I live in Minneapolis, MN. When people who are not from Minnesota think of Minnesota, they usually imagine a frozen wasteland of frozenness, and for a part of the year, they are actually correct. Things do get very cold here during the winter. There are those debilitating yet amazing days when the air temperature is cold enough and the humidity is high enough to create a phenomenon known as "Sun Dogs." This is a magnificent phenomenon to witness in person.
Sun Dogs
We have snow emergencies, wind advisories, blizzards, and enough people have had their cars towed for plowing so that it isn't really that huge of a surprise to most when it happens. This is part of the year in Minnesota. Additionally, during our winters, the sun can start to set before 4 in the afternoon.
There is also a part of the year known as Summer, which occurs after that three day period referred to on calendars as Spring. During this period, we experience sunlight that goes past 9:00PM, and massive doses of heat and humidity. Every day isn't horrifyingly hot and humid, but it's kind of how every winter day isn't sub zero. There are a lot of pleasant winter days and a lot of pleasant summer days.
Movie Theatres have the best Air Conditioning.
Today is not going to be one of those super-pleasant summer days, however. Today there will most likely be lots of sunburns and the ER will be filled with people suffering from heat exhaustion and dehydration. While an air conditioned movie theatre would be my first choice in a perfect world, I have other plans this afternoon which include spending time in an indoor swimming pool.
Today is one of the days when I can really appreciate the merits of living in a studio apartment. I did not leave my Air Conditioner on, in fact I didn't turn it on at all. It only takes about 15 minutes for the thing to completely cool the space, and my cat has an aversion to the sound it makes. An open window provides plenty of ventilation, and that cat is always hiding in dark places anyways. I may get away with the lowest power bills I've had in years!
I knew my Samsung Galaxy SII had an MP3 player when I bought it, though "bought" is a bit strong of a word for a refurb that I got for a penny, but they *did* run my card, so it qualifies as a purchase.
As a side note, I did not get the Skyrocket. I did not get the Skyrocket because I did not want to get "Afternoon Delight" stuck in my head every time I went to pick up my phone. The HSPA enhanced backhaul is more than enough "G" for my phone.
I used to go for runs with an FM radio in my ears. I still do from time to time, but for the past I-don't-know-how-long, I've been running without music of any kind. The other day I decided that it would be a good idea to listen to the MP3's that I had stored on the memory card in my phone. I wound up listening to Sex Bomb by Tom Jones, Renegades of Funk by Rage Against The Machine, Run Runaway by Slade, and a whole lot of Cake.
Today I decided to throw more music on the memory card. This happened after my morning run, because my morning run commenced at about 5:00 AM. I dragged and dropped a lot of stuff on there, then when I was done with work and I walked downtown to see a movie, I plugged in. If you don't manually set up a playlist, the Galaxy SII will just throw the MP3's out at random. The soundtrack to my afternoon involved the following songs, pictured below for your listening pleasure:
(Yeah, it's French language punk)
I like listening in this format, and it means buying less tangible items that are going to take up space. I am going to need to get some newer music downloaded to my phone though, I need not to be stuck in the 80's/90's.
I've seen The Avengers 9 times. I'm not embarrassed. It's an escape. Not that I'm really escaping "from" anything, but it's an escape into something. It's probably one of the most perfect films of it's genre that I've ever seen. No wasted dialogue or action. Everything moves the film forward. It's funny, it's serious, it's filled with excellent actors all bringing their A game, it's well thought out, and it never ever drags. There is one continuous shot during the big climactic battle scene which has no dialogue but tells the story of the battle in such a way as to move the plot forward, further develop the characters, and put focus on the bigness of it all. It's a moving comic book, and it's outstanding. I may even see it again before it leaves the theatres for good.
The Avengers was obviously made with a great deal of love for the source material, as were all of the movies leading up to it, and as will the films that follow, I have no doubt. I will see them all, probably more than once. I saw Watchmen 5 times. I saw the first Sherlock Holmes movie (the Guy Ritchie one) at least 5 times (I have a lot of reverence for the source material on THAT one). I saw Pulp Fiction twice, I saw Kill Bill several times (both parts). I'm pretty sure I saw The Matrix at least 5 times because it was playing at the $2 theatre for what seemed like an eternity. I also adore Star Trek. I'm at a loss for more examples right now, but I think there is this special class of great fun movies, movies that aren't going to bring about any deep enlightenment and probably don't qualify as high art, but will send you out of your own world into another one so that you can leave your problems behind for 2 or so hours then come back excited.
