Listen to Stacy

Anger

2008-07-28T07:31:00.000-07:00

It is amazing how good it feels to finally release the anger. It starts with a churning in the stomach, like a small tornado begging to be allowed to increase to a Category 4. And then words that you may never have uttered before and blushed at when you heard others say them, suddenly pour forth from your mouth as if you were meant to say them all along. And although these words (you know which ones I am talking about), don't really express all your feelings, they do make you feel better just for having let them be said out loud. And you don't regret saying them. That is the best feeling.

My anger has been cooking for so long. Longer than anger should be allowed to simmer. On a slow cooker, my anger was spiced up with regret, resentment and loathing. It was basted, salted and peppered with fear. But finally when it had been stirred and stirred over a simmering fire, it was ready to be released upon the world.

And you know what...it tasted good. Like freedom. Like a new day.

But what I have discovered is that there is no reason to simmer your anger. You can microwave it and when the bell signals it's done, you can release it in a more timely manner. Letting a little anger out at a time is good for one's diet. It helps your body, soul and mind. And there is nothing wrong with a little over-processed, microwavable, prepackaged anger.

Of course the slowly simmered anger is more fun to release but some times you can overcook it and then...well then....the phrase 'Before turning the gun on herself' may come into play.

Bubble

2008-06-30T07:41:00.000-07:00

I want to put my son in a bubble and protect him from the world. Now that he is off at day camp ( a 40 minute bus ride away) and going into second grade, I worry constantly. Not only about the usual stuff...will he make friends, will he get physically hurt etc... No, I worry about the other stuff. The loss of innocence. When will he discover there is no tooth fairy? When will an older child on the bus tell him there really is no Santa Claus? When will he learn that not everyone is looking out for his best interest? When will he discover lying and cheating? He is so desperate to grow up and all I want to do is scream 'It isn't that great'. How do I protect him from getting hurt? Is it possible to put him in a bubble, feed him through a straw and only let him watch Sesame Street? Would that really be considered child abuse? And how big would this bubble have to be? Right now, even though he logically knows that Mickey and Minnie Mouse have people inside those costumes, he still wants their autographs. This time goes by so quickly. I think I will go buy the plastic and start building today.

M. Night, you owe me $10...

2008-06-26T16:30:00.000-07:00

...plus the cost of popcorn and soda. The Happening... I swore to myself I would not go see another M. Night movie after seeing 'The Village'. I promised myself I would never pay more than the rental fee for a DVD of an M. Night movie after seeing 'Signs'. And yet there I was shelling over $10 for a ticket, $15 for popcorn and soda and $40 for a babysitter so I could punish myself and watch 'The Happenning'.

Now I have to give kudos to M. Night for always filming in and around my hometown of Philadelphia. And I also have to applaud M. Night for trying to make a statement about our environment. It wasn't a well thought out statement, but he tried.

So without giving away the entire film, I will instead point out that M. Night has ridden the coat tails of 'The Sixth Sense' for far too long. The place where M. Night fails is exactly the place where Spielberg succeeds. I am not saying Spielberg is the best director in the world but compared to M. Night...well you get my point.

Let's start with 'Signs'. In 'Signs' about halfway through the film, M. Night himself shows up and tells Mel Gibson that he doesn't know what the creatures are but he does know that they are afraid of water. Now how does he know this? And how convenient is this little nugget of information? And why the hell would they land on a planet that is 90% water? Compare that to 'Indiana Jones and the Raiders of th Lost Ark'. All we need to know about the ark is told to us as Indy explains it to the FBI guys at the college. It is a logical, organic discussion.

M. Night seems to write his scripts without thought to logic and then when he realizes he has forgotten to tell us something we may need to know, he adds it in wherever he sees fit. In 'Jurassic Park' Spielberg lets us know how the velociraptor hunts, so that later on we will know to be afraid. In 'The Village' M. Night expects us to be afraid of an unknown entity just because it exists.

And now we come to 'The Happening'. When we meet Mark Wahlberg, he is teaching in a classroom. He is a science teacher. He is teaching the kids about bees. The movie has nothing to do with bees. Bees never play a part. This was not 'The Bee Movie'. Shouldn't he have been teaching them about how we are destroying our environment? Shouldn't he have told the students that some plants can kill? Instead he decides to have some whacko gardener with an unhealthy obsession with hotdogs, explain it all to us, a third of the way through the movie. Do we trust hotdog man? Do we have enough information to believe him? Nah. And then when we discover that the plants are trying to kill us, M. Night takes us to a remote house and forces Betty Buckley to play an unhinged woman, living alone who plays with dolls and slaps kids hands. Why? What does the doll have to do with anything? And then the film is over. The Happening is done. How did our hero grow and change? What did he learn? What did we all learn?

I am not going to ruin the movie for those of you who refuse to believe me and insist on going to waste your money. Just remember, You have sensed it, you have seen the signs, Nothing happens in 'The Happening'