The University of Netflix

I know it has been a record TWO WEEKS since I posted, but believe me, I have been SUPER busy. In a good way. I will do a regular post with pix and family updates soon, but for now here's what I have been doing BESIDES blogging & Mom stuff.


I've been watching things on Netflix when I do laundry, so this month I have had a couple of themes. First of all was nutrition. I watched Fork Over Knives , Fat Head, and Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. I learned a lot, and came away with the overall impression (AGAIN) that the Word of Wisdom was right all along. I have made an effort to clean up our diet, which is an wasy thing to do in harevst season--let's see how it goes the rest of the year. We did have 3-4 meatless meals per week this month, and the rest have contained small amounts of chicken or fish. The two "red-meat" meals we have had have been three-bean chili with beef and beef broccoli stir fry, which only uses about 1 serving (6oz) of meat. We have had THE BEST time with the abundant produce we've been getting from the combination of our new Bountiful Baskets program and the $18 worth of WIC checks I can use at the farmer's market (in addition to the $10-15 I can use at the store). My fridge has been BEAUTIFUL and colorful all month and it has been so fun figuring out how to use all the yummy stuff. In my "Real Post", I'll post some recipes and fun pix. Dont' forget, it's apple season at the ranch, too!

My next netflix theme was hillbillies. Holy Twilight Zone! I watched "Winter's Bone" and "The Wild & Wonderful Whites of West Virginia"---both stories were fascinating and terribly sad at the same time. Perscription and meth abuse are epidemic and depressing. And ignorance...well, it's pretty much at the root of every social ill. I liked this quote from the NYTimes about the Whites movie: "It is hard to know just what to think of these people, whose unabashed recklessness might make you envious even as you shake your head in appalled amazement at their disregard for every conceivable societal norm. But one thing is certain, and is in a way the whole point of this fascinating and problematic documentary: The Whites don’t care what you or anyone else thinks of them." Yep.

I also watched NatGeo's "Inside Mecca" and "My Name is Khan" and "The Stoning of Soraya M," continuing my Central Asian education that began with reading Greg Mortensen's books. Yet another Twilight Zone, but admittedly more beautiful. The Mecca footage was just stunning. It records the rituals of the haj, and I am a sucker for rituals and symbolism, so I really liked it. I also find it totally fascinating to watch that many people doing the same thing, en masse. My Name Is Khan was, in my opinion, the Indian Forrest Gump. It's an Indian film, so it has that clean, heartwarming quality of bollywood, but I learned about the Muslim-Hindi conflict, which I hadn't heard much about before. I think my favorite moment was when his mother taught him about the two kinds of people--people who do good deeds and people who do bad deeds, and those are the only distinctions we ever need to consider. NICELY PUT. The stoning film was horrific, but I am glad I saw it. I had no idea that victims are buried from the waist down and then pelted with stones as they are immobilized. Yikes. The over-arching message for me was "Be afraid of Sharia Law--be very afraid." I think there is a beautiful tradition and history in Islam (and the art--oh, I love it), but like anything, it can be dark and scary in its extreme (as we've all learned the hard way this past decade). And the poor women...ugh.

ANYWAY...after I finished the last little bit of Soraya M, I flipped over to "A Room With A View" (click that--you'll love it) for a more beautiful, lighthearted, HILARIOUS viewing experience. I can still say every line after all these years--it's like riding a bike.

UPDATE (9/27): I totally forgot to mention my Ode to Fashion Week Theme. I am not a fan of the idea/mechanism/culture of fashion, although I like it as an art form. I watched "Bill Cunningham New York" and I was thoroughly delighted with the film and Bill as a person. I'd have to say it's one of my favorite documentaries of late. He's such a character--so unique, so right-thinking, yet totally immersed in fashion. Talk about being in the world but not of the world--Bill is it. I also watched "The September Issue" which actually made me feel a little sorry for Anna Wintour, and of course, "The Devil Wears Prada." Fun.