Six-Word Memoir (and more)

I was recently visiting the O Magazine site to enter their 12-Day Holiday Give-O-Way; in case you haven’t heard about it, it’s a holiday contest in which twelve lucky winners get to take home all 60 of the Favorite Things chosen by Oprah. Last year’s favorite things included an electric bike (don’t know how to ride a bike, but I could learn), an elliptical trainer (my mind says yes, my body says no), a Bose VideoWave (46-inch HD TV and home theater in one) (yes, please!), and a Tempur-Cloud Supreme mattress (schwing! OMG…my heart couldn’t take it). Of course, it wasn’t until after entering the contest that I checked out this year’s list of favorite things and it appears the economy has been tough on Oprah’s wallet too, because this year the prizes include Pie Corps Turkey Pie, Bonnie’s Jams, an Electric Kettle, Sprinkle’s Cookie Dough, and Chocolate Truffles, to name a few. I sense a theme there. Anyway, I’m just kidding Oprah, I would be beyond thrilled to win any of those wonderful prizes, though a Tempur-Pedic mattress is no lie, one of my dream purchases if I were to win Lotto.

As usual, I’ve gotten completely off topic. What I wanted to tell you guys about is that while visiting O Magazine online, I spotted a great piece on SMITH magazine’s six-word memoir project. SMITH is an online magazine started in 2006, whose mission it is to celebrate the joy of personal storytelling. In November 2006, inspired by Hemingway’s legendary shortest-short story (“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”) SMITH Magazine challenged their readers to come up with a six-word memoir of their own. “They sent in short life stories in droves, from the bittersweet (“Cursed with cancer, blessed with friends”) and poignant (“I still make coffee for two”) to the inspirational (“Business school? Bah! Pop music? Hurrah”) and hilarious (“I like big butts, can’t lie”). Since then, Six-Word Memoir project has become a global phenomenon and a bestselling book series.”

In addition to the six-word memoir you can also participate in their six word story projects which cover subjects as varied as happiness (share your six words on the secrets to happiness); war (share six words on coming home from war); and moms (what can you say about motherhood in six words?).

Motivated by some of the wonderful contributions I read, I decided to write a six-word memoir of my own. Here goes. Small and simple yet happy life. Not glitzy, witty or funny, but it about sums it up.

What would you write? For more inspiration, visit SMITHmag.net.

P.S. I’ll keep you guys posted on whether I’m one of the lucky 12 to win the give-o-way. Hopefully Oprah doesn’t hold my snarky comments against me, though I doubt she’s reading this blog.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Can you believe the holidays are almost here? Yikes, the older I get the faster the year flies by. The holiday’s proximity hadn’t really hit me until this weekend’s Sunday drive to visit my ‘cuz, who’s recuperating from surgery. After flipping through countless radio stations to pass the time, I landed on one running a 70’s broadcast of a Casey Kasem America’s Top 40 special on Christmas songs. I stayed on the station for the bulk of the ride, drawn in as much by Casey’s incredibly smooth voice as by the songs. That man’s voice was pure magic, and to think now we’re stuck with Ryan Seacrest for the Top 40, but anyway, I digress. After a fun family visit, I drove home under gray skies and showers which sort of put a damper on my original plans to go to the movies, so I drove home instead and hunkered down on the couch with a couple pillows, a fluffy blanket, and of course Jasmin curled up against my legs which meant I was doomed to keeping the lower half of my body completely immobile for the duration of the movie I was ordering through OnDemand.

