Things That Will Change You Forever

One thing surely was watching The Seventh Seal as an impressionable young college student right off the farm. I doubt I've ever been the same since. Then again, every Friday night for years was Film Club night at the College of Knowledge. For someone who could barely get to class most of the time, I never missed a free Friday night Film Club offering. I didn't have a whole lot of dates, but I had the best film education anyone could want when I saw, savored is more like it, the greatest movies ever that way, everything by Kurosawa, Hitchock, Bergman, Fellini, Goddard, Truffaut, Lean, Wells, Kubrick, Capra, Kazan, Sturges, well... you-get-the-picture.

But I wasn't unusual, in the big scope of things. Steven Holden of the NYT writes about the passing of Ingmar Bergman in absolute, revered tones here. As well he should.

All Roads (Eventually) Lead Down South

The Penelope Cruz and Bono (or is it P. Diddy?) romance mystery intensifies! And Mikey Stipey knows all I bet. Power up the yacht, or a friend's, and cruise the oceans of love. From that disher-of-excellent-dirt power duo, Rush and Molloy at NYDaily News:

We told you yesterday how Saint-Tropez gossips twittered over Bono and Penelope Cruz's hand-holding on a beach. We cautioned that Cruz is one of a group of friends on Bono's yacht and that his children are aboard. Now comes further word that his wife, Ali, is also on the holiday.

Saturday night, after partying on Diddy's yacht, the happy U2 family left together, debarking with Helena Christensen, Michael Stipe and John Galliano. Our spies did notice that Cruz stayed behind. She was last seen headed toward Diddy's bedroom, with the rap mogul posting a bodyguard on the stairs.

The next day, our witnesses say, Cruz, wearing the same dress as the night before, turnedup with Diddy at Nikki Beach Club. "She looked very tired," said one snitch. "When they said goodbye, Diddy mouthed the words ‘I love you.'" Cruz's rep denies any romance: "Penelope and P. Diddy are very close friends and have been for five years."

Note use above of lower case "twitter" vs. using the upper case. Good not to ever confuse the two.

Diane Glass

Diane Glass was the girl of her own dreams, and pretty much everything I always wanted to be but always seem to fall short: fabulous, razor-sharp, educated, stylish, beautiful, helpful, friendly, unapologetic, emphatic, dynamic, bold, supportive, uncompromising, forward-thinking, techno-savvy-cool, engaging, quick-witted, a writer.

She embodied the sentiments of living life the way you envision it, not how others mandate how your life should be on more dull, unimaginative, limited, plebeian terms. She really was an inspiration. She graduated Harvard Divinity School, for chrissake.

It's hard to believe she took sick and died, yes, died, all in a three week span. This is shocking. I'm still reeling from the news. I can't imagine what her close friends and family are going through right now. This is one of those times when the cliches about being taken from us too soon really fit. She should still be here. I should still be able to pick up the Sunday AJC and turn to her column first. I feel cheated. Robbed of something. Missing something.

I'd write more about Diane, but I simply can't right now. The only way to stop the tears that just well-up when I start is by walking away from the keyboard. I met her once. I read her work and followed her career like a true fan. And that I will be.

Her obit is here.

Here's a Tres Chicas song for Diane from me:

Chilton Music Project Monday Night!

Chilton (Richard Stewart) and his new funk-soul outfit, ChiltonMusic Project, are playing Smith's Olde Bar tomorrow, Monday, July 30th. Yes, they know it's a Monday, but all the danceable, funk action starts at 8PM.

Publicity-wise, Chilton has been really caught in between the proverbial rock and hip-hop hard place by performing his style of acid funk groove in Atlanta. It would be just great if you bloggers could come out, because it really is a sound, and a sight, to behold. There is something sooooo innately southern about my old friend and former HDTV colleague, Richard. His music too.

Hope to see you there. Also, here’s a cool, ATL-oriented video Richard directed and produced himself. Dude's just got talent on many levels:

8 Random Things (About Me)

These are fun. I was tagged by Sherry to post 8 Random Things About Me. Jessica also tagged me the other day with something similar and I've been procrastinating, so here goes:

1.) I still like John Denver songs.

2.) I won a baking contest once.

3.) I took Home Ec. in high school.

4.) I refused to take Typing.

5.) I studied theater in college for two years, but dropped out for lack of stoners in dept. (Or was it lack of talent? I forget.)

6.) My mother's idea of a suitable career for poor relations, we're talking 1970's, was that of nanny. Bless her heart.

7.) I've worn glasses since second grade. And played sports.

8.) I'm a believer in (and practicioner of) natural childbirth. Chances are, I am tougher than you. By choice.

I now tag Tania and Vaspers The Grate.

Postcard From Paradise

So my pals, The Roches, went to Hawaii and sent back these marvelous snaps. Can you tell which family member is the 80's refugee?

