Milk

Seeing the movie Milk, one of this fall's most anticipated films for so many reasons, is a bittersweet experience.

The movie is fantastic, a biopic telling the inspiring but tragic life story of San Francisco activist and gay rights icon Harvey Milk, who became the nation's first openly gay elected official when he was elected to the city's Board of Supervisors in 1977. The film tracks his life from 1970 until he was killed by a fellow supervisor 8 years later, the script tells the story of one man's political awakening as it parallels the emergence of an activist movement. The acting is top-notch, as expected from the incredible Sean Penn as well as from strong supporting actors Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch and James Franco. (Plus Victor Garber in a small but crucial role. Hello, Jack Bristow!) Gus Van Sant directed the film, and it's shot in such a way that they can incorporate real footage from the 1970's of the characters and events in San Francisco so that it feels like a natural way to tell the story. Let the Oscar race begin.... My grade for the movie: A.

I hope this movie does bring home a truckload of awards, and I hope it does really well at the box office in cities and towns across the nation. But more importantly, I hope it becomes a touchstone in the ongoing and necessary dialogue about gay rights -- and about all civil rights -- in this country.

I can't remember ever seeing a work of pop culture appear at a moment in time when it is so newly relevant. Watching the film, it seemed the entire audience - myself included - was crying at pivotal moments, shedding tears for the tragic life of Harvey Milk, yes, but I think even more so at the fact that so much of the story could be, IS, taking place right here, and right now. These emotions are still so raw. There are scenes from 1978 that could have been shot 3 weeks ago. Watching those scenes is surreal, and very sad. We are now at just over 30 years to the day that Harvey's journey ended, but it's really hard to judge if we've made it any further. I hope that we have, and that the film's message of hope and perseverance takes hold so that progress can continue to march on.

(Photo from the official movie site.)

Obsession Update

It's been a while since I've talked about one of my favorite obsessions, but it's one at the very forefront of pop culture these days it seems. For whatever reason, as long as I can remember I have just loved stories about vampires. Ah, those creepy-but-sexy, spiritually-challenged, powerful metaphors, those bloodsuckers. What would I do without them in my entertainment world? :-)

I dabbled in a few Anne Rice books growing up, lined up at the theater to see the sexy-but-cheesy Interview with the Vampire (the movie that helped launch a zillion Brad Pitt crushes?), I was a huge Buffy and Angel fan, I enjoyed that strange book The Historian and its retelling of the Dracula story, I try to catch both the scary and the silly vampire horror movies when they come out on DVD, and I've even read some questionable vampire romance novels over the years.

Yes, I've read all of the Twilight books. I enjoyed the series -- up until that horrific last book. I was willing to put aside Stephenie Meyer's slight writing style and the immature love story, cuz I still enjoy good vampire mythology and the books had it in small doses. But Breaking Dawn was just horrible, in my humble opinion, and I really hated the way that Meyer tied together all the storylines and had the characters doing things that just seemed ridiculous. So, the last book has pretty much made me a Twilight-hater, and I will not be seeing that movie. At least not in theaters. Someone has suggested we rent it on DVD later and make a drinking game out of it -- I'll leave the door open for that possibility. ;-)

But have no fear - even after feeling burned by that mega-hit series, I still love my vampires. And now, I am so completely engrossed in the world of that tough cookie, the wise-cracking, telepathic Louisiana barmaid, Sookie Stackhouse.

Sookie's such a great character that HBO is pretty much now betting on people falling in love with her and her crazy world to save their tv department -- but I don't have HBO so I actually haven't seen an episode of True Blood yet.

Instead, I've immersed myself in Sookie's world the old fashioned way - spending the last month speed-reading through all 8 (so far) of the books in Charlaine Harris's "Southern Vampire" series. In fact, I'm happy to tell you "how I spent my Thanksgiving vacation" - reading the 3 newest books in the series in the past 48 hours. Yeah, guilty pleasure or not, I'm hooked.

A friend who's also a bit of a vampire fan asked me how these books differ from the more popular Twilight books, and with no spoilers I can tell you that Ms. Harris has succeeded at the difficult trick of creating a fantasy world that seems both unnatural and utterly realistic. While this series looks like one you can easily disregard as just drugstore romance, there is a great deal of poignant social commentary here, on top of smart, fun characters, compelling mysteries and action scenes, and just enough romance (yes, some naughty bits) to keep you turning the pages late into the night.

