Sex and the City 2...Why I don't want to see it

First of all...you can read the horrid (for the movie)/hilarious (for me) reviews here.

So to start off, I'm going to be honest and admit that I did not HATE the first Sex and the City (I do HATE the acronym SATC so I will not be using it) Movie.  In fact when I first saw it, I liked it overall.  It was pretty depressing at points, I didn't really relate to the Carrie meltdown that lasts for an entire year,  but I definitely got swept away in nostalgia for the characters I liked in the series and looking at pretty clothing.  I even went so far as to pay $4 for a previously viewed copy of the video in the Blockbuster sales bin.  Fast forward two years and some talks with fellow FBC members, I now have a twinge of  guilt for having derived pleasure from the movie and being completely blind to some of it's major failings.

In Cold Blood

Melissa Blum recommended In Cold Blood by Truman Capote at the last book group.  She accompanied her recommendation with the revelation that many people think that Capote was in love with one of the killers in the book and that reading with this lens was worthwhile (even if you had read the book before).  I took the bait and was quite quickly absorbed into the novel.  I had not read the book before so I was trying to take in as much as could as a firsthand account, while keeping Melissa’s subtext in the back of my mind.  The book was of course, wonderful.  I feel it lives up to the hype of literary masterpiece, while at the same time being a very approachable novel.  On the surface it is very straight forward and a fascinating story, interesting in and of itself before examining the literary technique.  I will admit I had to read more before understanding what was meant by “non-fiction novel”, a genre of literature Capote claims to have invented with this novel.  In 1966 Capote sits for an interview with the New York Times to discuss In Cold Blood (find it here http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/12/28/home/capote-interview.html)  I find it really interesting how Capote describes manipulating non-fiction characters so that his own perspective of them can be understood by readers

Speaking of Netflix...

Last night I watched 'Broken English'. I had high hopes for it - Parker Posey + directed by Zoe Cassavetes (daughter of John 'What's your take on' Cassavetes - so I figured there was a reasonable chance some of the talent was passed on, right?)

(Spoiler alert.)

No! The premise is that Parker Posey's character is young woman in New York who feels desperately single. So basically it's 2 hours of her being mopey and unpleasant to a variety of men, some of whom are also mopey and/or unpleasant (or unaccountably persist in being interested despite her total lack of a personality - most of her lines are some variation on 'I'm so anxious/tired/lame/doomed to be single forever!') Even the way she walks - a kind of knock-kneed, tripping shuffle - is irritating. In the end, of course, a handsome old Frenchman in a bar tells her that she has to love herself before she can find love w/ anyone else, and then she lights a candle meaningfully in a cathedral, and finds true love on the Metro.

I guess... I just wasn't expecting an earth-tones Sex and the City. A black comedy would have been nice. Or an ending that didn't imply that the point and inevitable reward of being at peace w/ yourself is finding someone to love you. Or some kind of indication that there are bigger questions in the world than any one person's marital status. I'm not unsympathetic to the plight of women who worry about finding someone - but I am totally unsympathetic to movies that use PARKER POSEY - a NATIONAL TREASURE - to drably illustrate something that Sarah Jessica Parker, fer Chrissake, has already demonstrated with a lot more pizazz and some actual humour.

Orgasm, how to...(content may not be safe for work)

 hey Ladies,

read no further if you are squeamish, my language and sense of appropriateness can be ...lacking.  However if you're up for a blunt and up front "how-to" on the big O, click after the link...