Weblog Rings

This Week I'm reading:

The Comfort Queen's
Guide to Life
by
Jennifer Louden

MicroCosmic Tales
edited by
Isaac Asimov 
 

My friend Mary in Michigan turned me on to this very cool radio station in Santa Cruz, CA - KPIG.  Listening right now to Donovan - First there is a Mountain. So far have heard Jimi Hendrix, George Thorogood, Weird Al, and some very interesting folks I've never heard before.

5/9/01 - Wednesday

Our local ABC affiliate did a very positive report on aromatherapy.

5/4/01 - Friday

New Book Journal entry.

5/2/01 - Wednesday

The other night I watched "The Fish that Saved Pittsburgh" on video. I bought it from Amazon with my birthday gift certificate from my son Mike.  This is one of my favorite movies of all time.  It is neither well written, well acted or cinematically well-produced. 

"How did you like the movie?" Rich asked David, who was kind enough to spend the evening being a vegetable in front of the TV with dear old mum. 

"It was stupid!" Dave has an honest and critical eye for movie review.

"Well, I loved it!" I said.  Rich, who saw it with me in 1979 when it came out, would not watch it again, even though it took place in his home town of Pittsburgh and starred Dr. J. with guest appearances by other well-known basketball players of that era.

So why do I love "The Fish that Saved Pittsburgh?"  It's the only movie I know of where one of the major characters is an astrologer. Mona Mondieu is played by one of my favorite actresses, Stockard Channing.  The plot is simple.  In order to improve a badly losing team, they rebuild around one player -- "the franchise" (Dr. J.) -- under the guidance of Mona.  They hold open tryouts in order to find players who are Pisces (the 'fish' that saved Pittsburgh) to give supportive compatibility to Dr. J's character.  Of course, they come up with some extremely eccentric players (a key component of many sports movies).  And, of course, they win the NBA title.

Ooops, I gave away the ending of the movie.  But you aren't going to want to watch this unless:

1.  You have high tolerance for stupid movies.
2.  You love basketball and will watch anything including old games on ESPN classic.
3.  You are an astrologer.

Even though the movie is stupid, the astrology and Mona are portrayed with respect (other than the fact that a team of Pisces basketball players does not make the best astrological sense).  It's not the perfect representation of astrology, but Channing plays a strong, resourceful, intelligent woman (up to the level that stupid movies let such things happen).

Other movies I love because they're about psychics are Vibes with Cyndi Lauper and Jeff Goldblum and Ghost with Whoopi Goldberg (oh, were Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore in that movie, too?).  Anyway, I'm primed to see "The Fish that Saved Pittsburgh" again soon, but I'll have to do it when no one else is home.