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Most of what I've written has been published as e-books and is available at Amazon. Match Play is a golf/suspense novel. Dust of Autumn is a bloody one set in upstate New York. Prairie View is set in South Dakota, with a final scene atop Rattlesnake Butte. Life in the Arbor is a children's book about Rollie Rabbit and his friends (on about a fourth grade level). The Black Widow involves an elaborate extortion scheme. Happy Valley is set in a retirement community. Doggy-Dog World is my memoir. And ES3 is a description of my method for examining English sentence structure.
In case anyone is interested in any of my past posts, an archive list can be found at the bottom of this page. I'd appreciate any feedback you may have by sending me an e-mail note--jertrav33@aol.com. Thanks for your interest.

Monday, December 27

The Gray Swan

Thank heavens, Christmas is now Christmas Past, and New Year’s Eve will come and go as it usually does, both of us asleep about 10:00, maybe watching the ball drop in New York, maybe not. Come on, 2011! You gotta be better than this one we’re just concluding.

I decided, since the Cardinals had already won their game with the hated Cowboys, to go see a movie instead of watching football. True Grit looks good, but that’s one Rosalie would want to see. So I made the grievous error of choosing The Black Swan. Whew! Not my cup of tea, not my glass of Scotch, not even my DQ chocolate shake. Natalie Portman is being hyped as an Oscar contender for her role as the schizo swan girl, and I guess she did a really good job. I just hated the job she had to do—play a wannabe ballerina who wins the lead in a production of Swan Lake. But she keeps seeing herself in mirrors or other people. The movie was intended as a balletic psychological thriller, but all I came away with was a feeling of creepiness, ickiness, yuckiness. When I was leaving, a woman looked at me and shrugged, her mouth sort of sideways, her eyes wide. I shrugged and said, “I agree.” I guess she too thought it was sort of creepy. I felt that I’d just lost two hours of my life. Ah, well, tomorrow is another day and True Grit will save it.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the tip on the Black Swan. That's one I can miss. True Grit is well done. Don't watch the old one before you go as we did. Much of the language is the same. Matt Damon does a fine job as Glen Campbell or the Texas Ranger LaBoeuff. He always surprises me in his roles. Jeff Bridges is Jeff Bridges and the girl is very, very good. The Coen brothers doing remakes...interesting.

Anne

Anonymous said...

Hi Jerry
Don't know if you've even thought about me in the last several years...no reason to really. I was turned on to your blog by Linda Heppler a few months ago and I have been checking in every so often to see what you have to say. I'm writing today to let you know that I COMPLETELY agree with your assessment of the Black Swan. I went with my wife and daughter (both involved in the ballet world in one way or the other) who absolutely loved it. I, on the other hand, did not; but could not put my finger on why. I showed your post to them and wanted to thank you for helping me explain it to my family (hahaha).
I hope all is well with you and your family (other than your leg malady). And here's hoping that all of your predictions come true for the new year.
Steve Bush SWCS music dept.(for another 2 years LOL)

Jerry Travis said...

Steve Bush, a voice from the past. Nice to hear from you. But how is it possible you have only two years to retirement? Just not possible. You're still a kid in my memory. Happy New Year.
Jerry

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