Things Women Should Do...MY Version!

Woman's Day online recently put up an article entitled 40 Things Every Woman Should Do Before She Dies

And of course, I went to it and ticked off all of the things that I, a woman in her mid-40s, had done. We all did, in the comments of our friend's Facecrack post.

Then I got a wee bit pissed off - a list of things that I do before I die should be full of things to do, not things that I've already done, or that are irrelevant to me, such as:

#24 Offer to pay for a date and actually do it.
It's remarkably empowering. 

Huh? I've never identified with women who expect the man to pay for the date. Already this tells me that I am not the audience for this list.

Seven of the 40 are about food - eating dessert for breakfast, eating something totally new, learning to make a full meal, eating nothing but junk food all day, ordering and eating a decadent dessert. Oh, and of course there are the ones about your daily workout - don't go to the gym for a week, take a kickboxing class. And two about your hair - cut it short, streak it.

I might add the kickboxing class to my list - but feel empowered by eating dessert? I should be Superwoman!

Some are valid - and when I say 'valid' I mean by my subjective, idiosyncratic perspective:

• live alone 
• travel alone
• go on a road trip with a friend
• quit a job you hate
• cut out friends that you don't like/who hold you back
• throw yourself into a hobby
• try things (food, activities) that stretch your comfort zone
• do something once a year that scares you
• speak in public

BUT, my problem is, I've done these. (Okay, not the 'do something once a year that scares you" one - I just know that I need to do that...) Any attempts to create this list requires a group of like-minded women to add the one (or two) things that they're really proud of - and we grow it from there.

The challenge is set. I will share this post around - get more things for the list from others, and edit to add them.

"It's just a TV show..."

So Benedict Cumberbatch has announced his engagement to Sophie Hunter - I hope they find happiness. It's hard enough to find happiness in marriage without the glare of the public eye.

What amazes me though is the intensity of his (mostly female) fan base - the 'Cumberbitches', defined so very objectively (and ill-spelled) on the Urban Dictionary as:

1.Any woman who has a deep fasination [sic] with the wonderful, beautiful, talented English stage and on-screen actor Benedict Cumberbatch.
2. A refernce [sic]given to people who admire the beautiful features of Benedict Cumberbatch. ex- his green eyes, beautiful cheekbones, sexy toussled [sic] hair.
3. Can be proper ladies, or "dirty. dirty ladies" and everyone in between.

I will not deny that the man is a wonderful actor - I watched the National Theatre Live's Frankenstein, staring the Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller and thoroughly enjoyed it. The two men switched roles every night on stage for the run, playing both the creator and the creature - an astounding tour de force of talent.

Which brings me to the absurdity...what is it about our day-and-age that inspires such intense fandom? Don't get me wrong - I'm a fan. I will bore you to tears about how great Babylon 5 is, how I wish they'd not cancelled Firefly after a season and how Han shot first. But the vehemence and sometimes venom with which some Cumberbitches will defend their loved one's pre-eminence is truly bizarre.

Let's go back to the afore-mentioned Miller - he happens to star in his own, US-based, Sherlock-Holmes-based show, Elementary. Cumberbatch's Sherlock runs 3 shows a 'season', and they're essentially movies, and filmed as such. Miller's Elementary is a 20+ episode per season police procedural. They're different shows, different formats, with a similar premise. They're both interpreting a fictional character. They're both shows on TV. Can I repeat that? They're both shows on TV.

Why is it then that I've had vitriol and near-spit aimed at me for saying: "I like watching Elementary as well"? I truly don't get it.

To the Cumberbitches: I like him too. Cumberbatch is a powerful actor. He's in a very good TV show.
To the fanatical Cumberbitches: He's just a man, in a TV show. And yes, he's getting married.

To Cumberbatch: Good luck, man, on your marriage. You've done well keeping your private life out of the public eye - keep it up!

A Realization...

Ah, well. You know how it is. The absurdities of life have sort of taken over...start paying attention to them, and they pile up either in numbers too many to fully synthesize or too many to even fathom.

