Week of blogging Day 3: Step Aside, Mr. Darcy

Don't know if any of you noticed, but Netflix was not one of the things I gave up for Lent this year.  Unlike recent past years, it did not feel like an issue, something I should give up.  And there were things in the queue that we were using for our homeschool studies.  And my last few months of ill feeling and lethargy affected my brain, and I have not had the mental energy and focus for much reading, so my psychological escapes have been juvenile fiction (mainly screening books as potential homeschool supplements, so books about growing up during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, or "Heroes of the Faith", or "Dear America" titles--interesting, worthwhile, easy) and movies.  Esp. instant downloads from Netflix. 

Instant downloads are, as my dear Rosa once said, like movie dumpster diving. You don't have much to choose from, and often end up trying out something you definately would not have brought home from Blockbuster.  But that's also the beauty of it--the luxury of being able to test out a movie to see if, yes, I guess it really did deserve only two stars by its reviewers but not spending extra money or effort to do so.  Granted, there are some excellent titles available for instant download too--but most of them I have already seen, and/or are not appropriate for me to watch when the kids are awake.

In fact, that last criteria has been the #1 determinant recently in my movie selections.  Because during the past month or so I have been sitting down and watching 20-30 minutes of a movie while I have my tea and a snack (the 4:00 sustenance that will tide me over through the making of dinner and the bedding of children, since DH and I usually eat together when he is home and the kids are in bed), while the kids are settled down for naps/quiet reading time, which these days is usually somewhere around 3-5pm.  But since the two older girls are reading on the bed only a few feet from the computer desk (here in our living room/master bedroom combination suite), I have to be very selective in what I watch.  It can't have anything inappropriate visually--language does not matter so much since I am using headphones to listen, but generally the two go hand in hand--and in fact I don't even want it to look interesting, since I want the girls to read and not be distracted by the screen. 

So--in 30 minutes increments--I have watched Note by Note: the Making of Steinway L1037, about the making of Steinway concert grand pianos, and A Man Named Pearl about a self-taught topiary artist in the deep south--both excellent documentaries.  Then there was Kings of Pastry, about bakers competing for the highest honor that can be earned in France for their profession, and They Came to Play, about amateur pianists competing for the highest honor that can be earned in the world for their "hobby." And All in This Tea, about a man trying to find the best teas in China.  And The Lottery, a fascinating look at a few charter schools in NYC.  All very interesting documentaries, and worth watching, and fairly uninteresting, visually.

But I am running out of titles that seem safe, that I can put on for a while without threat of unexpected and unwelcome images.  I wish there was a Netflix category labeled "People Standing Around Saying Interesting Things"--because those are the ideal naptime movies.  Guess Who's Coming to Dinner was a winner in this category (although I do find Sidney Poitier quite visually stimulating).  I need to find more--Driving Miss Daisy was a good if familiar one.  I'll have to see if they have Inherit the Wind. . . nope, not as an instant download.  Too bad--a movie about standing around (or sitting) and talking if there ever was one.

But that actually brings me to the second quality I am looking for in movies these days--they can't require too much brainpower.  Honestly, I have been using all my available white matter for schooling and parenting, and that's why I've been lean on the grown-up reading and even blogging.  So not only do my movies have to be visually unstimulating, but they also have to be interesting/meaningful and yet easy to follow.  I guess another good Netflix category for me would be "Movies for the Doddering Intellectual." 

This lack of mental resources was why I had not heretofore tested out one particularly promising naptime genre--period pieces, esp. slow and proper BBC interpretations of Austen and Eliot and Bronte.  Somewhat visually interesting to the girls, what with all the large skirts and riding of horses, but repetitious and nicely slow-paced. But in my mind, I just kept imagining all the words they must contain, all those brilliantly subtle speeches and proper inquiries and polite assurances for which British mini-series are famous--that and their attention to historically accurate locations, clothing, and teeth.  By naptime my head is usually already too full of words--so a movie that would require me to be listening carefully to catch those quick turns of phrase and catch the meaning in a ponderous lecture. . . gah, that's when Steinways start to look really good.

But an amazing change has come over me this last week--the release from school pressures and deadlines I am feeling all of a sudden has re-energized not only my body and spirit, but my mind.  And I am so glad!  Because I just last week finished watching a wonderful BBC mini-series, North & South, and have a new man crush:

photo from Richard Armitage online

Richard Armitage as John Thornton.  Rrrrrrrawr!  He is a handsome man, but it is really his acting that smolders.  I highly recommend this one to any of you who enjoy a good BBC period production!

So I thought I had unexpectedly found my new Mr. Darcy, until DH and I watched another instant download together the other night, Ip Man, a martial arts film based upon real-life events from the Japenese occupation of China.  Lots of choreographed, stylized fighting, yawn, but overall a good story.  But the reason I mention it, is because John Thornton did not stay on the top of my list for long:

Donnie Yen as Ip Man

Hellllllooooooo Master Ip.  I now have my Ultimate Dream Movie Husband.  Handsome, sexy, traditional, humble, gentle, patient, intelligent, wise, just, merciful, strong, loving to his wife, and completely invincible in a ten-to-one brawl.  Did I mention sexy?

Definitely not tea-time material.