40: The Rocky Horror Picture Show

The Rialto at midnight

July, 1995

Every girl needs a really good DUMPED story.  A time she was left flat on her little tail.

Here is mine:

 The boy in question and I were trying to decide what to do on a Saturday night with my roommate and her boyfriend:

So, what’s the movie about?

It’s about a couple and their car breaks down on their way to visit an old professor, and they end up in a mansion full of freaks.  It’s pretty funny.

Oh, I like comedies.

You will love this-and it’s a musical. Like Mary Poppins or The Sound of Music.

Sounds good.

OK, OK, I know it.  That was false advertising. I left out a lot of pivotal information when I explained the plot to that poor guy.  But anything offensive went right over my head-I really thought about it the way I described it.

The line to get in wasn’t quite the movie goer crowd you would see going to see, say….anything with Tom Hanks or Meg Ryan in it.  There was a lot of leather out at 11:30 at night in a North Carolina July heat wave.

We sat down and the slideshow started-all the different literary allusions to the movie and license plates went by one by one.  This was before Harry Potter had entered my life, I had no idea fans could get so crazed about anything.   

He started to squirm a little bit every time someone yelled a swear word at the screen.  Again, it was all bouncing right off me. I believe I was thinking about what a cute Brad and Janet we would make for Halloween.

The MC asked if there were any virgins in the audience.

I tried to raise his hand and he jerked down and I tried to get him to raise it again but he just wasn’t having it. 

It means you have never seen the show before-this is your first time here.

Well, it really isn’t necessary to let everyone know.

The movie started…and I really believe he found the first thirty minutes entertaining.  We got soaked in the rain when everyone launched squirt guns. 

He was very confused when the MC said, Everyone please stand for the Time Warp.

At this point, he was still enjoying the weirdness of it.  This was interactive theater and all in good fun.  It could happen once, no big deal.

But then....Dr. Frank-N-Furter made his appearance.

Um, Page, That's a man...  Why oh why didn’t I just say, “Oh my God! You are right, let’s get out of here and go shoot pool?”

Instead this came out of my mouth:

Shh…this is my favorite part. And I started to sing along with the sensuous Tim Curry.

Oops.

After that we see Rocky along with half the audience in the theater, strip to their underwear and run around and around in circles.  He looked at me horrified that at any moment my 90’s peasant dress would fall to the ground and I would join in.  I didn’t, but only because I didn’t feel like it -I don’t think my bra and panties matched that night.  

Let’s not discuss the rest of the show-but those that love it know that everyone sleeps with everyone else and has “Meatloaf” for dinner.  Then they get beamed back to their Transexual planet.  

 Ha ha ha ha…

The next Monday night he called me and told me it was over.  We just didn’t have anything in common and he wasn’t as politically correct as I was.

ouch...sob...whatever...find another...

That should always be your mantra ladies: ouch, sob, whatever, find another...

I'll bet he never told a soul about that night.  I don't blame him.  I have a hard time admitting I paid full price for Notting Hill. Sometimes different is just different and novelty wears off.  Pay a mechanic to change your oil or learn how to do it yourself.  Queue 70s shock-value films on Netflix for the memory of it.  There have to people out there that like what you like: ouch, sob, whatever, find another...

Rocky Horror is part of our culture and it is going to live on. Glee did their version on a Halloween episode and Barry Bostwick and Meatloaf took time to cameo.   Tim Curry reads children’s books, The Series of Unfortunate Events, on audio with gusto and cracks me up every time.  I watch Phineas and Ferb with my three beautiful children and I hear Richard O’Brien’s voice and remember his Riff opening the door on Brad and Janet so many years ago to say Hello. 

 Do you think any of them care that they helped me, and probably millions of others, grow up and realize who we are and what we really want out of our lives?

Maybe on my 40^th birthday I’ll do the underwear run with Rocky-whether my bra and panties match or not.

32: Like Water for Chocolate

Fall, 1993

with my mom and Martha Anne

and then again in Sevilla, Spain with Paco who was very impressed I understood it!

It is always so impressive when America loves a foreign film, isn't it?  That means it was so good people took the time to read during a movie.  Like Water for Chocolate was the first subtitled film I actually saw in a movie theater.  Before that I had to find them in the back corners of the Blockbusters.

