Cracking
1. Yesterday was one of those lay-in-bed-my-soul-hurts kind of days, which meant I finally had time for The Ice Storm. I first saw it eight or nine years ago, back when it was the talk of certain intellectual circles, and I remember enjoying it, only something has prevented me from watching it again. It's an interesting film, though, one that follows the coming apart of two affluent suburban families in Connecticut during the '70s, with the "storm" being the metaphor for how their protected, insulated worlds are suddenly "cracking." Joan Allen is amazing in every thing she does, and her performance here is no different, just powerful in such a subtle way. And Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci and Katie Holmes are all excellent as well.
2. Saturday afternoon I went to Oakland for a few hours. At the Montgomery BART station this guy hit on me, using the Red Sox as a means to start up a conversation (he was from Swampscott, where my mom grew up), then asking if I was chef because he thought the novel I was reading was a cookbook. (Why he thought that, I have no idea.) The scene though, with everybody watching (or at least it felt like they were) was so over the top, so ridiculous, so blatant, that I just looked down at my book, re-reading the same sentence three times while he talked, hoping he would get the hint. Finally, after a few awkward silences he was like, okay, I'll let you get back to your book, but he said it in a way like, please tell me if I'm wrong, but when I didn't say anything he darted off, pretending to see someone he knew. In a weird way I felt sorry for him, though, and didn't mean to be a dick, but then again, what's the proper response when you want to say, look dude, you've got it all wrong here?
3. At Ben and Nick's in Rockridge, they have this IPA called Hebrew Double. It's ABV is 10%, and it comes in this special glass, with a photo of a bearded Lenny Bruce under his original name, Leonard Alfred Schneider. The bartender remembered me, so when I got all excited about the glass, talking about the design of it and how cool the concept was, he was like, keep it, which at the time I thought was quite generous, only now I realize how absurd it was to get all worked up over a logo from Shmaltz Brewing Company, let alone then take a napkin and wipe it down and put it in my bag. (It is a nice looking glass, though, one that is now in my rotation at home.)
4. They played RBL Posse at the bar Saturday night, where we were celebrating a friend's birthday. There was a moment where the whole place was bobbing their heads in unison, just before closing time, and I looked over at Greasy and he was right with me, getting the humor of it. I called Tara in the middle of the song, my second drunk dial to her that day, but when I held the phone up, all she could hear was an explosion of static, and at a certain point I realized I couldn't articulate why the moment was so priceless, so iconic for our generation, so I said I'll call you tomorrow and she hung up, disgusted.
5. I have a former student who just went to Iraq. Last Thursday night she sent me a text with her mailing address. We proceeded to exchange four or five messages. She said she was guarding 6 Iraqis at the time, one of whom kept trying to give her a yellow apple, and I couldn't get over the contrast between her situation and mine. Here I was watching the Nets and Clippers game in my warm studio, occasionally looking at a design book (but really doing nothing important) and here she was, at the same moment, on the other side of the world, risking her life in some crazy war that seems to get more chaotic each day. If that wasn't surreal enough, I asked her if she needed anything, thinking I would send her a small gift to make her life a little easier over there. She told me she could use an IPOD adapter for her jeep, because she wanted to listen to David Sedaris while driving. Again, she's at war, and the one thing she wants is an accessory for her IPOD, to listen to an author I turned her on to less than two years ago, which says something about how funny life is, and how strange things have gotten.
6. A while ago I did an interview with XFuns, which is this design magazine in Taiwan. It was supposed to come out in December. Things got delayed, for one reason or another, but it's now set for an early February release, and I've given them over thirty of my photographs, which means you should check it out, if you have the time.
2. Saturday afternoon I went to Oakland for a few hours. At the Montgomery BART station this guy hit on me, using the Red Sox as a means to start up a conversation (he was from Swampscott, where my mom grew up), then asking if I was chef because he thought the novel I was reading was a cookbook. (Why he thought that, I have no idea.) The scene though, with everybody watching (or at least it felt like they were) was so over the top, so ridiculous, so blatant, that I just looked down at my book, re-reading the same sentence three times while he talked, hoping he would get the hint. Finally, after a few awkward silences he was like, okay, I'll let you get back to your book, but he said it in a way like, please tell me if I'm wrong, but when I didn't say anything he darted off, pretending to see someone he knew. In a weird way I felt sorry for him, though, and didn't mean to be a dick, but then again, what's the proper response when you want to say, look dude, you've got it all wrong here?
3. At Ben and Nick's in Rockridge, they have this IPA called Hebrew Double. It's ABV is 10%, and it comes in this special glass, with a photo of a bearded Lenny Bruce under his original name, Leonard Alfred Schneider. The bartender remembered me, so when I got all excited about the glass, talking about the design of it and how cool the concept was, he was like, keep it, which at the time I thought was quite generous, only now I realize how absurd it was to get all worked up over a logo from Shmaltz Brewing Company, let alone then take a napkin and wipe it down and put it in my bag. (It is a nice looking glass, though, one that is now in my rotation at home.)
4. They played RBL Posse at the bar Saturday night, where we were celebrating a friend's birthday. There was a moment where the whole place was bobbing their heads in unison, just before closing time, and I looked over at Greasy and he was right with me, getting the humor of it. I called Tara in the middle of the song, my second drunk dial to her that day, but when I held the phone up, all she could hear was an explosion of static, and at a certain point I realized I couldn't articulate why the moment was so priceless, so iconic for our generation, so I said I'll call you tomorrow and she hung up, disgusted.
5. I have a former student who just went to Iraq. Last Thursday night she sent me a text with her mailing address. We proceeded to exchange four or five messages. She said she was guarding 6 Iraqis at the time, one of whom kept trying to give her a yellow apple, and I couldn't get over the contrast between her situation and mine. Here I was watching the Nets and Clippers game in my warm studio, occasionally looking at a design book (but really doing nothing important) and here she was, at the same moment, on the other side of the world, risking her life in some crazy war that seems to get more chaotic each day. If that wasn't surreal enough, I asked her if she needed anything, thinking I would send her a small gift to make her life a little easier over there. She told me she could use an IPOD adapter for her jeep, because she wanted to listen to David Sedaris while driving. Again, she's at war, and the one thing she wants is an accessory for her IPOD, to listen to an author I turned her on to less than two years ago, which says something about how funny life is, and how strange things have gotten.
6. A while ago I did an interview with XFuns, which is this design magazine in Taiwan. It was supposed to come out in December. Things got delayed, for one reason or another, but it's now set for an early February release, and I've given them over thirty of my photographs, which means you should check it out, if you have the time.
posted by Rob Simons at 10:36 AM
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