Sleeping Lady Mountain

This is a very special pic for me. I took it with a mobilephone. I’ve never been much for photography, but when I started using a mobilephone camera my attitude changed. I won’t go as far as to say it’s a hobby or anything like that or that I would venture to buy a “real” camera. The simple and somewhat backward way these dumb-down devices make pictures is kinda cool. To me that’s ironic – you know, since there has been so much human effort, investment and activity revolving around mobilephones. This may sound way-out-there but I think of CrackerJack and the prize within each time I take a picture. Anywho. Sometimes the pictures I take are granny, sometimes they are out of focus, usually they are always lacking light, or they’re just plain bad. Then I think of all those Nokia engineers and computer programmers, they too must know the CrackerJack prize – or the fact that, suddenly, without notice, they would not only be the largest producers of mobile phones but also over take the likes of Kodak and Polaroid and Cannon, etc., as the world’s single largest producer of “cameras”. Wow-wee!

This picture here came out pretty good, I think. It’s of a mountain range in Thailand. We were driving from Kao Lak to Phang-Nga Bay, you know, James Bond Island. (Yes, sometimes I’m a tourist and like it.) The driver stopped the car right in the middle of the road half way through the hour or so ride. He asked us to step out. He then pointed to the mountain and in fairly good English asked what we saw. I exploded with excitment and yelled: I see her! I see her. He looked at me and said. “Very good. Not many get it that fast.”

I guess I’m kind of a feminine driven visual guy.

I’m posting this picture today because this day, May 7, is a special day. It’s not really special in an optimistic way but it’s also not special the other way ’round. With this picture I celebrate the feminine and my failure with her. Yes. May 7. Never my lucky number.

-tgs-

Cynicism, Character, Continuity

Warning A: this post contains some stark language, it also has some suggestive and/or sexist stuff in it and it reveals the plot of one of 2008’s highest earning movies.

Warning B: this is a poor attempt at reviewing a movie. You have been warned.

Although I am a failed writer, I do not wish to join the ranks of other failed writers and thereby become a film critic. It’s just that, well, I’m having a hard time being (worst)writer right now and I have to have some form of outlet. The whole compulsive typing thing doesn’t do it for me all the time. At the least, this is better than running amok. Right?

When I was young I read comics. Not a lot, mind you, but every once-a-once I stole a comic here or there and enjoyed them while all the other boys stole playboy, jugs or hustler, etc. Of course, all those other boys got caught and faced some serious consequences. Their crime was usually in full view as it hung out of their zipper. On top of that, there is the value to society of what they stole. They say that crime doesn’t pay – but paying for crime does. And all is not lost with these lost boys that became found men.

Moving on to the lolly point I will fail to make.

One of my favorite comics is Iron Man. I don’t like all of Stan Lee’s/Marvel Comics creations, but Iron Man and Spider Man are two of my favorites. I also admire Lee for authoring so many characters. (My all time favorite is Batman, but he’s from DC Comics.) Anywho. Yesterday I took my son to see Iron Man, the movie. Just like when I saw Spider Man 1 (yeah, 2 & 3 sucked!), the joyous feeling that is/was the freedom of youth came back to me while sitting in a cinema seat. I once again found thoughts of self-built tree houses or day-time bonfires. While all the other blokes were gagging themselves with perfectly manicured pussies from high-gloss magazine paper, I was grasping at the hope that there were, somehow, real heroes in a world where men can so easily make children and then leave them fatherless.

A great substitute for not having a biological father is going to the friggin’ movies where magic and mystic stand above dogma. Most of the time, anyway. I can’t make clear enough how important and thought provoking ideas like immaculate conception were to my youth. Make-believe in movies saved me from religious righteousness and doom.

Wow, doggy. You way off topic now.