Good Night, Odd Dreams

Dual Celebrity Crush

Andrew Garfield and Kat Dennings in the same place at the same time. I hope this wasn't Photoshopped.

Bi-Borough Journey

Prologue: On Friday, I took myself on a trip to Coney Island, via my bicycle. It was a great ride, and I've listed some highlights (and lowlights) below. 

A: Getting from Astoria to Brooklyn is annoying and not particularly scenic, except for a very short jaunt through Long Island City. You have to make your way through the Queensboro Plaza area, which is full of noise and cars and malfunctioning traffic signals.

B: But then you sail over the Pulaski Bridge and you are suddenly in Greenpoint! I fall in love with Greenpoint every time I'm there. It's so charming and quiet and nice and funky. But as I rode through Greenpoint and down towards northern Williamsburg, I noticed a disturbing amount of girls in dainty summer dresses, riding bikes in the street without helmets. I know it doesn't go with your outfit, but it protects your brain!

C: Southern Williamsburg: big industrial areas and Hasidic Jews.

D: I always forget how quaint/lovely/delightful Park Slope is. When I happen upon more money, I'm definitely taking myself out for dinner in a cafe or something.

E: Hitting Ocean Parkway was the most relaxing part of the ride. Except for having to frequently stop at the crosswalks, it's the urban biker's dream! There is a bike path separated from pedestrians by a railing and separated from cars by a wide grassy embankment.

F: I ventured out too far into the crosswalk at Avenue P and a car zoomed by, splashing a ton of dirty water all over me. The jogger next to me was as surprised as I was. It could have been a perfect "meet cute," but I don't think we were each other's types.

G: I was .8 miles from the water when I switched gears on my bike and it locked up, preventing me from pedaling forward or backward. O Frustration! I sat on the sidewalk with the bike and attempted to fix it, but truthfully I had no idea what the gears should look like normally, so I didn't get very far. I walked the rest of the way, but I was annoyed that I had gotten so close, and yet not close enough to feel as though I could truthfully say I biked all the way to Coney Island. Realistically, I can say I biked to the Brighton Beach area and that's good enough for me.

Epilogue: I proceeded to lay out in the sun, splash around in the water, watch people on the Polar Express ride, and eat an ice cream cone. Perfect day. 

Reel Women

Still from "The Ocean Waif"

While in Michigan, I happened to stop in some excellent used bookstores, such as John K. King in Detroit and Dawn Treader in Ann Arbor. However, The Curious Book Shop in East Lansing had the most film-related items, including old movie posters, playbills, and fan magazines like "Photoplay." It was there that I bought a cheap copy of a 1991 book by Ally Acker called REEL WOMEN: Pioneers of the Cinema.

Like most books I own, I've read a third of it and I'll probably stop there, due to my fleeting, hummingbird-size attention span. But what I've read so far has been illuminating! In film school, I took a typical Film History 101 class, (specifically, this one with Hubert I. Cohen) where we learned about the Great Men of Film, like Eiseinstein and Bergman and Godard and Hitchcock. I don't remember learning about Alice Guy Blaché in that class, or in any formal academic setting, and yet, according to this book, she was an instrumental and influential part of film history. As late as 1968, her contributions were being erased and revised. An excerpt from REEL WOMEN:

In The Dictionary of Filmmakers, published in 1968 by Georges Sedoul, the first director in history, Alice Guy Blaché, is listed in this way:

Guy Blaché, Alice... Originally Leon Gaumont's secretary when he was still only making film equipment. She began making short films intended for use as demonstrations for clients. She made her first film, LA FEE AUX CHOUX [1896] some months before Méliès, thus becoming the first woman director in the world.

The entry under "Méliès" in the same book describes him as the first director of "story films." Not the first man director, but the first director. Although Blaché's film was not specifically made as an entertainment vehicle, it was certainly a fictional story film. (LA FEE AUX CHOUX [The Cabbage Fairy], concerned a fairy who "made" children in a cabbage patch). Yet Sedoul chose to invent a subcategory "woman director" for Blaché  presumably in order to reserve the title "first director" for a man. 

From minimal internet searching, it's clear that film buffs and academics alike are now very aware of her work. But if you're like me, and formerly unfamiliar with this remarkable person, here is a lovely, brief introduction to Blaché's life, with University of Nebraska-Lincoln Film Studies professor Wheeler Winston Dixon.

I'm Pretty Okay With The Existence Of This Photograph

A few thoughts on HOARDERS

I have casually followed a couple reality shows in my time, but none have captured my heart and mind and free time like Hoarders. Ostensibly about people who keep far too much stuff in their homes, it's also a show about mental illness, family dysfunction, therapy, anger, trauma, and materialism. There is also something immensely (if superficially) satisfying about seeing a clean house at the end of an episode. It is impossible to fix these deep-seated problems in two days of shooting, but as a viewer, seeing tangible results of the work is very rewarding.

