Nature / Writing

Saturday January 30, 2016 I have below-average facial recognition skills. Frequently Steve and I will be watching TV and Steve will say "Look who it is!" and I will look, and look, and finally say "Who is it?" because I have no idea. That's not what this post is about, but it's helpful to know for this story... When the new X-Files was about to start, the Space Channel aired a best-of marathon over two days. We watched it on and off, sharing X-Files memories, and at some point on that first day I remembered hearing that Canadian Tyler Labine, who has been one of my favourite actors since Dead Last , appeared in not one but two X-Files episodes as "Stoner." I went on IMDB to confirm and there it was in Labine's credits - bit parts in  Quagmire and War of the Coprophages . I excitedly blurted my trivia to Steve, hoping that we'd catch a glimpse of Labine in the marathon. "Hope he shows up in the new one," said Steve. ...

Saturday August 17, 2013 Apparently this short film featuring the Despicable Me minions has been online for years. But I only saw "Bananas" after Despicable Me 2 was released. As the name suggests, the minions get very excited about the prospect of eating a banana, but there's only one to be had. If you haven't seen it yet, have a look: Around the same time the video showed up for me on Facebook, my mom snagged some minion toys for a family party. They included a minion holding a banana who, when you push on his arm, says "Banana!" between giggles. At some point, Steve said it was nice that the minions' fruit obsession might lead to some kids eating healthier. I agreed - Yes, yes, those suggestible children could certainly benefit from this pro-fruit message - and filed his observation away in the "children's media" section of my brain. Then Steve went away for a weekend, and I went grocery shopping by myself. You know ...

Sunday July 14, 2013 Like so many Glee fans, Steve and I were stunned this morning when we learned of Cory Monteith's passing. Of course the sadness felt by his fans will be nothing compared to the pain and grief of  his family, friends, and colleagues, and my heart goes out to all of them. But I also keep thinking about the younger fans of Glee . For many kids and even teens, this could be the first time they have to deal with the strange experience of trying to mourn for someone they feel a deep connection to, yet have never met. And as Glee: The 3D Concert Movie makes clear, Glee can have a special appeal for young people who feel lonely or excluded. But even for perfectly happy fans, Monteith's death could be very hard to process. Drumming on things from the kitchen. A screen grab from Cory Monteith's Glee audition tape. I'm not a parent or educator; I don't have any young Glee fans in my life. But if I did, I think I'd tell them the same t...

Saturday June 2, 2012 While poking around on IMDB a few weeks ago, I learned that actress Kathryn Joosten, who I loved as Mrs. Landingham on The West Wing , didn't begin pursuing acting until her 40s.  The change of direction in her life only came about after Joosten, then a psychiatric nurse and a mother of two, divorced her alcoholic husband.  As it says in the biography section of her official website : "Kathryn never forgot the anger and bitterness her mother expressed on her death bed for having put aside dreams and plans for the future that would never be.  After a few successes at Community Theater, Kathryn decided to see if she could follow her dream."   Along with beating the odds by having a late-start acting career that earned her two Emmys, Joosten also began a battle with lung cancer in 2001 which she only just lost today . I'm not a big follower of celebrity news, because most of the time I think the wrong stories get the most tractio...

Sunday January 9, 2011 Yesterday I caught the very end of Me and Orson Welles ( IMDb ), a 2008 movie starring Zac Efron, Christian McKay and Claire Danes.  I didn't know much about it, so naturally I tottered on over to ye olde Internet Movie Database to see what I could see.  For some reason that I've already forgotten, I clickety-linked on to Efron's page.  Now, I was a little too old to be in the target audience for High School Musical , but both Steve and I  love the 2007 version of Hairspray ( IMDb ) and rewatch it often.  That's where I really discovered Efron, and have enjoyed him ever since.  This makes me certain I must have been to his IMDb page before and yet, somehow, I never noticed this little credit waaaay down at the bottom: That's a young Zac Efron playing a young Simon Tam in Joss Whedon's series Firefly , which is among my very favourite things put on television EVER .  I remembered this scene clearly, right down to ...