Julie & Julie & Julia

Last night, The Boy came home with a DVD (why do we call them videos anymore or is that just me?) -- it was Julie & Julia. You know, the movie based on the story of NY blogger Julie Powell, who wrote a blog about her year of cooking through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. (Actually, he also brought home a boxed set of DVDs of the entire history of WWII, but at 9:45pm, that seemed a little too intense to get into before bedtime.)

So I'm assuming that all of you have seen Julie & Julia and I'm the latecomer here. I read the book early on in my blogging life and proclaimed it "cute." I really wasn't in any sort of hurry to see the film (obviously) as I'd read the book, despite the adoration of Meryl Streep.

Anyway, watching the movie was something of a very humorous revelation. Yes, Meryl Streep was wonderful. Yes, Stanley Tucci was adorable and sexy. Yes, it made me pine for Paris and all foods cooked in butter.

The humorous revelation actually came from The Boy and his increasingly regular outbursts at the screen: "That's OUR life up there!" "What did they do, put a spy camera in our house?" Or he'd just shoot me a charming look composed of equal parts smugness, martyrdom and incredulity. ("Are you going to write this in the blog?!")

It's not that I would compare myself to Julie Powell at all, aside from the fact that we both blog and yes, our first names are the same. (And the somewhat occasional yet maniacal attachment to our blogs as a representation of ourselves to an imagined audience.) But now watching this movie through The Boy's eyes, almost three years after my foray into blogging, it was a somewhat revealing portrait. I'm guessing that many other bloggers felt the same way seeing this film.

It did make me reflect and take inventory of the color and shape my life has taken since I started blogging. As this blog, tangobaby, was my first and still my "real" blog even though other passions and projects have moved to the forefront, the majority of the lessons learned and connections made have come from here. In the crucible of boring office jobs, a yearning for creative outlet and an unsure self-worth... how many of us fall into blogging? As a combined escape from the mundane or outlet for our desires, the numbers of us out there must be staggering.

I guess I just haven't given much thought to how the practice of blogging as a cultural phenomenon has been portrayed in our society. Although there are many bloggers out there, there are still even many more people who've never read one or heard of one. The Boy made a comment about the future trend of movies will now be based on the lives of bloggers, but boy howdy, I'd much rather watch one of those blogging inspired movies than one based on yet another comic book character.

In retrospect, I can't think of a reason not to blog given where I've come from as a result. This blog in particular may take on different levels of importance depending on what other creative pursuits land in my lap, but I can't help feeling that the essence of tangobaby is at the core of a lot of it.

Out with the girls

Robin of Bird Tweets taking photos in Clarion Alley in the Mission.

***

I went almost immediately from days of darkness inside the Castro Theatre to full-on sunshine and hot temperatures (especially for San Francisco).

Robin and Relyn are still visiting our fair city and this is Day Two of our SF: Tangobaby style marathon. Yesterday we spent half the day in the Mission and the other half in Chinatown, by way of The Castro, the Palace Hotel and the Lower Haight. (And yes, that is a lot.)

We had Salvadorean papusas and plantains on 24th Street, dim sum on Stockton and sausages from Rosamunde's (yay!). We rode a cable car, a bus, the N-Judah and BART. And we walked. Boy did we walk. And we got much needed accupressure foot massages in Chinatown. We ate the grilled sausages at my place and watched Vertigo on the big movie screen, so they could see parts of the city we saw today (Mission Dolores and downtown) and parts of the city we will have to save for next time. We couldn't decide who was crazier: Jimmy Stewart or Kim Novak.

Today is Telegraph Hill (hoping for wild parrots), the Filbert Stairs and North Beach in general, SF MOMA to see Robert Frank and Richard Avedon, and who knows what else while we still have feet.

I'm just beside myself to see what photos Robin will get with her big camera. She has been so generous in trying to figure out how to help me use my little baby one. I'm inspired to save money and get a real SLR and lenses like hers (but first, a job must come). I have this feeling of anticipation in having a photographer friend I so admire take photos of the places I've come to love so much, and then see them through her eyes. I know her work is going to be incredible and cannot wait to see it.

