Thursday, March 13, 2008

OMG I am so blogging all the time now. Thank you so much for the great comments!!!! Oh! I loved the one about believing in the myth of ourselves. That was such an awesome post and so true and so chilling and I can’t stop thinking about that. And the Nilsson fans! I absolutely must get that Randy Newman Harry Nilsson CD, I must I must. I just have one song with that combination of people, and that is Randy Newman singing “Remember” which Nilsson wrote. I watched everything on YouTube that you could watch of Nilsson. I want to see that movie about him too.

Today I loaded on so much Bruce Springsteen. Someone came to one of my shows, a long time ago, and they brought with them all the major Springsteen Cds which had been reissued with bonus Cds and enhanced liner notes and gave them to me! So I finally got all that music on my computer. Then a lot of Nina Simone and Frank Sinatra and Syd Straw. That was my day, music wise today.

Largo, this club that I occasionally perform at – lately mostly with Jill Sobule -- is moving it's location to the Coronet Theater – on La Cienega, where I did "God Said Ha!" for many months. I love that theater. Flanagan and I were talking about it yesterday before Jill did her show last night – we may do the Jill & Julia show there in the little theater (there will be two theaters…) Randy Newman even may be doing something there – stay tuned. I am really excited for Flanney to get into this space, this is going to be great, I think.

Today I worked on my book for only two hours. I am trying to turn off the Internet connection, along with the phone and even the stereo and write for three hours a day. That may seem like a short amount of time, but let me tell you, this is so hard to accomplish. But so far, I am really into it. And I’ve had a good week. Then, I rewarded myself and I spoke to a friend who owns a bakery about a wedding cake. That was basically my day. Then, for dinner, I grilled salmon outside on the bbq and asparagus and red pepper. A good eating day.

I am so all over this Spitzer stuff. I can’t stop reading about it. The girl was – is – only 22. God, his daughters are probably near that age – it’s so awful. I didn’t like his resignation speech or his “yes, I did it” speech. So disappointing. I flip flop on how I feel about prostitution. Basically I think it should be legalized, but I just read Kristof’s op-ed in the New York Times about how it’s worked – legalizing prostitution – in other countries and I guess, well, not so clearly a good thing. In any case, it’s so compelling. What is his wife feeling, thinking – is she on automatic? She might not be able to really process much if this was a big shock (and how could it not have been?) – but Lordy, Lordy.

I am confessing this: I watched “The Housewives of New York City.” I watched the first episode last week and the second one last night. That show is also deeply disturbing. There is a scene with one of the mothers, one of the… housewives… talking her overweight daughter into going to a “de-tox” on Martha’s Vineyard. She suggests to her daughter that she should “want” to go – coaches her into saying she wants to go to lose weight, and in one second, gets self righteous and asks her daughter to thank her for sending her. I watched that scene twice. I thought, “I could write a whole screenplay based on that one scene.”

My gateway drug with the reality shows is/was Project Runway, which I think is one of the best shows on TV. I love that show, I have no guilt over that show, that is a great show. I have never seen creative people compete in such a realistic and unpredictable and compelling way as it is on that show. But then – but then, I watched previews for other Bravo shows and I got into “The Millionaire’s Matchmaker” and then, now, this, the lowest of the low – the Housewives of New York City. As my future mother-in-law said, because she also watched an episode, also because she watched Project Runway – which I got her into – she said, “Shows like that just show you… well, it’s time for revolution.”

Oh! This is why I love the Internet age. Darden Smith! Darden Smith! I love(d) Darden Smith – I have two albums of his, I went to one of his concerts a long, long time ago. And I get to look him up and read about him! He has a blog. Sure, he hasn’t written in about a year, but still, you get the gist. I also loaded on a lot of NRBQ today too – oh, I forgot to mention that. Oh NRBQ. How I love that band. Big Al.

I was so glad to read the post from the philosophy professor too. Thank you so much. I have to finish my book and at least get it out there. If the movie isn’t going to be prominent – well, at least the book can be counted amongst the books about this topic. Anyway, your comment will keep me writing tomorrow too.

14 comments:

Ex-Crusader said...

So good to have you blogging again, Julia. I just haven't been able to get into the reality show thing yet. Well, I guess I have watched one or two episodes of "Intervention." I found one episode to be so contrived that I quit watching. At a bad stage of life for TV anyway (young kids).

Can I bring up a question here that I would otherwise save for the (now defunct) message board? I'm not sure why this struck me so hard this morning, but I just heard the story about the guy who burned his baby in the microwave. Just when you think you can't hear a shocking story, there it is.

