Releasing Our Kraken

I thought I'd just write a quicky to say that I saw Sex and the City 2 and enjoyed it.  I would write more in its defense, but someone already did, so why waste my time?  All I want to say is that despite the bad reviews (most critics are male, btw),  I think of SATC as entertainment and escapism and frankly, I preferred this second movie to the first, except for the absence of Gilles Marini. My favorite scene was the gay wedding with Liza Minnelli.  My favorite guy in this movie (besides Mr. Big, of course), was the Indian butler played by Raza Jaffrey and I got a chuckle reading about how he's being stopped on the street these days and praised for how he stirred Carrie's hot milk.  OMG, that sounds a bit suggestive, but believe me, it's totally just a tender scene.  I've read the critical reviews and heck, we women are just as entitled to mindless fluff as men are entitled to theirs:  "Release the KRAKEN!!!" (I've always wanted to say that!).  Our Kraken is surely Samantha during her hot flashes.  (Sorry for the finger photo, but it pretty much represents Samantha as a Kraken, after all!)

So please, go and see the movie and don't be put off by critics and even if you've seen the pirated version online, go see it on the big screen, where you can actually hear the jokes and not be confused by extraneous noises while the movie was being videotaped in the theater.  [It actually happened twice I watched the pirated version online. I heard a cough in a quiet scene and thought someone else was in Carrie's room, then later a cell phone rang and I wondered why no one in the movie was picking up. *LOL*]

On to books! If anyone has suggestions for a good book for me to read that does not involve raping/murdering, excessive violence or excessive romance, please leave a message in the Comments.  I notice I'm becoming more picky about what I read and have been leaving a lot of books unfinished lately.  Maybe because as I get older, I know I have less and less time to waste on 1) overly flowery prose (Dean Koontz cannot let a man simply walk down a street without describing each bush), 2) predictable plots (of course the cute guy will end up loving the homely girl then her cheating bf will try to get her back), and 3) overused phrases (such as Stephanie Plum constantly "blowing out a sigh"). 

I still enjoy Maeve Binchy, but I've read all of her books.  I enjoy Maeve's plots that involve multiple characters so I also loved "Pillars of the Earth" and "A World Without End," except I don't care for the violent war scenes.  I'm now discovering "discovery" thrillers and currently reading Douglas Preston's "Tyrannosaurus Canyon" and "Almost Adam" by Petru Popescu.  Just in case I don't finish them, however,  I also have "Sein Language" by Jerry Seinfeld, and Dave Barry's "Boogers Are My Beat"  (Uh oh...but you have to admit, that's neither overused nor predictable!) standing by.  I just pray there are no Kraken-sized boogers in that book!!

Cakes and Caked Blood

I saw a segment on KITV news last night which led me to this website where I spent a half hour ogling cakes.  Kailua's Cake Lava's designer/owner Rick Reichart will be competing on the Food Network April 4th in a cake challenge.  Here are two of the hundreds of cakes pictured on the website. 
 

The cake on the left is one of my favorites and the handbag below is also a cake!  Amazing!  Who would want to slice up and eat such works of art?  Me!!  I was reading the page devoted to "flavors" verrrry carefully and if anyone's ordering one of these cakes for me, I'd like the Hawaii Five-O:  Chunky pineapple cake layers with fresh bananas, mango curd, coconut cream, and shredded coconut. 

And take a look at this leopard skin handbag.  It looks like maybe it belongs to one of their clients--because obviously these cakes are not in the Costco Bakery price range!   It's kind of funny to think of eating a purse, but I swear there's a photo of a toilet cake on their site!  I wonder if they put a chocolate lumpy something in the toilet.  Ewwww!

Now this next topic I wanted to bring up is not funny like a toilet cake, but icky also.  I may or may not have mentioned that I've been reading Tess Gerritsen books lately.   I was very excited to find another medical thriller author because they're one of my favorite genres.  After reading her first two I went out and borrowed four more.  She's one of those writers whose books you can't put down and I soon realized that she isn't necessarily a medical thriller writer even though the original two I read ("Harvest" and "Life Support") were medical thrillers. 

The second set of books and I believe the majority of her books are serial murder thrillers and as far as I can see, all involve the kidnapping, torture and murder of women.  Although I wanted to stop reading once I realized this, I found myself attached to her recurring characters (a female detective and a female medical examiner) and so I kept reading, often skipping over the icky parts--and there was a lot of skipping because the gory details were not spared.  I admit I was disturbed that this wonderfully talented writer was abusing women.  This series, incidentally, is being developed into a TV series starring Angie Harmon and I hope it won't be as dark because I love Angie!

I have a whole shopping bag of paperbacks from a relative.  I looked through the bag because I needed a respite from the mental images of Gerritsen's women who've been sliced and diced, mummified, decapitated, and peat-pickled.  Ok, this J.A. Jance book, "Day of the Dead," looked interesting because it seemed similar to a Tony Hillerman novel set on a Native American reservation.  Cool!  Ohhhkay,  a chapter or so in I  realized that young girls were being tortured, raped, murdered and cut into pieces by J.A. Jance.  Once again, however, I was already sucked into the book because of good storytelling and a need to see justice done. 