Relyn has a perfect little camera but I have a feeling she'll be getting a bigger one soon! We've got to have some sort of camera fever that is contagious.

Both of them are more wonderful to hang out with than you might even imagine. Robin is fearless and strong with her camera. I really admire her passion and pursuit of the image and how generous she is to share her enthusiasm and her wealth of knowledge. Relyn is bubbling over with humor and laughter and pure enjoyment where ever she is. She wants to do and see everything, and appreciates all she sees. I am enjoying them both tremendously.

***

I had more fun watching them take photos of the places I love, but here are a few images I took yesterday that I like.

playing the hand you're dealt in Chinatown

waiting for mama to finish the laundry in the Mission

the last picture show, in the Mission

their tiny master, Chinatown

Okay, time to prepare for another day.

xoxo

Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.

Now I think that maybe I was expecting a little more humor today. (I have two main filters through which I try to understand the world: Monty Python and/or Woody Allen.)

Rolling on Shabbos

***

Happy Birthday, little Chipmonkey.

I hope your year is full of White Russians and lots of laughs.

And more fun with me.

And Jesus.

Rolling on Shabbos or not...

you make life fun!

xoxo

***

Chipmonkey had the best costume ever.
Compare her to the original and you'll see.

***

UPDATE 11:35am: Chipmonkey's friend Rick took some fantastic photos. I have camera envy.

White Russian, anyone?

I really don't think I can get on the bus like this.

"Jeffrey, this is Maude Lebowski. I need to see you. I'm the one who took your rug."

***

I'll catch up with you guys after the bowling but right now I need to call a cab.

I'm not that adventurous.

More Movie Star Sightings

This was even better than seeing Bud Cort tonight! Look who else I saw today!

Here's a little real San Francisco movie stardom...

Hopefully some of you saw this movie because it's really wonderful.

Of course I was totally freaking out about these guys. And I got some great photos but they'll have to wait. I have got to go to sleep before I pass out in my chair.

xoxo

Oh, for crying out loud!

What is the difference between this?

The monolith from the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey

and this

The monolith from the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey

and this

A giant stick of butter that fell off of my spatula (don't ask) and now is wedged between my refrigerator and the stove?

And I can't reach it?!

***

I am looking at this freaking miniature monolith of butter back there and all I can do is laugh and picture myself as a Stanley Kubrick monkey getting all pissed off and throwing a bone in the sky.


Boy, I wish I could reach that butter. And it's Plugra too. Damn, that sh*t's expensive.



Does this mean I'm going to evolve into the Star-Child soon? Because maybe then I'll figure out how to get the butter. *sigh*

***

ps.: Just so you know, this wasn't the post I had intended to write, but I'm very distracted and certainly not very evolved right now.

The Trouble with Women

This really explains it all.



Although, one has to wonder... what IS Brad's problem? Could it be that he's a jerk?

Seriously, it's almost noon. Am I still in my pyjamas? Yes. Have I cleaned my room? No. Am I screwing around and watching these 1950's educational films? Absolutely.

I promise this is the last one. For today.

A Girl Likes to Know You've Had a Good Time

From the immensely enjoyable "Dating: Do's and Don'ts." Part 1


Part 2

I wanted to share some advice with you for the weekend, just in case you've got a Hot Date with Woody, or Anne. Or both.

I am now addicted to the Prelinger Archives, from last night's presentation. I'll share more about that later (it was awesome), but right now I have to learn How to Be Well Groomed. ("Sue avoids red nail polish since it would call attention to her stubby hands.")

I Think My Food Combiner Is Broken

Warning: This is one of those silly posts. I am going to blame it on my head cold.

***

I think my food combining instincts are going completely wonky. I think because I had been left alone as a Bachelorette for two solid months that I became a weird culinary hybrid of frat boy, ascetic/hermit and kosher foodie with a vitamin B deficiency.

I am not going to say how many nights I had popcorn for dinner while The Boy was away. I am not going to say because 1) it's embarrassing to think about how many times I ate popcorn for dinner and sometimes breakfast, and 2) I don't remember. It was that many. And those nights where the side dish was Cherry Garcia ice cream. Nope, don't remember those either.