Sookie lives in our time and place, kind of, with the main difference being that she is slowly learning that all of those legends and myths that have passed down for millennia are true. Vampires are real, and there's a whole hidden culture of supernatural beings living and working, and sustaining their own ritualistic traditions and political systems, right alongside us mere humans. In this world, vampires have "come out" to the general public. After the introduction of a synthetic blood that means they no longer need to feed on humans, the undead folks decide it's time to integrate themselves into the greater human population, with all sorts of reactions from those humans around the world. It's not too heavy-handed to say that there are obvious metaphors behind the scenes of Ms. Harris's stories, and she makes interesting statements on race, discrimination, harassment, prejudice, and fear throughout each of the books.

Aside from all that social commentary, the stories offer us up a smart, funny, courageous heroine in Ms. Sookie herself. As the series begins, she's a small-town barmaid who's used to being known as the town freak since the folks in her community aren't so understanding about her telepathic abilities. She's alone and a little lost, but as she begins to learn just how much more there is in the world around her, she becomes more confident, stronger, and more sure of herself. Unlike another vampire romance heroine I could name, she doesn't just become a submissive fool for love. She enjoys her new found femininity as she starts to meet men who appreciate her, including my favorite character, Eric the Viking vampire, who's most prominently featured in the 4th book, Dead to the World. But, even with all this male attention, she still knows that she's the best person to take care of herself. (Take that, Bella! Sookie is so much cooler a character!)

I don't want to go into too much more without revealing important stuff that plays out over the 8 books of the series -- but I did just close the page on the most recent, From Dead to Worse, and I *loved* the way it ended. So now I can't wait until book 9 comes out in May!

Playing Tour Guide

I am happy to report that Mom and Dad have had another successful trip to our nation's capital, and after 4 days I'm very tired but proud of all that we were able to accomplish even in spite of the dang cold Alberta Clipper that hit us in the face. They had a few places they wanted to see, I had a few exhibits on the agenda, and while their goal was to walk all over the city we did have to curb some of our plans cuz we were just plain freezing. Here's the rundown:

Day 1: Wednesday

After treating Mom and Dad to the fun of transferring on Metro with suitcase on the way home from the airport, we took a little while to explore my new NW neighborhood. They were very impressed, and totally agree that it was worth the upgrade from my old 16th St digs.

After wandering for a while, we had lunch at a place I'd been wanting to try - Yanni's Greek Taverna in Cleveland Park. While Mom and Dad both enjoyed it, I have to agree somewhat with those reviews in the Post. I liked the hummus, but I had a terrible overcooked spanakopita. Really, it was burned on the bottom and the filling was so dried out it was hard. Dad insisted I send it back - I NEVER do that - and the second one I got was at least cooked correctly, but was still terribly salty. Service was okay and the location is convenient, but I'm not going to be rushing back for a return trip to a place where I had to send something back. Like I said, though, my parents both thought their meals were delicious.

After lunch and a quick stop into the National Building Museum to show my parents the Great Hall (site of the G20 meetings - Dad's a CNBC addict), we headed down to the Mall for our first cultural item on the agenda: Pompeii and the Roman Villa at the National Gallery of Art. I really enjoyed this show, and while Dad wasn't too interested at the start I think he liked it, too. The exhibit focuses on the lavish lifestyles of the well-off Romans who had seaside villas in that doomed town. This was a great collection of statues, mosaics, frescoes (like the one to the right), sculptures, jewelry, and housewares, all about 2000 years old. The age of the pieces is impressive enough, and while the style of the art looks familiar to anyone who's taken art history or classics, the organization of the exhibit does help tell a story about a culture that had no idea it was about to end. Word to the wise, though, skip the $5 audio tour - but do watch the 10 minute documentary in the gallery.

With a quick dinner at Gordon Biersch - and fried food lover Dad's first order of calamari for the trip - we then called it a day. A successful day!

