I am going to attempt to cover a few of the topics I mentioned last week. It seems my energy is dwindling of late so if I go off on a tangent or I don’t make sense, be kind.
#1: Steel Cut Oats. No one thought i was serious about this but I was. You guys. They are so good. So so good. I am a lover of rice pudding and tapioca pudding and anything pudding-y and this method I’m about to share makes your breakfast experience as close as you can get to creamy dessert without actually being a dessert (I should be a food blogger). It’s not that hard but it takes a long time. What you do is make the oats risotto style. This means a lot of stirring and letting the oats absorb the liquid. Here are the steps:
- toast two cups of steel cut oats in a pan. Just turn on the heat and stir them around until they get a little brown.
- Add a 15 oz can of coconut milk.
- Stir.
- Keep stirring.
- Stir and stir and stir.
- Add two cups of water.
- Stir.
- Stir.
- Stir.
- Add two more cups of water.
- Stir. etc. etc. You get the idea. It’s about six cups of liquid total and I’m sorry to say it takes like 20-30 minutes but if you’re patient, oh my goodness, you won’t be sorry. Especially if you top it with real maple syrup, some bananas and never cream. Because who does that? Not us. We’re trying to reduce. Nuts would be good too.
2. Tom Cruise’s Underwear: No one said they wanted to hear about this but I want to talk about it, so sorry.
The other night Cam and I finally got a babysitter to do our civic duty and see Lincoln. Or Les Mis. Unfortunately, both were sold out so we saw Jack Reacher which is basically the same plot as Les Mis so we were good. Anyway, the point is Tom Cruise, bless his heart, takes off his shirt in the middle of the movie and I was like ewwww, why is he doing that? Why does he want to do that? He also gave a lot of unnecessary sultry looks and I thought this is sad. This is really really sad.
The next morning, to my surprise (and delight?), Top Gun was playing at my local gym cardio theater. I always have to hide in the cardio theater so people don’t stare at my belly. Or my incredibly toned legs. Or my silky hair. Anyway, it was VERY interesting to see old Tom Cruise vs. Young Tom Cruise. It was interesting too how he gave many unnecessary sultry looks even back in the old days though they weren’t so annoying.
This is getting long. I’m trying to get to the scene that really blew me away. I will call it the Tom Cruise Underwear scene. This scene happens SPOILER!!! IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN TOP GUN, READ NO FURTHER THOUGH WHO HAS NOT SEEN TOP GUN? WHO? AND HOW DID YOU ESCAPE IT? THEN I REALIZE PROBABLY MOST PEOPLE UNDER THIRTY HAVE NOT SEEN TOP GUN AND I AM SO OLD BUT IN ANY CASE SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER right after Tom’s best friend and flight partner Goose dies in a plane crash. Tom Cruise, we’ll call him Maverick, is devastated. We see this in many scenes. His aviator glasses cannot hide the pain.
One particular poignant scene of pain is in the locker room when Mav is looking at himself in the mirror in anger. He also happens to be in his huge white tightie whities.
THIS WAS VERY DISTRACTING.
And not in a good way. His superior officer comes in and starts telling him to suck it up. Get over it. Poor Mav, he is dealing with so much emotion and it’s not that easy! I can’t just suck it up. And he’s standing there in really hideous underwear.
Now I make it a point as I watch all these movies, endless movies for 30-40 minutes each day (please no more Mr. Popper’s Penguins), to try to think about the plot, the characters, the development, all of it, from a story-telling perspective otherwise this is a huge waste of my exercising time. With this one, I had to ask myself, why the locker room? Why the huge underwear?
I discussed this with Cam because I could not figure it out on my own.
I said: Why would they put him in those underwear? It was not attractive.
He said: Maybe it was accurate. Maybe that’s what top gun pilots wear. Military issue.
I said: What? Really?
He said: I don’t know. Maybe.
And maybe. Maybe the writers did research and found the exact underwear worn by those pilots and got Tom Cruise in them. Fine.
But why have him grieving in there? In the locker room?
And Cam said: Maybe to show his vulnerability.
And I said: What?
And he said: he’s all alone. He’s naked emotionally and physically.
And I said:
And he said:
And I finally said: But it’s so gross. I do not want to look at that.
And he said: Maybe Mav doesn’t want you looking at him either. Really, what’s the goal of the scene?
Excellent question.
What is the goal of each scene? As writers we have to ask ourselves this very question over and over and over again. Why this scene, at this time? Why these images with this dialogue? Why these characters in this setting? Why huge white underwear during times of heartache and wo?
This is so deep. So so deep.
Anyway, I’d appreciate anyone’s thoughts. It’s important.
Next Week I’ll try to cover my underwear and maybe the Bachelor? Which I don’t watch? I’m still deciding.