Now in the holiday spirit thanks to Casey, Rudolph and the Jackson Five, I decided to order one of my favorite holiday-themed films, Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Written and directed by the late, great John Hughes, Planes, Trains and Automobiles is easily one of the best odd-couple/buddy films ever made, starring Steve Martin and the brilliant John Candy. For those rare few who haven’t seen it, the film tells the story of Neal Page (Martin), an uptight advertising exec in New York City on business who is trying to catch a flight home to Chicago for Thanksgiving. It seems like the fates have conspired against Neal making it home for there’s an obstacle placed every step of the way on just his trip to the airport, including first tripping over a steamer trunk on the sidewalk as he’s racing another pedestrian for a cab, and then having successfully bribed another rider to give up his cab, having said cab stolen right out from under his nose. A bus ride gets him to the airport in time for the flight, only to face a delay and the jerk who stole his cab, Del Griffith (Candy), a jovial, down-to-earth, loudmouth who happens to be a shower curtain ring salesman. Stuck sitting next to Del, who hasn’t heard a joke or story he doesn’t just have to share, Neal is already in a bad mood which quickly turns sour as the already delayed plane to Chicago is now diverted to Wichita, Kansas due a storm-related closure at O’Hare.

Stranded at the airport without a hotel room, since he took the time to call home first, despite his better instincts Neal is forced to accept Del’s generous offer of a shared room at a sleazy and cheap motel nearby. Hilarity follows as Neal and Del face every imaginable road block to getting home, including a robbery, a broken train, and a fire to name a few; nonetheless, Del makes it his personal mission to get Neal home, whether he asks for help or not. As the two reluctant travel partners travel from NYC to Chicago via Wichita and then St. Louis, these very different men will learn a little about each other and a lot about themselves; and if they make it home alive, they’ll be better men for the experience.

I love this movie. I have a small list of must see holiday movies which I try to catch each holiday season, which includes Elf, It’s A Wonderful Life, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (both the Boris Karloff narrated cartoon and the Jim Carrey movie), and this film of course. It’s a wonderful story filled with laughs, a few tears, and even a little bit of redemption, with an ending that is everything you’d expect for a holiday film.

John Candy gives an incredibly funny, moving and at times bittersweet performance in what was undoubtedly the best film in his too short career. While he handles the slapstick humor masterfully, it is those touching and poignant moments where he truly shines and becomes the movies beating heart, such as when fed up with Del’s annoying loudmouth, slovenly, and chatty-cathy ways, Neal rips into him; and Del looks at him with this wounded look, as if each word was a physical blow and then haltingly says “You wanna hurt me? Go right ahead if it makes you feel any better. I'm an easy target. Yeah, you're right. I talk too much. I also listen too much. I could be a cold-hearted cynic like you, but I don't like to hurt people's feelings. Well, you think what you want about me. I'm not changing. I like me. My wife likes me. My customers like me. 'Cause I'm the real article. What you see is what you get” …that moment tears me up every darned time.

You can't help but love Del because while he is all of those things Neal says; annoying, cloying, a slob and a loud-mouth; he’s also all heart, and while you understand Neal’s frustration, at the same time, if you ask me, he’s pretty ungrateful because through it all, Del is constantly trying to help. Giving. Kind of like the giving tree from that kid’s book. Of course, since it’s a film, every character is allowed a learning curve and to reference another holiday movie, Neal’s heart grows two sizes that day, and he’s definitely a kinder man by the end of the movie.

As I mentioned before, this movie classic was written and directed by John Hughes, the incredible writing (and in some cases directing) talent behind such enduring 80’s films as Home Alone, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Pretty in Pink, Weird Science, The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles, to name only a few. John Hughes films all offered an incredible insight into the teen psyche, and while this more adult themed film was a bit of a departure from the teen films which preceded it, it is nonetheless a beautifully written story which feels very real, both thanks to his accomplished storytelling and the two actors perfectly cast in the lead roles.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles sheer brilliance lies in how effortlessly it touches our hearts; making us laugh and cry, and laugh all over again. Released in 1987, the clothes and cars may be outdated, but the laughs are timeless.

