Where does all the work go?

Sometimes I think about all the time I spend reading this or writing that and wonder where did all that effort go. There must be some niche thing I’m pretty freaking good at by now.

If I only I knew what it is.

Great athletes

Stories like this one about hockey phenom Sidney Crosby get me teary eyed and nostalgic.

In successive games against Tampa Bay earlier this month, he scored while sliding on his side, controlling the puck while doing so, and from his knees.

I’m a sucker for movies like Miracle, The Natural, or Field of Dreams. In particular the moment in the movie where somebody transcends what people think is possible.

Youtube has some video on this. Watch Crosby pull the puck behind two defenders, dive between them, take control of the puck again and score. Then take a gander at another leaping goal that follows him into the boards. It’s great to see any athlete put that much passion into the game.

High prices on the long tail

There is a curious phenomenon running through the DVD market on Amazon these days. At the end of the long tail DVDs with meager popularity demand huge prices.

Matinee, that lovable coming of age story set during the Cuban Missile Crisis and chock full of movie palace nostalgia sells for between $50 and $110 these days.

But even it must bow before the pricing juggernaut that is Cinema Europe - The Other Hollywood a six hour documentary about silent film in Europe. It starts at $289 and only goes up. Of course even this is tiny before the titan of expensive DVDs the Criterion Edition of Salo. It starts around $400 and climbs into the $2500+ stratosphere.

Lost Treasure

The night I saw it for the first time was one of those moments that becomes a nexus point through which all memories before and after must flow. That night shines so bright in the memoryscape that other memories near it have faded. From that moment on our friendship was unhinged and a new wilder energy flowed through everything between us.

Unlock the iPhone

The iPhone looks great but why is Apple poisoning their brand by an association with Cingular? The Cingular CEO read his Cingular/AT&T ad from notecards during the keynote and was not enthused about being there and didn’t appear to “get it.” There is one more big innovation Apple could push with the iPhone.

Get the message out that American consumers don’t have to buy phones from the major carriers. I recently bought an unlocked phone. While finding and buying the phone was a pain in the butt, moving my SIM card was easy. I would love to see Apple open up distribution channels for cell phones in America.

Things I didn't know about myself

In an interview with the owner of the local comic book store Zeus Comics he offered the top five signs he knows a comic book reader is gay.

1. They touch my hand while exchanging cash.1. Their pull-list consists solely of Aquaman and Green Lantern or conversely Strangers in Paradise and DC’s 52.1. They talk endless about their hero’s outfit in City of Heroes.
2. They comment on the “bump” on the male action figures.1. Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman.

That’s me right there at number 2, just getting Strangers in Paradise and 52.

The Worst Hard Time

Finished The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan about the Great Dust Bowl and have come away humbled by the scope of the disaster and mankind’s tenacity in the face of horrible conditions.

There are two parts that seem so cinematic I’d love to see them in a movie. The first is the great dust storm on Black Sunday. Something I hadn’t realized before is these storms create static electricity. People would try to leave town only to have their cars short out. They could see the electricity sparking inside the car. If people touched each other they could be knocked to the ground by the static discharge. Blue electricity would sparkle off the barbed wire fences. Trees would be blackened by sparks of electricity. Of course, this is just the prelude to the big act when hundreds of tons of dust would blot out the sun and plunge the world into darkness. One dust storm dropped more tons of dirt in a day than all the dirt that was moved to create the Panama Canal.

Goodbye 2006

Time for a little reflection on where I’ve been.

My creative interests have withered all over the place. New Songs, photos, blog posts, movies (theatrical and DVD) all dropped by about half between 2005 and 2006. I’ve written far less in my personal paper journal. Miles traveled went down. I’ve had less interesting ideas to jot down.

I think I’ve gone up on the number of books read, especially if you count comics. Thank you Brian K. Vaughan (Ex Machina, Y: The Last Man, Pride of Baghdad), Garth Ennis (The Boys), Grant Morrison (Doom Patrol, 52), and Terry Moore (Strangers in Paradise). I’ve stayed about the same on my fiction and non-fiction reading.

Status Anxiety

Vast landscapes can have much the same anxiety-reducing effect on us as ruins, for they are the representatives of infinite space, as ruins are the representatives of infinite time. Against them, or within them, our weak, short-lived bodies must seem of no greater consequence than those of moths or spiders.Alain de Botton, Status Anxiety

A timely reminder that my present struggles would do well to be set aside, and that perhaps a trip to a vast landscape would do much to rejuvenate me.

Subscriptions for movie theaters

The NY Times has a good story about Netflix and their rental patterns.

Netflix sends and receives 700 million DVDs a year. Out of their 60,000 titles 35,000 to 40,000 are out every day. That number is surprisingly diverse. I would have expected Netflix’s 5 million subscribers to be more homogeneous. I guess the movie interests of Netflix subscribers are far more diverse than the mainstream movie theater crowd.

I wonder what the difference is between an average Netflix subscriber and an average theatergoer. My guess is that ticket costs make the theatergoer less likely to take risks. I’d love to see some of the art house theaters offer up a subscription program like Netflix that encourages people to take more chances.