The Sydney Morning Herald Agrees With My Niece

We went to California Kitchen Pizza with some of my family on Sunday night. There, one of my nieces (Ellie) informed us that they had seen Legend of the Guardians: the Owls of Ga'Hoole.  She said she didn't like it, which made us rethink our mild desire to go see it.  Jack's been in the mood to go to the movie theatre, and we were thinking we'd go see that.  Besides being Australian, it didn't look all that exciting to me.  Although once when I saw the trailer, I got all teary-eyed.  That's not such a big deal though. I get teary-eyed when watching Nickelodeon tween sitcoms.   

Upon hearing my niece's review of the movie, I didn't immediately discount us seeing the movie.   Although I share my niece's love of iCarly and Drake and Josh, it's not like we're twins. I might like something she doesn't like.   Right?     

But now I see that the Sydney Morning Herald has also given the movie a negative review.   The reviewer, Jim Schembri say it's ...an ambitious, technically accomplished, clumsily told and emotionally sterile Aussie 3D adventure that looks good but feels numb.  Ouch!  That's cleverly worded criticism though. Schembri says the movie is one of those that has children as their target audience, but is too dark, scary, and boring for most of them.   

It's an allegorical type thing...about Nazis.   And sometimes that works for children.   JK Rowling succeeded. The later Harry Potter books are very dark and allegorical. They're popular with adults and popular with kids.  Why?   JK Rowling is MAGIC.  That's probably the real reason.   It could also be that she hooked the kids with the earlier books.   She made them care about the characters and situations, so they were willing to later take her hand and travel with her to more serious places.  

Schembri says...the film is also hobbled by a grand lack of humour.  Ah!  There were go. Harry Potter is full of humor.

I don't usually like stuff that lacks humor. Then the story becomes melodrama. Real life has humor...even in some of it's darkest moments. 

Of course, not everyone is going to agree with my niece and Schembri. Some people might like it. I MIGHT like it. I doubt we'll see it in the theatre, but I might end up catching it on TV someday. 

I am curious to know if anyone has given it a positive review yet.....

Ah!  I found one.   Lindy West from the UK's Telegraph liked it.  Actually, if I'm reading this right...West is a Seattle writer.   I guess she blogs sometimes for The Telegraph? ?   She says the Aussie owl movie is completely good.   And she disagrees with Schembri on the humor bit.  She says, the owls look like actual owls, only with emotions and jokes.   

I was going to go and compare more reviews, but have decided to take the lazy route.  Actually, Jack came over here and gave me the idea.   He suggested consulting our beloved Lord Wiki. Great idea, but I'm going to visit the Rotten Tomato site instead. They do a consensus of reviews, and then give it a score. Our owl movie got a 52%.  That doesn't seem very impressive. Still. In the end, you never know.  A movie or book can get excellent reviews, and you'll end up hating it. A movie might get horrible reviews, and you could end up loving it.


Movies are expensive though.  If I'm going to do the theatre thing, I usually prefer to see movies that have gotten a lot of very positive reviews.   It seems then there's more of a chance I'll like it.   For the most part, my opinion usually does match the majority. The exception would probably be that blue people movie. It seemed like EVERYONE was seeing that, and recommending it.   Maybe I would like it if I tried it. But I couldn't get myself motivated to try it. It looks really boring to me.       

Seaching For Validation

Tonight we watched another episode of iCarly.

Okay. Here's the thing. We've been a naughty family, not eating together at the table. We spend all our meals in front of the TV. Why? Our cat threw up all over the kitchen table, and I'm still grossed out about it.

But that's not what this blog post is about, so I'll move on to less disgusting things.

In our most recent viewing of iCarly,(spoiler alert) Carly tries to give her brother Spencer self-confidence in his artwork  by inviting his favorite artist to their apartment so he can see his work. Things don't work out the way she planned. The artist comes over and tells Spencer he doesn't like his work. It's not good. It's amateurish.

Spencer is crushed, and decides to stop being an artist.

Carly and her friends try to fix things by promoting his art work on their web show. I was very touched by this, and a bit envious. I thought of all the rejections I've gotten (for my novels and screenplays). I thought, how nice it would have been to have someone there to pick up my shattered ego.