This movie introduced me to a lot of things I care about: Latina writers, Magical Realism, sisterhoods, mother/daughter relationships, ridiculous male logic, The Mexican Revolution, strong emotions, Gringos that can speak Spanish, and cooking--well, maybe not the cooking.

I wanted more. 

I read books by Isabel Allende. I went to a specialty book store in Durham North Carolina just to find a copy of The House of the Spirits in Spanish.  The owner saw me two years later and said he never forgot that hair.  I hope he isn't the only one.

I memorized poems by Alfonsina Storni.  Tu me quieres blanca...whatever buddy-go ahead and find your pure princess.

I loved it-I loved all of it.

I have a lot of Latinas in my life.  I love them, I learn from them, and I work on my accent with them. 

There is no one way to be Latina.

Lucy from Puerto Rico is passionate and loyal to her friends and family.  Don't break her trust and she will go the distance when you need her.

Juana colombiana is reserved and professional and honest. She will be blunt and will help you in the long run-because who wants to be showered with compliments 24/7-when constructive criticism will help you grow?

Iluminada la cubana with a family larger than my town of Guilford.  Ready for a latte or a pedicure or a complete hyper-active melt down.  Tranquila Page, I'm taking your mother for an hour or two so she doesn't lose it on the grand babies, vale?

Cynthia from Mexico waits on me at the cleaners and became my friend as I was in there twice a week. She has coffee with me when we are at the coffee shop at the same time. She started running when she realized my clothes went down four sizes-so much for confidentiality.  She rolls her eyes- ay guapa, all men are the same.  Maybe, but that didn't stop her from high-fiving me when I opened my own account at the cleaners!

 And Vickie-half from Nicaragua/half from Mississippi.-So much fun to hang with-eating in my mom's condo waiting for the telenovelas to start!

And that to me is like water for chocolate-water for chocolate gets very, very hot.  So whatever it is-love, loyalty, hatred, friendship, it is strong.

My Latinas love and forgive this gringa her American ways..

I am very grateful to them...

31: Catch Me if You Can

December 25, 2002

Crossroads, Cary, North Carolina

The early years of the new millennium were a really good time in my life.  I was teaching middle school, which was the age I preferred. I had  a wonderful boss, wonderful colleagues, and wonderful students. I was back at Meredith for a second degree-this time finishing up the French degree I didn't get the first go round, much to the chagrin of my favorite professor.  I had started running and was getting good at it.  I had even done a 5K!

Then I felt IT.  IT is that feeling women start to get.  They want a baby.  In the south, this is between 28-35.  In the north, 33-41.  Don't yell at me for being stereotypical, I have lived in both places and have observed a lot.  I was not immune to the baby lust.  I was ready to bring another person in to my family.  That might be what made me a little different, because something always makes me different-I knew I was bringing someone into the universe.  I never saw her or her brothers as "Babies."  They were people joining our family.  I still see them like that-and it is so true.

But, that Christmas, I had a feeling, this would be my last Christmas as a free adult for a very, very, long time. I needed to do something I wouldn't be able to do as a mom. I needed to see a movie on Christmas day!  What mother gets to drop what she is doing and go see a movie without planning?  

Exactly!

This movie appealed to me.

 Three main reasons:

1.  I adore Leonardo Dicaprio-from What's Eating Gilbert Grape to Romeo and Juliet and Gangs of New York and everything in between.
2. Tom Hanks took a step back.  A true professional will do that.  He was a two time academy award winner in a minor role. That reflects on him as a person. I like the role, I want the role, so what if it isn't the main role? That's all there is to it. 
3. The actual man is a good person. He had a rough time, he made horrible mistakes, he went to prison, he is doing the right thing now.  People can grow and change.  Don't forget that!

We left my grandparents house in Winston-Salem, went to the movies, and were pregnant a month later.

A new chapter in my life was about to begin.


That was Christmas of 2002. I didn't go see another movie on Christmas day until 2011-The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  That just proves we do what we have to do and we do what we want to do, and life is give and receive.  Everything in its time!

Even Tom Hanks knows when it's time to hang back...