Shine Shine Shine

Lydia Netzer’s debut novel, Shine Shine Shine, tells the quirky love story of two unique people destined for each other. Sunny Mann is a perfect wife, married to Maxon - a Noble prize-winning engineer currently on a NASA mission to the moon, a perfect mother to her autistic son, Bubber, and expecting a second child, as well as a perfect neighbor and friend. “She was a pro. When she moved to this town, said the neighbors, things fell into place. Barbecues were organized. Tupperware was bought…No one went without a meal on the day they had a sick child or root canal.” Unfortunately, the façade of perfection goes quite literally out the window when while driving home with Bubber from visiting her dying mother in the hospital, the car crash happened, and “while no one died, everyone’s life was changed.” For in “that tremulous moment, a perfect blonde wig flew off Sunny’s head, out the window, and landed in the street in a puddle full of leaves. Underneath the wig she was all bald…Her mother was dying, her husband was in space, her son was wearing a helmet because he had to and she was bald.” Sunny was born without hair and never grew any. No eyelashes, no eyebrows, no leg hair, nothing. No one had known except Maxon, her mother and Bubber.

With her secret finally revealed, Sunny finally “woke up out of her sleep” and allowed her true self to shine, and in doing so took stock of her life, including the fact that despite their love, her and Maxon were starting to lose their way, and the fact that her boy didn’t laugh on his own anymore. Beginning to right past wrongs, Sunny gets the unexpected news that there’s been an accident involving Maxon’s rocket which threatens the life and family they’ve built.

I loved these two wonderfully imperfect people – Sunny and Maxon – who were perfect for one another. Sunny is funny and strong and the perfect foil for Maxon, the genius neglected by his poor parents as a child who had to be taught by Sunny and her mom how to feel and act much like his robots, though no lessons were ever needed when it came to loving Sunny.

The books is mostly narrated by Sunny, interspersed with chapters from Maxon while on his moon mission, and through the use of flashbacks we learn of Sunny’s childhood in Burma and later in Pennsylvania (where she meets Maxon), her teens and carefree college years far from home, and ultimately the journey which brings her back to where she always belonged, in Maxon’s arms. Interwoven with Sunny and Maxon’s tale are also dark secrets revealed from their past that though not pivotal to the story offer insight into each character and the events that shaped them.

The narrative involving Maxon’s innocent courtship of Sunny were my favorites. He was so wonderfully endearing in his awkwardness that you couldn’t help but root for him. In truth some of their interactions reminded me of Forrest and Jenny from Forrest Gump. Maxon falls in love with Sunny at the tender age of seven and from then on his love is on a cosmic-level, beyond this earth, for he says “if the planet was spun like a top, and stopped suddenly, and he was asked to point her out, that he could do it…she would be there like a red balloon in an asteroid belt. She was the only one, ultimately in the whole world who mattered. She was the only one he would have known anywhere.” What made him so dear was that despite the eloquence and romanticism of his thoughts, his actual delivery left a lot to be desired, like his opener before proposing marriage, “Sunny are you all finished with having sex with other men?” I loved Maxon, quirks and all, because despite his foibles he was at peace with himself; sure in who he was and his true worth, and not concerned with what people thought of him.

I was as captivated by the book’s message, as by its love story. It’s a book that reminds its readers that it’s all right to be different or flawed, as deemed by society's standards, and that there’s truly no such thing as perfect or normal. Sunny’s plight is relatable. Who can’t understand and commiserate with Sunny’s need to fit in? Who hasn’t tamped down their inner geek to fit in with the cool kids? The term "normal" is relative, and in truth we all know someone who figuratively “puts on a wig” to hide or disguise the baldness in their life. None of us are perfect; we are all flawed human beings for whom perfection is impossibility, and we’d all be the happier if we reminded ourselves of that more frequently.

Shine Shine Shine is a funny, compelling and poignant story that asks us to be a little brave and embrace the differences that make us unique and human. A sweet, witty love story with characters I won’t soon forget.

Seeing Red

NBC, The Blacklist, Episode 9, "Anslo Garrick", Air November 25, 2013

As many of you know, patience is not my virtue, so despite all plans to the contrary, I’m embarrassed to admit that I am completely obsessed with The Blacklist and dedicating an inordinate amount of time to solving the Lost-like riddle which is Raymond “Red” Reddington. Like I told my friend who said to just wait for the mysteries surrounding Red to be revealed…where’s the fun in that?

