MAY 2, 2013

 

Maybe not my best look - a baseball jersey.

I’m at Wrigley Field where the Cubs play baseball. I’m about to sing “Take Me Out To The Ballgame.” What a fun, great time it was. Mulan brought some friends, the sun was shining, Chicago was at it’s best.

I’ve been doing publicity for over a month for my book, “If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Your Mother.” I’m beat. I still have a few more things to do. Next week I’ll do this morning talk show, “Windy City Live,” which is shot in downtown Chicago. I was on the show a couple of weeks ago and had such a good time. I was really happy that they asked me to come back. Then I head to Seattle, Portland, and Spokane at the end of the month.

I have to admit, it’s a little crazy-making, doing the publicity. I like it. I hate it. I’m good at it. I suck at it. I’m fascinated by the talk show world. I went to New York for several days of publicity at the beginning of April, right when the book came out. The talk show hosts are unnervingly good-looking. You know how - when you’re around professional football players, or jockeys? That sensation of a certain physique being optimal for a particular job? Well, that’s the same feeling I got around these talk show hosts. Everyone is really thin, well, that goes without saying… But it’s more than that, they have big, BIG eyes, they have gorgeous skin and hair, their teeth are remarkably white and straight. It’s been a while since I’ve been around these types of people, and it threw me at first. Made me dizzy. I wanted to hate everyone. That was my first instinct. But no - then they are really nice too. Many asked great questions. Flatteringly, many had actually read my book. It was confusing and titillating and dreadful and exciting. I remembered - yes. They are TV PEOPLE. And they know how to look, how to stand, how to smile. And they’re good at it. I felt like a deer in the headlights a few times. I forgot about this TV world. I forgot what it was like! It’s manic, and its high energy, and I don’t know how everyone’s head isn’t spinning on their necks.

I was going to update this blog often, and separate out the movies and the books into their own section. But I had to admit to myself recently, just writing a monthly blog entry is already challenging. So I’m abandoning that idea. I’m going back to my original way. One post a month - everything I’m thinking about - everything I want to mention that I’ve read and watched, it’s all in there.

But. For this month. Well, things have been a wee bit crazy.

I have lost track of the movies I’ve watched. I’ve lost track of the books I’ve read. Well, the books are more memorable than the movies - maybe because…. because….

…my basement flooded in a recent storm and my home theater (I know, I am privileged) was destroyed. Well - not destroyed. It flooded. The equipment is fine. The chairs, the sofa, the carpet - not so much. I lost many DVDs which were scattered all over the floor. (Yes. Go ahead and say it. Stupid.) I dried as many off as I could. I saved most of them, lost many. PAINFUL!

The last movie I watched in my beloved theater was Splendor in the Grass. I’ve been making my way through the Elia Kazan box set. I’m still thinking about this amazing film. How had I not seen it? Warren Beatty is fantastic. And Natalie Wood - everyone is perfectly cast. I loved that there were no redeeming adult characters in the whole movie. I love how horrendous, spineless, manipulative and corrosive each of the parent characters were. I had chills in the scenes with Natalie Wood’s character and her mother. I have looked into the faces, yes, into the chicken-like-eyes of adults like that character. That same level of willful stupidity and shocking blindness. I couldn’t sleep very well for a couple of nights after watching Splendor in the Grass. I friggin’ LOVE this movie.

Oh! And Phyllis Diller is in it! A young, funny, wonderful Phyllis. I have to find the picture of me and Phyllis at her 90th birthday party.

Surprisingly, I had not seen many of the famous Kazan movies - On the Waterfront, for example. I am thrown by the casting in a lot of the films. Often the women are so horrendously miscast. Eva Marie Saint as a working class girl, or Dorothy McGuire as an Irish washerwoman in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. C’mon. Although in all cases, the actresses totally deliver. But it’s hard to suspend my disbelief. With Splendor in the Grass, I bought it all. Every role: perfectly cast.

Now, books. I am on a Jess Walter binge. I read “Citizen Vince,” and also “Ruby Ridge.” I haven’t yet read “Beautiful Ruins.” I think he’s a fantastic writer, I can’t wait to read everything he’s written.

 

I read Barbara Corcoran’s “Shark Tales.” That may seem like an odd choice, but I really like her on “Shark Tank” - a show I watch with Michael and Mulan. I really enjoyed her memoir. I’m not sure what to make of people lying and manipulating to get ahead. Sometimes we’re supposed to think it’s plucky and positive (I guess in real estate that is a good thing to be and do? What am I saying, probably in most fields of endeavor… But are we supposed to like people who do that? I dunno. I do like Barbara Corcoran - I like how she is with the people on the TV show, I like her comments and her attitude - so I guess — yay?) Hmmm….

I read - oh, I read this wonderful book, “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk” by Ben Fountain. What a lovely book.

I’m reading “Love 2.0: How Our Supreme Emotion Affects Everything We Feel, Think Do, and Become” by Barbara Fredrickson. It’s very inspiring and it’s already impacted my mood and life and interactions with people for the better. Ha! I guess that’s a ringing endorsement.

I’ll write more about it when I finish it.

I swear, I swear, I swear I am going to keep better track of what I’ve seen and read.

I did a really fun reading of my book for the Vernon Area Library, and there were round tables and centerpieces. They sent me home with one of them. They are little pillows, like the one I write about in my book! I couldn’t believe it! I was so impressed that they went to all that trouble. It was a lovely afternoon. There was a luncheon and I did a reading. A great time. It was raining hard and we were all cozy inside (and I didn’t know that my basement was going to flood, so it was all sweet at that moment…) Well, people - until June 1st! Have a great month of May….