29: Blazing Saddles

1974
I think Cary, North Carolina
with my mom and dad-technically, I was in utero...

This used to come on once a year-I'm guessing on CBS because it was a Friday night and it meant no Dallas or Falcon Crest that week. Bummer, one week without Lance...

Every year without fail, my mom would remind me of the campfire scene. Apparently, when my mom and dad went to see it in the movie theater the summer of 1974, I kicked her bladder until she had to leave the theater.   She missed the most famous scene in comedy history. Motherhood is all about sacrifice isn't it?   She didn't get to see cowboys passing gas around a campfire on the big screen because of me.  Sorry mom-you should have known that was only the beginning.  But thirty years later, I made it through Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire...so there!

Blazing Saddles is just the standard slapstick comedy. I'm sure it is on every Cinema 101 syllabus for a comedy piece.  I only remember Willy Wonka was in the cast and I didn't like the ending when they were running through the other sets.  I don't do slapstick.  I like wit. If you want me to laugh, you better make the joke fairly intelligent.  Having just said that, before cable exploded, you better believe I watched it once a year with my brother and sister.  It was sure to come on a month or two after the Wizard of Oz.

Years went by...we watched it in Texas, we watched it in Illinois, and then we moved to Greensboro, North Carolina. That was second grade.   For the record, it was extremely edited for television.

That was my last move until college. I remember my first day of school.  My dad took me-my mom was in graduate school.

My Dad handed an index card to the very large teacher in the doorway of my new classroom. She looked at it and said, "Ray lives in your neighborhood, sit next to him. He'll help you on the bus too."

Without writing another book altogether, he helped me on the bus all right.

Ray and I had a love/hate relationship from that very first day in 1983.  Very few people could just walk into my house, go up to my room, and spray perfume all over the place while putting on lip gloss and saying, "No, this isn't me."

On my 13th birthday, he wanted to give me diamond earrings. His mother told him to buy dusting powder instead.  He told her I was not the type to clean house.  I am saving those studs for Frances!

He had a younger brother that used to tease me for lack of driving skills. I was so horrible my parents paid for extra lessons.  Michael would see me pull up with the private teacher and yell, "Pagie can't drive! Pagie can't drive!"  I still can't..who am I kidding?

On and on this went. Until we were thirty and life does what it does and we lost Michael, Ray's younger brother.

I paced back and forth in my house in Fuquay-Varina, NC. What to do?  What to say?  I had a two year old and was pregnant with my first son.  How do I reach out to someone who was such a part of my rich history?

I did what only Page would do....

I wrote him a ten page letter, and sent him a copy of Blazing Saddles on DVD.

He still has the letter, and it is for him and his parents only, but I will say I wrote this:

Laughter heals all...Raymond Alan, on really bad days, promise me you will wrap up in a blanket and watch this DVD.

My mother, eight months pregnant with me when she saw the original film, hit the roof:

YOU DID WHAT???? YOU SENT HIM WHAT????

She obviously didn't know about all the times he threw rocks at my window for late night swims at Ryan's house.

I did the right thing for an old friend. And you will do the right thing, when life presents the sadder side to you.  You will recall all those little moments from your childhood and bring them to the surface. You will evolve and move on, but never forget the people you grew up with and be there for them in times of need.

And for the record, I still don't clean house or drive....

28: The Hunger Games

 Branford, CT

March 24th and 25th

with: Michele and Bonnie

Well, we love a good fandom, don't we? If it isn't Star Wars it's Star Trek. If it isn't Lord of the Rings it's Harry Potter.  Then we had to love vampires.  Now it's The Hunger Games.

The synopsis:

North America is now a country called Panem divided into 12 districts and a capitol. The distribution of wealth is so disgusting my most liberal friends would put the book down before they got off the first page.  From the twelve districts, once a year one boy and one girl (12-18) are picked to participate in a game show.  They are trained, interviewed, and styled.  They are coached by mentors.  They can get sponsors to send them gifts in the arena and capitol citizens sit around bars placing bets on their favorites.  The main character is a 16 year old girl named Katniss who volunteers to replace her sister as the tribute from District 12.

How do you win? Oh-you kill all the other kids you are playing against.

