Is Your Life Really That Bad, Julie Powell?

December 13, 2010 6:48 AM

Lawrence has decided to watch the movie Julie and Julia every day for a year. [link via Bookslut]
posted by drezdn (100 comments total)

I do not understand this.
posted by sciencegeek at 6:51 AM on December 13, 2010 [5 favorites]

Meh. I did this with "Back to the Future" when I was seven.
posted by Brodiggitty at 6:52 AM on December 13, 2010 [20 favorites]

Wouldn't a gun or pills be easier?
posted by orme at 6:53 AM on December 13, 2010 [26 favorites]

pleasegivemeabookdeal.oh.please.idontwannaworkatkinkosanymore.blogspot.com
posted by mightygodking at 6:54 AM on December 13, 2010 [49 favorites]

Because if you can do something every day for a fixed peroid of time you get a book deal. it's automatic. Enshrined in law.

Keep a look out for my latest book - Shitting Every Day: One Man's Adventure Into The Heart Of The Bathroom.
posted by The Whelk at 6:54 AM on December 13, 2010 [69 favorites]

In High School I watched the Kids Are Alright every morning for an entire Summer. I'm grateful there was no Blogspot back then because now I'd be looking back on my posts alternating between "Pete Townshend is so fucking awesome" and "Keith Moon is so fucking awesome". Although that's probably not much worse than this.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 6:57 AM on December 13, 2010 [4 favorites]

I'd like to think I can count on MeFi to filter out this kind of junk.

Please?
posted by ryanshepard at 6:58 AM on December 13, 2010 [3 favorites]

I decided to put the movie on mute = Cheating!
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:59 AM on December 13, 2010 [2 favorites]

My sister used to watch The Wizard of Oz, when she was 3, and then beg my brother or I to rewind it so she could watch "Boz" again.

If only blogs had existed in 1989.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:59 AM on December 13, 2010

Meh. I did this with Valley Girl back in my pot smoking days.
posted by NoMich at 6:59 AM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

Keep a look out for my latest book - Shitting Every Day: One Man's Adventure Into The Heart Of The Bathroom.

I look forward to the shocking expose follow-up about how you were lured into a night of shame and prevarication by a block of cheese and some loperamide.
posted by elizardbits at 6:59 AM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

Also I listened to the La Macarena every day for a year, beat that hipsters....
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 7:00 AM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

I do this with both Mythbusters and Futurama, only instead of every day I do it once a week. And I change episodes each time. Plus I take the summer off.
posted by DU at 7:00 AM on December 13, 2010 [6 favorites]

And someone, somewhere, will read this blog, every day for a year, and someone will make a movie out of it.

Personally, I'd like to see a Charlie Kaufman film. We could have Nicolas Cage come back and do the last decent role he's done, and we could get Meryl Streep to come back as well. It would get especially meta when Streep appears in person to bludgeon Lawrence to death for his inane idea while Cage/Kaufman struggles with trying to make the scene feel authentic.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:00 AM on December 13, 2010 [3 favorites]

The book was bad enough. But the movie? Bleech.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:01 AM on December 13, 2010 [2 favorites]

I am going to ignore this person every day for a year.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:03 AM on December 13, 2010 [30 favorites]

I do this with both Mythbusters and Futurama, only instead of every day I do it once a week

When I'm inking or paintings I like to listen to familiar but enjoyable shows/movies. I have done this for so long I can instantly recite entire screenplays if given the right prompt.
posted by The Whelk at 7:05 AM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

It's funny how lazy a project this is. At least Julie busted ass to get through Julia.
posted by OmieWise at 7:07 AM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

Sorry.

Book deals from obsessive blogs are OUT.

TV deals from obsessive Twitter posts are IN.
posted by briank at 7:07 AM on December 13, 2010 [3 favorites]

St. Elmo's Fire.

It was a difficult time.
posted by Joe Beese at 7:09 AM on December 13, 2010 [2 favorites]

t's a recipe for success. Legendary coach Bill Belichick. Legendary fat guy Rex Ryan. Two-time Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady. Two-time Best Smile winner Mark Sanchez. Hated division rivals. This promises to be one for the ages.

So why can't I get Julie & Julia out of my head? Granted, I just watched it earlier this afternoon, but this is football we're talking about! The manliest man thing a man can do.

Dammit, well maybe I can get it out of my system by noting the weird parallels between tonight's game and Julie & Julia.

Mark Sanchez/Julie Powell: The underdogs of both fights, Sanchez and Powell have more in common than you would think. While Sanchez serves as the NFL's fresh-faced Hispanic golden boy, Powell is a representative of poor, disenfranchised bloggers everywhere. And though both Sanchez and Powell may not be the most talented at what they do, they manage to win games/book deals because of their supporting cast. After leading the Jets to an impressive playoff berth last season, Sanchez's accomplishments seem to eclipse Powell's at first. But to be fair, Julie has thrown much fewer interceptions throughout her career.

posted by drezdn at 7:09 AM on December 13, 2010

TV deals from obsessive Twitter posts are IN.

