note:

I just bought a book about the history of Cod. Awesome :D

Afternoon thoughts while doing homework.

Here I am excitedly waiting for Sumo wrestling to come on TV while I study about the facts of volcanic activity in the Earth and read intermittently. I got Nicholson Baker's "The Mezzanine" in the mail the other day. So far... it is... so micro aware... that I love it and hate it... etc.

I've also got a Gary Lutz book to read, though... who knows when I'll get to that. Eh.

I was in the yard doing some work earlier and there was a black snake cruising around the yard. The cats, from the screened-in porch, were fascinated. I wouldn't give the snake long against them... they're merciless playmates.

Well, alright, in the course of pecking away at this uninteresting blog entry, the Sumo has ended and Netherlands v. Russia is on the Tele... this has the makings of a great game. Better go watch.

Writers.

As I've met numbers of writers, I've been consistently interested in examining their individual points of views on writing, the ideas they have settled on to explain their process.

Frequently, these things are formulated as little mantras or memorable quotes, and... well, normally that stuff is pure cheddar, but in this case I think it's helpful for remembering principals important to the process of creating compelling fiction.

There is a science, in other words, to crafting stories, and... maybe the majorly interesting factor is the creative variables applied to the recycled topics we all tackle.

Lost for classic topics upon which I wanted to place my own observations, lately I've been tackling... not "current" topics, because those are loaded topics, always... but stories that deal with "familiar" people, modern thought processes, whatever term you want to use to describe them.

Everyone has a process, of course... and we're all speaking something like the same universal language... and each process ends up with the same style product........ but its those little nuances, little nodes, etc., that bring out the real "process brilliance."

In other news, Lesley wants to go to Switzerland once I finish at my current school, which just so happens to coincide with her birthday. Yeeeeee. That's a lot of money, but I would love to experience a country I've never been to... I always do.

Movies.

I just saw "Control," a film about Joy Division. It was fantastic. The story about Ian Curtis is by no means a happy one..... but the telling was excellent.

I highly recommend seeing it (it just came out on DVD, though I saw it in the local "art theatre").

Just to quickly relay a situation, though, we found ourselves in the theatre with some pretty rude folks. About... oh, say, 5/8ths (specific!) of the way through the film, a girl in the back started laughing. She didn't stop, both laughing and talking, for the rest of the film, giggling in outbursts as Ian Curtis' life was descending into chaos. I actually got up and walked back to ask them to stop being rude, but when I approached their table the guy sitting with the girl pulled her up against him as though I was coming to attack them or something, so I turned around and returned to my seat.

The Enzian is a dinner theater, so a certain amount of "conversation" is expected, but a larger amount of respect is sort of... expected, ya know? It isn't a dollar theater, they aren't showing "Baby Mama" that you are totally cool to talk through, and you expect people to talk through it as it speaks to the sort of people who know they are much more important than everyone else, and their giggling emotional conversation is necessary to have right then, in the theater, everyone else be damned.

I guess it is sort of elitist to think that there are certain places that the rude, inconsiderate and, well, ignorant don't go. Maybe it is just naive. I think definitely, though, that those that actually pay attention at the movie theater, in the classroom, in events where focus is directed on one task, those that can let the attention float away from us for a while, need to stand up for quiet.

So, people in the theater tonight - I'm sorry I didn't stand up and tell you to shut the hell up. I'm sorry I didn't tell you that you were being rude. I did you a disservice because I don't think you realized you were being obnoxious, I don't think you could comprehend that someone would actually want to be quiet for 90 minutes straight without even having a loud, giggling conversation. Next time I'll let you know - for your sake and mine.

I wish I didn't get this pissed off about stuff like this. I'm probably overreacting, but dammit, I wanted to pay attention to the movie!