Foxes have holes, but the Man of Steel...

Did Lex Luthor just take over the phone company here in Poland? That's what it looks like, as they've been phasing out Superman-friendly phone booths with brutal dispatch. I suspect what's really behind it is the traditional Luthorian "Let's beat up the poor!" ethos. It's certainly not practical considering the ferocious frosts here.

Snoop's Got It

Ever seen the animated special "It's Magic, Charlie Brown"? I hadn't either but found it at Video World, the last remaining outpost of DVD (and video!) rental in Gliwice, and rented it as part of a serious effort this month to engage more actively with the Polish language-- OK actually I decided to rent it before seeing that it had no English audio (was kind of inspired by a recent essay on the more famous classic 60s and 70s specials in Slate magazine, as well as a general vogue for comics and cartoons among my friends, family, random internet crushes etc. lately) but found the slog worthwhile-- in fact it's the first American cartoon dubbed in Polish (or another language) where not only did the foreign sound not jar, but I barely even noticed its foreignness. Of course they got some things wrong, like remember how the voice of Peppermint Pattie was so obviously a dude (come to think of it, wasn't Peppermint Pattie just a bad idea generally-- or was it some kind of sick genius to have this almost Highsmithian stalker-psychopath hanging around)? Well, in this one Charlie Brown's voice was obviously a lady, but somehow that didn't irk. I also was somewhat shocked by Charlie Brown's own rather sociopathic behavior in Magic, when invisible (anticipating Kevin Bacon in Hollow Man, which title is easy to confuse with the much different Glimmer Man); and then his atypically un-Christian stance at the end. Did Schulz know about this? Still, it was kind of fun.

Virgin Mary sighting... or not... ?

I left my iron standing on the ironing board for a few days (not plugged in) and noticed that it made this nice reflection (I'd say shadow but this was rather an illumination, not darkness) on the wall that looked kind of like the Virgin Mary. Or was it Penguin Opus?

Pluses and minuses

The local supermarket in my neighborhood used to be a branch of PLUS, a low-end German affair that was stylish in a Starsky and Hutch (70s TV original not Ben Stiller & Owen Wilson movie) kind of way. It's now been replaced, at this branch and all others in Gliwice if not in Poland, by Biedronka, a low-end Portuguese affair that's unstylish in a Barney's Funhouse kind of way. But the Yugoslavian or whatever nacho chips are better, and so is the (Portuguese) wine, so who's complaining? Yesterday was the grand gala opening, full of yellow balloons-- which reminds me of that wonderful song by Jan and Dean
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uInJQO1NiDI&feature=related, speaking of unstylish :)

Is that what Keats meant?

I've been listening to Echo and the Bunnymen a lot lately. I really like the song "Over You" (second on the 1987 "Grey Album"), which has a chord progression very similar to the quintessential 80s one-hit wonder Modern English's one hit "Melt With You," familiar to some from the film Valley Girl with Nicholas Cage as Hollywood's fantasy of a "punk rocker." The progression is similar, but simpler, like some of the notes are left out, so it doesn't tug as hard on the heartstrings, and can be enjoyed more. Unheard music sometimes really is sweeter...
UPDATE: Or is it just because we fill in the other notes in our head, or just feel their absence, that we're able to say "No, the more low-key, less aggressively plush & romantic melody is better"?

The Importance of Being There

I finally saw Being There the other night-- great movie, although the masturbation scene was embarrassing and overdone. The highlight, for me, was the disco remix of Also Sprach Zarathustra which plays as Chance walks down the street. When I rented the movie, I was surpised that the girl at the counter hadn't heard of it, as she had previously told me she was a big fan of Easy Rider and old movies in general. Another store employee had seen it, however, and said it was a very good "film with a moral." But is it, and if so, what is that moral? For example if you look at the imdb comments (I know you're not really supposed to do that, but I get a kick out of it sometimes) it seems pretty clear that people generally fall into one of two camps: they either treat it as a Forrest Gump / Rain Man type triumph of the human spirit (I think this may have been what the video store guy had in mind, as he said something i didn't hear that made the girl ask "Oh, like he's kind of autistic?") or an equally simplistic but opposite i.e. cynical parable about how "In our age of TV sound bites, a COMPLETE IDIOT can become President!"
Both of which seem to me not quite right, although I think the latter is considerably closer to the mark.
On the other hand, in a "diavlog" on my favorite website, www.bloggingheads.tv, Ann Althouse once compared the Dalai Lama, when he made what she thought were some simplistic comments about the nature of desire, to Chance. And there is perhaps something Buddha-like (in the way that "all dharmas should be regarded as dreams"), and in that sense Gump-like, and not idiotic at all, about Chance.
The Polish title, by the way, "Wystarczy Być," means "It's Enough to Be," or "Being is Enough," which would appear to give the moral as something like Woody Allen's "90% of success is just showing up."
Interesting to compare Being There with The Omen-- two paranoid 70s scenarios with an innocent/empty non-hero who at the end is just about ready to rule the world.

Name That Tune

In the internet cafe a few days ago they were playing this acid jazz with a riff taken from an old movie slightly speeded up, but I can't quite pin down which movie... something from the late 50s or early 60s I'm pretty sure, with this kind of poignant, idealistic, therapeutic vibe, a socially progressive sensibility which I associate with movies like The Manchurian Candidate and Rebel Without a Cause, but this is not from either of those... probably from something a little more blockbuster and family, less tragic, but still high-grade. Too bad you can't google a tune in, somebody has to invent that, and soon I hope.
The tune goes something like this
C G E flat __
C G E flat __
C D E flat C E flat F F G
E flat A flat G __
E flat A flat G __ ...
Anybody know?

UPDATE: I'm pretty sure it's a "love theme" actually.

Terrible Dream

In my dream last night I was visiting friends who lived on one of the top floors of a high-rise. It was winter and at some point the hostess (a former student, not a close friend in real life) told me that since it was so cold, the elevator wasn't working-- because of this, other guests started knowingly, wilfully committing suicide by jumping out of the apartment into the street. One of my teachers from school jumped, another just disappeared. The hostess was planning to jump too and urging me to as well. It was only just before or perhaps even after I woke up that I saw the sheer craziness of the behavior. What can it mean?

September is the Stupidest Month

That's what one of the fellows waiting in line to go swimming at 7 o'clock this morning said to the others, after another, the loudest and clearly the leader of the trio, said "September 1st-- two months 'til All Saints' Day and then plain sailing." September, if I understood correctly, is stupid because it's neither cold nor hot, sort of phlegmatic and just grey.
Not sure if I agree, but anyway August ended on a slightly stupid note for me as I forgot to go see a selection of The Worst Films of All Time which was showing Saturday night (and Sunday early morning) in the partially-resurrected Ruined Theatre and which I was looking forward to enjoying. One of them was Plan 9 From Outer Space which I've never seen but always heard about and enjoyed the recreation of in Tim Burton's Ed Wood.
My Worst Films of All Time, off the top of my head:
Random Hearts
Phenomenon
The Exorcist (no, not Part II)
But is there really any point to such a list? Rather not.