My break for christmas is turning out to be a little longer than expected. I don't mind, except for the fact that I'd like to be making money again. I guess it will even itself out, I'm bound to get busy later. I'm trying to write today, but I'm getting really distracted by facebook. Early on in all this MySpace Facebook stuff I kinda decided without really saying anything that I really didn't want to be a part of it. It was and is nothing personal against those who are into it, I just wasn't going to be one of them. Well. I now have a myspace and a facebook. And I'm happy to have them. It's crazy when you sit down to look at all the people you know across the globe, and another way to keep in touch with them is welcomed in my world.

The dogs are a little stir crazy today. Marisa was whining this morning, so we played a little, which was fun. Herman keeps seeing and smelling the neighbors dog and freaking out. He's a big dog, and I think he could eat Herman in 6 bites, but Herman is always barking at him. Then Marisa joins in, because Herman is barking. It's entertaining in that outside of the situation way. In the situation it's kinda annoying.

We had a fantastic birthday dinner.

Regina Spektor is singing in my speakers. Her friends, Mirah, Iron & Wine, Gorillaz, and Bright Eyes have graced my drums today too.

Hope your days are well.

Posted by jack. |

i've been blogging for two years. when i realized this fact, i read some of my first posts and all of january. It feels narcissistic to read your own blogs for an hour. I don't mind though, it's entertaining to see where I was two years ago.

I hope you had a merry christmas. While we were at target last week the person who was checking our stuff out said, "Happy Holiday" to us. I really liked that she said it in the singular form. I realize that it may not have been on purpose, but I dug it. It's less pluralistic maybe or just different. Why is New Year's a holiday anyway? I mean, I don't mind having the days near it off, but it's just a new month starting right? Am I jaded?

I'm very fascinated by memory. Reading all those blogs this morning reminded me of things that I haven't thought about in quite some time. Even the way I wrote suggested that I did almost everything alone, even though I can remember some of the things I wrote about, and I remember what we did less that who I was with. It's like reading a novel when you only know about the main character's feelings or thoughts. Not really though. The memories, sometimes are even shaped by the blogs themselves. Which is weird. For example, I vividly remember one of Jon M's comments on my early blogs. I don't really even remember what I wrote, but when I re-read it, I knew exactly what he commented--so a memory about the memory. Now will I remember this, memory about the memory? The layers are getting murky!

Christmas was good. We didn't do anything but watch movies. I guess we did do other things like eat food, walk dogs, and watch movies. Dog Day Afternoon and City of God. City of God was really good. It was quite violent, but it all supported the story. Sometimes it gets in the way, this wasn't one of those times.

Okay this is a major rabbit trail to follow me down, so feel free to skip this paragraph. When I was at Dordt, I occasionally wrote for the Diamond (school newspaper). It wasn't very often, but I felt like it needed to be well respected, so I often talked about what could be done to make it better. In that light, I offered to write movie reviews for the paper. One of my reviews, of which there were few, on Kill Bill vol. 1 stirred up a little raucous with an unnamed (to you on this public forum, not to me) English professor. He wrote the editor and me a letter explaining what he saw wrong with my review. The review basically said, I liked it, you may not. The violence was the main issue. The movie is really violent. At times, it gets kind of crazy. I am pretty jaded to such things, so I didn't mind watching it, and I felt like it was worth seeing, but I published this saying that the violence may be a problem for some viewers. His main issue with the review was that it was too wishywashy, in that basically I said, I liked it, you may not. What kind of review is that? Well, it's not very good, that's for sure. But the larger issue, the fact that I was okay with the violence, and other members of the community may not be was hard for me to deal with--on many levels. Looking back on it, I think the major issue is does the violence support the story? The underlying question also is, do you have an issue with violence? More broadly, maybe, does violence ruin your movie going experience? It may be a queasy thing, or it may just be a love of human life. If the answer to the initial question, in the review is, yes, the violence supports the story and that story is a story worth hearing and watching, then as a reviewer I can support and suggest that others go view that movie. But as a reader, if you have an issue with violence, I want to let it be known that this movie is violent. If you have that issue, then that should be the grain of salt you eat the review with. Don't willy nilly just obey a reviewer. If you know that violence will ruin the experience, then don't got see it. If you know that unnecessary violence hurts the experience, be knowing if the violence in said movie works for the story, or against it.
This is getting muddy. But the biggest problem with Kill Bill vol. 1 is that I don't know if the violence supported the story. It must have, it's a story about contract killers, but how much violence was necessary? Anyway, all this really is to say that City of God, although it is very violent, it is filmed very economically, and the violent supports the story, in a heartbreaking sort of way.


If you were skipping, you can pick it back up here, if you haven't given up on me already. I hope your time off from work is fantastic, I hope your holiday is good, and I hope your days in between are even better. Merry Christmas and a happy month changing day.

Posted by jack. |

As I walked Herman and Marisa this morning, I noticed a few things that were out of place. Herman, even though he was outside, was whining, like he needed to go outside. A dog howled in the distance, I decided Herman could feel his pain from afar. In the distance I noticed a woman walking in front of a house wearing green. When I first noticed her she was walking towards me. I wondered if I would have to pull the dogs off to the side so she could cross. I looked at the dogs, and back at her, suddenly, she was walking away from me. How strange, I thought, I have had people cross the street to avoid our tangled mess, but never just up and turn around. Back to the dogs, Herman was still whining. I look back to the woman, and she is walking towards me again. I am completely baffled. She seemed to be walking a short loop on the sidewalk in front of one house, back and forth. I considered she might be waiting for something--a bus, a ride, but I decided she was probably brainwashed and had no idea where she was. Herman, was a part of her brain washing, and therefore was whining because he did not want to be near his human atrocity. On the way to the dog park this afternoon I saw a Asian looking woman wearing a face mask like you would wear to paint a room or if the bird flu had arrived. I wonder if i missed something...

When did dogs take over the world?

Posted by jack. |

it doesn't feel like christmas time.

it doen't feel like 2:25 either.

my fingers are cold though.

september is the most forgetted month for me. i never remember where it lies in the scheme of things.

today kindof smells like winter, even though it's sunny and green.

it rained almost all day on saturday, that was kinda nice, a change of pace if you will.

i hope our dogs haven't destoryed the house.

jack.

Posted by jack. |

celebratory times.
'very job seems to have one of them christmas parties.

don't know what to do, when i'm invited to spend time with you.

work is slow, don't want it to go.

santa never existed, but i could watch pictures about his life.

'ts all i gots.

Posted by jack. |

the maatmans are coming! the maatmans are coming! take cover!

no we're not coming to you, the maatmans refers to my parents, even when people out here refer to jazz and i as "the maatmans" i think of my parents, or think, that sounds weird.

they arrive in, 2.6 hours. i only know we'll be at big bear this weekend. the rest is "up in the air"

i worked a little extra the past week, editing a reel. it was fun. i'm waiting for it to finish rendering right now so that i can go get the 'rents.

Posted by jack. |

tangential amenities i expect from a job:

• a bathroom
• water
• friendly interaction
• heat
• air conditioning

amenities some people get:

• coffee
• lunch
• snacks
• candy
• friends

of these two lists, I have been lacking one (two at times) from the needed and four from the wanted.

guess which is which.

Posted by jack. |