So okay, I haven't written anything in a while. A long while. I have been so bogged down with work and other miscellany that I just haven't felt like it, but today, the world reminded me to slow the heck down and relax.
77,000 people in the area of Fort Wayne were and most still are without power. My office lost power and had to send everyone home. I spent the day catching up on my TiVo'd episodes of
Rachel Maddow and trying to work on stuff for work. I watched the intensely absurdist, nihlistic
Southland Tales. I normally run screaming from movies staring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, but come on, a dystopian black comedy mystery co-starring Sarah Michelle Gellar as a trendy porn star pop singer? How could you NOT want to see something that crazy. It's the best movie ever for any Whedon fans that are also Doctor Who and Donnie Darko fans.
It's all about the US terror police state in the wake of 9/11, in an alternate history in which Texas was nuked in 2005 by terrorists. I mentioned Darko because it's the same writer/director, so you know it's insanely messed up. Of course, there's no pedophile Patrick Swayze, but it's got Buffy the porn star. Still it's not as good as some movies, but as far as postapocolyptic dystopian thrillers go, it was very satisfying. The ensemble cast includes Nora Dunn, Amy Poehler, Cheri Oteri, Jon Lovitz, well, tons of people from SNL who actually are decent actors.
So I went trolling on Netflix for more random odd movies and came up empty-screened (as opposed to empty-handed). Then a BBC documentary about Petula Clark caught my eye. I love Petula Clark, and even have her greatest hits on a record, but I didn't know much about her life, other than that she's British. Now, I know everything I need to know and more. Of course there were tons of references to her contemporaries, which led me on a strange quest to YouTube and iTunes to find songs by Dusty Springfield, Lesley Gore, and Peggy Lee.
So now I must venture back to Netflix. I've chosen Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. I'm sure there are no ex vampire-slaying porn stars, but I seem to be drawn to Amy Adams in an inexplicable way.