Reflections on going to see the movie:

1) I couldn't wait for my friends, I had to go Saturday night alone. I was once told I needed to work on my patience.  I guess that is a character defect I have always clung to.  Saturday the movie had my undivided attention and I sat dead center in the upper aisle.  Once I had seen it, I could watch it again Sunday and enjoy it.

2) Please, if you are not a die hard fan or have not read the books, don't go opening weekend.  During one very important scene, a lot of people freaked out unnecessarily. They weren't sad, they were acting like they couldn't believe what they were seeing.  Like a magical rainbow was going to pop out of nowhere and make everything better. NO!!!! My friends and I were passing out the popcorn napkins and crying, that was understandable.  These people were screaming that the scene shouldn't have happened.  You can't re-write a book because you don't want a twelve year old to die. Wait a month and go see it if you want to play the Pollyanna glad game.

3)No matter how many adults are trying to escape their dirty dishes and other responsibilities, it's a young adult novel and young adults are going to go to the movies. Yes, we have to shush them while they giggle and run in groups to use the bathroom. But alas, when you go to the movies there will be kids there. You can avoid that by going at nine, but I'm usually on my way to bed by then.

Reflections on the actual movie:

1) Wonderful sets and character development.  I felt I was in Panem and could see the inequality of the place.  As for the violence, yes, kids are killing each other.  There is no magical rainbow making it all better, but thanks to quick camera work and good angles, it's at the minimum on screen.

2) Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickman, the host and commentator of the Games, was brilliant. I have never seen him look so happy to play a role.

How convenient to need a commentator for a game show:


Hello, I'm Stanley Tucci, I'm here to summarize for those of you who came to the movies without reading the book first.  First, every time the cannon blasts, another tribute is dead.  The Tracker Jackers are lethal wasps.   The kid from district 3 re-wired the mines, making him valuable to the careers tributes and enabling Katniss to blow them up.  Let us know if you have any other questions.

3) It was important for the "Careers" to lose their supplies. It leveled the playing field.  The career children are trained to go to this game, but they come from wealthier districts and don't know what to do to really survive.  People who have never had anything bad happen to them don't know how to handle it when something goes wrong.  Katniss has already had to hold it together, making the game easier for her.

4) The only mentor we see or hear from is obviously the one for Katniss and Peeta-Haymitch Abernathy. The mentors are previous winners from other games. When you win, you are pampered for the rest of your life and your district is honored with extra food until the next games.  How incredibly horrible to survive that.  You are alive because twenty three other people are not. You have to witness the re-enactments and the vacation spots and here people talk of exciting moments in a game like they were tokens on a board instead of real people. I don't think I'd want to win. 

5) I love a good female heroine that finds a way to stick it to Donald Sutherland. :0)


Everyone plays a Hunger Game every now and then.

I just want Stanley Tucci there explaining to everyone else what is going on...

25: Cry-Baby

 Brassfield Cinema Greensboro

1990

Beth Bernard

I had a girlfriend named Beth who was very knowledgeable when it came to all things Hollywood. She had posters in her room-James Dean and Marilyn Monroe.  She also had her own television and VCR-IN HER ROOM!  She had Heathers, The Lost Boys, and all the seasons of 21 Jump Street on VHS.

 I had never heard of 21 Jump Street-so she gave me a lesson.

I get it now-these young cops were posing as high school students..blah blah..and she ended it with this:

AND Johnny Depp is actually going to be in a movie and he is going to be famous. You wait Page, he will.

Depp?  Isn't that a hair gel?

Here, let me get the magazine. 

And she found the movie magazine that showed Johnny Depp in his movie, Cry-Baby, with the director..wait what's this?

He is working with John Waters!!!! Oh, why didn't you say so???

then it was her turn


John Waters?  Who is John Waters?

I knew who John Waters was-he had directed Hairspray. That was a great movie.  Although years later, my second personal favorite would become Cecil B. Demented.  I just like the idea of underground filmmakers kidnapping a starlet and forcing her to do their movie.



With the help of John Waters, Johnny Depp went from the high school narc to a cross between James Dean, Elvis, and Danny Zuko from Grease.  Throw a little John Hughes Pretty in Pink/Some Kind of Wonderful nonsense in there too.  The bad boy that is constantly misunderstood falls for the clean cut prissy good girl.  Why must she always be a blonde?

