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Jun. 3rd, 2023 05:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Sent my lease renewal by certified mail today - the rental agency moved from Great Neck to Garden City (moving up in the world - Garden City is nice). Rent went up by about 5% or $96 for a two year lease, after not going up much at all for five years. This year everything went up in cost.
But, still affordable, also in a way ironic. My rent is now what it would have been way back in 2014, if I'd taken any number of apartments instead of this one. And if I'd taken those apartments, I'd probably be paying about a $1K more or living farther out and less nice digs.
Viola Davis is right about one thing in her bio - hunting an apartment in NYC is impossible and will bring you to your knees, unless of course you have a lot of money and connections. You are competing against so many people and it is not a level playing field.
2. I'm no longer enjoying the Viola Davis autobio "Finding Me" - she kind of falls into the trap an old creative writing prof warned me about. People tend to write themselves one of two ways - either as the greatest person ever, or the worst person ever. They either whine or brag or talk about how great they are or how bad off they are.
Viola is doing fine until she begins to become successful. Her husband is a magical gift from god. (He's not, she met him on a job and called him up a month later, they started dating, then moved in together and finally after a few years of living together they got married. I'm thinking he must have been divorced, because he had kids and grandkids, which she throws out there but doesn't really explain. It's mainly - "oh he was exactly what I asked for and God handed him to me, after I did this that and the other thing." I wanted to smack her.
Actually my difficulty with the book? Is I liked the actress more prior to listening to it. Now, she's coming across as a touch entitled and full of herself. Same thing happened with Michelle Obama, Mathew Perry, Michael Caine, Carrie Fisher, Prince Harry and Kathleen Turner.
It's not easy to write a book about yourself without coming across as a touch of an insecure asshole.
3. Besides sending back my lease renewal - I managed to finally complete a water color that I was working on. I have three more in this series to go, before I jump to another topic.
This one took a while, about two weeks. Mainly because I'm getting burned out on the paintings, I think? Been doing them since roughly February. Have about twenty-five so far. I may switch to something else soon - or another medium.
4. Watched two movies today:
Still - the Michael J. Fox documentary on Apple TV. It's good. Fox is disarming, and self-deprecating to a fault. The appeal of the man is that he doesn't come across as entitled, whiny, or full of himself at all. And never really has. He owns his mistakes, and doesn't ask for any pity nor does he play the victim.
He also is rather humble about both his career and his disease. What he gets across is up until he was diagnosed with Parkinson's - he was never still. He was always moving. Also states that people don't go into acting or become actors because they are secure, and if you are lucky enough to become a professional actor - it only gets worse. Because you are basically trying to play anything but yourself - constantly jumping into other people and trying to escape yourself. This kind of sheds light on Davis' book as well.
When he got diagnosed with Parkinson's in his late twenties - his immediate reaction was denial, and to hide it. And he became an alcoholic as a result - stating at one point his wife would open up two bottles of wine for dinner, thinking they'd finished both of them together with friends or as a family - when in reality, he'd drunk one by himself that night. (I totally understand why he turned to alcohol and became an alcoholic - with alcohol there is no tremor. It calms the nerves. You don't shake at all.) When they asked him if he was an alcoholic - he said he was definitely an alcoholic, and has been abstinent for over thirty years. Doesn't drink at all now. He went off alcohol and used pills instead - the pills provided dopamine to the brain which was able to hide the tremor. He'd carry them around with him in his pockets on sets.
And he was a bit of a workaholic. Rarely home. He said his wife became a single mother, while he got to work. When he'd been doing Family Ties, he was filming the B movie, Teen Wolf down the block from a shinier Steven Spielberg/Roger Zemeckis gig that had Crispin Glover in it. He was jealous - wondering how crazy Glover got that picture and he hadn't. Then he got brought into show-runner of Family Ties' office - and they confessed that they had told the producers of the film, he couldn't do it. But the producers came back to them - asking again. The reason they asked again - was Eric Stolz wasn't working out in the part, and they wanted to reshoot the Stolz scenes with Fox, and see if they worked better. Fox could do the movie without missing any work on Family Ties - in short he could do both at the same time. So after Ties ended it's shoot for the day, he was driven to the Back to the Future lot and shot those scenes, then around midnight was driven back to his apartment, with a pillow and a blanket, and slept, then jumped back to Family Ties. This was before he met Pollan and got married. After, he was just as bad, jumping from movie to movie.
