First Date

There was still glitter from Lisa's hair on my Doc Marten`s this morning. I polished them carefully, and thoughts of the wedding gave me a warm glow. I was about to jump in the shower and I paused for a moment. Something was wrong - my finger felt bare. I looked on the counter and put my wedding band back on.

It was in the shower, looking at the band with the soap and water running over it, that I realized that today was the first time I ever went out with Lisa. I spent 15 minutes after I'd towelled off, looking at my old dayplanners and trying to reconstruct those first few months when we were dating.

My work life was a little stressful then, but I really looked forward to those times (and still do) when I could be with you, sweetie. It was like a weight was lifted from my shoulders whenever I was with you. In fact now I can't really remember why I was so stressed out about my job - all I can really remember is what I great time I had with you whenever I saw you. It seems like time just slipped by in one big happy blur.

Happy anniversary!

Bangs

The Notorious Bettie Page. Directed by Mary Harron. Starring Gretchen Mol, Chris Bauer, Jared Harris.

Dave Steven's comic book, The Rocketeer, helped put fifties pin up queen, Bettie Page, back on the pop culture map. It's fascinating to watch a phenomena like this snowball. Articles about the "mature" comic books being produced during the eighties would include a mention of Bettie Page as a footnote to a section on Steven's work. Now, feature length articles - and in this case films - are given over wholly to Page, and Stevens is lucky if he is included as a footnote.

The biopic, The Notorious Bettie Page, focuses primarily on her career as a pin up model during the fifties. I found some of the set up for the film strange - I'm not sure why Harron would allude to or show sexual abuse and then just drop that thread as soon as Page arrives in New York.

There isn't really any conflict in the film. Occasionally, the threat of censorship and prosecution from the authorities rears it's ugly head, and every once in awhile Page makes a comment feels a pang of guilt for turning her back on her Christian upbringing, but the narrative is remarkably upbeat. Censorship and Christian guilt are just speedbumps along the way.

The censorhip battle is faced by her publisher and Page doesn't grapple with her conscience before taking off her clothes. Neither issue seems to provide a genuine obstacle for Page to struggle with.

In a film like The People vs Larry Flynt, censorship is raised early on in the film and quickly becomes the issue around which the drama revolves. It is also made clear that the stakes for Larry Flynt are very high - his business and liberty are on the line during the courtroom battles. There is nothing in The Notorious Bettie Page that would suggest that the photos Page posed for were nothing more than a profitable sideline. There was nothing larger at stake than a little extra cash when she posed for those pictures.

Page is a much more sympathetic character than Flynt, and a good deal easier on the eyes. It's puzzling that Harron would allow such a weak narrative to undermine this film. Christian faith and guilt are alluded to throughout the film, but guilt does not seem to play a factor in her conversion to Christianity. It's just one more arbitrary option that Page chooses to exercise over the course of her relatively short career.

It seems like Harron is trying to canonize Page as a feminist icon, but since all Page ever did was pose for the camera it's a bit of a stretch. While Page's life makes an interesting short feature in a magazine, an hour and a half devoted to her life is a bit of a stretch.

Ann Coulter, Deadhead???

It turns out Ann Coulter knows more about the Grateful Dead than a Tommy Chong doppleganger I'd have coffee with every once in awhile back in Northern Canuckistan. She can't be all that bad if her favorite song is Fire On The Mountain. You can find the link here.

To be honest, I'm not surprised by Coulter's little love affair with the Grateful Dead. I started listening to the Dead again after reading this article. Robert Hunter's activities during the sixties reveal where the band's real sympathies lie. Here is the money quote:

Robert Hunter, lyricist for the Grateful Dead, was interviewed in the 1990s by someone who wanted to know where that quintessential '60s countercultural band had stood on the key issue of those times-that-were-a-changin'. What was the Dead's relationship, the interviewer wondered, to the activist political movement that had been dedicated to bringing down a fascist warmongering Amerika?