Too late old man, it's all major museum collections form tumblr blogs now.
posted by The Whelk at 7:11 AM on December 13, 2010 [4 favorites]

We might be running out of thing-a-day internet projects. This is scraping the bottom of the barrel. I wonder how long until this person gives up?

Have they posted one or more "oh god how can I keep doing this" entries, yet?
posted by clvrmnky at 7:15 AM on December 13, 2010

Have they posted one or more "oh god how can I keep doing this" entries, yet?

You could read the link and find out.
posted by drezdn at 7:16 AM on December 13, 2010 [2 favorites]

Alec Guinness / Star Wars story:

"In the final volume of the book A Positively Final Appearance (1997), Guinness recounts grudgingly giving an autograph to a young fan who claimed to have watched Star Wars over 100 times, on the condition that the boy promise to stop watching the film, because, as Guinness told him, "this is going to be an ill effect on your life." The fan was stunned at first, but later thanked him (though some sources say it went differently)"
posted by DanCall at 7:22 AM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

When I'm inking or paintings I like to listen to familiar but enjoyable shows/movies. I have done this for so long I can instantly recite entire screenplays if given the right prompt.

Me + knitting + Buffy. Ditto.

Also, I did this with The Breakfast Club when I was about 11.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 7:25 AM on December 13, 2010

I used to have to drive to work and listen to the radio on the way. I listened to "All Right Now" on classic rock radio at least twice a day for that entire time.blogspot.com
posted by Threeway Handshake at 7:26 AM on December 13, 2010 [3 favorites]

Me + knitting + Buffy. Ditto.

I have seen every episode of Inspector Morse at least a half dozen times.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 7:28 AM on December 13, 2010

They filmed a scene from that movie at my store. It was chaotic. A car on the street had a liscence plate that said "IACTOR." I can only assume his other car's plate says "IPRETENTIOUSDOUCHEBAG."
posted by jonmc at 7:31 AM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

The Whelk: "Because if you can do something every day for a fixed peroid of time you get a book deal. it's automatic. Enshrined in law.

Keep a look out for my latest book - Shitting Every Day: One Man's Adventure Into The Heart Of The Bathroom"

I have a music recommendation. Also this one.
posted by mkb at 7:33 AM on December 13, 2010

I'm going to not read this blog every day for my entire life. Maybe I'll get a book deal.
posted by chasing at 7:38 AM on December 13, 2010

If I could somehow transmute Mefi activity into money I'd be a set. for. life.
posted by The Whelk at 7:39 AM on December 13, 2010 [3 favorites]

I can instantly recite entire screenplays if given the right prompt.

If you're reciting the entire thing, wouldn't the right prompt pretty much just be, "MOVIE START"?
posted by adamdschneider at 7:41 AM on December 13, 2010 [2 favorites]

Once is more than enough. After that, warmed over stuff does not serve as well.
posted by Postroad at 7:42 AM on December 13, 2010

Wasn't there one of these where someone was going to read a 'Do a single thing every day for a year' book every day for a year?
posted by shakespeherian at 7:42 AM on December 13, 2010

I had a roommate who did this with "The Princess Bride".
I had liked the film before this period....
posted by evilelf at 7:46 AM on December 13, 2010

I'd give him some points if he watched "Groundhog Day" every day for a year.
posted by blucevalo at 7:48 AM on December 13, 2010 [8 favorites]

I am going to watch "Groundhog Day" every February 2nd for a year.
posted by mrgroweler at 8:00 AM on December 13, 2010 [14 favorites]

For me it was "The Last Waltz" because I was madly in love with Robbie Robertson. And the music was really good.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 8:00 AM on December 13, 2010

Anyone who thinks that watching the same movie every day for a year is difficult or unusual has obviously never had a small child. Even three years later, I still can recite "Cars" word for word.
posted by Daily Alice at 8:06 AM on December 13, 2010 [10 favorites]

I read about someone who woke up early and watched Conan the Barbarian every morning before starting the day for a month. Claimed it improved his life dramatically. I want to try this.
posted by hellojed at 8:15 AM on December 13, 2010

I did that every day for a year already.*


* And by "every day for a year", I mean "once". And that was already too much
posted by blue_beetle at 8:17 AM on December 13, 2010

I am going to ignore this person every day for a year.

Now write a blog about the experience.
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:17 AM on December 13, 2010

Keep a look out for my latest book - Shitting Every Day: One Man's Adventure Into The Heart Of The Bathroom.

It's a moneymaker. You'll be flush in no time.
posted by jonmc at 8:17 AM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

See, I first misread that as "Lawrence has declined to watch...." and thought, that's an interesting concept... let's see what this is about, but...as it is, meh.....

