The Experiment Begins

It's been pointed out to me that this blog has no overriding purpose. No raison d'être. I knew that. But that's all about to change tomorrow morning at 11 a.m.

About a month ago, I read a story in the New York Times about the aging brain. It offered some interesting ideas on keeping one's neural connections in tip-top shape. Sure, reading helps, having a good-sized social circle, doing crosswords, but I suck at crosswords. (Just today my mom called to ask me what a three-letter word for "low swampy land" was. Fen. Who knew? Well, she did. She was just showing off.)

Basically, the NYTimes story said that to stay sharp, you should challenge your way of thinking, whether it's driving to work a different way or hanging out with un-like-minded individuals. I sent the article to my dad, and he wondered if he'd have to start watching Fox. Basically, yes. That's the idea.

Here's a snippet of the story:

One way to nudge neurons in the right direction is to challenge the very assumptions they have worked so hard to accumulate while young. With a brain already full of well-connected pathways, adult learners should “jiggle their synapses a bit” by confronting thoughts that are contrary to their own. Continued brain development and a richer form of learning may require that you “bump up against people and ideas” that are different.

So an idea for this blog was born. It may be contrived, but it will be challenging. It may even be interesting. At least for me.

And so it begins, tomorrow morning I will do something I never thought I ever would, something I really don't want to do: go to the 11 a.m. "Blended Service" at the 13,500-member Hyde Park Baptist Church, two blocks from our house.

I grew up Baptist. Fire-and-brimstone Southern Baptist. Which is probably why I got baptized Episcopalian. (Actually that was done in a jiffy just so I could become a legit godparent.) Not only do I not go to church, but I certainly would never go to this particular church. It is widely detested in Austin. It is responsible for expanding into the neighborhood and knocking down lots of amazing old houses. It canceled an interfaith Thanksgiving service last year because it objected to Muslims worshiping in one of its facilities. It owns several houses in the 'hood and acts as a big, bad slumlord.

I really don't know what to expect tomorrow. Will the preacher ask all visitors to stand and be recognized? Will I have to shake "my neighbor's" hand? Will I be expected to know the words to "I'll Fly Away"? It may be overstating it, but I feel like I'm about to venture into the belly of the beast.

Idle Hands

It's that time at Texas Monthly when we're on deadline and, unfortunately, I'm sitting here with nothing to do. It's not a good feeling because it means that all hell will break lose in a couple of days, when I'm here for 30 hours in a row.

Since I'm no good at sitting on my hands, I decided to put together a list of must-see movies, based on A.O. Scott's New York Times 20 best films of 2009 list—basically films I want to be sure to rent on DVD soon. A few, like Avatar, Goodbye Solo and Up, I've already seen (though I can't believe that Goodbye Solo is ranked up there with James Cameron's half-a-billion-dollar masterpiece), so I'm not including them. Here they are, in no particular order:

Up in the Air (George Clooney lives out of a suitcase)

The Hurt Locker (a bomb squad deals with the chaos of war in Iraq; this is already winning awards)

Precious (black girl from Harlem suffers abuse but perseveres)

An Education (romance blossoms in 1960s London)

A Serious Man (philosophical conundrums from the Coen Brothers)

In the Loop (political satire starring James Gandolfini)

Summer Hours (three siblings sort out their inheritance in this quiet "extraordinary" French film)

Of Time and the City (documentary about the filmmaker's birthplace of Liverpool)

Bright Star (Jane Campion's period piece about Keats and his lover, Fanny Brawne)

Medicine for Melancholy (low-budget film about outsiders in San Francisco)

Coraline (animated film about an adventurous girl; wait...did I see this already? that's not good)

Sugar (sports movie about a baseball player from the Dominican Republic)

Gomorrah (a "snapshot of hell" that takes a fictional look at organized crime in Italy)

The Baader Meinhof Complex (explores a West German terrorist group of the '70s)

Tulpan (a coming-of-age film set in Kazakhstan)

The Beaches of Agnes (autobiographical film about a French filmmaker)

Beeswax (third film from Mumblecore director Andrew Bujalski)

The Informant (a "deadly serious comedy about corporate malfeasance" starring Matt Damon)

The Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson's stop-action animated film, proudly in analog)

The Sun (in English and Japanese, this is the third in Hirohito's trilogy about dictators)

Pup on lap

I was going to totally go to sleep early tonight (my whole household is asleep on this sofa with me), but I can't really move without disturbing my big ol' Sweet Pa'chene, who has one paw on my leg and the other ... well, she just woke up and got down. Isn't that just like her to move away when I'm getting all sentimental on her? Now I'll have to go give her a pillow because she looks utterly miserable on the floor without one. Good night ...

