Movie Monday

The Perks of Being a Wallflower- This movie is definitely my favorite movie out of the four I have seen this month. It's based on a novel of the same name by Stephen Chbosky. It is one of the best book to movie adaptions I've seen, probably because the author of the book wrote the screenplay and directed the movie. This movie reminds me of my high school experience, even though I didn't do drugs or anything. There's a scene in particular that was me in high school. Really, it still is like me. It almost made me cry how much I could relate to it. The main character is at a dance, standing against the wall by himself, bobbing his head a little bit. He sees two kids that he hung out with once at a football game and decides to be brave, slowly making his way over to them. I know it may sound like a silly scene, but it was really beautiful.

Game Change- This movie is also based on a book that was written about the 2008 election. The movie focuses on the McCain/Palin campaign, specifically after McCain announces Palin as his running mate. I'm a political junkie, so I loved this movie. After loving Tina Fey's hilarious take on Palin, I didn't know how I would feel about Julianne Moore actually trying to play Palin seriously. She pulled it off, though. And for those who might think I loved it because I'm a democrat who hates Palin, think again. I don't like her, but this movie had an effect on me like the movie W did. I actually felt sorry for her (and for President Bush in the movie W). If the book/movie is at all truthful, she was really thrown into the fray without much vetting or preparation.

Take This Waltz- I was browsing on Netflix when I saw this movie. I hadn't heard of it before, but I saw it had Michelle Williams in it and took a gamble. It's a very interesting movie. (It is rated R for some explicit scenes at the end, which may or may not be real). This review says it better than I can. I will say one thing, though. Michelle Williams is one of my favorite actresses right now. Her performance in this rivals her performance in Brokeback Mountain, in my opinion. (This reminds me, I still need to see Blue Valentine). She has definitely moved on and up from Dawson's Creek, and that's coming from a Dawson's Creek fan.

The Queen of Versailles- This is another Netflix pick. This movie started out as a documentary of a rich family building what was to be the biggest house in America, a replica of Versailles. It ended up being about the recession, the real estate bust of 2008 (including the time share business), and a family trying to build the biggest house in America. The family in the movie is super rich. hey have maids, nannies, drivers, private jets, etc. They've started work on their new house when the real estate bust happens. Their money comes from the time share business, so they start losing. Banks start pulling out funding for a new resort in Vegas and they don't have enough to continue working on their new home.  Throughout the movie, I went back and forth hating the people (fishes and lizards found dead because no one thought to take care of them with the maids gone) to feeling a little bit sorry for them (he mom compulsively buying even though she knows she shouldn't).

Alex Webb

Another exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art that I was pleasantly surprised by was a collection of photography by Alex Webb. From the introduction to the exhibit: Alex Webb uses his camera to explore the poignancy and color of street life, co-mingling cultures, and socio-political tension in places that fall on the periphery of Western culture.As a photographer Webb resists the tendency to merely illustrate or document certain conditions such as poverty or oppression, rather viewing his role in parallel with that of a novelist creating evocative images that reveal what is intensely tragic, beautiful, or perplexing in a particular locale.

I don't think that this exhibit had much of an effect on Adam, but it did on me. These photos are real- they have flaws. I'll admit I don't read more global literature very much, but photographs of daily life in other countries just fascinate me.

I love this photo. The spinning ball, the architecture in the background, the boys all just doing their own thing.

I am so curious about the story behind this photo! Do all of these shows belong to one woman or do they belong to many women? Why are they there?

 He has a blog called Two Looks with his wife, who is also a photographer. He'll be giving a lecture at the museum in March, if anyone would like to go with me.

Nativity by Brian Kershisnik

We headed down to the BYU Museum of Art last week to see a Heroes exhibit. Although the statue of Captain America holding Saddam Hussein's decapitated head was, shall I say, interesting, the exhibit was just okay. However, there were so many other things there I was so impressed with. One painting in particular really touched me.

This is a painting called "Nativity" by Brian Kershisnik.Honestly, I wouldn't have expected this painting to affect me. I'm in a somewhat resigned place with my faith right now. One of my many issues is that I don't really believe the scripture stories in a literal sense. However, maybe that is why I love this so much. This painting goes against the literal story in some ways. Baby Jesus is not "white," for one. And while it is very likely that Mary breastfed Jesus, I don't think I've ever seen an image of it in art ever before. I love that two women and a multitude of angels are present with Mary and Joseph.

I'm not sure if this is a permanent piece at the museum or not, but I recommend going down to see it in person if you can. This painting is one that you have to see in person. The magnitude of it is just astounding.

