In an article in today's LA Times, writer Claudia Eller posits that the reason several recent summer films have failed is that audiences are no longer drawn to A-list actors.  She cites the dismal box office performances of three films as part of her argument: The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 (starring John Travolta and Denzel Washington), Land of the Lost (with Will Ferrell), and Year One (which boasted Jack Black and Dana Carvey).  She also mentions the earlier in the year drubbing of State of Play and Duplicity, films that starred Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck, Julia Roberts and Clive Owens, respectively.

Even without quibbling over Eller's definition of a star (C'mon, Jack Black?  An actor, yes.  A celebrity, perhaps.  But not a star in my book), I think she's got it wrong.  The reason movies like Up, The Hangover and Star Trek have hit it big this summer is twofold:

1.  Innovation.  Up is the latest movie from Pixar, the animation geniuses who turned the genre on its ear with Toy Story.  The Hangover takes a "should be predictable" premise and livens it up with mystery, unexpected twists and a genuine story of transformation in the middle of all its antics.  Star Trek took a classic series and reworked it in a way that drew Trekkies and their grandkids.  (Trekkies may not have liked it, but they had to see it.  Their kids and grandkids loved it.)

2. Audiences are tired of reruns.  Pelham is a remake.  Land of the Lost is another in a series of Will Ferrell films that seems increasingly desperate for an audience (think Steve Martin in the late 80's).  Year One is Dumb and Dumber set 2008 years ago.  Similarly, State of Play and Duplicity both had a "been there, done that" sort of feel to the trailers.  State of Play was too close to Michael Clayton and Duplicity seemed like a pared down version of any of the Oceans films (11, 12 or 13).

What Ellers did get right is that this movie going season, word of mouth moves a lot quicker than it used to.  Films are instantly reviewed by bloggers, like yours truly; via tweet and text.  I think that's a good thing.  The audience is showing, I believe, that its hungry for a story that either surprises or touches off emotions (laughter, tears, something).

Studio heads shouldn't eschew stars in an attempt to "fix" this issue.  They should eschew tired stories and poor writing.

Dan and I watched an episode of the British version of "Eleventh Hour," a series that ran for four episodes in 2006.  The last show of the series was called "Miracle."  The story involved a young boy who had a tumor.  He drank water from a spring that had recently begun flowing again and he was cured of cancer.

Naturally, the press got onto the story and swarms of people with cancer started showing up to "take the waters."  The show's hero, Ian Hood (wonderfully played by Patrick Stewart) sets out to disprove the miracle.  By the end of the show...SPOILER ALERT...he proves that the boy's tumor was healed by heavy water leaking from a secret nuclear weapons factory.

Which leads to the Sunday question:

Given what I've just described in terms of plot, is Hood correct that no miracle has take place?  Or is it a miracle of sorts that the boy happened to be near heavy water which he drank and which cured him?

Today is the first day I've worn shorts this summer.  It's also the first day this summer that the June gloom we have (and I enjoy so much) in Laguna Niguel burned off before 9:00 a.m.  Which means that it's been fairly warm so far...but not so warm I've turned on the air conditioning.  (Gotta save that for the really hot days with NO breeze.

We had a little celebration of my scan news.  Last night it was a bit of bubbly (just a bit...gotta preserve that liver) and dinner out at a favorite Italian restaurant.  Then this morning the celebration continued with the wild abandon only found in sticky buns.

We had previously been turned on to Trader Joe's sticky buns, but those have mysteriously vanished from the marketplace.  So we're now onto Williams Sonoma sticky buns (pricey, I know, but you get 12 in 3 packages of four).  Not quite as sticky as TJ's but amazingly flakey and so, so good.

By lunchtime, I'd recovered myself and had a macrobiotic lunch at the local vegan place.  We ventured really far from the normal post-chemo agenda (i.e., the couch) and went to see The Hangover.  I laughed harder at that movie than I have in quite some time.  It's like watching a slow motion series of pratfalls, all elegantly crafted, with unexpected twists when you're expecting veers.

Last weekend, Lynne and I saw The Proposal.  More of a chick-flick, it was also funny but in a more dignified, and somewhat more predictable way.  There were times that the plot veered dangerously close to another favorite Sandra Bullock movie, While You Were Sleeping.  But leading man, Ryan Reynolds, and supporting actress, Betty White, both pulled the movie out of romantic comedy predictability with charming performances.

I ask you, what's better than a summer day, wearing shorts, hanging with your honey (or an amazing friend) and laughing out loud at a funny movie?

(I couldn't think of anything either.)

Today was a very good day in that I got a lot accomplished, had zero nausea and good energy.  Still, there were a lot of little things that didn't make sense to me.  Here's a list:

1.  Since it's my body and I drank the barium on Monday and stayed still for the PET/CT scan, why is it that my test results can't be released to me until my Doctor approves their release?

2.  How is it that service reps at the Toll Road won't let me deal with Dan's account (when I've got all of his information including last payment, account paid from, our car registration numbers, etc.) in order to fix their silly error?

3.  Why is it a "security issue" for Dan to send a fax to UPS allowing Chad to pick up the jeans that we sent to him?

4.  Why do we settle for "news" organizations who chase their tails over a governor's infidelity but don't seem to be capable of actually reporting any substantive news?

These are just a few of the questions running around my noggin.  And this is on a good day...just imagine if it had been a tough day!

Hope that your day was "Huh?" free.

