WOEFULLY SCANT TIDBITS FROM MY RECENT VIEWING OF THE SHINING
1. Kubrick looks (looked) a lot like Peter Jackson. We watched documentary footage about the Shining today in class, and I saw him in action. Note to self: directors need a.) big bushy hair (like philosophers and composers) b.) Large unstylish glasses, c.) Beards.
2. The parental dynamic, up until the actual psychosis crops up, was erily familiar. My father was (and still is, often) that guy. Mom is less of a passive stem of a crocus now and instead chooses to kind of ignore him, usually. The whole time I was watching it* I was saying to Anthony THIS IS THE STUPIDEST RELATIONSHIP EVER**.
3. Really liked it, actually. I would never own it in a million years, but it was wonderful to finally see a horror film that actually had narrative structure and did something artful with a slasher scene (i.e., displacing the violence on a door instead of a body) and had a somewhat reasonable ending. I think some of that is: I can appreciate Kubrick for Kubrick, and knowing him made the film easier. I knew it would be way more intense then it looked, and I knew that there would be agro- and claustrophobic elements. Weirdly, I also knew there would be a furry scene, but I only “knew” that because I’d seen Eyes Wide Shut. Whenever a character was wandering around looking confused, I kept saying “and then they open the door, and there’s a furry orgy!” and uh, there was kind of. At one point.
*Which I must say: we timed this one poorly and to make a long story short I had to watch it at 6am before classes so I could make a discussion board post in time. Anthony was going to Denver the night before, but because he is the awesomest he had Dani drop him off here when they got back at about 3am. Then he crawled into bed with me, slept for about two hours, and then was the one to gently nudge me out of bed so I could make coffee and watch the thing. I don’t know that most people would do that for their sissy counterparts, but what a guy.
**It’s strange, but I’m starting to evaluate parental-units not in terms of their parenting, but in terms of their relationship with one another. And I mean my own parents, other people’s parents, film parents, and so on. Suddenly I am comparing them to myself like peers, not regarding them as “other” any more. I think this is mostly because so many of my friends are either married, getting married, or are having babies. And as the “college undergrad” (and indeed, “school”) chapter of my life comes to a close my brain is realizing this is a convention of my new chapter. Not necessarily my story, but a very pertinent story all around me. I was having a discussion with Mom a few months ago about when she first met Dad. It was the first time I had approached them conceptually as “a couple”, rather than “my parents”.
But I think it goes a little further than that. Because I am at the age I am I have been acutely aware of my place in my life. That I am now entering a new part of the bell curve, leaving the one side of “cared for” and entering the vast “taking care of myself” spot. I have become a “twenty something”. I am at adulthood. So long as I keep myself in good health I will be roughly this age until I am “old”, and then I will enter the other side of the “cared for” bell curve. So my life situation is fundamentally changing. It’s weird to watch people kind of traipse into that thoughtlessly. For me, it kind of makes all the changes I was talking about a few entries back mean a lot less — of course everything’s changing because, in fact, everything is changing.
The other thing too is: I am going to one city, and Anthony is going to another. Most people who have been dating for four years get married, particularly if there is grad school or a big move on the horizon. At least this is what I have come to assume, judging by the reactions of people when I tell them what we are doing. I have mostly just ignored bone-headed assumptions from people, but of course the whole marriage question does get kicked around sometimes, particularly when we discuss it in queer history. Most of my thoughts on the subject are in the entry, and I’m a little too lazy and tipsy to move that over here. For me it really boils down to: I think we transcend your stupid boundaries. I’m never saying never, and I leave it at that. Not because of fear or uncertainty, but because now is really not the time.
OTHER STUFF
1. Hey! Yesterday I saw a chicken in a front yard! It was a big red, all poufed out and doing its chickeny thing.
2. I was putting the tea roses I bought today away and I thought: oh. This could be the same plant that my brother’s grandchildren will consider in a picture years from now, when looking at my graduation celebrations, and they’ll think: huh. I wonder about that.
3. There isn’t a good children’s story or cartoon series where a character moves. Like seriously up and moves, new cast of friends and so on. If there’s any moving, they either come right back, or there is a total lack of episode continuity, because favorite characters would have to be dropped, etc. No one thinks letters and phone calls would be enough, so instead people deal with “missing someone” or “being in a new place” with vacations. And that’s problematic, because:
a. On vacation, you are too busy doing non-normal things to realize you are in a different place, and you just don’t really let it sink in.
b. You come back from vacation. No matter what happens, there is the familiar waiting for you.
Moving is a big upheaval, particularly a far-away move. There’s some shot-in-the-dark kind of stories, but never anyone with an established cast, unless the voice talent needs to be “written out”. What’s up with that? I feel like there is a big need here.
