Plastics

Watched The Graduate last night for the first time in at least 20 years. Either it hasn't aged very well or this particular viewing fell victim to Unreasonable Expectations Syndrome - where you have such fond memories of something from your past that revisiting it can't possibly live up to what you've remembered.

Author Sven Birkerts once wrote an essay on how rereading a book is so different than reading it for the first time. Partially because you know what's going to happen - the example he gives is The Great Gatsby, first time through you read it with the hope that Jay and Daisy might get back together, on subsequent readings the optimism Jay exudes is more poignant because you know it's ill-fated. The other reason, of course, why rereading produces a different reaction is because you're not the same person you were the first time around.

First time around I was borderline legal to see The Graduate - went to a downtown Chicago theater and was allowed in, tried to see it a second time out in the 'burbs and was told I was too young. I felt kinda smug about getting to see an "adult" movie, and thought it was witty and well-acted.

On viewing it last night I thought Dustin Hoffman's performance was borderline catatonic, and the whole relationship between him and Elaine was the very embodiment of late-1960s movie "romance" (and fashion - check out the HUGE false eyelashes on Katherine Ross during the date scenes). They go out on ONE date before the big revelation about Mrs. Robinson, and that's enough for him to fall in love?

The whole section in Berkeley really doesn't ring true either - Elaine has two guys on the line, waffles about "maybe" marrying either of them, finally decides to hastily marry the frat dude, then blows him off at the altar to run away with Ben? On "Love, American Style", maybe - but this was a Mike Nichols classic that won him an Oscar.

Oh - Nichols' direction? Speaking of catatonic...

...And I Approved This Post

It's such a relief to be able to turn on the television and not be bombarded with campaign ads. But now the fallout from the 2004 election starts.

Rice as Secretary of State. Out goes Powell, a Responsible Opposing Viewpoint who was cuckolded during much of his stay.

Clarence Thomas as Chief Justice? Spare me.

Ashcroft out as Attorney General, Ridge out as Homeland Security director. Who could be worse? I guess we'll see.

Here, Margaret Spellings demonstrates what one must do in order to be appointed to a Bush cabinet.

When You're Weary, Feeling Small

How long do you have to know someone before they're an old friend? Is it length of time, richness of emotion, number of shared experiences?

Why do I ask? Well. Saw the Zach Braff film Garden State last night; there's a scene where he uses the Simon and Garfunkel song "The Only Living Boy In New York" on the soundtrack - and I immediately found myself singing along. And then in a moment it was a drizzly Sunday night in the spring of 1970 and I’m huddled in the back seat of my roommate Greg's flesh-colored 1962 Plymouth Valiant driving south on I-57 in the dark, WLS on the radio as we headed back to the University of Illinois.

"Bridge Over Troubled Water" was the big album at the time (I still call them "albums", so sue me) and I'm sure I've heard it over a thousand times. It was my favorite thing to listen to while I was up late working on my Mechanical Drawing 103 projects. I'd use headphones so that Greg could sleep but I never managed to avoid singing along, so he eventually suggested I keep the volume down and use the speakers, as "I'd rather listen to the real thing than YOUR feeble croaking".

Singing along with Paul and Art in the dark, it dawned on me that there were very few people that I've known since that song was new. It's been a long time since I've talked to Greg, he only lasted one year at the U of I before he headed back to Chicago to be closer to his girlfriend Pooh Bear. Certainly no one from high school, I've never been to a reunion, haven’t kept in touch. I took a look at the alumni website after our 30th reunion and couldn't recognize a single person from the winners of the "Least Changed" contest. So let’s see. There's some college friends: Jim and Jan down in Springfield, Gary in Chicago. Pat's been gone for almost two years now, damn cancer. Fraternity roommate Bob. That’s about it.

I've known the group I saw Garden State with (Jim, Anne, Janelle) since the fall of 1995 when we all took the same fiction writing class. Another group member (Susan) just left us in August, that damn cancer again. We once were a real writer’s group - meeting every other Tuesday to offer support and constructive criticism, arguing over character vs. plot vs. motivation.

These days we’re more of a dining and drinking society and we only get together once every month or two. But we’ve been through a lot: divorces, job changes, Anne’s move to a town 90 minutes away, death. And as always when we get together, on Saturday we talked about a range of subjects eclectic enough to make the Algonquin Round Table spin. Good people. Good friends.

Old friends.

Stoney, We'll Miss Ya

Following play-by-play announcer Chip Caray's defection to Atlanta, color analyst Steve Stone has resigned from the Chicago Cubs broadcast crew at WGN-TV.

Click here for a link to an audio clip of his Sept. 30th comments that started the friction between Stone and Cubs management and precipitated his departure.

As always, trenchant remarks from someone who provided insightful commentary and was always willing to say that the Emperor had no clothes.

Worth Seeing

Sideways - Great performances by Paul Giamatti (American Splendor) and Virginia Madsen
I [Heart] Huckabee's - Wacky, frenetic, eclectic and inventive
Garden State - Writer/Director Zach Braff's (Scrubs) take on the "You CAN go home again" saga
Ray - Amazing Jamie Foxx performance in the title role and some great Ray Charles music lifts this otherwise pedestrian biopic
Napoleon Dynamite - More a collection of scenes than a cohesive film, but I laughed my ass off
Shaun of the Dead - Witty Brit sendup of the Zombie genre

The Proverbial Single Step

This is an initial post, to get things rolling. Testing, 1-2-3 ...