Day 2: Thursday

We got up early on Thursday and had a very busy day. First up, we made our way to the National Museum of Natural History and its new Sant Ocean Hall. As a Resident Associates member, I scored us entree to a free lecture about the mysterious creatures that live in the deep. Dad, who actually has an undergrad degree in zoology, was tickled pink, which was a nice surprise for me since I wasn't sure if they'd be down with an hour-long lecture. It was both educational and fun, cuz the lecturer had a good dry sense of humor, and made me glad I've rejoined the Resident Associates program this year. I'll be back! The Ocean Hall itself, though, wasn't a favorite stop on our visit -- cuz it's mainly geared towards kids and at about 11 am on a weekday it was just teeming with teenagers on field trips. Eeek!

I had to go to work for a few hours Thursday afternoon, so after a quick lunch at the Sculpture Garden cafe watching the ice skaters, Mom and Dad went off on one of their own adventures. They've never actually seen the Jefferson Memorial, so they headed off toward the Tidal Basin and in about a 3 hour walk covered the Jefferson, FDR, Korean War, and Vietnam War memorials. They were happy and a little tired.

After a coffee break in the Kogod Courtyard at the Reynolds Center, with some live jazz in the background, we took in the special Bicenentennial exhibit One Life: The Mask of Lincoln at the National Portrait Gallery. This is a small one-room exhibit, but it packs in a lot of information. By documenting the changes in Lincoln over the course of his public life, as seen through the new technology of photography, the exhibit tells the story of a nation at war with itself. The photos are striking, of course, but I was really impressed with the comprehensive labels throughout. You can pick up a lot of the history of Lincoln's life and Presidency through this exhibit, and I strongly recommend taking advantage of their cell phone audio tour. This exhibit left me, admittedly a Lincoln fan, wanting more. Though they didn't produce a catalog for this exhibit, I'll be going back soon to see the Lincoln's Inauguration show, also at the Reynolds Center.

We took a quick peek as well at the Georgia O'Keeffe and Ansel Adams show, Natural Affinities, at American Art. This was a good one to walk through quickly - as we were all almost at the cultural saturation point for the day - as both artists offered strong, bold visuals that were great to look at but didn't require much interpretation. Mom and I had actually seen several of the pieces at the O'Keeffe Museum on our Santa Fe trip a few years ago, and it was nice to see them juxtaposed ith Adams's photographs. Another recommendation here.

After a very enjoyable dinner with Scotte and J-Lo, talking politics and travel at Ella's Pizza - during which Dad had his second fried calamari appetizer of the trip - the 'rents and I called it a night. Color us exhausted, 2 nights in a row.

Day 3: Friday

The cold started to take its toll, as Friday was extremely blustery and gave us the first snow flurries of the season. We decided to take things at a more leisurely pace. Cuz really, who needs to freeze while playing tourist?

We spent the morning visiting the Washington National Cathedral, which really is gorgeous. I recommend taking one of the free docent tours, as our volunteer guide spent almost an hour with us pointing out really interesting symbolism in the art and architecture and filling us in on the history of the nation's cathedral. My own personal allergies to any intermingling of church and state aside, it's an amazing landmark. This is another site where we were dodging hordes of unruly teenagers, and I had the very disappointing experience of seeing a few boys stealing money out of a donation plate. Aaargh.

We happened to be there the morning that the volunteers were setting up all of the Thanksgiving decorations, which was cool to watch. I took a lot of pictures, and would've taken more of the outside if it weren't freakin' miserably cold in the wind. Here's one of my faves from inside, where it was warm:

After lunch at my favorite standby, Cafe Luna in Dupont, Mom and Dad went off in the snow flurries on another of their own adventures to visit the Library of Congress. I took the afternoon to check in with the office on a few things and take a nap. Hey, it's my vacation too, and playing tour guide is a lot of work!

Then, Friday night, I brought Mom and Dad to one of my favorite things in DC -- a photography lecture at the National Geographic. These are always a treat, as I love learning about the photographers' experiences and what they learned about their subjects, and I like that there's always some sort of political, humanitarian or conservation message to the talks. This was another good one.

Day 4: Saturday

Today we had grand plans, but the cold is seeping into our bones so we took it very easy. We made our way up to Bethesda for a good lunch of soup and sushi (and Dad's third order of friend calamari) at Raku, then scrapped our agenda of spending the afternoon walking around at Hillwood. We all agreed we should save that for a future visit when it's warmer. Nap time again!

