Meryl Streep is again amazing as she portrays a Jewish psychiatrist counseling Uma Thurman on her love life, in particular. As the story unfolds the three people involved meet making tension escalate even further.
A good solid growing up story. It is fun but sad. The ending left much to be desired but at least it was not your typical Hollywood ending. Much improvement.
**** Loved it! Love Streep and Thurman combo. Good flick! Yes, I own it.
Dear Baba Rumcake,
I remember when I was with my first bf (together for 8 years), I was so in love and I was never tired of seeing him. We dated from high school to college. So we were young and we didn’t have much going on in our lives except school. Now I am married (4 years) with a child. I can’t tell if I am still in love with my husband. Most of the time, I feel like I don’t need him. I am perfectly fine with my child.
I wonder if it’s because now I have a career, and a child, and being in a love relationship is no longer a priority to me?
Needing Sparks
Dear Needing,
I guess you have arrived at what most women look forward to. You have no need for the man you are with, yet you are happy. You may need a spark to renew your sex life but the stability of your marriage has helped you grow up and become independent.
You have a career and a child which fulfill you. That means that you are beyond need of a man. But, your desire to make your marriage more enjoyable is healthy and wonderful. This is one of those rare letters that make sense and leave me happy.
Wear plastic wrap and meet him at the door. Buy red lingerie with high heels and have an evening alone after you put your child to bed. Give him coupons that offer sex which he can redeem. Rent a limo and drive around, make love in the back seat.
I heard of a woman who knew where her husband had a business meeting, walked to the bar and sat down dressed to kill. After an hour, she walked up to him as if she knew him not, then bent over and whispered in his ear leaving a hotel key on the table before him. His buddies thought that this gorgeous stranger offered him herself for the night. He was thrilled.
Try these out! If they help, I will suggest more.
Baba Rumcake
Craig MachenBook genre: Cross-Country Coming of Age Memoir
Date Published: May 17, 2011
Publisher: Me!
I’ve been a screenwriter since 1997, but I also teach classes and do some writing coaching and story consulting for production companies.
At its heart, the book is about the things that made me want to be dad, but the logline is, “Young love and coming of age in the strip clubs.”
When I was 16 I was down from Oklahoma, visiting my dad in Miami. We’d been doing cocaine (my first time) for three days, and he asked me if I wanted to go to a strip bar. I said, “Sure!” and 10 minutes later I was in a car with Dad’s boyfriend on the way to an all nude club in the woods. That night was a revelation. I went back to Oklahoma the next day, and before the end of my junior year in high school my mom left town with her 23 year-old boyfriend, and my pregnant girlfriend was moved off to Texas by her parents.
This, and a roaring White Knight Complex, sent me on a demented, five year quest for a family of my own. I succeeded, but in between I was like John Cusack holding a giant radio over my head, searching for someone to rescue, until finally someone rescued me.
Well, that’s an interesting question. I think we’re all like Christopher Columbus when we start a new project, bound and determined to find a faster way to the Spice Islands. Somewhere along the way, though – if we’re lucky – the story will start pulling us in the direction it wants to go. That moment of surrender, where you decide that all of your best laid plans need to be pitched so that you can discover America is it for me. Just getting there, and allowing it to happen, is probably the most challenging, and the most rewarding, part of the writing process.
That, and avoiding mixed metaphors!
Fear of starvation.
Yes, I have. I think that has more to do with anxiety or overwork than anything. I just read one of Willie Nelson’s books and he was talking about how Ray Price told him not to try to force anything when the well runs dry. He said that everything you do in between writing songs is filling that well back up. I agree. You can really get burned out and isolated if you neglect your actual (non-writing) life. And if you have no life, you’ll have nothing to write about.
About ten months, maybe a little less. I wrote the first 20 pages ten years ago, but when I sat down and got going, I found a pretty steady and comfortable pace.
Well, I was dying to write this book, but I knew that my manager and agents in Hollywood wouldn’t have any interest in it. From their perspective, books are a huge gamble with very slim odds of paying off. And they are probably right. However, I was obsessed. So I just started doing it and didn’t ask permission.
