“Troubled Times” by Fountains of Wayne plays for today… “Pining away every hour in your room. Rolling with the motion, waiting til it’s opportune. Sitting there watching time fly past you. Why do tomorrow what you could never do…”
We decided not to ignore the terrorist threats going on all around London, so upon meeting up yesterday, Chris and I decided to stay away from the centre of the city. It was so strange seeing tanks, armed-police and military personnel standing guard around airports and buildings of highest risk that I almost had to lean forward towards the television screen just to make sure that these men decked out in camoflage fatigues were not merely stuck onto the TV with sellotape. It was all real and for the first time in a long while I was worried about what cards the future held in this important game of war and peace.
The media and newspapers always concentrate on the bad things, which is why we have sayings such as “Like a road accident, it was hard to look away.” A small part of journalling for the masses (i.e. a reference to the tabloids and not a reference to this particular one) does no better than to appease gossipers and catalogue mankind’s downfalls. The acts of benevolence are there in writing too, but no one makes a point of remembering those. Aspiring to be like people is the weight on one side of the scales. The heavier side is the other where we do not follow in the footsteps of the unfortunate, which may include shadows of your former self.
It hit me how powerless we as civilians really are against impending national catastrophes; anything that would affect our lives and threaten humanity. We pretty much entrust the future of the nation in a handful of people enpowered to make crucial decisions. With all the agitation in the world today, we have all become like flies tangled in a web, wriggling till the day our predator casts his many eyes over us and chooses to feed. Helplessly we’re lead to suckle on the media’s pacifiers that try to reassure us of things but to take the necessary precautions. Duct tape and gas mask sales go up. The fear goes up. But as much as it all hit me, life goes on and whatever will be will be. There is no point in fearing and running away from things before they manifest. The world continues to turn and moments continue their fleeting.
We wanted to go see the new P.T. Anderson flick, Punch-Drunk Love, which is being touted as Adam Sandler’s finest movie yet. Was such touting ever really required in the first place? Asides from The Wedding Singer, I have trouble pointing index fingers at any of his other works. In most of his films he plays characters who may have been dropped too many times on their heads or been in too many clinical trials involving removal of brain tissue. Hopefully he’ll stick to normal roles where he plays sane down-outta-luck Joes who just want a little romance in their life. We can all relate to that.
Decided to watch Catch Me If You Can, which I was actually very keen to see since I knew that it was inspired by a true story about a big-time fraudster. Despite not having bringing a notepad, I made mental notes (I love films that teach me stuff ;)). The film was really enjoyable and although it may have looked like a “chick-flick” from the trailer (according to Chris), it touched the universal themes of blossoming romance, deceit and trying to make the parents proud. Spielberg had really captured that 60s feel and the film looked stylish as a result. It was quite fitting that we didn’t have to pay for tickets because lo and behold, the duty manager was someone we still knew working at the cinema; used to be one of the supervisors. Good films are always enjoyable, but even bad films appear not so bad if you didn’t pay to see them.
Also got me thinking about friendship and how we classify and administer ranks amongst friends. In nearly every job I’ve been in, I’ve considered nearly all my co-workers as just simply co-workers. Only a few get promoted to “friend” and will get my time outside of work and this has been the case with nearly every job I’ve been in. In the workplace, everyone wears that friendly mask of politeness and that always leads to backchat. I’m fortunate to have close friends who set aside pleasantries appropriately and will choose honesty over politeness with me. Now that I think about it, everyone I promoted to “friend” status in my workplace have been the honest ones. It’s a good criterion to filter out the fakes.
And of course, there are other types of friends who you lose contact with or fall out with. The types that used to be your friend, or pretended to be all along, for their own benefits. I saw an example of this kind of friend today on my walk to the cinema to meet Chris. OK, I say “friend” but what do you call those people that used to be a good friend but was now someone you’d just greet in the street, and maybe have a short conversation with? We acknowledged each other and greeted each other, but I just gave my trademark salute and continued walking. I hadn’t seen him in a long time and I doubt we both had time to stop and have a polite conversation that would remain as fresh in my mind as last month’s winning lottery numbers. I chose not to have that conversation, and just continued walking briskly so that I would not keep my real friend waiting.