What slowed him down, ironically, was the Parkinson's. Eventually, he woke up and realized he had to slow down, stop doing movies, go back to television, and spend more time with his family. Then finally, he had to reveal he had the disease and own it. He couldn't hide any longer. And that's when things began to change for the better - he began to de-stigmatize the disease and with Mohammed Ali (who also had it) advocate for people with it.
He shows in the film the toll it has taken on him. That it freezes him. Makes it difficult to deliver the one liners. That he can't walk fast, and often falls over, trips over things, or runs into stuff. He's broken his hand, and his arm. More than once.
And he has a lot of help. Personnel trainers and physical therapists on staff full time. Doctors. Etc. He can afford them - and he shows that.
And how important it is to provide that to others.
He's story is somewhat uplifting. And he remains adorable in it.
The other one was Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Theives - starring Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriquez, and Hugh Grant. Also Rene Page from Bridgerton. [ETA: Streaming for free on Amazon (or with your subscription at any rate - I didn't pay anything for it).]
It's surprisingly good for a movie based on a board game. Hilarious in places, and charmingly fun. The writers make the wise choice of making fun of the story, but in a good way, without falling into annoying parody or satire. There's some nice one-liners, most are delivered by Pine. Pine is charming in his role and likable. There's no annoying romances. Michelle Rodgriquez play's Pine's partner in crime, and they are more like brother/sister than lovers. Hugh Grant plays one of the villains and is charming in it - he does a great job of playing villains.
It has action. Uses CGI in a way that actually works and doesn't overwhelm the viewer, and funny lines. One of the better action flicks I've seen this year. Liked it a lot better than the two Marvel films that I saw recently.
5. Final accomplishment? Sleep. I managed to sleep at least 8 hours. So go me. I'm less irritable when I get sleep.
But, still affordable, also in a way ironic. My rent is now what it would have been way back in 2014, if I'd taken any number of apartments instead of this one. And if I'd taken those apartments, I'd probably be paying about a $1K more or living farther out and less nice digs.
Viola Davis is right about one thing in her bio - hunting an apartment in NYC is impossible and will bring you to your knees, unless of course you have a lot of money and connections. You are competing against so many people and it is not a level playing field.
2. I'm no longer enjoying the Viola Davis autobio "Finding Me" - she kind of falls into the trap an old creative writing prof warned me about. People tend to write themselves one of two ways - either as the greatest person ever, or the worst person ever. They either whine or brag or talk about how great they are or how bad off they are.
Viola is doing fine until she begins to become successful. Her husband is a magical gift from god. (He's not, she met him on a job and called him up a month later, they started dating, then moved in together and finally after a few years of living together they got married. I'm thinking he must have been divorced, because he had kids and grandkids, which she throws out there but doesn't really explain. It's mainly - "oh he was exactly what I asked for and God handed him to me, after I did this that and the other thing." I wanted to smack her.
Actually my difficulty with the book? Is I liked the actress more prior to listening to it. Now, she's coming across as a touch entitled and full of herself. Same thing happened with Michelle Obama, Mathew Perry, Michael Caine, Carrie Fisher, Prince Harry and Kathleen Turner.
It's not easy to write a book about yourself without coming across as a touch of an insecure asshole.
3. Besides sending back my lease renewal - I managed to finally complete a water color that I was working on. I have three more in this series to go, before I jump to another topic.
This one took a while, about two weeks. Mainly because I'm getting burned out on the paintings, I think? Been doing them since roughly February. Have about twenty-five so far. I may switch to something else soon - or another medium.
