What I'm Reading: Philosophy

In addition to making jewelry and absorbing vitamin D while the sun shines, I've also been reading a book called Fifty Key Medieval Thinkers.  Want me to tell you all about it?

I didn't think so.

Projects

Earrings and bracelet made from washers and hex nuts

The sun has been doing a great deal of shining in these parts, and I've been eager to soak up the last few rays before winter's icy fingers grab hold of us for the next several months.  Not terribly cheery, I grant you, but name me a New Englander who isn't feeling the same way right now and I will show you someone who is dangerously over-medicated.

In between rounds of frolicking in the great outdoors, I've been working on some creative projects.

Necklace and earrings made from rubber o-rings



Earrings, variations on a theme

Rusted washers, sealed and in various states of dryness, waiting for me to figure out what to do with them

I'm sure there is a way to make the washers rusty, but I have no idea what it is.  I got these washers the old fashioned way: I spied them with my little eye and then picked them up off the street.

You know, maybe the Team Maria President is right and I should have an AuntieCam.

 





Awesome Rating: High, But Conflicted

It's been a rough couple of weeks here at Old Maid HQ, with the loss of two members of my family of choice.  One I discussed here; the other was the sudden death of someone whose path and mine crossed, but not often enough.  I would have liked to have known him a lot better than I did.  His sister is a friend of mine, and although I was on the periphery of the huge group that mourned his passing, it's been exhausting.

Two of the things my friend gave me from her brothers house are these Spanish dancers.  I loved them as soon as I saw them, but I waited until others had taken things they wanted before I asked for them.  They remind me of some lamps my grandma had in her living room the whole time I was growing up, but that were thrown out when the room was redecorated.  (New brass lamps from J.C. Penney with the plastic still on the shades were involved.  You don't want to know.) 

Oddly enough, I was the only person among our group of friends who appreciated the delightful tackiness of these two girls.  They now live on a deep shelf above my kitchen sink, and every time I look up at them they make me smile.  I like to think that wherever they are, J and Gram are smiling too.

RIP Ringo Stu Kitty, Esq.

It's a sad day here at Old Maid HQ.  Ringo Stu Kitty, beloved cat of Monica of 5 Cats Shy, brother of the dearly departed Seamus Patrick O'Kitty and excellent roadtrip buddy crossed the Rainbow Bridge last night.

Ringo Stu was a six-pound cat with a lion-sized personality.  He always greeted guests at the door like the gentleman he was.  Ringo was an excellent conversationalist  who enjoyed talking on the phone with his grandma Kathleen and expressing himself on many topics.  He was also a talented singer who enjoyed xylophone music and would sing along with Buddy Holly's "Every Day" and the Beastie Boys' "Girls."  His cow impersonations were legendary.

Ringo was a very cuddly cat who would by means of stealth get onto his mother's lap at any opportunity.  He loved his mother very much, and he also had love to share with others.  When we were traveling across the country, I woke up many times with Ringo curled up on my belly.  Ringo was a lot of love in a very small package.

Ringo is survived by his mother Monica, his grandma Kathleen, his aunt Michelle, his aunt Maria, and his cousins Huckleberry and Daphne Clementine Katz.  Godspeed, "Ringo Stulio down at the schoolyard."

Words of Wisdom: The Army Dude on "The Secret"

"If you're stuck in a concentration camp, you can hang out with the group who wants to pretend that it's all sunshine and fun at Disneyland, or you can hang out with the group who says 'this sucks' and are working on a way to escape.  Sticking with the second group is probably going to be a lot more work, but there is a much better chance that you will actually achieve results -- like getting out."

Image: Disney-site.com

Skip This Book

Pride and Prejudice recently rose to the top of my DVD queue.  While I was watching it (and swooning over Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy), I became interested in reading about Jane Austen.  Why not?  She was an old maid who liked to write; I'm an old maid who likes to write.  Leaving aside her literary genius and shocking lack of cats, and ignoring my obscurity and occasional F-bomb, we are practically twins.