My question is: should I, as a person who believes that there is no divine judgement, want to see this guy put to death (perhaps by microwave)? I ask because I'm not really sure his genes should be allowed to infect our gene pool. If we were another species we'd probably force him from the pack to be hunted down and killed at the very least.

What is the proper stance on the death penalty for the non-believer. I'm torn...

Ex-Crusader said...

I am realizing my comment may very well be bad form. I shouldn't be bringing up a whole new topic as the first comment on your blog, Julia. Please excuse the emotionally fueled faux pas!!!

Anonymous said...

The most surreal part of the standard "I did it" press conference is that the wives always have to stand next to their husbands, which to me could only compound their humiliation.

I'd like to see the husbands up their by themselves, only to have a frying pan come flying at their heads from the wings. Now THAT would be a press conference!

Petra said...

The whole Spitzer thing brings up the raw disappointment I felt when Bill Clinton's indiscretions came to light. I mean, I would like to believe that I can hold elected leaders to a higher standard (or at least as high as the standard I set for myself).

I struggle, though, because to me, what Spitzer did is somehow MORE wrong. He PAID for it. He went out of his way to ARRANGE it. He BROKE the law. I don't condone any extra-marital sex on the basis that it breaks a promise to a loved-one, but in the end, I somehow see an affair as a little less wrong because it isn't (I imagine) a "planned" occurrence. I would like to believe that no one sets out to track someone down with the idea that he or she will cheat on his or her spouse. Maybe that is delusional.

But the bottom line, though, is that I really don't CARE what consenting people do in their private moments (as long as it doesn't cause harm to others). It just makes me wonder: if someone can't be honest with his wife, is he being honest with his constituents?

(Then again, nobody died when Clinton lied.)

Did you hear or read what "Dr. Laura" said about it? Oh Mylanta, that is one deluded female: "When the wife does not focus in on the needs and the feelings, sexually, personally, to make him feel like a man, to make him feel like a success, to make him feel like her hero, he’s very susceptible to the charm of some other woman making him feel what he needs.”

So should we blame Laura Bush for the thousands of casualties in Iraq?

Oh vey!

: ) P

Kizz said...

Thank you for blogging, please keep it up!

I think there are a number of ways in which Mrs. Spitzer might not be surprised. It's possible they had an arrangement, it's possible she knew but never said given the business of them being a political unit, and it's even possible that she knew he was doing something but she didn't know the scope of it. So many ways I think.

Anonymous said...

Good Lord! Project Runway was my gateway drug, too! And I must confess, that I, too, watched The Real Housewives of New York. Scary and sick and wrong and yet...I canna' help myself. Yurg.

Anonymous said...

There is nothing more cool than a woman who is into NRBQ. You get it! You actually get it! Plus... you like the Bodeans! That's brilliant! Love your comedy. Don't stop writing. Glad you were born! - Bud

js said...

"Project Runway" is one of my favorites too, along with "Mythbusters". They're both shows about jury rigging things together into something that works (or doesn't), and I feel as if I learn something each time.

My sole experience with "The Real Housewives of New York City" killed any curiosity I had about the merriments Tom Buchanan's heirs are pursuing tonight. The show may inspire me, though, to campaign to raise rich people's income taxes.

Dame Wendy said...

Salmon on a BBQ sounds so delicious! Mmmmm... I'm glad to see you blogging again! I've been obsessed with the Spitzer scandal too. I think I refreshed Google news a record number of times this past week.

Have a great weekend!

Anonymous said...

Re: Spitzer. I'm curious if Bush's pals on Wall Street weren't the ones who insisted Spitzer be wire tapped? Since the President has been illegally wiretapping us since 2001 and not telling us who's tapped, it could be they're targeting powerful Democrats. Is that paranoid? Or just realistic given all the past behavior of this administration?

Anonymous said...

"Gateway drug" I'm crying I'm laughing so hard. It's so funny (I guess that's why you're a comedian). Project Runway was totally my gateway drug, too. Now I'm hooked on the Bravo Reality shows - even the ones I can't justify (like Make Me a Supermodel). I gave the NYC Housewived a try, but I found it grating. Honesty, if you call yourself a socialite, you can't really be one. I do like the OC Housewives, though. I think it's because I'm from the East Coast, so the OC thing is all new territory. Have you seen Top Chef? It's terrific. I just love watching people make something from nothing (Top Chef and Project Runway). Anyway...I love your work and your blog!

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