Missions Almost Accomplished

Gosh, it's amazing what you can get accomplished when you don't have 15 hours of freelance work to do on the weekend! What a great feeling. I played tennis, walked the dogs with a professor friend at UT (she gave me a tour of the campus), ran errands, cleaned and organized the house and made a lot of headway painting my peacock painting.

I found out Jaime and Jacob are coming to SXSW, so I'd like to have the painting finished by then. Guests are always a big motivator.

This week I head into a rough deadline at work, so chances are the blog will go dark for a bit. Maybe that'll give me time to figure out what the purpose of this blog is, besides being a diversion from Facebook....

Maybe Not a New Decade, but a New Start

I feel a little guilty saying that I'm happy for the decade to end (and I guess it won't actually end till next year), but really, the last one was tough. I was blocks away from the World Trade Centers on 9/11 and a resident of New Orleans during Katrina. Any set of 10 years will see its share of bad stuff, but one very good thing happened too: We moved to Austin. So I guess I shouldn't hate on the Aughts too much.

We met lots of amazing people in the Aughts. We became bestest friends with Jaime and Jacob, people that I plan on hanging with till I'm old and wrinkly. I can even picture me and Jaime as old ladies moving in together. I'll go vegetarian and teach her to crochet. And she'll take care of my coo-coo self. Jaime is good at taking care.

I'm not planning on making any ridiculous resolutions. I think last year's was something like "Don't buy anything this year." Yeah, that worked. So this year, I think I'll just concentrate on being a positive force in people's lives. Hey, a girl can try/wish, can't she? I just want to say "I like" more than "I hate." But maybe I need an exemption where food is concerned.

If a person's year is decided by what she does on the first day of it, then mine will include eating lots of chicken-fried bacon and brisket, playing tennis, dancing with friends and hanging out with neighbors. Doesn't sound like a bad year to me at all.

Post-Christmas

Family Guy, if I'm not paying close attention to it, sometimes make me want to throw up. I guess in the same way that Y&R makes Rimas want to barf.

Today was back-to-work day after a four-day (for-real-no-working) weekend. Which was glorious. The Ping-Pong table that is a mere four feet from my desk calls my name all day long. I'm hoping that it makes my tennis game better. I need to get my own Ping-Pong paddle so I don't swap sweat with my co-workers.

We saw Avatar yesterday and I seriously was sad to be back in the car driving home in this boring world. I was really swept away by that movie, cheesy as a couple lines were. I mean "they killed their mother" (in reference to, duh, Mother Earth) was an eye-roller, but overall, it was amazing. I wonder if, like Star Wars' Klingon, we'll have people speaking Na'vi, the alien language in Avatar? Oh, a little research shows that we probably will: The Language of Avatar Revealed

Christmas Day '09

Grillades and grits plus seafood gumbo plus a long dog walk plus all the presents a girl could want makes for a very nice Christmas. My mom got an iPhone and asked me: "How much of what you know can it do?" She also got a CD by the Tran-Siberian Orchestra, which she had asked for. Turns out that progressive rock meets symphonic metal meets heavy metal meets classical music meets my mom yelling "Turn that off!"

I got some awesome things: flannel sheets, a cashmere hoodie, a cashmere wrap, cashmere socks, my mom's communion bag turned jewelry travel bag, Chanel No. 5 powder, a wooden "Sloshed Santa" carved by my dad, three grocery bags sewn by my mom from 1930's feedsacks, five of my favorite candles, two sets of pajamas, an amazing 1920s newspaper holder, a gift box of Laura Mercier bath products and a beautiful metal sculpture of a tree from a local artist. I fear that I didn't give as good as I got this year, but I tried.

Tonight we'll watch, against our better judgment, Julie and Julia.