In Columbia Pictures’ Made of Honor, Tom (Patrick Dempsey, left) gets some words of advice from his father, Tom Sr. (Sydney Pollack, right). Photo By: Peter Iovino. ©2008 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. and Beverly Blvd LLC All Rights Reserved.

I was surprised and sorry to hear that we lost Sydney Pollack. I just saw him in a movie I rented–Avenue Montaigne (that’s the English title). I also saw Recount on HBO, a movie he produced. He has directed some of my favorite films, including The Way They Were. His enormous talent will be missed.

Even I had gotten the power his name had in Hollywood. “It’s a Sydney Pollack movie? Oh, it must be good.”

Sydney Pollack as Brian Sobinski in drama romance ‘Avenue Montaigne’ 2007

Last night I watched part of “Zodiac,” which is about a serial killer who called himself Zodiac. I remember this story as a kid. Although most of the murders happened when I was too young to remember, the book came out when I was older. There was a lot of conversation about this serial killer–even in Nebraska. I never thought too much of it as a kid. Now, living here in Northern California and now that I know all the places where the murders occurred, the movie is especially creepy. It’s still unsolved. The case is still open in San Francisco and other places. Makes me wonder…

Even if you’re not into these types of stories, the movie is worth watching to follow how it unfolds and to learn about the people who were involved.

I didn’t see many movies this fall, so I saw the Oscar nominees on DVD. I really don’t understand why “No Country for Old Men” won. It was horribly violent. Although I think most, if not all, of the nominees were violent films. “No Country” was violent in a psychotic way. I also saw “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”. It didn’t focus on what Jesse James did during his life. Most of that came as narration and not vivid cinematography. I really enjoyed this movie, and I didn’t think I would. it moved at the right pace and kept my interest. The acting was excellent by both Casey Affleck and Brad Pitt. I’m not a big fan of either one. If I had a vote in the Oscars, I would have voted for “Jesse James”.

Do you love movies? Independent movies? San Jose’s film festival, Cinequest, starts this Friday. Danny Glover and Michael Keaton will be here. The Q&A sessions with actors, directors and writers are well worth the time spent standing in line. Although if you buy the right pass, you don’t have to stand in line. I went years ago when Val Kilmer was being honored. If you want to do something different this weekend, check it out.

Ick. What a song. I have been pondering over a quote from the movie “The Last Kiss.” While it’s not the greatest movie, there is one line that I think is brilliant. The character who says it is the father/therapist.

“What you feel only matters to you–it’s what you do to the people you say you love that counts.”

I wish everyone realized this. You have no idea how sick I am of hearing “but, I don’t feel _____”. Feel free to fill in the blank with whatever you’ve heard. I have heard every line, every excuse. It’s true–none of it mattered to me. I really don’t give a crap how you feel. I do care how you treat me.

Feelings aren’t the truth. Thoughts aren’t the truth.

Anyway, I have back pain, which is causing some pinched nerves. I’m currently typing this with two wrist braces. It’s not going well. Slow. Frustrating.

Last night I watched “The Notorious Bettie Page.” It is a movie that I wanted to see because I knew next to nothing about her. I found the moive quite interesting because it added the political climate of the time to Bettie’s story. I also found that I empathized with her. I don’t know if she really felt like people only cared about her looks, but the writer and director certainly emphasized this aspect. The message is that she’s too pretty. Too pretty to be taken seriously. Too pretty to be anything more than a sex object. Now that I get. That’s how I get treated. All of this reminds me of one of my favorite old Hollywood stars–Heddy Lamar. Not because of her movie work or beauty. Because of her brains, which few people know about because obviously a pretty girl can’t possibly be smart.

Anyone else looking forward to Harry Potter? It’s a bonus summer. First a new movie and just over a week later–the book. I know we will be seeing the movie the first day it comes out. I already have the books on order set to arrive the day they come out.

I’m not a crazy HP fan, but I do enjoy the books and movies. My son does as well. Actually it was Harry Potter that got him interested in reading. Before that he just couldn’t find anything that he wanted to read. Then came Harry Potter. He was too young at first, so he had to catch up on the story. Before long he got caught up and couldn’t wait for the next book. I will be sorry to see the series end. They have been fun.

And let’s admit it…we would all like to be able to do the things in the book. Who wouldn’t like to turn someone into a toad, rat or other appropriate object perfectly suited to their personality? Who wouldn’t like to be invisible?

We had a quiet Fourth of July. The morning was spent discovering my son’s athlete’s foot and infected toe. Gross, I know. Worst case of athlete’s foot I’ve ever seen. He had it before he got here for the summer and had been hiding it from me and his dad.

But what this post is really about is a film you must see. We saw “Sicko.” Finally a real picture of what I’ve read about health care in other nations and an expose on how insurance really works in this country. The film will make you sick to see how we treat our ill and low income. He doesn’t really talk about those without insurance. I’m one of those. And yes, I pray everyday that I don’t get ill. Although I did that when I had insurance because they found ways not to pay for anything.

My first audition ever was Sunday morning on the Stanford campus. It’s a nonpaying movie fora graduate student’s thesis. Apparently they couldn’t even tell that I was nervous and had no idea that it was my first time auditioning. Funny. I guess I’m good at hiding things–better than I thought. Interesting. The hardest part of the role I read for was this little bit where you had to act like you know nothing about computers. Act like you don’t get it. This is rather hard to do when you use computers all the time, but I did what I could. Even those of us who are the most seasoned computer users have trouble from time to time. So now I get to wait and see. I’m not holding my breath. It was an interesting experience though.