What a beautiful death, to die in the exercise of one's passion!
I saw Man on Wire tonight, and while I already found Philippe Petit amusing and interesting based on NPR interviews . . .now I find him fascinating. He's an impeccably focused man, and incredibly unique - I admire the way that he carried himself, the way he treated life, and his ideals of passion and destiny. At the same time, he seems like the kind of person who would be very difficult to interact with - it's rather clear that he was a highly alienating man, particularly towards the team that helped him rig the wire in the first place, and largely because of his focus. His dream, at the time, was all that really mattered to him, everything else be damned, and everything had to be done his way. Because he fulfilled his dream, his friends were charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct, whereas his own charges were dropped in exchange for a juggling act. I mean, watching this documentary, it's made clear that he didn't care very much about others at the time beyond their helping him - he wasn't a very nice guy. Even his girlfriend at the time felt this, stating that he never stopped to ask if she had her own destiny or passions - her life was consumed by his.
But he's still a symbol - an amazing, vibrant, beautiful symbol. Just . . .look at any photo of him, up on that wire. This is a man who decided he was going to do something, and he went and did it. The very image of him doing so seems to distill the symbol of freedom down to a visual state. But . . . he did this at the cost of the people around him, who were working very hard to support him and make sure this could happen.
So. Crunchyroll is streaming a few of the new Spring anime shows, and so far I've seen the premieres of Shangri-La and Natsu no Arashi. The former was just really, really bad. The show just throws plot point after plot point at you without stopping for silly things like decent pacing or characterization. The latter was just weird, and somewhat amusing. A lot of time travel was involved.
The peepers are starting to come out. I love spring.
But he's still a symbol - an amazing, vibrant, beautiful symbol. Just . . .look at any photo of him, up on that wire. This is a man who decided he was going to do something, and he went and did it. The very image of him doing so seems to distill the symbol of freedom down to a visual state. But . . . he did this at the cost of the people around him, who were working very hard to support him and make sure this could happen.
So. Crunchyroll is streaming a few of the new Spring anime shows, and so far I've seen the premieres of Shangri-La and Natsu no Arashi. The former was just really, really bad. The show just throws plot point after plot point at you without stopping for silly things like decent pacing or characterization. The latter was just weird, and somewhat amusing. A lot of time travel was involved.
The peepers are starting to come out. I love spring.