Films, poetry, dog stuff

Two more excellent films! "A Single Man" is powerful, characters dealing with & talking about heavy issues with absolute honesty. So rare. Role model much needed for most of us. It is a painful, hopeful, moving film, serious about love and death. Colin Firth has my full attention now. Fine acting, deep writing. "Appaloosa" is a western so non-formulaic it took my breath away. Ed Harris has had my attention for a long time, and he just gets better. So interesting and unexpected.

I won a poetry prize! This time first place, community college lit magazine competition. Moving on up!

Saw/heard Temple Grandin at a book-signing talk. I admire her so much, and she is a very handsome woman now at just about my age. She's all over the place pushing latest book and an HBO film about her early life & eventual success. She said on npr that Claire Danes does an excellent job being her, just perfect. Thesis on mooing. Can't you see the cowboy profs' faces? Got her master's here at ASU! I never knew that. Out in the stockyards with the guys (whose wives complained, this being the 70's) giving her a hard time, covering her car with bull testicles, etc. Now who's laughing?

Grandin says if you have a whiny separation-anxious dog, get another dog for company, or dog sitter, gave the impression you're dreaming to imagine there's a cure (though a friend tells me there are anti-anxiety meds for dogs that work). Lady is a case study in separation anxiety. If I leave and Grumpy is asleep, she howls and cries and carries on like she's been tossed down a well! If both of us are gone and we forgot to close the bedroom door, our nice moccasin slippers take a beating and every sort of paper and plastic within reach gets spread all around the living room. At least she doesn't destroy furniture or piss on everything. It could be worse.

I went dog shopping this weekend, finally deciding that's just not going to work, too much more on our plates than we can live with. But maybe a kitten. I have a mental image of Lady curled up with kitten while I'm gone. Is that too far-fetched? I dread kitty-litter stink though.