I take the dog out to poop every day of the year, and nobody is interested in that either!
posted by HuronBob at 8:21 AM on December 13, 2010

not really relevant, but I want the internet to make me a version of the movie "Julie & Julia" without Julie, sort of like that Star Wars minus Jar Jar thing. I'd do it, but I'm too busy not reading this blog.

Meryl Streep (at least based on the few minutes of that movie that I could stand) made a good Julia Child, and a bio-pic on Julia Child would be a movie that I Would Watch™
posted by device55 at 8:23 AM on December 13, 2010 [3 favorites]

I have read that when Carol Burnett first arrived in LA, she took a job in the box office of a cinema. Two things about the old days: one, movies had much, much longer runs in theatres, and two (somewhat more oddly) viewers would apparently arrive whenever suited them, pick up the thread of the movie partway though, watch through the end, then watch the beginning until they had comne back to the point they had seen already (hence the old, "This is where we came in" jokes).

Anyway, young Carol Burnett worked in the box office. The box office had a speaker playing the audio of the movie so the ticket sellers would always know what point the movie was at for inquiries. She apparently listened to Brigadoon over and over and over and over again for a year or so, and can still recite the entire flick from memory, although she has never seen it.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:24 AM on December 13, 2010 [6 favorites]

Also, I did this with The Breakfast Club when I was about 11.

Me too, but I was 16, and we made a drinking game out of it. You would pick a character and recite the lines along with that character, then when you messed up you have to drink. It got progressively harder and you got drunker and as the movie progressed (everyone had the first 12 or 20 minutes down for any character). Sometimes, when we didn't have enough people you would have to voice a couple of them. It got downright multiple personality at points.

I think this is the only time I ever wanted to be Ally Sheedy.
posted by cjorgensen at 8:28 AM on December 13, 2010 [9 favorites]

Groundhog Day.
posted by pianomover at 8:35 AM on December 13, 2010

Hey, guys -- it's satire. It's not brilliant satire, and it's not as evocative of the original blog or book or other 'do a thing for a year' blogs as it could've been, but it's satirizing the 'for-a-year' concept, not trying to capitalize on it.

I presume most of you know this but are too busy expelling snark on to your keyboards to mention it.
posted by incessant at 8:36 AM on December 13, 2010 [6 favorites]

Anyone who thinks that watching the same movie every day for a year is difficult or unusual has obviously never had a small child. Even three years later, I still can recite "Cars" word for word.

I have two-year-old twins, and "Cars" is my life. Every day. I've passed into the zone where I make up inappropriate questions for the dialogue to answer, a la Rocky Horror (only in my head, of course).
posted by candyland at 8:45 AM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

What incessant said.
posted by Ian A.T. at 8:52 AM on December 13, 2010

I do this with the movie Dark Star. Once or twice a year. Late at night while drinking beer. And I don't tell anyone about it, usually.

I'm doin' it wrong.
posted by Splunge at 8:55 AM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

In 1982-84 I worked in the AV Department at San Francisco State University. We loaded film requests that were viewed in booths in the library which was located directly above us. We never saw who was making the requests but everyday someone requested American Gigolo.
posted by pianomover at 8:57 AM on December 13, 2010

Talk about your Annus Horribilis (Latin for "horrible anus," which I believe the kids today prefer to translate as "Christ, what an asshole").
posted by SomeTrickPony at 9:01 AM on December 13, 2010 [4 favorites]

and two (somewhat more oddly) viewers would apparently arrive whenever suited them, pick up the thread of the movie partway though, watch through the end, then watch the beginning until they had comne back to the point they had seen already (hence the old, "This is where we came in" jokes).

Hence Hitchcock's famous marketing for Psycho: No one … BUT NO ONE … will be admitted to the theater after the start of each performance of Psycho.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:02 AM on December 13, 2010

We never saw who was making the requests but everyday someone requested American Gigolo.

It was a gerbil.
posted by jonmc at 9:04 AM on December 13, 2010

I had a roommate who did this with "The Princess Bride".

Inconceivable!


_{I'm really, really sorry. I had to.}
posted by schmod at 9:06 AM on December 13, 2010 [4 favorites]

I did this with The Lion King. And a fair bit of the year with FF: Advent Children.
posted by TrinsicWS at 9:16 AM on December 13, 2010

this guy may snap...Stanley Tucci may want to increase security.
posted by naplesyellow at 9:16 AM on December 13, 2010

I tried to watch that movie but kept getting distracted by thinking about the special effects used to make Meryl Streep look six feet tall and couldn't pay attention to anything else.
posted by octothorpe at 9:18 AM on December 13, 2010

She looks six feet tall in every movie she's in.
posted by blucevalo at 9:30 AM on December 13, 2010

There used to be a cartoon called "Jem and the Holograms", which involved an eponymous heroine who was sometimes a rock star and sometimes a superhero, depending on her hairstyle; but, either way, she was truly outrageous. For some reason, a local television station in the town where I went to college thought it would be a good idea to show "Gem" every morning at four o'clock; which, coincidentally, was about the time the Bad Crowd I'd fallen in with was in the habit of winding up their bouts of debauchery. So, every morning before bedtime, we gathered around the 13-inch black-and-white and watched Jem be truly outrageous; and every time we remembered to do so and were able to coordinate our small muscles, we wrote down a plot synopsis of the day's episode. Sometimes, my most artistic roommate illustrated them.

