Tag: Family

Sorkin and Sunshine (that ought to get your attention!)

Earned myself a media feast yesterday.  I’d been waiting for weeks for my husband to go with me to see Little Miss Sunshine and he finally admitted that despite rave reviews from both of our sons he just didn’t want to go.  So while he was at class last night I went.  By myself.  And had popcorn for dinner.  Which of course added to the pleasure.  But this film didn’t need any help.  One of our friends told me she was laughing and crying at the same time; NOT laughing THEN crying and not crying from laughter but feeling both emotions at once.  Boy do I get that.

If you live in a family you will love this film.  If you’ve had someone you love drive you nuts with a crazy dream you’ll love it.  AND if you know that, underneath, most families really do love each other and, when it’s really important – actually come through for each other – well – give it a try.  In addition to a lovely story and script it’s so well-acted and directed that it’s effortless.  How a couple of music video directors developed such calm, steady use of a camera I’ll never know.  At the AFI theater, where I saw the film, the two of them offered an on-camera intro.  They’re real grown-ups and pretty no-nonsense and that’s probably part of it. 

BUT that’s far from the end of this happy day — last night got even better.  If you did not see the debut of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip or get a preview DVD from NetFlix find find find someone who TiVo’d it and watch.  Or go here and watch the premiere from the same link.  This is going to be AT LEAST as good as the West Wing.  Really.  The characters are great, the writing is wonderful and the stories don’t go where you think they will.  Whitford and Perry are just lovely, Amanda Peet very cool, ( and don’t we love seeing a woman network president?  Yup, we do)  and Timothy Busfield still playing a sweetheart. Then there’s Steven Weber playing a bad guy.  How cool is that?  From Wings to villainy?

Anyway it was a great night for popular culture and a real brain-feeder.  Try for both.  You’ll be glad.

WHOSE LIFE IS IT, ANYWAY?

At BlogHer there was a great debate among the “mommy bloggers” about how much to reveal about one’s children.  Much of what was best in my career (as well as, of course, my private life) came from my kids – literally.  They’re why I finally wrote a book [for kids.] They’re why I got interested in kids’ books and began writing book reviews for the New York Times and Washington Post and eventually served as early children’s book editor at Amazon.  They’re the reason I did some of my best TV pieces – about kids learning to ski, learning disabilities, etc.  You get the idea.  BUT

Once they were over 7 or so I always asked before I mentioned them in anything I wrote.  I kind of felt that it was my gig and they had their own lives.  Now this is a problem.  Michael Chabon says:

“Telling the truth, when the truth matters most, is almost always a frightening prospect. If a writer doesn’t give away secrets, his own or those of the people he loves; if she doesn’t court disapproval, reproach and general wrath, whether of friends, family, or party apparatchiks; if the writer submits his work to an internal censor long before anyone else can get their hands on it, the result is pallid, inanimate, a lump of earth.

He’s right I think – I can feel myself hanging back when those “other people’s secrets” begin to emerge — and if affects my writing.  It’s true even of the most innocent things: something really lovely was said to me this week by one of my kids but it would expose HIM and I can’t do it.
Granted, most moms who blog have far younger kids than my adult sons but it’s an interesting question.  Any thoughts?

Whatever we think about this though it gave me an excuse to share one of my favorite Michael Chabon quotes. (of very very many…)