This is when I rambled.

Reader, I had a very productive day. I did three loads of laundry, got my permit (yes, I'm a little old for that. It's a long boring story - just of me never being bothered to learn how to drive), baked a batch of cookies, and cleaned up the kitchen after dinner (I haven't seen a kitchen that bad since I was au pairing in England).

Since then, I've been highly entertained by some hacker on the Zoetrope boards posting incessant nonsense.

But seriously. Let's talk about real stuff.



I know, I'm sorry. I'm a sell out. But you have to understand - even though we have cable at home, the best thing on TV late at night is Sex and the City - the clean version, by the way. I don't watch this anywhere else, really, but at home I get an hour and a half straight. And, well, I sorta start to look forward to it. And then I read an interview with Sarah Jessica Parker in New York, and she seemed like such a nice person and a real New Yorker. So yes! I've gotten suckered into (not so) secretly wanting to see this movie.



Pushing Daisies - sadly I couldn't find the pilot episode but I got ahold of the second. If you haven't seen this show, you really need to go to ABC.com asap. This show is funny, inventive, and it's beautifully shot. And Ned - he's such a sweetheart! Jim's got some really competition for dreamiest make-believe boy.

But seriously. I regret not keeping up with this show from the start. And keeping with a Lee Pace theme...



I am so excited for this movie. It hasn't gotten the best reviews, and I'm not sure when I'll get to see it because it's only got a limited US release right now. But it looks stunning. Check the trailer out here.

So remember how on Sunday I said I wasn't writing screenplays until I had an idea that I was positively itching to write, something that excited me and made me happy? Well, I've got this idea. It's not like anything I've done before - no, I'm putting aside the real life melodramas for a children's fantasy story. I got the premise the day I finally got a key to our house, and since then it's been slowly percolating (I think it has something to do with The Fall - I keep seeing that girl as one of the characters). I haven't started writing yet, though I might start making some notes. The lesson I'm learning right now - don't rush, don't rush, don't rush.

When film first started, people argued over what it's purpose was - was it to play with realism in the ways only film could (formalism) or was it to document realism in the way only film could (realism - shocker, right?). I heard things got pretty heated in that debate - this was the beginning of a new art form after all. I've thought about which camp I'd belong to - I think it's very important for filmmakers to know what they think the purpose of film is - not that you can't play in both, but where do you go at the end of the day? I can't make up my mind - because I love stories about people in real life going through real difficulties and handling them in real ways - but I love formalism. Méliès "Trip to the Moon" - and I don't even like silent cinema! That's why I loved Stardust, even if it's not the most graceful story every told, and why I am fascinated by The Fall, even though I've heard it lacks a lot in the story department. The visual spectacle of fantasy and science fiction and epics spark my own imagination. But sometimes I'm afraid I don't have enough imagination to create those sorts of stories. The inventiveness and magic that I love so much in these stories also intimidates me. But that's the challenge, isn't it? I've always liked a challenge.

And really, I know which "camp" I belong to. The one that tells real stories about real people in imaginative fantastic settings. I'm just still getting my creative courage to go there.