Off to the brand new theater on the other side of Greensboro to watch this non-traditional film with someone who to this day is a really good, good friend. We were maybe one of five people in the theater. Several people are afraid of Waters for reasons I won't go into...

I think that one will always be my first favorite for a couple of reasons:

• Waters made fun of the good guys. The ones that always did the right things. The people that never had anything bad happen to them ever.  The straight edges-the yuppies.  

• Cry-Baby could only shed one tear-until the end of the film. Ain't that sweet?

• Everyone, no matter how good they are, no matter how perfect they want to be, they are going to screw up.  Get over it. Have fun with it.  It makes you who you are.

• It got Johnny Depp off of the Fox Network and onto the big screen.  Could you imagine a life without Benny and Joon, Don Juan DeMarco, or the Dead Man? I can't either.  Tim Burton would have had a completely different cast list if it hadn't been for John Waters and his obssession with Teen Beat magazines in the late 80s. He kept seeing Johnny on the covers and had to get to know that kid....

I have always said, if I could choose to meet one AMERICAN (loophole) director,  it would be John Waters.  I want to go shopping at a Baltimore mall with John Waters. He could help me pick out the right pair of boots. And I want the highest heels he can find, with fringe!  I'll wear blue eye shadow. We could skim magazines and talk true crime.

Maybe he could explain all his blonde casting to this redhead.

13: The Extraordinary Voyage with Restored A Trip to The Moon

 

Lincoln Center, New York

March 3, 2012

with: Juana 

Self reflection for tonight:  Sometimes no matter how much you love something, no matter how much of an expert or know it all you think you are-you completely miss something.  

I am talking about the Lincoln Center in New York City-two trains and a subway ride away from me.  I might act like miss high and mighty refusing to watch Bridesmaids and yelling at colleagues for hating on The Talented Mr. Ripley, but until last weekend, I had never heard of  that place.  ME!!! 

I have taken care of this problem. :0)

Here is how...

My mother has just as many friends as I do and then some. Mamacita has been nagging encouraging me to hang out with one of her most brilliant former colleagues.  Juana was a tour De force when I met her so many years ago. She works hard and follows her passions.  I knew she was a film student but I also knew that going back to school makes you crazy busy and I didn't want to bother her.  

We finally found a time (that is the story of every mother's memoir, finally found a time) to take in a movie in Manhattan with a nice dinner afterwards.

This was her text:

Ella: Let's meet at 5:45 at Columbus Circle, inside the mall by Botero's sculpture vale?

Yo: Nos vemos...

When I read her texts, I knew I was going to find a mall and a statue of a very fat woman without even googling it.  Duh, doesn't everyone know that?

I find the statue and was astonished at how many people wanted a picture next to it-then after we hug and kiss we go to the coolest place I've been to in New York city yet.

Again, I am floored by the vast amount of cinema possibilities this place has to offer.  Film festivals, lectures, galas, memberships...How in God's name have I not heard of this place? How long have I lived up here and I don't know about this? What kind of a fog have I been living in?  Don't answer that and don't bust out with a cliched song....

Once, when I was in line to buy tickets in Time Square, the tourist in front of me said she didn't care what she saw, she just wanted to see a Broadway show.  She told the ticket guy she didn't care.  After she was done, I asked her what she decided on. She still said she didn't know and she didn't care. She just wanted to be on Broadway. I really hope that man didn't send her to Spring Awakening or Avenue Q.  

Now I get her- I felt the same way last Saturday night when I was at the Lincoln Center. I didn't care what we saw. I was no longer in that tiny little movie theater in Robinson, Illinois waiting to see E.T. (you will hear that story Holy Week). I was at the Lincoln Center.  Juana was the film student, so I let her decide.

And we went with:

The Extraordinary Voyage (2011) with Restored a Trip to the Moon (1902)

The first part was a documentary about the French filmmaker Georges Melies. The second film was a completely restored original film by Melies in 1902-in COLOR and one of the first science fiction films ever made.  How cool is that to a science fiction freak like me?  I wish my brother could have been there too.

