Gorgeous. Gaudy. Glittery.

A gorgeously gaudy glittering surprise in the Governor's meeting room in the newly renovated state capitol

The People's House

When I was on capitol hill last week for the Fair Workplace Rally I snapped a few pictures of the newly renovated building. It's breathtaking, it always has been, but it's particularly stunning after the restoration.

It reminds me of Union Station in Washington, D.C.

If you saw the murals before the restoration, you can appreciate how vibrant the colors are now.

The rotunda is probably my favorite feature.

Pass HB 89!

I was at the state capitol building last week for a rally supporting HB 89, Anti-discrimination Act Amendments. If passed this bill will make it illegal to discriminate against citizens in the workplace based on their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Pretty simple, right? We hire people because they have the skills necessary to perform the job and perform it well. We promote them when they do an exceptionally good job. We fire them when they fail to perform and were given due process to make their case. Period. I wish it were that simple for Utah's legislators. Many of them feel that passing this bill is a guaranteed slippery slope fer them there gays marryin' and takin' over the cul-de-sac with their crazy notion of being human. Honestly, I can't argue the opposition to this bill because I'm not able to comprehend the argument. Furthermore, I refuse to give the opposition power and energy by naming it at all.

Representative Chris Johnson spoke at the rally, hosted by Equality Utah, and posted the full text of her speech on the Equality Utah website. I put select bits in this post because while it's difficult to explain the electricity of a rally and the emotional moments of a speech when the crowd cheers in unison, at least you'll get to read her inspiring words.

"It’s a good sign that we never get an honest argument against employment nondiscrimination...we know discrimination is the true immorality. HB89 is not about Marriage equality, it’s not about putting a stamp of approval on homosexuality, it’s about one thing and one thing only....fairness in the workplace. It’s about once and for all allowing one’s work performance, experience, and education as the genuine criteria for hiring and firing."

"The agenda is not a gay agenda, it’s an equality agenda, it’s a truly democratic and American Agenda."

"Be patient with those that agree and disagree. Thank them for where they are, thank them for a willingness to listen and learn. Encourage them to ask questions and gently move them forward. I am preaching to the choir....so go and sing your song."

Right on! I hope that when our legislators grow up they want to be Chris Johnson.

Snow Day!

I began the day yesterday with every intention of going to work and plowing through my to-do piles (To-do lists just don't cut it anymore. I now require a never-ending plethora of teetering piles). However, Mother Nature had very different plans for me.

I made it about five blocks from my house in roughly 30 minutes, white knuckle driving in a completely slushy white-out blizzard. Not able to see ten feet in front of my vehicle and quickly realizing this death luge was so not worth it, I called the office, turned into the closest movie theatre, and rode out the storm with three glorious hours of Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will be Blood). I stopped at Paradise Bakery on the way home (Could I eat their chicken artichoke panini every day? Yes. I could.) and read the afternoon away (I'm completely addicted to, and nearly finished with, "The Other Boleyn Girl" by Phillipa Gregory) with hot chocolate in hand and snow falling fast and furious outside my window.

Not the day I had planned, but an excellent Impromptu Plan B. Snow days make me feel young and there's something so deliciously sneaky about playing hooky from work.

In honor of the 2008 election

I recently posted my thoughts on the Lincoln biography "Team of Rivals" and wanted to follow up with a very timely Lincoln quotation. In honor of this nail-bitting primary/caucus season...

"I happen temporarily to occupy this big White House. I am a living witness that any one of your children may look to come here as my father's child has. It is in order that each of you may have through this free government which we have enjoyed, an open field and a fair chance for your industry, enterprise, and intelligence; that you may all have equal privileges in the race of life, with all it's desirable human aspirations. It is for this the struggle should be maintained, that we may not lose our birthright. The nation is worth fighting for, to secure such an inestimable jewel."

For the love of this inestimable jewel, turn off the embarrassing racket that is CNN and learn about the candidates "through their platforms...not their personalities" with this interactive, educational quiz. Who matches your views most closely?

ISBN ### Where is our Lincoln?

ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-7075-5

"He had packed his own trunk, tied it with a rope, and inscribed it simply: 'A. Lincoln, White House, Washington, D.C.' Neither the luxurious presidential car, decorated with dark furniture, crimson curtains, and a rich tapestry carpet, nor the colorful flags and streamers swaying from its paneled exterior could lift the solemn mood of the president-elect. Lincoln understood that his country faced a perilous situation, perhaps the most perilous in its history. That same morning, Jefferson Davis was beginning a journey of his own. To the cheers of thousands [...] he would be inaugurated president of the new Confederacy."

Right around the fourth grade bright-eyed children across this vast nation are introduced to the mythical legend of The Great Emancipator. Many people feel, to this very day, that Abraham Lincoln is the greatest president our country has ever had. After finishing the 800 page biography "Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin I agree with that contention. However, I agree only by adding one specific caveat. I agree for reasons we are not taught in social studies hour sandwiched between field trip permission slips and four square tournaments at recess.

I would never discount the monumental significance of the Emancipation Proclamation. What I will discount is the common notion that Lincoln was a hardcore abolitionist who fought tooth and nail to abolish slavery against all odds (see also: the fourth grade history lesson in which we made top hats out of old newspapers). With about 400 pages of the book dedicated to the complex, intricate, historically detailed discussion of the ins and outs of the slavery debate as it stood in 1860 (give and take 5+ years on either end), I can safely say that I both understand and respect the many shades of gray. Lincoln's stand was to contain slavery where it existed at the time of his election and forbid it from expanding to the western territories. He did not seek, at the time, to un-do the slavery that already existed in the south. He was a brilliant compromiser, but not an avid abolitionist. Saving the union was, to him, a more important calling than abolishing slavery. For that matter, he had the Emancipation Proclamation composed and tucked in his pocket, as it were, waiting for just the right moment to announce his plans to his delicate nation. With that mind, I feel Lincoln is a political genius not simply because he is the Great Emancipator, but rather because of the way in which he held the country together and re-created the United States.

Kearns Goodwin's book is called "Team of Rivals" to reference the way Lincoln formed his presidential cabinet. His primary contenders for the Republican nomination in the 1860 election - William Seward, Salmon Chase, Edward Bates - were all given highly influential positions within the administration, meeting with Lincoln daily, advising him at every turn, and adding much drama to the already dramatic political scene of a country at war with itself. What interested me most and endeared Lincoln to me was his leadership style. Anyone and everyone who met with him left the interaction feeling as though they were heard, their opinion was validated, and they were the most important person in the room. That takes incredible skill to maneuver friends and enemies in that way. To convince others to support your opinion and they leave the conversation feeling as though it was their idea all along. I say "maneuver" and not "manipulate" because it's not a negative and vindictive process, it's a brilliant and astoundingly difficult process. Lincoln was, above all else, a pitch perfect interpersonal communicator.

It's obviously not only Lincoln's interpersonal, either one-on-one or small cabinet meeting, conversations that saved the nation. Anyone who has read his speeches can attest to the power of his public words. Another stand-out lesson I gleaned from this massive tome is Lincoln's ability to speak to the people, the dirty, average, uneducated, mass of citizens that was (is) the heart of America. Coming from a poor prairie existence himself, he never lost sight of that. He was a powerful storyteller, able to comprehend intricately difficult concepts, synthesize them, flip them around and speak in accessible, memorable language. Maybe it's an American phenomenon, maybe it's just the political junkie in me, but I can literally feel his words rush through my body as though they are hiding in my veins themselves:

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. [...] The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Can you feel that? "...a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth." It was unflappable dedication to this cause that motivated Lincoln. It is his belief in this cause that makes him, to me, the greatest leader we've known. A leader who was willing to prioritize impossibly difficult priorities. Speaking to a newspaper reporter at the height of the Civil War he said, "I fear you do not fully comprehend the danger of abridging the liberties of the people. Nothing but the very sternest necessity can ever justify it. A government had better go to the very extreme of toleration, than to do aught that could be construed into an interference with, or to jeopardize in any degree, the common rights of its citizens." (Take your cue, Patriot Act). Lincoln is not a racist, he was dedicated to a free America and understood the necessity of putting the preservation of the Union first. It is that far-sighted leadership that makes a humble, uneducated man from rural Illinois...Abraham Lincoln.

