Following My Foot Steps

As a little girl, I fell in love with reading and story-telling at a very early age. In Kindergarten, I read my first book, all by myself. I still remember it. It was called "The Little Black Puppy". I remember reading it out loud and my mother was blown away. I could read!! This was a big deal back in the 70's. Kindergarten was so much different back then. It was a half day and all we learned where shapes and colors. 123's and ABC's. Prayers and God Bless America. And that was it.

So, my reading on my own was huge. And I loved it. And it stuck. Over the next couple of years, I moved onto chapter books. Most of the books were written by Judy Blume or Beverly Cleary. My days were filled with the adventures of Fudge...or Ramona. They made me laugh. They made me imagine. They made me want to be a writer. Now, I take such joy and pride as my own children are discovering and enjoying books. My son is obsessed with Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. And my daughter? She just finished Beezus and Ramona on Tuesday. And she finished Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing yesterday. All of the sudden she is constantly with her nose in a book. CONSTANTLY. And....I....LOVE...it!!!

Tuesday evening, she told me she finished Beezus and Ramona. She told me about the different scenes that made her laugh and I reminisced, remembering reading those same scenes when I was her age. Suddenly, I was eight years old again. The memories of the book all came back to me. It created a connection...a bond with my daughter. And....I....LOVED....it!!!!

Then, she asked if we could please rent the movie Ramona And Beezus. Please. Please. Please. Pretty Please with Sugar On Top!!! Normally, we don't rent from On Demand. We wait for it to be on a movie channel or we put it on the top of the Netflix List. But this time, I gave in. She finished the book in less than two days and was so giddy about it. I was proud of her. And we were bonding over a classic, timeless book. So, yes. Our cable bill will be six dollars higher this month. And it will be so worth it.

The movie combined all the Ramona and Beezus books by Beverly Cleary. And once again...the memories came flooding back. Picky Picky the cat. Ramona and her father drawing the longest picture in the world. The hole in the house. Howie and Willa Jean. Hobart and Aunt Bea. And on and on and on. It was as if I was revisiting family members that I had not seen in almost twenty years. The movie actually made me cry.

Days of reading childish stories were long forgotten over the years of growing up and becoming an adult. I remembered why I wanted to be a writer in the first place. How I wanted to be the next Beverly Cleary. The next Judy Blume.

When the movie was over, I wiped my tears and looked over at my daughter. Both of us were snuggled on the couch, under a Jedi Blanket. We smiled, both of us loving the movie...another thing that bonded us together.

And then she announced that when she grows up she wants to be a writer and a publisher. That made my heart sing. She is so much like me.

And I began to make a mental list of other books I would love for her to read. Other books I grew up with.
The Henry and Ribsy series
The rest of the Ramona Books
All the Fudge books
The Little House books
Blubber
and so on
and so on
and so on.

Showtimes' Shameless

As if I don't watch enough Premium Cable shows (like Dexter, Weeds, True Blood, Big Love, Spartacus, etc. etc.) I decided to check out Shameless when it first premiered back in January. Mainly for two reasons: Emmy Rossum and William H. Macy.

I went in, totally clueless and not knowing what to expect. I had no idea this show already exist across the pond and that Showtime had re-made it. After the first episode, I was hooked.


Shameless is...well, the title says it all. You just never know what is going to happen. What is going to shock you. The writers really do have no shame and yet it works. What should be sad, is actually funny. And sadly, I knew people like the Gallaghers back in my day. I've been in that house. Over sized family with the parents not really around and the kids doing whatever it took to get through the day. Again...sounds sad, but the show is really good at making it funny...and shocking...and you find yourself rooting for the bunch of trashy people and wishing you were part of the family.

I always liked William H. Macy. I always thought he was a good actor. His role as the EXTREME alcoholic, dead-beat, conniving father-Frank Gallagher, puts William H. Macy in a whole new category. I predict Emmy nominations and A Golden Globe for him next year!!! (Hey, I called John Lithgow with his Portrayal of Trinity in Dexter!! I'm calling William H. Macy!)

He looks dirty...almost homeless. He's a horrible father. He's always spewing "words of wisdom" about what is wrong with the world. And Frank is most possibly one of my favorite television characters ever. And it's all because William H. Macy makes such an unlikable character likable.

And then there's Emmy Rossum. She first caught my eye in Phantom of the Opera. I think she's so beautiful and talented. As Fiona, the eldest child in the Gallagher clan who is trying her best to keep everything together. She tones down the prettiness, but even with old, baggy clothes and unkempt hair, she's still so pretty.