Who cares what that editor thought, Dina. You're a great writer. Keep working on it! Don't give up.

No such luck for me....at least not from my family.

The iCarly plot reminded me of what happened to Ruth Park. She sent her writing to an editor she admired, and the editor heavily criticized her work. Not constructive criticism; but just pure cruel shit.

In iCarly, the celebrity artist later comes to Spencer and confesses. He says Spencer is a great artist. He likes his work. It's just he was jealous of Spencer's talent. Spencer is overjoyed, and we get a happy ending.

I'm guessing jealousy was also the motivation behind the editor that Park had admired.

Anyway, I shouldn't be envious of a fictional character. Maybe it's an ideal that no real people live up to. But I think it would be awesome to have family members behind you like that....ones who believed in your talent.

Well, I do know of a blogger, and her sister seems to read every blog post. She doesn't just read, but comments, and praises. She lets her sister (and everyone reading) know that she thinks her sister is a brilliant writer. She even nominated her sister for a writing award.

So, I'm jealous of that too, because my sisters never/rarely read my blog.

I'm just a nasty envious person tonight. Shame on me.

I want my sisters to read my blog and tell me I'm a good writer.

I get jealous when my husband sees a singer on TV and says, She has a really good voice. I want him to react to MY singing that way.

Why am I so petty?

Why am I so needy?

Is there something wrong with me?

Probably.

But from what I've read of artistic-type people, these feelings of inadequacy are common. And so is the need for validation.

After seeing the show, I thought these smug thoughts. Maybe family members, who don't show interest and enthusiasm in my work, are JEALOUS.

That's kind of a happy thought. I'm a great blogger, and a great singer....but I don't get a lot of praise from certain people, because they're all jealous and stuff.

But it could very likely be that they don't think I'm talented.

I was about to say it could mean that I'm a bad singer and an untalented writer. But I don't believe in that.

It's all subjective.

I'm a good writer to some people, and I sing good to SOME people's ears. But others think I'm crap or very mediocre.

I should have confidence in myself and not care what others think.

Yeah. That probably ain't happening in this lifetime.

I could put some time and effort into this personality flaw of mine. But I'd rather spend my time doing other fun stuff, like....

writing.....

and

singing.

The good thing is I DO love writing and singing for it's own sake. But I like it MORE when I feel other people appreciate me doing it.

On another episode of iCarly, the kids try to attract more viewers to their web show. Spencer asks why they're doing this. WHY do they need more viewers?

Carly responds by asking him whether he'd prefer a few people seeing his sculptures, or a LOT of them?

Then he understands.

I liked seeing my feelings validated on this tween show. I pointed the dialogue out to Tim because he sometimes tries to remind me that I should be writing the blog for myself and not worried how many people are reading, and whether or not I'm getting kudos.

I think he's right in a way. We should do creative/artistic things in a way that pleases us, and not strive to create stuff specifically to please others. But although it's quite pathetic usually, I think it's normal to want our work and effort liked by others.

Tim did a triathlon last week. After he finished, he sent out an email about it to my family, and some friends. I'm sure Tim enjoyed the running, swimming, and biking for it's own sake. He likes that kind of stuff. But I can't think why he'd send out information about it except to receive admiration.

So...you know what. It's NOT just a trait afflicting artsy people. Now that I think of it, there's lots of emails going back and forth between my family. I got a promotion. I'm forwarding this kind email (filled with praise) that my friend sent to me. I'm going to be interviewed on a local news program. My party was a huge success. Everyone said they loved it.

I don't send emails out like that anymore.

Once my dad sent an email to the family praising a novel I had written. I was all excited and grateful for the praise and attention. Plus, I anticipated getting even more praise and attention from other family members. This is what usually happens with these emails. People get responses...kudos...good wishes.

I got....

silence.

But I should look at the bright side. At least my dad said something in the first place. That was very nice of him.

Why didn't my sister, mom, husband, or brother-in-laws respond to the email? I don't know.

It can't really be that they disagreed that the novel was good. They never read any of it.

