Month: June 2008

I’m eating my lunch at my desk at work, and one of my co-workers knocks on my cubicle wall. He’s got a couple of DVDs that he rented or borrowed or something, and he wants to hear my opinion of them. (Last time, I urged him to see Idiocracy, which he loved, so I have a good track record.) He holds out one of the boxes.
“What do you think of this one, have you seen it?” he asks. I look at the DVD. It’s Southland Tales. I grin.
“Well, obviously –” I reply, still grinning, and point at the pullquote on the bottom of the box.
He reads the quote. “‘Fascinating and extraordinary.’ So you agree with that?”
And this is the best moment …
“Yeah,” I tell him, “because that’s my quote. I said that.” And I pick up the box and show him the pullquote again, more closely, so he can read the whole thing:
“Fascinating and extraordinary!”
–Jette Kernion, Cinematical
“Oh! That’s you! I didn’t realize. Wow!”
And then he had to tell everyone in the office and show them the DVD box.
He may come back into the office on Monday and want to kick my butt after actually watching Southland Tales … or if he’s like my little brother, rant about how this is the Best Movie Ever and other critics are just plain insane. That’s all right.
I may never see my name on a DVD box again, or if I’m super-lucky, it’ll happen more often and I’ll get jaded about it. But today, showing someone who wanted to know what I thought about the film that my opinion (or a truncated version that does not quite reflect the full review) was actually on the DVD box? Can’t top that.

I forgot, until someone reminded me this morning (and I can’t remember which blog, sorry), that yesterday was the anniversary of Congress approving the 19th Amendment. It was on June 4, 1919, that the women’s suffrage amendment was sent to the states for ratification. If I’d know, maybe I would have made time to go to the polls yesterday for early voting in the City Council runoff election; I’ll have to go this weekend instead.
I could reprint the text of the amendment here, as a way to commemorate the anniversary, but instead I cannot resist the urge to share with you one of my favorite songs, ever ever ever. I’ve been known to sing it aloud on occasion, because who could resist? And of course this is a film blog so I have to tie everything into movies. So I give you “Sister Suffragette” from the movie Mary Poppins. You’re welcome.