Howdy, ya'll.  I had quite a fun day today.  Breakfast with Dan.  A nice long shower (to last me 3 days).  A 2 1/2 hour infusion followed by lunch with my long-time friend, Peggy Edwards. 

She and I chatted about various projects she's been working on and the book I've begun working on (click here for the Introduction to Golf on Monday, Chemo on Tuesday: One Woman's Approach to Advanced Cancer.)  Then it was home for more chatting before Peggy headed for the Santa Clarita Valley.

I spent the afternoon working on the first of 20 recommendations for folks who've been diagnosed with cancer.  And then I had the ultimate summer pleasure of going for a sunny walk at 5:00 p.m.  Since then I've had dinner and now am talking to you, dear readers.

One other thing that made the day most pleasant was reading a positive article in the LA Times about South Central Los Angeles and the folks who are making a life for themselves in what some would consider one of the worst places to live in L.A.

Fascinating to see how the story these folks have about where they live and how they invest time and energy in making their homes beautiful reflects the lessons I've learned about thriving even though I have cancer.  It's so very much about the stories we tell ourselves.

Just a quick blog today.  I am dead tired after playing 18 holes of golf (110 with a chip in on the 10th hole) and then driving 4 hours from Laguna Niguel to Santa Clarita.

The drive was worth it (even if my rear got sore from driving and sitting) because I was able to have an excellent dinner with my friend, Lynne.  And I yakked most of the way up here with various folks on the hands-free, cellular phone.

The title of today's blog refers to the changes in my chemo-related neuropathy.  I have feeling coming back as the Oxylaplatin works its way out of my system...but I also had my first treatment with acupuncture yesterday (designed to mitigate the numbness).  Since yesterday's treatment, I've had significant return of feeling to the bottoms of my toes and to my palms. 

That means there's more of the pins and needles feeling and less of the numbness.  Yahoo!  I have 9 more treatments to go on the acupuncture (suggested by my friend, Katherine).  If this first one is any indication, I should see great results after the treatments are done.

So I'm going to crash now, celebrating one excellent golf shot and the pins and needles in my toes.

I just read a very interesting article by a man who wrote the book (literally)on Fish.  An advocate of eating this healthy alternative to beef and chicken, he's coming to see that many of the fish we consume are either not good for the environment because they're farmed, or not sustainably fished right now.

He ended the article by talking about his new personal guidelines for eating fish.  One of them is "not to let perfect become the enemy of good."  I found his statement really resonating in my head around two things:

1.  The up-in-the-air status of my liver resection surgery (due to my surgeon being in the Ukraine and my oncologist having questions about the strategy).

2.  The DOMA brief filed by the Department of Justice against the plaintiffs (and supporting the Defense of Marriage Act) and its relationship to President Obama's stated aims of repealing DOMA and "Dont' Ask, Dont' Tell."

Trust me, these all work together!

Taking the Obama administration first, I just emailed a friend that I'm not surprised that Obama is doing some foot dragging on these issues.  I doubt seriously that he read, let alone made suggestions for improving, the relatively offensive brief.  But I do believe there's been a conscious decision by his administration to let the culture wars die down in order to accomplish more pressing and far reaching agenda items.

In other words, he's not letting perfect (sticking with everything you've ever said without prioritizing and/or changing your mind) be the enemy of good (accomplishing the most important reforms first and letting others do some brewing before they come to fruition).

In terms of my surgery, there is some question by my oncologist whether or not this strategy (staged liver resection and rfa ablation for those tumors too deep to remove) is the best route, or even feasible.  Remember, he's a generalist and I went last week to see a specialist...so it's reasonable that he has questions.  Even admirable.

And at the same time, I believe that surgery will end up being my best, if imperfect option.  There's a belief that tumors will recur from rfa treated metasteses.  Okay, but that's down the road.  And who knows what will be at the forefront of the battle against colon cancer then?

I don't want perfect to become the enemy of good when it comes to my health, healing and hope for cure.  It's how I've dealt with this challenge from the beginning.  Using the best information about this complex system known as Laura Morefield, I choose.  Subject to change as new information comes in.  Trusting my medical team.  But mostly, trusting my own inner, God-given voice.

I got a brief, inadvertant earful of Rush Limbaugh today--shouting in the echo chamber that Obama needed to immediately denounce the elections in Iran and back off from any attempt to negotiate peacefully with the Ahmadinejad.  I haven't watched, but I am relatively peaceful with my assumption that Fox was trumpeting much the same theory.

It reminds me of the Bush administration's "Oops" on the election of Hamas in Palestine.  The administration pushed for elections and then, when the "wrong guys" were elected, they protested it wasn't fair.

(Ah, the irony.)

I don't pretend that Iran's elections were fair.  The press was suppressed.  There are reports of voter fraud.  The elections exist primarily to provide the appearance of democracy while validating the choice of religious leaders.

But neither do I pretend that we in America arrived at the perfect pinnacle of democracy out of the gate.  We've had plenty of voter suppression over the years.  In some cases, outright voter fraud.  And we didn't start out with democracy...we grew into it over a period of many, many years.  We grew into it with bloody revolution, bloody civil war, bloody confrontations over civil rights.

Why, oh why, does it surprise us when other folks have to stumble their way through protests, revolution and civil rights before they become a representative republic? 

I guess the answer is, it doesn't surprise all of us.  Just those of us who think they have all the answers, and all of those, perfected.

For a great column on this same topic, see Slate's opinion piece by Anne Applebaum.