Thursday, December 25, 2008
The curious Case of Benjamin Buttons
The premise of this movie is taken from the idea that man grows from a
baby to a man, then in his dotage becomes a baby once more. I suppose
some writer somewhere laughingly wondered, what if a man really did
become a baby? What would that be like? Then from that the inevitable
and almost cliche idea of a man being born old and becoming young, till
he becomes a baby again, and dies as a newborn. Fortunately the writer
who decided this was worth pursuing happened to be a very good writer
indeed and the result was deeper than the Marianas Trench.
A few points are brought up repeatedly and make a lovely theme. "You
never know what's gonna come at you." and "everyone's life is
different, really." It really does slap expectation in the face, time
and again. Just when you think it would be neat to get younger instead
of older, you get to see how much of a handicap it can be. Yet our
erstwhile hero does not become disabled by it, he just rolls with the
realities it brings and explores the results. Certainly a lesson we
can all learn. Because he doesn't waste time trying to shape how things
should be and instead explores how they are, he encounters richness of
life that makes for a fascinating film. It lasts 3 hours and you are
grateful to be able to stay there, in that curious world, that long.
He is born in 1918 as a wizened old man the size of a baby. As an
elderly child growing up he's isolated from childish pursuits. Too
fragile and crippled to play and so old looking that people treat him
like an elder instead of the child he is.
As the movie pursues the fleeting 20th century it's a wonderful look at
all the eras that went from the roaring 20s right through to the dawn of
the 21st century. I myself relived my own years watching them march by
on the screen.
Does Benjamin get to love? Well yes, the trailer itself reveals that he
has a life long love. He has other loves too, so that side of life is
well attended. He adventures, he loves, he keeps faith with love too,
even while he explores the varied ways of love.
Somewhere deep within my heart some wisdom has been laid. It will
settle gradually there and become part of my inner landscape;
seeming to
be knowlege I always had, even though it was left there by this script.
Well worth the price of admission.
Monday, December 15, 2008
brrrrrr, freezing on the prairies
Oh MY it's cold! Yes indeedy. Highs of minus twenty-five celcius and
as low as thirty-five below overnight. Cold enough for ya? Yah, for
anyone. I was out in it today rediscovering just how tiring it is to
bike in this deep cold. Took me a full damn hour to dress up for a
thirty minute ride! Cripes. I'm exhausted but I didn't freeze. My
toes got unhappy but that's about it.
I had a baby quail here but he didn't make it because nobody fed him. I
thought he'd pick for food but I guess mommy and daddy normally should
take a more active role. I figure they didn't because they were
incubator raised and don't know how. It was quite sad to lose him. I
adored the little guy. I suspected things weren't going right on the
last day when he seemed less energetic in general and I considered if I
should feed him but it was a busy day so I thought I'd try feeding him
next day if he still seemed lethargic. Now I know better. Poor little
mite. I'll figure out a way to feed the next one that shows up.
Dan and I got our Christmas presents early so we could start enjoying
them. Mine is overwhelming me and now, with the cold, I'm even less
inclined to fiddle with it. Frankly I'm amazing busy just keeping the
house cleaned. Or maybe I read too much news these days. I think
that's part of it. Anyway, Dan got upgrades to his computer and I got a
new dslr camera, a pentax k200D. I love it. I just don't have anything
to photograph right now. I'd like to go out and do some photography but
I am too winter-shy lately. It just never seems like a nice day to go
out.
The Christmas trees went up last night. Yes that would be a good thing to
photograph but I'd have to get up and set up the camera and digitally
fix the resulting pictures, all for what? So someone out there might
look at the tree. Blegh, can't be bothered. In my defense, I am still
pretty wiped out by the ride to the dentist. At any rate, they look lovely, not nearly as tacky as I'd expected. I mean, there's five trees, all under three feet tall. Two plain silk ones, one pink one with white lights, one silly silver rainbow laser cut one, and one green one with fiberoptics woven into it. it should look tacky but actually looks charming. I guess I have the touch. We went to the Festival of Trees this year at the museum. I kept thinking it would be fun to do a tree for it, but I think you have to pay out of pocket for all the decorations and the tree and donate it all to the festival charity. That could be awfully expensive. Bad enough to have to hunt down just the right decorations.
Dentist went great. No cavities and so little to clean that we
were done in twenty minutes including the polish! Very nice. The
cleaning hurt though because the device sprays water as it works,
keeping the blade and tooth cool. The water in question was extremely
frigid on account of the cold outside. My sensitive teeth didn't
appreciate that in the least. I'm much better with my fear of the
dentist. Don't really like the current one, mind you. He seems awfully
passive aggressive and it's annoying. They rotate the dentist in the
clinic annually though so he'll be gone when I'm back and a new guy in
his place. There's been some I really liked, one a woman with a touch so
gentle it was like being handled by an angel. What a sweety. She's
doing pediatric dentistry and I know she'll excell in that field.
Finances are okay. Nothing too dramatic, although I'm beginning to
worry about taxes again. We'd better start putting money away.
