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Sunday, August 16, 2009

Lazy Hazy Days of August


Dreaming of a Beach Somewhere



This past week I have been suffering from Writer’s Block in that I just haven’t been able to decide on a topic to write about. Try as I have I just haven’t been able to think of something that appeals to me. There are normally all manner of things that jump out at me, but all I have wanted to do is sleep. The great Spanish siesta has reached out and enveloped me in its arms. It has just been so very hot. Whenever I found a cool spot I simply put down and stayed there.

Suddenly, it occurred to me that the subject is that I’m simply being bone-lazy. After all, it’s August, for many people that means vacation month. The mere fact that I’m retired hasn’t stopped my internal system from shutting down in August, as it has always done.

Last night I got animated and thought that I would have a good session on my laptop, but instead I made a right turn on the way and sat and watched a movie instead. What a luxury to be able to do that.

I watched a film named “Jagged Edge” that is a 1985 murder mystery starring Glenn Close and Jeff Bridges. Both of these actors are very good at their craft, but Glenn Close, who is a woman in spite of the name, is a particular favourite of mine. She has completed many and varied film credits, (not all have been brilliant) but in my mind her most enduring work came in a 1987 work entitled “Fatal Attraction” with Michael Douglas. The plot for that film was that a married man’s one nightstand came back to haunt him over and over again.

I remember that it was a much talked about film, and I think it may have given pause to men who thought about a one night-stand of their own. The thought that you might have gone to bed with a woman who would stalk you and do nasty things to your family somehow takes the sheen off the experience.

One of the things she did to Michael Douglas was to pour acid over his car that he loved, and she took his daughter’s favourite rabbit and boiled it and brought it back to them.

Anyway, “Jagged Edge” is a movie made in the old way: a darn good story told in a way that simply has the audience sitting on the edge of our seats. It starts with a murder that has an element of pure and simple Satanism, and the story takes many twists and turns. Most of the action takes place in the courtroom, and even after allowing for some improbabilities, it’s still a very good film.

I reflected on it after it was over, and it occurred to me that there was not one incident of special effects in the entire film. The other thing that I reflected on was the industry of filmmaking itself. It’s a wonderful way to be told a story, and if the craftsmanship is superb we may want to let ourselves go and enter the story and the place as spectators, and for the duration of the storytelling we leave our own lives behind. There is also the added benefit with DVD that we can replay the escape as often as we like.

So, yes, I’m being lazy and I’m enjoying it. I will very shortly leave our home with my wife and we shall go some place for a change of scenery. I don’t know how we are travelling, or where we are going. I don’t know if it will be one place or more. The only things that I do know is how long we will be away from home, and that I should pack for summer. I’ll report when we get back.

I do love pleasant surprises!

Copyright © 2009 Eugene Carmichael