...where distraction is the main attraction.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Post without a Theme Vol. 1

I really have no theme in mind today, but I must catch up. This will help me get some perspective too.




Kristen and I have settled on a new apartment and will be moving there during the first week of August. We'll be living on the Hollywood side of the Beverly Hills border (also known as South San Vicente Boulevard). To be honest, we can't stand the current neighborhood and hate the neighboring family. I know 'hate' is a strong word, but if a person's very existance makes my life worse --> then you take three of those persons and shove them into a 1 bedroom apartment next to mine --> 'hate' begins to seem too soft a word. And the cute little park across the street is the source of more noise than a freeway. I'm too embarrassed to read my original post about this place.


So it's movin' time again. KP and I are much too used to this. My place of work will be moving to the correct side of the hill in September, about 1.5 miles away from the new apartment. If I'm still working there, my commute will be on foot.


Baseball has been relatively benign. The All-Star festivities illustrated for the rest of the country what a sicko pathetic idea it was to level Yankee Stadium for the new complex. Josh Hamilton's first round of the Home Run Derby was beautiful to witness, though the SEVEN superlative slinging ESPN mouths almost ruined it. The sports media is doing their darnedest to try to keep Alex Rodriguez from reaching his destiny. It's none of my business and it's none of your business why, how, or if his wife is leaving him. He just needs to make his run at the home run and OPS leaderboard this year and then for another 7.


On a particularly down weekend I dipped into a little retail therapy and bought 4 CDs and 11 DVDs. Okay technically 5 DVD things, most with multiple discs. I feel no guilt about it yet, especially since it feels like my life has gained visual art from the purchases.


2001 was among these discs. I love that movie. It's best in a big theater of course. But it's a must-own because it's one of the few popular American classics that directly (or indirectly, depending on your read) addresses existence, higher powers, and the soul. And I just noticed that there's something going on thematically with the color red. Let me know if you have any ideas, and I'll think on it too. Anyway, Kristen viewed 2001 with me for the first and only time. Ever. She does not share my enthusiasm for that film.


We did agree, though, on Encounters at the End of the World, Werner Herzog's latest documentary. I'm game for anything he does. He could release a single two-hour un-edited take of the CVS pharmacy line and I'd pay to see it, though Encounters is much better than that. Once again, Herzog has found a group of eccentrics in the middle of the wild, this time it's Antarctica instead of the Amazon. Unsurprisingly, he was loathe to film anything penguin related, but he ultimately did and the result can be profound in its implications if you think on it long enough. I, of course, have. While driving. Anyway, KP and I both recommend the film.




The Velvet Underground continues to blow my mind in completion. Velvet Underground and Nico has always been one of my favorite albums. But last week I lived on the White Light, White Heat and The Velvet Underground diet. The former is 42 minutes of avant-garde dissonance about amphetamines. The latter is a whisper about love, regret, and solitude. The transition from 'Sister Ray' to 'Candy Says' has caused some sort of damage in my brain. I cannot reconcile that the human mind created such polar-opposite soundscapes, let alone the same group! Let alone ending one album and beginning the next in the same year! I'm left wondering, did Lou Reed ever find his mainline? Have you?