Family news and book/film reviews

Joy arrived in Canada, and will spend the holiday with her daughter at a friend's house.

Dr. Angie held a free clinic day. She does this several times a year.

Lots of parties going on all over, and the Palenke is busy, so traffic on our street is very heavy.

Mama Cat tried to get into my closet (she is looking for a nest for when she delivers) but with the dogs sleeping here I told her to try to find a place elsewhere.

I checked out Call me by your name the film that is a buzz for the academy awards. My take? Boorrrring... dull people who are cookie cutter pretty, and lots of angst about nothing.  Heck, if I wanted to watch beautiful people with inane personalities with fake problems, I'd stick to Hallmark movies.. As for the sex scenes, they cut away just short of losing their R rating and no one seems very happy in them.... My take? I'd rather watch Lolo's old porn movies: at least in them the hookers seem to be happy and having a good time.

which makes me wonder: Aren't there any comedy movies out there? The last one I spotted was Boo2, but that hasn't been on HBO yet.

As for the latest Starwars, since Ruby isn't here, I guess I'll see that when it hits HBO in two years, although I will keep an eye out for it in the Palenke (which often gets hit movies the week before they hit Manila)...

I follow Starwars but because the prequels were boring I haven't watched them more than once.... I keep an eye on Starwars, Harry Potter, and other geeky movies, but the only ones I am an expert on are the Lord of the Rings series... hope they don't ruin that when it hits TV...

and Ruby has to read the god of small things for her high school literature class.

I read it and it reminded me of Marquez.

So did the author think: I know, I'll do a book about folks with schizoid personality disorder* who live outside of reality, put in a bit of incest, pedophilia and adultery, mix the stories so you can't follow the plot line, add lots of beautiful descriptions (the best part of the book) and the critics will love it.

(*schizoid personality disorder in wikipedia saysSchizoid personality disorder (SPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a lack of interest in social relationships, a tendency towards a solitary or sheltered lifestyle, secretiveness, emotional coldness, detachment, and apathy. Affected individuals may be unable to form intimate attachments to others and simultaneously demonstrate a rich, elaborate, and exclusively internal fantasy world.)

Yup. Despite the fact she is in India, and a lot of local politics and religion are mentioned in the book, you don't get a feel for any of these things. They run a pickle factory, but you don't learn about feasts or fiestas or what they eat, or how the factory is run: indeed, you could take these out of the book and not affect the plot, which is mainly a bunch of short vignettes patched together. Presumably when you get to the end, the isolated vignettes should make a complete and beautiful picture, but I'm not very "sensitive" and sympathetic, even though as a doc I have had the frustration of working with such people (usually holding my tongue and trying not to hit them on the head and tell them to get real).

Except for the untouchable guy who seems the only sympathetic character but is mainly there to kill off in the climax, to prove: well, I'm not sure. To prove the cops are stupid? who knows?

but I guess it's pc enough for her NWO school. but it makes me mad because it doesn't contribute to my understanding of the Culture of Kerala: the characters could just as well be living in NYCity .