Icons: Turtles and Cavemen

Because Comcast's turtles The Slowskys and Geico's cavemen are such compelling and complex characters, I look forward to their commercials. They trancend ordinary commercialdom. I mean, ordinarily, I hate TV commercials. These characters are so iconic, I'd like to see them in a TV series or a feature film. I can picture them in indy-style films like American Beauty. They're that real.

Free Online Myers-Briggs Personality Test

I was fleshing out my profile on StumbleUpon, when I stumbed upon an online Myers-Briggs personality test. I took a self-scoring one many years ago in NYC. When I did this online test a little while ago, I had a feeling maybe my score would be different this time, because I couldn't tell if I was answering certain questions accurately (perhaps lacking self-knowledge). But sure enough, like years ago, I came out once again as an ENFP. Very interesting indeed.

ENFP - "Journalist". Uncanny sense of the motivations of others. Life is an exciting drama. 8.1% of total population.

Free Jung Personality Test (similar to Myers-Briggs/MBTI)

New Judy Pokras Artwork Shop

I'm excited to announce the opening of the new online Art by Judy Pokras shop.

The first items are now listed--t-shirts and notebooks and totes and baby clothes and more, all adorned with nifty original Judy Pokras artwork--and I'll be adding new items all the time, so stop by and take a look! It's a great place to find unique gifts.

Zlango, a Fun Language to Replace Text Messaging

Yoav Lorch has created Zlango, a "language" of cartoony icons to replace cell phone text messages. While it may be true that few adults (at least in the US) use text messaging, it would be a lot more fun to use with Zlango! It would probably catch on! But it would probably have to be called Zlango-messaging, because Zlango would eliminate the need for text. (Although Zlango doesn't prevent people from adding text to their messages.)

Zlango is a brilliant idea, and can actually go a long way towards helping to bring about world peace, by uniting everyone with one common language. Who knows, maybe one day it will win Lorch the Nobel Peace Prize.

One suggestion for Zlango: Because vegans (and raw vegans) would prefer to have an icon for food that didn't feature a hot dog, we hope there will be an optional Zlango icon for "food" that features someone eating a piece of fresh fruit.

Julie Bowen in the Movie Night Fall

I just finished reading Nelson DeMille's thriller Night Fall. I pictured Julie Bowen playing the book's character Kate, if and when this book gets made into a feature film. I hope the director's reading this! I hope it gets made into a film, and I hope they cast Julie. She'd be perfect!!!

He Could Play Ricky Nelson in a Biopic

If you go to singer-songwriter Jeremy Fisher's site and watch his video called "High School," you'll see a performer with more than a trace of resemblance to the late rock and roll heart-throb Ricky Nelson. Although the resemblance isn't apparent in the still photo on Fisher's home page, in the video he not only evokes a similar shyness to Nelson's. Fisher also resembles the '50s icon physically, and moves like he did.

Jeremy Fisher would be a great choice to play Ricky Nelson if a film were made about him. This is the kind of uncanny similarity directors rarely find when casting a biopic.

I'm a writer/director with a great instinct for casting; I had the idea that Teri Garr should play Phoebe's mother on Friends, and eventually she was cast in that role, although I had nothing to do with the show and knew no one involved in it.

Boston Legal and Dolphins Referring to Themselves By Their Own Names

"Bob's in a Picture!"

This Newsweek article says that dolphins name themselves with "their own unique signature whistles and clicks." That's not surprising, because they're known to be very bright. What I like even better is that, according to this article, dolphins say their own names a lot. This scientific discovery gives David E. Kelley new options for storylines for the next season of the wonderful Boston Legal. Does Bill Shatner's Denny Crain have a long-lost dolphin doppleganger who goes around proclaiming to other dolphins, "Denny Crain, Denny Crain"? Maybe the dolphin seeks Denny's representation in a defamation lawsuit?

A New Syndrome: Continuous Partial Attention

Steven Levy's brilliant essay in the March 27 Newsweek (click the above headline to read the article) says it like it is. Electronic gadgets have changed the fabric of our lives. We're so busy IM-ing, reading e-mail, checking our BlackBerries (if we have one--I wish I did), and being interrupted by cell phone calls and text messages, we're not able to commit to anything at hand. As a serious astrologer might say, it's as if Gemini had taken over our culture. As a sociologist might say, it's as if the psychological "fear of commitment" had extended to society at large. Going on a date in the days before cell phones was an idyllic time, because it was just you and your date. Nowadays--as sitcoms and real life reveal-- you're not out on a date with one person; you're out with him and all the people calling him on his cell phone. About 20 years ago, musing about how previous generations grew up without TV, I wondered what things the next generation would have that we didn't have as kids. The future is here and it's moving so fast, it's tripping over itself.

James Spader Sings Love Songs

That's the name of an album I wish I could buy.

It seems that women of all ages and marital status (and even some men, of all sexual preferences) are in love with Jimmy.