At the cinema, we also saw Jim again. It had been ages since we’d seen him and asides from his first name, his nickname (Big Jim) and his false teeth, I admit I don’t really know much about him. I think he is a retired projectionist or someone who used to work in film and the most memorable thing about him was a time he tried to tell Chris, the projectionist and I a joke during our lunch break. Now, some people just have this innate ability to tell a joke. You can’t learn how to do it, you’re just born with it, and Big Jim had that something in his genes (pun alert). He started the joke, “A dumb man walked into a bicycle shop…” and that one line floored us. We were in hysterics, for some reason, and that reason was Jim’s excellence in execution. The best thing about Jim here was that he was completely unaware of how great he was at telling jokes and could make any otherwise mundane line, completely hysterical. We were all completely worn out and had put down our lunch on our laps so that we could use both hands to hold in our sides, and all this before he had even got to the punchline. I can’t even remember exactly how the joke went, but it was something like, “A dumb man walked into a bicycle shop because he wanted to get a bicycle and spoke.” OK, not a great joke, but it’s all in the delivery.
Chris also gave me my birthday present (first one this year) which included some inspired titles. Ages ago, we used to laugh about the clips on a TV show. The show, Loves Like a Dog, was a compendium of bizarre clips from fringe shows made all around the globe, and we used to laugh a lot at the famous Colin’s Sleazy Friends show. Basically, this was a low budget show about an unwashed looking, long-haired comedian who invites rock stars, film stars and porn stars onto his chat show to talk frankly about sexual matters and practice, sometimes resulting in nudity. It was so watchable, not because of the nudity, but because it was so sleazy, tacky and didn’t try to hide this fact (the hosts even wore t-shirts advertising their own show - how low can you get? ;)). Basically, it was a show by perverts, for perverts and although Chris and I are not perverts (since the last time I checked my film collection) we had a good laugh about it. So what does Chris get me amongst several titles on DVD? He gets me Best of Colin’s Sleazy Friends! I unwrapped it and was just sitting there laughing for ages, just from looking at the cover. It might have been the most inspired present so far, if he hadn’t also made me a compilation video tape of 80s cartoons as well. I honesty couldn’t believe he had salvaged so many cartoons! I used to have tapes of cartoons recorded off the telly, but they were all worn out. The ones on this tape were in good condition and included Galaxy Rangers, Galaxy High, MASanje and I was so excited to see Thundercats and Dogtanian again! I really need to go into the loft one day to try to find all those figures from 80s cartoons I have stashed away. I have quite a few that must be worth a few bob nowadays, but I am still totally envious that Chris has a rare Dogtanian plush toy! That was a great cartoon series and I remember for years after I’d seen it, I remained under the impression that “Dogtanian” was the name of the protagonist in the original Alexandre Dumas story. All the other characters in the cartoon retained their names from the novel so I just assumed that Dogtanian himself was the same. With that name, I just thought it was rather appropriate to make a cartoon series about it, substituting humans for canines. Yes, I was a silly kid.
As the last hour of today winds down, for a moment, I was thinking of elaborating on the romance theme but I’m going to go against the grain on this one. As some might say, “There is no Valentine’s Day, only Singles-Awareness Day.” I think one of the greatest romantics of our time, ahem, Ozzy Osbourne, summed it up best:
Quote of the day: “I hate fucking Valentine’s Day. It’s bullshit. Don’t send cards or any of that fucking nonsense. Treat your mate special every day and get gifts for no special occasion” - Ozzy Osbourne (1948-)
Thought of the day: Sometimes the answer does not lie in the confusion. The answer is the confusion.
