Weblog 290

September 04, 2011~ 8:00 am
It was so blasted, insufferably HOT last night, I watched my movie with Wayne, then went straight to bed. The humidity was crushing.

The movie was 'Howl'-- the story of Allen Ginsberg's mid 1950's obscenity trial that came about after the triumphant first reading of his American anthem poem at the 'Six Gallery' in San Francisco. James Franco- with just a bit of putty behind his ears to make them stick out, curled black hair and dark-rimmed glasses, was able to transform his 'pretty boy' image into the sensitive, introspective Ginsberg quite remarkably. He had the poet's cadence and his voice down pat.



Jon Hamm from 'Mad Men' played a thoughful, intelligent, riveting defense lawyer. In fact, each part of the casting was perfection, though I'd rather have seen a straight out drama than an 'art film' dedicated to the iconic poem itself.

The director decided to intersperse the story with an animated version of the poem: this flipped back and forth between real action and adult 'cartoon animation'. It distracted. It limited the film and prevented it from truly grabbing hold dramatically. That's too bad. A flat out story, with more of the characters of that time and place in the mid-50's would have made a helluva movie. As is, it's a sort of homage- a patchwork quilt of words and images, jarringly bumping up against the actual story with living characters. Still.....



I think Allen Ginsberg would have LOVED IT. (Isn't that just the greatest image of the father of post-modern American poetry?) It's from a rally in 1967, and he looks about to levitate with joy.

(Unlike myself, who now must get ready and go into work on a Sunday. LOL!!!) Oh well, there's always Labor Day itself. Tomorrow I intend to wallow in absolute sloth. Sleep late. Do nuthin' but laze around, reading and poking into stuff on the internet. Enjoy your holiday. For all of us, it's well-deserved.




September 04, 2011~ 8:15 pm
Little did I know when I wrote the above this morning, that I was in for a miserable day. LOL!! Driving to the office, while still in Oakland, I began to hear a loud, 'PLAT! PLAT! PLAT!, and as I drove by the museum, I put my window down to listen, and yes......



.....a FLAT TIRE. Flat as a pancake. There was nothing to be done but to keep driving the half mile to the office, with cars honking and pointing and me nodding and mouthing, 'I know I know..."

When I got there, I immediately called triple A and asked to have my tire changed. (The weather here today was horribly hot and humid, and I got the call at the office when the fella was '5 minutes' away, but he was lost or confused and couldn't find the place, so I told him I'd meet him outside and gave directions from where I thought he was. Let me tell you, standing around in that heat and staring into traffic for 10 minutes was no fun at all!) He finally got there, snapped the little 'spare' from my trunk right on, and that's what I'm driving on now. (Of course tomorrow is a holiday, so nothing will be open to either get the old one repaired or buy a new tire.) It looks like Tuesday I'll be driving to work on the baby tire..... and very cautiously.

Another creepy thing happened while I was working. I ducked down into the parking garage smoking area for 2 smoke breaks, and the first time, it was deserted. (Believe me, that felt eerie enough in a 5 story building with two underground garage levels and different keys and swipe cards to get back in, etc...) but the second time was truly spooky. As I said, there was not a car in sight the first time, but when I popped down for my second smoke break, there in the far corner on that parking level, half in shadow, sat one of these



...a DAMN HEARSE! Black and shiny and deadly still. I half expected Rod Serling to step out, smoking himself, wearing a black suit with narrow black tie, and say-- "There's room for you, missy. In the BACK," then smile that rictus smile of his. Man, that was creepy! Going back inside the building proper, I managed to set off alarms even though I'd swiped the card properly, and my next fear was that the damn elevator would not work. (LOL!! I thought, "Just get me the hell out of this lower level garage!")

I remembered a scary 1980's movie with George C. Scott's then wife- Trish Van Devere, called 'The Hearse', where a woman is haunted by a hearse that keeps showing up... of course the implication is the ride is 'waiting for her' and she senses its implied menace. Seeing that gleaming, silent black Lincoln just sitting there, appearing where there'd not been one car an hour before, gave me a bad case of the heebie jeebies.

That was my Sunday. Oh, and I did drive straight over to see mum, tell her my travails and have dinner with the ladies. That lightened things.....a bit. I sure hope your day was better. (At least tomorrow I can sleep in and do absolutely nothing! Yippie!)




September 07, 2011~ 6:45 pm
I worked my butt off at the job on Sunday, then stayed late yesterday..... and today, I took the day off. Instead of 'remuneration', I chose time off so I could EITHER: get my 2007 Focus inspected and the tires fixed, or...........make a preemptive strike on what usually happens with cars after 4 years or so with no problems up to that point -watching it fall apart piece by piece- or GET A NEW ONE. Yep. I chose the NEW.

It's a charcoal grey, tinted window 2012 Ford Focus.



It looks like a catfish to me. Thus, I named it 'CATFISH'.



(Once you give a new car a nickname, it's no longer scary. LOL!!! I swear to God it's true!) I am honestly thinking about attaching some black rubber 'strands' to the front grill so it has droopy whiskers... maybe they can serve as those rubber 'static strips' that used to hang down off the back bumper to touch the road. (I actually HAD those on my first car: a 1971 Plymouth Scamp.) So here's to CATFISH! Long may she run. (Neil Young would understand that. :)





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