The world feels a bit heavy to me right now. I can’t account for exactly the cause, but it’s most likely a combination of the news of plane crashes and verdicts delivered and tough things that I know friends are going through. In the middle of all this, however, there was Sharknado.
If you’re unfamiliar with the campy thriller about a tornado full of sharks produced by the ScyFy channel, just google it. The concept is ridiculous. Apparently, the graphics are old school and not the least bit touched up and the acting is equally, awesome-ly bad (Steve Sanders from 90210 shows up to defeat sharks with a chainsaw).
I haven’t even seen the movie, but I spent the better part of Saturday afternoon laughing with friends about it. Which, in a nutshell, is what I love about stories — their power to remove you from the real world for a bit. Sometimes we all just need forget everything else and laugh about a tornado full of sharks for a few minutes.
Just in case sci-fi thrillers (even campy ridiculous ones) don’t do it for you, I’ve written a synopsis of the polar opposite of Sharknado; a sweet fantasy film, called Guppy Breeze. Perhaps I’ll pitch it to Hallmark . . .
The air never, ever moves in the desert town of Tilson, Nevada. The residents nicknamed it Stilltown years ago. Many people don’t even remember it’s real name. Shop owners can’t keep lip balm or water on the shelves and no one can remember when it rained last. Very few people stay more than a few months.
Eight year old, Rebecca Morton, exceptionally prone to dehydration, wants nothing more than to live somewhere where she can play outside for more than a few minutes with friends that don’t move away. Late one night, crying, she confesses her heart’s desires to her goldfish, Gary. A few of her tears fall in his fishbowl. Three days later, just as her mother is about to call her in from outside, Rebecca feels something brush the side of her face. She lifts her eyes to the useless wind chime on the porch and watches in disbelief as it begins to move ever so slightly.
Another soft breeze blows across her face, then another. Suddenly she feels something else. She reaches up to her cheek just in time to catch a tiny goldfish in her hand. She squints into the dessert in front of her and notices that there are thousands of tiny goldfish blowing in the breeze.
That night in a dream, Gary speaks to her and explains that the guppy breeze is there to stay, as long as no one harms the tiny fish blowing through the town. It is Rebecca’s mission to spread the word and bring her arid town back to life.
Have you seen Sharknado? I’d love to hear your take on it, or about anything else that’s making you laugh right now, in the comments below.
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Hi Mary,
Yes, I watched SHARKNADO! Why, you say? Well, as it happens, I got involved in an online Twitter discussion in the #MyWANA group. Kristen Lamb, the head WANA, put together a SHARKNADO Twitter Party.
The movie…definitely a B-ish movie. It was so ridiculous, it was funny. But the best part of the movie was the Twitter Party, where all of us tweeted back and forth about all the “slip-ups”. For instance, the ex-wife runs into a store and asks to use the phone. The guy behind the counter says, “I’m sorry, ma’am. The phone has been out for hours.” At the end of the counter, there is a wall-mounted, wide-screen TV…playing the news about the hurricane coming.
So, had I not been a part of the Twitter Party, would I have watched SHARKNADO? Probably NOT!