It could be jealousy. They didn't like seeing me praised. But that's kind of ridiculous. People get kudos all the time in my family. Why would it be a problem for it to be directed at me?

It could be that they simply....forgot to.

Once my sister wore this green outfit when we came over to babysit her daughters. I looked at her in it, and really liked how she looked. I thought she looked great.

Later when I got home, I realized that despite admiring her appearance, I had never said anything. I think simply because I forgot to. Or maybe in some stupid way, I expected her to just read my mind, or something. I felt kind of foolish doing this, but I sent her an email later saying I thought she had looked good. I wasn't sure how she'd respond to that, but I felt I needed to say it.

She wrote back, and was very appreciative. She cc'd her husband and said something like. It's nice to get compliments. Hint Hint.

I forgot my response....or if I responded.

But I probably should have said. Yes! I know.

Fabrications and Imposters

Last night I dreamed I was looking for someone. Twice I thought I had found them; but I soon realized they were imposters. Then, the third time, I finally found the real thing...but unfortunately I woke up.

One of the imposters was Zelda from Pet Sematary....or at least something that looked like her. That was kind of creepy.

This morning, Jack and I watched iCarly. The episode was about a real life YouTube star named Lucas Cruikshank, who has found fame by portraying a character named Fred.

Sam and Carly showcase Fred's video on their iCarly webcast. They're about to show another video, and then their producer Freddie suggests otherwise. He admits he doesn't find the videos to be that funny. He isn't rude and nasty about it. He just states his opinion.

After stating his opinion, all hell breaks lose. Lucas declares his feelings have been hurt, and he's quitting his little show. Soon everyone is treating Freddie (the non Fred-fan) as a pariah. His simple statement of criticism is blown out of proportion. Reporters interview Carly, Sam, and Freddie; then edit the news report to make things look worse than they are.

In the end (SPOILER ALERT)......

Lucas admits that he was never offended, and it was all a scam. He points out that having this big drama increased both his and iCarly's web visitors.

The show made me feel uncomfortable because it brought back memories of my past Internet experience. I gave an opinion, and suddenly I felt like I was the victim of a witch hunt. I don't think any outright lying happened, but there was manipulation of opinion via editing, deleting, withholding information, exaggerating, etc.

For me, the incident didn't increase visitor stats on my blog....mostly because I kept the drama off of my blog. I wonder if it increased stats for the others in the story. Maybe...probably.

So anyway, I have a lot of this dishonesty synchronocity going on. Why? I have no idea.

Today (several hours after watching iCarly) I watched some clips from a documentary on the Australian Screen website. I've been watching them in order, and the first one I came to today was from the film Forbidden Lies. It's about a Jordanian-American woman living in Australia who wrote a book about honor killings in the Middle East. She presented it as fact; said it was a tragedy that happened to her friend. But some clever Australians uncovered the truth. Author Norma Khouri is a con artist. Her story is a lie.

I did some reading with Lord Wiki regarding other literary frauds. He mentioned The Education of Little Tree. We read that in my children's Literature class in college. I was going to say how stupid for the professor to assign that and not realize it was a fraud. BUT now I'm thinking maybe we read it, and then talked about it being a fraud. I can't remember. So there you go. Sometimes we can't tell the truth, because we don't REMEMBER the truth. But we can be honest in saying we don't remember clearly. I think that helps.

There's an infamous Australia-related example; Mutant Message Down Under. This is the one in which an American woman claims she spent spiritual bonding time with Aboriginal Australians.

There are other examples.

People find fame and fortune by telling lies.

You know....you can do that ETHICALLY by calling your work fiction. Simple as that. Fiction does sell pretty well, actually. At least I think it does.

Although I wrote a novel, put it online, LABELED it as a novel, and people thought it was true. I got all these emails from people telling me they understood what I was going through. I had to explain that it was a novel...fiction. Maybe a lot of people don't know that novel means fiction. If I was putting my true life story up, I would have called it memoirs....or a blog.

Why do people create these elaborate lies?

I'd say it's for....

a) attention (definitely!)
b) money (if they're getting their work published)
c) sympathy
d) the thrill of tricking people.