For me to like a documentary, it needs to be engaging and informative.  The information needs to be told and presented in a way that I will retain it.  I felt like I knew this filmmaker by the end of the show. I also felt a great respect for people that restore films. It is no easy task.

Let's talk about the man first.  He was one of the first filmmakers to use special effects and he discovered the substitution stop trick.  He made all kinds of silly and fantastical films using his special effects.  One of his most famous was A Trip to the Moon.

Here in 2012, All three of my children love to make movies of themselves with my iPhone, an iPod, or a webcam on the laptop.  Frances and Kenneth know how to click around and add special effects. They can change backgrounds and delete scenes.  

Georges Melies had to build his own studio with enough window light to film when it was sunny outside. No sun, no shoot.  There was no editing anything.  The final film has 30 scenes and lasts about fifteen minutes.  To color a film, each slide literally had to be colored.  Three hundred women could work on one film at a time.  The amount of time and technique it took baffles me. 

The second part of the documentary was about how a they restored the original film. I'll never look at film preservation the same way again.  You couldn't just start yanking at the film to pull it apart. You had to slowly chip at it over time.  When they finally had the film pulled apart, they had to snap a picture of each slide and piece in what they thought was missing. I can't do a Lego set for a seven year old-forget piecing together a film slide.

The actual silent movie was incredible. Landing on the moon looks like so much fun. I think the next time we are stuck inside on a rainy day, I pull up a copy of it online and have the children create dialogue to go with the pictures.  That will entertain us for a while.

I learned a lot last Saturday night:

1) The Lincoln Center is going to be my special place in New York City from now on, and I'll find something to see there whenever I'm there.  I don't care! :0)

2) Film-making has its own history and special people with stories to tell. Somethings have changed, but passion for the work has not.

3) These things take time. That silent film was found in 1999 and fully restored over eight years later.  We all need to work on our own calendars and make it as perfect as we want it to be-no rush.

4) I have strong women in my life-Juana is one of them!  

  

4: My Week with Marilyn

Madison art Cinema in MADISON, CT

December 4, 2011

With Maria

My grandfather has cracked me up twice in my lifetime.  The first was when he was looking through the newspaper in 1990 and said completely seriously, "Page (my grandmother, not me) and I were looking forward to the 2 Live Crew concert.  So disappointed it was canceled." 

The second time he cracked me up was about twelve years ago.  I never knew what to buy my grandparents because when you get to be a certain age, you have everything.  I was actually in a Walgreens when I saw classic movies in a sale  bin.  I grabbed Some Like it Hot along with a tin can of Altoids for their glove compartment.  On Christmas day, Grandmother opened the mints and Grandaddy had the video.  As the paper came off I heard the man shriek "MARILYN MONROE!" like the Braves had won the series.  Then he hid the video before anyone could take it from him.  I'm laughing now...

I had never seen a single one of Marilyn's films-Grace Kelly is my blonde of Hollywood legend. But that very next day, I went to my local video store and came home with a ukulele playing blonde.  It was cute.  More for the cross dressing musicians hiding from the bad guys than her, but still, it was a fun way to spend the 26th of December.

Last December, I went to my favorite town of Madison to see Michelle Williams in My Week with Marilyn. It was based on a memoir by film maker Colin Clark.  After university, his first job was with Laurence Olivier working on the set of The Prince and the Showgirl.  He had the opportunity to spend a week with the icon herself-Marilyn Monroe. To be honest, I only wanted to go because Emma Watson is in it too.

Young adults, ages 16-30, should be required to watch the opening scenes when Colin is trying to land the job.  He doesn't give up.  He goes above and beyond to work for Olivier. He sat in a waiting room for quite some time.  He did any menial task they offered him. There was no sense of entitlement or waiting around until it fell in his lap, he made it happen.  We seem to think everything should be given to us, but those scenes reminded me that more than a little work is involved in success.

Emma plays Lucy the wardrobe girl on the movie set.  She is the standard cute brunette that Colin likes and has a date with, but she's no Marilyn Monroe. At the end of the film, Lucy asks him if Marilyn broke his heart-he replied yes, and she said, "Good." I am convinced this is why I developed such a quick wit. The sexy blonde is going to always win the guy in the short run, and strong women walk away with a smirk.

