Taking a break

Spent all day home sick with a migraine and a stomach bug, watched a lot of movies, while trying not to move too much.  Pretty In Pink was on the tv yesterday, and I saw part of it, which put a bug in me to rent it, so I've now watched it a few times.  It was always my favorite of the brat-pack movies as it's a bit gritty and romantic as hell.  It originally had an ending where Andie ended up with Duckie, but apparently that didn't screen well with the audience, so they changed the ending for Andie and Blane to end up together, and really, when you watch it, from the get go, there's so much connection between Blane and Andie, how could it be any other way?  Duckie's a great guy, but there is no obstacle to overcome there, and she would be settling and not getting what she wants.  (There's the attraction of our believing we can get what we want and not have to settle.  That we can break the idea of "out of our league.")  I remember when this movie came out someone I knew commented how she didn't like it, she thought Andie overreacted, especially on the first date when she didn't want him to see where she lived because she was poor. I remember thinking at the time, "Yeah, but you're rich, you have no idea what that would be like to be ashamed," and that she was lucky.  I possibly have agreed with her more over the intervening years, but I get where Andie's coming from, and Molly's performance is honest and raw; it's hard to admit those emotions.  Andrew McCarthy is lovely...he lights up the screen when he's on it, he's not on it enough.  And James Spader and Annie Potts are gorgeous, but Steff is such an ass that I never paid attention to him before.  He lurks on the scene, with barely any emotion crossing his face.

Still have about 400 pages to finish before Saturday, beginning to feel some sympathy for Kate, she has no one to turn to, everyone that should be protecting her is using her for their own ends.  She's done nothing wrong, except to exist and be beautiful.  Well, Newman Noggs is on her side, but what can he do?  He is by far my favorite character thus far, and then perhaps Smike.

Need to post before I lose my miraculous internet connection.

Peace

Dickens' World Lives On

Still only about a 1/4 of the way thru the book.  Nicholas is currently confronting Uncle Ralph about what happened at the "boarding school, " but I just came across this article on Yahoo: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/jailed-for--280--the-return-of-debtors--prisons.html about a woman that was jailed for a $280 medical bill that she didn't actually owe.  Sad relevancy 200 years later.

Then there is this one:  http://finance.yahoo.com/news/debt-collector-faulted-tough-tactics-193903914.html  where do you draw the line?  If someone is having a heart attack or a stroke, do you deny care until they write you a check?  Does the stress of being harrassed impede recovery or healing?  Have we run out of compassion?

someday I'll read again

I've been spending all my free time watching episodes of Terry Jones' Medieval Lives which is a BBC production from 2004 which debunks prevailing myths about Damsels in distress, Minstrels, Knights, Kings, Alchemists, etc.  There are eight episodes which are humorous and then a piece on Gladiators at the end which is much more serious and which I keep watching because I feel we are beginning to slide in that direction as a society...what does it take to be innoculated to violence to a point where you only view it as entertainment?  What's the tipping point where we can't see all of us as fellow human beings on a societal level?  It may be that on an individual level some people never got to that point, and some have been hardened so that they no longer see it.

I started reading the Feynman book on the bus. So far it's been an easy read, but only glossed on the surface of things.  I hope he went more in depth (in 1963), 'cos he's looking at a BIG picture, and admitting that he could fall on his face by speaking on a subject outside his specialty.  And he could, or possibly did, but how refreshing that he spoke to it anyway.  I am always thirsting for someone to talk about the bigger picture.  (And to defend science for the sake of knowledge as opposed to thinking it should only exist for a specified outcome based on a short-sighted financial gain and lacking any forethought about knowledge or the future implications which may not occur in our lifetimes.) 

I don't know why I chose the thickest (Dickens) book to start. Aaaagh.

always one more thing...or two

and because I didn't have enough to read with Dickens (and I'll have to check it out one more time, the last that I can, to finish it), I'm not even at page 200 (out of almost 800) I have also begun to read Riding with Reindeer by fellow northwesterner Robert M. Goldstein about his 2000 mile bike ride from Helsinki into the Arctic Circle and back, and also The Meaning of it All-Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist by Richard P. Feynman, from a 3-part lecture series at the University of Washington in April of 1963.  The first is because I'll be leaving for Finland in 3 months and need to know more, and that latter because someone left it on the free table at work, and in a former life, there were Feynman books around the house, and he always seemed good-humored and interesting to me, but I never got around to reading him.  They will both be fun reads.  Goldstein reminds me a bit of myself, and Feynman is talking about things I like to think about: religion, politics, science...fun stuff.  I'm also trying to learn Spanish (always, it seems), and a bit of Finnish.  We'll see how my brain comes out at the end of it all.  Peace.

Further along

All day Friday, characters would slip into my thoughts while I was at work, so later in the afternoon, I sat in a cafe and read about 70 more pages, then took off to join a "lit crawl," like a pub crawl with literary readings at each stop.  First stop was a pub/ice-cream parlour where you could get a beer float.  Second stop a nearby pizza joint where someone was handing out slices, which was thoughtful.  And I joined the actual entourage to the next stop, a coffee house I didn't know, which was about a 15 minute walk away, and during which someone being pulled in a child's wagon and read a short story or essay; I only heard bits and pieces so am not sure. It began with something about the limited special menu items at Burger King.  It was 11 pm by the time that coffee house reading ended.  The group was heading a block down to a dive bar/karaoke joint, I had a migraine and it was a long bus ride home, so I walked back downtown to catch a bus.  Took an hour to get home.  I think there was at least one more stop.  It was a very Portland moment.  While walking to the cafe, someone thought we were a protest march (after 10 pm, no less) and started chanting "down with Starbucks," not sure where that came from.

Oh, the story.  Well, Ralph set up Kate with some clothing job, and moved her and her mother into a house he owned which was currently without a tenant. Noggs is proving to be a decent man.  Nicholas has survived, for the moment, a come on by Squeers' daughter.