Tonight, Dad stayed in and watched football with a pizza. Mom came over to my place, and we were both amazed watching the original 1975 documentary Grey Gardens. The musical I saw last week is based on this film and its incredible story of the destitute relatives of Jackie O. It was an interesting mother-daughter experience, watching this film of a horrible mother-daughter relationship gone wrong. Good times.

Day 5: Sunday

What's left to do? Not much -- brunch in the morning, then heading back to the airport. The timing for this trip worked out well, and while I'll be sad to see them go I'll see them again in just about a month. And then it'll be their turn to entertain me! :-)

My Little Christmas Dream

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Three Cheers for Crazy Ladies!

My theater-loving buddy Selena and I made our way over to Studio Theatre to see their new production of the musical Grey Gardens.

This musical was inspired by a 1975 documentary of the same name, telling the shocking story of Edith Ewing Bouvier and her daughter Edie Bouvier Beale. These former socialites, aunt and cousin to Jackie O and key fixtures of the pre-WWII Hamptons scene, were found to be living in complete squalor at their estate, Grey Gardens. Surrounded by 50+ cats and piles of trash, and under scrutiny by the Board of Health for their inhumane living conditions, "the Edies" spend their days singing, dancing, arguing, and reminiscing on days gone by. Not quite the picture mental health, those two.

The entire play takes place at the titular estate, with the first act showing their 1940's heyday and the second showing the strange world they'd created for themselves by the early 1970's. Since Selena and I are the two friends most likely to find the hidden dark psychological subtext in our book club books (whether others think it's there or not!), give us a play where the dark psychological dysfunction is right there on the surface and we're in heaven! After the show was over, we compared notes and found that while we both thought the play was strong as a whole, it was really the CRAZY stuff in the second act that we just loved. :-)

This is my 2nd year subscribing to Studio, and while I enjoyed the plays overall last year I did have a bit of a beef with the season because I thought women were sorely underrepresented. In the 5-play series, every show had a majority of male leads and there was one show that didn't have any women in it at all. There were some good supporting female roles, but the season was largely dominated by men. Well, I shall complain no more.

Grey Gardens is a fantastic show for actresses, and Barbara Walsh - in the role originated by Tony winner Christine Ebersole - gives an unforgettable performance as both Big (in Act I) and Little Edie (in Act II). I thought she was strong in the first act, playing the domineering diva mother Edith, and she had a grand, operatic voice. By the second act, her transformation into now middle-aged Little Edie was remarkable. Her mannerisms, her look, her posture, and even her *singing voice* changed so completely that there was not even a question that we were watching the same actress play a different character. She was frustrating, funny, ridiculous, and ultimately moving in her portrayal of these two very unhappy women.

This show did exactly what a good production should - it left me wanting more. So, I just ordered the original Broadway cast recording on CD and I've moved the original 1975 documentary to the top of my Netflix queue. I'm not done with those Beale women yet!

January 21!

Dear Santa Claus

I have finally figured out what I really want for Christmas! Since my own personal Santa Claus (aka Mom and Dad) is of the type that really just prefers giving people cash or pulling items off a list -- not really the type to impulse buy those "I just saw this and thought of you" kind of items -- I now have an idea of exactly what I'd like to use that Santa cash for this year.

I want to take cooking classes! Yes, me, the singleton formerly known as the least likely to cook. Since this is the lifestyle area I've been best at improving lately, I've found that (a) I'm enjoying making tasty things on my own in the kitchen and (b) I have a lot to learn about techniques and good flavor and texture combos.

So, my plan is that starting sometime in early 2009, I will be enrolling in some of the recreational classes at L'Academie de Cuisine.

The classes are pricey, so I probably have to pace myself and start just with the basics. Depending on the schedule, I'll probably try the Beginner Techniques course first. Has anyone out there sampled their classes? Anything to report?

So -- that's my plan for my Santa cash this year. :-) What are you all asking the jolly guy in red for this holiday season?

Photo credit.

What's Going on at Grey's?

For those of you, and I know there are many, not still following along - there's a new controversy over in Shonda-Land. It's very hard to figure out what's actually gone on here, but it sounds like the big nasty slam of either the network or sponsors clamping down on a storyline that was just starting to explore a really interesting new relationship. And in light of the many things that happened in the real world this week, it just doesn't feel right at all.

