Freakonomics

I'm loving the freakonomics blog and the ideas these guys are coming up with. Like Malcolm Gladwell and his The Tipping Point, they are idea factories. Can I be a member of a think tank when I grow up?

And my mother found more on the Shangri-La Diet (in which one guy experimented on himself and found he could lose weight drinking sugar water or oil between meals) at calorielab's website.

The joke of a few days ago

Jesus comes across a situation that has become dire: The villagers are starting to gather up rocks as they shout, "Adulterer!" at a shamed and weeping woman at the center of the maelstrom.
Jesus says, "Please, people, take a deep breath and stop for a moment! Can't we all just get along?"
When the crowd remains restive, he says, "Okay, since that didn't work, then let only those of you who have never sinned throw stones."
An ancient crone staggers over to the woman with a huge rock, hurls it at her head, and kills her straightaway.
Jesus stamps his foot and says, "God, Mom, sometimes you really piss me off!"

Roger Ebert at Telluride on Dylan

Here's part of a letter I sent a friend:

At Telluride I overheard Roger Ebert saying he had just seen all three and a half hours of "No Direction Home" and "it completely turned me around. I used to think Dylan was just a jerk," he said, "but this showed who he really is." Having now seen it myself (albeit through a fog of vicodin, extra strength, no less, necessitated by a root canal), I agree. It's weird for me because Dylan kind of belongs to my mother. She's been a huge fan of his and Neil Young's for oh, the last 20 years or so, but more fervently over time. So aside from the hours I spent listening to John Wesley Harding (my favorite) and Blonde on Blonde as a kid, and hearing all the other stuff along the way, I never delved deeper into his music (not the way I did The Who or the Stones). There's a lot there! That film made me tremendously grateful for the young and energetic for just diving in and putting themselves out there in songs or whatever they are driven to do. In the stories he told, I also heard Dylan saying, "I couldn't do today what I did then." But he sure did what he did with directness and passion and will. As an artist, I found him very inspiring.

You mean there's still more purple to put on the house?

One of the neighbor kids saw me on the stepladder yesterday and said, "You mean there's still more purple you're painting on the house?"

The kids and neighbors are raving. Everyone who talks to us loves the purple (if you go to http://lynda.com/hue.html, you can see roughly our house color if you look at the hue 996699).

When the neighbors talk to each other, I hear, it can be a different story. A couple of my neighbors reported this conversation:

A woman who lives at the other end of our block, in a house that is painted deep teal (#009999) with rust orange (#CC3333) shutters, said, "What do you think of that purple?"

"I like it!" "I think it's great!" said my neighbors.

"I've seen prettier shades of purple," said the turquoise-and-rust lady.

When my neighbors passed this along to me, we all exploded with laughter -- she's one to talk!

When I adopted a little girl from India, I felt I gave myself permission to come out of the shadows, and I have. Painting the house purple feels like an extension of this permission to be myself, out loud. To be visible and to have a presence.

I am loving this life.

Here comes the neighborhood

It's all purple!

Today we spent some time outside in the yard planting and weeding and puttering. Neighbors all came around and said nice things. Even one of the kids across the street yelled, "I like the color you painted your house! It's awesome!" And of course it took me a whole minute to think of a good response: "It's proof that you really can do whatever you want when you're a grown-up!" I do like knowing the kids approve, though. And the neighbors are being so kind about it! I think it's pretty fabulous.

Still lots more to do: a couple of sides need another coat; lots of painting on the eaves remains; and touching up will go on. And until we wash our windows (a royal pain), it won't really feel complete.

But it feels like painting our house has unblocked us. I am enjoying how painting has made us work harder and get into shape. It makes me want to do more projects. Of course, it helps that our daughter is old enough to play more independently now. We couldn't have done this one year ago.

We couldn't have done this without my in-laws, either. What amazing, giving people. And so hardworking!

ttfn,
vanillagrrl

I know, I know

I'm not ignoring the fact that I don't have pictures of the purple palace. I have been too busy to take them, transfer them, and post them. I will, soon, I promise.

v.

That really is purple

Holy posole! It really is purple. We have gone all the way and painted our house a vibrant shade of purple. It's not a color you see every day, that's for sure. At the bus stop a neighbor who has painted her house equally striking shades of deep blue said her neighbors all said, "Yep, that's really ... blue."

telluride update 1

I just wrote my mom:

phew! i'm back from telluride, and it's good to be home, bumping around with my child and husband again. and getting some sleep!

The film fest was great -- I saw two films I really liked and met a zillion people. You know how they talk about surveys where people are randomly selected or they select themselves? I felt like everyone there was self-selected. There was a distinct bias toward people who see themselves as people who go to film festivals.

and all the intrigue completely went away, which was great. we just got down to business and watched six films in two days....

Here are my top two Telluride 2005 geeky celebrity moments:
1) William H. Macy saying into a cell phone as he walked up the sidewalk next to the town park, where I was parking my bike, "Yes, Mr. [Jones], three forty-eight. Yeah."

2) As I was riding to the gondola entrance to go up the mountain to the Chuck Jones Theatre, I saw the guy who plays Amy's younger brother Vincent on Judging Amy. Now, ever since [my dad] told me about that show I've loved it. It makes me laugh and cry -- and there aren't many TV shows that grab me. And this guy plays a writer who tries hard not to fuck up and doesn't always succeed. He does it really well. So I wheeled my bike back over to him and said, "I'll just do the fan thing once at Telluride, if you don't mind. I just want to say that I enjoy your show, and think the writing is good and the acting is good. I like your character and you play him well. Thanks!"

"Well, thank you very much. It's nice to be appreciated," he said graciously as he gave a little wave and continued his lanky stroll down the street. And I was only embarrassed because I had no idea what his name is!

xoxo
me"

***
Now, however, having done my research, I'm really wishing I'd seen the one film I could not get into: Capote. Lo and behold, the gracious Dan (also credited as Danny Boy) Futterman, whom I had known of as only an actor, wrote the screenplay for the new film Capote and Danny Boy even has an executive producer credit near the top of the list for that film. Now I know why I ran into Dan Futterman at Telluride. Coming to theatres later this month.

Painting the house

Here are some things I've noticed since starting to paint our house:

* I am a sucker for a clean, modern line.
* I know a lot more about caulking than I used to, and I did a pretty nice job on our house if I do say so myself.
* Some days I feel like I'm in some kind of weird movie. When I'm on that ladder, I have fantasies about myself as if I were watching myself from down below.
* I love to sing out loud when I'm painting with my headphones on. Favorite musicians to sing along to: Sheryl Crow, Michael Penn, Neil Finn.
* When you're climbing a tall ladder (I've been spending a lot of time 16 feet off the ground lately), it's more wobbly in the middle of the ladder than it is at the top.
* I'm in better shape than I was a couple of weeks ago when we started this project, from climbing up and down ladders, from carrying the ladders around, from reaching every direction with a paint brush or a caulking gun. I hope I can stay in shape during my little Telluride vacation.
* We'll tint our concrete, so it will look cool and interesting. (say, maybe we should make it pale green -- ha ha!)

Gotta sleep.

ciao.

one day I'll post the pictures. I'll go take a night picture of our house with primer on the front. our neighbor said it looks like an easter egg, all purple and white and green and gray.