how to fight loneliness

I watched Grey Gardens on Friday night. It was maybe not the best movie for a gal trying to prove to herself that she is completely comfortable with holing herself up in her apartment for days on end. Anyone who has seen the movie knows what I'm talking about, but here is a particularly amazing clip of Little Edie to force the rest of you to watch it ASAP:



I was really moved by the whole big show. I'd recently read a review that called it a terrifying portrait of codependence, but I don't know, maybe I'm as crazy as the Beales, but I didn't see that. I saw the sad aftermath of privileged lives, and the difficulty of growing up beautiful and full of promise only to completely shit the bed on all expectations, and the most fantastic costumes this side of a Wes Anderson movie. Seriously. Except that they aren't even costumes. You almost forget that these women are just LIVING THEIR LIVES and that these amazing props and outfits are just the old things they drag out and put on for the film crew. Okay, fine, so they're putting on a little show, that's for sure. Little Edie especially is obviously into being filmed. But it's not like they left the house to buy any of those things--they're the artifacts of this practically unbelievable life.

...if anyone needs me I'll be letting a raccoon eat the drywall in my place in the Hamptons and listening to old records. And wearing a floppy hat.

I also watched Steel Magnolias, and took a lot of incoherent notes about how play-like and deep it was, and then I dissolved into a teary mess when Julia Roberts died, and then I ruminated on how maybe it was the high point in all the lead actresses' careers, and then I decided I'd spent too much time thinking about Steel Magnolias for one lifetime. But I will say this--for a truly horrendous example of how Wikipedia is destroying research prose, read this article.

Particularly illuminating is the Title Significance section. Also, the TOTALLY EXCITING NEWS that Mayim Bialik, aka television's beloved Blossom, will be starring in the off-Broadway revival.

You can thank me for all that later.