***

I am going to blame my little friend Chipmonkey for this popcorn fetish. She came over with her nutritional yeast (which I had never even heard of before October 11 as I am not in any way a vegan or a health food person, you know that) and her popcorn and started my whole craving/obsession at my Movie Maven's Movie Marathon for America thingy. And now I have an enormo can (12 oz.!) of nutritional yeast in my kitchen. And the only thing it tastes good on is popcorn. I have been eating loads of both ever since.

Today, I had stale popcorn and a side of pickled herring in sour cream for breakfast. The Boy always looks at me like I am Cat Woman when I eat these fishy things (and will not be kissed and runs away from me) and in the midst of eating this "breakfast," I really do have to stop and wonder what is wrong with me. This meal can't be as bad as Mia Farrow eating the raw liver in Rosemary's Baby, but it's still not quite right.

Why do I never want to eat normal foods for breakfast? Why is the only decent sounding meal to me this morning something that could be in a Monty Python skit? Yes, I eat the herring with these guys reciting in my head ("... and then you must cut down the mightiest tree in the forest with...... A HERRING!"). Do you do this? Eat foods that immediately make you recite Monty Python scenes? ("And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying,’O Lord, bless this thy hand grenade that with it thou mayest blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy.’ And the Lord did grin, and the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths and carp and anchovies and orangutans and breakfast cereals and fruit bats and...")

I'm wondering what made me combine these two foods, like if there was a reasonable physiological cause then that would explain it. They're both white foods? Salty foods? Have no real nutritional value foods? Or I've learned my food combining from years of Monty Python watching?

My tangobaby food pyramid is very bizarre. It consists primarily of har gow, Funyuns, Junior Mints, Ovaltine and popcorn. And sushi and bratwust. Now I am even grossing myself out.

***

I recently discovered, through a cute little Minnesotan transplant at my work, about such things called hotdish. I partially thought that hot dishes only existed in Lake Wobegon, but no--hotdish even has its own wikipedia entry. But now I find that there is even such a casserole creation that is topped with Tater Tots. And another one made with herring!

Perhaps I am really a Midwesterner at heart? Can someone please help me with my food identity?

***

The only other thing I am going to leave you with now is a clip from Stephen Colbert's A Colbert Christmas because it is a very funny song about nutmeg.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

A Colbert Christmas: John Legend

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

If you don't come back to this blog for a while, I understand. I don't know what comes over me sometimes. But if you do eat weird things that make other people look at you askance, I really hope you'll fess up so we can start some sort of self-help group together.

Fleeting Enchantments

“I make my pictures for what Hollywood spends on lipstick” ~ Maya Deren

***

I love tiny discoveries. People or places or things that I've never heard of before that make me pause and find yet another way to see the world as a fascinating place (granted, lots of people have made these discoveries before me and I'm just coming around to it late in the game).

But they're my tiny discoveries. And like a trickle of water that gradually flows to a larger body of water, I'll be able to follow this rivulet to people or other things that will enhance my appreciation of what I've just found and make my personal world more interesting.

***

On Friday night, I stopped into Amoeba Records on the way home. I love to walk the length of Haight Street when I'm not too tired, from the Lower to the Upper Haight instead of taking the train. Two possible treats await me at the end of my walk: plantains and black beans (and maybe a glass of sangria) at Cha Cha Cha, and/or a video or two from Amoeba. For some reason I never buy any music there, probably because the place is so cavernous and overwhelming in its selections, but I seem to navigate my way around the DVD room quite well and always find something I want. Finding restraint at the cash register is harder.

What excites me tremendously is when I discover a fascinating person. Perhaps you've already heard of her, but I found a collection of short films by Maya Deren. I was so entranced by her work. I couldn't stop watching.

From the bio in the Harold Gottleib Archival Research Center at Boston University:

Maya Deren (1917-1961) has been called "the mother of the American underground cinema" and remains perhaps the most noted female experimental filmmaker in the United States from the 1940s until her untimely death in 1961. In addition, she was a noted theorist whose innovative writings are shamefully not as familiar as those of her male contemporaries.

