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Safely in Greater Boston. At the moment, the house is in upheaval; objects have been pulled from every conceivable storage space in an infrastructure project which will eventually lead to the building of more bookshelves and the removal of various boxes of junk (on the grounds that this is the first time in eight years that everyone in the nuclear family has been in the house for an extended time which is not a holiday season, and we could not previously throw anything out without worrying that someone else wanted it saved).
We are all cheerful about the chaos, given that it is clearly temporary and will lead to a vast improvement in circumstances, but that does not make it less chaotic; I managed to eat several bites of raw chicken earlier today without noticing what I was doing, and Ciro ran an inkpen through the laundry, leaving a black splatter-paint effect on most of my underwear. (Which I have embraced as somewhat punk rock.)
In general, good spirits all around, although mom and I both have colds and are therefore drinking whisky tea and apple brandy throughout the day, depending on mood. My cheese intake has increased fourfold. Working remotely is a huge relief and doesn't feel like working at all, even though I am doing the same amount of work. Even the (predictable) disappointment of the midterm election is not terribly crushing (although I will miss Nancy Pelosi ever so much; she is something of a role model) given that we are now in a state we trust to watch our backs if the federal government falls on its face.
In any case, I have not left the house since Tuesday morning, when I ran to Radio Shack for a part it turns out I don't need and can return to Radio Shack. It's easy to forget this, because it's a very large house, and I have plenty to do here. Nevertheless, I have plans to venture into the city on Sunday for a haircut. And perhaps hijinks?
The drive up was very beautiful, particularly through Virginia and along the Merritt Parkway. I continue to feel there are no hotels worth stopping at in Tennessee, except perhaps a few in Memphis I could not possibly afford. Tennessee would be much higher on my list of hated states if they didn't have such good radio stations.
We stopped at the Rally to Restore Sanity, where everyone agreed it was a beautiful day, and that the polite thing to do was to form self-organizing highways through the crowd to let people out without pushing. The crowd was diverse in age, gender, and ethnic origin. There were a lot of clever signs, and we all cheered on people who climbed trees and felt collectively that it was like watching YouTube in person. Afterward, Ciro and I ran through the Spencer Finch exhibition at the Corcoran. I recommend it! Captivating.
I also had the chance to take in the premiere of a stage show of Wait Until Dark that my friend Tommx was in. It's terrifying and wonderful. During the scenes where everything is meant to be dark, they can turn out all the lights and let you hear what's happening; you have a sense of the space you don't have when watching the film. This also marks the first time Ciro has seen community theater that was not bad; I am always telling him that the Dallas theater scene is uniquely bad, but it's one thing to hear that and another to experience it.
We also watched Stingray Sam, which I enjoyed although I still prefer The American Astronaut, and as much of Rob Zombie's Halloween as I could stand (because it was bad, not because it was graphic), which allowed me to finally conceive of a slasher script that might be all right, although I already can tell I'm going to fuck it up by making it too socially relevant and nuanced.
It occurred to me yesterday that my film career, such as it is, has been somewhat backwards, in that I started out at art museums, then moved to commercial film, and then moved into music videos. This is opposite to the path it seems most people take.
We are all cheerful about the chaos, given that it is clearly temporary and will lead to a vast improvement in circumstances, but that does not make it less chaotic; I managed to eat several bites of raw chicken earlier today without noticing what I was doing, and Ciro ran an inkpen through the laundry, leaving a black splatter-paint effect on most of my underwear. (Which I have embraced as somewhat punk rock.)
In general, good spirits all around, although mom and I both have colds and are therefore drinking whisky tea and apple brandy throughout the day, depending on mood. My cheese intake has increased fourfold. Working remotely is a huge relief and doesn't feel like working at all, even though I am doing the same amount of work. Even the (predictable) disappointment of the midterm election is not terribly crushing (although I will miss Nancy Pelosi ever so much; she is something of a role model) given that we are now in a state we trust to watch our backs if the federal government falls on its face.
In any case, I have not left the house since Tuesday morning, when I ran to Radio Shack for a part it turns out I don't need and can return to Radio Shack. It's easy to forget this, because it's a very large house, and I have plenty to do here. Nevertheless, I have plans to venture into the city on Sunday for a haircut. And perhaps hijinks?
The drive up was very beautiful, particularly through Virginia and along the Merritt Parkway. I continue to feel there are no hotels worth stopping at in Tennessee, except perhaps a few in Memphis I could not possibly afford. Tennessee would be much higher on my list of hated states if they didn't have such good radio stations.
We stopped at the Rally to Restore Sanity, where everyone agreed it was a beautiful day, and that the polite thing to do was to form self-organizing highways through the crowd to let people out without pushing. The crowd was diverse in age, gender, and ethnic origin. There were a lot of clever signs, and we all cheered on people who climbed trees and felt collectively that it was like watching YouTube in person. Afterward, Ciro and I ran through the Spencer Finch exhibition at the Corcoran. I recommend it! Captivating.
I also had the chance to take in the premiere of a stage show of Wait Until Dark that my friend Tommx was in. It's terrifying and wonderful. During the scenes where everything is meant to be dark, they can turn out all the lights and let you hear what's happening; you have a sense of the space you don't have when watching the film. This also marks the first time Ciro has seen community theater that was not bad; I am always telling him that the Dallas theater scene is uniquely bad, but it's one thing to hear that and another to experience it.
We also watched Stingray Sam, which I enjoyed although I still prefer The American Astronaut, and as much of Rob Zombie's Halloween as I could stand (because it was bad, not because it was graphic), which allowed me to finally conceive of a slasher script that might be all right, although I already can tell I'm going to fuck it up by making it too socially relevant and nuanced.
It occurred to me yesterday that my film career, such as it is, has been somewhat backwards, in that I started out at art museums, then moved to commercial film, and then moved into music videos. This is opposite to the path it seems most people take.
