Monday, November 22, 2004

Bevy of Bedlam, 11/19-11/21

Where our hero accounts the events of last weekend where there was work to be done, laughs to be had, and craftwork to be perused.

I finished one of two remaining papers for my class and got a chunk (a third) of the second completed this weekend. I'm satisfied with the work I did on my first paper, I brought in a lot of quotes from our textbooks to make myself sound like I knew what I was talking about. No, seriously, the paper itself is based more on subjectivity than some of our previous work. I don't know how she plans to grade "our feelings", but I think I put my best foot forward. The second paper is another thing altogether. I need to add more subjective reactions to certain journal articles, but I sorta feel like I've painted myself into a corner on some of them. This paper isn't necessarily due tomorrow, but I'm trying to get it all done. Like I noted before, I'm tired of this class. I'll kill this last paper tonight and then I can finally blow off some steam.

When I wasn't working, there were plenty of good times this weekend. I feel like I had some good laughs. We took Juan to the CWF event on Saturday night. Annie and Dorrie made Adrian Adonis a frilly/girly dog food dish, wrapped it up all nicely, and it even got squeezed into the show with an elaborate presentation. After the show we went to an all-night diner who's name I always forget (maybe after this story you'll see why I'm not interested in plugging them) where I got the chance to have some waiter tell me I look like Scott Stapp. Needless to say I got a pretty good laugh out of that...and he didn't get a tip from me. I get a chuckle right now just thinking about winning a round of spades with the CWF's Heavyweight Champ, Corey Edsel. Even Sunday's meditation class was good for a few chuckles. Apparently 6 minutes before our Sunday night class, Phra Achan Dhammarato told David he was to be conducting class as he was attending an inter-faith event. David did pretty well and I had no idea he had been going to the Wat for so long. At any rate, Dhammarato returned later in the evening and I remember the class sharing a rib-shaking laugh at some of his observations about the Catholics.

Dorrie, Annie, and I attended a crafts fair in Winston-Salem on Saturday. Lots of high-priced on display, but I'm happy to report that we've finally started our Christmas shopping and managed to score something good. I was really impressed by this lady's work. The process she goes through seems rather complicated and expensive, but I've always been interested in manual manipulation of photography whether it be inside the dark room or just literally taking a paintbrush to a Polaroid.

Speaking of craftwork, we finally popped a squat and watched Fahrenheit 9/11, a well-crafted documentary if there has ever been one. I can't help that the hype around this movie has tempered my post-viewing perspective. I can't say that I'm now truly excited to have seen it so that I can possibly join the nearly-dead debate about it. It was good, there were several things that I liked about it. One gripe that I have was the footage of the soldiers humiliating the detained, hooded suspects. I don't mind catching flak for this, 'cause this is truly how I feel about that part of the movie: I thought Moore came off slightly anti-soldier in that chapter. Seriously, he started strong by catching the work of Marine recruiters at Flint shopping malls, the reactions of young black Flint residents, and the interview with the mother who's son had been sent. I was totally on-board at that point. But then he turned down this other road that felt rather contradictory to the previous "support the troops" footage. Why go there? I'm not saying that sort of footage shouldn't be shown. I just think the movie would have been better (because it would have kept the focus on the fact that Bush is responsible for putting America's poor and young into harm's way) had it not been included. Two favorite scenes: limos getting pelted with eggs and that pro-war bitch on the Mall who will has forever immortalized what a "compassionate conservative" really looks like...and how flagrantly ignorant they really sound.

Sorta straddling the laugh/craft line, I really need to make mention of U2's performance on Saturday Night Live. Any joke at the expense of Ashley Simpson is a good one in my book and I was kinda glad to hear them do an oldie at the very end. SNL gave them three songs instead of two (four if NBC had decided to keep the cameras rolling after the credits), which was probably a classy move for them to make.

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