2012 favorites

Books

Fiction-
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Nonfiction-
How to Be a Woman and Moranthology by Caitlin Moran
Refuge and When Women Were Birds by Terry Tempest Williams
The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan
The Book of Mormon Girl by Joanna Brooks
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
From Housewife to Heretic by Sonia Johnson

Television
Modern Family
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Portlandia
Parks and Recreation
Downton Abbey
Mad Men
Homeland

Movies
Pitch Perfect
Miss Representation
The Dark Knight Rises
Jeff Who Lives at Home
Safety Not Guaranteed
Ruby Sparks
Brave

And since I didn't see as many movies as I have in years past, a list of movies that I still want to see and may have ended up on my favorites list: Zero Dark Thirty, Les Mis, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Lincoln, Skyfall, Bully, Silver Linings Playbook, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Argo, Flight, The Hobbit

2012 Roundup

- I decided to go back to work at the library system this year, and I'm so happy I did. I quickly got hired on at the Millcreek Library. I got to help stock the library. It was an amazing experience.
-We bought a new (to us) car this summer, a 2003 Mercury Sable.
-Brayden did his first soccer "season" this fall. It was so cute to watch 3-5 year olds running around the field.
-Brayden announced one morning that "superheroes don't wear diapers" and has been potty-trained ever since. I am a huge fan of waiting until they are ready, even if it means they are almost 3 and a half.
-Brayden had his first ER visit in October (pneumonia) and his first surgery in December (an abnormal but benign growth of hand tissue and muscle at the base of his thumb). It was a short procedure, but we were still so nervous. In the waiting rooms, Brayden played with the most adorable two year old girl that was down at Primarys from Montana to have open-heart surgery. I'm so grateful he has been as healthy as he has and also grateful that we have such an amazing children's hospital.
-I read 124 books this year. Not my highest, but close. Over half of that was non-fiction.

Currently...

Humming "I Will Wait" by Mumford & Sons

Drinking Mexican hot chocolate (Abuelita)

Worrying about everyone on the East coast facing the tropical storm Sandy

Working on organizing our home better, especially Brayden's toys, art supplies, and old clothes

Wondering about the election results next week- the races I am most concerned about are President, Utah's 4th district Congressional seat, SL County Mayor, and Millcreek incorporation

Reading The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, and the new issue of the Exponent II magazine

Hobbling around. In the midst of a small arthritis flare-up that I think might be connected to the changes in the weather

Wishing that either I had gotten the job I applied/interviewed for or that we had been able to get a discounted tuition scholarship to the preschool that had an opening starting this week for Brayden

Remembering how I felt this week four years ago. I was SO excited about Obama. Now I realize that I, along with a lot of his supporters, had expectations of him that were near impossible for him to reach. There has been some disappointment, but I still trust him. Four years later, he still gets my vote.

Beginning to think about Christmas. It's not my fault! People keep putting Christmas books on hold at the library, so it has been on my mind.

Getting annoyed about Brayden's bedtime routine going downhill lately. He was going to bed so easily for a few weeks, but apparently it was too good to last.

Do Not Ask What Good We Do

If you've paid attention to any political news the last two years, you know that Congress hasn't accomplished much lately. I just finished a book on this very subject- Do Not Ask What Good We Do by Robert Draper. I learned more than I needed to know about the ineffectiveness of the 2010-2012 U.S. House of Representatives. Read ahead at the risk of getting angry.

"What made 2010 different was a rising tide of economic distress, coupled with the growing belief that the Democrats were only making things worse. Unlike many of the other Blue Dogs, Giffords had voted for the complete unholy trinity: stimulus, cap-and-trade, and health care. The latter vote set off an ugly conflagration of attacks- the very least of which were snarky ads featuring a Pelosi double instructing a Giffords stand-in who would bleat, "Whatever you say, mama Nancy." More ominously, an anonymous assailant blew out the windows on her district office. Sarah Palin's PAC website showed a map of congressional districts with crosshairs covering twenty of them, representing Democrats who had voted for health care. Arizona's 8th district was one of them. Giffords went on MSNBC to warn Palin that "there's consequences to that action." (36)

-I remember hearing about this after Giffords was shot. It made me so upset. Knowing more about the situation just makes it worse.

"Obama had made a strategic mistake, McCarthy thought, picking a fight with Paul Ryan (on the budget). "I think Ryan's in his head," he would say. "Think about it. Ryan's a young guy. Ryan's risen fast. Ryan's got a great family. Ryan's got a lot of comparisons to the rise of where the president is. It's not so smart to raise him up by picking him as an enemy."" (143)

-Ryan is featured quite a bit in thie book. It was interesting to read about him now that he's Romney's VP pick.

"And she (Pelosi) had resisted the temptation to say "I told you so" to Obama- who, back in December, had disagreed with the Speaker's belief that they should raise the debt ceiling during that lame-duck session. The president's belief had been that the Republicans would and should be equal partners in the debt ceiling discussion- implying, she thought, that he believed the Republicans would treat the matter in a reasonable fashion." (259)

-This totally makes sense to me. Whenever Republicans tell me how radical they think Obama is, I just have to laugh inside because I really believe he was trying to be centrist and work with the Republicans as much as he could.

"In short, whatever pressures to govern the freshmen faced were drowned out by pressures from the right. On top of that, their reelection fortunes depended on money from conservative donors. Blake Farenthold had raised a meager $102,000 during the third quarter of 2011. Farenthold couldn't stand asking people for money and was troubled by a system that dictated raising and spending a million dollars every two years so as to keep one's seat." (271)

-A million dollars every Congressional campaign. Infuriating. We need campaign finance reform yesterday.

"The Florida freshmen (West) wasn't quite sure what vision was being articulated on November 1, when the Republican leadership brought to the floor House Concurrent Resolution 13, which reaffirmed "In God We Trust" as the official motto of the United States. "There are few things Congress could do that would be more important than passing this resolution," cosponsor Lamar Smith intoned." (272-273)

-Seriously?! The guy seriously believes this was one of the bets things Congress could have been doing? Aargh!