Dingo ate my Respectful Memories

What, no review of Julie and Julia? Roger Ebert

I haven't/won't see it. I loved Julia Child: In her writing and cooking shows she was an energetic voice of encouragement for cooks. Equally good at cajoling people to get up and do it and forbidding cooks from dwelling on their inevitable mishaps, her attitude is worthy of emulation and tribute. As for the Julie part, I enjoyed Ms. Powell’s Blog, didn’t read her book, Julie and Julia, but I found myself checking in on her blog as she cooked her way through the thick and often confusing Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

I can’t stand Meryl Streep, the actor - I find her performances to be ridiculously over the top. Dingo ate my Baby – who the hell talks like that? Not any Australian ever. I am pretty careful about when and where I state this opinion: Attacking a cultural icon is never popular – and it isn’t that I am worried about my popularity; there is just enough divisiveness in the world, why challenge people with the cold hard reality the savage vulnerability Streep displayed in The Deer Hunter was an anomaly in her career, not the defining example in her body of work.

A coworker, with good judgment said there is a scene in Julie and Julia when Ms. Child/Streep finds out her sister is pregnant – there the acting was quiet and confident, other than that one scene, her portrayal was just as broad as Dan Aykroyd’s SNL characterization.

There is a promotional book/movie poster in an elevator at work, so I get to spend a few minutes a day looking at it; In it Meryl as Julia is in soft focus staring at the stiff peaks on the end of a balloon whisk – what I see is not a characterization of Julia Child proud of a hard won skill, instead I see Meryl looking ever so self-impressed with her thespianism, saying look at me I’m acting & I just nailed it – I would rather watch the DVD of Julia’s first years than a self-congratulatory kabuki of the same thing.

I did enjoy Michael Pollan’s superb long-form journalism in the NY Times Magazine a few weeks ago. As good as the article was, I dread the inevitable – readers will parrot his conclusions every time the subject comes up. The man writes so well; synthesizing research with a well-honed, educated opinion. Why can’t his readership apply some of that critical thinking that Pollan the author displays when reading Michael Pollan?

My only complaint with his recent article is he is chiding TV shows for being TV shows. The question isn’t do they instruct; it is do they work as entertainment? Some of the shows Pollan marginalized for not teaching cooking technique are actually pretty entertaining. I am more offended by Jim Belushi’s sitcom not being funny than Chopped not informing viewers how to cook dinner.