Consuming, Collecting, and Other Normal Expressions of Obsessive Compulsion

A friend and colleague of mine writes a wonderful blog. Laura Faye Smith is one of the top actresses here in Portland. Her blog is called “Finding Lagom,” but it’s not about acting. You can read her explanation of the term “lagom” on her site.

In brief, Laura’s blog is about overcoming her shopaholic tendencies (a history of assuaging anxiety and insecurity by feeding “the Want Monster”), her efforts with her husband to clear up their consumer debt over the past year, and getting rid of piles of clothing, cosmetics, candy, cleaning products, and lots of other things she saved “because I might need it someday.”

Beautifully honest and vulnerable (not to mention very funny at times, and usually illustrated with plenty of photos), the blog has featured entries with such titles as “In the Clutches of the Want Monster,” “Why I Don’t Feel Guilty for Spending $75 on Shampoo,” “All the Stuff I Didn’t Buy This Weekend,” “Why Am I Keeping This?” and “Learning to Love the Want Monster.”

If you want a summation of what “Finding Lagom: One Woman’s Attempt at a Simpler Life” is all about, just read “Pretty Much EverythingAbout This Photo Depresses Me,” an early post that encapsulates what Laura left behind to become a full-time actress … and then one of her best stories, the recent “Because I Don’t Need a Daily Reminder of What a Bitch I Can Be,” which is a fairly savage but hilarious self-indictment and a goodbye to a dream pair of woman’s heels.

I hasten to add that, as bad as she might come across in her blog, from my personal experience, Laura is unfailingly gracious and warm in person, and an utter professional on stage or film set.

"Saving Mr. Banks" - a meditation on Hollywood and historicity

Saving Mr. Banks is one of the big movie hits of the season. After barely a month in release, it earned more than $20 million domestically, and as of Friday was closing on $60 million. Most of the critics have approved, as well -- some calling it a film that’s impossible to dislike. Its U.S. box office receipts make it Disney’s most profitable movie of the past 45 years other than The Lion King and Aladdin.

It purports to tell the story of P.L. Travers, Walt Disney, and how a fictional character named Mary Poppins was created by the one and recreated in a hit 1964 movie musical by the other.

It’s also not entirely truthful.

Now, I hate to come off like a fundamentalist picketing Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ. I haven’t seen Saving Mr. Banks, and I don’t plan to -- more because it’s not the kind of movie I would spend my meager entertainment budget on than due to a stout ideological objection.