Kevin Greutert is the man who edited the first five Saw movies; directed Saw VI (and did a much better job than the box office, unfortunately, reflected).
He looked at my blog today!
Ok, it was just because he was tracking back a link I'd placed to his blog back in August, and he spent less than a minute here, but nevertheless!
I feel like a 14-year-old girl who's just been smiled at by the captain of the football team.
Silly, really, how so many of us thought if the Democrats won in 2008, that it would be a victory for progressives. We forgot--when the Republicans stamp their feet, Democrats run for the middle of the road.
The middle of the road is notable for the yellow line running down....
Personally, I'd have put Charlie and Denise a little bit higher (like at least in the top half). But that's just me. And I can't argue with their number one.
Jen took up the gauntlet of being "interviewed" by, and then "interviewing" me.
1. What do you like most about libraries?
Seems kind of obvious, but: All the books.
A writer used to say, "Beware he who writes more than he reads." Which means, put metaphorically, if you want to hear the music, you've got to listen.
I also have relatively little formal education but am heavily self-educated in this way. Actually, the same man who said that* about writers used to say he was "A self-made man--which demonstrates the horrors of unskilled labor."
And I just like that if I have some enthusiasm I want to pursue--which happens, like, once a day--there's almost always at least one book I can get at the library with information about it.
2. If you could meet any fictional character (not created by you), who would it be, and why?
Someone from The West Wing. As for who, I'd have to flip a coin between Sam or Toby.
Sam, because he says things like this:
"...education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don't need little changes, we need gigantic changes. Schools should be palaces; the competition for the best teachers should be fierce, they should be making six figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge to its citizens, just like national defense. That's my position. I just haven't figured out how to do it yet."
--Sam, "Six Meetings Before Lunch."
And Toby, because he says things like this:
"If our jobs teach us anything it's that we don't know what the next President's gonna face. If we choose someone with vision, someone with guts, someone with gravitas who's connected to other people's lives and cares about making them better, if we choose someone to inspire us, then we'll be able to face what comes our way and achieve things we can't imagine yet." --Toby, "20 Hours in America."
And because they say things like that, we know they feel things like that, and because they feel things like that, we know they think things like that...and we know they write things like that.
Alternately a Pixar character, like Wall-E, Eve-A, or Remy, because they give me hope, love and inspiration.
3. What was your favourite board game when you were a kid?
I want to play a game...
...oh right, sorry, board game, when I was a kid...I don’t know.
When I was a real little kid, Candyland and Chutes & Ladders. A little later I have fond memories of the Rescuers movie game.
I liked Monopoly like everyone else (for the record, my piece of choice was the car). Also a game called- -that had cool shark fin pieces.
By the time I was like 11 I was hanging out in arcades (ah, Tron) more than I was playing board games at home.
4. Your favourite nickname for you?
To coin a phrase:
I can't tell you, but I know it's mine.
(In other words: It's something an ex-girlfriend used to call me; I also had something I called her. I've never said what it was to anyone, I don't know if she has)
5. Which is better: to have loved and lost, or never to have loved at all?
Well, let me put it like this:
You and I won't lose our heads the way some lovers do
Saying "This will last forever" when it's just a year or two
You and I won't be the fools that other lovers are
Thinking every silver bottle top potentially a star
The 23-year-old Nigerian man accused of the attempted Christmas Day bombing of an American airliner apparently turned to the Internet for counseling and companionship
Maybe I should just have myself put into prison now...
When I voted, two of the top three were The Senate Health Care Bill and the poor quality of the debate which preceded it.
I'm a little put out that "Republican filibusters" is the third. Because to me, the desperation of the Democratic senate and President Obama to pass any bill at any price is a lot more disgusting than Republicans acting like Republicans.
(They stand for nothing. They stand in the way of everything).
Rounding out the top five are the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the destruction of tapes by the CIA recording torture sessions.
Again I question the later of the two. Because surely "disappointment" implies a failure to live up to expectations--and did anybody really expect the CIA under the Bush administration not to obstruct justice?
I'm really, really, really, really, really, really, really trying not to go for an easy "time of the month" joke here. But, well, look at these two pieces of information.
Do you remember when former Bush spokeswoman Dana Perino said there hadn't been any terrorist attacks on the US while he was president? No one could believe she'd said anything that blatantly revisionist, right?
Well, today...almost exactly 31 days later...another Bush woman (and believe me, I'd much rather be using those words in another context) decided to put her own little "spin" upon the truth:
Look: Probably much like you, I hoped that the only "Palin" I would be mentioning here for the forseeable future would be that nice chap who used to work with John Cleese and Terry Jones. But...
You've probably heard that (sigh) Sarah Palin's "death panels" thing was named "lie of the year" by the non-partisan FactCheck group. I haven't said anything about it because frankly, I'm trying not to promote her. (Yeah, like my little blog makes the difference)
That does it. Mrs Palin, I don't expect you to be substantive. I don't even expect you to stop dropping hints that you're going to run for president. Though I'm reassuringly convinced this is just something you're saying to sell your book to teabaggers.
However, I will thank you, kindly, to stay away from things which writers use.
I say "his grandmother" because she is not my mother.
Long story.
What looks like the beginnings of a bald spot on my head doesn't bother me at all.