This is not the only reason why I watch movies.
Last night I watched a movie that I had not previously heard of called Sunshine. It was made in 2007, and I found it when I was playing IMDB "click a random link see what you find." I'm pretty sure that I found it when I was looking at Chris Evans' IMDB profile to see if they had thrown up a release date for an Avengers sequel yet (no, too many movies til then). I clicked on it because I wanted to know what a film called Sunshine would be about.
Sunshine (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0448134/) is a science fiction film made in 2007 about a group of astronauts from the future on a mission to detonate a bomb into the dying sun in order to save humanity. Based upon that premise, I quickly located a digital copy for viewing. This is not one of those fun science fiction escape films where people have superpowers which cannot be explained, or the food comes out of a replicator. This is a dirty ship with people who are uncomfortable with one another, sweating and getting in fights and complaining about the food. This is a ship where the oxygen supply is dependent upon an onboard garden, and it ends up being a suicide mission. This is a film which can be best described as being psychologically and emotionally draining. I swear that in the last 20 minutes, I was a puddle of goo. I didn't bother with Kleenex.
I'm going to take this moment to step out of that film and talk about what triggers emotional response and how those emotional responses differ. I have cried during nearly every Steven Spielberg film (even Poltergeist). Steven Spielberg is aces at creating scenes which WILL make you react emotionally. He must have a PhD in making people cry. "Romantic" movies don't often make me weepy. (Eg. this movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1700844/ just made me want to yell at both of the main characters. It was extremely well acted, I just saw way too much willful dysfunction in the characters to feel particularly sorry for either one of them, and had trouble understanding why the story was worth telling.) Then again, when I am invested in characters after a long period of time, then their exploits tend to have more of an emotional impact - example: I was a puddle of goo for the last 20 minutes of the Series Finale of Deep Space Nine.
Back to "Sunshine" - why was I a puddle of goo? The way in which the screenwriter highlighted the psychology and the spirituality and the magnitude of what they were doing both on a personal and a universal level... the way in which it was acted and shot... made the viewer (at least me) feel like I was traveling with the characters and wondering how much of a mess I would be in that situation I was breathless and tears were falling freely out of my eyes with out my even really openly acknowledging them. It's not oh noes, the object of my affection doesn't luv me so I'm going to end it all! - it's - Oh. We are all going to have to die to complete our mission and save the world. Chew on that for a moment. By the way, there is a spiritually crazed lunatic trying to kill everyone on board. No time to ponder, time to start running.
So there is this fantastic duality to film - of course one film can be both an escape and high art, but that is honestly usually not the case. The clearest distinction is - if a film makes me a little bit uncomfortable, it's probably high art. If a film doesn't make me feel the least bit uncomfortable, then it's probably an escape*.
To further clarify the distinction, I have made a little list:
High Art:
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Lost in Translation
Event Horizon
Into the Mouth of Madness
Fight Club
Brazil
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
A Clockwork Orange
Escapist:
The Avengers (all the Marvel movies, saving space by not listing)
Superman
Star Wars
Midnight In Paris (Woody Allen is of course an artist, but this film is ABOUT escape.)
The Illusionist
Pulp Fiction (anything by Quentin Tarantino, even though he is a consummate artist, I escape into his art)
Sin City
Spy Kids
Once Upon a Time In Mexico (are you a Mexi-can or a Mexi-can't? - video below for giggles)
*There is one line in The Avengers that makes me a bit uncomfortable, but that's only because I'm aware that the word "quim" is basically a Victorian way of calling a person the C word that rhymes with Hunt. I don't know that most people are hip to that jive, though the actors obviously were.
When I moved into my new place, I left the coffee maker behind. This time of year, I'm not huge on hot coffee, so it didn't seem like a big deal. (Besides, it was a $14 Wal Mart coffee maker.)
Since moving, I have become far more contentious about recycling. I've found that far more than half of my trash can go into the recycle bin. I've discovered also that even though I have an Air Conditioner, because the apartment is so small, I don't really need to use it for more than 10-15 minutes at a time if it is really murderously hot inside.
Since I already don't own a car, I think that I probably have a teeny tiny carbon footprint. That's good!
I am considering buying a Keurig Coffee machine.
Problem: you cannot recycle the K-Cups. But it's so convenient, brew one cup of coffee at a time! Brew different flavors! You can even do hot chocolate or tea! It's great! But you cannot recycle the K-Cups.