4. Watched two movies today:
Still - the Michael J. Fox documentary on Apple TV. It's good. Fox is disarming, and self-deprecating to a fault. The appeal of the man is that he doesn't come across as entitled, whiny, or full of himself at all. And never really has. He owns his mistakes, and doesn't ask for any pity nor does he play the victim.
He also is rather humble about both his career and his disease. What he gets across is up until he was diagnosed with Parkinson's - he was never still. He was always moving. Also states that people don't go into acting or become actors because they are secure, and if you are lucky enough to become a professional actor - it only gets worse. Because you are basically trying to play anything but yourself - constantly jumping into other people and trying to escape yourself. This kind of sheds light on Davis' book as well.
When he got diagnosed with Parkinson's in his late twenties - his immediate reaction was denial, and to hide it. And he became an alcoholic as a result - stating at one point his wife would open up two bottles of wine for dinner, thinking they'd finished both of them together with friends or as a family - when in reality, he'd drunk one by himself that night. (I totally understand why he turned to alcohol and became an alcoholic - with alcohol there is no tremor. It calms the nerves. You don't shake at all.) When they asked him if he was an alcoholic - he said he was definitely an alcoholic, and has been abstinent for over thirty years. Doesn't drink at all now. He went off alcohol and used pills instead - the pills provided dopamine to the brain which was able to hide the tremor. He'd carry them around with him in his pockets on sets.
And he was a bit of a workaholic. Rarely home. He said his wife became a single mother, while he got to work. When he'd been doing Family Ties, he was filming the B movie, Teen Wolf down the block from a shinier Steven Spielberg/Roger Zemeckis gig that had Crispin Glover in it. He was jealous - wondering how crazy Glover got that picture and he hadn't. Then he got brought into show-runner of Family Ties' office - and they confessed that they had told the producers of the film, he couldn't do it. But the producers came back to them - asking again. The reason they asked again - was Eric Stolz wasn't working out in the part, and they wanted to reshoot the Stolz scenes with Fox, and see if they worked better. Fox could do the movie without missing any work on Family Ties - in short he could do both at the same time. So after Ties ended it's shoot for the day, he was driven to the Back to the Future lot and shot those scenes, then around midnight was driven back to his apartment, with a pillow and a blanket, and slept, then jumped back to Family Ties. This was before he met Pollan and got married. After, he was just as bad, jumping from movie to movie.
What slowed him down, ironically, was the Parkinson's. Eventually, he woke up and realized he had to slow down, stop doing movies, go back to television, and spend more time with his family. Then finally, he had to reveal he had the disease and own it. He couldn't hide any longer. And that's when things began to change for the better - he began to de-stigmatize the disease and with Mohammed Ali (who also had it) advocate for people with it.
He shows in the film the toll it has taken on him. That it freezes him. Makes it difficult to deliver the one liners. That he can't walk fast, and often falls over, trips over things, or runs into stuff. He's broken his hand, and his arm. More than once.
And he has a lot of help. Personnel trainers and physical therapists on staff full time. Doctors. Etc. He can afford them - and he shows that.
And how important it is to provide that to others.
He's story is somewhat uplifting. And he remains adorable in it.
The other one was Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Theives - starring Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriquez, and Hugh Grant. Also Rene Page from Bridgerton. [ETA: Streaming for free on Amazon (or with your subscription at any rate - I didn't pay anything for it).]
It's surprisingly good for a movie based on a board game. Hilarious in places, and charmingly fun. The writers make the wise choice of making fun of the story, but in a good way, without falling into annoying parody or satire. There's some nice one-liners, most are delivered by Pine. Pine is charming in his role and likable. There's no annoying romances. Michelle Rodgriquez play's Pine's partner in crime, and they are more like brother/sister than lovers. Hugh Grant plays one of the villains and is charming in it - he does a great job of playing villains.
It has action. Uses CGI in a way that actually works and doesn't overwhelm the viewer, and funny lines. One of the better action flicks I've seen this year. Liked it a lot better than the two Marvel films that I saw recently.
5. Final accomplishment? Sleep. I managed to sleep at least 8 hours. So go me. I'm less irritable when I get sleep.