 I have seen lots of biopics and made for television movies about Marilyn Monroe-but this one focused on one small part of quite a drama filled life.  Any little part of anyone's life is worthy of a story.  A chapter of a life doesn't have to last for a very long time to remember it forever and for an audience to find entertaining.


It's Oscar night, and I want Michelle to win the gold statue.  She was the Marilyn Monroe.  She nailed the voice and the silliness.  She handled the emotional outbursts and the flirtation.  She annoyed that poor man to the point that he didn't direct again until 1970.  As sick as that classic actress was, she had pure comic slapstick talent. Michelle did that too, and I don't think I'd ever seen her in a comedy before.


Dawson's Creek was my guilty pleasure those first years as a teacher-again, the blonde taking Dawson away from the brunette next door.  No matter-who ended up with Tom Cruise?  Michelle  didn't win for Brokeback Mountain or Blue Valentine.  Maybe this is her time...but then again, Marilyn never won either-she didn't get a nomination.

What matters?  Recognition for your work by professionals and critics, or love by fans for years and years to come?

You know what matters to me?  My serious grandfather busting out with a joke.

2: The River Wild

Year: 1994
Place: Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
With:  Deanna, Phillip, and Binnie

Everyone: Think of your favorite Meryl Streep....you have five seconds...go....

Kramer vs. Kramer?
Death Becomes Her?
Music of the Heart?
The Devil Wears Prada?
Sophie's Choice?
A Cry in the Dark?

Damn...she is quite the actress. She has won two Oscars and nominated several times. I have a feeling they could film her blowing her nose and put it on youtube and it would get an Oscar nod.  I'm not kidding. I also like that she is an incredible mom to four grown children.  Meryl was just in Guilford filming at our little grocery store.  I didn't go try to catch a glimpse of the greatness-the thirty-somethings upstairs did though. Wait, I'm a thirty-something too....ugh.  Life and definitions get complicated.

The movie I'm thinking about tonight is The River Wild.   Meryl has played all kinds of roles, has she not?  A holocaust survivor, a music teacher, an incredibly tall and well loved chef.  In the early 90s, she decided to take on the hardships of being a mother and white water rafting guide-that happens to be fluent in ASL.

One of my college roommates was from Myrtle Beach. I pity people that don't have college roommates.  There is no other relationship that compares to that one.  The cool thing about that was, if she invited you to go "Home" with her, you were going to the beach!  Woo who!!!!

I went "home" with her a couple of times.  One time, her mother really wanted to see "The River Wild."

Unlike the little girl two doors down in 3rd-5th grade, Deanna and I were very in sync when it came to movies.  We liked the weird crap no one else would watch.  She called me the night she and her now husband went to see Lost in Translation and told me I had to go. When Pulp Fiction came out, we both forgave John Travolta for making Look Who's Talking.  Her mom wanted to take us to a nice dinner at the Olive Garden and then go see this movie.  We heard Italian Dinner and we heard Meryl Streep.  So we said, "Heck yes!"

I have to admit, while it wasn't The French Lieutenant's Woman, I was on the edge of my seat.  First off, Meryl had some freaking muscles.  Rowing crew is not a joke and I'm sure she had to work out for the role.  In between the bad guys and the rapids, she was using sign language to tell her little boy all would be fine.  That was pretty awesome.  Little did I know in 1994 that I would get pretty proficient in sign language around 2005.  Motherhood changes everything.  The film was an adrenaline rush and a chance to say that any Meryl Streep film could get you back to Kevin Bacon.  I'm glad Meryl made it.  The best of the best drama queens can make a thriller!  It was a good film and a good night with Deanna and her parents.

Dee's mom has been sick for a while now.  Tonight, I called to check on her and tell her how my kids were doing.  All she wanted to hear about was the time we took all four children, her grandson and my three, to the art museum.  When I had to go because I heard a crash, she said, "Thank you for calling me." and I said, "No, thank you for letting me and all those other crazy college girls come crash at the beach for free."  She had a really good laugh at that.

What I learned from Meryl Streep is that you can play, literally, many different roles. And no matter what role you are playing-if you are Out of Africa or a She-Devil, you need to remember who was with you for each one, and you need to take the time to say thank you for them.