Last day of freedom!

School district meetings start tomorrow...today is my last day of summer. What will I be doing? Going to school and working....

To return to the media issue - I saw Princess Diaries 2 this weekend. Hmmm - what can I say? First of all - I enjoyed the first one. It was a sweet story that streched the suspension of disbelief, but didn't completely break it. The second installment - blew it out of the water. I won't say the movie was idiotic, but I wouldn't argue with someone who did. The sad part is that it had potential. I love a good fairy tale. I love a good women power movie. Ever After did both well. PD2 did not. I think the problem was twofold. The script was very elementary and had several scenes that seemed to be in there just to appeal to young girls and did not advance the story or the character development at all. The second was, with a few exceptions, the actors seemed to be just going through the motions.

There was one scene that was incredibly tragic. This was probably unintentional, but I almost cried. Julie Andrews sang a song and it was so sad to see evidence of what she has lost. Her voice (which was so unique and exquisite) is gone forever. She almost had to speak her way through the lullaby and Raven Simone joined her, perhaps to cover this up. I can't imagine what Ms. Andrews has gone through since that surgery and I am so impressed that she moved on with so many other projects. She is currently directing a stage version of The Boyfriend, the musical that first brought her to the public's attention so long ago.

I did start watching The West Wing last week. I am now 1/3 of the way through season 2. (Yep, that's 30 episodes in 5 days.) I am completely impressed with this show. The writing is amazing and I am so intrigued with all the characters, especially Josh Lyman played brilliantly by Bradley Whitford. I have even developed quite a bit of respect for Rob Lowe. In addition to being beautiful, the man can act. As I am sure you know, the show is definitely biased toward the left, but is actually somewhat balanced. It shows flawed individuals and policies on both sides and there are characters deserving respect on both sides. It definitely slants its portrayal of the issues, but it does so in a way that the audience is well aware of the slant. This is a democratic White house with Democratic staff. What else are they going to do? I only wish that season 3 was already out on DVD! I understand that Aaron Sorkin left the show after season 4. I'm skeptical of the writing quality after that. We'll see.