Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3

By Cornelia Read

This has been kind of a sucky summer, on the home front (suicide, death by cancer, brokeness, WIP reading like MAJOR ass…) but I’ve found some things that have really cheered me up, too. So I am going to share a few right now, in case any of you guys need cheering up too.

1. Ian Dury 

2. What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

3. Jane Austen’s Fight Club

4. The Ending of Black Orpheus

5. La Femme Nikita–the real one…

6. Chuck Berry. Dayum.

7. Newman… hockey… blood…

8. Joe Cocker, subtitled

9. Bambi…

10. Bill Clinton, back in the day…

11. MORE Python!

What’ve you guys seen lately that’s cheered you up?

21 thoughts on “Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3”

  1. PK the Bookeemonster

    The Old Spice commercials
    The Geico commercial with the little pig saying Wee all the way home
    The show Say Yes to the Dress — the bitchiness! The amounts of cash exchanged!
    Watching The Pillars of the Earth on Starz

    When I was at my low point last year when I was unemployed, watching the DVDs of Veronica Mars and MI5 got me through each day. I also read Conversations with God during that time. The low points suck but sometimes one learns so much about oneself. And as cliched as it may be: one day a time.

  3. Cornelia Read

    I also love the Geico drill sergeant/therapist, but I would totally shove that pig out the car door at high speed. And Say Yes to the Dress is a wonderful relaxant.

  6. judy wirzberger

    Raindrops on roses and bright colored mitten….frig that's not it. I remember being in such a dour mood, I wondered what any asshole had to smile about. Idiots! Dry leaves scurried across the street like dry leaves blown by the wind, not mice playing tag. Fog moved down the valley like drippy fog, not a flowing river of melted marshmallow. It's not what I see there, but what I imagine I see there. Getting out of bed, moving from the couch, staring out the window and seeing something an be so difficult. But then a cat runs across the floor and does an accidental Olga Korbett, a squirrel sits on the fence wondering if it can immitate a Wallenda and make it to othe bird feeder hanging from the clothesline. And Michael Pietch reading a passage from my book saying 'I love that." ah bliss, it comes in small doses like Chuck Berry singing Mabeline.

    Thanks Cornelia. You made my innards smile.

  7. Debbie

    Okay, the whole lot of you are certifiable-how do I join?What makes me cheerful? Reading my daughters stories, hell, her report cards. Listening to my son tell people that he is going to be like Buster Keatin when he grows up. hearing that Bill Gates is successfully encouraging philanthropy through example. And sarcasm, and completely unrelated, library's. Oh, and blogs where writers hang out and I can play pretend! Did I mention Bono, U2?
    U2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejc8a5wW8QI
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcGUbL6Vcts
    Old Spice Boy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGbK0YiOKWo

  8. Sylvia

    This will sound lame but perhaps it is the acceptance and insanity to laugh once again. Everytime I think I'm getting my family out of financial hell, another brick drops on my head. I used to cry, now I just laugh and enjoy the phone call with whoever sent me the bill. I figure why make their life hell? They certainly can't enjoy their job.

    So.. the smiles lately come from the simple things of a good blog post like this from Cornelia, enjoying Rizzoli & Isles on TV while reading my way through Tess's series (I have 3 more books to go), the anticipation of Zoe's prequel books that weren't sold in the US finally being shipped, trips to the library to discover a new voice that was recommended. Whoo! It's been a readingful summer of getting lost in GREAT characters by fantastic writers. Now THAT makes me happy.

  10. Alafair Burke

    Lord, Cornelia, you owe me my entire morning! Now I'm going to look at all the links in the comments too? So much for that law review article I'm supposed to work on today.

    (And I'm stealing some of these links for my facebook page!)

  11. pari noskin taichert

    Cornelia,
    One of my favorite movies of allllllll time is Black Orpheus. Thank you so much for bringing it today. That ending made the sadness of the rest of the narrative worth it. Ya know?

    As far as things I've seen that have made me happy lately?

    My kids.
    My friend's yard and all of her peach, apple and other fruit trees so laden with fruit that their branches are touching the ground. (We helped relieve them of some of their burden today . .. which also makes me quite happy.)

  12. Dudley Forster

    Cornelia, whew I needed that and great timing. So last night my wife and I are having this domestic dissuasion on my wanting to go to LCC. I explained to her what it was about, that it was a convention of mystery lovers. She ask if there would be authors there I said of course, some of whom I have met on line and would love to meet in person. She kind of jumps the tracks here and I know she didn’t mean to say what she did but she basically said that I’m not a writer yet, I should wait to be published, if that ever happens and then you can think about going to these things. Normally my wife is very supportive of my writing, not sure what went wrong but boy did it sting, That ended the discussion (when I say discussion that is what I mean, low key talk about issues) this was her weekend to visit her mother and I had thought I’d really get some writing time in but that was before our little talk.

    Cornelia this post really did make me smile, especially the Bill Clinton clip. So now to go shake this off, get on the horse, and start writing and some reading, Just about to see if Bobbie Faye destroys the world, then dive into the TBR pile, which always makes me happy.

    Alafair if you are working on a law review article on a Saturday, you need more than cheering by this post, you need an intervention. BTW this little tidbit of info also helped cheer me up, but in a more selfish way. I’ll think about you working on a law review article on the weekend and smile … better you than me.

  16. toni mcgee causey

    Over here on Jenny's blog (http://www.arghink.com/2010/07/28/hero-material/) we were talking about the Old Spice guy and we concluded that "I'm on a horse" is now shorthand for "a calm, understated expression of our essential coolness." When you're in the middle of something you know you're rocking, you're on a horse.

    Then someone posted the Old Spice guy's answer to his daughter, who wondered why he looked so much like his dad. I don't know who the writers are, but they are brilliant:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvuYcbgZl-U&feature=PlayList&p=484F058C3EAF7FA6&playnext_from=PL&index=31

  18. Cornelia Read

    PK, the New Spice guy for libraries is fabulous–showed it to my daughter and cracked her up too, thank you!

    Judy, I owe you many occasions of smiling innards. You are so good at getting me to laugh.

    Debbie, FABULOUS links!

    Sylvia, I'm with you on the financial hell and perpetual falling bricks. The only thing we can get out of it is not to be assholes. Things are hard enough already, and I really do think kindness begets kindness. Or at least make a decent joke out of the fucked-up stuff, you know? Good for you!

    Jude, so glad you liked the Cocker. I've loved that one since the first time I saw it. Especially "leather for my Fred."

    Alafair, so sorry to steal your morning, but you should've seen me looking this stuff up last night. I had about thirty links I wanted to use, finally went to sleep around 3:30. Glad you liked them!

    Pari, so happy you like Black Orpheus too! Just hearing Manha de Carnaval cheers me up… It's so gorgeous.

    Dudley, I'm glad to make you smile when you're dealing with that kind of spousal uncertainty. I will say that I went to my first Bouchercon before I was published. It was very helpful to get the lay of the land and the general etiquette of the thing before I had the self-pressure of feeling like I had to be "on" professionally. And it's always good for my creative energy to hang out with the like-minded for a few days. Can't always afford it even now, though. I hope your writing continues to make you happy and all good things…

    Oh, Barbie! Maybe Stephen can bite Charlie? That poor little girl!!!

    Our Stephen, so glad you like it, dude…

    Oh, kit… the Emma Thompson. I am still struggling to breathe. Gorgeous.

    Toni! Poor Hayley!! And she DOES deserve new toys, the little monkey.

    Dudley, the cowboys are AWESOME and I want a sloth. And that map is reminding me of Phantom Tollbooth…

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