What are the consequences of lying?

Well, I think the biggest one is that it creates distrust, and often towards people who don't deserve this distrust.

I'm now reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. This is the one in which the media and Ministry of Magic paints Potter to be a dishonest brat who's starved for attention. Now we the readers know the truth (well the fictional truth, at least). Harry Potter is completely honest and has REALLY been in horrible dangerous situations. He's not making stuff up. But the characters in the novel aren't privy to the knowledge we're getting. Why SHOULD they believe Potter? It's hard to do so when you've witnessed so many lies before.

A year or so ago, a young teenager pulled at the heartstrings of many bloggers. She was suffering from cancer. In her blog, she wrote about her troubles and sorrows. Other bloggers reached out to her, not just in the blogging world. They reached out beyond that. They called her on the phone. They sent her gifts. They sent out much love.

Then the cancer victim admitted it was all a lie. She didn't have cancer. She made it all up.

What a slap in the face to compassion. How are these bloggers going to react, in the future, when they encounter other people claiming to have cancer?

There's a brilliant scene in Swords and Crowns and Rings where a man won't allow some homeless people to seek shelter on his property. He cruelly sends them away. They stay anyway, sleeping with the pigs. One man dies from the cold. The others get angry at the farmer.

One of the characters (I forget who) defends the man.

Ah, here we go.... I got the book, and found the passage. It's Jerry who does the defending. Although now I can't even remember who Jerry was.

Anyway, he says...But if the farmer's wife had the bad luck he told us about, tools pinched, vandalism, maybe worse, his daughter done over, or his wife terrorised-eh? Can you blame him for locking things up?

When it comes to just compassion, I feel it's usually better to play the fool than the cold-hearted bitch.
 
But if you go beyond sympathy....it's difficult. What if it's money....lots of money? Should we help someone or ignore them because we believe they're a con artist?

Let's say a wealthy teen from the suburbs wants some extra cash. She doesn't want to work, so she goes around telling people that she's homeless and needs a few dollars so she can eat...or buy a train ticket...or call her parents.

I'm sure there are many stories like this.

But there probably are also stories of people who REALLY are stranded and in need of some food and money. How many of those truly in need have been ignored and turned down because liars have taught us to be distrustful?

Then there's the whole safety thing.

Now I don't know how much is real, and how much is urban legend. But I've heard of the serial killer/kidnapper horror stories. Men trick women into thinking someone is in need. They use this as a lure, and then they trap them. You know....like that scene in Silence of the Lambs. Scary!

It's really hard to be trustful in this world.

What are we to do?

I guess the best solution is to be open-minded and open-hearted but also skeptical.

While we're on the subject of honesty....

I just want to remind people that I don't usually post things the day I write them. So although my blog is very honest about what I'm thinking, and what goes on in my life....the timing of stuff is usually dishonest.

So when I say, last night I dreamed I was looking for someone....it's a LIE. Well, it is true as I'm writing this. But when I post it, it won't be true anymore. AH....unless I end up having the same dream the night before I post this.

And by the time any of you read this, I shall probably be finished with reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

I just wanted to make sure we're straight and clear.

I'm weirdly paranoid about misleading people....well, unless I'm joking. But if I'm joking, I reveal the truth pretty quickly.

Undeservingly Unpopular

Tim, Jack, and I watched the pilot episode of our beloved show iCarly. It shows how Carly, Sam, and Freddie's web show began. Freddie accidentally uploads a video of Sam and Carly joking around instead of the video he was supposed to upload. In one night, the girls get 28 thousand hits on their video. That seemed incredibly unrealistic to me. How does a video become so popular that fast? Okay, and maybe I was a little bit jealous....of uh...fictional characters. In one day, I'm lucky if I get over 250 hits on my blog.

Is it possible though? Can word-of-mouth marketing spiral out of control that quickly? I can KIND of picture it with some kind of crazy animal video....like the octopus one.

Did the three-year-old talking about Star Wars video get popular that fast? There's 15 million viewers now, so can I assume they had thousands of viewers the day they put it up? Or does it take awhile to grow viewership?

