Look with your eyes, not with your hands.


Such a minute fraction of this life do we live: so much is sleep, tooth-brushing, waiting for mail, for metamorphosis, for those sudden moments of incandescence: unexpected, but once one knows them, one can live life in the light of their past and the hope of their future.



A grad student muses on her life, film, friends, politics, reality televizzle, and music.

 
And I think it's gonna be a long long time...

Yeah, so... I just don't know what to say today and instead of doing an economical on words thing and just not post today, instead I'll wallow in my not much to say about anything. The news coverage on the war is becoming a bit excessive, but at the same time, I am glad it's there. This is a very new way of looking at / understanding war. Part of the repressed political scientist in me can't help but be very curious about what all of this media attention will mean in the long run - in the way the public at large responds to armed combat, about the decisions and calculations politicians and military leaders will make, and I guess what this means for the future of international relations. In some ways, the media seems to really fulfill its "watchdog" role, assigning at least one reporter to each battalion, base, and squadron. For me, call me skeptical, but I am really impressed to see that the President is actually sticking to the mission. Having a history dotted with events like My Lai and what have you, I guess there is a general skepticism about what really happens outside of the narrow focus of a "mission." Having the press around, I think, forces the military to carefully consider decisions and how it will look when it is shown simultaneously on every major news network. Nothing is going to slip through the cracks. Of course I know that this is a lie and no one has any idea how long Special Ops forces have been in Iraq and what they have been doing... and last year I met the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO who talked openly about "Operation Silver Bullet" and past failed attempts to assassinate Saddam during the first Gulf War. But anyway, hopefully reporters and video cameras will cut down on civilian massacres and other "illegal" tactics. I still think that it is very telling that we live in a world where the Press Secretary announced an attack on Iraq a full-hour before the President hit the airways.

Just a passing thought and sympathy for school children in fifty years� history teachers are always sticklers for dates and events and I can't imagine keeping Bush the first separate from Bush the second their respective Gulf Wars. Thankfully, if I ever have children, it'll only be a quiet, neat, and polite Asian prodigy who won't only know the difference between the leaders Bush, but be able to rattle off the full cabinet from 1992 and 2003. I'll leave it at that, anything else you want to know about Operation Iraqi Freedom you know where to find.

Interview today at 3pm - so I am gearing up to actually blow-dry my hair nice and play dress up. Bought some new shirts at the Gap and going to see what I feel like wearing. Art interviews are very strange. I know that this place has a staff of about 8 people and it is a very casual office - I am sure people wear jeans, everyone uses a colored imac around scattered desks and everyone shy of the Director has a cubicle, the goal, therefore, is to dress nicely and come across as an intelligent, in an off-handed way. A black suit, heels, and professional rigidity would likely work against me in this case. So basically, for a job like this, you need to throw out a lot of those stupid interview rules college employment offices feed you. We'll see, this is my first real �interview� for an art job (not just an internship interview), but I know the vibe of the place and I am going with that. In random news, it�s a really nice day outside.

Tonight my mom and I are going to get our scary movie fix and see the Steven King movie "Dreamcatcher." Look, I really like serious film and foreign cinema, but trust me; scary movies on opening night are a blast too. We also plan to run the scam we ran last time we went to this movie theater - since we're unassuming, and no 17-year old usher is going to stop a 50+ year old woman from doing this, we go to the bathroom after the movie and, due to the layout of this theater, it is very easy to sneak into another. In order to ward off the nightmares, we're going to see a comedy after Dreamcatcher - likely the G. Paltrow as stewardess "View from the Top" or watch Steve Martin and Queen Latifya in "Bringing Down the House." My mother still hasn't seen "Chicago," so that's always an option for the double feature, too. When you play this 2-for game, you can't always be picky about what will be starting when your first movie ends. I hate to say this, but sneaking into movies is really a rush - look, I am a goodie two shoes who never got in trouble, doing something bad / wrong is exciting. Yeah, it's pathetic, but, I actually want to see more than one movie tonight and this is a lot of fun. Wish us luck.

I have a lot on my cinema wish list these days - there's a film about the environmental Artist Andrew Goldsworthy playing in Hartford where I have my interview today. I might go tomorrow before I head to New Hampshire for Ginnie's candle party, it stops playing tomorrow. There's a new Gus Van Sant movie called "Gerry" starring the boyishly cute Matt Damon. I saw the preview when I saw the Pianist - and it looked damn good, I think Elvis Mitchell from the Times called it Ansel Adams meets Beckett meets Warhol... I might have to wait until Katie comes home, this seems like a movie we should see together. There's another movie playing at Cinema City that intrigues me, it's called "Till Human Voices Wake Us." I have no idea what this movie is about and who made it, but I am stuck on the title, the penultimate line from what is perhaps my favorite poem of all time, Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." I am still geared up to see John Malkovich's directorial debut "The Dancer Upstairs," and I really need to make the trek to New York to see Matthew Barney's both stomach turning and dreamy Cremaster oeuvre.

Okay, time for shower, Crest white strip, and ironing.

posted by lmjasinski at 11:57 AM