It's not the only thing, but it's one hell of a thing...

As I've said so many times over the last four years, if you had told me that one day in my lifetime the President of the United States would mention the need for equality with regard to sexual orientation, I would have thought you were crazy. To hear these words during President Obama's second inaugural address today made me cry, made me proud, and made me hope.

While there's no guarantee of what the next months will bring, particularly with the Supreme Court, I feel more optimistic than I ever have. And for that I say, thank you, Mr. President.

Movie Review: "Amour"

For the most part, we live in a youth-centric society, particularly where the entertainment world is concerned. Television networks care most about ratings in the cherished 18-49 demographic, classic movies and television shows are remade with stars of today to try and capture new audiences, and it is often difficult for older performers (particularly women) to get strong roles in Hollywood.

With all of those factors in mind, I wonder if Michael Haneke's emotionally powerful Amour would get the green light to be made here in the United States. Luckily, the movie is a joint production of France, Germany, and Austria, so moviegoers all over the world willing to invest their time and emotions in this movie can be richly rewarded.

Legendary French actors Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emanuelle Riva play Georges and Anne, a long-married couple in their 80s who enjoy a peaceful, full life together. Retired music teachers, they enjoy the pleasures of classical music, and one of Anne's former piano students is a rising star. Their daughter, Eva (Isabelle Huppert), is also a musician, although her relationship with her parents is somewhat strained.

One morning during breakfast, Anne suffers some sort of attack which leaves her momentarily unresponsive, nearly catatonic. While it quickly passes, further symptoms lead to her hospitalization and a diagnosis of a blood clot. After surgery fails, she finds herself paralyzed on one side, and the once fiercely independent woman is now wheelchair bound and dependent on her husband and others for assistance with nearly everything.

Both Anne and Georges know where her condition is headed, and Anne wants none of it. She makes Georges promise she won't be hospitalized again, and expresses her desire that her life end before she deteriorates. Georges, however, does all he can to keep her comfortable and happy, even as he knows the end will come more quickly than he'd like. But he is determined to care for Anne his way, despite his physical and mental exhaustion, and the concerns of his daughter.

Amour is utterly unflinching in its portrayal of Anne's physical and emotional deterioration and the toll it takes on her and Georges. Riva gives a phenomenal performance as Anne gets physically weaker, yet her intellect and fighting spirit shine through. A scene where she refuses to yield to Georges' pleading with her to drink some water from a sippy cup is both familiar and shocking. Riva is able to communicate so much with merely looks, small gestures, and murmurs.

While Riva received an Oscar nomination (her first) for her performance, Trintignant was sadly overlooked, but his performance is truly the film's emotional center. Shuffling back and forth down the hallways of their cluttered Paris apartment, he refuses to cede control of Anne's care, even to Anne's wishes, despite the toll it is taking on him. But despite the strain he is feeling, he remains stoic almost entirely, although his emotions get the best of him in certain situations that make you tear up as you can't tear yourself away from watching.

Given the subject matter of this movie, you inherently know the path it will follow. But that doesn't lessen its emotional power or how strongly the film and its performances will resonate. It's a difficult film to watch, but one you should watch, both for Riva and Trintignant's performances, and for Haneke's restrained yet masterful direction.

Movies like this don't get made every day, especially in the U.S. But thanks to the courage of Haneke and his actors, we have the privilege to watch the twilight of Anne and Georges' relationship.

Book Review: "Vortex" by Julie Cross

When a series starts with a bang, as Tempest, the first book in Julie Cross' Tempest trilogy did last year, you wonder whether the subsequent books in the series will be just as good, if not better. And after reading Vortex, I can say that while this book took a little while to find its rhythm, overall, it's a worthy successor to Tempest, and I am really interested to see how Cross ties the series up.

In Tempest, Jackson Meyer discovers that in addition to the pressures of college and maintaining his relationship with his girlfriend, Holly, he's a time traveler. He can't go too far into the past or the future, and is just beginning to understand the limitations of his time traveling abilities. The more time he spends trying to understand time travel, the more a group of people called the "Enemies of Time," who use time travel for apparently nefarious purposes, want to enlist Jackson in their work—or they'll kill him.

As Vortex begins, Jackson has made the decision to leave Holly and his best friend, Adam, alone, so they'll be safe from harm. He becomes an agent with Tempest, the branch of the CIA that handles all time travel-related problems. As he throws himself into his training, he tries hard to deal with his fellow agents who resent him, and keeps everyone at arm's length in an effort not to feel the hurt of losing people again.

Jackson finds himself back in New York City, trying to help track down members of Eyewall, an opposing division of the CIA which uses the Enemies of Time as its agents. He also comes face to face with Holly—although she looks and acts like his former girlfriend, the similarities end there, and as he tries to find more about this Holly, he realizes the differences have far-reaching implications. And as Jackson tries to better understand how time travel works, and the damage it can do, he struggles to find out what is true and what is being manipulated—and who is trying to damage those he loves.

At its heart, Vortex has many of the same characteristics that made Tempest such a great book—compelling characters; a fascinating (if slightly confusing) storyline, particularly where time travel is concerned; and plenty of suspense, because, like Jackson and his fellow agents, you aren't sure who to trust or what is real and what is being manipulated. While I obviously cannot identify with the time travel-related issues Jackson is struggling with, the emotional challenges he faces transcend the complex nature of the plot, and he is a tremendously sympathetic and multi-layered character.

