movies — Page 17

The Creative Freedom of Routine

February 28, 2019 at 10:38 am by Claudia

I watched every minute of the Cohen hearing yesterday. I’m glad I did, but it did mess with my routine. (If you haven’t seen Elijah Cummings’ closing statement, do watch it.) Today, I’m craving little chores and all of the little things I do in the course of a ‘normal’ day. It’s very cold out there, but sunny. We ended up with just a dusting of snow. Hurrah!

I will be glad when I’m able to spend some time outside, clearing out the gardens, planting seeds, and watching everything come back to life. Quite frankly, I’ll be happy to have something else other than the interior of the house to photograph. In the midst of winter, it gets awfully hard to find a new angle, a new something to photograph. It’s also tough to come up with anything exciting or different to write about. We’re like many of you; relatively housebound, waiting for spring, recovering from the flu or whatever. Neither of us is doing any work in our chosen field at the moment. Don is working on his ukulele technique and is learning some songs. He’s waiting for the warm weather to reappear so he can get back to his camera and taking street portraits. This has been a long break for him and it’s been hard. But I think he’s handled it well.

As for me, I have no idea if any coaching work awaits me or if this is the actual winding down of my career. It may be. If so, I’m okay with that. (Although I’d like the income, small as it may be!) We’ve both been reading a lot, loving our routine and life in our little cottage, watching movies, and pursuing our creative outlets.

In other words, not necessarily a lot to write about, but a daily rhythm which is comforting. We love our routine and we’ve been talking about that very thing this morning, as we saw a movie by Jim Jarmusch last night called Paterson. It’s a little gem of a film and it stars Adam Driver. Some people might find it boring because it doesn’t deal in big plot changes or any of the things we have grown to expect in this era of big everything and small attention spans. In fact, we caught ourselves thinking something bad was about to happen in several scenes and then we laughed at ourselves. Always expecting something bad to happen! It’s laughable. No, this is a quiet and compelling film and one of the things that spurs creativity for the character played by Adam Driver is routine. A routine that is honorable, yet freeing.

It sparked a big conversation this morning as we drank our second cup of coffee together on the living room sofa. We’re still talking about it. Also, one of the supporting actors looked familiar to me and I realized that I coached her in Chautauqua several years ago. She’s a good actress and I was happy to see her excellent work in this film.

I think the routine – washing dishes, mowing the lawn, vacuuming, doing a job you know like the back of your hand – can free up a portion of your mind, allowing magic to happen.

We’re going to watch it again. I loved it. And any film or play or performance or piece of art that sparks that much conversation is rare and wonderful.

Happy Thursday.

A Book

February 26, 2019 at 10:17 am by Claudia

The wind went on well into the early morning hours. Even Don, who usually says he likes the wind, was over it. Relentless. But this morning, after a fairly good night’s sleep, I awoke to very cold temperatures, a sunny sky, and no wind.

Thank goodness! What a difference that makes!

A couple more Oscars things: if you haven’t seen Olivia Colman’s acceptance speech, find it online. It was perfect. Real. In the moment. Charming. Self-effacing. Her honest and heartfelt gesture to Glenn Close was the perfect salve for that moment. She’s amazing.

And if you haven’t seen her in Broadchurch, you must. Especially season one. That’s when we fell in love with her work. She’s extraordinary.

Also: if you haven’t yet seen Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper singing Shallow from A Star is Born, google that, as well. And Better Midler singing The Place Where Lost Things Go from Mary Poppins Returns. And Spike Lee leaping up into Samuel Jackson’s arms.

The best.

Okay. I recently received an email from a fellow miniaturist alerting me to the fact that I was listed in the index in a book about miniatures published last year in Great Britain. Several of us had photos in the book. I suspected it was related to the article about Hummingbird Cottage that was in Doll’s House Magazine, a UK publication. They hadn’t asked our permission, but it is from the same publisher and in my case, it’s just one photo, so I’m okay with it. (They’re sending me a copy of the book.)

In truth, I’m rather chuffed that I’ve been published in a book!

I ordered it from Amazon last Friday (because patience isn’t one of my strong points) and it came yesterday.

Sure enough, the photos inside the book are from Doll’s House Magazine and span about five years of articles and tutorials. (My article was published in 2016.)

My name is in the index and also in a list of thank yous at the back of the book.

Just one photo, but here it is:

Pretty neat! Even though I said “fellow miniaturist” above, I never really think of myself as a miniaturist. Just someone who loves to refurbish and decorate dollhouses. However, I have built a dollhouse and have constructed miniatures, so I guess I qualify. But just barely.

It’s a neat book, full of photos and text and many helpful tutorials. I can’t wait to dig into it.

The whole thing was a delightful surprise and just might help to push my tush upstairs to my desk and the forlorn dollhouse that is waiting for me to work some magic.

Happy Tuesday.

The Day After

February 25, 2019 at 9:18 am by Claudia

Oh heavens. More sleep deprivation. I was thrown off by staying up late to watch the Oscars and then when I got in bed, the high winds were so loud that I couldn’t sleep. I’m exhausted. Two nights in a row with not enough sleep makes me virtually incapable of doing anything for the rest of the day. Well that’s a slight exaggeration, so let’s edit that to “doing anything of any complexity.”

Most of my predictions as to the Oscar winners proved to be correct, but there were some surprises. When Olivia Colman (a favorite of ours) won, Don and I turned to each other and gasped out loud! Everyone was so sure that Glenn Close would win. We found ourselves simultaneously thrilled for Colman, yet feeling badly for Close’s very public loss. We were torn. But Close was gracious, as always, and Colman was delightful. We’ve long been fans of her acting chops. And her performance in The Favourite was brilliant.

As I’ve said before Green Book is one of the few nominated movies we haven’t seen. But its win last night for Best Picture was controversial. I’ve been reading up on that this morning.

Thrilled for Roma and Alfonso Cuarón. I still think it should have won Best Picture, but the fact that it won Best Foreign Film probably cancelled out that possibility.

Thrilled for all the groundbreaking Black Panther wins. And for Spike Lee to win his first Oscar (not counting his honorary Oscar.) His joy was infectious. Thrilled for Rami Malek, who was pretty damned incredible as Freddie Mercury. And for Regina King – I haven’t seen the movie yet, but she is a consistently wonderful actress.

Loved Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper singing Shallow.

And Bette Midler. (My favorite dress of the evening, by the way.)

Anyway, those are my thoughts off the top of my head.

I thought the ceremony was quite good – I’m thinking they don’t really need a host!

The wind is still howling.

Happy Monday.

The Creative Freedom of Routine

A Book

The Day After

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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