Sometimes, watching history making events unfold can be fun and enjoyable. Take for instance, Super Bowl 44, where New Orleans earned some much deserved joy by defeating the Indianapolis Colts last night. Purple Grannie Annie and I were among a small group of friends enjoying the game projected onto his wall by Jim, our former next door neighbor. Food, fun and good times were a pleasant contrast to much of 2009 and in some ways, a kind of unofficial end to the holidays.
Coach Annie and I even had a pregame warmup of sorts, and though she didn't make me run laps, I WAS out of breath for a few minutes. After the game, which we had originally thought we would leave at halftime but didn't, we retired to our mobile bungalow-by-the-pond to finish our week at "Moose Dance".
Now, "Moose Dance" is our little version of Sundance, our own private film festival at the moose lodge RV site. Showing only much older dvd's rented from the local library, they were all still first run for me, since for various reasons I had never managed to see them during the original release. We watched "The Last Picture Show", "Do The Right Thing" by Spike Lee, a PBS version of Mark Twain's "Puddn'head Wilson", a kind of chic flick about Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, as well as the original film version of "Les Miserables" from 1957, and almost 2 versions of "Our Town" by Thornton Wilder. I say almost 2 versions because after we watched the Hal Holbrook version, it was impossible to finish watching the Lincoln Center Spalding Gray version, though both were endorsed by Wilder's estate and were in the same dvd box. We decided that Hal and his cast, including Ned Beatty performed the all time definitive production of that play.
Somewhat of a surprise to me was that it seemed each movie dealt with two of the same or very similar themes, sex and the human condition. Each movie was equally bittersweet and poignant without being too overly sentimental. Each movie was well acted, written and directed and each story explored different aspects of human emotions. Above all, none of these stories could have been performed or directed as well as they were if the writing had been less profound. Altogether, this combination and selection of particular movies gave me a lot of pause to reflect. It also seemed that no matter what I was doing or saying, it felt rather like dialog from whichever movie we had just watched. That impression persisted for the entire weekend and was contrasted only by watching a different movie. I have never quite had that observation before. This is the kind of writing that Hollywood rarely produces anymore, but should. Story telling, especially ORIGINAL storytelling just NEVER gets old.....
"Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?—every, every minute?"
OUR TOWN by Thornton Wilder
Jon