This week’s episode titled “General Ludd” was par for the course in regards to the blacklist target story; not much meat on that bone and relatively dull, but the storyline surrounding the meeting between Liz’s adoptive father, Sam (played by William Sadler aka Sheriff Valenti from Roswell), and Red was oh so juicy. We got to see the two proud papas together for the first (and last) time, and we got the big reveal that the two men obviously know and care about each other; and as they reminisced about old times, though it wasn’t said outright, it was heavily implied that Liz is Red’s daughter. Probably the closest the directors/producers are willing to go at this time.

Red tells his friend, “You gave her an incredible gift, Sam, taking her in and loving her as your own.” Sam confesses that he’s been given only 6 weeks to live, adding “I need to tell Lizzie,” to which Red replies “I can’t let you do that.” The implication is that he wants to fess up to Liz’s true parentage, but really Sam never comes out and says what he wants to tell Liz, so it could be that Red is her dad, but it could also be maybe that her mom isn’t really dead, or that there are aliens in Roswell, who knows. We’ll never know what he was going to say, because a few scenes later, after ending a phone conversation with Liz (she couldn’t get away from the General Ludd case to travel home) in which Sam shares the true extent of his illness, Red sits at his bedside and consolingly tells him that he can only hope to love and protect Liz as well as he has. “You will always be her father,” Red says…and then suffocates him with his pillow. Ugh…that scene was just eerie, because in one instance you have Red brutally killing his friend, holding the pillow down despite Sam’s struggles, and then when the deed is done, he gently and almost lovingly brushes Sam’s hair back off his face and then kisses him on the forehead. While I know most viewers will see this as a cold-blooded murder by Red in an effort to prevent his friend from talking to Liz, in all honesty, it could equally be viewed as a mercy killing; after all Sam was dying of cancer and just before Red kills him, he did say he wished he could die quickly.

So after all that, we’re still no closer to knowing definitively whether Red is Liz’s father or not. It seems a moot point at this time, but then I think it’s too obvious; they’ve been spoon feeding us that since episode one, so there’s got to be more there. That can’t be the big reveal.

Like we don’t have enough questions to answer with the enigma which is Red, Liz’s history, Tom’s mystery box, and the surveillance apple-eating guy, we got a new puzzle piece added to the board. Near the start of the episode, we see Red negotiate a tit for tat trade with Agent Cooper in exchange for his help on the General Ludd case, and as the episode neared its conclusion we see Cooper bring Red into an office with a laptop at which Red logs into the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP) database, and punching in the code he received from “Wujing” (episode 3), he brings up someone’s record. Below is a screen grab from the episode video.

Who is Lucy Brooks? Initially I thought it might have been Liz’s mom, but her age is listed as 30, so that’s definitely out. I went back to “The Stewmaker” (episode 4), to determine if it was the same girl as in the picture he took from the album, but I couldn’t really tell, which means we have yet another question to ponder.

All in all, I still know nothing, but I remain hopeful. In other news, in an interview on TVLINE.com with Ryan Eggold (Tom), they asked about the apple-eating surveillance guy and when we might find out what is going on there, to which he replied “Something dramatic was going to happen with the Apple Man at the end of this week’s episode, but then they changed it… We’re changing it up until the moment it airs, which is fun, but also: Where are we going?! [Laughs] So, the plan for the Apple Man is shifting, but I do know that they’ve said to me that Tom and Liz are going to find out who is watching them soon — I think within the next few episodes.” Very interesting. In addition, TVGuide.com reported that Alan Alda will be appearing in an upcoming episode of The Blacklist as a man by the name of Mr. Crowley, a nemesis from Red’s past.

Sadly, NBC will not be helping to fuel my obsession this coming week, because for some unknown (and undoubtedly poor reason), they have decided to preempt The Blacklist’s November 18th episode, and air episode 9, “Anslo Garrick” on November 25th instead; and it sounded so good too, very dramatic…"the hunter becomes the hunted." Anyway, I will continue my sleuthing and hope to beat the show’s reveal with an incredibly satisfying Aha! moment of my own.

