Housework - how to trick myself into it

Each week, I have to come up with a way to trick myself into doing the housework.  It's like I am a perpetual Peter Pan when it comes to the very normal (and necessary) job of cleaning my house.  There are WAY better and more fun things to be doing with my precious days off.  I was so successful the last few weekends that I manged to do very little, not even a proper vacuum, just a run around with the handheld vac.  I don't know whats wrong with me? Other (grown-up) women seem to manage it.  It's not that I am lazy (or am I?), or don't love a clean house (I do).  I just resent wasting good time on such a non-productive activity.  How come I have no housework discipline Mum?

I have run out of excuses - its too hot, I have an assignment due, I don't feel very well, I deserve a day off, I have a new book to read - and today I HAVE to clean the house.

So, I am going to do some method acting.  I will be the very sexy and volumptious (well I have that one nailed) house cleaner for Hank Moody (aka David-drool-Duchovny) in a upcoming episode of Californication.  Of course he will notice me, as I go about washing toilets and dusting the furniture.  I will give this role my all, pretend that I am just a regular suburban house cleaner, really get into the grove of it.  That's what method actors do isn't it?  

Bonus will be a clean house, and a nice little daydream.

Or.

I could just go play another re-run of episodes 1 to 5 and hang the housework!  Hank seems to like dirty women :-)

A Movie Review - Sound City - Dave Grohl

A bit of an indie documentary, it is the story, as told by Dave Grohl (of Nirvana and Foo Fighters fame), of a recording studio in LA that has produced some of the most famous records of all time.  (Of contemporary music anyway).  The movie was released at the 2013 Sundance festival.

The studio went bust in 2011 and Dave Grohl bought it, and the inspirational mixing desk, and has brought back a lot of the artists who recorded there, to play again.  Even Paul McCartney, or should I say Sir Paul came and jammed with the guys.

Dave Grohl - one of Rock n Rolls REALLY nice guys - has a heart of gold. 

The significance of this studio was that back in the 1970's the music being recorded was raw and real.  By the late 1980's and most of 1990's music was being recorded digitally, not by analog.  This meant a very controlled sound, one that was devoid of the human element.  The other factor that made Sound City so unique was the way drums sounded so 'fat'.

When Nirvana (Kurt Cobain fame) went to record Nevermind, they had no money and no record deal.  They went to Sound City to record because by then the studio was almost bankrupt and would take on anybody.  Nevermind the album, blew everyone out of the water as it was a throw back to the dirty sounds of the 1970's and you could hear the humans in the music.

Other pivotal artists that started at Sound City (just a few of the many)

• Fleetwood Mac 
• Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
• Reo Speedwagon
• Metalica
• Neil Young
• Rick Springfield
• Forienger
• Pat Benatar
• Grateful Dead
• Wolfmother (or as Strawb calls them - EarthMother.

If you like your music (loud), if you grew up in the 70's; 80's or 90's - you will love this doco.  

And if you like this one, check out another favorite It Might Get Loud - three of my all time, awesome, favourite guitarists - Jimmy Page (I want to marry him), The Edge and Jack White.

Joy - The Word

Funny old fashioned word isn't it?  Joy?  Makes me think of Christmas cards on Victorian mantle pieces.  But it also makes me think of a very poignant quote from one of my favorite movies - American Beauty. 


Lester: Christ, Carolyn. When did you become so... joyless?
Carolyn: Joyless? I am not joyless. There happens to be a lot about me that you don't know, Mr. Smarty man. There's plenty of joy in my life.

 

A pivotal scene in the movie, I love it for its contrasts.  This is a movie full of very clever scenes and raw human emotions - AND - it doesn't have a sickly, sweet happy ending like most American movies - Joy!

What made me think of all this?  I was laying in bed this morning, it was 7am, I was awake but as it was Sunday, I was trying to make myself stay there.  My little old dog, Minty, was also awake and wanting to play.  We have this game where she jumps all over me, biting me (she has no teeth so technically she gums me) as I pretend to scream and say 'no'.  The more I do this and try and pull the sheet over me, the more playful she gets.  Its very funny seeing a 14 year old, blind, toothless little dog play like this.  She certainly is full of Joy!  In human years she is 69!

It got me thinking about if my life has become 'joyless' - am I just in a holding pattern until I can retire and escape? Is realising yourself as 'joyless' the tipping point for a midlife crisis? In the movie it is.  I sometimes remind myself of the end part of this scene, the part where she cares more about the Italian silk sofa than the rekindling of their passion - what matters more in the end?

This, to me, is how you lose joy and therefore how you can re-discover it.  Let go of the material things and embrace spontenaity.  Be a little reckless and wild sometimes - spill beer on the couch!!

Just something to ponder.