Prickly stuff

I have never cared for the actress Keira Knightley; she always seems full of herself in interviews. She actually said something once about being "so British" -- as way of explanation for why some of us (presumably stupid Americans) don't "get" her or her bony frame.

She was good in "Love Actually" though, wasn't she?

And now she's gone and made the censors uncomfortable.

From Frogblog, an eco-blog out of New Zealand:

In early April, the UK charity Women’s Aid, which battles domestic violence, released this public service announcement, directed by Atonement director Joe Wright and starring Keira Knightley. Without showing graphic violence you couldn’t see on any crime procedural any night of the week, Wright creates a genuinely disturbing two-minute film that unsettles precisely because it’s shot so straightforwardly.

But now, Clearcast, the body that’s responsible for approving ads for British television, has reportedly decided that the PSA is not suitable for television unless they cut the end. You know, the part with the domestic violence in it.

If that's not coming up for you, here's a link to the commercial on YouTube.

It is shocking, and for me, especially upsetting. But as the blogger writes, it's nothing that millions of people pay to see in movies or watch on TV.

One major finding from the study "Violence on Prime Time Broadcast Television 1998-2006"
by Caroline Schulenburg was:

"Violent scenes increasingly include a sexual element. Rapists, sexual predators and fetishists are cropping up with increasing frequency on prime time programs like Law and Order: S.V.U., C.S.I., C.S.I. Miami, C.S.I. New York, Medium, Crossing Jordan, Prison Break, E.R. and House. "

Why not air the PSA at the same time as these shows air? After all, the kiddies are all in bed by this time, right?

Domestic violence isn't pretty, but it does happen to pretty people - not just "trailer trash" and other ignorant folks low down on the socio-economic ladder.

I'm still not a fan of the actress, but I think she took a good part in this project.

Cooked-book and the new flat screen

After a protracted battle with Best Buy (let's just say we're not big fans anymore), the new stand for Kyle's flat-screen television finally came in.

This is one of those "Venus-Mars" things. Seriously, you would have thought it was Christmas around here when the stand was delivered. It's as if the kick-ass television wasn't enough; it just wouldn't be whole without its special stand.

He had to assemble the stand (it came in a pizza-flat box), and every so often he'd call me out to the front room to check out the progress. You should have seen the disappointment in his face when he realized I wasn't appropriately thrilled.

I mean, it's a TV stand. It's not like it's a . . . oh, I don't know, a car or a puppy or anything.

I don't get it. But he loves it, and it makes him happy, and that's a good thing. I thought now would be a good time to take a photo:




Less exciting, but more amusing (at least in my definition of "amusing"), is my little accident a few nights ago.

I was starting dinner, and due to the poor lighting in the kitchen, was trying to do everything on the stovetop, where there's an overhead light in the exhaust hood. This included referencing my favorite cookbook of all time, "How to Cook Everything," by the incomparable Mark Bittman.

Apparently I have stovetop dyslexia. On our stove, each burner's dial is marked with four circles, with the circle representing that particular burner darkened. Instead of turning on the back right burner for the potatoes I wanted to boil, I had instead turned on the front right burner, upon which was resting - my cookbook.

Thank God the slight scorching caused a bit of smoke, or who knows what would have happened?



Ah well; as my friend Kim said, it's just a sign of a well-loved cookbook.