Secondly, while most of the show's participants are middle- or working-class, there is still a range of regional, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds featured, and it is amazing to see that they all follow eerily similar behavioral patterns. Typically, the hoarders have experienced traumatic loss or abuse in their lives. Many of them have a love for animals and feel that their pets are the only ones who care about them. They panic equally at the thought of discarding a family heirloom or an empty cardboard box. There is drama in the show and admittedly, a mild case of freak-show grotesquery, but most of all, there is profound pain.

And lastly, it has been both fascinating and frustrating to watch the therapists and professional organizers as they attempt to help the hoarders work through their issues. Most of them are harmless or ineffectual - this post will concern the two professionals I respect the most and the two that I most deeply detest.

DOROTHY BREININGER

Dorothy is an organizer and one of the most compassionate and respectful professionals on the show. She begins every interaction by thanking the person for allowing her into their home. Never didactic, she usually presents someone with the evidence of their problem (a thousand soda cans, cat skeletons) and gives them the space to come to their own conclusions about their choices. In one episode, she dons a face mask, grabs a shovel and works alongside the cleaning crew to shovel diapers/feces out of a young man's bathroom. Midway through, she turns to the camera and sighs, "This must be so humiliating for him." Her capacity for empathy is unrivaled. Unlike our next professional, she is not afraid to hug the participants and be truly present with them. While she is not always successful with the hoarders (and I've seen her get angry and frustrated), her level of respect for their humanity always elevates and expedites the process.

DR. ROBIN ZASIO

My negative feelings towards Dr. Zasio have grown with each episode, to the point that I sometimes have to fast-forward through her segments. Her most grating quality is that she is relentlessly patronizing. She talks to adults like they are children, and walks around with an incredulous, disgusted expression, which obviously puts her clients on the defensive. Often, these are people who have shielded their home from the public for years, or even decades. Despite the bravado they put on ("It's my house and I can do what I want!") many of them are severely embarrassed by their living conditions, and Dr. Zasio's nose-holding doesn't do much to reassure them. On the rare occasion that she touches or embraces a participant, you get the sense that she runs home and immediately slathers on the Purell. Her questions are often insincere and rhetorical, in a "Is this the kitchen? I see a sink and a stove, but I can't imagine that this is what you use as a kitchen?" sort of way. Ugh. I cannot stand her and her charmeuse blouses.

DR. SUZANNE CHABAUD

On the surface, Dr. Chabaud shares a fair amount of qualities with Dr. Zasio. She's not particularly warm and fuzzy, and she dispenses similar advice and judgment. And yet, her tone is a world apart from Dr. Zasio's. She is quiet and reserved, and has tremendous patience with the participants. Her empathy is not bubbling over, like Dorothy's, but I've seen her get visibly upset and concerned over the fate of some of the hoarders. One of the more poignant moments involved a middle-aged black woman, Theresa, who had hoarded endless amounts of purses and shoes. At the thought of her stuff disappearing, she began to panic and weep. Dr. Chabaud went over to her and asked simply, "Theresa, what's hard right now?" I almost started crying myself. What a smart, beautiful question to ask, with none of the pointedness of "What's wrong?" or "Why are you crying?" The question allowed Theresa to focus on the difficulties of that exact moment and how she was going to get through it. I think about that moment a lot. 

MATT PAXTON

Initially, I lumped Matt Paxton, professional organizer, into the category of the harmless/ineffectual. However, as he showed up in more and more episodes, I began to strongly disagree with his approach. Like the other professionals, he is well-intentioned, but he is fundamentally impatient with the hoarders and gets frustrated easily by their reticence to let go of, say, a box of vitamins filled with maggots. His two main strategies are incredibly flawed. For one, he tries to reason with the hoarders using logic. That will never work, because their behavior is illogical. So to say, "You're seriously going to use that rusted box of bent nails? When are you going to use that? You're never going to! This is ridiculous," means that you are refusing to work with a hoarder on their terms. Matt's other approach is equally futile, and that is to get personal with the hoarder and use guilt to snap them into action. He will often say things like, "Your grandchildren are here, trying to help you, and you can't even throw this little thing away?" or "All these people on the cleaning crew are here, away from their families, trying to help you, and you're not even cooperating!" I just think it's a pointless tactic, considering many of the hoarders have shunned their friends and families for years. Do you think they care that some random guy from 1-800-JUNK is missing his son's baseball practice? It's misguided, and again, shows very little understanding of the hoarders' mentality and the trauma they undergo every time someone throws away a seemingly meaningless piece of trash.

If you made it through this entire post, I salute you. And if you are like me, and fascinated by the world of hoarders, you can check out these links for more information:

Children of Hoarders

New York Times: Children of Hoarders on Leaving the Cluttered Nest

Hoarders on A&E

Offbeat Brides

I was never the type of little girl who sat around and fantasized about her future wedding. That said, I discovered Offbeat Bride a few years ago and the world of awesome weddings opened up to me. Basically, a wedding is a celebration of love, but it can also be a super creative party that is tailored to you personally and everyone has to come!

Inspired by the recent wedding of my friends Nick and Amanda, I went back on the site tonight and found lots of inspiring items. I really wish a partner were not a requirement for this whole wedding deal, because I'd be just as happy to throw a huge celebration for myself.