In truth, we only wrote down about a dozen of these, and they were all completely incoherent when we tried to read them later, and I don't know where they are. But can I have my advance now?
posted by steambadger at 9:31 AM on December 13, 2010 [5 favorites]

SYNERGY.
posted by The Whelk at 9:32 AM on December 13, 2010 [2 favorites]

I love that movie. Then I felt icky after learning about the extramarital affair of Julie Powell while reading a review of her last book about butchering. The ickiness came from reading the excerpts reprinted in the the review. It was sort of gross. Well, not like that excerpt that won the bad sex writing. But, you know.

I'd rather watch something else everyday. Because I've watched Julie and Julia about three times (not in a row) and my stomach hurts with recognition when we hit that scene early on when she meets with her bitchy Amherst friends being jerks.
posted by anniecat at 9:33 AM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

viewers would apparently arrive whenever suited them, pick up the thread of the movie partway though, watch through the end, then watch the beginning until they had comne back to the point they had seen already (hence the old, "This is where we came in" jokes).

Yes! I was trying to explain this to somebody once and they didn't believe it. Instead of finding a newspaper to get the correct times, people just showed up whenever and stayed to see the beginning. Most places around me had one movie, so you watched whatever they had.
posted by Ad hominem at 9:34 AM on December 13, 2010

I'm going to read this thread every day for a year, starting from the very first post.
posted by seventyfour at 9:39 AM on December 13, 2010

Hey, guys -- it's satire. It's not brilliant satire, and it's not as evocative of the original blog or book or other 'do a thing for a year' blogs as it could've been, but it's satirizing the 'for-a-year' concept, not trying to capitalize on it.

I presume most of you know this but are too busy expelling snark on to your keyboards to mention it.

that doesn't really make it less stupid in my mind.
posted by PugAchev at 9:39 AM on December 13, 2010

Meh, fuck it.
posted by seventyfour at 9:40 AM on December 13, 2010

We never saw who was making the requests but everyday someone requested American Gigolo.

It was a gerbil.

I believe American Gigolo was pre-gerbil Gere. The Pinto as symbol of his fallen status was not lost on the more astute viewers though.
posted by pianomover at 9:49 AM on December 13, 2010

Re-viewing movies, re-listening to songs, re-reading novels, etc. is a subject that interests me. There are many books I've re-read and movies I've re-watched. Like many here, I'm sure, there are some movies I've watched dozens of times.

What I find interesting is that I reach a threshold where I can't get any more enjoyment from a work. I think it has to do with whether the work can still surprise me or not. Of course, after seeing something just once, I know the plot. I can never again wonder whether or not Dorothy is going to get home from Oz. But there are many nuances that, for a while, I don't notice or forget between viewings. And they hit me as surprises -- little treats that keep me going. And there are emotions: I know Scarlett is going to be devastated when Rhett leaves her, but watching her go through it is still wrenching.

But then I reach a point of familiarity where I'm no longer feeling even small surprises. I get bored. And then the work is, at least for a while, ruined for me. I tend to make things worse if it's a work like. I don't want it to not affect me any more. So I go into denial and keep watching the work again anyway. Which makes it even MORE familiar and even less affecting. And then finally I get it and quit.

I find that if I wait a few years, I can go back to it again. Usually. And what's interesting is that I can tell when I'm ready. I can say to myself, "Am I ready to watch 'Citizen Kane' again?" and I'll INSTANTLY get a feeling -- a very reliable one -- which will tell me whether re-watching it will be rewarding or not. In fact, there's a book I kind of want to re-read, but that feeling is telling me to wait another year or two. I hope I heed it.
posted by grumblebee at 9:58 AM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

Sometimes, I really think that I'd be famous already if (a) the internet had existed twenty years ago and (b) I had some meager amount of marketing aptitude.

I used to get these wild hairs, and I had a philosophy back in my wayward youth that I had to do at least one thing each day that it was unlikely that any human being had ever done. That gets pretty hard after a while, but I'm pretty determined. Sometime around 1992 or so, I decided that I was going to listen to "Midnight At The Oasis" nonstop for 24 hours. It seemed like a pretty innocuous song (my backup was Little River Band's "Reminiscing"), and one that I wouldn't be bothered to lose if this self-imposed Ludovico treatment made me so crazy I'd never want to hear it again.

