Moment of Quiet

Here is my hour of quiet on a jam-packed day! I ate a burrito at 10:00 a.m. because it’s my last chance to eat until 6 or 7. See how responsible I am being. Burrito at 10 a.m. is not necessarily ideal. Ok it was gross. But I did it! I am the world’s greatest hero.

Trying to amp my students up about Romanticism. “DO NOT YE ALL SEE HOW FUNNY THIS IS”

This weekend was a four day weekend and I spent four full days of it grading. I feel a little bit resentful about this, but I try not to get resentful about grading so I am stuffing my feelings deep down inside so that they can explode at an inappropriate moment, like when daddy hit the referee with the bottle.

I just felt like I wanted to do tarot cards and stretch and see a movie but instead I didn’t. I graded. Then I had tons of fun stuff at night, friends in town, shows being played, etc.

My friends played the weirdest event. It was an event that simultaneously made me feel like the smartest person in the world and like a tiny little filthy androgynous gnome-urchin from some Dickensian hell hole, with mud smeared all over my face and my little cap in my hand. “Can I have three farthings for a lump of shit please?” It was a fashion event where the person playing onstage was playing BEHIND a row of models standing unmoving for 20 minutes. If only Tavi had been there! But I could not get over how hilarious it was to see my friend making amazing music, completely obscured by a row of 7 foot tall 90 pound women having their picture taken by 200 people. So on the one hand I was like “this event is bizarre, I feel like Baudrillard, let me discourse in monotone about spectacle” but on the other hand I felt like a hideous grommitt from another age. I was straight-up wearing a pea coat and running shoes at this event. I never took off the pea coat! Everyone else was dancing in mini-dresses and heels like at a club! There were SMOKE MACHINES.

Here is Adam’s set. You can just make him out beyond the forest of gams:

And here was his view from the stage, which I snuck around back to photog:

I loved my friends so much in this moment. I loved Adam so much, as indeed I always love him, but even more at a time like this, air-siren soloing and wearing sunglasses and just delighting in the absurdity.

The night before that was my friend Zac’s birthday and what do you think he did? His friend Amber brilliantly acquired for him a 16 mm print of NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, one of my top two my favorite movies. Apparently also one of Zac’s favorite movies, which I had not realized! He told me my love for it brought it to his life lo these many years gone by, which makes me very happy. So at midnight my old man projected it at the Hollywood theater for a select group of initiates. We watched it while eating birthday cake. To say it was the greatest night of my life would be an overstatement, but not by much. Also who knew my old man’s projecting skills would ever come in so real-world handy? Hooray for learning to use antiquated equipment! It’s just like that apocalypse novel where the only people who survive are those who have acquired novelty luxury hobbies like archery and horse. Except in this apocalypse we would have need of films, MORE FILMS! Hurry, before the human race is extinguished!

My love for this film knows no bounds. It’s never on any of those snobby “best movies of all time” lists. I believe this is because Charles Laughton only made one film and was primarily known as an actor. And those best-of lists, you can tell they’re just a bunch of guys being like “ah yes…..HITCHCOCK. Now the only question is WHICH Hitchcock?” They go by Important Directors and only then do they go by movie. This is why auteur theory is stupid, because N of the H kicks the ass of any number of Great Directors’ films. But because it’s never on these lists I feel like people will forget about it! WOE

It was very rewarding to watch it in a theater and listen to an audience laughing at all the parts I also find hilarious. “YOU hit daddy wit’ da HAIRbrush” e.g. or Shelley Winters’ incredible death scene or any one of Lillian Gish’s bizarre monologues. “I’m a strong tree with many branches. I’m good for something in this ol’ world and I KNOW it TOO.” Or the really unexpectedly explicit and brutal discussion of sexual pleasure. “That wasn’t love, that was just flapdoodle. That’s for a man. I swear in forty years with my Walt I’d just lay there thinking about my canning. The good lord didn’t intend for women to want that…not REALLY want it! It’s all just a lie and a pipe dream…” And then when Harry shames Willa on their wedding night? What a weird movie! “That body was made for the begettin’ of children. It was not made for the LUSTS of MAN!”

and really spectacular music. So much music! Diagetic singing as well as awesome themes. The creepy sex theme gives me nightmares.

oh boy one of my favorite sequences is on youtube!

Anyway, that was great.

It’s freezing and raining here FINALLY! I am very happy. How pleasant to sit and grade with the rain pattering gently ‘pon the roof. The snoopy has been letting us wrap him up in blankets on the couch because he’s so cold. He’s too skinny but the vet says it’s just his body type! What are we to do but wrap him up like a little piggy.