I recently watched the movie Julie and Julia with my wife; even though I was the only male in the audience (seriously), I really enjoyed the film. It was pretty funny, particularly if you remember who Julia Child was. Back when I was a kid (before cable TV), we only had 4 channels, and my mom loved watching this super-tall lady with a cleaver cooking on PBS. Meryl Streep was amazing.
I’m sure that I’m giving nothing away by recapping the basic plot line; the story is about Julie, a middle-class government employee who escapes from life by cooking; she decides to write a blog detailing her experiences working through Julia Child’s classic French cookbook in a year. The movie correlates events in Julie’s life with similar experiences in Julia’s.
Why am I telling you all of this? Because, as a blogger, there’s a moment in the film where I can completely identify with Julie. She’s been blogging for a while, and the only comment she had received was from her mother. She was beginning to question her reason for writing, when she started receiving small gifts from her readers; realizing that “there was someone out there” helped her focus on achieving her goal.
Yeah, it’s sappy, and yeah, it’s a dramatization of something that probably isn’t true, but it did make me realize something; I’m a big believer in contributing to the IT community via blogs (and other means). But a blog needs to be more than a lonely man shouting into cyberspace; at some point, there needs to be a conversation. So that leads me to today: I, as king of my own little universe, hereby declare that today is “Leave-A-Comment Day!” Huzzah!
What does this mean? It means that I will pick at least three blogs today, and join in on the conversation; I will do my best to leave a pithy comment (something more than “thank you” or “oh, wow”). My goal is to absorb and reflect on the material I encounter, and try to encourage the authors I’ve been stealing ideas from to generate more.
If you wish to encourage me on this quest, leave your own comment below. Onward!
At what point did I switch from a film about French cooking to Monty Python & the Holy Grail? Must be an attempt to salvage my testosterone. Anyway, enjoy the Bridge of Death.
Great post! I actually read Julie & Julia a couple years back, before it was to become a movie, and totally loved it. Haven’t had the chance to see the movie yet (well I did, but we saw Inglorious Basterds instead, which was TEH AWESOME TARANTINOOOOO!) Ahem.
But yeah, it’s hard to blog when you’re trying to make a name, and nobody’s listening. I get that quite a bit, but it really helps to have blog comments and retweets on twitter, and have the blog itself syndicated. Yay social networking, eh.
Bonne beurre,
JM
I don’t know if nobody’s listening, but often nobody bothers to reply 🙂 I want to make a conscious effort to change that in my own behavior.
Go watch the film; it’s hilarious. I don’t know how much the book covers Julia Child, but her bits were hilarious.
Bon appetit!
The book has some significant Julia, but I went and got her autobiography anyway, which was also just great. We’re huge French foodies, and who doesn’t love Julia? So it was a really good read.
Thanks, Stuart. You’re in my Google Reader “daily feed”!
My wife and I saw the movie and we thought it was great. In the words of Julie Child herself, “Find something you’re passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.”
Keep up the great posts. Never apologize for not posting, though. Just post when you can.
–jason
When I saw that Meryl was playing Julia Childs, I was sold. Julia Childs is awesome. I remember watching her show as a kid and thinking, “I have no idea what she’s doing, but I wanna hang out in her kitchen.”
So thank you, and oh wow. That is all.
So thank you, and oh wow. That is all.