I have no idea if he likes to sing. But if he made an album of love songs, it would be a best seller. The people who idolize him would have his sexy voice all to themselves, in their heads or rooms or cars, as if he were singing to them alone.

I have no idea how to get this idea to Jimmy himself. Agents don't want to hear about ideas unless you're signed up with them, and besides, I'm no record producer. I don't know what my role would be. Idea person? The one who chooses the songs and writes the cover notes? I'd love to. I'm compiling a list of songs I'd like the album to contain. But of course it's up to Jimmy. What he feels like singing. If he feels like singing. Jimmy? What do you think?

Catching up with James Spader's body of work--and what a body!

Since I only fell in love with Jimmy recently (where was I all those years?), I've been renting or buying his movies and catching up with them.

So far I've seen:

White Palace
I found the storyline unbelievable, not because of the age difference between Jimmy's and Susan Sarandon's characters but because of their class difference. Also I didn't feel there was much chemistry between them.

Alien Hunter
(I happened upon this TV one night) I liked what Jimmy did with the role, although it's not my favorite film genre. Plus, I found the visuals too dark (color-wise, not thematically)

Secretary
I really enjoyed this, in spite of the strange subject matter. Jimmy did a great job, and so did Maggie Gyllenhaal. They were perfectly cast. I was surprised to see that the screenplay was based on a novella by someone I once worked with when I lived in NYC (Mary Gaitskill), only because I hadn't heard that her writing had turned into a big deal film. She and I were freelance legal proofreaders on the midnight shift, when she became a famous and critically acclaimed writer.

Pretty in Pink
Although there's not enough Jimmy in this film for me, I loved what there was, and really enjoyed the movie. Molly Ringwald is excellent and so is Jon Cryer, especially his lip-synch dance. The film also features the cute Andrew McCarthy.

Stargate
A woman who works in the local Blockbuster raved about this one. Jimmy plays a shy, good-hearted linguist. I loved Jimmy in it--I love him in anything--but this Star Wars clone was not the type of movie I can sink my teeth into.

[By this point, having watched all of the above films plus TV's Boston Legal, I was seeing how incredibly versatile Jimmy is from one role to the next. Unlike some actors who are the same from role to role, basically playing themselves, Jimmy's always a different character.]

Sex Lies & Videotape
I had seen this ages ago when it first came out in theaters and had forgotten much of it. It was quite wonderful seeing it now. And the screenplay was brilliant. I

Personal Shopper As Fairy Godmother

Yesterday I drove an hour to Tampa in search of a dress to wear to a black-tie family party in NY. I'd been looking for months. The problem isn't so much that I'm fussy (which I am, in spades). It's that designers aren't making dresses this season to fit my hourglass shape. I have to say here that my shape is all natural. Hasn't been enhanced. Which makes finding a dress that much harder.

The vast majority of dresses and tops this season are empire waisted. Not a good style for someone like me. I was ready to throw in the towel. Well, not the towel. (Where did that expression come from anyway? Boxing? Dishwashing?)

Then, in the way that fate sometimes has of putting the perfect person in your path, fate aligned me with a saleswoman in the WestShore Plaza Tampa Saks. The saleswoman, Dagny Rivers (who I think should be immediately promoted to the store president), had infinite patience, a lot more than I did. For hours, she brought me more and more things to try on, clothes best suited to my body type, which takes some vision when your own body type, like Dagny's, is tall and willowy like a model. All of the dresses, skirts and tops she found for me were wonderful, even if they didn't fit me (blame the designers for that, not Dagny), although some (like the Nanette Lepore skirts) were a bit more wonderful than others.

I felt like a movie star or a princess. I guess it's my Leo moon. Dagny went beyond the call of duty to snap photos of me in the various outfits, with my cell phone, which I then sent to my mother's cell phone. My fashion-maven mother called me back each time to give me her always-expert opinion.

Dagny made what would have been an ordeal that I wasn't willing to go through something fun! I told her that I would be writing about her, but that she might wind up getting too much business, which would then prevent her from doing what she does so well. So, if you do seek her out and find that she's too busy, this article might be why. (But maybe Saks will promote Dagny by then, anyway. In that case, Saks shouldn't worry, because the Peter Principle won't be operating!)

The Ultimate in Fashion

I certainly don't want to give a fast food chain any free publicity, because basically their food is bad for us. But this ad is, well, brilliant. Here's what the top of the ad says:

On this page:
Marielle Lorenz dress,
Ana Testa make-up,
McDonald's necklace®.

It took me a while to realize what the necklace is made of!

This Will Get You Dancing

Maybe you've seen this already, but it was new to me. It's a very funny animated short by the brilliant animated video director Dan Meth called Shake That Ass. It features a wild assortment of dancers, such as cartoon monsters, a little yarmulke-wearing boy, and the characters from Peanuts as African-Americans. Even if you don't think of yourself as a dancer, I dare you to sit still while you watch it.

