Or if you aren’t really “in” the swing.

Which I haven’t been. These things happen, I suppose.

Anyway, I’ve been working on a redesign. And realizing that I haven’t been keeping up with things, and will now need to get a book (or spend some quality time in the bookstore) to figure out a few things.

Beyond that, I’ve been re-reading books a lot (just so I can rediscover some of the many books I own but haven’t read in over 5 or 6 years), trying to get out of this most recent funk, working late a lot (because I at least feel productive and useful and competent there) and such.

These last few days have been a flurry of summer movie activity. Last night, I saw the Michael Bay directed “Transformers” movie. I truly enjoyed it. It was the perfect summer movie - light on thought, big on explosions and computer-generated eye candy, and an enjoyable actor playing the lead and delivering some pretty hackneyed bits of double entendre, etc., with a good dose of John Cusack neurosis and humor. And there was lots of cheesy tongue-in-cheekness:

CHICK: “You think I’m shallow, don’t you?”
DUDE: “No - I think, with you, there’s more than meets the eye.”

…and other such self-referential silliness.

So that was fun. The night before that, I watched Michael Moore’s “Sicko” which made me tear up pretty regularly. I had my car accident when I had no health insurance during unemployment (COBRA was just too expensive for me) and were it not for the PIP (Personal Injury Protection) insurance on my car insurance policy, I would’ve been TOTALLY screwed. It didn’t take much to get me riled up about the US health care system in the first place (since I have friends and family in Europe, enjoying the benefits of national healthcare systems and have benefited from them while traveling abroad before) but this just drove everything home.

I was talking with some friends who’d also seen it, and one of these friends works for a hospital. She told me that several of her co-workers - adult women, in their 40s/50s - saw the movie and had had no idea whatsoever, prior to seeing that movie, that such a thing as a national health care system existed anywhere in the world. They just assumed that what goes on in America in terms of health care is how the rest of the world deals with it. I was pretty mortified to hear that adult women working in the health care field weren’t aware… I suppose I shouldn’t have been totally surprised, but GEEZ.

And before THAT, I also saw “Ratatouille.” It’s really a terrific movie. I can see why it didn’t make the $$$ that Disney perhaps wanted it to make opening weekend; generally speaking, any movie that needs to include a pronunciation guide in the previews and advertising isn’t going to do well in middle America. The fact that the pronunciation is of a French dish is just double-trouble since I feel there might still be some Franco-phobia in these here states.

But, seriously, it’s a really beautifully done, clever film that’s really a love story to food and the joys of food. I think it will be appreciated by anyone who really enjoys the process of cooking (or eating well) and who savors the process: the selecting of ingredients, putting together a menu - choosing dishes and elements that complement one another, understanding that a meal is not “meat and a side dish” but, rather, art for a multitude of the senses including smell, taste, sight and (to some extent) touch. Food texture is very important to me; it’s the reason behind my deep dislike of bananas and mushrooms. I love banana bread and mushroom soup, but in their natural state, I find them inedible due to their mushy non-texture. I’d have the same issue with tofu’s texture as well (if I wasn’t soy intolerant and incapable of eating it without getting ill very shortly thereafter).

Tonight, I watched a new Netflix arrival: “Keeping Mum.” I’m too tired to write about it, so maybe tomorrow. If I’m up to it. Tomorrow is back to work day… but there are only two days left in the week, so it will feel much like vacation.