Ooooh, yeah! Time on my hands!! Ooooh, yeah! Now, whatcha gonna do?
Ooooh, yeah! Time on my hands!! Ooooh, yeah! I can't really, well, uh. um, I don't know...uh...really?
It's that time of the year again. And by that, I don't really mean "the holidays." Although it is. But more importantly, I mean the time of year when government fights over budget issues to keep running, and sometimes yours truly becomes part of a furloughed work force. That time is now once again. Oh, boy. This shutdown is, I think, the most unpredictable one we've had yet. Unpredictable as in....when it will end. The primary issue is this border wall the President wants, an issue where he doesn't even have 50% support in his own party. This could drag on. And on. The last shutdown of note was in 2013, when we were off duty for 16 days. I'm afraid this one could eclipse even that quagmire. That five-years-ago stalemate was largely over the ACA, which now enjoys majority approval. But this wall business. Talk about a symbolic battle. Ugh. Trump's Last Stand. Maybe January 3rd will bring some sort of urgency to this situation. We'll see.
In the meantime, your furloughed working boy should get some stuff done. Should. Well, I'm installing one of those video doorbells today. It was a Christmas present from the in-laws. We don't get much traffic at the front door anyway (usually only the mail lady), so I'm not sure how necessary this was. But I suppose if we get a package left on the front porch, it could come in handy. We'll see. (Boy, I have exciting stuff to write about this morning.)
I think I'll head to Hard Luck Lounge tonight to see Dave Fisher play. Haven't seen him in quite awhile, and he recently moved to Malta. I'd like to hear about that.
On the watching front, yesterday I watched "Roma" and "Blow Up."
"Roma" is the latest from Mexican-born director Alfonso Cuaron, who brought us "Gravity," "Children of Men," and "Y Tu Mama Tambien" previously. Also, a Harry Potter movie everybody likes, but I haven't seen it and can't remember the title. And an updated "Great Expectations" my wife liked. "Roma" apparently has some autobiographical overtones from Cuaron's own life, as it takes place in the Roma area of Mexico City in 1970/71, and Cuaron grew up in a similar situation. There isn't a whole lot plot-wise to the "Roma" story; it follows the life of a domestic worker, who lives with the family she works for. The black-and-white photography is stunning (even on a computer monitor, as I watched it), and the performances (from a completely unknown - at least to this gringo - cast) are excellent to a fault. There are some definite similarities between the feel of this movie and the feel of "Y Tu Mama Tambien," especially in the portrayals of politically-motivated events happening in the mosaic of the story. The student protest in the latter third of the movie reminded me of the unrest the protagonists in "Y Tu" view from the car during their travels. Come to think of it, there was a hint of the huge tracking shot in "Children of Men" during the student protest as well. Cuaron's just an excellent director, no question. I could watch this movie fifty more times, I think. How's that for a recommendation?
And I finally got around to watching "Blow Up." I've had the Criterion disc for probably six months now but hadn't gotten around to it yet. It was.....interesting.....I guess? This is only the second Antonioni movie I've watched; I saw "L'Avventura" a couple of months ago. Right off, I'll say I liked "L'Avventura" a lot more. "Blow Up" is seen by a lot of people as the ultimate "Swinging London" movie, and I guess it has that going for it. I also knew Brian de Palma's "Blow Out" takes its plot cue from this movie, but hell, I like "Blow Out" a lot more than this one. "Blow Up"'s main plot point involves the professional photographer central character discovering a murder happened while he was snapping some photos in a park. What I thought might develop into more mystery and intrigue....never did. A big problem I had with the movie was the central character himself. He, simply put, came off as a complete asshole. I can accept the "flawed hero" character any day, but this guy was just a dick. No other way to put it. And when you don't have many other characters to sink your teeth into (star-billed Vanessa Redgrave is in the movie all of 15 minutes, tops), the assholishness (hello, Webster's?) just becomes more pronounced. And this isn't a comment on David Hemmings' performance, an actor who I haven't seen a lot of, but still....
What I did enjoy was the retrospective making-of that was included on the disc. And I got an impression of why this movie turned out the way it did. It seems Antonioni was such a revered character that no one wanted to do anything but kiss his ass when he came to England to make this. This movie just really felt like it was made by someone who was winging it as he went. Sometimes that can work out (wish I could think of a specific example to put here.....Lance, edit later!), but here, to me, it just doesn't. I enjoyed the story of how the Yardbirds ended up in the club scene; especially why Jeff Beck is smacking his guitar against his amp (The Who were originally wanted, but something went wrong with Kit Lambert). I still think this is one Criterion I'll be selling. Rare!
Back to not working.....and not playing....until Tuesday, or so.....
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