It’s been rainy and gray lately, so I have a few recommendations for your entertainment.
Upon watching The Secret Life of Walter Mitty the other night, the one by Ben Stiller (it’s $4 on Amazon if you have Prime), I realize I am the female version of this guy. Or at least I want to be. Actually, the reason I happened upon the movie is because I was remembering that 20 or so years ago my mom said I had a Walter Mitty complex.
The movie made us laugh hard until we were almost crying, which gets an immediate thumbs up from me. It was also contemplative, adventurous, and sweet. Adventure, laughter, and love are the perfect combo in my opinion. I wish I could watch a movie like this over and over again for the first time just for the laughter alone.
It also made me think of many friends out there who are adventuring their way through the world – to the Raquelitas, Sonjas, and Tessas out there, keep going and keep inspiring.
On the Major Tom note – if you stopped reading this to watch the movie, then you’ll understand – I’ve been so enjoying the story of a real Major Tom – Scott Kelly. He spent a year in space and wrote a book about it. We’ve listened to the audio version and it’s a captivating story. Especially inspirational is the fact that he did terribly in school, yet he ended up being considered the person most capable of doing something only one other person has done in the world (a fellow astronaut from Russia was with him).
After listening to his audio book, the boys and I watched a series on him, which I also found pretty riveting.
Scattered here and there in the series are ads for MasterClass, specifically former astronaut Chris Hadfield’s online class on space exploration. But since each MasterClass is $90, we haven’t embarked on those. I bet his is really good. Though I sometimes sit and watch the intros to a bunch of them – they all look so interesting and well-filmed – Jimmy Chin Teaches Adventure Photography, Malcolm Gladwell Teaches Writing, Dr. Jane Goodall Teaches Conservation, Helen Mirren Teaches Acting, Annie Leibowitz Teaches Photography, Steve Martin Teaches Comedy, Timbaland Teaches Producing and Beatmaking, Ken Burns Teaches Documentary Filmmaking, DeadMau5 Teaches Electronic Music Production, and the fascinating intros go on and on.
Instead, you can watch a TED Talk by Chris Hadfield, and he even ends it with his own rendition of Major Tom (“Space Oddity”).
Don’t even get me started on TED Talks. They are probably the biggest draw for me on the internet. Like a black hole of fascinating information that never ends, blotting out half my night of sleep and ruining my following day with exhaustion.
And now for a final video – a music video from space…
Photo on blog home page courtesy of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