Also, the rest of the Gallagher family: Lip, Ian, and Deb. These kids are great. Great complex characters and great acting.




Of course you got the wacky neighbors who get the good one liners:


And, maybe...just maybe Joan Cusack is the best of the best. She plays Sheila, the perfect housewife germophob/pervert who can't leave her house....ever. She's all kinds of crazy and Joan Cusack is a genius. Right now, she's listed as a Guest Star, but I really hope Sheila is here to stay. I live for Sheila scenes. I also predict nominations for her.


If you haven't seen it, check it out. Shameless is the best show about the most dysfunctional family on T.V. yet. It makes me feel like I'm 19 again, hanging with my friends.

(and yes...there's a reason why I decided to talk about Shameless on St. Patrick's Day. It is not a coincidence.)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Rocking the Eye Patch (Not-So-Pirate-Style)

As I posted on my other blog (http://www.themoviejunkiecooks.blogspot.com/), it's been a rough, tense couple of weeks here at the Movie Junkie Castle. My little girl had some asthmatic problems which involves trying to adjust to new medications and daily nebulizer treatments. I was rushed to the hospital in unbelievable pain to find out I had two kidney stones. And when I came home from the hospital, I found my little boy holding his eye and crying and screaming that he was blind.

After trying to get him to open his eyes and thinking it was a simple poke in the eye, I realized he also needed medical attention. So, off to urgent care we went. The story has it that my son was playing with my Lola (my over sized, over excited puppy) and Lola got him in the eye with her claw. The doctor let me look into my son's eye with this groovy black lighted magnifying glass and sure enough....there was the BIG scratch right where my son's pupil is.

They put all kinds of drops and fluids in his eye, then patched him up. And then the comments came. Comments like:

"Arrrggg!!"

"Hey! It's Captain Jack!!"

"Arrggg!!!"

"Look at the Little Pirate!"

"Arrggg!!!"

"Ahoy Matey!"

and of course: "Arrrgggg!!!"

My son thought having an eye patch was the coolest thing! He was disappointed that he only needed it for two days and that he never got to wear it school. All he kept saying was how he was just like the pirates. He wished his friends could have seen it because "They would think this is SO COOL!!"

But, what pirates? I tried to think of a Pirate with an Eye Patch.

Captain Hook?



No.

Captain Jack or his counterparts?


No.

The only one I could come up with was One Eyed Willie from the Goonies.


And he's a dead pirate, so does he count? Why do we associate the Eye Patch with the Pirate? Where did that come from?

I can think of so many other characters from movies and T.V. that I associate with the Eye Patch.

A psycho killer assassin nurse:


A futuristic action hero trying to escape:


Angelina Jolie makes the Eye Patch kinda hot:


We got original and remade gunslingers:


Samuel L. Jackson wears a m*thrf*ckin' Eye Patch as Nick Fury:


Anthony Hopkins will be rocking a Mythical Eye Patch in an upcoming Movie:


Tom Cruise tones down the "Crazy Eyes" to just one Crazy Eye:


The Wonderfully, Weirdly, Oddly, and Strange Crispin Glover wears a Patch in Alice in Wonderland:


Danny Glover not only wears a Patch on one eye, but is blind in the other:


And Mad Eye Moody has the coolest Eye Patch EVER!!


But NO Pirates!!! I looked. I googled. All I got was a whole bunch of pictures of Johnny Depp and lots of cheap, cheesy Pirate Costumes. And the occasional advertisement for some Pirate Themed Porn. Hey, whatever floats their boat, eh?

So, why do we associate the Pirate with the Eye Patch? Where did that come from? Please, if you know, leave me a comment. I love being educated on odd, random, trivial stuff like this. You never know when it might be a Final Jeopardy Question.

On a final note...I can't write about the Eye Patch and not mention this guy:


If you are a child of the 80's, you know who he is. Steve "Patch" Johnson. He was a Mega-Star in the Daytime Television World. He hailed from Days of Our Lives and became one of the most memorable Soap Characters of all times.

There was a time when they gave his character a make-over and plastic surgery so he could have two eyes and go undercover as a Janitor at a Religious Cult Church/Compound thingy to catch the Reverend at something shady....and the fans cried out in dismay over the loss of his Eye Patch. So, they had to write in another fight/accident that resulted in damaging his new "Glass" Eye and bringing the Patch back.

Yep. He knew how to rock the Eye Patch.

And so did my son...for two days.