Out of a fairly hefty shelf devoted to Jane at my local library, I selected Jane Austen: Obstinate Heart by Valerie Grosvenor Myer.  It promised to tell me about the woman behind the novels.  All it did was confuse me.

The book starts with a chapter on Jane's early life, which contains the names of every person remotely related to Jane who was alive during her lifetime.  While it represents an impressive amount of posthumous Janestalking, it only serves to confuse the reader -- partly because many of the people named are not very important to the story at hand, and partly because every other woman in the extended Austen family was named Jane or Cassandra, and every other man was named James, Edward, James-Edward, or Edward-James.

The following chapter is a quick trot through the Possible Loves of Jane.  We get Jane's entire romantic history in almost a bullet-point format.  Does the author think we are that uninterested in why Jane never married at a time when marriage was the ticket to financial security?  Apparently she does.

The book then settles down to a more or less linear format, beginning with Jane's move in her early twenties to Bath with her family.  And then, I don't know, a bunch of stuff happens and Jane is annoyed by most of it (I feel her pain).  It's all places and dates and lists of relatives Jane visits.  I lost interest in the book around the time the author tells us that at a certain point, Jane had two novels finished but unpublished.  I wondered when did that happen and why wasn't I told?  When did she start the novels and why?  What were her days like?  Did she set the novels wherever she happened to be living?  WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME, MS. MYERS?

At which point, I gave it up and returned the book to the library.  My blood pressure couldn't take any more.  It was all too confusing -- although I'll admit it's possible that the source of my confusion has its roots in my intemperate youth.  But based on the reviews I read at Amazon.com, though, I think the blame lies squarely with the author.

Sunset Boulevard

I saw Sunset Boulevard for the first time last week.  Oh. My. God. What a great movie!  In case anyone in the Western world isn't familiar with it, the story centers around Norma Desmond (played by silent film legend Gloria Swanson) , a washed-up silent film star who dreams of a big Hollywood comback, and Joe Gillis (played by William Holden), a screenwriter whose career has never taken off and who is pretty much down to his last few bucks.  Fate brings Joe to Norma's crumbling mansion when he hides in her driveway to avoid reposession of his car.  Joe is drawn into Norma's demented world of faded glory like a fly stepping into a spiderweb.

In other hands, this could have been a very different movie -- but the actors give the characters dimension. Watching it, we believe that Joe isn't just a gigolo who enjoys expensive gifts and a lavish lifestyle paid for by a rich older woman.  We believe he really cares about Norma, who is lonely and lost as well as demented and living in the past.

Billy Wilder's directing is done with a very deft hand -- two parts film noir, one part monster movie.  There is a montage where Norma undergoes a series of bizarre youth-regaining treatments that can't help but make the viewer think of Frankenstein's monster. In heavily shadowed scenes, the character of Max von Mayerling (played by Erich von Stroheim) is gradually revealed as a sort of Dr. Frankenstein.  He is Norma's servant, but he also has an unhealthy amount of control over her.  We begin to wonder what payoff he is getting by lying to her and playing along with her crazy fantasies.

Part of what made this movie so great for me is that I've seen a few silent movies, as well as the early talkie The Taming of the Shrew (with Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, both of whom had also been silent movie stars).  In The Taming of the Shrew, Fairbanks and Pickford absolutely chew the scenery.  Never before had I seen such heavy-handed overacting, but it showed that the very talents that made great silent films did not translate well to talking pictures.  It made Norma's plight more understandable and her devotion to dramatic facial expressions and gestures sad instead of laughable.  Gloria Swanson gives a tour de force performance as a woman who is like a screen image instead of a human being.

Edith Head did a great job with the costumes.  Most of the characters wear everyday clothes that were fashionable at the time. Norma's clothes, like her personality, are larger than life. They are based on fashionable looks of 1950, but Edith Head added scarves and head wraps, fur stoles and pounds of diamond jewelry -- Norma never completely lets go of the fashions of her glory days. Max is creepy as a manservant in a quasi-military uniform. Norma and Max's clothes reflect that they are living in a world of their own, for the most part oblivious to the fact that life has gone on without them outside the walls of the mansion.

Sunset Boulevard.  I absolutely loved it.