I started The Quiet American last night. I finished the first chapter, then fell asleep (no fault of the book, I was very tired). It looks as promising as Our Man in Havana. Hopefully it lives up to that. I don't know if I'll have time to read it before school starts, though. So much to do.
Speaking of school starting, it turns out that we won't have an annex for parties and other brouhahas. At least, not by homecoming, which was the original plan. It turns out that the administration blocked it. Fucking fascists.
On a brighter note, the sun was out all day today. Haha. Ok, I'm done.
Zwan is a really good band. I don't know what's going on with Billy Corgan, if he has the Smashing Pumpkins back together, or what, but as much as I like the Pumpkins, I honestly wouldn't mind him dropping them for good and concentrating on Zwan. I can see their sound going more places, mainly because the Pumpkins have an excellent body of work out there, and it will be hard to remain as awesome as they are without either re-hashing or changing their sound enough that they aren't really the Pumpkins anymore. As Barry from High Fidelity would ask: "Is it better to burn out or fade away?"
In some aspects, I liked Jackie Brown more than any of Tarantino's other movies. The part that really strikes me about it is the contrast of the relationship between Louis (Robert De Niro) and Melanie (Bridget Fonda) and the relationship between Jackie Brown (Pam Grier) and Max Cherry (Robert Forster). Louis and Melanie don't even consider that there are consequences of a relationship. They casually fuck, then as the movie wears on they grow more and more apart from each other, to the point where Louis (a bumbler anyway) shoots Melanie for making fun of him. It's an immature relationship between immature people. They have never entered the adult world. Jackie and Max, though. There's a truly adult relationship. They don't really flirt, they express interest. They actually care about each other. They don't just leap into it. And when the shit finally goes down, they both realize that it won't work, and leave with nothing more than a kiss. They part with dignity, knowing that in another life, it could have been nice, but it simply can't be. At least, that's how I remember the movie. I've only seen it once, and that was a few months ago. I'll have to watch it again sometime.
"Never make fun of people with disproportionate body parts in Wal-mart." my Dad confided with me under his breath as we walked into the store. It caught me a bit off guard. It also made me acutely aware that if he weren't bound by the fact that he's a pastor, and can't be cracking jokes like that too often, he would be really funny. Another example: When I was fairly young (maybe 10 or so) I asked, "Daddy, are there still hippies around?" He instantly replied, "Oh, they're still around, but we call them 'washouts' now." At the time I didn't really understand what he was saying, as I didn't know what "washout" meant. I thought that perhaps they all turned to surfing or something (don't ask me how my mind works, I don't even know now, and I sure as hell don't know what I was thinking back then). At some point later on, I learned what "washout" means, and even later I recalled that confusing remark my dad had made so many years ago. I started laughing out of the blue, and when I got really weird stares, I felt really embarassed, but didn't explain my laughter, because it would have been even more embarassing to tell them that I just got a joke I had heard 7 years ago.
Je suis fait.
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