Things of Interest: The Idiocy Issue

Somefing's not right here. Lightin' a fire under your ass now.
Start makin' somefing happen.

In 1993, I pitched an article for the first time to a "real" publication. I don't remember what the pitch was, but the publication was Mademoiselle (one more thing you've got on me, haters). 

My pitch was rejected. I indulged the writer's cliché and push-pinned the rejection letter to my bedroom wall — masochistic motivation I thought would somehow elevate me to elusively erudite heights (and perhaps liberate me from a lifetime of lame alliteration). I would amass a huge, EPIC collection of rejection letters. I would shroud myself in their snubs, revel in their rebuffs. I would take all the kicks in the teeth like a (Gid)man.

I didn't pitch or submit anything anywhere ever again until 2013. 

It doesn't really matter why this happened. It happened. It's being remedied now. Partly thanks to the inspiration of this guy, a fellow Ukrainian who hammers nails into wood with his bare hands:

But mostly by just writing stuff and submitting it places. I had my first article published on Salon.com last month, after eight months of "practice" on this blog. I would like to keep doing more of that. If not, I will become the Harper Lee of preachy, meaningless, highly entertaining essays that will change your life if you'll just please read them. If that recluse thing does happen — and if you're nice — I'll grant you an interview in 2053 and reveal why I crapped out so fantastically again. Only to you, though. And only if you print out and present this blog post. Like a coupon.

Even though I'll be concentrating most of my efforts on forcing my ruminations onto the masses, I'd still like to keep the blogging front sufficiently fortified. So from now on (meaning when I feel like it) there will be a weekly "Things of Interest" post. There are lots of interesting things out there. You'll either be interested or you won't. Like dating.

It helped that I recently watched Orange Is the New Black on Netflix for two weeks straight — my basic obsessive M.O. for Shows I Hear Good Things About. For 13 nights in a row, I was bombarded by Regina Spektor lecturing in the opening credits that "taking steps is easy — standing still is hard." Hear it for yourself for self-help reinforcement:

I've got a babushka, and it's tied on TIGHT. It's keeping my head together, no matter how many staggering, stumbling steps I take.

THINGS OF INTEREST (for real now)

This week's theme: idiocy
I've watched a few idiotic things lately, some quite literally. First up: My Idiot Brother, which was dopey and goofy and had so many plot holes and unsympathetic characters that I don't understand why I actually really liked it. It's one of those movies I would watch again, but I have absolutely zero justification to recommend it to anyone else. Paul Rudd movies always seem to have a good heart behind them, is all I can say.

Thanks to the nefariousness of Netflix, I've also been suckered into the BBC series Luther, which is probably the most absurd crime show (or show) I've ever seen. The villains are over-the-top evil (AND insane!), the scenarios are preposterous, and the title character — portrayed in all his eye-twitching glory by Idris Elba of The Wire and The Office — boasts the intelligence, instincts, and invincibility of an impossible law-enforcement superhero. 

I wish I could say all the F-bombs I spewed at my TV after the first episode precluded me from watching again — but Elba is magnificent, as is his supporting crew, especially Ruth Wilson as adversary/soulmate Alice Morgan (a fun recent interview with Wilson in Vulture appears here). The theme song is excellent, too:

I smoothed out all of this recent ridiculousness with a viewing of Searching for Sugar Man, which was idiotic only in the sense that I hadn't seen it earlier. It's also been a few years since I've seen Idiocracy — probably time for a rewatch. 

Related: how your movie-appreciation skills start to suck (or get better) after becoming a parent
Jason McBride's article about how his previously "infallible" cinematic judgment went south after the birth of his son was an interesting read, though I've found the exact opposite has happened in my case. Time, money, and energy (but mostly time) are too precious to squander on the meh movies I used to waste major coin on in my pre-kid days. There's no other way to explain why I willingly went to the theater to see Cold Mountain or Love Actually in 2003, the year before I had my son, except that it was ... the year before I had my son. 

Go, ladies!
Inspirational on the feminist front: LEGO's first female scientist minifig and Diana Nyad, because ... Diana Nyad.

Point/counterpoint of the week
Point: interesting article on talent only being recognized when it's accompanied by success.

Counterpoint (kind of): similarly interesting article on the value of laziness.

If you want more of me on Twitter, @WarriorHauswife is where you should go.