Don’t worry – it’s not a diatribe…rather more of a request.
Talking to my brother tonight on the phone, he mentioned having ticked The Graduate off the list of films he should have seen some time ago, but simply hadn’t. I saw it years and years ago, long before any comparison between Ben and Ross from Friends could have been made (but oh, so very apt – except Ben doesn’t visibly swell as the movie proceeds, oil-sheened skin distending glossily with the pressure of impossible real world riches), and honestly don’t remember the balance of it – but as I recall it’d be a better use of my time to just watch Marathon Man again instead.
So, I started thinking about movies that I should have seen, but just haven’t, and decided to follow that line of thought by inviting the world to suggest ones that I (or indeed my brother) might have missed. My Lovefilm queue needs a bit of padding out, if we’re going to be honest, and I don’t think Lisa would smile too kindly on me popping the entire collection of Best of the Best movies on there just for the sake of numbers.
One of the first I’ve added tonight is Five Easy Pieces. It’s a classic piece of 70′s cinema, a story about identity that resonated with the era of it’s creation – a difficult story of frustration and resentment that offers up no Hollywood-style resolution to the question of Dupea’s ill-at-ease rebellion – and yet I’ve never seen it. I’ve even quoted one of the most memorable scenes – “I want you to hold it between your knees” – and I’ve never watched the bloody film.
Lisa isn’t a massive fan of Westerns. I know this chiefly because I’ve made her sit through more than a couple in the past, trying to get her to at least appreciate them on the grounds of thematic and cinematographic merit, and every time it has resulted in her boredom alarm (in the form of a world – or, at least, boyfriend – weary sigh) going off every ten minutes.
Since I had used up all my good viewing graces (banked sitting through the slew of rom-coms that found their way onto our Lovefilm listings) on The Assassination of Jesse James and Appaloosa, I decided it was best not to push my luck and went to see True Grit by myself.
So, I’ve not been feeling my absolute best of late.
Perhaps some of it is work and life and stuff (of which there seems to be far more than there are hours for it), but then I’ve worked hard on things before and never really had issues. I’m maybe not the best juggler of work-life-other but I’ve kind of managed to muddle along thus far.
Then there’s the whole illness thing. My blood pressure is under control and my kidney function stable, but nevertheless it feels like something is chipping away at me, relentless, implacable, and I’m completely powerless to stop it. When I exercise, it takes me longer to recover than normal. While I used to be able to concentrate on things before for quite a long time, I find my motivation drifting.
The vast majority of it is probably pyschosomatic. Because I feel like things are getting worse, they are, if that makes any sense at all. Sadly, it’s not enough to provide a counterbalancing effect.
To do list:
Get shit together
We’ll see if I can get that ticked off at some point.
