Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water

The film Jaws has been shown on TV an awful lot this summer. In fact, they ran all four Jaws films sequentially on Memorial Day on Encore. Last night, the first Jaws was shown on Turner Classic Movies, and it is just one of those things that I HAVE to watch every time it is on tv.

There is something about that film that doesn't get old. First off, it was filmed on the Vineyard, which always makes me think of (Former) Co-Worker Nina, who I miss A LOT. But despite the fact that the clothing, hairstyles and cars are pretty dated, the experience of the characters in the film never really ages.

Nothing really changes on a touristy island like Amity in the summer. My own experiences on Nantucket are very much like the day to day in the lives of Sheriff Brody and his family (including our own experience of seeing a shark fin in the distance and not going ANYWHERE near the water that day.)

And the shark never stops being scary. No matter how much you know about the "making of" the film, knowing the shark was a robot named Bruce and that he sank the first time they put him in the water... when that shark surfaces as the sheriff is throwing the chum in the water, that is still incredibly scary. "You're going to need a bigger boat" indeed!

I think a big part of the charm of Jaws is the score by John Williams. There is something unsettling about it. (There is something about horror films with simple scores that just makes them scarier...cf. the strings in Psycho.) Case in point: I went with JR and RH to see Maestro Williams conduct the Pops back in May and one of the things they did was a tribute to the Spielberg/Williams films, complete with film montage. The first bit they played was Jaws, and when they begin to play that "dun-dun-dun" shark theme, an awkward and uncomfortable chuckle went through the crowd which morphed into a quiet murmur of "this music scares me, are they going to play Star Wars soon?" Compare that to when Star Wars started and the whole place erupted into a cheer.

There is something nice about a "horror" film that has the ability to last, that is still able to scare and thrill its audience thirty years later. Even the most jaded horror film buff probably thinks twice before blindly running into the ocean at sundown for a little skinny dipping.

O, Beautiful for...

I had a dream last night that I was driving down the Mass Pike when all of a sudden it was taken over (the whole highway) by terrorists from a drug cartel and I was pulled from my car and shot. My friend EP assures me that was a nightmare, not a dream.

In any case, I think that it was a premonition of the traffic nightmare that I was to experience this morning. It would be nice, oh construction workers on Commonwealth Avenue, if you had warned the general public that there was no access to the BU bridge from Comm Ave eastbound today. My colleague Honkycat and I commiserated over our disastrous drives in this morning over a cup of Pete's. Needed the strong stuff to get the day going after terrorists and traffic.

I am not terribly excited about the Fourth of July this year. At one point yesterday, I actually wished that the US was still part of the UK. I am so proud to be an American and appreciate the opportunities that my family received by coming here from Ireland and from Eastern Europe. And I am proud to be a Bostonian, part of a strong tradition of independence. But this whole Scooter Libby sentence thing has me disheartened (heck, even Paris Hilton served her time) as does the war in Iraq. Even Michael Moore's new film, Sicko, is depressing me. And all the crime in Boston of late doesn't make me feel any better. Just yesterday, I saw someone being arrested in the parking lot at Whole Foods!

Where is the America of yesteryear? The one with tickertape parades and local heroes and the hometown team winning the state championship and neighbors being neighborly and kids selling lemonade on the sidewalk? Did that ever really exist or was that just part of the Eisenhower propaganda?

Of course, I am sure that once I see the fireworks and hear the music of the Boston Pops tomorrow, my spirits will lift, and I will believe again, even if it is just for an evening. And I won't even mind because that feeling is so worth it.

Books Coming to Life

For any Harry Potter fans in the Greater Boston area, you will be happy to know that Harvard Square in Cambridge is being transformed into Hogwarts Square for the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on midnight of July 20th. Another event going on in the area is "Potterpalooza" in Coolidge Corner in Brookline all day on July 20th.

I just hope that I don't have to wait in too ridiculous line from hell to pick up my copy this year! Support your local bookstore!

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted...

I am on vacation from work this week, which isn't the same as the week in York that I was SUPPOSED to be taking this week until the exchange rate decided to ruin all my hopes and dreams FOREVER (okay, maybe not forever, but probably until the war is over, which seems like forever.) But I do have seven days off from work, and hopefully, I can finally relax after one of the hardest weeks of work ever. And let my leg heal after pulling a series of muscles in it when I nearly fell down the stairs carrying my air conditioner.
(Note to self: make Sauce or future husband carry all heavy things from now on.
Note to EP: not a blood clot; utterly annoyed; not wearing leg cast anymore either. That thing was uncomfortable and ugly.)

Just visiting my parents at the moment. Mom and I plan to hit the local musuem this afternoon and that will be very fun, while AT & I hit the streets of Manhattan in search of good art and theater. Thursday, we go to Newport...in search of Robber Barrons, or something like that.

I am looking forward to Newport a lot; I love spending time by the sea. Plus, Newport always makes me think of the time my college friends and I visited for a long weekend, the six of us crammed in my Saturn, driving along the Shore Road.

Don't Get Caught Watching the Paint Dry

My friend Mike Philbrick (and I don't mean "friend", like I read his articles, and we are BFF through the magical powers of the internet. I actually KNOW this man. I went to his wedding in fact...) :-) is a writer for ESPN Page 2.

Recently, he has two really cool articles which I would like to recommend to friends. The first is an interview with Bruce Willis/John MacLean where he asks insightful questions, such as "How does it feel to be Nick Lachey's hero?" and "Who deserves a lower circle in hell -- Internet predators, lawyers or the paparazzi?"

The second article is even better. In fact, it is truly awesome. It is a commencement address given by Rocky Balboa, Norman Dale, Carl Spackler, Roy Hobbs, and the voice from the cornfield in Field of Dreams. How could this happen? Only through the genius of Michael Philbrick, who has written an inspirational commencement address using only lines from sports movies. I HIGHLY recommend that you check this out, especially if you are the kind of person who cried at the end of Rudy. This speech was made for you and me.

Penmanship

I suffer from Repetitive Strain Injury, which basically means I have chronic tendonitis in my right arm from using the computer too much (curse you, Excel spreadsheets!!), and, in addition to causing me pain, it has effected my ability to hold things. Therefore, it has effected my ability to hold a pen, and therefore has changed my handwriting over the course of the three years I have had this condition.

Today, I wrote up a fax and signed my name to it. The way I wrote "Melanie"looks just like my dad would have written it. It is kind of cool that my handwriting is starting to look like dad's and actually quite horrifying at the same time because my dad is left-handed and his handwriting is not terribly legible. I e-mailed my sister to tell her the news because it concerned me, and I made a photocopy of the fax so that I could show her.

This is her response: "Lol that is BAD. But it means that you also have the same handwriting as Santa AND the Tooth Fairy!!!!"

Somehow, that just made things a lot less dire.

Computer Savvy

I was asked by a colleague to send him an e-mail reminder of a project which needs to be completed for my office next week. Being the "oh so witty" person that I am, I decided to send the request to him in the form of an invitation.

Who: You
What: Writing X,Y, & Z
Why: Because they go in the mailing and you asked me to send you an e-mail about it.
When: No later than Friday, May 25 because that is the mailing date.
Where: Room 123, baby!
How: Preferably in English, on a computer. ;-)

Cute, right?

This was the reply I received: "You could have used evite...."

I kind of deserved that, didn't I?