I saw a bumper sticker on the way to work this morning that read, "Have you hugged a mechanical contractor today?" It occurred to me that I've never hugged a mechanical contractor. Is that something I should do before I die?

Thought for my Thursday.

"Our first contact with reality begins with what we call an image - a piece of news from the world outside or from our own bodies which is brought into the light of consciousness through one of the senses. It may come through the eye as color, through the ear as sound, through the tongue as taste, or through one of the other senses as another kind of physical information. When we remember with any vividness, we remember in images. It is difficult to reason without using them; our dreams are wholly made up of them."

- John Frederick Nims, Western Wind

things that have made me happy this week. in no particular order.

night tennis with ray. sleeping in. tofu fried rice. the new flogging molly cd. ghost writing. exchanging notes with friends. the Judas Priest hat i found at a thrift store. movies in bed. pro-choice demonstrators i passed on the street yesterday. borrowing from the library. the flaming lips. my danskos. talk like a pirate day. mentors. good partnerships. productive meetings. the chatfield corn maze. a properly executed left-hand search pattern in the chatfield corn maze. good memories. ice cubes. new dart flights. changing leaves. a clean car. pbr. good non-fiction. sit-ups. new recipes. neighbors who trade two dimes and a nickel for a quarter. enthusiasm. my jaw being not-so-bad. yummy mexican restaurants. good dreams. teenagers with conviction. snickers bars.

Tammy’s DVD Screening Room

I’ve been remiss! Here’s the skinny on all the movies I’ve been ingesting on DVD lately.

Goodbye, Lenin!
It knocked my socks off. Well, metaphorically speaking, as I wasn’t wearing any socks while I was watching it. But whatever. Anyway, it’s an incredibly clever, thoughtful, and funny film. Set in East Berlin in 1989, the plot revolves around Alex, a young man whose mother has been in a coma during the entire process of reunification. Alex’s mother, a staunch proponent and a highly valued member of the party, has suffered a heart attack and the doctors fear that any shock might kill her. So, Alex does the logical thing: he recreates East Germany in her bedroom. It’s hilarious and moving, and a great coming of age tale that also balances the upsides and downsides of Germany’s reunification. The acting is great great great, too. I can’t recommend it enough.

Along Came Polly
This was my brother’s pick during the family visit and it was okay. Ben Stiller is very neurotically Ben Stiller-ish and Jennifer Aniston is very cute in her free-spirited Jennifer Aniston-y way. And Phillip Seymour Hoffman (who is one of my favorites) does an awfully good Jack Black impression. So, yeah, I would recommend this if you’ve single-handedly wiped out a bottle of cheap red wine and you’re stuck in the middle of a longish family visit. But that’s about it.

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Ah. The real thing. When I was a little kid, and therefore afraid of black and white movies, this was the film that my father made me sit down and watch with him one night because, as he put it, “this it what films are supposed to be like.” I fell in love with it instantly. It was one of the first times I was able to clearly distinguish the difference between the crap that I loved so much (thanks, George Lucas!) and good film. I haven’t grown out of the crap, that’s for sure, but I have grown to love good film. I’ve revisited this one a couple of times over the years, and it has always stood up. I was really excited to see it again after having seen the completely lukewarm recent remake. There is so much to adore about The Manchurian Candidate. From the brilliantly constructed and disorienting garden party/brainwashing scenes, to the fine acting by Angela Lansbury (if you’ve never seen her in anything but Murder, She Wrote, you are sorely missing out – check out her early films when she was quite the fox) and the surprising quality of Frank Sinatra to the powerful hallucinatory image of Abraham Lincoln that just keeps popping up over and over again, this is just a brilliant film. It’s also nice to see films that predate the mandatory Hollywood happy ending, too.

Payback
Not a new release, but always a good time. I was feeling in the mood for a good revenge movie last week and naturally that meant that I had to see a Mel Gibson flick. Mel does revenge ala ultra-violence better than just about anybody else in the film industry, and I used to love the honesty and the spectacle of his movies until he started getting allusions about his importance and making ultra-violent revenge flicks that masqueraded as legitimate forays into historical and religious drama. Now I just wish he would generally go away. Nonetheless, Payback is one darn good time of a movie. Mel as the likeable bad guy, getting beat up and then bumping off smarmy bad guys like William Devane (that Knots Landing guy!) and Kris Kristofferson (whose presence in movies is always puzzling) and James Coburn, who is stinking hilarious in this film. Occasional sexual and racial politics that might make your face scrunchy, but overall sarcastic, bloody, and deeply cynical – it’s a great time if you’re up for it.

Gothika
I borrow crap like this from the library because it’s usually worth the zero dollars I’ve paid for it, but this is so dumb, plotless and unenjoyable that it wasn’t worth it. What a monumental waste of talent and time. If everyone involved with this film gave his or her salary to a charity that educated poor children in impoverished nations, I might feel like my time was worth it. Until then, if I even begin to write about how bad this movie was it would seem more exciting than it actually was.

