The Joy of Blogging: Julie & Julia

I just finished re-watching the movie "Julie & Julia" after finishing the book by Julie Powell in the last 2 days. I had bought the book for my mother last Christmas, but didn't even think about reading it myself until my persistent sister-in-law practically shoved it down my throat. I liked the movie well enough. Amy Adams may be the most adorable creature on the planet now that Meg Ryan's face has slowly been shifting like fleshy tectonic plates. And Meryl Streep is Meryl Streep. But I watched it on a four inch screen en route to Australia, so my mind wasn't really on the film. (I was imagining all the gorgeous, tall, tanned, sexy accent speaking man candies that awaited me Down Under.)

Wow, this picture is big. But aren't they just fabulous?

I do remember thinking about Julie and her blog upon this first viewing. I've always been curious as to how cooking can possibly be interesting enough to blog about. There are countless cooking blogs out there, Julie's being one of the most famous. But how exciting can it be to describe melting butter and burning stew? The answer is, not very. But after devouring Julie and Julia (the book, not the people. If I had to go cannibal, I'd probably go for Ben & Jerry first), I humbly apologize for my judgmental and narrow-minded thinking. For one thing, just because I don't give two shits about cooking, it doesn't mean there isn't a vast and varied audience who thrill over the latest kitchen appliance or method to zest a lemon. But I reached a more important realization as I raced through the pages, laughing hysterically, tearing up a bit, and relating to this 30 year old married woman obsessed with butter (not a butter fan, myself, if I can see the fat I'm consuming, I'm not interested) and Julia Child (a pop culture icon that I am familiar with, but never really glommed onto). It doesn't matter what you write about, as long as you have a passion for it and a unique voice.

The thing I loved most about Julie's book was how she captured the joy of blogging. Putting bits of your soul out into the universe and just hoping that someone will spare a few minutes to humor your narcissistic ramblings. Obsessively checking pageviews. That thrill when you get your first appreciative comment from a total stranger. The validation that you aren't completely wasting your time. Having something to look forward to even if you don't have a lot going on in your life. Maybe your job isn't as satisfying as you always dreamed it should be. Maybe you have problems with family or friends or significant others. Just knowing that you can lose yourself in a seemingly pointless yet oh-so-satisfying blog eases that frustration immensely. And reading other bloggers you've stumbled upon and developing friendships via the beloved comment section, that's just awesome.

Good on you, Julie Powell. Livin' the dream.

Like Julie Powell, I have a hard time following through. As with most bloggers, I fancy myself a writer. But I rarely finish things if I start them at all. I have such ADD that I can only focus long enough to spit out a couple paragraphs about Stan, karaoke, or my running toilet. At least Julie stuck with a running theme and did it for an entire year. Now she has a book published, another one on the way, and a movie roughly based on her life with the most adorable creature playing herself. It's the dream. I was stoked that I just made it over the $10 mark on my ads (meaning hopefully I'll get a check and take myself out to Subway like I promised myself I would). I like that I write about different things every time. Keeps the bit from getting stale (one hopes). It just means that Amy Adams will never play me in a movie based on my life. If anyone plays me it would probably be Phyllis from the Office.

This is more my destiny.

So the long-winded point I've been trying to make is that even if you don't care about cooking or Julia Child, read this book, then watch the movie. I personally find cooking boring, time-consuming, tedious, too much work when you can just zap a frozen burrito, and causes an excess of dishes, my least favorite chore. Like baseball, if it's not any fun to do, how can it be fun to watch and/or read about? But Julie has such an effervescent yet down-to-earth voice. I can just hear her breaking down over a ruined roast chicken, or chattering excitedly about Buffy the Vampire Slayer (one of the few interests we actually share). I now plan on tracking down her blog and seeing if it's just as good as the book. Blogging gave her a sense of purpose, a "regimen" as she calls it. An exercise in writing, and in sharing your passions with the world. Or the few people kind enough to stop by. So this has given me renewed inspiration, especially since it was hard to keep up my work out while lounging about at home in front of the fire, playing with cute babies. Bonus.

BlogHer-riffic!

I have now joined BlogHer, the blogging network for women, in an attempt to further legitimize this rather pitiful endeavor. Hopefully I'll be able to interact with other tortured artists like myself and maybe gain some readers who don't actually know me. As much as I appreciate the few of you who do read Sporadic Sporkitudes, I still crave the approval or at least recognition of those who aren't obligated by friendship, happenstance, or boredom to follow or comment.

I'm also hoping that it will encourage me to keep writing, even when I'd rather tweeze my eyebrows/organize my closet/run a marathon than sit down at my computer. I've read some good articles so far by other amateur bloggers. They've been fun and inspirational, so I'm going to try and put more effort into my own blog.

I don't really have anything else to report, except my fabulous neighbor screeching "YOU ARE NOT SPECIAL, MUTHAFUCKA!!" Reminded me of a ghetto lady version of Tyler Durden. Now that's a movie I'd pay to see : )

What you may expect here in the land of plastic multi-purpose utensils:

As you probably know, my name is Hutch and this is my first attempt at a real blog. I flirted with the blogging function on my rapidly decaying myspace page, but that was more the ramblings of a sad, pathetic college girl desperately avoiding homework at any and all costs. In this new and improved blog, you may expect the ramblings of a sad, pathetic, post-grad girl desperately avoiding...everything at any and all costs. I may even invent things for myself to avoid since it gives me such a thrill. I'm open to suggestions.

So I tried to come up with a cohesive, over-arching theme for this blog. But I seem to lack a cohesive, over-arching theme in my life, so I decided to embrace the chaos erupting in my mind and just go with a standard stream of consciousness.

The primary inspiration for Sporadic Sporkitudes is the Entertainment Weekly columns of one of my all-time heroes, Diablo Cody (cheeky stripper turned oscar-winning screenwriter of "Juno" and "United States of Tara.") She seems to write about whatever strikes her fancy, be it bad reality television, Jewish deli soup, or silver twinkie Airstream trailers. And good times are had by all. In an effort to follow in her footsteps (along with Tina Fey, Mindy Kaling, Judd Apatow, and John Hughes among other heroes), I am attempting to work on my writing skills as they are sadly deteriorating. Trying to boil down witticisms, observations, quotes by more intelligent and pithy writers into 140 characters or less has really affected my ability to complete whole paragraphs of thought.

Regarding what you may expect here in Spork-land, probably a whole lot of nothing. Posts may be few and far between or several completely unconnected posts in a single day. They will most likely postulate on one or more of the following subjects: movies, tv, books, music, food, attractive menfolk, pop culture, random bouts of nostalgia, observations of my wacky South Central surroundings, and rants about arbitrary pet peeves or how lame my life happens to be at the moment. I may occasionally veer into the world of politics (though I try to keep an open mind and see both sides of a topic), religion (Jesus Freaks be warned), education and other more heavy topics. But I will probably end up writing mostly about the simultaneous joy and despair of Raumen noodle soup.

So that wraps up my inaugural blog of Sporadic Sporkitudes! We'll see if this experiment works.