When I got done, my screenwriting agent didn’t even want to read it. And what’s worse, I found there really isn’t much crossover between Hollywood and the publishing world if you’re not a name brand author. So, I wrote a bunch of query letters and five months later I got a good agent. It took another three months to negotiate the representation contract, and then we had to wait through the holidays. In late January, the book went out and we were hearing the same thing from about 70% of the editors who read it. That bit went something like, “Love the book, love the voice, showed it around to the gang, don’t know how to sell a memoir by someone who isn’t famous.”
After almost three months of this, I pulled the plug. I was just dead tired of swinging in the wind, particularly with something as personal as this. I felt like maybe, just maybe, I could find my audience if I reached out to them. And so, I decided to try. Now this may wind up being the pinnacle of foolishness, particularly if you add in all the time spent writing the book. But no one goes into creative writing because the business prospects are great. Usually you’re plagued with passion, and that’s sort of where I am now.
That it needs to take forever. I find tackling any kind of long form writing is a lot like going to the gym. A week or two of keeping your appointment with yourself to write, turns pretty quickly into a habit, and if you just let it continue, before you know it you’ll have your first draft.
I love how unconstrained I felt writing a book. Screenwriting, even very good screenwriting, is sort of formulaic. There are points where certain things need to happen, and a limited number of pages to tell your story. You also need to be very linear, and show, not tell. I tried to keep the best of that cinematic process, and have fun from there.
I’m just at the very beginning of this process, so I’ve been asking a lot of these questions. Putting one foot in front of the other, and just moving in the direction of your dreams, is really good all-purpose advice that has generally worked well for me.
Oh, and Goodreads is awesome. I just love it. I definitely wouldn’t join with a big marketing attitude about it all, because smart people can smell that a mile away. But if you’re a reader or writer, I think you can absolutely find a home there, and all that getting the word out stuff will happen organically.
No. I’m a dad, so I’ll never feel like I’m nothing. And I also think that if you have that artistic compulsion you’ll find a way to express it, even if you’re not writing.
That said, I am definitely much happier and more confident when I’m writing.
Oliver Stone said almost the same thing thusly, “Writing equals ass plus chair.” I love that, and I agree whole-heartedly. As long as you haven’t been running yourself into the ground, I think the best inspiration is just “drawing up a chair to the writing desk.”
Anyway, thanks so much to Sonya for inviting me to do this interview. I’ve really enjoyed it, and I hope you like my book.
Craig
Writing to me is one way to say thank you. Many people deserve my thanks and appreciation but no one more than my loyal and faithful daughter. If life offered me any gifts, she was the first in this life.
At the age of 17, she entered the service becoming a US Marine. During Basic Training, she got word that I was in trouble, unable to pay my mortgage.
My intrepid child went to her CO, asked for the money they set aside for the recruits, her meager salary, to send to her mother. I received a money order and a phone call. The money order was more than I needed. The phone call from her was even more.
“Mommy,” said my oldest child, “I am sorry that it is not a full $500. I had to use $1 for the money order.”
Words could never begin to express my gratitude nor my joy at having this child. Not because she gave me money, but because I am proud she is mine. The Lord allowed me the honor of having this woman in my life for a while. Because no matter how old she gets, she is still mine and I can write about her courage and fearless love for all around her. Her compassion spreads out to all and she is sought out for advice when people are in trouble.
Like a flower, she grew! Like a duckling she became a swan. And just as ferociously, she loves us all.
I write novels and short stories about life and today,
Writing To Me Is:
Thank you First Sergeant. I love you.
-Mom
Salt and ground black pepper to taste.
1- Peel and devein shrimp. Leave tail on. Butterfly.
2- Place prepared shrimp in a shallow dish and sprinkle with olive oil; refrigerate, covered, until ready to cook.
3- In a medium bowl, combine sesame oil, lemon juice, onion, and parsley. Season to taste with salt and pepper; set aside.
4- Pour all ingredients over shrimp.
5- Grill and cook approximately 2 minutes on one side; turn and cook another 1 minute or until shrimp are opaque in center (cut to test). Remove from grill.
6- Suggestion: you can make extra vinaigrette to add to cooked shrimp.
Drizzle with a little of the vinaigrette.
Serve over a green salad or cooked rice.
Serves 4.
