Rachel’s comment, from the post below:

Just so everyone knows, Leira was indeed born to Empire Strikes Back. My labor went so fast we didn’t make it through the entire movie. So fast, my actual doctor didn’t deliver the baby. I believe they had to bring in the ER doctor. INTENSE.

I’m an Aunt. It’s official. I’ve kind of been a lower-case aunt for Sam, but this feels very different than when he was born. Leira is someone who I feel a real sense of duty towards and thank goodness that the Kleins came to visit over the weekend because I would have been a ball of guilt and anxiety without them around to distract me. It’s kind of settling in now and I really wish I could be there with Rachel, even though I would just be a seat filler.

Poor Arrow was really thrown for a loop with other people in the house. She seems to be recovering nocely today, Tom took her out to the ranchito for a run with the desert dogs, and she’s muddy and happy and napping.

We had a lot of fun having our BFFs over – they hadn’t seen the house since we just moved in, so they could see all the work that’s been done and reminded us that we’ve actually gotten a bit finished. Also, Annika is proving that pregnancy is a very good look for her, yet again. Sam is proving that age 3 is a strange, yet, simple age and that you must take the time to assess the situation. And Will is proving that beer is a breakfast food and whiskey is for dessert, and that Nick Cage movies are always worth watching.

Tom managed to cook breakfast for all of us and prove that you can, in fact, use a pancake mix and rely on technique for the World’s Best Pancakes.

I’m sure I proved something or other, but what it could have been, I have no idea. I have fallen into watching the “Later… with Jools Holland” marathon on Ovation (a show that I have never seen before) and I’ve bookmarked the Wikipedia page for it. I will be searching for video of that past 33 series in the coming months, I suspect. Oh, live performances, I don’t need to like that band or that song, but I never get to see bands anymore, so I’m starved for it. UKers, you have no idea how lucky you are to have had this show.

Oh, and we watched the movie Hot Rod on Saturday. If you haven’t seen it, you should. It is very funny and I am a fan!

Burn After Reading – Meh. The characters were really bland an the actors didn’t really do anything interesting with them. The plot was also kind of shitty. I guess they really blew their wad adapting No Country for Old Men.

Doomsday – Shot really well, but there was no story. Bland, not campy enough, not scary enough, which for a movie that wants to be a John Carpenter movie equals TOTAL FAILURE.

The House Bunny – Funny, but needed more irony or, and I hate to say it, gross outs to be LOL. I think because it’s about young women, the filmmakers just weren’t willing to go there even though the cast seemed very game.

Last Chance Harvey – Very good. Predictable, but it just goes to show that you don’t need to innovate to make a really good movie. Dustin Hoffman really gave something subtle and Emma Thompson was just wonderful (as usual).

The Ramen Girl - Cute & predictable, no new territory, and Brittany Murphy needs to push herself a lot harder because cute don’t cut it when you have a bad dye job and can’t cry on cue. The Japanese cast made her look like a high school theater kid. Wants to be parts Tampopo, Like Water for Chocotlate, and Lost in Translation – which should work and maybe with a stronger lead, could have. After making the theater comment, now I want to see it staged as a single-set play. Could be fun.

Slumdog Millionaire – The cast was wonderful. The story was interesting, but that “fairy tale magic” element was elusive. Still, I can see why it won Best Picture at the Oscars, it was miles better than any of the other nominees.

The Wrestler – Good character study. Not a lot of surprises here.

Next up: Defiance. I’m really looking forward to this one.

Do you ever look at the movie listings, or just at what’s playing at your favorite multi-plex, and think it all sounds good, so you just decide to wait until Watchmen comes out?

Yeah, me too.

When the Rabbi’s assistant is too busy, or out of town, or lazy, or whatever, I have to send out the Yahrzeit notices. A Yahrzeit is the anniversary date of someone’s death. Traditionally, you light a candle on someone’s yahrzeit, but the most important thing is to say the Mourner’s Kaddish, which is a special prayer (one of my favorite episodes of Northern Exposure focuses on Fleischman getting a Minyan together to say the Kaddish) for the deceased. The Yahrzeit notice is a courtesy that the Temple does for members, or former members who bought a plaque, that reminds mourners of upcoming Yahrzeits…

I explain this because in November, I was doing Yahrzeit notices every week because the Rabbi’s assistant went to Israel for a month and left me holding the bag. Of all the things that we do here for members, I would say that these notices are in the top 3.

During that same period, I finally saw the film adaptation of the book Everything Is Illuminated. It is a very good movie. Here is the trailer:

From Wikipedia:

The writing and structure received critical acclaim for the manner in which it switches between two story arcs: (1) fragments of Foer-the-character’s novel-in-progress, where he tells in highly literary English a quasi-magical story about the citizens of Trachimbrod; and (2) a straightforward narrative of searching for Trachimbrod (which is an invented name for the real village Trochenbrod), as told by Alex in broken English. They are tied together by letters sent from Alex to Foer and attached to Alex’s version. Alex’s narrative is most notable for its broken English, which sounds as if he learned English via thesaurus without ever hearing it spoken. Throughout his narrative, he makes frequent use of improper synonyms, such as using the word rigid to mean “difficult”.

At the time I had a notion of writing an article about How Something Is Written vs. Its Topic and how this book and this film clearly succeed in that way. But really, it just got me to thinking about my Jews and how, even though they have White Privilege in the US, they are still Jews. Their inner lives and outer rituals are formed so differently and are based on such different ideas than those that white, non-Jews (the Holocaust, Israel, Antisemitism, the threat of Islam, and the Jewish diaspora are pretty much all anyone at the synagogue talks about, for example), that even though I have so much in common with them, I am never mistaken for Jewish.

This does parallel the story in Everything is Illuminated in some ways, but I don’t want to spoil it for anyone – needless to say, I will always be an outsider.

I am currently reading Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policmen’s Union, and it is so amazing that I can hardly stand it. Don’t read the reviews, just know this: It’s a “what-if” – Israel fails in its early days, a bunch of Jews settle in Sitka, there’s tension with the native people, and it’s a hard-boiled detective story peppered with Yiddish and Hebrew.

The summer I turned 19, I had the opportunity to work at a gas station on the Colville Indian Reservation near my hometown. I was plunged into “Life on the Rez” and lucky for me, I quickly made some friendly acquaintances (it also helped that my mom worked with some very well-respected Native ladies). I can’t really explain it very well but that outsider experience really formed my perspective and understanding of other cultures (and I have strong opinions about melding cultures and “belonging” that I think fall outside the norm because if it). But I do think it has caused me to seek out groups of people with whom I will never really be a part of, but I can be a “friendly” with, but not in some Romanticized way. I’m far too pragmatic – it just makes my world bigger.

And so, I think that’s really why I’m still working here. And I think it says something about Native and Jewish cultures that they are open to me becoming a “friendly.” And maybe I should have gone into anthropology.

Was it a good? Yes.

Did the WATCHMEN trailer beforehand negate everything that came after? YES.

Did Christian Bale’s vocal choices annoy me? YES!

Did I love the prisoner ferry scene with Tommy Lister? YES!!

Also, that James Bond movie looks pretty good.