All My Gettings

A while back, I was faced with the need to establish a female equivalent of Joseph Day. You see, the traditional Joseph Day celebration is pretty male-centric, so we need a day in which turnabout can take place. Which leads us to today: Eliza Day. Eliza R. Snow, Zion's Poetess, Lioness of the Lord, plural wife of both Joseph and Brigham, was born January 21, 1804. I bet if she had her say, she'd totally get behind what I'm expecting to happen in honor of her birth. Though, I suppose, we might actually want to memorialize December 5, the day she died, to make it parallel with Joseph Day. However, since I'm the one making up these holidays, pretty much whatever I want flies, eh?

So, to crib a line from Mormon history, "Brethren, go find yourself a sister and do your duty." Seriously, get on that.

In unrelated news, I was a movie freak the last couple of days. On Thursday, I saw No Country for Old Men, which I liked, maybe even loved, but still wonder why it's considered the best flick of '07. Then on Friday, I headed to the LDS Film Festival, where I was impressed by the consistently professional look of the shorts, and the enjoyableness of the feature (I'll probably post a longer review on Errand of Angels, the feature film, when I get a chance).

Saturday meant Sundance. I saw four films that day, most of them rather depressing, either because they contained references to child rape and decapitation by mailbox or because they were so freaking boring. You'd think that a film about juvenile deliquents in a Russian prison would be fascinating, right? You'd be wrong. Alone in Four Walls didn't succeed if it wanted me to feel sorry for the kids. Frustratingly, it was hard to tell if that was the director's intention. She may have wanted us to think they had it better at this prison, which was really more like a reform school than anything. Plus, way too many shots of boys cleaning in their boxer shorts.

We saw a documentary on these linguists who do field work on highly endangered languages. It was well made for the most part (it sort of fell apart style coherence-wise towards the end). Dude, though, these linguists were nerds and really reminded me of some of my former ling colleagues (and I guess, if I'm being honest, of myself, too). Sadly, this film was preceeded by a 12 minute short that may be the worst use of cinema I've ever endured. It was bad in a way that words fail. Also, if this sort of stuff is what the Cree are creating as their cultural output, maybe that's one language we can afford to lose.

Yesterday, we filed into the Eccles Center, a theater that seat over a 1000, for a screening of Sunshine Cleaning. As most of you know, I love me some quiet desperation, and here we had it in spades. Amy Adams, of course, was great, as the single mother who decides to start a biohazard cleaning company with her aimless sister. With the help of a one-armed janitorial supply store owner, the two of them really start going places. So, the quirky family drama charmer is quickly establishing itself as a genre. While this film doesn't really cut new paths, it's definitely a wonderfully acted, tightly scripted, well-shot piece of celluloid worth checking out once it gets picked up and distributed.

Today, sadly, is filled not with screens, but snow. It took me an hour to make the drive into work. I'm so done with living in a climate that has winter.