I set up the CD player, settled in to doing chores around the house, and the music ran and ran and ran and ran. At first, it was sort of nice. I love repetition, as it happens, and I did actually like the song. You start hearing things in the music, thinking, "wow, I never noticed that before," in the same way that I can listen to The Dreaming an infinite number of times and still find amazing little details. After a while you start hearing things that aren't in the music, little figures of sonic pareidolia like bits of voices, words not in the lyrics, and the strangest almost-heard reflection of your mother calling you for dinner from the other side of the neighborhood, back in '79 or so.

It's just there, that constant carpet of music, and so I kept on, tidying the house, cleaning out the oven, paying my bills and reading magazines. When I had to take the dog outside, I turned it up loud and opened the windows, so I wouldn't miss a bit of it, and passerby probably wondered who the hell was blasting Maria Mulduar.

By the time I drifted off, with the song playing and playing and playing, I'd come to be in this strange, elevated state, the way it feels when it's just snowed and it feels like your apartment is just hanging there in white space. I woke up, after strange dreams, staggered over to the CD, checking the clock first, and cut off the music. My ears rang, or more precisely, something in my equilibrium was thrown off by the sudden quiet, and I sat on the couch, scratched the dog's ears, and listened to the nothingness.

It was profound in its way, in the same airless, pointless way that existential philosophy seems profound when you're a teenager and you realize that, if all of life was only in your head, you'd have no way of knowing whether things were real or just imaginary.

Still, though, when I hear "Midnight at the Oasis," I can bring up a microscopically accurate mental picture of my apartment, down to the way it smelled and how the upholstery on my old couch felt and the sensation of carefully scraping burned goo out of the oven and the warmth of my dog, leaning into my right side afterward as I gave her ear a scratch.

The most lasting versions of this experience were accidental, though.

My schizophrenic best friend and I were fixated on Return of the Jedi, so we went back to see it, over and over, as long as it ran at the Laurel Cinema. We sat in the same seats each time, and mouthed the words with increasing accuracy. Even now, I've long since turned from Star Wars fan to phobe, but I can pretty much recite each scene like the brain-dead readers marching around the forest in the end of Fahrenheit 451.

By the time I'd been expelled from school and was living a chaotic existence in a long string of DC-area group houses without air conditioning, I'd hooked into an even more ridiculous cinematic undertaking, which coincided with a few of the hottest summers imaginable, even in soul-melting Maryland, when I didn't have air conditioning and there was a trend towards converting the last local theaters into dollar theaters.

I'd leave work, pay my dollar, and sit through 3 or four shows in sequence, in that perfect movie theater air conditioning, wishing I could just sleep there instead of returning to the searing hell of my various apartments, basement rooms, and other shared spaces.

I can say, I think categorically, that I have seen the movie Ruthless People more times than any living human. It ran forever at the dollar theater, and I saw it at least three times a day for a month, slouching in a front row seat in the sweet sweet crisp cool air. If you were to ask me if it's a good movie, I couldn't really say--it's just a place, really, with strange furniture and a woman who yells a lot and Judge Reinhold.

Did the same with Princess Bride, and for some reason, with an awful film called Hands of Steel, all of which arrived at the dollar theater and lingered long enough to burn trails in my neural networks. Little traces remain, just inside jokes that only I will ever understand, and little quotations I make that no one ever gets because they weren't there, in a cold, dark room, hearing the same things repeated and repeated until they said something else entirely.

I even wonder if some of how I work now, in the way I write and make music, is borne out of those curious experiences that came about for no real reason. When I sit down and write, and by that I mean my more serious writing, I read every single bit of it out loud, because that's the best way to catch the parts with problems, hearing it, and I have pretty much unlimited patience for reading the same thing, over and over, after giving it a tweak here, and a comma there, and a better word 'round the side there.

Then again, I might just be looking for some proof that I wasn't just killing time so long ago, before it became clear how precious a resource it really is.

Now put your camel to bed.
posted by sonascope at 10:00 AM on December 13, 2010 [25 favorites]

Oh BTW, I am going read this entire blog every until he is done. By time he is finished I will have read the first entry 365 times and will have read 133,225 times about a guy watching Julie & Julia. I am not going to blog about it because some of us do not need fame and adoration, our accomplishments are enough.

