Cultural Overload

Yesterday I went to a five minute play, saw a three hour movie, and read 110 pages of a novel. I think it was a good use of my time.

First, the play: it was part of 365 Days - 365 Plays, a series of plays written by Suzan-Lori Parks. She wrote one play a day for a year in 2002/2003 and the plays are now being produced, one a day for a year, in ten different cities. Going to this play made me really want to see more live theatre. I used to go to plays a lot in Lincoln, but this is only the second live performance I've seen in Austin. Amy S. and the rest of the gang did some very interesting things with the very short script by Parks. It really felt like a collaborative effort where each person's ideas added to the whole and made the piece into much more than it was on paper. It was also fun to be all sleepy with wet hair and a cup of coffee in a classroom in the drama building on campus on a Saturday morning (well, noon) with a bunch of other friends and acquaintances.

Next, the movie: David Lynch's Inland Empire. I'm overwhelmed with feelings and ideas about this movie, so I don't think I'll say much about it (so you should also check out what Dr. M has to say). If you are in Austin, you should take three hours of your time and go up to the Alamo Village to see it. I was amazed that there were only maybe twenty people in the audience when we saw it yesterday afternoon. Lynch is distributing this himself, and so far it has only been shown in New York, LA, Chicago, Washington DC, Seattle, and Austin. It was wonderful. Laura Dern is the best in it that she has ever been, and she is pretty consistently great. So go see it, and then we can talk about it together, because its more of a movie to have a conversation about than one to sit alone and write theories about.

Finally, the book! Middle Passage by Charles Johnson (1990). This is our latest book club book, and a National Book Award winner. I'd never heard of this book or this author until Tina suggested it for book club, and I'm really glad she did. His language is very rich and interesting. He has the kind of vocabulary that makes you want to look up every word you don't know so that you can use it in conversation later. The plot is engaging and exciting, and the characters are uniquely drawn. In fact, it was so engaging that I read the whole thing in two days, after ordering a copy on Amazon that never came, and then checking it out from the library (which I probably should have done in the first place). Go read this book. And if you read it before our book club meets, come meet with us and talk about it.

On top of all that, I also watched one episode of COPS, one episode of Kids in the Hall, and two episodes of Tales from the Darkside.

Today I'm just going to drink coffee, read magazines, drink beer, and watch TV. I'm not culturally adventurous every day for heaven's sake.