11.22.2007

Thanksgiving

I've never quite understood the whole appeal of Thanksgiving (aside from the cranberry sauce), and not being American, I've never celebrated it. In fact, I was feeling less than thankful, since a commenter on filmtotaal pointed out to me that my latest review - the one I felt so good about, the one I didn't have to labor over but that simply spilled out onto my keyboard - was actually very awkwardly written. And he was right. Quite a blow to my fragile ego, as you can imagine. However, I do not want to dwell, and hence, forced myself to write down this list of things I am thankful for.

- My new room, and watching films from my new bed
- Pepernoten
- The way Cary Elwes' hair falls in front of his face in the beginning of The Princess Bride
- The Princess Bride existing, at all
- How well my thesis is going, progressing slowly but steadily
- Friends who bring brownies and rosé to movie nights
- Getting the No Country For Old Men review, and thus getting to see it in a week and a half instead of on Valentine's day
- The fact that no matter how many great movies I see, there's always so many more to discover
- Gus van Sant still being allowed and able to make strange, noncommercial movies when he wants to
- The fact that soon, I'll be allowed to play Sufjan Stevens' Christmas albums again
- "Don't eat those old people's french fries, pigeon! Don't you know you can fly?"
- Hugh Laurie as Gregory House
- Blog-a-thons
- having people read what I write, even if on the blog it's only a hanfdul
- The internet, where there is always someone who shares your obsessions and passions
- Finally, for the fact that despite my underdeveloped writing skills, I am getting -through my job and editor- a chance to improve myself little by little. It's frustrating that I can no longer always get away with elliptic, associative nonsense, but I know that in the long term, it's going to make me a better writer.


Ok, boring rant over, and I do feel somewhat better. Very therapeutic and all. So, go ahead, what are all my many, many readers thankful for?

Happy Thanksgiving

4 comments:

Lanja said...

*I* liked your review. I mean, I figure you did the best you could, given the source material. But then again Dutch is not my native language.

Hedwig said...

I think I have to add an item...

- Supportive friends :-D

Anonymous said...

I didn't think there was anything wrong with your review either, except for the beginning of the second paragraph. Of course I haven't seen the film, but isn't it a question you should ask yourself instead of writing it down in your review? But that small nitpick aside, it seems allright to me.

What am I thankful for? Well for starters, me still borrowing most of your noir box. D.O.A. kicked all kinds of ass. Also, there's next week, with me watching There Will Be Blood, I'm Not There & Eastern Promises, an entire day spent mostly in the presence of Werner Herzog and to top it all off, Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band in full live glory. And for the fact, that for some reason beyond me, fruitstands appear to be very cool.

Craig Kennedy said...

Hi Hedwig,

Don't let the critics drag you down, but use them as a reminder that we can all get better...always. Just like there's always another great movie to watch, there's always room for improvement in the things we do.

Lick your wounds, then stand up straight and be proud of yourself for putting yourself out there where anonymous people can throw things at you.

Be your own worst critic, but never stop yourself from writing.