Documentary Review: Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me

OK, so I'm a bit late to this party, but, no one in my house really cares for documentaries of any kind, (Or even Mockumentaries for that matter), so even though I've had this one for a bit, I didn't quite have a chance to watch it until this morning. Life is rough sometimes, righ...? Anyway, I can't say that I was all that familiar with Elaine Stritch prior to her playing Colleen Donaghy on my beloved 30 Rock. I've never been big on Broadway or anything relating to it. Perhaps my lower middle class upbringing in North Texas which made Broadway feel like another world away, if not another universe away, but it was just never my thing. That said, and after watching this gem of a profile, I feel like I've fully missed out by not growing up listening to the musical stylings of this lovely lady.

The documentary, filled with loving talking heads about Elaine's talent and zest for life, certainly got me up to speed on all that I'd missed through the years. Filled with recordings of her throughout her career and focusing on the one-woman shows she put together in her last few years of life, I was taken on an emotional journey that went from goosebumps while listening to some of her earlier recordings to cracking up with laughter at some of the clips from her more recent shows.

On a personal note, nothing quite got to me like watching her watch herself on 30 Rock, allowing herself some commentary on what the scene could use and then seeing her face light up when the emotional moment she'd hope for earlier in the scene actually showed up.

Shoot Me also takes you to a serious moment of reflection for Ms. Stritch when she is taken to Mount Sinai for a bit of an extended stay. I was pretty near tears at this point in the flick, but as Elaine was on the screen talking about how she'd been thinking about what kind of picture she'd be leaving behind when all is said and done, it occurred to me that she was leaving behind this beautiful life full of doing wonderful things that most people couldn't even dream of accomplishing. The picture of her life that she left be hind was more full and vibrant than most of us could hope for and she'd done it just by throwing herself into doing things she loved.

This was a really touching portrait of an amazing lady that we so recently lost, and for me, it was worth watching every second of it just to see more of the woman behind Colleen Donaghy.

Star Trek said no e-readers in bed long before Harvard!

In the interest of not having to worry about picking a new series to watch for a few weeks in my house, we've decided to re-watch the Star Trek Cannon. I've been a fan since I was a wee little one, however, my fiance was only really introduced to the series franchises and movies during our last undertaking of watching the entire cannon. 

Something I've noticed however is a lack of tech in a specific arena that I've never really paid attention to before..... When the characters on the various shows read books, they're actually reading books. 

Now, I know some of you out there will be quick to point out that e-readers didn't really exist during the writing, production and shooting of any of the Star Trek shows or movies, and while, yes, you are correct in that.... By the time of development for The Next Generation, "Padds" were a quite often used device to transmit texts and make them mobile.... And some would say, quite correctly, that these "Padds" were the origins of our most beloved and adored iPads and Tablets and e-readers of today. 

These devices were seemingly capable of communicating between one another, as well as the computers on whatever ship or station they existed on, they could carry seemingly massive amounts of texts, (like... say.... a book worth....), and could be used for a variety of day to day functions... Yet, when it comes time for relaxation, all our favorite characters can usually be seen picking up an actual book, printed on actual paper, and reading until their preferred bedtime.

Was it that they couldn't read a book or large text on a padd? Clearly the padds were capable, so methinks not.

Were they merely fans of holding a large, cumbersome object that if you choose to read whilst laying down it sometimes falls directly on your head, (or glasses, it's the worst when a War and Peace length tome falls directly on your cheap, plastic frame glasses)? Doubtful. I mean, seriously, who wants that...?!?

Or was it that Star Trek was once again amazingly ahead of it's time in figuring that a pad/electronic device would maybe not be the best thing to keep a human's circadian rhythms in check, long before Oxford or Harvard even contemplated such thoughts?  

