today I'm suffering post-completion tristesse,
the way I always do after finishing a big project.
(You too?)
Nonetheless, I'm still glad I have some time to start thinking and writing about my upcoming fiftieth birthday, in exactly 2 months (March 5). I'm amazed and curious to find myself at this juncture.
What is it? Who and where am I at fifty?
I got wondering what some of my favorite people were doing at fifty.
You know I'm crazy for Simone Signoret?
She was both sexy and serious. And she was a woman.
I like that.
I wouldn't mind aging like she did. (I mean, with dignity, not smoking oneself to death.) They say she got fat and let her looks go.
So what?
To my eye, she just got more interesting and ... well, to borrow from Neruda, she had the weight of a golden vegetable.
From cinetom
When she was fifty, in 1971, she played The Widow Couderc, with Alain Delon. (I just ordered it on Netflix.)
I don't know much about her, as a person. (According to her Wipipedia entry, she never cared about glamor.)
It's not always good to learn too much about an actor (Manfred made many people unhappy by reporting that Colin Firth is not a sweet potato); but for my birthday, I would like to have dinner with Simone. (Here, with her husband Yves Montand.)
Of course, she's dead (at only 64) but there you have it.Hey! The sun just peeped through the clouds.
I think I'll go to the library and get Signoret's memoirs, Nostalgia Isn't What It Used to Be (La nostalgie n'est plus ce qu'elle était). Yes. Then I'll go back to bed with hot milk, and read.
Good for sadness.
Congratulations on finishing on time, and yay!!!!
ReplyDeleteI turned in my grades yesterday, but I still have a buttload of follow-up work to do. Still, the weight has been lifted.
Simone is beautiful in that picture. I know I read her memoirs years ago, but don't remember a thing. Let us know something interesting about her, OK?
Gotta' read this book now. And see the movie. I always thought she was luscious. Oh, remember "Ship of Fools"? What a movie that was. I watched it not long ago. Many people today are dancing like Jose Ferrer did in that film, while the rest of humanity is in serious jeopardy.
ReplyDeleteStep away from the monkey's paw.
ReplyDeleteSomeone said Shatner has "let himself boldly go". I think, in a way, he's more beautiful than ever!
ReplyDeleteAnd anyway, "letting yourself go" sounds pleasant, like the lasagna-method for gardening, where you layer hay and cardboard and animal excrement and let it all work for itself; no weed pulling.
OMG FRESKA! That could be like your 50th-birthday-ritual; you could coat yourself in hay, cardboard, excrement!
You're only 50 and coated in hay, carboard, excrement once!
Oh yeah, and speaking of Shatner boldly going:
in theater-class, the prof. said (so it must be true) that one way to subliminally convey a character's intense General Desire(s) is to lead with your stomach. No wonder Shatner carries everything in his gut - it's his hunger-life-spring, which is why it grows so impressive!
I want to touch it like people wanted to touch the hem of Jesus' robe.
Happy reading!
Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteI need to remember that it is worth the trip to get here -- well worth braving the bitter cold and that strange man on the bus. Does he *live* on the bus? Anyway, reading "you" by RSS feed just isn't the same. I always feel better for having schlepped across town.
You are amazing.
[But I gotta say that the Herb Alpert cover ruined my newly reborn appetite.]
MOMO: Will do.
ReplyDeleteFISMO: Yes! I've posted about "Ship of Fools." She was never sexier...
MARZ: That's the ticket! Or something like that... Anyway, it's how I feel, like those layers of compost.
Life-spring hunger.
BIANCA: Oh, right, I forget about RSS readers---Blogger Stats shows me there's a bunch of ya'll! Neat.
But does that mean you can't see the pictures?
The pictures are my favorite bits.
Thanks for slogging over on the bus. The same man lives on the bus here too.
Oh, no! I'm sorry Kirk in Cream put you off your food...
(Just looking at it makes me burn calories!)
SPARKY: Thanks, you're right! I even thought that as I wrote about wanting to age like her.
ReplyDeleteI added a disclaimer.
Good you for finishing and I love your approach to turning 50. March 5 is the best of all possible dates in March to have a birthday!
ReplyDelete