numbchasing
I'm still doing what I can to not think. I went and saw Sunshine with Jeff, combining company with the most visceral movie I could find, to fill the empty space before work today. After work I went to the studio, and since homework and writing both involved thought, and thought involved thinking, and thinking was the enemy, I sat through a Mel Brooks double feature--High Anxiety and Young Frankenstein--instead.
To fill smaller gaps, Coupland's JPod is still doing wonders. It's far from a perfect book, but it's clever and easy and has enough meat to preoccupy me as I go.
Last night I couldn't sleep, and turned down at least two offers for late night phone calls if I needed. Instead I sat up through the first two Harry Potter movies (you have to understand, I am staying at my parents' place and their movies come in three varieties: sappy romance, Disney, and action... so I had little to choose from). Jon's friend Pat, who recently moved here, recommended Harry Potter to me, if I could come at them with a blank enough slate. Meaning, don't expect much and don't overanalyze if you can help it. Well, how much blanker could you get than now, I figured, when I was trying not to think at all?
Of course, I could only turn off the analysis so far.
Here's what I learned, by the way. All you Harry Potter fans are ignoring the fact that these are essentially just bad Encyclopedia Brown plots set in a modern-day wizardy world. And when you consider that Encyclopedia Brown is just a Hardy Boys rip-off, and every story with goblins, dwarves, elves, or pointed-hat wizards is a Tolkien rip-off, you begin to realize you're really getting thrice-recycled cultural archtypes here. All this is to say, Harry Potter books are to two classic types of kids stories what the God Jesus Robot is to two kinds of oracles: a hollow and poorly executed amalgamation--so distinctly lacking in any history of its own that (like much the Japanese offer us--in terms of recycling our culture, that is) it becomes fascinating in its own right--that ultimately, despite everything, kind of cheapens your memory/experience of the original material. But I don't hate them. Alan Rickman rocks my world, and honestly I kind of like all the actors, even the kids, if they weren't being handed such brutally bad dialogue.
Don't worry, though, I am still eagerly looking forward to finally watching the only Potter film I ever had interest in, which is Cuaron's. More nonthought ahead!
Can't last forever though. Saturday I have an all-day date with Vasiliki; Monday night I have a new draft of Open due for Writing Group; and Wednesday my (not-yet-started) final project for Sound Design class is due. Oh, right, and Jeff and I blah blah fixed score yadda yadda 1000 Pieces. Not to mention new place to live crisis and getting my stuff out of Olivia's somehow, in a way that doesn't just rub us both more emotionally raw than we already are. Break-ups are always nasty. I don't want to talk about it on here.
Basically I'm putting everything off for as long as I can, because (and let's be honest here) the longer I can go on not thinking, the longer I can go on not feeling.
To fill smaller gaps, Coupland's JPod is still doing wonders. It's far from a perfect book, but it's clever and easy and has enough meat to preoccupy me as I go.
Last night I couldn't sleep, and turned down at least two offers for late night phone calls if I needed. Instead I sat up through the first two Harry Potter movies (you have to understand, I am staying at my parents' place and their movies come in three varieties: sappy romance, Disney, and action... so I had little to choose from). Jon's friend Pat, who recently moved here, recommended Harry Potter to me, if I could come at them with a blank enough slate. Meaning, don't expect much and don't overanalyze if you can help it. Well, how much blanker could you get than now, I figured, when I was trying not to think at all?
Of course, I could only turn off the analysis so far.
Here's what I learned, by the way. All you Harry Potter fans are ignoring the fact that these are essentially just bad Encyclopedia Brown plots set in a modern-day wizardy world. And when you consider that Encyclopedia Brown is just a Hardy Boys rip-off, and every story with goblins, dwarves, elves, or pointed-hat wizards is a Tolkien rip-off, you begin to realize you're really getting thrice-recycled cultural archtypes here. All this is to say, Harry Potter books are to two classic types of kids stories what the God Jesus Robot is to two kinds of oracles: a hollow and poorly executed amalgamation--so distinctly lacking in any history of its own that (like much the Japanese offer us--in terms of recycling our culture, that is) it becomes fascinating in its own right--that ultimately, despite everything, kind of cheapens your memory/experience of the original material. But I don't hate them. Alan Rickman rocks my world, and honestly I kind of like all the actors, even the kids, if they weren't being handed such brutally bad dialogue.
Don't worry, though, I am still eagerly looking forward to finally watching the only Potter film I ever had interest in, which is Cuaron's. More nonthought ahead!
Can't last forever though. Saturday I have an all-day date with Vasiliki; Monday night I have a new draft of Open due for Writing Group; and Wednesday my (not-yet-started) final project for Sound Design class is due. Oh, right, and Jeff and I blah blah fixed score yadda yadda 1000 Pieces. Not to mention new place to live crisis and getting my stuff out of Olivia's somehow, in a way that doesn't just rub us both more emotionally raw than we already are. Break-ups are always nasty. I don't want to talk about it on here.
Basically I'm putting everything off for as long as I can, because (and let's be honest here) the longer I can go on not thinking, the longer I can go on not feeling.