Certain unalienable rights

...among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The sensation was very similar to the rush I get the moment a protest march surges forward. I turned onto State Street and drove up the hill to our newly renovated capitol building. It was right after work and so the sun was beginning to set behind the western mountains and the lights of the capitol rotunda were just peeking through the gray sky. I've been to the capitol many, many times, but something about last night felt particularly electric.

To the surprise of no one who knows me (or doesn't know me but has tooled around this blog) I'm a political junkie addicted to community organizing. In my world absolutely everything, at its core, is political. I've signed more than my fair share of petitions and I make it a point to frequently harass my elected official with letters and emails; but I've never roamed the halls of the capitol and cornered Representative So-and-So to shake their hand and chat about House Bill ##. In other words, my lobbying is rarely a tete e tete affair. When I received an invitation from Equality Utah to participate in a Citizen Lobbyist training, I jumped at the chance.

Within the upcoming 45-day legislative session will I actually take a day off work to roam the halls of the capitol and corner Senators? Maybe, maybe not, but that's not the point. The point is that I'm now better informed about the local government lobbying process and I have even more tools and skills to communicate effectively, whether in person or not. The beautiful thing about my neighborhood is that all my elected officials are liberal democrats and my house rep is an openly gay woman. I, fortunately, don't have to waste my breath convincing my local reps to support liberal social causes. But the work that needs to be done outside my liberal SLC bubble? Monumental.


All of that aside, the other reason I attended the training is that now I'm specifically better informed about the bills impacting Utah's LGBT Community. I'm really tired of people asking me, "But...aren't you Mormon?" Precisely why, as a matter of fact and doctrinally speaking, I was in attendance last night. I'm also really tired of people asking me, "But...aren't you straight?" To both I reply, "And?" I have a difficult time painting the LGBT acronym into a corner. What impacts the LGBT community impacts me. By similar extension, what impacts the immigrant community impacts me. What impacts the working poor impacts me. It's not about being gay or straight, native-born or newly-arrived, rich or poor. It's about being human. It's about sharing this world with people I consider to be my brothers and sisters. It's about respecting the right of every. single. person. to be alive, free, and happy. Where have we heard that before? Oh that's right...in the founding documents of this country. The Christian Right (which is neither) should really stop waving that delicate parchment around.

Salt Lake City is a fantastically blue island of liberal misfits floating adrift in a sea of the reddest red. There are three openly gay representatives (two in the house and one in the senate) in the Utah legislature and that puts Utah among the top three states in the nation for openly gay reps. Four years ago Amendment 3 passed, banning gay marriage and civil unions in the state of Utah. At the time there were eight pro-actively anti-gay bills being rammed through the political pipe line. Because of the work of Equality Utah, concerned citizens, and a handful of other community organizations, this year there are no (as of right now) anti-gay bills in the pipeline. Furthermore...there are seven bills that, if passed, will benefit the LGBT community. Which is to say, these bills will benefit all of us by honoring families, respecting a child's right to grow up in a loving home, creating fair work places, standing up to domestic/dating violence and school bullies, and making us more compassionate human beings.

Side note: Major kudos to the elected officials who took two hours out of their very busy schedules to attend the training, teach us and demystify the legislative process, and let us practice our new skills. That, my friends, is what our representative democracy should look like.
Senator Gene Davis
Senator Scott McCoy
Representative Jackie Biskupski
Representative Rebecca Chavez-Houck
Representative Christine Johnson
Representative David Litvack
Representative Roz McGee
Representative Carol Spackman-Moss

Baklava with friends

I met a friend a couple years ago through the Multicultural Arch Foundation who hosts cooking classes in her home. It's a women-only cooking group and the Multicultural Arch calls it their "Women's Voice" initiative. The core idea is to empower women and bridge the Muslim-Christian divide...through conversation and food. Plans are in the works for us to expand our gatherings to different cultural events happening around town and I'm really looking forward to that development.

There are about ten people in the group right now. The majority of the Muslim women in the group are from Turkey. So far, in the classes I've been in town for, we've learned to make manti and baklava. There are endless versions of baklava, but it hails originally from the Ottoman empire/central Turkey. To have my Turkish friends teach me first hand how they've made baklava for generations was awesome. The glory of potluck is that we always eat so much more than just the dish we're learning to make. It's quite the spread when we get together.