Eleanora Derenkowsky was born on April 29, 1917 in Kiev, Ukraine, the only child of linguist Marie Derenkowsky and her psychologist husband Solomon. In 1922, the family fled the Soviet Union to escape from anti-Semitism, settling in New York City and shortening the family name to Deren... Deren often self-distributed her films, going so far as to screen them on her living room walls. If she managed to land a booking, she often accompanied the screenings with a lecture...She received the Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix Internationale, became the first filmmaker to receive a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, which allowed her to begin research on the Voudoun ritual in Haitian culture.

***

Maya died at age 44. It amazes me the body of work: art, thought-- that some people can create in a such a short life. My birthday is on Tuesday. Some days I really feel like the clock is ticking...

What people or places or things have you discovered that made a lasting impression on you? Anything you'd care to share? I'm in the mood for discovery. Now that this election is over, I feel like I can breathe again.

Here is Deren's film Meshes of the Afternoon (1943). I wonder what you think of it.

Crush #2 (and Crush Update)

Now I'm starting to develop a girly crush on Obama's new Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel. Is anyone else with me on that? I get the distinct impression that he gets sh*t done.

I picture him as a darker, meaner version of Jon Stewart (that's a good thing in my book): “Valentine’s Day is when Dick Cheney fantasizes about waterboarding.” Zing!

I have this fantasy that Mr. Emanuel is a cross between Benjamin Disraeli and the Sean Connery character in The Untouchables ("That's the Chicago way, and that's how you get Capone!")

If The Boy doesn't come home soon, I might have to live in Washington D.C. for a while. Besides being near my two crushes (the other being the new VP), I'll be able to have Chesapeake Bay crabcakes whenever I want and go to the National Gallery all the time. *sigh*

Anyone want to bunk with me?

***

UPDATE 5:09pm: OMG, I seriously love this man. Check out the little open love letter he wrote to The Shrub back in June!

Testing 1, 2, 3...

Hooray! There's nothing better than getting to sleep in an extra hour in the morning because of Daylight Savings Time AND finding out that the Internet Fairy has come in the middle of the night and restored your access!

This almost makes me believe in Santa Claus, too. Did you miss me? I missed you.

***

This is actually a test post because I might be out of practice. I might get winded so I'm starting blogging again in small doses.

The photo above is a selection of movies that were in the $10 Halloween bin at Virgin Records. I picked up a couple of DVDs for late Halloween night (Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow as recommended by willow, and the collector's edition of The Shining.)

Above are more selections that I didn't purchase. Can you find the scariest movie in those pictured?

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If you said the Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Widescreen Edition, you WIN!

Congratulations and see you soon with a real post!

xoxo

I'm little but I'm old: the Movie Marathon update

The Movie Maven's Movie Marathon for America was a lot of fun. Good company, good movies, lots of chips and candy and a little conversation about politics and movies.

It was great to be surrounded by wonderful people in the comfort of my own living room.

Thank you to namastenancy, the famous Greg of the N-Judah Chronicles, the kind and generous dutchbaby, my gourmet popcorn queen Amber and her world traveling hubby Mike, a new friend Tim and his friend Thalia, the mysterious A. and the lovely new mommy Ms. Wellspring and her adorable three-week old Peach. And all of you who attended in spirit, including Paris Parfait and Christina.

I felt very fortunate that The Peach made her first real outing by choosing to attend a fundraising event at my house. She brought us good luck.

All in all, we raised about $500 for "That One." Not bad for a day of eating carbohydrates and sitting in a dark room for hours.

We watched four movies: Dick, Lost in America (those were our two wry comedies), and then The Manchurian Candidate and The Conversation (to fulfill our paranoia/on location in San Francisco requirements).

The other film I would have loved to have watched with the group was To Kill a Mockingbird, but we just ran out of time. So I watched it by myself the next day.

