The Winter of Our Discontent

Poor K was the one doing the snow-commute yesterday, while I stayed at home and watched the "inch of drift" accumulate at our Rusty Cabin. Today she's resting comfortably and I'm at the Ranch, after the Epic Move That Displaced Everybody and Everything. Relatively painless to come in, though the first couple of miles were pretty icey-dicey. Passed a couple high-schoolers who'd ended up off the road and in the ditch--ended up (Not to worry, I was not being a bad samaritan passing them by--they were being pulled out by a buddy with truck and chain). However there was evidence that they were swooping from one lane to the next to see how icey it was and...chose poorly.

Woke up in a foul mood today, not only because of the weather, but also due to the job situation. I'm going to have to make a couple of "uncomfortable" phone calls--but only because promised calls and updates have not been forthcoming. Guess they're phone calls no one is eager to make. I find that very depressing, along with this last inconvenient gasp of winter, and am finding it very difficult to turn my frown upside down. I guess loyalty in the marketplace is so valuable because it's so rare. Why should it be different than anything else?

What can help me out of my mood? Old friends.
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Johnson--he of the heart attack/stroke/pre-Xmas heart surgery/rapid recovery--is scheduled to go back to work today. Take it easy, buddy.

FarmerScott called this morning for a check-up, which is always welcome. He had six to eight inches of snow at the House of Hydrangeas, and we chatted about lots of things including a joint-effort of a post that will be appearing sooner than later. His phone-call helped lighten my mood a lot.

The father of my god-child is in town this week. There'll be time for a sit-down and catch-up for both of us Friday. I don't think she's in college (yet), but it can't be too far off (I still have all the magazines and best-selling books and CD's from the day she was born for a time capsule for her).

Got a nice note from Wendle "from the studio days" as I had sent her a note on her birthday (Her hubby alerted me to the fact--that's a good husband, Eric) and though we're on separate islands it's like a bit of the time and distance were erased a bit.
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Movie Review - "Babel" or "The 'Crash' Heard 'Round the World"

A nice little movie that no one has ever heard of is John Sayles' "City of Hope" made in 1991--it presents a limited space in time in the life of Philadelphia where the decisions of every character over the disposition of a single city block affects every other character in a way that negates any sense that lives can escape the self-imposed limits inflicted by others (and placed on themselves).* Everyone is trapped and without any hope. Paul Haggis, when he copied the form in "Crash" offered the same bleakness but leavened it with individual rays of hope. One can look at these movies and quibble about coincidences and manipulation, but speaking as someone who's lived in one city and worked, basically, in one field for most of his life, those aspects of rubbing too many shoulders has never seemed like much of a stretch. It's pretty amazing how a large city can become a "small town" fairly quickly and without irony.

"Babel," though (named after the tower in the bible-story that created so many ESL programs), takes it one planet further. From its opening image of a Moroccan hunter trudging the desert to its last shot of a man holding a naked woman on a Japanese balcony, every single life is intertwined in a way that makes one wince, and actually creates dread over the next revelation of inter-connectedness (there's one character, whose absence sets in motion an unfortunate series of events, that we never see--supposedly she'll be in "Babel II"). It's a bit of a stretch, lessened somewhat by the global investigation of a mistaken act of terrorism. Nothing brings the world together like Homeland Security.

Still, if one can overlook The Big Skein that hangs over the movie like a shroud, the individual segments are involving, dramatically impeccable and present worlds that are never less than intriguingly realized. One wonders throughout where the stories will lead, even if the answer on an occasion or two is nowhere.
To reveal too much would be robbing the movie of any freshness it possesses, but suffice it to say that lack of communication is a key in all of them and that they are resolved (when they're resolved) by a recommitment to family (except when they're not). It's a bit messy in that regard. What world isn't?
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Movie Review - "The Heart of the Game" Some folks I used to work with did the post-sound (and scratch narrations) for this extraordinary documentary about six years in the life of the Roosevelt Girls' Basketball Team. I've been hearing about it forever, but I've finally gotten a chance to see it now that's its out on DVD, and its every bit as good as the hype--one of those stories that you'd dismiss out-of-hand in a work of fiction, but grounded in the reality of a video'd image makes one's heart swell with pride at the same time it's pumping just a little faster. Seek it out. Make time for it. It's that good.
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I've updated a couple of the perennials in the blog for those who are new and choose to stay and browse.

Check out Personal Heroes-Chuck Jones and Personal Heroes: Stanley Kubrick. For Chas. I've added a cartoon that had previously been available, then, due to the exigencies of YouTube, disappeared--the brilliant "One Froggy Evening" and, along with it, some enterprising computer-imaging student's attempt to render it in 3-D--it's actually quite good. And to add to the embarassment of riches I've been able to add that ultimate deconstruction of the cartoon-form "Duck Amuck" (Dare I say that almost makes my little appreciation of Jones fairly comprehensive?) And for Mr. Kubrick, there is the rapturous opening to the documentary "Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures"--as dizzying a summing up of the man as has been attempted. All valuable additions--I just hope they stick around for awhile.
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Gas prices zipped up about 20¢ at my local gas stations (which tend to be on the low side) $2.58 and a whopping $2.65 per gallon, regular. Is this a reaction to heating oil prices or a gut-response to the snow--after all there was a run on gasoline last time, which led to higher prices. Except this time...I didn't hear of anybody losing power, thus needing gasoline.

Oops. Their mistake. But the price probably still won't creep down anytime soon.

Price of a barrel of oil? $61.75. Last time we did this it was $60.07. Hmmm.
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Song in me head: "It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas" (Believe it or not!)

* I suppose we all have "Grand Hotel" to thank for this genre--the self-contained universe--the "goldfish-bowl" movie, with stars and without. I'm sure you have lots of examples in your favorite movies, like "Smoke" or even last year's "Bobby."