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I just started re-reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. I just realized that I picked it up on Houdini's birthday. Harry plays an important role in the book, though he has been dead for 10+ years at the outset of the novel. The book centers on the art of escape, so Houdini is an abvious reference. If you haven't read it, then I recommend you do so.
I remember the Tony Curtis flick having a big effect on me when I was just a pup, growing in the middle of nowhere, Indiana, and reading adventure stories of all stripes. The scene where Houdini is trapped under the ice plagued my dreams for years. I haven't seen the movie since I was about ten, but I remember that claustrophobic panting and Damoclean sense of doom like it's candy in my mouth. I wouldn't be surprised if it returned to haunt me again tonight.
I forgot Janet Liegh was in that! God! I remember having a poster for The Manchurian Candidate on my bedroom wall when I was 15. The exchange between her and Sinatra in the back of a train car while Frank is having a breakdown caused by an inability to light a cigarette is jaw-droppingly good. I even made audio tapes of that scene so I could listen to it.
Eugenie Rose Chaney: Maryland is a beautiful state.
Bennett Marco: This is Delaware.
Eugenie Rose Chaney: I know, I was one of the orginal Chinese workmen who laid the track on this straight.
Eugenie Rose Chaney: But, em... nonetheless, Maryland is a beautiful state.
Eugenie Rose Chaney: So is Ohio for that matter.
Bennett Marco: I guess so, Columbus is a tremendous football town.
I used to make lots of audio tapes of movies with which I was familiar. Sometimes, I feel compelled to meditate through repitition on certain pieces. I remember watching Psycho something like 20 times in a week. People will think that's ridiculous, but I didn't even notice half of the reflections until the 12th time, much less toilets until well after that. Every person in the whole flick is 2 people, excepting the cop, but he doesn't have eyes. I wish I had an audio recording of the scene in Norman's study where he talks about how he "could just... curse her." All the time, he is surrounded by those birds.
Norman Bates: You know what I think? I think that we're all in our private traps, clamped in them, and none of us can ever get out. We scratch and we claw, but only at the air, only at each other, and for all of it, we never budge an inch.
Marion Crane: Sometimes, we deliberately step into those traps.
Norman Bates: I was born into mine. I don't mind it anymore.
Marion Crane: Oh, but you should. You should mind it.
Norman Bates: Oh, I do
[laughs]
Norman Bates: but I say I don't.
Marion Crane: You know - if anyone ever talked to me the way I heard - the way she spoke to you...
Norman Bates: Sometimes - when she talks to me like that - I feel I'd like to go up there - and curse her - and-and-and leave her forever! Or at least defy her! But I know I can't. She's ill.
They're playing Nina Simone. It's a greatest hits album that I used to rock, back in the states. It made me feel really good to hear Mississippi Goddamn. It reminded me so much of the people I know with whom I share an admiration for those great old tunes. I wish I had a copy of Plain Gold Ring by Nick Cave right now.
I'm going by the ART supply store after I finish my load of Monday classes. I've been out at the pesticide company all morning, and I'm going back this afternoon. I got frustrated because everyone was sleepy. I react one of two ways when I have a class full of students, determined to remain bored: I do fun stuff, or I show them boring. Today, we practiced writing emails, formal letters, and various modes of transportation. If they would have been a little more helpful, then we could have done MadLibs.God! Time just flew by, and I'm due back at Ecochem on the North side. More later.
My lady has split town.... It's killing me.
I don't know what elese to say about that. The visit was great, and I hope for nothing more than her return. I need to take my mind off of it while I sit in my favorite coffeeshop and house espressoes. I've been eating books. This week alone, it has been Alice in Wonderland, Tales of Unease by Arthur Conan Doyle, Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, Waiting for Godot, and the Oedipus trilogy... I think they call it the Orestiae.
Let's cover Alice for awhile. How can something so heartfelt and whimsical be so deeply rooted in the agony of the Muse? Check this shit out.
Edward Mordrake: “An even more grotesque and tragic case was Edward Mordake, a remarkably handsome young man who was gifted as a musician and a scholar. In addition, he was heir to a peerage. One would think that Edward have everything going for him and so he did--with one exception. On the back of his head he had the head of another face. It was said to be that of a girl. The head was functional, though it could not eat or speak. The eyes moved and followed the motions of anyone in the room. The head could also laugh and cry. Edward became obsessed with his "devil twin," as he called it. He demanded that it be removed even if the operation killed him, but no doctor would undertake the delicate surgery involved. At last, Edward shut himself up in a suite of rooms, refusing to see anyone. He claimed that at night the face would whisper awful things to him in his sleep, "such things as they only speak of in hell." Unable to stand the strain, he killed himself at age twenty-three.”
This outside of the fact that Edward is the first name of one Mr. Hyde. I'm torn about seeing the love that Charles Dodgson had for Alice Liddell as being pure, for lack of a better word. How many pictures of topless underage girls do you have to see before you suspect the photographer? I don't care if he's victorian and a Maths genius. Part of me wants to believe in that thirst for a muse and the relief of the agonizing burden of seperateness required by genius. Part of me worries that I am deifing a pervert, or, at least, feeling sympathetic, or, gross, empathetic. It's a good musical piece, regardless...
What else has been afloat in my brainpan? Not Fucking Much... Let's see what I can dig up for my kiddies... KJP and I went to see a Jan Saudek exhibit in the square. It was alright. His images didn't thrill me, but technically I was blown away. That guy could absolutely rock a gum print, but I still like Tieri's stuff more. SHe's a Photo Buddy from way back.
I don't know... I just can't get it together since KJP left. I hit my head and fall down. I drink too much coffee and smoke too many cigarettes. I eat Hershey's kisses in bed when it's dark. It's a drag. More tomorrow.
