had to do some tricks to get the dvd to play here in the states, but well worth it

Great, well-written book (much clearer and more interesting than a textbook). I’d like to use it if I teach “Brain, Behavior, and Cognition” next year, but it’s so expensive!

Funny therapy scenes! Includes group therapy/ support groups, a client’s curiosity about his therapist’s personal life/ his desire for his therapist to disclose more, and partners mocking their couples counselor.

A series of dull, meandering shots that aren’t all that interesting unless you have a thing for the Kennedys such that you’re amused that they have loony relatives… which I don’t and I’m not, since in isn’t the 70’s.

This is Michael Moore’s best documentary. Bowling for Columbine sort of annoyed me, Fahrenheit 911 insulted me, but this one is wonderful. Important, decent, true (it hurt—lots of incredulous laughter in the audience, including me). Much appreciated—bravo, sir.

I hope someone takes up more particularly the mental health care industry. There was a brief mention of sleeping pills and anxiety/ depression meds. prescribed when problems are obviously societal, i.e., major stress from having copious debt and worrying about not getting health care or being able to go to school or maybe losing a loved one in the war… instead of letting up on the factors that keep people from being “healthy, educated, and confident,” they get pills to ignore it. People are really hurting, and it doesn’t have to be that bad. Frustrating for a therapist.

you know, women uniting rather than turning against one another to protect a man like on Springer… but ended up re-inscribing all the old values: glorifying and forgiving male infidelity and hyper-sexuality, dragging out tired old female stereotypes and making pms jokes, and ultimately undoing the message of feminine strength and unity by having the women turn on one another and compete for the man (who is surprisingly heroic and even Christlike in the climactic scene)... as bell hooks might say, “just another shitty movie”

Basic, helpful recommendations.

Specific, useful information on relevant things… from how to enter class the first day (early? just on time? take your coat off first!) to difficult students in discussion groups (how to handle a “silent glarer”). Much appreciated gift from the graduate student teaching center here.

Lesbian movies are made with such a different tone than movies about gay men… compare this one and Kissing Jessica Stein with, say, Edge of Seventeen and even Not Another Gay Movie. Lesbian movies are about a secretive emergence—the whole plot is about a woman realizing she is gay while enmeshed in a life that is totally at odds with being gay. Sometimes its about carrying on a very dark, very sexy secret affair (think of Bound). With the partial exception of Brokeback Mountain, the movies about men are glorious displays of sexuality—drag, lots of edifying sex, parties, community, pride, and also about struggles within an existing and strong community, particularly AIDS and discrimination. I think it shows that female sexuality is something that’s just coming to the surface (of the culture) and doesn’t really have a place yet—the films are about finding a place.

I love this book… I’m not sure everyone would, though. I showed the first page to my boyfriend (who is wonderfully capable of treating any topic as worthy of consideration and who is appreciative of even my deepest quirks), and he seemed confused and a little bit horrified.

But I think I’ve finally found a feminist like me in Julia Doucet. Her “if I was a man” panels are perfect. Her work descends directly from R. Krumb and co., the great underground comix artists, and their influence is brilliantly taken up in her ink style and humor.