Also American Gigolo is an unheralded masterpeice, I'm sure whoever was doing it was trying to be cute but they were just betraying their ignorance. Every time I hear "Call Me" I think of that scene where he finishes his workout and saunters over and does a line off his bedside mirror.
posted by Ad hominem at 10:01 AM on December 13, 2010

Damnit, in after sonascope anecdote. Guys, prepare the sidebar.
posted by Ad hominem at 10:03 AM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

Can we call this kind of "Something a day" thing "spurlocking"? Not as a dis to Spurlock; I liked Supersize Me, but man, we done had enough of this sort of thing. We have been supersized on it already.
posted by Eideteker at 10:08 AM on December 13, 2010 [2 favorites]

@The Whelk

Metafilter: Shitting Every Day
posted by wcfields at 10:13 AM on December 13, 2010

Put your camel to bed.

I'd like to think I can count on MeFi to filter out this kind of junk.

I'd like to think I depend on MeFi to show me this junk. (Though preferably before it hits HuffPost, MSNBC, etc.)

...

"Holy shit. I'm going to have to watch this movie again, aren't I?"
posted by mrgrimm at 10:16 AM on December 13, 2010

Meryl Streep (at least based on the few minutes of that movie that I could stand) made a good Julia Child, and a bio-pic on Julia Child would be a movie that I Would Watch™

Totally agree. The main thing that makes Julie and Julia sad for me is that some development exec thought that movie was a better idea than just adapting My Life In France as a film.

Don't even get me started on whatever fuckface was responsible for bringing Nora Ephron on board. I can sometimes deal with Ephron, don't get me wrong. But her bullshittiest bullshit plus the train wreck that is the entire Lets Make A Movie About A Blog About A Cookbook concept makes me want to weep about the state of film in the 21st century.
posted by Sara C. at 10:21 AM on December 13, 2010 [2 favorites]

I have two-year-old twins, and "Cars" is my life. Every day. I've passed into the zone where I make up inappropriate questions for the dialogue to answer, a la Rocky Horror (only in my head, of course).

Why did I never think of this?

Hey Lightning, what drug are you?
"Speed. I am speed."
posted by Daily Alice at 10:22 AM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

I came here all ready to snarkily trash this, but holy hell he's right! Julie's husband is supposed to be Mark Ruffalo!
posted by yarly at 10:44 AM on December 13, 2010

Because if you can do something every day for a fixed peroid of time you get a book deal. it's automatic. Enshrined in law.

It's the writing 500 words (or whatever) about something every day part that might make you worthy of a book deal. If what you write is consistently interesting, funny, insightful or otherwise keeps people reading... Basically, if you show you're not a bad writer. The theme is just a starting point.
posted by mdn at 10:59 AM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

My schizophrenic best friend and I were fixated on Return of the Jedi, so we went back to see it, over and over, as long as it ran at the Laurel Cinema. We sat in the same seats each time, and mouthed the words with increasing accuracy.

Heh. Star Wars (original trilogy only) does this to people who were the right age to appreciate it. I can top this, though: I saw Star Wars at the beginning of the long hot summer of 1977 back when I had nothig else to fix my preadolescent brain on. The day after the movie, the family was going on a two-week road trip and I knew I would not be able to see it again for two weeks, which may as well have been two years. I went to the mall the night before the trip and bought the novelization, which I read without cease for the next two weeks. I mean get up in the morning, start reading before breakfast, get trundled into the car where I would continue reading all day in the back seat, read until the lights went out in the hotel room at night. Repeat.

I don't know if I could truthfully say I memorized the book, but there were entire chapters (at the very least) that I could recite verbatim from memory. If pressed, I am sure that in July 1977 I could have recited word-for-word at least 90% of the book.

I suspect no one before or since has paid that much attention to Alan Dean Foster's prose, and that includes Alan Dean Foster.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:02 AM on December 13, 2010 [11 favorites]

My first reaction to this was something like the Onion's quote from FDR's nothing-but-cuss-words fireside chat, to wit: ""Cock-sucker, mother fucker, fart-fucking, tit licking, Christ-humping fucker," the president said. He went on, adding, "Shit, bull shit, and horse shit. A good God-damn cunt-kicking ass-hole-sucking tit-fucking piss-shitter.""
posted by Beardman at 11:18 AM on December 13, 2010

I really do like the recursive quality of this, and I hope it's a bigger-picture project with unfathomable scope. Julia Child is just the starting point for this project, which could become viral and have thousands of layers.

X:
{reads Y every day for a year
{{watching Z every day for a year
{{{reading Lawrence every day for a year
{{{{watching Julie every day for a year
{{{{{reading Julia every day for a year
posted by naju at 11:19 AM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

So he's choosing to do this? It's not like some Se7en-esque punishment?
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:20 AM on December 13, 2010

On the Star Wars front, I came to a funny realization a couple years ago. I was taking a little road trip, and, as I'm a huge radio drama freak, I decided to revisit the NPR radio drama versions of the Star Wars trilogy, which explained quite a bit. I saw Star Wars in the theater twice (including in some gigantic theater in NYC that was just glorious) and a few times on video. I've only seen Empire once, and I'm not kidding. I've watched parts of it since, from the beginning to near the end, and a few times from midway to the end, but the last time I saw that film from opening to credits was in 1980.