Hunter replied that he found distasteful the fealty to Moscow and Peking (as it was called back then) widespread among prominent '60s revolutionaries. That fealty, he thought, was why that aspect of the '60s faded away while the Dead kept on truckin'. "We honor American culture, and what we find good in it," Hunter said of the Dead. And he knew American culture from many perspectives. As a member of the National Guard, Hunter had been called up to keep order during the 1965 Watts riots.

Hippies getting hit with rubber bullets always brings a tear to my eye. *sniff*

Mount Vernon

I went to Mount Vernon - George Washington's estate - this afternoon with my sweetie pie. I didn't enjoy it as much as the other presidential homes. The visitors centre was great, but the line up to get into the house was long. Seeing the sepulchre where Washington is entombed was pretty cool, and I felt bad for wearing a hoodie and jeans to the site.

Lost, Season 3, Episode 9, "Stranger In A Strange Land"

I didn't have any plans to post on the latest episode of Lost. It was good, but not as memorable as the Not In Portland episode that kicked off the third season.

So why am I posting about the episode now? Well, I was reading a blog entry here and it occurred to me that Juliet's "tramp stamp" was one of the worst visual puns I'd ever seen since Angel got caught "choking the chicken" in X-Men 3.

Bubba

My little nephew, James, is a lot of fun. AP and I took him out to a strip mall today with a lot of yuppie boutique stores. I find it amazing how easy it is to amuse small children. He'd rather play with an empty box than the really cool stuffed radish I brought back from Japan.

Back from my honeymoon...

The good people over at the Ritz Carlton gave us a complimentary upgrade to an executive suite when we told them that we just got married. It was amazing - the suite was larger than our cozy little apartment in Alexandria.

We went on a road trip for our honeymoon and saw Monticello, Montpelier, and Ash Lawn-Highland, the estates of Jefferson, Madison and Monroe respectively. We stayed at a quaint little bed and breakfast, The Chester, in Scottsville. We had the whole place to ourselves!

Today was my birthday and my new wife took me to Morton's for dinner. I think I saw Ann Coulter, but she walked away too quickly to get a good look at her.

The Big Day!!!

Today is the big day - I'll be getting married to Lisa at 4:30 PM! We'll be packing for our honeymoon this morning and I'll be getting my shoes polished and my new suit pressed this afternoon. Dad gave me his cuff links to wear - he's had them for about forty years.

I've met the entire Raiti clan now - all her aunts and uncles came up from New Jersey for the wedding. My sister hosted an amazing brunch so our immediate family could get to know each other.

My sweetie pie looked drop dead gorgeous when she went out for her stagette. I enjoyed my last night of bachelor freedom - I saw Letters From Iwo Jima with my brother in law. We got to see where the Washington Capitols play hockey - their rink was on top of the parkade near the theater.

The Fratellis

You've probably heard The Fratellis if you've seen the new iPod commercial. The song is called Flathead, and it is taken from the EP of the same name. I thought the tune was very catchy - sort of like a cross between The Ramones and Oasis. I bought the EP from iTunes and they serve up the same slice of power punk pop on every cut. It's just abunch of three minute, three chord songs that they play with an amazing intensity and drive.

Embedded

War Feels Like War. Directed by Esteban Uyarra.

War feels like war is a documentary that follows the stories of journalists who refused to participate in the embedding program that the Pentagon ran at the start of the Iraq war in 2003. I'd picked up the documentary because I'd read that P.J. O'Rourke was one of the journalists featured in the documentary. He is on record as being opposed to the practice of embedding journalists with military units.

I'd read his coverage of the Iraq war in The Atlantic Monthly (later republished in Peace Kills) and it was interesting to see him in a role that I have rarely seen him play - that of broadcaster. From what I saw in the footage, his on air commentary is every bit as lively as his written coverage.

I was a little disappointed to see that the director lost track of O'Rourke shortly after they entered Iraq. The rest of the documentary was spent documenting the loss of innocence experienced by an American reporter with a more jaded Polish veteran serving as her foil.