We are loyal and faithful to our friends to the extent that we share their troubles as well as their joys. If we cannot weep when our friends weep and rejoice when they rejoice, we cannot be regarded as faithful friends. (Fethullah Geulen)

First Friday Films | A Belated Take Five

First Friday Films Take Five
Coming-of-age Indian dramas, Irfan Khan (three times), sex with horses assumed to be Jesus incarnate...December was a busy month.


The Warrior
Anthony Minghella. Minghellaaaaaahhhhh...breathe a sigh of appreciation for such classic favorites as English Patient, Talented Mr. Ripley, and now... The Warrior. The Warrior is not a new film, it's just new to me. I was wandering through Tower looking for a Plan B when I discovered The Namesake was already checked out when I stumbled upon...you guessed it...Irfan Khan. Minus the growing handful of American films he's in, Kahn is best known for glittering mouthfuls of cotton Bollywood candy. In The Warrior, however, he says maybe 50 words the entire time. It's sensuous and haunting. To say that his eyes, his incredibly subtle facial expressions, completely make this film is an understatement.

I found this description online (and get your law suits ready because no, I don't remember where I found it) and I think it's perfect: "Set in ancient India, this is the epic tale of a lone warrior, Lafcadia, who quits his job as the enforcer of the war lord of the Red Fort after an encounter with a mystical force during a mission to raid a village in the deserts of Rajasthan for unpaid taxes. Abandoning his old life, The warrior is chased into the Himalayan Mountains, pursued by his former employees forces... ultimately facing them there." In other words, he used to be a hit man and has a run-in with his conscience that completely turns his life around. It's a story about redemption, ultimately. It is, unlike other films I saw this month (keep reading), truly epic and has some of the most beautiful cinematography I've seen in a long time.

Darjeeling Limited
A+. A sweet coming of age story about three brothers traveling through India in search of their absentee mother just after their father's funeral. I capital-A Adore Wes Anderson. I Adore his quirky humor contrasted with bouts of extensive cinematic silence. I Adore his who's who indy soundtracks. I Adore Adrian Brody. I Adore Jason Swartzman. I Adore this pitch perfect movie. It's odd, sad, witty, quiet, awkward, honest, and I think it's Wes Anderson's best (which means something coming from me). Also, while only a small role but continuing my monthly theme, Irfan Khan is spotted along the Darjeeling rails. See the movie and keep your eyes peeled. It's way cooler than Waldo.

The Namesake
Sticking with this month's coming-of-age theme, I rented The Namesake and relived this lushly gorgeous film. I didn't struggle with etnhic and/or racial identity growing up in America as the child of immigrants, but the brilliant thing about this movie is that it manages to be completely universal. At its core The Namesake speaks to anyone who has struggled to consciously define any part of themselves. It traces Gogol Ganguli's life from pre-birth, by way of his parent's immigration from India to America, through his school years, college graduation, first love, second love, marriage, divorce, death of a parent, in other words...it covers a lot of ground and it's beautiful. And yes, as predicted, Irfan Khan plays Gogol's father and he does so perfectly. Kal Penn is also spot on in the lead role. He's definitely one to watch (minus that one unfortunate movie about hamburgers which I never saw).

Iron Jawed Angels
I had forgotten how much I love this movie. I saw it in the theatre years ago and remember loving how hip and sexy they managed to make the women's suffrage movement. It was such a fresh take. Passionate young suffragettes marching on Washington to the beat of a Lauryn Hill soundtrack. It's even cooler than I remembered. HBO did a brilliant job contrasting old school politics to the more radical activism of Alice Paul and Lucy Burns.

I wish that more people, men and women, would realize and appreciate this bit of our country's history. It's completely unfathomable to me that any woman watching this film would be capable of not voting, not caring, not honoring the sacrifices of so many gone before. It also made me think of one of my favorite Ani DiFranco slam poems, which was subsequently stuck in my head for days and days after watching this movie: "People been raising up their voices since it just ain't been right with all the righteous rage and bitter spite that will accompany us out of this long night. [...] Shocked to tears by each new vision of what my ancestors have done, say the women who gave their lives so that I could have one. We're standing at ground zero of the feminist revolution. It was an inside job, stoic and sly, one we're supposed to forget and downplay and deny, but I think the time is nothing if not nigh to let the truth out. The coolest f-word every deserves a fuckin' shout. Why can't all decent men and women call themselves feminists? Out of respect for those who fought for this." Right on.