Maybe I'm being overly assumptive here, but, I'm going to have to say it was the latter option. Back in the day, before Apple had ever thought up the iPad, before Amazon existed itself, much less their now popular Kindle, the Star Trek writers, producers and propmasters figured out that maybe, just maybe, falling asleep shortly after reading on an electronic and "blue-light" emitting device might just not be all that healthy. 

Shocking, righ....?

Put down the e-readers. Let the iPads charge at night so they'll be ready for you in the morning. Give the tablets a break, folks. 

Image: Memory Alpha

Pick up an actual book and allow it to lull you into a restful sleep. Like they do in the future. Just because you can have a "padd" in bed with you doesn't mean you should! 

I had no clue it would feel like this....

Ahh, Christmas... The one time a year where commercialism is celebrated and encouraged. I'm just kidding ya, we live in America. Commercialism is celebrated and encouraged every freaking day here. Even used as a barometer of our communal success or failure in each individual year..

But notsomuch in my house.

We don't really do "big" purchases during the year. But, sometimes we do at Christmas...!

And this year? Well, this year I found myself at the busiest big blue box of them all, damn near running back to the electronics department after finding myself in a panic seeing multiple people walk out carrying the exact brown box I'd come for as I was walking into Sam Walton's playhouse.

So I grabbed a basket at the front of the store and I started running. Ran past the tweens looking at the peacoats on the edge of the women's clothing section. Ran past the ladies in full burqas looking at the fancy lingerie. (OK, I did slow down a bit at this sight that showed me that even women in full religious dress like to look a little fancy underneath, but not by much! No time, here, people! Must get brown box filled with delightful electronic!!!)

I ran to the electronics department in such a fury that the gravity of the purchase I was making didn't even have a chance to hit me. And then I got there. And it was glorious. Taking no time to debate my potential purchase, I grabbed the spider-wrapped box and placed it in my basket and then went straight to the registers out of fear that the 1 of only 3 boxes left that I'd grabbed might be snaked from my cart by some other deal-seeking Christmas shopper. (And before you scoff at this thought, I worked in retail at a different big blue box type store for most of my early adult life, and I've seen this happen before. Many times. What can I say? Best Buy had some insane holiday deals in the early 2000's...)

I made it through the registers in record time, even with a cashier-in-training who had a fit of a time with the spider wrap. Showed my receipt at the door.

And then it hit me: This was the first time I've ever bought a TV.

It's not that I haven't owned one before,.. Hell, I owned a 13 inch TV/VCR combo long before I could even drive... But, every TV I've ever had was either a gift or a hand-me-down from my dad when he upgraded his entire house to flat screen LCD and LED TVs.

And beyond that, I've never owned a TV larger than 20 inches. I've always had televisions that would fit perfectly in a dorm room. Or a studio apartment. Or a one-bedroom apartment that was roughly the size of my closet in my childhood bedroom. (Before you ask, no, I did not have an abnormally large closet, this was, however, an abnormally small apartment.)

In one purchase, I felt an immediate burst of adulthood that, even though I am officially on my second year of being 29, hadn't quite hit me before this moment.

I had purchased a TV. A big one, at that. With all sorts of bells and whistles. And with this feeling of adulthood came the knowledge that I didn't even have to wait til Christmas to unbox it and set it up if I wanted. And I think we all know where this story is going....

Yep. Looking at my Xbox Dashboard on it right now...........

Actual TV not pictured. Come on, like I could carry this thing by myself...?
(Image: Wikimedia)

SO it's come to this....

Another TV and Movie review blog. I tried to get away from this, really I did....

I wrote a rambling post on how I felt I couldn't "create" while being a "professional consumer" by way of critiquing content provided by actual creators.

So, I stepped away. And I wrote a bunch of stuff. Scripts, parodies, I've got a whole hard drive full of them....

But, I missed this. I missed writing and sharing my thoughts about new television shows and movies that I'd become passionate over. I missed having a place to gush when I was overly feeling the feels for new stuff that I've watched.

And, well, here we are. Hope you enjoy my rants and ramblings...!