imkittymyers at hotmail dot com
Friday, January 13, 2006
ALIVE ... BUT NOT ENTIRELY WELL
I am back home from helping my mother settle in after she spent 19 days in two different hospitals. She has a serious heart condition but not lung cancer, and she has the best health insurance in the world, next to elected officials. It was the one really great benefit of her career as a high school librarian for 23 years, before the pay was good. She's very weak and insecure about being on her own, but she has loads of friends where she lives. They check on her often. Plus, she wears one of those I've-fallen-and-I-can't-get-up buttons on her wrist. She needs to realize she can do it. But I worry.On the other hand, I have a cold brewing. Dog-tired and freezing one minute, warm the next. I'll try to post something this weekend.
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Monday, January 09, 2006
DESPERATELY SEEKING JOHNNY ROURKE
Twenty years ago I was an avid movie fan. If I hadn't heard of a movie it must have been a bomb -- a quiet one at that. So when I perused our HBO guide (the only cable movie channel offering in our area back then) and saw Reckless, my first thought was it must have failed miserably because I had never heard of it. Nor had I ever heard of its star, Aidan Quinn. So, out of curiosity, and a wicked case of mid-winter blahs, I watched Reckless. The critics hated it, but I loved it so much that I watched it every chance I had. It was Aidan Quinn's first movie; his second was Desperately Seeking Susan. Out of all of his films and plays, to this day I think Reckless his best performance because it was honest.Aidan married the actress Liz Bracco, younger sister of Lorraine. I followed Aidan's career for several years, but most of the movies he made were irritatingly liberal mush. I loved him in Stakeout, The Playboys, Blink and Practical Magic, but that's about it.
At one time I wanted to believe that he wasn't as liberal as his movies, but I've had to accept reality: Aidan Quinn is a bleeding heart lib. I don't care what an actor's politics are as long as they keep it to themselves. But Quinn is a liberal and it shows in much of his work. Plus he plays whiney characters. In Reckless he played Johnny Rourke with spark and a backbone; politics was not an issue. He seems to be a genuinely nice guy, faithful husband and great father -- a rarity in his profession -- but I miss the Aidan Quinn I first met twenty years ago. I miss Johnny Rourke.
This is all a segue for Quinn's part of an Episcopal priest in NBC's The Book of Daniel. I actually began watching it but quit after a few minutes when I saw his angst-ridden character pop Viccodan. I had had it. No more swipes at Catholicism and the few rotten priests. No more whiney performances. No more liberal swill! However, Lorie did watch the show and has written a review:
The Book Of Daniel – A Review
I thought that what might bother me most about the show was the Jesus character that appears to the main character, Episcopal priest, Daniel Webster.
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The thing that bothered me most about the show is that it really could have been a wonderful show. Instead, it is a bit of a mess that came across to me as an unfunny copy of Desperate Housewives.
Also ...
8 Mr. Right has stumbled upon a College Journalism Exam with Answer Key!
8 Kitty Litter has been chosen as one of our Red Hot Blogs of the Day!
8 Where did Cindy Crawford’s 4-yr-old son learn that?
NOTE: I may not blog for a couple of days as I'm fairly certain my mother will be going home today, which means I'll be spending a couple of days with her to get her settled.
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