***

I absolutely adore this film, and the book I've read quite a few times since I first discovered it in junior high school. I don't know how many times I've seen the movie, but just the haunting and innocent film score by Elmer Bernstein alone makes me want to watch it.

"They're certainly entitled to think that, and they're entitled to full respect for their opinions... but before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience."

"The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box. As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it - whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash."

"Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

The first clip below is the movie score, the other two are brief but powerful scenes from the film.

Candy Is Heavy

Try carrying a bag of this stuff home on the train!

Today, I have spent almost as much money on candy, chips, popcorn and soda as I have donated to the Obama campaign. It's hard to not go into Walgreens and get three boxes of whatever because they're 3-for-$1. I have to get three boxes of each, at least. Plus extra Junior Mints.

And then I went to the grocery store and got every kind of potato chip I could fit in my basket, plus Fritos, Doritos (hey, that rhymes) and those honey mustard pretzel nuggets. Oh, and two bags of Pirate Booty. When I got to the register, the checker said, "Oh, someone's got a bad case of the munchies!" and I said, "No! It's for my movie night!" and then he said, "Yeah, that's what they all say. Ha ha!"

But it's true. It is for my movie night.

Here's the poster to prove it. I just made it. Many thanks to Bill Stankus for providing the graphic that made me laugh today!

***

Here is something that did not make me laugh today, and if you got all worked up over yesterday's post, What's In a Name, then maybe you don't want to watch this. I just ate almost a whole bag of Pirate Booty and I don't know if the stomachache is from that, or from this video.



At least they weren't saying he should be killed.

Movie Maven's Movie Marathon for America

Coming soon to a sofa near you (maybe). Stay tuned!

***

UPDATE: Okay, here is the scoop. I wish I had a bigger house and a teleporter so all of you could come! Boy, don't I wish!

I was inspired by my friend Amber, my passion for good movies (you knew that one already) and my passion to see that Barack Obama makes it to the White House this November (you knew that one already, too).

***

I've always wanted to have my own Tangobaby Film Festival, so I decided to combine that dream with a fundraiser that I'll be hosting through Hungry for Obama. It's on October 11 and starts at 11am.

Here's the idea: We'll all get together at my place and watch some fantastic movies and eat a lot of junk food and help raise money for Barack Obama's campaign.

I'll provide all the entertainment and concession stand food, including but not limited to: gourmet popcorn (popped for real on the stovetop by Popcorn Queen Amber), Red Vines, potato chips, soda and candy. My guests can stay for all the films or just one.

Right now the list of films include:

The Manchurian Candidate (Frank Sinatra can act, and it's paranoia/conspiracy at its finest)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the best and original version starring Kevin McCarthy and the beautiful Dana Wynter. See what might really happen if creationism gets taught in schools!)

Network (We're mad as hell, aren't we?)

Lost in America (just trying to lighten things up)


To Kill a Mockingbird (to give us hope that things might change finally for the better)

Dick (The real story of Watergate--where Dick Cheney learned his stuff--and Kirsten Dunst's finest hour)


Alien (Let's you and I pretend we're Ripley and the Alien is...?!!)

Movies subject to change, but this is to give you an idea. Let me know what you might include in my film festival, and maybe I'll change my programming! Or maybe you'll decide to hold a fundraising event at your house, too! That could be fun!

Missin' Kissin'

"I wasn't kissing her, I was whispering in her mouth." ~ Chico Marx

***

I am probably going to get in really big trouble for posting this photo, but I am missing a certain person's dimple. And his kiss.

It just dawned on me that I am not going to get a proper kiss until October 20! (stamps foot)

***



"A man's kiss is his signature." ~ Mae West

***

In honor of the boys that made me interested in kissing other boys in the first place, I spent wayyyyyy too much time trying to figure out how to make this little video compilation. An extraordinary amount of time, in truth.

(So please humor me because it is very late, and watch it because literally it took me hours to make this, when I should have been doing at least twelve other things. But that is the downside of being an obsessive, and another topic completely.)