The Keurig corporation seems to have a focus on social responsibility - http://www.keurig.com/social-responsibility - it looks like there may be some options in the future... and the cardboard box the K-Cups come in *is* recyclable.
The sticking point: I really want one, and I can afford it.
The way my mind works is that I do get "being good" points for the recycling I'm already doing, rarely running my Air Conditioner, and not driving. Therefore, there is a very good chance that I will be getting a Keurig machine.
About a month ago, the YWCA asked if I
was at all interested in being a "featured member" I said "sure" without really thinking about
it. One afternoon, a woman with the YWCA showed up by the pool with her camera
to take my picture. She took about 100 pictures. Some of the pictures showed me
standing by the pool, and others had me in the pool. The one they used (right)
shows me actually in the pool. I was given directions such as "look
like you're going to start swimming" So I looked like I was going to start
swimming, and the picture they used is the result of that.
Yes I am wearing a Dolfin "Uglies" Halloween Pumpkin suit.
I made a point of not mentioning it to a lot of people because I
wanted to see if anyone noticed. People did actually notice - there are a couple
of snapshots on Facebook in which I was tagged.
A few people noticed too much and wouldn't shut up about it. This
leads me into my point of view on celebrity. Now, I'm not saying that I think
this gives me any sort of celebrity status, but it plays into how I tend to
perceive celebrity.
When I was in Jr. High (late 80's), I was a big fan of Gilda Radner.
I read her book, "It's Always Something." Unfortunately, I read it shortly after
she passed away. The book struck me because here was this person who was larger
than life in so many ways, writing about the gory details of her cancer
treatment, her crush on Gene Wilder (obviously before they started dating),
everything. It was about then that I really formulated the whole point of view
that famous people, actors, singers, musicians, artists, etc. all wake up in the
morning and go to bed at night (depending on their schedule). They get colds,
they accidentally eat something that doesn't agree with them and end up in the
bathroom when they'd rather not be, they pull muscles, they fall in love, they
end relationships, they lose loved ones, they adopt pets, and they have to find
a way to react to the attention they get.
Twitter has given famous type people an outlet to interface directly
with fans. Some handle it really fabulously well while obviously keeping up a
logical barrier between their public and private lives, and some not so much.
I've responded to tweets from famous people who I don't know personally. I've
never received a response, but I don't really think that's a big deal. It's just
like when I get a response from someone I don't know. I usually file it.
There is a mystery about people who are larger than life, but I try
to keep it in perspective. If I had been embarassed about the idea, I wouldn't
have agreed to take the pictures for the Y. On the same token, the times I've
gone on stage and played guitar, if I was embarassed about that, I wouldn't have
done that either. All the same, I still feel that slight discomfort when someone
I don't know, or someone I don't know well starts telling me that they liked my
song, picture, what have you. It's just a weird feeling. I imagine that
<insert famous type person here> never truly gets used to the attention
and may also experience that, probably a lot stronger than I ever have.
Which reminds me... I have been playing my guitar a bit lately. I
might have even started writing a new song. Hooray for re-established guitar
callouses and creativity!
This is that beautiful time of year when, at least as far north as Minnesota, it stays light out until almost 10:00PM and gets light out before 5:00AM. For people like me who rise pretty early, it can be a bit difficult to get to sleep - I think many of us are naturally conditioned to prefer sleeping in the dark. It is nice, however when I want to go for a run exceptionally early in the morning. I am strongly considering getting up at 4:30 tomorrow morning to run AND make it into the office on time.
I have one of those little pillow thingies that you can put over your eyes in order to block out light. It doesn't block out the life force energy that is inherrent in a city still awake, however. I don't think you need to be able to see in order to perceive that. The funny thing is, New York City expresses that kind of energy 24/7 and I didn't have any trouble sleeping there. Perhaps it's because the energy has just sort of resigned itself to it's own constant nature, which releases people into their preferred routines without having to pay any tribute. When I can't sleep, my 25 pound cat will lay down on me to keep me from tossing and turning. It's just something he sort of automatically does.
It is, of course, the summer solstice today. The longest day of the year. So it only gets better from here on out. My Pagan nature is of course interested in committing to some sort of celebratory action, but I have also kind of adopted a spiritual world-view that emphasizes the importance of each breath of each day of the year having equal spiritual importance, so it doesn't bother me much that it's just another day.
I am presently operating on copious amounts of caffeine.
