a stiffness to the dialogue, and the characters, that also existed in Westworld.
The setup? Jackman's character, Nick Bannister, runs a business where clients are able to revisit memories or reclaim them. He runs it with a former army pal, Twandi Newton. Both are veterans of a recently completed war, and live in sunken Miami. The rich land barons live on the dam protected dry land, while everyone else lives in the flooded portions of the city. While running this business, a lovely lounge singer drops in and seduces Nick. He falls for her. Then she disappears. Which results in Nick revisiting all his memories of her - in order to figure out what happened.
The story is kind of told in flashbacks, and I'm not certain this works in regards to pacing. It's somewhat jagged, and it's hard to care about the characters - I felt emotionally distanced from them in much the same way that I did in Westworld.
At any rate - it's okay, but I wouldn't go out of my way to see it. I saw it on HBO Max - which I have until September 15. Unless I want to subscribe separately from Amazon Prime - which I can always do.
* And I finished watching America's Great Barbecue Show Down on Netflix. One of the better reality cooking competitions. (As an aside I adore cooking demonstrations, always have, and I adore anything showing me how things are mad, even if/especially if I have no interest in doing it myself.) This was a great show. Touching, humorous, with likable contestants, judges, and hosts. Also suspenseful. Loved it. By far one of the better cooking competition shows. However - I would not recommend it to vegetarians or vegans. It would upset you. It shows people barbecuing meat.
It's a carnivore show.
***
Listening to Director Robert Altman's biography - which is interesting, Altman was a bomber pilot in WWII, and his early days directing industry films, educational films, and documentaries in Kansas City and LA. He worked for Culver Films - where he directed things like How to Run a Filling Station, Football, Basketball, Industrial Safety Films, etc. He'd tried to set himself up as a writer in LA, but fell into directing. Also directed plays. And one of his first major films was a docudrama - The Delinquents in the 1950s. We also get snippets of television shows he directed such as Bonanza. Later films such as MASH, Nashville, Short Cuts, Godsford Park, etc. Apparently everyone who worked with him (for the most part) loved him as a director - but he was not a great husband. Cheated on his wife, broken things in drunken rages, and partied a lot. It's a very honest and good depiction of how people are always more than one thing.
***
Attempted to make Plantain Fritters today. They were okay, I guess. The recipe is mashed plantain with cassnova flour (or tapioca flour), mix, make into dough ball, roll out, use cookie cutter or jar to cut out various circles. Heat a 1/2 cup of ghee or your choice of fat over medium to high heat, wait until get brown and somewhat puffy, take out, put on wire to cool. Eat.
I found them to be a bit on the greasy side, and not quite as puffy as shown in the photograph. Also it made far too many. That's the problem with cookbooks - they are geared towards families of five, not single women who are cooking for themselves. Everyone can't be married with kids. There has to be quite a few others who like me out there? Right? I know there are, I've met them. But apparently none of them buy cookbooks or cook?
This is why I seldom follow recipes or cookbooks - even though I own a lot of them. They are all for more than one, and often more than two people. Sometimes five to six people. And I suck at measurements. So figuring out how to cut a recipe down to one serving is kind of beyond me.
Seriously, I live in a society that discriminates against single folks.
***
Random photo of the day...
Labor Day 2018
no subject
Date: 2021-09-07 02:16 am (UTC)Writing one's obituary and planning the funeral service is the attempt to taking control of the ultimate loss of control, one's own death.
no subject
Date: 2021-09-07 12:27 pm (UTC)I agree - I felt like I'd seen the movie before. The concept was a little tired, and what they did with it? Even more so. I was disappointed in the plot. It's a boilerplate noir - the hero is solitary and kind of self-absorbed, falls for a femme fatal, but barely knows her, goes after her and in the process destroys himself, while the gal friday quietly mourns what they could have had on the sidelines. Heavy theme - not to live in the past or in memories.
At least Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was innovative about it.
***
Except there is no control by writing an obituary or planning the funeral, since you're dead, and it will most likely be altered in some way by circumstance. I've begun to realize control is an illusion - we really don't have any.
no subject
Date: 2021-09-07 01:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-09-08 02:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-09-07 03:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-09-07 12:30 pm (UTC)In some respects I cut costs by being single - meat can be cheaper - two pieces of chicken cover two meals for me, for example. But in other respects...
no subject
Date: 2021-09-07 05:38 am (UTC)If your folks don't plan their funerals, then someone else has to-- usually another family member. And in a larger family, that can easily lead to problems unless every person in the family that's involved agrees.
As to writing one's own obit-- see above. I know families that you could, for example, have five different family members write an obit, and you'd get five completely different takes on the person who passed away.
I definitely want to write my own. Haven't planned for my eventual funeral yet, but I was intending to consult a lawyer as to writing a will, and more importantly, an advance directive for doctors to be aware of. That was about two weeks before the pandemic hit. ~sigh~
Oh, well, I'll get it done sometime. I hope.
In my case, on the positive side, there's only me and my sister, and we get along superbly, so I'd totally trust her to write a good obit for me.
no subject
Date: 2021-09-07 12:36 pm (UTC)I honestly do not care if people hold a funeral for me, or just throw my ashes in the ocean. I'm dead. I won't be there. The funeral is for them, not me. That's what people don't seem to understand - the funeral is for the living not the dead. It helps, I guess if you leave a plan.
But my plan would simply be this - hold a party, outdoors, and scatter my ashes. (Keep in mind I've been walking around a graveyard for the last two years now.)
The will thing is more troublesome.
no subject
Date: 2021-09-07 09:06 pm (UTC)My sentiments exactly. And I don't know of anyone who'd need to see my obituary. Those who'd want to know I was gone could be contacted directly. There aren't that many of them.
The only person I knew who was really interested in having an obit was my high school journalism teacher, who said she wanted an article about herself in the city newspaper, not just a standard paid obit. (She'd been a local journalist and a radio personality, and she eventually retired to a different state.) She got it, so she got her wish. I guess she was lucky she passed before newspapers went out of fashion.
no subject
Date: 2021-09-08 02:31 am (UTC)I don't know, I figure my obituary is already online. I've a resume on linked in. I have photos on FB. And I've a collection of personal essays on Dreamwidth, and a ton of meta essays on Ao3. Not to mention the required bio for my book that's on Amazon.
Also, it's worth noting that I've been wandering around a giant cemetery for the last year and a half - and all the big tombs, etc - are untended, and have names that have long since faded. The visited graves are the small ones, and they too disappear after a bit. There's nothing like visiting a cemetery constantly to realize how pointless it kind of is. Yeah it's beautiful. But I've seen a lot of abandoned tombs, that are overgrown and long forgotten.
no subject
Date: 2021-09-08 08:11 pm (UTC)Re: the obituaries, I agree with an earlier comment about how the more that's already planned out and done beforehand, the easier things are when someone dies. There's a lot to be dealt with and leaving instructions can avoid arguments and reduce the workload. Would that people's belongings were all dealt with beforehand because that can go on for a long time.