There Was Only One In The Village

Luxury Items

When it comes down to it, I've always been a gadget person -- with very few gadgets. My first sewing machine, an ancient thing I'd found in some crazy relative's attic with a crank shaft, led to the aquisition of something electric at an opening price point from the Sears catalog by the time I was about twelve. I had that thing for years, slowly, slowly teaching myself to follow a pattern and sew.

Most of the time, I simply can't afford the great new gadgets, things I consider luxury items; I just make do with used or cheap stuff, and try to console myself that it's the content one is busy creating that matters, not the gadgetry involved. Even my new DV cam isn't the latest and greatest. It's not HD, so it's merely something that the salesperson was glad to get off the shelf. Of course I'm determined to spin straw into gold with the thing, come hell or high water, but that's another post.

Recently, twice now, well-meaning, kindly folk have let me touch their iPhone. I was immediately entranced, and then pained with a Gollum-twinge of mean resentment when I had to hand the thing back. This has happened to me only once before with a material item (although on more than one occasion with boyfriends, but that too is another post), when a neighbor let me borrow her stunning, vintage, white mink coat for a party, and I caught myself unconsciously stroking the damn thing and plotting ways of somehow not returning it for one more day. Good grief.

But the same feeling of uncontrollable possessiveness came over me with the iPhone. It really did provoke moments of lust and desire when I had it in my grasp. And greed. Lots of greed.

God forbid I drive someone's Mercedes S class...

Brave Sir Rudy Ran Away!

Cue the wandering minstrels, media blogger/guru Jeff Jarvis has this to say about Republican Internets paranoia:

The latest indication of their (R) fear of the internet is their attempt to fink out on the YouTube/CNN Republican debate. The party line — as we see from Rush and others — is that YouTube is somehow biased. That’s absurd. That would be like the Democrats saying that mail is biased because the Republicans made the first, best use of it. If internet video is biased it is a damned bad sign for the right and mighty strange considering the leading work done in the medium by the conservatives in the UK, France, and Germany. Hugh Hewitt frets that listening to YouTube will open up Republicans to cheap shots. That’s merely convenient paranoia. They’re looking for excuses to stay away from this dance.

Full BuzzMachine blog post here. The Tale of Sir Robin here:

Seeds and Stems

Let's get started...

1.) NYC artsy scene comes to Atlanta when Danielle Ganek, with her debut novel, Lulu Meets God And Doubts Him, signs copies of this book this evening. Come rub up on Atlanta arterati tonight at:

Fay Gold Gallery

764 Miami Circle

Atlanta

404-233-3843

5:00 - 8:00 pm

2.) Has anyone in Atlanta seen Once? I keep hearing about how wonderful it is. Happy ending and everything. Don't know if I could handle all that hankie time, but I almost bought the soundtrack on LP, except the thought of actually purchasing an LP at a full price seemed kinda dopey. Even though I still have a functional turntable and still play some of my eighties faves on it, Lloyd Cole and Aztec Camera, shit like that, I just don't need that much retro-authentic. The movie site sure makes me want to see this though. I sense those red hair and black leather tones all over it.

3.) Amber and Rusty are on What Is Goin' On. Yeah!

4.) One day I'm gonna catch this boy sniffing my panties.

5.) The ChiltonMusic Project is playing Smith's Olde Bar this Monday, July 30th. Yes, they know it's a Monday but all the rowdy funk action starts @ 8PM and done by 9PM. Finally, a live show during the week that doesn't start at midnight. About time.

6.) Bluegrass lovers, here's your not-at-midnight gig: Red Light Cafe on Thursday, August 9th. The Deja Blue Grass Band is "honored, flattered, and humbled to be opening for Cadillac Sky, a red hot newgrass band that just might make you have a religious experience." Deja Blue goes on at 8:00 pm sharp, with Cadillac Sky following at 9:00 pm. (Catch a peek at the Deja Blue banjo player on TrueGritz here.)

7.) Heard from Doug M. in NYC. He's up at 5:30am everyday to catch the D train to Coney Island. I know he'd love hearing from some of his blogger homies 'cause I bet he's just a wee bit homesick. Email address here.

It Takes A Marketeer?

I gotta wonder what the Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association means when they start talking about "media." I'd like to go and find out but I doubt I'll make this "lecture" tonight. Maybe some of you can go and report back?

Event: AiMA - Bridging the Gap Between Traditional and Online Media
Atlanta Interactive Marketing Assoc.
What: Lecture
Host: Atlanta Interactive Marketing Assoc
When: Tonight, July 25 at 6:30pm
Where: GLCC

Details and RSPV here.

Free Gorilla Ball Ticket!

Here's a perfect time for Atlanta bloggers to ask for, and receive, membership in the Atlanta Press Club 'cause you'll get a free ticket to the annual Gorilla Ball, where embarrassing bloopers and outtakes from local TV stations and CNN are revealed, but for members only. Some of the outtakes are hilarious, and some just take the total piss out of anyone involved.