Typhoon Haiyan

REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

If you've watched the news these past few nights you have undoubtedly been witness to the scenes of nature’s devastation, this time in the Philippines, a sight which we’ve seen far too many times lately. The scenes of people – men, women, and children – rifling through the wreckage of their homes searching for any treasured tokens of their life before Typhoon Haiyan hit is gut-wrenching. As with most tragedies it is the poor and those that can least afford the loss that are the most directly impacted; when already rickety and dilapidated structures with tin roofs are easily tossed aside like specks of dirt under the massive force of the typhoon’s path of destruction.

Motivated by the magnitude of damage and loss (local officials estimate around 10,000 dead when all rescue and recovery measures are done), I went online and made a donation to the Red Cross. There are any number of organizations offering a helping hand to those affected, including the Red Cross, UNICEF, and Doctors without Borders, to name a few. No matter what your situation, we can all make a small difference, whether through a monetary donation (nominal or larger, if you can), or by donating clothes or other necessary items to any number of Filipino organizations in your local area that might be organizing relief efforts for their country of origin, or by offering something as simple yet powerful as a prayer for those taken by the storm, and those left behind to struggle and suffer their loss.

It is during times of trial and sorrow when we should most come together, motivated by our common humanity. So next time you turn on the TV and take in the grief stricken faces of Filipinos and think of the pain and loss they have endured, imagine yourself in their shoes, walking those decimated streets; imagine your brother, sister or mother, sobbing for a lost home, memories, or worst loved ones; for we are all one human family and their tragedy should be our own.

Click on any of the links above and stand united with our extended human family across the globe.

Mud

Mud is a coming of age tale starring Matthew McConaughey in the titular role which shares the story of two boys, Ellis (Tye Sheridan) and Neckbone (Jacob Lofland), living in Dewitt, Nebraska that visit a small island in the Mississippi River on an exploration expedition and find a small boat perched on the high limbs of a tree, probably from a past flood, and despite their plans for ownership quickly realize someone is living there, Mud. After a tense introduction, Mud beseeches the boys for food and supplies, in exchange for the promise that upon leaving the island the boat he's currently using as home will be theirs. Despite Neckbone's protestations, Ellis comes to Mud's aid and brings him food. Finding an ally in the young boy, Mud shares a dramatic tale of love, woe and murder. Relying on Ellis' idealized and romantic notions on love, Mud asks the boys for help in getting word to his true love, Juniper (Reese Witherspoon), with whom he's supposed to rendezvous and leave town. The stakes are raised as all communications have to be under the shadow of an outstanding police APB for Mud, as well as a crew of henchmen on Mud's hot pursuit.

Completely drawn in by Mud's charm, the boys wholeheartedly throw themselves into reuniting the two star-crossed lovers, by gathering supplies to patch up the boat in hopes of ensuring Mud and Juniper's escape. As Ellis and Neckbone get deeper and deeper into Mud's sordid tale of doomed love, they blindly put themselves in harm's way, all in the hopes of helping their newfound friend finally find the redemptive power of love.

I wanted to watch this movie to see McConaughey stretch himself in a more substantive role that veered away from his typical romantic leading man roles of the past, and I wasn't disappointed. Mud was an entertaining and engaging film with a wonderful performance by McConaughey, who seems to have found a new found confidence in his acting and is no longer relying on his pretty boy looks to woo audiences. McConaughey gives a complex performance of a man beaten down by life, love and his own mistakes; a man who isn't clearly good or evil, but who falls somewhere in those grey areas.

The film also offers a memorable breakout performance by Tye Sheridan, whom I had never seen act before but who I learned was cast in the role of Ben Day in the film adaptation of Gillian Flynn's Dark Places. Tye movingly brings to life Ellis' idealistic innocence and hopefulness in his performance, and is even more compelling and believable in his portrayal of sad disillusionment in the scenes involving his parents broken marriage. Both child leads bring to life on the screen a Huck Finn-like adventure filled with daring, danger and self-discovery.

While Mud isn't on par with some of my recent movie viewings, like Captain Phillips or All is Lost, it was nonetheless a touching and engaging story with compelling and, in the kids, lovable characters, and believable and thought-provoking performances from the entire cast which definitely make it one to watch next time you're trolling your OnDemand movie queue.