Making of America--an online library

The New York Times has a piece in today's paper about a wonderful digital library of Americana. Here's a 1921 selection they highlighted from the archive:

Adventures of a Working Woman

In New York

By anonymous (an upper-class woman who set out to investigate the life of laboring women). 1921.

For years I had heard persons, men and women, declaim against the incomprehensible devotion of "shop-girls" to chocolate éclairs and gumdrops ... instead of a bowl of oatmeal and milk, or of "good, nourishing soup."

The first time I tried lunching on a bowl of oatmeal and milk I began to experience a most uncomfortable sensation under my apron before three o'clock. By five that sensation had become a sharp griping pain. The day following I tried soup. In the middle of the afternoon when Nora learned how I was suffering, she went scurrying around among the girls in various departments and returned with three gumdrops, which she made me eat.

After that when I had 10 cents or less to spend for lunch I invested in a chocolate éclair and gumdrops. Without a doubt such a diet does produce pale faces and a predisposition to tuberculosis. Experience taught me that it staves off the griping agony produced by hunger and standing on one's feet longer than any other food to be had in New York City for the same money. When a girl's wage is seven dollars a week, or less, 10 cents a day is all she can spend for lunch.

Topless My Ass!

In Wedding Crashers trailers, we see Jane Seymour's naked back as she stands before Owen Wilson, apparently bare breasted. Indeed, the Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman actress (and real-life 54-year-old mother of six) has been making the rounds of talk shows, where hosts have been lauding her for her bravery in taking on this role.

But all the talk about her daring topless scene is fake. With the camera shooting a profile view, and with the strategic placement of Owen Wilson's hands, the movie reveals no more of Jane Seymour's anatomy than a bra would.

I realize it's all a publicity campaign, but c'mon guys. This is NOT truth in advertising! The word of mouth buzz about the movie's laughs ought to be enough to drive traffic to the film.

[By the way, the photo posted here isn't from Wedding Crashers, and it's not even Jane Seymour, but it's similar to the backless shot of her that appears in the trailers.]

Crash the Wedding Crashers Trailer!

I'm not being a shill for some corporate scheme. I'm telling you about this link because I think it's super cool! They make it soooo easy to put yourself in a movie trailer (or yourself and someone else too) and then send it to friends. It's a brilliant publicity strategy. Whoever through this up is a genius! Maybe it was Owen Wilson, who stars in Wedding Crashers along with Vince Vaughn. I can't wait to see this movie! Click on the headline at the top of this post to go to the page where you can put yourself in the trailer. And please e-mail me a copy of whatever you create! I want to see it!

Petition for a Pink Floyd Comeback

I hope you'll help to spread the word about this petition. Pink Floyd did really well in their amazing reunion performance at Live 8. They sounded awesome! This was the first time they performed as a group in 25 years!

Press reports say they don't want to make a comeback because they feel they are "too old." We have to let them know they that aren't too old. After all, Tony Bennet is much older than they are and he's still going strong. To see the petition, click on the headline above.

I met Pink Floyd's David Gilmour a long time ago, when the group performed in Boston. I somehow managed to get backstage after the performance. I had had a boyfriend (when I was a student at The London School of Film Technique--now The London International Film Schoool) who said that his girlfriend Verity had left him for Gilmour. My boyfriend, whose name was also David, was gorgeous and smart and nice, and I wondered what this Gilmour guy could be like to cause her to leave him! So I had to see Gilmour in person. It turned out that he and my boyfriend resembled each other. Tall, well built, with handsome sculpted faces and glamorous long rock star hair, both of them artists. Somewhere I have the whole backstage conversation typed up.

Check out what Brad Kava writes in the San Jose Mercury News. He's right on about Pink Floyd's "simply stunning" performance leaving us wanting more, more more!!!

Like Bradgelina

photo scanned by www.pittcenter.com

As reported widely, it was Brad Pitt himself who suggested that W magazine shoot a photo essay starring him and Angelina Jolie playing husband and wife. Brad didn't let those nasty rumors--which he and Angie have been denying--get in the way of 60 pages of photos.

Well, I have an idea. This is an open letter to any glossy. Despite the rumors that Owen Wilson and I are an item--which we both continue to vehemently deny--I volunteer to pose with Owen for the same type of 60-page photo spread. Let the rumors fall where they may. We're really not a couple! Honest!

My Drawing of TV's Dan Abrams

MSNBC's Dan Abrams

I drew this of Dan Abrams when he covered the OJ trial.
Now I'm watching him covering the Michael Jackson trial.
I'm watching Michael's fans release doves outside the
courthouse as the not guilty verdicts are announced.
This is great news! Justice!!!

I've Got to Make Some Edible [Raw Food] Books!

Peter's Book of Lasagna
Photo by Paul Heydenburg


Take a look at some gorgeous creations at The 6th Annual Edible Book Show and Tea held at The Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts.

I'm so excited to find out about this yearly competition for edible books.
Since I'm both a foodie and a writer, this is sort of perfect!

Now to put my chef's hat on and make some edible raw food books! Yessssssss!

Here's info on how you can participate in next year's event!