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Listening to music, inputting the editors comments into the computer regarding my book, on what can best be described as a sleepy drippy day. I'm finding it oddly relaxing in a way. Because it's drippy, I don't have to do anything, but sit in my armchair, work on my book, watch the telly, and listen to tunes.

Very happy with the new American President that I had a hand in electing. Hardest I worked to get someone elected to President in well forever. Granted didn't do as much as some folks did, but I did more than I usually do. The nay-sayers are, of course, out in force. But I didn't vote for him for the reasons they think I did or the reasons they vote for people.
It's not what he promised (politicians will promise you the earth, sun and moon to get elected) or how well he talked (I've met a lot of motivational speakers in my life, most I would not elect for President) or how charismatic he is (loads of people are charismatic), but rather how he thinks, how he ran his campaign, how he handled crises that were thrown at him during his campaign and how he selected the people advising and running with him that won me over. In short, I'd rather have a constitutional law professor over a fighter pilot for President. Luckily for me, in this one instance, the majority agreed with me. It's usually the opposite.

TV. I watch too many tv shows. Half of them are sitting unwatched on my DVR. These include two episodes of Sarah Connor Chronicles, five episodes of Life, Fringe, Sanctuary, and Masterpiece Theater episodes from the summer. I also have this week's Life on Mars (US version), ER, Supernatural and Smallville. This is not to say I did not watch TV this week.
I did. Quite a bit of it. Watched Grey's, Gossip Girl, Desperate Houswives, Brothers & Sisters, Ugly Betty, Starter Wife, Lipstick Jungle, General Hospital (which after a slump, got sort of good again), Dirty Sexy Money (this show is sooo dead in the water, it's not even funny), The Daily Show, assorted news programs and the election coverage. What can I say? I'm going through a melodrama phase at the moment. I seem to find melodramatic shows about rich pretty people with great fashion sense, no violence or relatively underscored violence, and lots of sexual flirting and romance - incredibly comforting. No idea why. Also have become a bit of a political news junkie.

Of the new tv shows - the only two I appear to like are My Own Worste Enemy and The Mentalist - mostly for the lead. I'm a huge Christian Slater fan. And the guy who plays the lead in The Mentalist is adorable. I think My Own Worst Enemy is dead in the water though - too complicated for most viewers to follow. It also doesn't have the sexy/cheese quotient of Alias. The Mentalist on the other hand is a keeper.

Mothers and Daughters - a film review of Volver

I changed my layout. It's cleaner, easier for me to read, and yes swiped from someone on my flist who has a similar one.

Had an interesting chat with my mother tonight, which I bring up because I just finished watching Volver by Pedro Almovadar - a story about mothers. Almovadar is an interesting director, and has a bit of an obsession with mothers seeking forgiveness from their daughters. He's also one of the few male directors who likes to create strong and diverse female characters. Almovadar's films tend to focus on women, there are very few men in them. This film had one male character, who is killed early on, and a few male extras or three line speaking parts, but that was it. None of the men in the movie had more than maybe five lines and even less screen time. The film was populated almost entirely by women, and while male actions affected these women, they focused more on their relationships with each other. He was merely the catalyste.

My chat with my own mother had zip to do with this topic. We were talking about how it is possible to enjoy someone else's company, yet disagree with their views. That you could love someone dearly, even consider them a close friend or mentor, but find aspects of their personality or beliefs to be rephrehensible. Also how important it is to not to judge others or oneself too harshly. I've been admittedly beating up on myself again. This past week was quite brutal in that regard. So the conversation with my mother was rather cathartic. In that aspect - it fits the themes of Almovadar's film, Volver.

According to the description on the netflix disc envelope, Volver is about a woman who visits her daughters and granddaughter in spectural form and provides them comfort and reassurance.
She does this as a means of resolving the things she was unable to resolve in her life and to a degree seek their forgiveness. I'm not sure this is an accurate description, since the mother is clearly not spectural and not dead - they only think she is.

The story revolves around two sisters - one who runs a restaurant and one who runs a beauty salon. Both have at the beginning of the film recently lost their mother. Penelope Cruz's character Ramriadu (sp?) was on the outs with her mother. We're not sure why. While her sister, Solida was rather close to her. Ramriadu in contrast seems to be closer to her Aunt Paula, whom she's named her teenage daughter after.

It's supposed to be humorous though I did not find it to be so. This is a problem I have with a lot of Almovadar's films - I don't find them funny, with the possible exception of Women on a Verge of a Nervous Breakdown - which was hilarious. I found the film touching and comforting in places, but not laugh out loud funny. Have come to the conclusion that humor is a subjective thing. I make jokes all the time in my lj and they appear to go over people's heads and I find things on tv to be hilarious, while others don't and vice versa. I think when laughter becomes a shared experience its magical and does not happen as often as I'd like. In Almovadar's case - my difficulty may be with the translation or reading the subtitles. Humor doesn't always translate well.
( Film review of Volver - mild spoilers )