Attention video bloggers: send the APC your funny outtakes and see if they will include them in the evening's festivities. But warning, you have to be willing, and have the stamina and inner fortitude, to endure peers laughing along WITH you. And yeah, sometimes even AT you. These local news folks have been doing just that, back and forth with one another, for decades. Builds healthy competitive environments and rivalries, all-American stuff like that.

I'm gonna call Andrew Keen right now and see if he'll go as my date. (You got his number Will Hinton?) I feel I need a man I can make goo-goo eyes at all night long, tell him what a strong manly-man writer he is, what an outstanding reputation he holds in the community, and let him know how much I adored his books I'd of course read every bloody boring word of. I'm feel certain that for my efforts he'll no doubt shower me with enduring affection, loads of money, mindblowing sex, and never leave me nor look sideways at another woman. Don't they all?!

Ahhhhhh romance.

Call Off The Revolution

OK, Andrew Keen wins a round. Atlanta blogger, The Shelbinator, went live on Internet TV during and after the CNN YouTube debate from the Citadel in Charleston last night. Our intrepid blogger took us afterwards, live of course, to the infamous post-debate spin room where he:

a.) wandered around in search of a water fountain
b.) snagged a few minutes with CNN's John King
c.) failed to shove enough people aside to get to Joe Biden
d.) shut down all production to chase after women

Talk about not quite ready for primetime. But Shelby looked very nice in his suit and tie, and we at home got to yell along at him in the live chatroom that uStream.tv provides for the blogger's homies. Don't know if he ever got laid though.

Overall: The cult of the amateur is moreorless as it should be: inmates running the asylum. And having a roaring good time doing so.

Smash Your TV

Atlanta blogger The Shelbinator will be broadcasting live on the Internets from the press pit at the CNN YouTube debate tonight. It’ll all go down here around 6:30 or 7pm.

Crazy Lady

Where do you start with Tammy Faye Bakker? Someones who's, ummmm, captured out attention if not necessarily our imagination for several decades now. How about the end? Talk about your long strange trip. I enjoyed Tammy Faye's chats with Larry King as she was, uh, winding down. Not that she ever really did that. RIP Tammy Faye.

Neville's Ear

"Oh yes. She's a sadist. She's very sick. She's got problems. I think she's been in prison a bit too long. But I suspect even before prison she had problems. She's a racist, obsessed with blood purity. Like Adolf. And she's in love with Voldemort, really."

Delightul interview with Helen Bonham Carter here about filming The Order of The Phoenix, a movie where I imagine many of her scenes were left on the cutting room floor. The biggest problem with that movie was that it was way too short. Another hour should have been added to include the Black family back story alone, something that figured prominently in the book but is hardly the stuff to engage the attention of tweens for very long. Such info, along with that very naughty Rita Skeeter, is all through the last book. (I'm about 3 chapters in, but with a promising rainy Sunday, I imagine I'll be plowing along at a nice clip momentarily.)

I still think of Helen Bonham as a Merchant Ivory princess, dragged repetitively all over Italy by a fussy, clucking Maggie Smith (who never ceases to end-up playing my mother in all her ineffectual-fussing roles) hovering over the scowling Bonham Carter and admonishing her not to play Beethoven because doing so inevitably made her "peevish." To which Helen Bonham Carter would only scowl that much more!

I love that word: peevish. Woe to the young turn-of-the-century woman who was too peevish and moody. No decent husband prospects for her. But whatever happened to that yummy Julian Sands? Seems like he of all people would have popped up in a HP role by now.

Starry Starry Night In Second Life

This is so beautiful, on so many levels. It's little wonder then that Second Life means so much to so many. Bring your hankie.

No Harry Potter Fun

My daughter is seven and now too cool for Harry Potter play. I thought she'd want to put on her Hogwarts robe, that Gryffindor tie & shirt combo I found at Value Village, grab her broomstick and cauldron, and head to Barnes & Noble to commune with likeminded youth. No way. That was soooo last year apparently. This year it's all just that trailer park princess, Hannah Montana. Ughhh. I guess I was really the one who wanted to go check out the scene. Take pics. Video. Blog it. Least I have a few fleeting moment snaps from her '06 birthday party.

Now, she's the child with the real scars, eerily like Harry, her one-time hero. But she's as anxious to have me & her dad read the last book to her as the rest of the world. Still, this is rather heartbreaking, after all it is "opening night" of the last book of the greatest publishing phenom since Gone With The Wind. And now I'm feeling blue. When they say that cliche over and over about how fast they grow up, there's a reason. Sigh...

Nick Lowe Alert

The Jesus of Cool, Nick Lowe, will be on Fresh Air June 24th. Here's one of my fave tunes, one of many. (Lucky person who gets me drunk enough to tell my Carlene Carter story.)

Brogan TV Live Now! (Show's Over)