darin and diane make a bid for spontaneity; also, a 3 year anniversary comes and goes.
While watching it, all I could think was, this is John Sayles's version of Six Days, Seven Nights.
5.3 miles today.
3 miles yesterday.
Friday night Darin and I were sacked out on the couch and he said, "We're in a rut." We never do things any more. When it's late and neither of us is working, we're still usually by our computers.
I said, "Do you want to go to a movie?"
"Only if you do."
Well, what the hell.
We dashed out of the house and went to see Notting Hill. I was glad we did, even though it required far more energy than I was fully prepared to expend. (I've gotten old, you know.)
Darin and I both really liked Notting Hill. I know this to be true because we discussed it a lot on the way home and then again on Saturday.
In case you've been under a rock, Notting Hill is the story of a regular guy in London, bookshop owner Hugh Grant, who meets big famous movie star Julia Roberts. They have a brief relationship and have to deal with its attendant problems, or, as the movie puts it, What happens when mortals get involved with the gods?
The movie was made by the same guys who did 4 Weddings and a Funeral and has a lot of the same charms: ambling story, great supporting characters. In fact, the supporting characters threaten to run away with the movie. But it's a good example of how you can differentiate your supporting characters without going to the Saylesian extremes of giving each 20 minutes of the movie and a ridiculously in-depth backstory.
Notting Hill is ostensibly a romantic comedy, but I pegged it pretty quickly as fantasy. We're supposed to buy a reality in which Hugh Grant cannot find a date. Uh huh. I believed everything up until that. (Obvious Hugh Grant jokes aside, let's face it: this is not a guy who has ever had to go more than three minutes without a woman stopping dead in her tracks at the sight of him.)
Like I said, both Darin and I really liked it. I liked Grant a whole bunch more than Roberts, since he has a monopoly on the "diffident British charm" thing. In fact, my big reaction to the movie was: "I know what she sees in him, but what does he see in her?" (Other than, a big famous movie star is interested in me.) Darin like them both more equally.
On Saturday (everybody say it together) we had breakfast with Fernando. This time we went to Empress Pavilion in Chinatown, which Fernando had never gone to, surprisingly enough. The restaurant was a lot less crowded than your average Sunday there, that's for sure. And the food was totally wonderful, of course: if you're in the LA area and you need dim sum, treat yourself to Empress Pavilion.
We came home and Darin wanted to see another movie. He and Fernando decided to go see Limbo, leaving me to hang out all afternoon. I ended up reading a novel. When Darin came home, Fernando took off and Darin decided to go over to the Guys for some StarCraft. I drove him--we're just so cute that way--and then came home to start working on my own novel.
I asked myself for the 30th time why in the name of God I've set the novel in San Francisco, when I live down here, but I kept writing anyhow. I brought up every memory I have of wandering around the City. I'm making a list of things I have to go check out during various visits up north. A piece of writing advice I've taken to heart is, Write first, do research later. Yes, you might have to change some things--quite a few things. But you have to get the story right first, and rather than get hung up on the details of how it actually is, you should get the story on paper.
Today I started redesigning my web site--I'm going to use frames, dammit, so first I have to learn what frames are.
Saturday the 5th was also the 3rd anniversary of my keeping an online journal. I can't believe it was 3 years ago I was preparing to go off to USC. I started rereading some of my early entries and kept cracking up, which I really liked--there's nothing like reading something I've written and discovering that the harshest critic in the Western Hemisphere is completely entertained.
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Copyright 1999 Diane Patterson
Send comments and questions to diane@spies.com