August 17, 2008

The Day of the Lemur Is At Hand

Friends,

Bronson should arrive in Madison sometime today, unless plans have changed. I haven't checked my e-mail yet today, so maybe this little bit will end up looking foolish or need redacting. Anyway, the photo hunt quest is upon us, hopefully I'll be able fulfill them all, except for the one about the Farve jersey and Cubs hat....I don't think they sell those up here...

I really wish I could write something public about my job because I've had two more interesting moments happen to me. Not as cool, or award winning, as my first neat moment, but still they are anecdotes worth telling. Hopefully I'll be out of this job and into a better one soon, but not before hearing enough material to cobble together into a This-American-Life-worthy essay...but they have already done an episode about being a spokesman.

But, something did happen at the job I can discuss. I wouldn't go so far as to say I got a new friend, but I finally had a conversation with someone at that job that wasn't associated with my training class. It seems that this job is monumentally clique driven, which is so bizarre to me. Swear to god, the other day, during one of my breaks, I was in the breakroom with two other people. I was off by myself reading, and these two other people sat down at a table away from mine, closer to the door, and started chatting it up with each other. My break was over, so when I walked past that table to go back to work, they both shut up when I passed, and quickly. Like I was somehow intruding on their conversation by walking by, or, better yet, that I was not cool enough to hear their shiny, popular-kid secrets. I haven't had that kind of treatment since high school...when carrying a tray past one of the cooler kid tables and a hush falls over them, lest the unassuming quiet kid get some aural sip of whatever it was cool kids did in high school....I'm already feeling a little leperous because I can't seem to start a conversation with anybody except the few people who were in my training class, but to get that "Shhh-nerd-alert" treatment....damn, fuck them.

Anyway, this guy I talked to, first I overheard him sing the praises of the movie Step Up 2 The Streets, which is, as I'm sure you know, the sequel to Step Up, a seminal dancing movie. The guy's point as to why that movie was good, "It has a pretty good plot...no seriously, it does." Later, when he wound up sitting next to me, we somehow got to talking about movie chains, and he tried to defend the concept of movie stores by disparaging the genius of Netflix and Blockbuster's online thing. His points were, in no particular order, that waiting one day to get a movie is too long, that Netflix is expensive, and you don't get that human touch you get at movie stores. I tried to placate the guy because first he worked at a movie store in town so he feels endangered by the awesomeness of Netflix, and second, he actually spoke back to me without making it feel like a chore, so I felt obliged to entertain him....but dammit, the argument against Netflix is so, so weak it's laughable....mostly it's because avoiding human contact of the people who rent out movies at video stores is probably one of the biggest incentives of using Netflix in the first place...because, honestly, I've had my fill of pimply teens trying to talk me into seeing the Boondock Saints.

But the end of the conversation I had with that guy, the lover of Step Up 2 The Streets, was to get him to see The Godfather. He was reticent at first, but I think I might have convinced him. Which makes me think that not enough people have seen The Godfather. What about you, BOMM readers? Seen The Godfather? Love The Godfather? If not, watch it, carefully because, that is precisely how a movie should be made...barring some strange ADR work with Talia Shire, that movie is damn near perfect example of film storytelling. It's so, so good.

Speaking of greatness...did you see that Rust Hills, fiction editor of Esquire, died? If you don't know who he is, read the article...just knowing that he helped give Richard Ford his start by publishing the story "Rock Springs" is damn fantastic. The guy was a literary force.

Okay, scattershot post over. Bad Music Sunday is in the hopper....

viva el mustache

3 comments:

Diana said...

The boy and I once rented a house from Rust Hills' ex-wife Penney. It was a serious dump.

DeWolf said...

Bryan, have you ever seen The Godfather Saga? TCM replayed it last year for the 20th anniversary. It's a re-edited version of The Godfather I & II, the story told chronologically. It's amazing, and it contains extra scenes.

And The Boondock Saints: Worst movie ever. So bad.

Ande said...

I have, in fact, never seen The Godfather. Not because I don't want to, but just because I haven't happened to watch it.

I can sympathize with the clique thing, though. I've found it happens in many, many places after high school. It's sad and frustrating, really.