My challenge with this book is the complexity of the plot Cross has created. There are so many permutations related to time travel and so many scenarios about its effects that even Jackson and those in the agency aren't quite sure of all of the implications, which makes it confusing for the reader. There is so much technical language to wade through at the start of the book, I kept waiting for the actual plot to take hold, and once it did, I really found myself drawn into the story, racing through the book.

If you enjoy books that explore worlds about which you may never know (or maybe you do, and that's a whole different story), I'd definitely encourage you to read both books in Cross' series. But if the technicalities confuse you a bit at first, don't despair; you'll be rewarded with a gripping, complex, and fascinating story that explores a wide range of emotional and philosophical questions.

My favorite TV theme songs...

Recently two bloggers I follow fairly religiously assembled their lists of their favorite and/or most memorable TV theme songs. That effort was right up my alley, seeing as I still know the words to most of the theme songs I grew up with!

So, my pop culture-filled brain started thinking, and I decided to put together my list. It was hard to pick only 26 theme songs—and apart from one, I stayed away from instrumental ones—but these are ones that came to mind first. I know I didn't include some obvious ones—The Jeffersons, Good Times, The Partridge Family, etc., because there just wasn't room, and I didn't want the whole list to be obvious ones.

In no particular order, here they are:

Welcome Back, Kotter (1975-1979): Maybe the recent deaths of Horshack and Epstein (Ron Palillo and Robert Hegyes) have made me a little more nostalgic, but I love everything about this song, especially the mellow sound of John Sebastian's voice.


Silver Spoons (1982-1986): I wanted a house big enough to ride a train through after watching this show. And I totally had Rick/Ricky Schroder's haircut at one point.


Laverne & Shirley (1976-1983): 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8...well, you know. Cyndi Grecco is one of the most unknown singers with one of the most well-known songs. Ain't that like show biz?


California Dreams (1992-1996): I know I wasn't the only one watching the "TNBC" block of programming Saturday mornings on NBC. This opening sequence is from the earlier seasons of the show (so no Jake, Sam, or Lorena), but I always loved Heidi Noelle Lenhart's voice in this version.


Angie (1979-1980): A show perhaps better known for its theme song, which was a hit for Maureen McGovern, than the show itself. When we took our 5th grade trip to Philadelphia, a bunch of us sang this song on the bus. I know it wasn't just me.


Love, Sidney (1981-1983): This Tony Randall show didn't last long, but I still remember all the words to its theme song. "We're friends forever, and when the rest have gone, it's you who will be there for me...my friend."


The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-1977): One of the classics. The theme song changed after the first season, but this version (from the last season) is the more memorable one for me. And I totally wanted to toss my hat in the air, but I'd lose it.


Joanie Loves Chachi (1982-1983): No, I don't care that this is one of the biggest spin-off failures in television history. Nor do I care that Scott Baio wasn't a good singer. (Like it mattered?) As I've mentioned before, I memorized the lyrics to this song to sing with a friend at a Halloween party in eighth grade and it's been in my head ever since. Seriously.


The Love Boat (1977-1986): Saturday nights growing up involved The Love Boat at 9:00 and Fantasy Island at 10:00. And the only one missing from the guests on this episode was Charo, don't you think? (Does anyone else do Isaac's two-fingered point? Probably not.)


Gilligan's Island (1964-1967): This isn't the original version of the theme song, which didn't mention the Professor or Mary Ann, instead calling them "the rest," but this is the one once the show was in color. Used to watch this on Channel 5 after school....

So THAT'S what happened...

Mystery solved. (Images courtesy of George Takei's Facebook page...)

I always knew they looked shifty...

Finally, CNN reports the true goings-on in Dr. Bunsen Honeydew's lab. And Beaker? First Lance Armstrong, now this?

Same Love...

The first time I heard Same Love, the song by hip-hop duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (featuring Mary Lambert), I literally started crying. I was blown away by the song's message, and the way it challenges those who believe sexual orientation is a choice, those who discriminate, those who are afraid, and those who just don't understand.

Here are some of the lyrics that resonate for me:

The right wing conservatives think it’s a decision
And you can be cured with some treatment and religion
Man made rewiring of a predisposition
Playing god, aw nah here we go
America the brave still fears what we don’t know
And god loves all his children, is somehow forgotten
But we paraphrase a book written 3500 years ago
I don’t know

And then, this challenge to hip-hop:

If I was gay, I would think hip-hop hates me
Have you read the YouTube comments lately
"Man, that’s gay" gets dropped on the daily
We become so numb to what we’re saying
A culture founded from oppression
Yet we don’t have acceptance for 'em
Call each other faggots behind the keys of a message board
A word rooted in hate, yet our genre still ignores it

Last month, Susan Johnson, a middle school teacher in Detroit was suspended for three days for playing the song for her class. The school district said Johnson’s suspension was warranted because it broke basic curriculum rules teachers at the school are meant to follow, in that she needed to get prior permission to play something like this. (She probably wouldn't have gotten that permission.)

Students and others, including Macklemore himself, protested Johnson's suspension. But more than that, Johnson's students were moved by what they heard. One student even sent Macklemore an email about the incident:

If you've never heard the song, I encourage you to put your preconceived notions of hip-hop aside and listen to it. Or share it with those who need to hear it. I commend Macklemore and Ryan Lewis for sharing this message.