I'd carefully taped both NPR serials on Radio Shack tapes using my little Craig mono tape deck hooked up to my radio with a homemade patch cable, and I'd listened to those over and over, with all the extra material and great voice talent and the same magical Ben Burtt sound design, over the years. I'd listened to them so frequently that they became my canonical Star Wars, and when I went back to watch the original movie on video at the end of the eighties, it seemed sketchy, like big chunks of it were missing.

Jedi, on the other hand, I'd seen quite a bit, but when the ticket taker at the theater told my friend and I that the movie would be gone after the weekend, I smuggled my tape deck into the theater, along with one of those preposterous 120 minute cassettes that were so thin you could make them break telekinetically by merely worrying that they'd break, and transcribed the whole thing. Listened to that over and over, patching the tape when it would get strung up in the works, but it became a sort of radio drama, too, loosely matched to the visuals as I recalled them.

These days, I'm pretty tired of the fanboy saturation (i.e. every tenth post on boingboing being a goddamn cutesy Star Wars tie-in), but I'm outnumbered, alas. This is okay, I know I'm no standard for American culture.

Still, I watch the Stalinized new versions of A New Hope and I'm not thinking "Hey, Han fired first," or "Jabba looks so fake." I'm wondering why they edited out all the scenes with Biggs Darklighter, for chrissakes. That guy was cool.
posted by sonascope at 11:33 AM on December 13, 2010 [3 favorites]

As others have already indicated, the Julia parts of "Julie & Julia" are about a gazillion times better than the Julie parts. That is all.
posted by kmz at 11:50 AM on December 13, 2010

My sister and I did this one summer with The Princess Bride. We had a VCR that had a setting to rewind and resume play at the end of the tape. The movie would just play throughout the day as we went about our daily routine. Years later I took this VCR to college, and I repeated this with The Big Lebowski.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 11:51 AM on December 13, 2010

As others have already indicated, the Julia parts of "Julie & Julia" are about a gazillion times better than the Julie parts. That is all.


This is how I watched this movie. The forward and rewind interface on Netflix instant view is a bit like flipping through slides and therefore it was very easy skip all of the "Julie, whiny blogger" and just watch the "Julia, motherfucking Child" parts. --& Julia is not a bad movie and holds up just fine as a complete narrative. Meryl Streep is delightful. I still have no idea what happened to blogger lady and don't care to ever know.
posted by thewrongparty at 1:23 PM on December 13, 2010 [5 favorites]

When I moved to NYC at the beginning of my librarian career, for the first year, I had an hour commute each way to work and back; I had to switch lines twice. At the end of that year (and a transfer to a branch that was just a 20-minute walk away!), I figured that I'd spent a total of three solid weeks on the subway (not counting trips taken on my days off for fun): three weeks of running from one platform to the other, just to see the train's door close seconds before I got to it; three weeks of blowing snot out of my nose that was black from the steel dust from track erosion; three weeks of going past that sign on the platform in Brooklyn that had a row of dents from automatic weapons fire. Three weeks lost in a city that you couldn't possibly run out of things to do in.

But when I didn't have to take the subway every day, I found myself imbued with affection toward the beast. I got some great views on the way to and from work every day (including a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty, which I never, ever got used to), the changing seasons, and while the people-watching wasn't uniformly interesting, at times it could be fantastic. I could never count myself among the true subway obsessives, but I could understand how some of them would rate subway lines by the rhythm that they made going over the tracks. Throw in the legends and the myths and it's something that would take well over a year to fully explore, at least.

So, this guy wants to spend a full month of his life watching the same two hours over and over, assuming that he goes through with it (I have my doubts), trying to find some sort of depth in it? Well, good luck with that. The late movie critic Gene Siskel's favorite movie of all time was Saturday Night Fever (he owned John Travolta's white suit), and I think that even he had mined just about all that he could out of the movie after the first dozen viewings or so. I've got my own worry-beads pop culture--favorite comics, Stephen King novels, Star Trek II--but part of the appeal is that, especially if I'm trying to get to sleep, I don't have to think about these at all. Brace yourself for Lawrence hitting the wall, and then realizing, hey, I don't have to do this! Followed by a few posts until he realizes that no one's really reading any more.
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:51 PM on December 13, 2010

I read about someone who woke up early and watched Conan the Barbarian every morning before starting the day for a month. Claimed it improved his life dramatically. I want to try this.

Infusing your spiritual life with Conan.

