Feb. 12th, 2005

rejectomorph: (hopper_summer_evening)
I have it on the very best authority (my back) that I have been sitting here too long. This is the result of the catching up I had to do after four days of avoiding Sluggo's chilly room (to prevent that cold from settling in.) Now, maybe I can get back to what passes for normal. Or maybe not. Comcast has decided to give me a free preview of HBO. I don't know how long it will last, but it's a chance to see some of those movies everybody was talking about a few months ago and which I wouldn't see for a couple of years yet otherwise. I could be almost in the pop culture loop for a change! Maybe I'll watch a few, and let the Slug get more rest. And maybe I'll get bored with them after the first few minutes and come back to the Internets. As time goes on, I find that fewer and fewer new movies are able to hold my attention. I don't know if this is because movies are getting worse, or because I'm developing Old Geezer Syndrome. It might be a bit of both. Ah, for the days of my youth, when Doug and Mary and Charlie captivated our imagination from the flickering screens of the old nickelodeons! No, wait. Those were the days of my dad's youth! Well, in that case- Ah, to have been born forty years sooner!

Though, had I been born forty years sooner, I'd probably be dead by now, like so many of that generation whose famous members have been dropping like flies lately- Artie Shaw, Max Schmeling, and now Arthur Miller. The first Miller play I ever saw was The Crucible. Though it was only a college production, the performance was quite gripping. Later, I saw several other productions of his plays, and they have long been a mainstay of public television, where I have seen even more of them. It appears to me, a non-actor, as though it is difficult to do a Miller play badly. They have the ability to engage even amateur actors, and to pull the characters through them, as it were. I think it's because so many of Miller's characters are almost archetypes of ordinary people, so that it is easy for an actor to make that emotional connection which allows the character to come to life on the stage.

Many American playwrights of Miller's generation wrote about ordinary people, of course, but none of the others managed so consistently as Miller to get their characters exactly right and completely convincing as individuals. Their plays relied too much on setting and situation. That's partly why so many of them now seem dated. The characters are trapped in their own eras, and it is difficult for us to feel a connection to them. Miller's characters, though, occupy the same aesthetic universe as the figures in Edward Hopper's paintings. Regardless of their settings, they exist in the present moment. I suspect that they will exist in present moments for a long time to come.

Rain

Feb. 12th, 2005 10:59 pm
rejectomorph: (sutter_buttes_scene)
I've read too much today, and on a computer monitor at that, and now my brain hurts.

Nevertheless, I'm delighted at the moment, because an unexpected rain has begun to fall. While it isn't a blustery, intense winter rain (I'd certainly enjoy one of those), but a soft and cool spring-like rain, it has still freshened everything, and the smell of the wet landscape is as pleasant as the sound of splashing and trickling. I'm looking forward to a whole night of it. I hope it doesn't disappoint me and end too soon.

I've had to filter a few people from the default view of my friends page because they all posted that LJ friends icon meme without an LJ-cut, and there's no way Sluggo can handle downloading 400+ unique icons to one page, especially over a dialup connection. They may be less than 40K each, but they add up- I estimate that I was going to have to load somewhere between four and eight megs of little pictures. Sluggo said no.

Note to self: remember to undo the filters tomorrow.

Profile

rejectomorph: (Default)
rejectomorph

September 2025

S M T W T F S
 12 345 6
789 101112 13
14151617181920
21222324252627
282930    

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Sep. 14th, 2025 06:04 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios