My Heaven Revisited

A friend told me a sad but also hilarious story about a woman whose sister died. She dreamt about her beloved sister and in the dream, she knows her sister is gone and instead of asking what it's like on the other side or if her departed sister has any profound advice, she says, "You're dead. Can you walk through that wall?" That's exactly what I would ask. And the best part of the dream is that her sister said, "Yeah! I can walk through walls" and she did just that. What a wonderfully hopeful message.

I'm reprinting my idea of heaven from last year and adding those of some of my friends...

My heaven is Paris. I speak fluent French, smoke like crazy and wear couture that fits like on Anne Hathaway in "The Devil Wears Prada." Gorgeous three-inch heals feel like I'm walking on pillows and I have conversations with all the most interesting people throughout history and into the future so that I begin to understand everything about everything for eternity.

MK: My heaven is a never-ending beach vacation with delicious friends and family, fabulous food (that never gets sandy), endless stimulating and entertaining reading material, perky boobs and flat stomach in my bikini. I can surf with the big boys, my skin never gets damaged by the sun and evenings are full of bonfires and silly music jams around the fire. There, I'm a killer guitar player with a gorgeous voice who always makes everyone laugh and cry with my musical stylings. Every night I swim in the warm ocean, and as the moon shines it's face at me and a big wave crashes over me I understand everything about everything for eternity.

SB: sitting at the top of a mountain on a rock that is molded to my body, enjoying an incredible view and the warm sun penetrating my skin. Of course there would be no worry of wind or sun burn and the sun would never set. I might even have a good book with me.

SD: I guess my heaven would be being able to swim like a fish, breathe underwater, and dance like Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and Gene Kelly all rolled into one.

What's your heaven?

Bluff Island Rescue Service

Los Angeles writer, Stephanie Hubbard, came to a book club meeting and delighted us with stories of writing her memoir about growing up in a volatile family. Her ability to draw you into the story of the precocious little girl who sees that she's in a pickle but is also pulled into her family's orbit especially by her bi-polar father who controls his family like a malevolent dictator when he's not charmingly disarming.

Stephanie was shopping the book to publishers just as the country was entering the worst recession since the great depression and the publishing industry was ringing the death knell on its own industry. True to the character we get to know in "Bluff Island," she didn't give up and self-published her memoir.

I loved this book.

http://www.bluffislandrescueservice.com/

Boo!

Dark and Stormy

Cry for Tyler Clementi

Lover Boys

Blade Runner Reboot

An article in the "Los Angeles Times" this week about "rebooting" movies got me thinking. (Rebooting is making the same film with different actors. It's another way for studios to squeeze every bit of life out of a property without coming up with a new idea or fresh screenplay. The script is tweaked and updated but basically it's the same movie.) What would my reboot film be? Don't groan, but my vote is for yet another version of the 1982 classic--and my favorite SciFi movie--"Blade Runner."

But who will play the iconic blade runner Rick Deckard so memorably portrayed with boozy sexiness by Harrison Ford? Or the perfect cold beauty Sean Young's Rachael (no last name necessary because she's a replicant)?

My choices: "Blade Runner: Reboot" starring Daniel Craig and Eva Green who were sexy and watchable in the 007 action-fest "Casino Royale."

Yes?

Citizen Science

There's a way for you to gaze at the stars and help advance our understanding of the universe. It's called Galaxy Zoo. The great thing is that computers aren't as good at recognizing patterns as people are. This program is very successful and people have identified anomalies and gotten recognition for it. A school teacher in Amsterdam, Hanny van Arkel, identified a blog-shaped object that they believe is the ghost of an "enormously powerful luminous accreting supermassive black hole" in a galaxy near us. The members of the citizen scientists named the anomaly Hanny's Voorwerp , or Hanny's Object. Fantastic!

http://www.galaxyzoo.org/how_to_take_part

For an interesting interview between Science Talk Host Steve Mirsky and the guy that runs Galaxy Zoo, Yale astrophysicist Kevin Schawinski, check out the Scientific American podcast below:

http://podcast.sciam.com/weekly/sa_podcast_090326.mp3

Animal Finance

CATS

Love is Rare, Life is Strange

All Kinds of Fun

I know. How do I get from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Boys in the Band to Amelie and Lars and the Real Girl? You can't spend that much time with George and Martha. I was at a dinner party last night and the wife said to the husband, "You incomplete me." Brilliant. Thank's Martha. Keep it sharp.

Cinema Magic

Lars and the Real Girl is a wonderful movie and Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider, Kelli Garner and Patricia Clarkson are all spot on. If you haven't seen it, do. Also, the soundtrack will cheer you on of you're down, another plus. Thank you writer Nancy Oliver for an extraordinary film.

Amélie.

Everyone could use a little magic these days.

.

The Luck

Who's Afraid?

I was trying to figure out why I love two of the most vicious movies every written: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Boys in the Band. What I've come to understand after watching the movies dozens of times is that they are about people who are evenly matched. What I mean is that George and Martha are equals. At first you think George is put upon and Martha is in control verbally beating George to a pulp, but by the end George comes roaring back and the evening ends in a draw. Edward Albee's writing is spectacularly vivid. You could argue that Nick and Honey aren't at their level so are victims of their bullying attacks, but you get the idea that Honey and Nick's marriage is built on the kind of shaky ground that could turn them into George and Martha. All four actors were nominated for academy awards but only Elizabeth Taylor walked away with the statue. She and Burton are radiant as they verbally parry and thrust their way to dawn.
The same is true for Boys in the Band. You feel that you've entered a conversation that is so advanced and quick that you'll never catch up. It's a tough world with mean, self-hating gay men in the 1960s. Written by Mart Crowley the film centers around a group of gay friends but, in the end, boils down to just two: birthday boy Harold and party giver Michael. One accepts that he is gay and the other does not. It's not the self hatred I find riveting, it's how everyone is struggling to find their way. They verbally circle each other, stab, duck, hit and miss.

The other thing I love about both the films is that I always ask the same question at the end of the films. Is there a son in Woolf and is the ex-roomate really gay in the case of Boys. That's how strong an impression they leave after every viewing. I know there's no son and the ex-roomate isn't gay, but I still question because the film does.

Both films were based on hit plays from the 1970s. There's just not that much at stake anymore in films pumped up on visual steroids. We've plumbed the psyche and have turned to external forms of terror like serial killers, the fetish of mental illness, 24-hour crime and terrorism.

But a well-matched psychological bludgeoning on screen can teach us something about how people that love us are capable of real bloodless destruction.

Video Gay Ballroom Dancing - LA Times Magazine

Video Gay Ballroom Dancing - LA Times Magazine

California Dreaming

My dream is to bring a same-sex dance competition to television and this is why. How much fun is this?

Chris Beroiz

Denial is Not a Strategy

Babies

Blanche can never have too many babies. She has a duck and what once was a duck. If you get too close, she growls. After walking around the house for an hour trying to find a place to stash her babies, Blanche could only be pursuaded to give up her precious mouth full of toys with a treat. Caesar would be very disappointed in my parenting style.