I got this goofy new vac at the cheapy place last week. Dan was in a
bear mood when I brought it home and had nothing good to say about it
till after it was set up and doing it's thing. It's billed as a central
vac system with trash bin. LOL That's what it is, really, only not
quite. There's a large garbage bin with a powerful vacuum built in the
base. This vacuum is meant to stay in place while the hose is really
long, twenty-six feet of hose and up to ten feet of tubes, so it
reaches pretty much all over the house. it doesn't eliminate the
usefulness of the robots but the other vacuums in the house, the little
stick vac, and the rainbow, are more obsolete. The rainbow continues
useful for portable applications and wet vacuum situations, but the
shark stick vac I could give away. not that I will. I'll eventually
park it in a closet in the bedroom for spot cleaning in there or
something like that. You never know when a small vac will be handy.
It's pretty worn out anyway. I think I've had it around fifteen years,
so that's reasonable. The new machine only cost fifty bucks which is
what I paid for the weak cheap stick vac. With the new system I have
almost no setup or tear-down, just plug in the hose and turn it on, then
put the hose away. It also has a nifty front that lets you sweep debris
up against it then turn it on to suck up the debris! Only real fault is
the disposable bags I'll have to buy.
Indigo is doing really well here. She's the dog we adopted off
freecycle. Her family had to move in with an elderly relative who won't
let dogs in the house. She has gotten much fitter here, better skin and
fur, brighter eyes, softer to pet, and more energy. It's the food. She
sure likes it and because of her Sarah doesn't pull finicky anymore.
They're not close friends yet but they don't have any animosity at all
anymore either, so that's really good. Okay, that's about all I've been
wanting to talk about with a friend.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Trans Siberian Orchestra
We were pretty jazzed about it. From what we'd seen on YouTube and read
in the paper and heard on the radio and tv, it promised to be a really
rad concert. When we got there, everyone was waiting outside. I guess
that was strike one. Well, we heard from the audience that the show got
in two hours late from Winnipeg so maybe that was why we weren't being
let in even though it was only 15 minutes from show time. Finally we
were all in our seats gazing at a crazy pile of rigging and lighting on
the stage and roadies doing final tests on flame throwers and lasers.
Pretty neat!
The sound of instruments being tuned in the dark got us
cheering then they turned on some lights. The great chunks of lit
rigging began to fly upward and the lights started doing nifty things.
Shifting, chasing, changing colors. So it went through the show. Lights
streaming and dancing, flying and swirling. They even had fake snow that
glittered in the color changing laser light! Great nets of LED made up
the cyclorama that not only twinkled fetchingly, but also had the
ability to display like a giant low resolution LED screen. Oh that
lighting designer is a mad genius, no doubt about it. A mad genius with
no concern for the comfort of his audience. Do you enjoy being
repeatedly assaulted with megawatt strobe lights? Well I don't. My
pleasure at the show waned. I was also distracted and disconcerted by
seeing tons of lighting rigging raising an d lowering and turning side
to side. It kind of looked neat but mostly it just looked dangerous.
Then
we started noticing the music. It was great, grand, cliche and sappy.
The lyrics were hashed together by a desperate preacher. This dude who
didn't know how to read poetry would come onstage and read hackneyed
poetry stories that didn't really rhyme, emphasizing the meter so badly
you couldn't follow the story if there was one. I know it related to
angels weeping over battlefields and cello strains in the darkness.
There was a bum who sang like a young man about a bar full of alkies on
Christmas eve being transfixed by a mysterious boy. The boy convinces
the bartender to go out across the street and give all his money from
the register to a tart out there so she could presumably fly home for
Christmas... Then he serves up the booze for free the rest of the night.
There
was a lovely rendition of Carol of the Bells through which Dan and I
gleefully sang "Ding Fries are Done."
Meantime,
the stink of sewer kept flooding through and the chill wind of the
ventilation system blew the frigid Christmas air across. It was a vain
attempt to keep the methane at bay. This must be why they took so long
to let us in. The arena plumbing was on the fritz. Yech. It was awfully
appropriate for a show which stunk equally bad. Like Limburger cheese
and Thunderbird whine it stank and retched it's way through Christian
preaching and familar guitar chords ripped off from rock legends. The
musicians on stage pranced and posed as though they themselves were
artists, rather than studio musicians having a season in the limelight.
It had all the trappings of a world shaking rock concert with none of
the creativity. The writing behind it was horrible. Some of the singers
weren't even on key. Twenty minutes before the flame thrower finale we
left. I was sick and tired of the attempt of Christians to co-opt a
musical genre born of the fury and passion of discontent. Bad enough
they'd co-opted the Pagan Yule and were hammering the myth of miracles,
peace, generosity and joy to everyone. It is no wonder to me that
suicide goes up at Christmas. When you have all that mythological
nicey-nice floating around, but all you personally get is junk mail and
macaroni, well it's disappointing.
We did buy a CD before the show
began. I sort of regret it but I'm sure there's a few good songs on it.
At $20 it wasn't that pricey. It comes complete with a rather thick
booklet with yet another smarmy Christmas miracle story. Complete with
angels, cynics and miraculous healings of cynics. If you're a Christian
family with nerdy teens looking for something hip to usher in the
Christmas season, you're gonna LOVE this show. The rest of us, save your
nickles for Metallica or something. I give this show a rating of a three
dressed up as a nine.