The Bourne Ultimatum
Between Live Free, Die Hard and The Bourne Ultimatum, I had an explosive summer with uncharacteristically intelligent action flicks. I saw this final film in the Bourne trilogy many times and when it was at the $1 theatre in my 'hood I saw it yet again. It was definitely the best out of the trilogy and that says a lot. It's very near the pinnacle of what thoughtful action films can be. The choreography of the chase scene at Waterloo station? Genius. The fist fight between Bourne and the asset Desh in Tangier, with no sound but raw fists and grunting and breaking bones? Genius. If Hollywood insists on blowing stuff up and bombarding us with obnoxious sights and sounds to overload our senses each summer, can't they all be as brilliant as Bourne? Um, or at least all star Matt Damon...?

Juno
I'm not in the large legion of Superbad / Knocked Up fans, it's just not for me. However, post-Juno, I have a little thing for Michael Cera. Gotta be honest with you. Ellen Page is Janeane Garofalo en utero. I hope she sticks around and hits her full stride. She's like the wicked smart, bitter but warmly funny lesbian at the cocktail party that you can't help but crush on. Anyone? Just me? Anyway, it's a simple story that's told with such humanity (that sounds pretentious and we should reserve words like "humanity" for the Hindenberg and Gandhi), you can't help but find yourself in at least one of the characters. I think that the married couple who may adopt Juno's baby (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner) stole the show. The acting, yes, but their plot line was much more compelling to me than Juno's. At any rate, well done. It's the best of what indy can be.

Transformers
"Before time began, there was the cube!" Huh. So this was my first-ever encounter with Transformers. I've never been a ten year old boy, never been a thirty-something boy wishing he was ten again, never watched cartoons and comic book television of the like growing up, so other than the previews I saw last spring, I had absolutely no context for this movie. I actually thought it was pretty cool, interesting special effects, and while Shia Leboeuf overacts like a horny high school thespian, he's jailbait cute and the movie pulled me in. Well, it pulled me in until the robot car things started talking and suddenly had personalities, completing the posse with a token black robot. It was at this point that I became very confused.

I was cool with the sneaky scorpion thing fighting the U.S. army in Qatar (that was the raddest thing I've ever seen) and I was even cool with Shia's car acting out and playing hair band ballads for his porn star classmate crush, but when the Transfomers become anthropomorphic characters for whom we're meant to form an emotional bond...it totally lost me. But then...things started blowing up. Things blew up for like 50 minutes straight and I was back on board at about minute 10. Relentless special effects. Relentless. Very cool.

Atonement
I think I must be hungry for a truly epic film because I went to Atonement for that fix and was let down. All the reviews, all the people I know who've seen it, apparently everyone but me thinks this is the most heart-wrenching historical epic ever sent to the big screen. I mean, it won the Golden Globe for Best Drama, so someone thinks it's epic. I liked it, don't get me wrong. I've posted about James McAvoy before and to borrow my friend's favorite expression, I want to take a bath in James McAvoy. He (along with Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale, and a handful of others) is one of the best actors of my generation, but the movie could never quite reach epic status. I kept leaning toward the screen and waiting for it, waiting for it, and thinking...now. Then no. Another sweeping moment would arrive and I would lean in thinking...now is the moment it reaches heart-wrenching epic status. Then no. I don't know quite what it is that held it back. I liked the movie a lot and I plan to see it again and eventually own it, I guess I just wanted it to be more than it is.

Kite Runner
Ibid on my previous comments about wanting an epic and being disappointed in that respect. I had just barely, like within a couple weeks, finished Hosseini's book and went into this movie with very high expectations. Again, like Atonement, I loved it (this movie is actually better than Atonement in many ways)...but I wanted it to be so much more. I tore through the novel so quickly and felt such an ownership and investment in the story that I could see every frame of the film as I would have made it. I suppose that's the difficulty of reading a book and then seeing a movie adaptation. I understand that it was a major studio release and two hours is a long time to ask of antsy American audiences, but I would have sat through six hours BBC style to get every word of that book onto the sliver screen.