In my formative years, these two guys made me think a) that I would certainly like boys when I got older, and b) that I should try to watch these scenes many, many times (which I did). Funny thing I just noticed is that both of these guys are rascally bad boys (don't we love the bad boys, ladies?), and both of the girls are named Marion. Coincidence? Should I change my name?



Tell me, what are your favorite movie kisses? If you can't decide, there are a bazillion of them listed here. This is a very fun compilation--see how many you know.

These Are the Laws of My Administration

A political quiz! Guess who said this:

...If you think this country's bad off now,
Just wait 'til I get through with it

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Do you know?


***

Need a hint?


***

Okay, here's one:







From Duck Soup. (Again, another Tangobaby highly recommended flick!)
When you've run out of Daily Show episodes, you can watch this...and be comforted by the fact that people have been making fun of politicians (and doing it well) for a looooonnnnnng time.

***

Here are the lyrics, in case you want to sing along. You might find some of the song eerily familiar to a certain party platform these days...

Spoken:
Lady:
If it's not asking too much,

Sung:
For our information
Just for illustration
Tell us how you intend to run the nation

Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx):
These are the laws of my administration

No one's allowed to smoke
Or tell a dirty joke
And whistling is forbidden

Chorus:
We're not allowed to tell a dirty joke

Hail, hail Freedonia

Rufus:
If chewing gum is chewed
The chewer is pursued
And in the hoosegow hidden

Chorus:
If we choose to chew we'll be pursued

Rufus:
If any form of pleasure is exibited
Report to me and it will be prohibited
I'll put my foot down, so shall it be
This is the land of the free

The last man nearly ruined this place
He didn't know what to do with it
If you think this country's bad off now,
Just wait 'til I get through with it

The country's taxes must be fixed
And I know what to do with it
If you think you're paying too much now
Just wait till I get throught with it

*whistle*

I will not stand for anything that's crooked or unfair
I'm strictly on the upper knot, so everyone beware
If any man's caught taking graft, and I don't get my share
We stand'im up against the wall and pop! Goes the weasel

Chorus:
So everyone beware, you're stricken or unfair
-------unless he gets his share

Rufus:
If any man should come between a husband and his bride
We'll find out which one she prefers by letting her decide
If she prefers the other man, the husband steps outside
We stand him up against the wall and pop! Goes the weasel

Chorus:
The husband steps outside, relinquishes his bride
They stand him up against the wall and take him for white

We Now Interrupt Our Fever

(Guys, I promise that if I still have a fever tomorrow, I will go to the doctor.)

That being said, I've been on the sofa a lot since Tuesday. Not a place where you feel exceptionally beautiful, wearing sweats and surrounded by tea cups and wadded Kleenex.

But if you need to escape for a while (fever or no), pick up a copy of Barry Lyndon. I'm a huge Stanley Kubrick fan, and this might be a movie that doesn't usually come to mind when you think of his films, but it should. I haven't watched it for several years, and I had forgotten how perfect this film is visually, so carefully crafted and an entirely fascinating world that comes to life before your eyes.

Plus, there's no better chick flick moment than this clip below. How I'd love to be Marisa Berenson for these four minutes. *sigh* No matter what Ryan O'Neal may have come to, he was pretty damn glorious in 1975.

swoon.



When I feel better, I am totally going to get kissed.

***

A very interesting review of Barry Lyndon here.

I got that second photo here.

A Tribute to Busby Berkeley?

Besides all the other amazing accomplishments and talents that my buddy Johanna has to her credit (dancer, author, director, wise woman, kitty helper, etc.), you may want to know that she is an incredible photographer and has finally started uploading her photos to flickr. (Yay.)

I've been cracking up all morning about these piggies. I don't know exactly why these photos are making me crazy, but true to form, I have been inspired to make yet another movie comparison: the fantastical extravaganzas of the Busby Berkeley musicals.

Perhaps it is the quarter that reminds me of this crazy (and crazy famous) number with Ginger Rogers in the blessed pre-Code days of Hollywood:



Ah! And the clip has PIG LATIN in it! Damn, I'm good.

***

ps. If you haven't seen The Gold Diggers of 1933, you should.

pps. If you want to see more piggies, go here.