Mood:
specialNow Playing: "Love In The Time Of Cholesterol"
This morning, I had it in my mind to write a blog entry comparing the Cain-and-Abel elements of "Dust" and "The Proposition", and the way each movie plays out Old Testament themes of vengeance and betrayal, against a hellish landscape that reflects man's fallen state and expulsion from Eden (Fletcher). But that seems too much like a school term paper.
I've also been meaning to write a eulogy for Molly Ivins, who I've quoted in this blog before.
Charles Krauthammer said, in the days following 9/11, that there are two types of people in this world: candle-lighters and candle-snuffers. Molly Ivins was a candle-lighter. She was a columnist for the Texas Observer and Fort Worth Star-Telegram, who lost her long battle with breast cancer on Jan. 31st. Texas is often compared to Australia, and Molly Ivins was its Shane Maloney, chronicling the absurdities of local politics with hilarious results. She famously called Texas "the national laboratory for bad government", noting that a lot of ill-conceived policy ideas are first incubated in the state capitol, then exported to Washington.
Even as she skewered greed and corruption, her weekly columns abounded with humanity, quick wit and colorful phrases: "weaker than bus-station chili", "madder than a peach orchard boar", "if his IQ was any lower, he'd have to be watered twice a day", and my personal favorite: "Many people did not care for Pat Buchanan's speech. It probably sounded better in the original German."
For many years I've admired her firebrand courage in speaking truth to power, as I admire anyone who stands up for justice no matter what it costs them. She'll be greatly missed. 62 was much too young to lose her. (Please, make sure you and your loved ones get your annual exams. Remember the Mount Franklin campaign. Do it for the whales.)
So what I REALLY wanted to blog about today was David's fans. David may be the funniest man on the planet, but dang if he doesn't also have the funniest fans on the planet. In my wanderings, I've met some really amazing people who also love David: midwifes, nurses, teachers, published poets, technical writers, artists, mothers, students, musicians, bellydancers. I've gotten emails from Spain, Australia, Japan, Germany, Canada, the UK, Italy, France, and the Netherlands. I've met extraordinarily kindhearted people such as:
- Rosie, equally quick with a witticism or a hug, currently at work on a novel with
- RedQueen, who is one of the most breathtakingly hilarious people I've ever encountered
- sh_wulff, whose posts have a dark and luminous beauty, like melted chocolate
- Pengwyn, whose mad prose skillz and swiftly darting mind leave me simply prostrate with awe
- Lucidity, quizmaster and fiercely loyal Carl partisan
- Lhaewin, a dear German friend whose English is even better than mine ;)
- meaningofhaste, whose conversation ranges comfortably from the loftiest peaks of intelligence to the deepest sinkholes of silliness without batting an eye
- Rhetta, a lifelong Texan, cat lover, and Australophile
- Nenya, who's one of those friends that you feel like you've known your whole life, two seconds after you meet them
- Minkey, internet sleuth extraordinaire, who always seems to know what's happening with David three days before anyone else knows it
- dragonfly, a very talented graphic artist, and Stef, a very talented fanfic writer
- Phan, who has the most insane sense of humor (and I mean that in the best way possible)
- And many, many others (I hope I haven't inadvertently left anyone out - if I did, yell at me in an email and I'll devote an entire blog entry to you).
As a group, David fans have fascinating lives and hobbies, a terrific sense of humor, and an appreciation for subtlety. Maybe that's a case of like attracting like. David isn't the kind of guy who whops you over the head with the club of his Brilliant Acting (rather, he stealthily abducts you with the Chloroformed Rag of Brilliant Acting), so those who appreciate him tend to be people who see more deeply into things. Antoine de St.-Exupery might well have been talking about Daisy Nation: "What is essential is invisible to the eye. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly."
There. That felt good to get all that off my chest, and clean out the Grove's mental desk drawer. Except now I've forgotten my social security number, and what I was going to say at the end of this sent
