There's four things about Marian

Now that I've finished the revisions for Before the Storm, I feel light-hearted and not yet ready to settle down to serious writing. So here's a post that's all about me instead, inspired by a "meme of four" that I originally read about on the Writer Beware blog.

Four movies you could watch over and over

1. Twelve Angry Men : I first watched this as an exercise for a social psychology class. No need for elaborate sets, musical score or special effects when there’s characterization and conflict as good as this.

2. Tootsie : It always makes me laugh. I'd prefer it if there were assertive women in the film besides the one who's actually a man, but it's still fun to watch.

3. Jesus Christ Superstar : Love the music, love the dancing, love the premise (hippies re-enacting Jesus’s last days).

4. The Lord of the Rings : OK, this is actually three films, so I cheated.

Four places you’ve lived

1. Colombo, Sri Lanka.

2. Dubai, United Arab Emirates

3. Austin, Texas

4. Toronto, Canada

Four TV shows you love to watch

I don’t have a TV, so I’ll change this to Four plays you enjoyed.

1. An Inspector Calls, by J. B. Priestley : A wealthy upper-class family is enjoying an evening at home when a police inspector calls on them. He has a photograph of a girl who committed suicide, and over the course of that evening, he forces the members of the family to admit their culpability in the girl’s death. There’s a great twist at the end, too.

2. Macbeth, by William Shakespeare : I studied this in high school, but I’d probably have read it anyway. The fatally flawed, originally heroic main character, the grim atmosphere, the irony and foreshadowing… it's my favorite Shakespearan tragedy.

3. A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen : I can identify with a woman who leaves an oppressive state of control and strikes out into an unknown future.

4. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, by Tom Stoppard : The question game is hilarious, and even more so in the film, where the main characters are on either side of a tennis net when they play it.

Four places you’ve been on vacation:

1. London, England.

2. San Salvador, El Salvador

3. New York City, New York

4. Bangkok, Thailand

Four of your favorite foods

1. Chicken parmigiana

2. Sambol (a Sri Lankan dish made with grated coconut and chili powder)

3. Pizza Hut’s chicken fajita pan pizza

4. Chocolate mousse (or chocolate ice cream, or anything chocolate, really)

Good thing most of the people in my family are genetically predisposed to be thin.