There's a semi-obscure Russian religious text called The Way of The Pilgrim that suggests one can achieve a state of grace by incessantly reciting the Jesus Prayer mentally until it becomes so intrinsic that it automatically repeats itself with every heartbeat. I thought this was a beautiful, simple and brilliant idea: It's like brainwashing your own soul into goodness. I decided to give the concept a shot myself, but the thing is - I don't really want to be filled with grace. Considering my moral character, grace just seems inappropriate. So instead of the Jesus Prayer, I am incessantly repeating a line from Conan the Barbarian in the hopes that it will ultimately infuse my soul with his warrior spirit. With every heartbeat, I am going to mentally repeat the barbarian's answer to the greatest question in existence: "What is best in life?" To which Conan answers, "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you and to hear the lamentation of their women."

I woke up like I usually do: sticky, frustrated and unconsciously suckling at a bottle of Beefeaters like it was the sour teat of some great alcoholic mother-goddess. I rolled out of bed and, again as usual, cried for 15 minutes out of regret for the previous night's mistakes. But eventually I sobered up (that's just a turn of phrase, mind you) and remembered my new goal in life. I straightened myself with a Sisyphean effort and gazed into the mirror.

"CONAN!" I bellowed, "WHAT IS BEST IN LIFE?"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" came an unexpected answer from the living room. I did not recall anybody else in the house offhand; a typical night often ends with any friends I may have made either fleeing in terror and disgust or, if all goes well, simply under arrest. This warranted investigation.

"To crush your enemies, see them driven before you," I continued more softly, padding across the blood-stained carpet of the hallway (that's no big deal, by the way, I just like to do my bleeding in the hallway), "and to hear the lamentation of their women."

When I stepped into the living room, I couldn't help but notice that Bill Pullman was suspended from my ceiling.
posted by Sebmojo at 2:12 PM on December 13, 2010 [4 favorites]

The Aristocrats!
posted by geekyguy at 2:38 PM on December 13, 2010

I'll just recycle my comment:

1. Pick one thing to do. Exactly one thing.
2. Start doing it, and writing a blog about it.
3. Wait for the book deal.
4. ???

(No, there is no Profit)

posted by vidur at 2:46 PM on December 13, 2010

For me, it was "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World."

/peterweirfan
posted by datawrangler at 2:47 PM on December 13, 2010

1. Pick one thing to do. Exactly one thing.
2. Start doing it, and writing a blog about it.
3. Wait for the book deal.
4. ???

This guy isn't bad, but I HIGHLY doubt he's looking for a book here. It's a resume builder, yes, and perhaps something akin (ugh) "personal brand management," and perhaps he's aiming for another book deal down the line, but c'mon.

In no way, shape, or form, will this blog become a marketable book. Those who think otherwise are delusional. If Lawrence does Julia & Julia becomes a book or movie, I will literally eat my hat.
posted by mrgrimm at 3:03 PM on December 13, 2010

Last month I wrecked the hell out of my back. I gave myself a severe sprain and about twelve hours of spasms so strong I couldn't even write my name, much less do complicated things like walking or sitting up in a bed. I spent most of those twelve spasming hours waiting in the ER, where for some reason the Marlon Brando version of Mutiny on the Bounty was playing, commercial-free, right above me. I was so out of it that every time I re-realized the movie was on (which was about every ten spasms or so), I kept mistaking Brando's fake English accent for Ewan McGregor playing Obi-Wan Kenobi. It was so confusing - I kept expecting Star Wars, and instead I kept getting the Royal Navy.

(I have no idea if it was a good movie or a bad movie. All I know is that it was a long movie.)

When I got home at four in the morning I dosed myself on my new industrial-strength painkillers and muscle relaxers, which only helped my cognitive skills. I kept thinking of Ewan McObi-Wan, so I dug up the disc for Episode Two (I don't know how that came into my possession) and put it in. Then things went all warm and soft and fuzzy. When I came to, the menu was wheee-dwooo-bleeping at me and I wanted it to stop, so I hit play again. The next time I was aware of myself the menu was making zoom-smash-bang noises, so I hit play again, and with what I thought was tremendous foresight, hit the repeat-all button too.

About twenty-four hours later I slowly settled back into real consciousness. The movie was still going. I remember waking up every few hours to drink tons of water or take more pills or shamble off to the bathroom, but I don't remember the movie at all. It's almost as strong a soporific as a one-two punch of Vicodin and Flexeril.
posted by cmyk at 3:06 PM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

> If Lawrence does Julia & Julia becomes a book or movie, I will literally eat my hat.

Your hat better not be made of chocolate!
posted by vidur at 3:12 PM on December 13, 2010

Your hat better not be made of chocolate!

Peeps!
posted by mrgrimm at 3:29 PM on December 13, 2010

I did this (minus the blog) with A Room With A View. Not only did I not get a book deal or any sort of media attention, I also became really, really depressed watching one of the most beautiful, romantic movies ever so many times. Not recommended!
posted by Mael Oui at 7:37 PM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

Considering the initiating subject matter, this is an AWESOME thread.
posted by LastOfHisKind at 10:02 PM on December 13, 2010