One example is Amir's fist fight with Asef, when they are adults and Asef is a Taliban leader. Pages and pages and pages of detail in the book and half way through reading the scene I realized I was holding my breath. The movie translation? About sixty seconds and not even a fraction of the tension portrayed in the book. When the scene ended I thought, was that the same scene from the book? That was it? I understand that they had to fit A LOT of material into a commercially viable film, and the movie is still better than most anything else in the megaplex, but I guess I wanted more art house.

Equus
Did I say I wanted more art house? Um, I spoke too soon. Licking the sweat off a horse's neck while you climax from your gallop on the beast you assume to be a surrogate Christ...? Art house? I guess I got it with Equus. The stage version of Equus is huge in London and has been playing for years, the film version I picked up at the library is from 1977, so it's not like this disturbing journey is a new phenomenon. In all honesty, the reason it's new to me and why I'm just now discovering the world of Equus is because I have a friend who is obsessed with Daniel Radcliffe. No, I'm not playing therapy games. It's not me. I really do have a friend in love with the Harry little Potter. When news that he was playing the lead in Equus broke (and subsequent announcement of New York tour dates), and that the lead has significantly lengthy nude scenes, the Google hits were burning up the monitors of thirty-something Potter fans all across this great nation.

When on the shelf of my neighborhood library I saw the film adaptation of the London stage play, I thought I'd check it out. I still, to this day and all those showers later, feel completely violated. I will admit that the concept is fascinating. The psychology, the dialogue, the narration from the Psychiatrist assigned to work with the boy who loooves his horses, it's all completely engrossing and you can't look away. You honestly want to know what happens and feel invested in the boy's pending therapeutic breakthrough. What hits you out of left field is the fact that the boy somehow mixes up Jesus and his sacrifice with the thought that the horses he tends in the country club's stable sacrifice for him by submitting to his whip, his desire to ride, allowing him to set the pace, "they could crush me in an instant, but instead give themselves over to me, a mere human..." So the thought (not new to Equus and actually found in religious traditions all over the world) that sexual intimacy is a connection to a higher source of power becomes the boy's reason for sneaking the horse out at night and galloping around naked until he comes and then rubs the horse down, licking it's sweaty mane until they both calm down. Huh. So yeah.

So the boy starts dating a girl who also works at the country club and at the end of one of their dates they end up in the stable, fooling around and very nearly having sex. The boy freaks out because the horses are watching (keep in mind that to him the horses are Jesus-eqsue), and his childhood Christian guilt kicks in and he can't bring himself to have sex with the girl. He also can't bear the thought that Jesus/Equus would watch him have 'shamefuly dirty' sex with this girl. When she leaves the barn he takes some sort of huge pick axe thing and stabs all six horses in the eyes and stands under each, covered in blood, screaming "Equus!!" Hence the psychiatrist visits. Dude. I feel dirty just recounting this brief narrative.

High School Musical 1 - Remix Edition
That's right. Two-disc Remix Edition. I told you I wanted this sugary treat in my stocking at Christmas and I was not disappointed. I thought I enjoyed watching the pop-up version on the Disney Channel (at home with the 'rents for Thanksgiving) but the sing along version is even cooler. The only thing that would have made it perfect is if a bouncing Mickey Mouse head would highlight each of the words as the song cruises on. Don't all 26 year olds need a little help keeping pace with the sing along subtitles? What? Of course all 26 year olds are obsessed with this movie as I am. Oh and you can bet I totally watched the special features where Zac teaches me the dance steps to "Getcha Head in da' Game" and I can now rock those moves by heart. It's my new favorite party trick. It sure beats pulling a quarter out of the host's ear.

January Blahs + root canal

In addition to muddling through the predictable post-holiday January Blahs, I also got to experience my first-ever root canal on Friday. So that's rad. The prescription pain meds make me sick, so I can choose between a throbbing face or an upset stomach. Decisions, decisions. I actually feel alright, all things considered, but have been completely void of creative motivation as of late. I missed my arbitrarily self-imposed deadline for the First Friday Films post. (I know you were on the edge of your seat and subsequently disappointed beyond belief when the post never arrived). I saw plenty of movies in December and have plenty to say, I just need time to finish writing my ramblings. I'm quite sure the Lortab/Ibuprofen cocktails I'm popping like candy will make me ten times more insightful as to the artistic merits of Atonement. Coming soon...