Recently in Talking Pictures Category

Typology with Mary Poppins?

| | Comments (0)

Eat, Pray, Love Review Round-Up

| | Comments (1)

I've been blessed to have many people point out with interest, reviews of Eat Pray Love before I made the mistake of innocently watching the movie. I have tried to read the book as it sits next my bed and stopped and started and stopped. I could tell you what I find offensive, but so many people are doing much better job than I am, so I'll share.

First, via Dinka, we have Time Magazine's review. Dinka was also generous enough to quote the money phrase on her Facebook page:

His take on Liz's year abroad as a whole, in fact, might have been that beautiful white people enjoy listening rapturously to moral lectures and fortune-cookie affirmations delivered by the old, the unattractive or the darker-skinned.

Next, Barbara Nicolosi at Church of the Masses with Fawn Pander Blather:

At its core, Eat, Pray, Love relates the tedious pilgrimage of a selfish, immature narcissist (don't think of that as a redundancy as much as an emphasis) who manages to evade true spirituality (in the sense of sacrifice and repentance) true connection with other persons (in the sense of sacrifice and repentance) and plot points (in the sense of sacrifice, and well, repentance.... Note to self: There's a great new talk on the core of the successful transformational story arc there....).

The events of the past year (and I promise I will post an update, I just have yet to figure out how to find the words) have left me with negative 300 tolerance of the notion of ending marriages to "find yourself". It's an open wound for me. I'm pretty much outraged that modern culture finds this acceptable. I could write a million entries on what's wrong with this concept, but for now I'll just say I have a real problem with hit books and movies celebrating such selfishness.

The last is Eat, Pray, Love...why bother? I think this one spoke to me most of all:

For me, it was a morality tale of a different kind: a warning against spiritual smugness. As I watched EPL, I wondered to myself, “How could someone so hungry for answers spend four months in the cradle of Christianity and not encounter a single soul who could — lovingly yet with an appropriate sense of urgency — show her the truth path to God? She found language lessons — what about FAITH lessons?”

I didn't understand this at all, and it disturbed me. I saw it as a slap in the face of my Italian/Catholic culture, which sort of brings us back to the Time Magazine quote.

I suppose I'll try again to read the book. Julia Roberts annoys the heck out of me, so I'm almost 100% sure I'll skip the movie.

Families on kid shows

| | Comments (0)

Dom was wondering,

Are there any kid shows where kids are seen primarily as part of a family as opposed to autonomous, a la Dora or Sesame Street?

Let's see.... Just going down the PBS Kids website, I see:

Berenstain Bears
Caillou
Dragon Tales
Dinosaur Train
the awesome WordGirl
Arthur
Maya and Miguel
Between the Lions
Clifford
Martha Speaks

If you stretched it a bit, Curious George lives with a "dad" (the Man in the Yellow Hat). And Thomas and his friends live in a kind of family situation (with Sir Topham Hatt as the father)

...only for Mother Assumpta Long: I actually watched Oprah today. I blogged about it over at Feminine Geniuses. (Hint: Did you know nuns DON'T HAVE SEX??!!)

SNOWPOCALYPSE 2010

| | Comments (0)

The Auteur and the Super Bowl

| | Comments (0)

I Watched Oprah Yesterday

| | Comments (0)

I do that from time to time. It's a guilty pleasure and now you know my secret. Blackmail me if you wish.

In yesterday's episode, Oprah had Mackenzie Phillip on talking about her drug addiction and her incestuous relationship with her father. When this news broke in the Internet yesterday, I read many obvious comments: shock, disgust, why doesn't she keep this to herself, she is doing it for money and attention. Perhaps I am alone, but all I could feel was deep sadness for Mackenzie. It seemed clear why she spent so many years struggling with a drug addiction. How does one get over such a thing? How does one deal at all? I cannot even begin to fathom.

I have to say I think she should tell her story. Whatever means she has utilized to deal so far has not worked. There is something about keeping secrets of this kind that takes on a life of its own never allowing you to deal with the initial problem. A lot of energy is spent hoping no one knows, or brushing it under the carpet...or simply trying to forget. I find that when I spend a lot of time worrying about something I did and feeling guilty about it, it often helps a great deal to talk to someone (in this case, a therapist would be a good start) and bring perspective to the situation (me:I can't believe I made them white flour sandwiches! They are doomed to lives of bad nutrition now! friend:blinks). While guilt can be helpful in determining a right course of action, left unchecked, it can be the cause of equally egregious behavior if left unchecked.

I suppose I should state the obvious thoughts about her father. She makes a point of naming this "consensual incest", but it started when she was very young and continued until she was much older. Her father crossed a line when she was vulnerable. I am not saying she is not responsible for her actions, but simply that I can't imagine how sound she was in her situation to see things clearly. Her father=disgusting. I will refrain from making the obvious Baby Boomer observation. God help me, I know when my children are adults, despite my best efforts, they will have complaints about my parenting abilities, because I am human. But I cannot imagine knowingly using my child like this. Maybe I should pity him too. Maybe he did not understand the ramifications and the selfishness of his actions. Only God knows.

Mostly what struck me is what Mackenzie Phillips said about forgiveness. I do not have a quote, so I will paraphrase. She said she learned that forgiveness is not something you give to the person that offended you as much as it is giving yourself some peace. If I may take it a small further and say it is making peace with God as well, which is why Jesus tells us we must forgive. I wish her he best.

"Give Up Yer Aul Sins"

| | Comments (0)

This is too cute: Little Irish children telling Bible Stories. HT Mary's Aggies via Mark Shea


Seen at Inside Catholic: Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller. I don't know why it never occurred to me that there would be footage of them out there somewhere.

"Sebastian's Voodoo"

| | Comments (0)

HT: CMR

What I really want to know is how the powers that be in charge of the apocalypse bother to make the players so politically correct. Not the movie makers, you know, the fates, like in Angel or Charmed...

The world is destroyed and the people who are left are a smart white guy, a little black girl, a universal Indian like lady, a black rapper, an old woman and various generic white criminal types.

Well duh Mom, you always need a rapper. Sheesh.

Wow!

| | Comments (1)

The divo has fallen ill, but the show must go on. Who can take his place with only 45 minutes to rehearse?

"Cry Me a River" -- cut for a charity album in 1999.


Di Fattura Caslinga: Pansy's Etsy Shop
The Sleepy Mommy Shoppe: Stuff we Like
(Disclaimer: We aren't being compensated to like this stuff.
Any loose change in referral fees goes to the Feed Pansy's Ravenous Teens Fund.)


Pansy and Peony: The Two Sleepy Mommies



Archives