**Spoilers**

Starting at the end of last season, two of Seattle Grace's most interesting and sassy characters - Dr. Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez) and Dr. Erica Hahn (Brooke Smith) - started a budding relationship that allowed both of them to explore their own sexuality and self-image. By last week's episode, this had developed into a full-fledged romance - though one with typical GA angst and shenanigans. In a really moving scene, Dr. Hahn had made an amazing revelation, a discovery, really, that she is gay. Brooke Smith played it beautifully, and her "leaves on the trees" speech is definitely one that should be submitted for Emmy contention.

I loved this storyline, for many reasons. It was pushing the envelope on prime-time tv, sure, cuz it's still a rarity to see story arcs of characters exploring and experimenting with their sexuality. But it was also great to see two women who are gorgeous but don't quite fit the Hollywood standard of "beauty" having fun with a fun, sexy plot. And, it gave these 2 great actresses in the somewhat crowded Grey's playing field a really meaty storyline.

But.... something happened. For some reason, between last week's brilliant episode and this week, Brooke Smith was abruptly fired. Her character was sort of quickly disposed of in last night's episode, with a story that sorta makes sense from a medical standpoint but had nothing to do with the Callie/Erica relationship. It sounds like Smith was taken by surprise, as were her other cast members. It's not like she's been having any public feud with the writers, a la Katherine Heigl, so what gives?

Shonda's reason - that they can't write for her character anymore? - doesn't sound good, and reports make it sound like she wasn't happy about it either. Was it the network brass reacting to an edgy storyline? Or were the sponsors getting cold feet? It all feels kinda gross, and of course folks are wondering if this at all relates back to or demonstrates some sort of pattern relating to the Isaiah Washington troubles.

If it all does have to do with squeamishness over the storyline, that's so disappointing. In a week when a battle was fought for gay rights across the nation, the outcome of which shows that we all still have a long way to go, it's really sad to lose an example of such a complex, multi-dimensional, thought-provoking gay relationship on one of television's biggest shows. Pop culture does have the power to influence society as a whole, and it feels like this is another step back.

Yippee!!!!

Hooray!

Yabba dabba doo!

Woohoo!

Woot!

Bam!

Hot diggety dog!

Yowza!

Now, the next stage of the fun.... Cabinet-stakes! Stay tuned...

The Belief-O-Matic

There's this interesting and fun online quiz that friends and I discovered about 10 years ago... on BeliefNet, you can take the 20 question "Belief-O-Matic" to learn how your own views match up with the major world religions. The questions ask your thoughts on things like divinity, the afterlife, salvation, and social and moral issues, and then you'll get a list of how well you align with 27 different faiths or belief systems.

I retake this quiz about once a year, and it's always interesting. For me, my results are very telling -- I almost always end up with the same top 5 answers but their order varies. As I've gotten older, though, Judaism has moved a bit down the list and Buddhism has moved up. Interesting. Seeing these results is always a good little motivator for me to do some reading about the different belief systems.

And, I *always* - for ten years - have had the same answer in the very bottom slot. Roman Catholicism, the religion in which I was brought up, is always the worst match for me. I'm more of a *Scientologist* in my beliefs and social views than I am a traditional Roman Catholic. Seems about right.

Here's my rundown:

1. Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2. Neo-Pagan (99%)
3. Secular Humanism (92%)
4. Liberal Quakers (88%)
5. Theravada Buddhism (87%)
6. New Age (86%)
7. Mahayana Buddhism (75%)
8. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (75%)
9. Nontheist (64%)
10. Reform Judaism (64%)
11. Taoism (63%)
12. Orthodox Quaker (57%)
13. Jainism (51%)
14. Baha'i Faith (48%)
15. Sikhism (44%)
16. Scientology (43%)
17. New Thought (42%)
18. Orthodox Judaism (34%)
19. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (33%)
20. Hinduism (32%)
21. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (29%)
22. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (29%)
23. Islam (27%)
24. Seventh Day Adventist (27%)
25. Jehovah's Witness (16%)
26. Eastern Orthodox (15%)
27. Roman Catholic (15%)