Blog list addition

I've added Annie's Gardens in Bloom - An untraditional love story, written by the spouse of a transitioning transsexual. Annie is one of the newer members of the myHusbandBetty boards, and her posts there and on her new blog are informative and well-written. They show that a divorce should not be assumed to be part of the transition of a married person from one gender to another.

Quick review: La Vie en Rose / La Môme

The opening night feature of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2007 was a biopic of French singer Edith Piaf, La Vie en Rose. That's actually the American title. In France it's simply called La Môme, which was Piaf's nickname. La Vie en Rose was her signature song.

Unless one knows a fair amount about Piaf's life, a viewer will probably find this film confusing. I don't, so I did. Flash-backs and flash-aheads abound, frequently with a title on the screen, but too often without. Characters appear without identification. Maybe it's common knowledge in France who her boxer-lover was, but I had no idea. I did figure out who Marlene Dietrich was--but only after she introduced herself to Piaf as "Marlene." A husband suddenly appears at the end. There were lots of loose ends. At best one (at least a previously uninformed one like me) will walk out wanting to know more.

But that's often the way it is with French films. They frequently don't have everything wrapped up and tied with a neat bow. La Vie en Rose does give one the sense of Piaf's life, I think. The details are secondary.

The performances are excellent, particularly Marion Cotillard (who was present at the screening, along with the director) as Piaf. She did not do the singing, however. Her lipsyncing was great, though (and I've seen a lot of lipsyncing)--they used Piaf's recordings for the later songs, and another singer for her earlier work.

The film was released in France only two weeks ago, and apparently is doing well. It will be released in the U.S. in June. So if you're interested, you have time to do a little research before seeing it. You may enjoy it more than I did.

I have 67 friends on MySpace!

I have a MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/capricebellefleur I'm sure I'm not the oldest person with one, but I'd place a small wager I'm in the upper 5% age-wise. Having a MySpage page makes me hip and with it, I guess--though "hip" and "with it" are probably so out-dated that it proves I'm not hip and with it.

Anyhow, I actually set this up almost a year ago. A few people on the myHusbandBetty boards said they had MySpace pages, so I got one, and added them as friends. Then I did nothing with it until this month. I wanted to check if there was any news about Lisa Jackson and Girl Friday--Lisa had broken away from the band. (The group's page has since been reinitialized.) There wasn't any, but I saw someone I knew on their top friends list, so I went to their page, and clicked on "Add to Friends." Then I saw someone on their top friends list, and went there, and an hour or two later I had asked several dozen people to add me. I shouldn't say people. Some are bands, some are organizations.

Many are drag performers or musicians I know at least slightly. The great thing about having them as MySpace friends is that they send out bulletins about their upcoming performances. I did get Harvey Fierstein and Margaret Cho also.

Otherwise, I haven't done much with my page. My single blog entry there just directs people here.

So if you have a MySpace page, go to mine, and click on "Add to Friends." If your profile is not too weird, I'll add you (I have rejected a few). Everyone can always use more friends.

Correction--slight

Last August I noted that I had gotten a websearch for "mary carillo lesbian," after having gotten one for "transgender mary carillo." I explained that she's not lesbian, she's married to a man.

Today someone found my blog searching for mary carillo marriages. I happened to notice in one of the other posts Google found was that Mary is divorced, for a number of years, actually. So my August statement about her being married was in error.

But I've seen nothing to indicate she's lesbian. Or transgender.

Observation of the day

The easiest way to clean the globe from a chandelier is to put it in the dishwasher.