The Ides of February
OK, so the Ides of February was really yesterday. But there's got to be something significant about today besides being Valentine's Day. It's funny how almost everybody I know disappeared today. Couples. Bah. What is irritating is that I don't feel safe going outside today. I wanted to go to the mall (yes I'm bored), but I didn't feel like being surrounded by hundreds of desperate people doing last minute shopping. It's really disgusting how commercial our culture has become, but that's the subject of another rant. But, yeah, usually I couldn't give a rat's ass about Valentine's Day, except for the fact that I've gotten wind of certain developments that have somewhat sensitized me to my solitary condition. But I won't talk about it now. I'm currently listening to two songs by Coldplay on repeat right now: Shiver and Yellow. For some reason it really captures my mood. So what if they're a Radiohead/Travis/(insert your favorite Brit-pop band here) sound-alike. We are in a post-modern period after all. Everything's already been created. Heh. I just finished watching Boxing Helena on the Independent Film Channel. When I heard what today's theme was, I laughed out loud: Tough Love. What a f-cking weird movie. I've actually been enthralled by the Independent Film Channel and the Sundance Channel lately. I really dig those French movies. On Monday I watched Shadow Play, which has Helena Bonham Carter,Romaine Bohringer, and Elsa Zylberstein in it. It's kind of soap-operatic, with a panolpy of characters, but I guess I was just mesmerized by Helena Bonham Carter speaking French or something. And that scene where an old man masturbates for a minute or so kind of tripped me out. Yesterday I watched "Shooting Stars" starring Romaine Bohringer. It was basically another drug dealing comedy (like "Trainspotting" or "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels" ) and I think it might have been lame if it wasn't in French. I really wonder if a French film is de facto tinged with all sorts of Camusian existentialism and bizarre sexual innuendo, because this movie surely is. It's those damn Calvinistic Americans. That's why Hollywood churns out so much crap. Speaking of drug movies, I watched "Traffic" last Saturday, which I thought is an excellent movie. It was another of those movies where I found myself laughing at parts that no one else was laughing at. I guess I just have a demented sense of humor. Benicio del Toro is my hero. But the last movie I watched yesterday was another French film called "The Horseman on the Roof" which is (essentially, at least as I interpret it) about this French noblewoman traipsing through the French countryside as a cholera epidemic rages around her. She is accompanied by this mercenary guy who is carrying a sh-tload of money to Italy. Leave it to the French to make the most erotic scene in the movie the one where the noblewoman is dying of cholera and vomitting, with her face turning all black. It's pretty awesome. So what. I'm an American Phillistine. I can't help myself, can I? But yeah, today was pretty nice otherwise. Living out in Illinois had made me appreciate what California is all about. It was kind of inspiring watching the sun set behind the clouds and the hills. The sun cast all sorts of weird, shimmering patterns all of the place. This is the sort of thing you miss when you don't have mountains. And the snow cover looks awesome. If only it weren't so damn cold. Hah. I'm going to die a slow, miserable, cold death when I go back to subzero Illinois.
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