I didn't set out to buy a Kindle. It just
sort of happened. I upgraded my phone to a shiny Android Smartphone, and there
it was: a pre-installed Kindle app. I wonder if I will like it? I
mused. I'd always thought an eReader would strip away a certain romantic aspect
of reading. But then again, how often do you really find me reading a book? I
can't read in the car, and my attention always seems to be flying everywhere
when I try to read. I had been meaning to re-read Stephen King's Dark Tower
series, so I made a commitment and downloaded it.
The Kindle app presented a
wonderful new world to me. I realized that in this format, I could read for
longer. I could read on the bus without getting motion sickness, and I
remembered what I read far more clearly!
The first time I watched the film Midnight
in Paris, I was in a cycle class at the YWCA. During the cooler months, the
Minneapolis YWCA offers "Cycle To The Movies" in which you pedal furiously on
spin bikes whilst viewing a film - usually an action movie. I made sure to show
up for Midnight in Paris (not an action movie), because I love Woody Allen and
I'd heard good things about it even from people who hate Woody Allen. It was a
great movie, and giving consideration to the fact that one of my favorite novels
is The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, (which is a thinly veiled gossip
column about the time period depicted in parts of the film) it was very amusing
to me.
Because there is only so much you can get
out of a movie while exercising, and because I'd retroactively realized that Tom
Hiddleston, the exceptionally talented actor who played Loki in The Avengers,
had played F. Scott Fitzgerald, I grabbed a copy of the movie to watch while
sitting still. I needed some diversion while getting settled into my new
apartment anyways. I'm going to take this opportunity to state that I would
never read a book by an author just because an actor I liked played them. That
would be kind of silly. I also won't see a movie starring an actor I really like
if the subject matter doesn't interest me.
I had gotten to thinking that where I had
been all hot and bothered over Ernest Hemingway for a very long time (due to an
incredibly heartfelt lesson on him in 12th Grade English), I had really never
read any F. Scott Fitzgerald. We were supposed to read The Great Gatsby but it
was glossed over. I had never gotten around to it. Somewhere between that, and
the idle thought of oh shit they're doing a movie I downloaded a copy
from Amazon.
I am really glad that I didn't read it in
high school. It would have bored me. I wouldn't have really gotten it, I
wouldn't have appreciated it. Fitzgerald seems to have had a penchant for using
the novel as an exercise in trying to figure out if the people who he disliked
had any redeeming qualities at all. The Great Gatsby is literary rubbernecking.
Through the narration of Nick Carraway, someone who sort of sets himself above
Gatsby through his repeated expressions of disapproval - but is really not a
whole lot better - you see a sort of dichotomy, between the morally challenged
and the repressed. There is that whole early 20th century air of cautious
freedom and the bad decisions that come with it. The characters are all
compelling, but none of them are likeable (really, not even Nick Carraway when
you think of it. He moved into a cheap house amidst mansions, why? Not just
because it was cheap I don't think.) Ultimately, I think the answer to the
question is no, none of the characters have any redeeming qualities. Nick
Carraway was probably only a good friend to Gatsby because he didn't have
anything better to do and he felt stuck.
Now back to Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen
really did a stellar job capturing a moment in time with some great authors, and
the portrayls do really give a fairly coherent depiction of why even though they
both come from a minimalist era in literature, reading Hemingway is a vastly
different experience from reading Fitzgerald. This was illustrated in the film
rather nicely, but is also well established within their literary works.
In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald writes "what a grotesque thing a rose
is." In For Whom The Bell Tolls, Hemingway writes, "mighty like the rose." If
you step back and get a wider perspective, this is a reminder that at any point
in history, you will find infinite different ways of looking at the same thing.
A rose can be grotesque, it can be mighty, it can be loving or insulting, and it
is also very good in black tea. Edited to add: Yes I have eaten rose petals.
When I was in high school, I thought that in order for my existence to be validated I had to have a boyfriend. I stopped thinking that far too recently than I care to admit.
Without going into details, I fairly recently discovered that I wasn't happy in the relationship which I was in. Unfortunately when you've invested time, energy, and parts of your soul into something, simply disengaging doesn't seem like an option. It took a while, it took a lot of fighting with myself, but I finally ended it. I'm sure that eventually, he will be just as happy as I am with the decision.
The truth is, I am really not the same person I was 5 years ago, or 7 or 8 or 10 years ago for that matter. If you're a person who is growing in this life, you who are reading should be able to testify to the same thing.