How and why do certain things become so incredibly popular?

And then why do some brilliant things stay relatively ignored and unknown?

Right now I'm reading a fantastic novel. I'm totally loving it. Swords and Crowns and Rings by Ruth Park. Now Ruth Park herself is VERY well known....at least in Australia. I can't say the same for America. And maybe this book was popular when it was published in the 1970's. MAYBE it's still well-known in Australia. I have my doubts that. It seems other Ruth Park books are better known....The Harp in the South and Playing Beattie Row. I could be missing something though....being way out here in America.

Is Swords and Crowns and Rings popular over there? It should be. It's beautiful.

Although I still have about 150 pages left. Maybe the last part is a complete failure, and that's why it's not so popular.

I hope not!

I was thinking about my dad when reading the book. He's a big fan of Pillars of the Earth. This book kind of reminds me of that. Well, there's no church building going on, but the characters and situations reminds me of Pillars. And it's good historical fiction....deals with The Depression and the years leading to it.

Anyway, I went to see if it was available on the Kindle, because my dad will read only with that now. It's not. I wasn't too surprised. And Amazon has only used ones for sale.

It might not be just an American problem. I'm looking at Gleebooks in Sydney. They don't seem to have a copy of it either.

That's the only bookstore I can think of offhand.

I'm going to google for other Australian bookshops.

Dymocks Online doesn't have it.

Abbey's Bookshop DOES have it....a CD version.

Okay. I'm tired of that game.

I'm sure you CAN get the book out there. I mean I got it, so other people could probably find it too. But it shouldn't be something you discover in a used bookstore. It should be easily available...the kind of book you see everywhere, and that everyone reads. It should be read in book clubs, although I really don't like book clubs. It should be on Oprah's list....even though I don't really like Oprah.

The sad/funny thing is the book DID win an award...the Miles Franklin Award. That's a pretty damn big award. I guess getting an award doesn't always matter. Or maybe the book was popular after the award, and then people forgot about it.

I was about to see if there are any other bloggers loving on the book. But then I remembered I haven't finished it. They might have spoilers in their post.

Anyway, it would make me very happy if this book became popular. So please go read it. And if you like it, please tell your friends to go read it.

I'll erase that last line before posting if the ending of the book ends up being awful.

My Love Speech To Heath Ledger

I dreamed about Heath Ledger last night...which seems kind of random to me. I don't think he's been on my mind, or anything. But I guess it's usual for me to dream about people I'm not thinking about during the day. I guess certain people just fall into my subconscious. And other certain people are STUCK in my subconscious.

Anyway.....

Heath Ledger is with me. I feel protective of him, and worried. He has scratches on his arms. I think there's an idea that this was a self-harm injury (I think I got this from watching iCarly last night. There was a character with scratches on his back). I hug Ledger and he feels frail to me.

For some reason, I get the idea that we're going to be in a relationship. This is not discussed. It's just an idea I suddenly accept as reality. And I suppose Ledger knows this too, because we start to talk about it. He tells me that he's worried that this love won't last forever. Then I give him this speech about how love isn't supposed to last forever. I say I think he's absolutely fantastic right now, but by next week (or month) he'll be a little less great to me. By next year, I might still love him, but I'll be mostly sick of him.

That's not the most cheerful thought, but probably close to reality. But maybe I'd exchange the word love for passion. I think you can love someone indefinitely. The passion (I hate every hour we're apart!) usually fades. It's amuses me, in a cynical way, to see people being all lovey-dovey with their new boyfriends, girlfriends, new wives, husbands, etc. Well, it's not really the affection that makes me inwardly groan. It's that attitude of... we're definitely soulmates. This is REAL love here, and we have the right ingredients to make a relationship work. Therefore, we're going to blab on and on about it everyday on Facebook and Twitter.

I want to tell them, come back in twenty years. Then I'll be impressed with your relationship. Hell, I'll even be impressed in ten years.

I have a video clip of my mom and dad at my sister's wedding rehearsal. By this point they had been married close to thirty-eight years. They're both sitting next to each other and laughing hysterically together. THAT is real. That impresses me....and that inspires me.