(cut to Ben sobbing in a corner, "My hair! My beautiful hair!")
The blanket on her lap was her present from him which he picked out himself, and yes it is a baby blanket, but a very soft and cuddly one and she adored it.
I mean, if you're gay and a Democrat, you have every right to be pissed off because it sure looks like, down deep, the President you voted for and/or contributed money to thinks you're really kind of icky. Hell, I'm straight and a Democrat, and that pisses me off.
But you went with the GOP, and you're suprised that they took your money and then treated you like you were a fleck of snot on their shirt?
Until recently, the Build-A-Bearville website (part of the Build-A-Bear Workshop) featured online videos telling children about manmade global warming and the dangers it holds for the North Pole. In the videos, little animals learn about the problem and teach Santa Claus about it. The right wing has been outraged over the antics of these bears and penguins. One conservative called for a boycott of Build-A-Bear, and another said the the videos amount to “indoctrination.” In response to this right-wing pressure, Build-A-Bear has taken down the educational videos.
The scientific consensus remains as strong as ever that manmade global warming is real. In the past, conservatives have also attacked the popular movie “Wall-E,” saying that it was filled with “leftist propaganda” and taught children that “human beings are bad for planet earth.”
1. Who would you change places with in this world if you could?
This is a trickier question than it may appear. 'Cause first I was thinking of a musician like Vince Guaraldi in the 1960s (in other words, a really good piano player).
Or one of Jack Benny's writers during the late 1940s. This is probably my second-favorite decade after, of course, the '80s.
This brings up the possibility of my being a sequencer/synthesizer programmer in 1985... ...However, I digress.
Then I thought maybe this should be somebody in the world today.
And then I further went on to think: Change places? So this isn't just about whose life I'd wish to step into, it's about who I'd wish my life upon. Which means that I could choose a crazy asshole like Inhofe, but do I really want to be the Republican Senator from Oklahoma? I think not.
Or I could just be cute and say "Summer Glau's boyfriend," but that sort of thing is going to come up in the next question...
2. With the love you show for all the ladies, who would you most like to be attached to on a daily basis.
What an odd way to phrase it. Presumably you mean, of all the lovely ladies who populate my blogs past and present, who would I most like to have a real relationship with if I could?
Well, it would have to be somebody who is of a similar frame of mind to me politically. Carville and Matalin aside, I just don't think mixed-party-marriages work.
Sexy goes without saying.
And it would be cool if she was an artist, too, only maybe I wouldn't want her to be another writer (we're terribly untrustworthy).
She should be bright.
She should like at least some of the same movies I like (the Saws, though again it would be nice, would not be a deal breaker).
Oh, and she should be gay-friendly and have a good sense of humor.
Put 'em together and what have you got?
...Anne Hathaway.
What were the odds?
3. What would you design as a saw trap for you most hated enemy. Who would that enemy be and why so specific at death?
Forgive me, I feel a Saw-geek moment coming on. The work of Jigsaw is not to design traps for hated enemies, it's to give people who were wasting their lives a test to see how much they value that life, and what price they will pay to keep it.
It's to help people detach from the negative emotions that are keeping them from advancing. The aim is not death, but a newly-cherished life, and the most vengeful thing about a good Jigsaw trap is that it rubs your nose in the flaws of your own life or perspective.
That said...I did come up with a trap on the Saw board I read, last month, that I kinda love. It's a variation on this test in VI:
In the second test, Jigsaw's puppet informs William that he must choose to save either his file clerk or secretary, named Allen and Addy (Shawn Ahmed and Janelle Hutchison) respectively, and let the other die. In the end, William chooses to save Addy, and Allen is hanged by a barbed wire noose when his platform retracts.
In my variant, the test subject is one of those "I'm not a bigot, BUT," or "I don't hate (minority X), BUT" types. In other words: Someone who is a hateful bigot but won't admit it.
He or she must choose to save either a straight, white criminal (let's say it's something REAL hard to forgive, like a child molester) or a successful, law-abiding member of the minority group they despise.
4. What moment in your life, knowing what you do now would you most like to redo? and why?
Ah...I'm afraid I have to choose not to answer this. I do have an answer, and a few people know what it is (and actually, there's an element of a previous answer which relates to it), but it's not something I really want to get into here on a public blog and all.
5. Who would you most like to have lunch with that is living today? What would you ask them?
Senate Republicans have agreed to end their filibuster of health care reform “early Christmas Eve morning, allowing for a vote on the package at 8 a.m.” Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) told the Oklahoman that “the vast majority” of Senate Republicans supported ending the filibuster in order to go home for the holiday. “We’ve had all the fun we’re going to have” debating the bill, said Inhofe.
The people who are suffering and dying from something you have the power to end weren't having any fun. You crazy asshole.
So, yeah, I'm finally on Facebook as one or two of you know. I'm in a group for graduates of my high school, and a guy I knew has gone to the trouble of posting pages from our yearbooks. Prepare yourselves...
This is 1986, and the last time for many years to come that my hair would be that small.
Why is this blog titled a dragon dancing with the Buddha?
My blog is titled a dragon dancing with the Buddha because I came across the Sinfest cartoon above, fell in love with and wanted to feature it. Click to see full size.
- LOVE
See? (1987)