Saturday, November 01, 2008
burqa on hallowe'en
I haven't had the courage to wear the burqa but as it was Hallowe'en and of course anything goes then, I forced myself out in it this time. I took myself to my favorite mall which was open till 9 and includes movies. I wandered the mall for the hour till 9pm. I hung around the bar entrance watching large schoolbuses disgorge scantily clad women who stumbled and tumbled drunkenly out of the doors. I found it extremely amusing to contrast my costume with theirs. Women with so little fabric on them that less would count as beach wear, and me covered literally head to toe in a large flowing sack. Not even my face visible.
It was amusing that I could make any expression I liked, stare as long as I liked at anyone, and even do things like pick my nose (well, rub tickles on it) without anyone noticing. As I walked around the mall it seemed like a lot of people were in costumes, some as all-covering as mine, some very scary ones too. However, I, in my flowing pink burqa, was the scariest one there. I kid you not! People frowned, pointed, whispered, stared boldly, and turned their heads to follow me as we passed. They were openly unnerved by my appearance. I've worn some mighty unnerving costumes, being creative and weird as I am, but this was unquestionably the most frightening in result. I walked boldly into a jewellery store and the clerk handled me with extreme grace. As she took me back to the back counter to see a display that interested me I lifted the veil. After all, it was just me and a woman. A moslem would be allowed to do so there. It's for men to not see you, that's all. She told me it was a great costume and we twittered a bit over it.
On the way home I stopped at Broadway, Saskatoon's main party street, to walk once up and down the street. Up one side, down the other, back across, and back to the car, wearing my burqa. Again, sensational results. People were staring, reluctant to engage, and generally unnerved. When I got home and talked about it with Dan he said they were afraid of the terrorist and then, finally, it clicked. I represented terrorists in so many of those people's minds! The current most evil symbol is one dressed as an extremist moslem and nothing is more faceless and opressive than these burqas.
Now I keep wondering how they'll react after hallowe'en. I wouldn't be surprised if they are openly hostile with me. Curiously enough, it makes me feel more inclined to try it out. Well it does tonight anyway. Whether that feeling will be there when it's time to measure up and actually do the job, it could be as it's been since I got the garment: Easier said than done. I keep thinking a ride on transit could be very entertaining so maybe. If I do, you'll know about it here!
How it felt to wear it in public. Well it was hot. I had to take off my sweater eventually and then I was still warm until I'd sat still in the movie long enough to lose my body heat. I got a bit... fragrant. I liked the feeling of privacy though. Every time I've worn it I've felt a weird freedom. You can look openly and frankly at anyone you like. You don't have to engage with them when they look at you. You can grin wildly like a maniac and they can't see it. If you're feeling weepy, you can cry or frown and again, no reaction to your expression from others. Bad hair day? Who cares, nobody can see it. Itchy nose? Pick it. LOL You can dig in your purse or play with your PDA under there and nobody sees a thing. In spite of standing out like a christmas tree in July, you're completely private. A faceless entity. I can understand why a woman voluntarily dons the veil even after she is legally freed from it. It feels safer inside. You're safe from male lust. Safe from strangers judgment. Safe from intrusive social interactions. With a male family member escorting you, you're also more or less safe from physical assault. It really is a very secure feeling.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
speaker's circle
I was at a screening for a film about one of the many indian issues in
our city. It was followed by a long dialog with the audience and a
selected panel. One thing kept coming up, that people felt like they
weren't being given a place to tell their stories. Really there's never
enough places for it, and mostly we should be able to express ourselves
to our families and be heard. Those who can turn to their families and
be heard and supported usually felt heard, whereas those who can't don't
feel heard even if they're broadcast to the nation! However, the more
our institutions encourage and acknowledge the importance of speaking
out, the more of us will feel empowered.
So I got to thinking. How to
provide a speaker's box? Internet? Regular meetings? Both are
exclusionary. Lots of people don't feel welcome to walk in the door and
so many still cannot get online. If they could, they'd already be
speaking their stories. After all, isn't that what this blog is? Isn't
that the main theme of the internet for so many? So I continued to chew.
Then I had an image. What if there was a sanctioned ranting station? A
place where even offensive things were tolerated? A place where everyone
could speak up?
We can't put censors on this space though. If someone
spouts offensive crap, then someone else can call them on it, but nobody
can assault them or drag them off or force them to shut up. Even if it
is criminal, inciting hatred of others, racism, etc. Because nothing
less that complete tolerance will empower those who feel the least
worthwhile to be heard. Oh the speakers may have to face a lot of
shouting and ridicule I suppose. How do they do it in hyde park? I think
I need to do a bit of research. I want to present this to City Council,
but I'd like to present them with a workable idea, not just the germ of
one.
I spoke with the Police chief and some of the indian elders and
they all agreed the idea was worthwhile. I do see that there's some
bugs, but it's working in Regina I heard, and it works in London, so I
guess the next stage is to figure out how they're making it work.