I know that I normally rant and rave about nonsensical things, but tonight I wanted to write about something important for a change.

Are you registered to vote yet? Are you planning on voting in the November general election?

Voter registration deadlines are approaching quickly throughout the country. To find out the deadline for your state, go here. If you'd like to register online, request an absentee ballot, or update your address, visit www.justvote.org.

Voting is something I am incredibly passionate about. I have no patience for the willfull political unconsciousness of non-voting. I completely understand that people feel disenfranchised from the political system; I share the sentiments of many people who feel left out or taken for granted by their political parties. I, too, have wondered at times if my vote counts. But not voting is not an option. It's our job. It's the most basic way we can get involved, influence the agenda of the political parties that shape the economic and political landscape of the country. The same political parties that legislate what we can or can't do and with whom we can or can't do it.

If you think that your choice of president doesn't matter, then you should be lining up to vote for the state and local races and ballot issues that will be included in the general election. The senators, council members, governors and representatives elected in those elections - as well as the issues on the ballot - will most certainly impact your day-to-day life and that of your community, city and state. Then go ahead and cast your vote for president anyway. I guarantee you that every vote will count this year.

Vote your heart, vote your brain. Don't vote out of fear. But most important, just get the hell out and vote. Drag your friends to the polls, forward the info on registering online to your slacker co-workers and family members, buy your friends who vote for the first time ever a drink to celebrate. Wear your "I voted" sticker with pride.

Representative democracy is sexy. Voters are hot. This is a public service announcement straight from my heart.

Nerve Journal

No new developments in the nerve land to report. Unfortunately, it seems that the feeling of liquid running down the outside of my chin when, in reality, it's touching the inside of my chin is here to stay. The upside is that it's become a fun little game I play whenever I'm stuck in long meetings, awkward social situations, or really bored. I'll take a big drink of a cold beverage and direct it to the inside of my chin and when the nerve responds by making me feel as if said beverage is leaking out of my mouth, I force myself not to react. And then that kind of makes me giggle.

I've finally hit upon the image that accurately describes what it feels like when the teeth and jaw get really tight. It feels like someone has injected rubber cement directly into my gums. Uck.

I spent a large chunk of the last week in the greater Kansas City area, visiting with family. Highlights include:

Kindergarten Mosh Pit
I joined my brother's family at a local pizzeria to watch The Doo-Dads, a Kansas City rock band for kids. An alarmingly good rock band. Vaguely They Might Be Giant-esque, with songs like "Peanut Butter in my Ear" and "Let's Potty." Okay, standard pre-school topics, but I was genuinely impressed. And so were the throngs of preschool and elementary school kids who were freaking out and doing the pogo on the makeshift pizzeria dance floor. This was one of the toughest mosh pits I've ever had to negotiate, full of little bodies headbanging and bouncing off my knees.

Family Stardom
Being a long-distance aunt makes me immensely popular with my niece and nephew. It's all about climbing on Tammy, dancing with Tammy, reading with Tammy, playing The Pretty Princess Dress Up game with Tammy, you get the idea. I was delighted to oblige all requests. At 4 am, my niece came out to the couch where I was sleeping and curled up with me, so excited to be occupying any space with her aunt. It was terrifically good for the soul.

The Toy and Miniature Museum of Kansas City
What a strange huge place full of freakishly small stuff. Granted, I only ventured to this attraction to satisfy my collectible-obsessed parents, but it was a genuinely interesting experience. The toys were not so interesting (let's face it, dolls are SCARY) but the miniatures were fascinating. So much time and energy spent to produce something so small, so exact. The people at the museum were fascinating, too. There was a woman carrying a flashlight, pressing it up against the miniature display cases to inspect every inch of the miniature houses with their miniature people, schnazuers, spinning wheels, and dishes. I followed her around as long as I could without being impolite, just to listen to her cluck her tongue and comment to herself about the quality of the miniatures. "Excellent," she commented about one particularly elaborate house. "Great detail. Cobwebs in the crawlspace. Excellent." For me, the most interesting piece in the museum was a tiny ouija board, measuring about an inch in length. It comforted me to think that these miniature houses might be haunted and that the ceramic and fabric people inhabiting them might channel their own ghosts, too.

Cintra Wilson
The plane ride and TV nights with my parents afforded me the opportunity to read Cintra Wilson's new novel, Colors Insulting to Nature. I believe that Cintra Wilson is the avenging angel for our fame- and celebrity-obsessed age. I adore every word she types. This novel is hilarious, wildly bold, incredibly insightful and just freaking awesome. Cintra, if you stumble across this blog sometime, will you be my friend?

I'm back to Colorado now and happy to be so. I missed my Ray and my red couch and my space. It was good to see the family, though. I would be glad to see all of you, too. Come on over for a beer sometime.