Sunday, July 27, 2008
Diary: A Little July
So this blog isn't really near the blow-by-blow archive of my thoughts and opinions that it once was, and while I hope to make strides toward improvement, I don't think things are going to change here quickly. The prevailing theme these days seems to be transience... the scarcity of time, the brevity of passing moment, and there are hints of change in the air, so you better finish up what you're doing before it all gets flipped on its head.
Still, I think it's better to write a little than nothing at all, and this has been an amazing month so far. I don't want to lose that. The last weekend of June, of course, we went to a wedding, and the weekend after that I went to the U.P. for the fourth. A couple weeks following were comparably still... I've been working on Urbantasm nonstop (and succesfully)... studying Number Theory, reading Gravity's Rainbow and now the Mysteries of Udolpho. The weekend of the 12th I saw a movie with Jess and Sam, followed my an amazing rib dinner at Fat Willy's on Diversey, followed by a party to celebrate the release of House and Bird's first EP. The weekend after that I visited with friend and worked on Urbantasm some more. I visited Lisa and Sam among all of this, and spent a lot of time reading on the beach. On Friday, we hosted Gothic Funk Party #13 and yesterday, I saw another movie. I will be returning to these two movies momentarily. Next weekend, I will be at Lollapalooza on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Sunday is my 30th birthday; it is also the night when Nine Inch Nails will be performing. In all of this, there is really too much poetry to contemplate.
But back to the movies for a moment...
I want to write more on both of them, but I do not have the time to right now... I can only say that these two movies brought me so much delight and excitement that I really feel came out of nowhere: I've already been looking forward to Lolla, and what did I do to deserve this. In many ways, they are polar opposites.
THE DARK KNIGHT
and
WALL-E
And I can't say anything about either that you don't 1) already know or 2) I can say in less than an hour. So just ignore all of that and go and see them, and when you have, talk to me about this, because seriously, I mean, seriously, they just seemed that good.
Labels: 2008, DIARY, film, Gothic Funk Nation, July
2 comments.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Diary: In July, 1996.
One of those times I tend to look at historically (as I've also been reading about the Roman Republic and Empire this month):
I was absorbing the changes and developments of the last year, and gearing up for the powerful effects of the year to come.
That is:
I was taking a trigonometry class as Mott Community College so that I'd qualify for Precalculus as a senior that year; it was the second most-advanced class my high school offered.
I was also playing "Friend Hare" in the Flint Youth Theatre production of Bambi, which was a lot of fun. It was a surreal, ephemeral, dark-tinged version of the story, compared to the Disney version that everyone is more familiar with. During this month I'd gotten over my relationship with She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (Swomunoben) and my crush on I-Can't-Tell-You to develop a new crush on a girl named Diana. She lived in Woodcroft, in a massive old house that once belonged to a General Motors CEO. Her parents were lawyers, I think. There were big Doric columns under the porch out front, and the halls were narrow, the ceilings fifteen or so feet high. I went over to visit with Demetrius and Perrico and Josh and the others, and we'd watch TV. Diana was never the slightest bit interested in me, and I was only broken up about it for a week at most. I started to notice a girl named Lori instead. I asked her out and she said "yes," though we only went out for a week. She was jealous of my friend Katie, which was silly, and by the time September rolled around, Lori disliked me enough to key my car.
July was also when I got the Admissions packet from the University of Chicago and read their propaganda book (Dreams and Choices ? – was that it?) while riding up to Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp to visit my brother and sister. The book electrified me – it was the first collegiate sales pitch that defined study as a vocation, and a passionate vocation at that. All of the others had stressed their state-of-the-art facilities (Northwestern), progressive teaching philosophy (Sarah-Lawrence), study abroad (Kalamazoo), and career incentives (University of Michigan). For four years I'd had my heart set on Northwestern, but the book changed my mind in an afternoon. And I think anyone with a brain in their head would agree that the U of C was a better fit.
On the 4th Demetrius and I went to see the fireworks in downtown Flint, but we were almost set on fire when we jumped a fence by the river to take a shortcut through Riverbank park, not noticing that rows of sparklers had been strung up right over our head. I spent a lot of time driving around with Perrico and Demetrius and Josh, a lot of time at Paul's. We went to the mall to buy the Tonight, Tonight single and ran into Swomunoben in the food court. I was so startled that I walked off leaving my at the table Taco Bell. Back at Paul's house, we ate pizza pockets instead. Later that month we got into our first argument in about six years. A week later I went for a ride with Katie (was this the incident that made Lori so jealous?) and told her that I couldn't get over Swomunoben, and that I wished I'd never met her. Katie told me that this was silly, which surprised me. She had a strong dislike for Swomunoben and I thought she'd indulge in my admission. But she said it was the only real romanic event that had ever involved me, and so whatever I thought about the end of the thing, I ought to be grateful for the experience.
I had spent a year preparing and taking notes for Urbantasm, and I started the first draft sometime during the month. I wrote sixty pages, taking John Bridge up through the end of sixth grade.
It didn't seem like such a momentous month at the time, or even recently, but looking back on it now... I have to say...
Where were you in July, 2006?
4 comments.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Diary: In July, 2001.
This was the kickoff to the gloomiest, grumbliest year of my adult life, but the summer itself wasn't bad so much as fraught.
Throughout July I was working at the Chicago Park District's Theatre on the Lake at Fullerton and the lakeshore. It was a fun job, and very mellow. It was balmy and hot in there, and the hours, Wednesday to Sunday, 3 to 9 PM, left something to be desired. But I was working with Curt and Veronica, and it was a lot of fun.
I soon discovered that it took an hour to commute from my apartment in Humboldt Park (Division and California, ish) and so I started taking the hour-and-a-half walk each way. Three hours of walking each way wasn't that bad, and took me through Wicker Park, Bucktown, and Lincoln Park. I never really loved those neighborhoods as much as I did that summer. Sean and Ben and I were living together. One reintroduced me to the Legend of Zelda and Radiohead, and the other explained to me the principles of maintaining a covert rooftop garden. I drank a lot of iced coffee and stomped cockroaches. When I needed to get away, I went down to Hyde Park and visited with Jess, Milligan, Cate, and Amber. I was also taking ASL classes three day a week, because I was trapped as a student at the U of C. (And as I said, this was the good part of this year for me).
I also worked on reading some books – I don't remember what – and entertained thoughts that my career was on the verge of launching. Unfortunately, I profoundly failed to develop those thoughts, so I shouldn't have been surprised when nothing came of nothing.
Where were you in July, 2001?
END OF POST.
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