Poker has been a good time recently, even if I haven't exactly won anything.
The Wig and Pen in Coralville is also a good time.
Since Before Sunset is out, I figured I ought to at least see Before Sunrise,
so I got that at the video store and liked it a lot. Going into it I
thought it might seem like lazy filmmaking since it's mostly just two
people talking, but no, it was really great, and the long takes that
let the actors do their thing showed restraint rather than a lack of
creative editing. Maybe I will talk about it more when it isn't so
late. Suffice it to say that it's the best movie I've seen since I last
said I saw a real good movie, so probably better than everything back
to Barbarian Invasions a month ago.
After I copy all of my posts from this site, I think I'm going to cancel it and transfer all that stuff to my Carleton website,
where I will put it up with the other junk that's there. I'll take a
look at the comments, but probably won't try to fit them all in along
with the main posts. Maybe I won't post for a really, really long time,
unless I can come up with something worthwhile to say. I think that
would be fun.
Last night the local public library showed The Rage in Placid Lake. It was an Australian independent starring Ben Lee and distributed by Film Movement, who sell indie DVDs by subscription. The movie was good and funny, and reminded me in places of The Ruling Class, Il Posto, and Office Space.
Ben Lee acted pretty well and even restrained himself from breaking
into song until the closing credits. The script was really clever (in a
good way) and, besides, I can't dislike a movie about a young man
choosing between a career in film or insurance.
I also enjoyed the screening because it was an all ages sort of crowd,
which I enjoy more than the constant 18 to 22 demographic at Carleton.
A lot of older people I know (and people who aren't older as well, I
guess) don't seem to really have any interests, which makes me nervous
that all people become that way at a certain age. These are probably
the same people who can't see any reason to retire until they are
bedridden. That's why I enjoy it when I see old folks doing something
more than putting together another crossword puzzle: hope for the
distant future.
I've been getting really annoyed with our dial-up internet (42.6 kbps
last time!), so I'll happy to do away with that when I return to
Northfield. I may have as few as seven days left of summer vacation at
home since our family is embarking on a monstrous road-trip this
Saturday, August 21. I'm ready to not work at Syngenta anymore, not
least because a number of my close co-workers are incredibly boring.
Next summer I'll probably get to look forward to working even less if I
don't want to spend all my time looking at corn. For some reason I was
thinking that I wouldn't need a temporary job next summer, but I'm not
really sure why I'd thought that, because I will. At the end of summer
2005 I will probably start some stint in voluntary service, perhaps in
Washington D.C. Details will be forthcoming as they become known.
I've been trying to figure out how I want to display album and book covers, or if I want to. I'm re-reading William Gibson's Neuromancer, and I think I'm getting more out of it than the first time I'd read it a few years ago. I've recently enjoyed Loscil's First Narrows,
both albums by the Thermals, and most all of the new music I got from
the record library last year. The radio was disappointing me this
evening, so I put iTunes on a shuffled and comprehensive list of music
from 2004 that I have. It's all pretty good and a lot of it is really
good.
I watched An American In Paris with Gene Kelly this
evening, but I think I'd have to watch it again to really enjoy it. I
think All Movie Guide puts it pretty well: "The overall film
(especially the non-musical elements) hasn't worn quite so well over
the years." However, many of the dance sequences were impressive and
the ballet near the end was completely psychedelic. The story, the
dialogue, and the acting were not so good, which sort of put me off,
but I did find it interesting that the filmmakers employed such lavish
yet obviously fake sets. It seems that most of the time extensive
detail is used to make the experience seem real, but here the costumes,
sets, and props were just to create a really good fake stage in the
studio.
So Nicholson Baker wrote another book, and I'd really like to read it.
The Guardian on international populations half a century from now.