This was not the first bag of books I'd received from friends or relatives and in the past I weeded through them and tossed out the "stalking" books--often half the bag!  It now dawned on me that there are way too many books written by women about the stalking, torture, raping, and murdering of females and what's more astounding is that these authors (Gerritsen, J.A. Jance, Jordan Dane, Tami Hoag, and Lisa Jackson to name a few) are bestsellers.  So my question is why do women like to write and read this stuff?? It's unsettling to think that women are entertained by this violence against other females, albeit fictional characters.  (Since none of Leonard's friends bring him boxes of books, I'm going to guess that women, not men, are buying and reading these books.)  Are there any psychologists out there who will comment on this phenomenon?  Meanwhile, it's back to Maeve Binchy and Janet Evanovitch for me---if only they'd hurry up and write more books.

Want to hear something creepy?   Yesterday I was reading that J.A. Jance book where a woman kills her husband's young sex slaves (whom she supplies him with) and chops them up.  Despite enjoying reading everything in the book except the parts involving the violence, I was feeling understandably disturbed and decided to stop for a while.  I looked at the clock and noticed the Oprah Winfrey Show was half through and turned on the TV.  Lisa Ling was discussing how young women in China were having surgery to add a couple of inches to their height by having surgeons break their legs.  You guessed it, they had to show us the surgery and that's exactly when I tuned in: camera focused on skinny legs in metal frames being cut up.  I sat there wondering if I was being sent a message.

So readers, if I should suddenly disappear and I'm found in pieces, it won't be a total loss.  I'm thinking my blog will finally get read by more than the three of you!

Health Kauai Sis

Hello to my three readers! It's blogger time! Wow, as I'm writing this, I'm watching ER and Angela Bassett just whupped a guy trying to mug her. Wooohooooo, awesome! I'm sad that ER is in its last season, it's such an amazing program. I'm not a fan of Grey's Anatomy because I'm not into sex operas much. I did try watching it during the first season, but lasted only a few episodes. McDreamy was not MyDreamy and all I could think while watching Dr. Grey is "Does she think letting her mouth hang open is sexy?"

Speaking of doctors, this week I'm seriously wondering if going to the doctor and having him "scope" you is like taking your car to a mechanic and noticing more problems after he "fixes" your car. I was diagnosed with acid reflux and oddly, although I never had obvious symptoms before, suddenly I've got heartburn and bloating. Hmph! Did the doctor remove a screw somewhere in my stomach?! Or switch on my acid valve maybe? Veerrrry suspicious and frustrating. It could be I'm unconsciously stressed after learning my diagnosis, thus giving myself heartburn. I did take 3 doses of the prescribed Prilosec and maybe THAT evil drug did this to me. I decided I don't want to be sentenced to a lifetime of any medication, so I plan to look for something naturopathic. I should go and see Dr. Melead, my naturopathic doctor, but I'm feeling poor right now (Financial Kauai Sis) and HMSA doesn't cover naturopathics. Silly of them, they would probably save a ton of money if they did.

When I was diagnosed with osteoporosis, I was prescribed Fosamax by my medical doctor. Dr. Melead, however, said nooooooo, don't take that. She told me what kind of calcium to take among other advice, and two years later, my second scan showed no change. Meanwhile bad things are surfacing concerning Fosamax. Dr. Kheng, my current medical physician, said "Good, just keep doing what you're doing!" (Which means I should get back to exercising...uh oh!) Hmm, think of all that money I saved HMSA by not buying Fosamax!

I voted yesterday! Yaaaay, first time I've voted early. I had to take Jordan to Special Olympics bowling practice in Lihue. I have a need to justify any trip out of my cave, so voting was part of my multitasking, as well as getting Costco gas.

I also went to the library to pick up some material I ordered. One of these was a DVD of "Circle of Friends", the movie based on Maeve Binchy's novel. I wonder how a writer feels when their masterpiece is reduced to a 2 hour (probably less) piece of drivel? Binchy is known for cleverly weaving multiple compelling stories of related characters into her novels. The movie over-stripped down the plots and thinned out the characters to the bare minimum. As if that weren't bad enough, the producers decided that despite the fact that Ms. Binchy is a bestselling novelist who's written dozens of popular books read by millions, her book needed the help of their brilliant insight into what sells movies: sex. Never mind that her book conveyed the contrasts between rural and urban life, the tensions between Protestants and Catholics, and the heartwarming and amusing character studies of a small Irish town. The average moviegoer would never appreciate those subtleties, oh no. Just give 'em sex, they'll understand that.

What can I say, ER is leaving, Grey's is staying....maybe those producers aren't wrong.