But really? I'm not the writer, the artist, the actor on the world stage -- I'm audience. I prefer taking photos to being in them, directing actors to being on-stage, and commenting on others' online contributions rather than attempting to produce interesting content myself.

So, I will keep this blog open, 'cause who knows when I'll want to come back to it...but I'm pretty much migrating my commentary on life's absurdities to Google+. Come find me there!

Cheers,

Lori

Me and Work

I have two main worries in life...one, that if I were to find myself hanging from a cliff or window ledge, dependent on my arm strength, I would be a goner. The other is that come the post-Apocalyptic world, I would be as useful as, well, tits on a bull.

I've had the second concern for awhile...since my 20s actually. Listening to the Indigo Girls...



...where the chorus "I've got to get out of bed and get a hammer and nail, learn how to use my hands" would make me feel so...uselessly intellectual.

To this day, I have that feeling. Oh, I can use a hammer...I just never do. If the world fell into chaos tomorrow, I would be useful in helping to organize people, or preparing curriculum for others to teach survival skills...but of no practical use myself. I'd probably be the first one eaten.

All of these thoughts are coming up now because I picked up a copy of the Spring 2011 Lampham's Quarterly, the topic of this month is Lines of Work.

Here's a quote from Robert Burton (Britain, late 1500s):

"A young man is like a fair new house: the carpenter leaves it well-built, in good repair, of solid stuff, but a bad tenant lets it rain in, and for want of reparation, fall into decay, etc. Our parents, tutors, friends, spare no cost to bring us up in our youth in all manner of virtuous education, but when we are left to ourselves, idleness as a tempest drives all virtuous motions out of our minds, on a sudden, by sloth and such bad ways, we come to nought."

[I blogged the last LQ, on Celebrity, which was a very timely edition., if you're interested.]

So, do you have any thoughts on work? And the apocalypse, if you want to go there....

Lori

Fame and Celebrity

Ah, the absurdity that is Charlie Sheen's amusing public breakdown...

My good friend Raincoaster linked to me on this video, I will link back to her...'cause while I might have had it cross my sphere first, she posted it first:



I don't know about you, but I've often thought about how little I ever wanted to be famous. Sure, you'd probably be rich, but you'd have to work to preserve your privacy...or let it all hang out, damn the torpedoes! Your public drunkenness, arrests, serial marriages, serial adoptions, drug problems, lust issues, cellulite or just plain bad taste -- all exposed for the world to pick over.

Or worse, you start believing your own hype, what your publicist wants the public to believe, what your sycophants want you to believe...and the last person who has the balls to tell you you're an ass drifts away, lost in the cacophony of adulation -- and you turn your ranting, couch-jumping lunatic self loose on the world.

I just finished reading the Winter 2011 Lapham's Quarterly on the theme of Celebrity...just days before Sheen's spectacular nuttiness. It was a disturbing delight to be inundated with heartfelt opinions, many of them first hand, on all the various permutations of what celebrity can mean, through time.

I still wouldn't choose it.

Lori

Fun-with-Reviewing

I've enjoyed writing reviews, mostly for books (some of which are on my book blog), and I can say that the old adage is true:

It is easier to write a pan than a rave.

Gads, it's hard to find creative ways to say something shines...is wonderful...is transcendent. [Insert cliche here]

But ah...nothing equals a good, bad review!

Just stumbled on a great one, for the animated oeuvre that is Gnomeo and Juliet. Here is a delightful snippet:

The worst sin comes at the top of the second act with the introduction of a madcap flamingo character. In the midst of a loud, desultory story the last thing we need is an extra dose of wacky, changing an annoying movie into something almost impossible to stomach.

Wow. Harsh.

Gotta love it!

Lori

Mis-heard

Last night I was treated to some impromptu haiku...a result of me mis-pronouncing or them mis-hearing my comment on "maudlin' poetry" -- I'm assuming it was the latter.

"Modeling poetry?!?"

Walking down the runway,
wearing nothing but fur --
shouldn't I be warmer?

or

Four inch heels
one month's salary --
no wonder I don't eat.

What can you come up with?

Lori