Favorite Pictures

In Search of a Midnight Kiss

I saw this great IFC film last night, "In Search of Midnight Kiss." It is a about a young man, recently split from a longtime girlfriend and lonely in L.A. He is rooming with a buddy and the buddy's girlfriend (uncomfortable even in the best of circumstances). This guy, Wilson, is all caught up in trying to find a date for New Year's Eve. Dateless and destitute (he lost most of his belongings and a script that he had completed while moving to L.A.), he goes on Craig's List as a misanthrope who needs a date.

He finds a very unique gal on his first try. When he goes to meet her, she announces that she has several "meet and greets" set up and that she should know whether she wants to spend more time with him or not in the first five minutes (a great strategy that I would have used had on-line dating not been in it's early infancy stages when I was last single). There is only one guy after him. She ushers him off to another seat and has like a two minute introduction with this new old, divorced dude and decides he's no good. She dismisses old dude and calls Wilson back.

They proceed to have an adventure filled evening. Full of surprise and unexpected behavior. What I loved most about this movie is that so much of it was dialogue with only two people and it kept my interest for the whole 97 minutes. That's it, dialogue, two people, wandering L.A. on New Year's eve. The young woman, although jaded at first, does warm up and show a life that is heartbreaking and intricate. The young man ends in longing for what he will probably not have and life goes on. If I have the time, I will see this one again.

Glamour Don'ts or "Don't these people own mirrors??"

Favorite Season

It is October, my favorite month. It is Fall, my favorite season. I love it when the air changes and the leaves change. Everything starts again, though we are half-way or more through the year, things still seem "new" during this season. I looked on-line for quotes and poetry to depict my feelings about this month, but came up empty handed. For the most part quotes and poems seem to be limited to the century before last and quite sappy at that. So I have decided to make a list of what I like best about this season:

1) Brightly colored leaves in different hues of the same color pattern
2) Orange pumpkins, collected early and later carved into jack-o-lanterns
3) Witches, ghosts, black cats, haunted houses, and everything Halloween
4) Trying to cook using fresh pumpkin (some things are actually quite good)
5) Darkness gathering early
6) Mist on the spider webs in the morning
7) Fog and dew and dew and fog
8) Making soup
9) Watching movies (the Fall releases are superior to summer)
10) Re-discovering how to wear warm clothes

So maybe this list makes me sound sappy like 19th century poetry. What isn't on the list and can't really be captured in words, at least not for me this early in the morning, it the Fall "feeling." It's change. I used to think that I wouldn't embrace change, now I expect it. Fall gets me used to expecting more of it each year.

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

I died for beauty, but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb,
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.
He questioned softly why I failed?
"For beauty," I replied.

"And I for truth, -the two are one;
We brethren are," he said.
And so, as kinsmen met a night,
We talked between the rooms,
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names.

Favorite Pictures

WalMart and AC/DC

There are many reasons not to like WalMart, they take over small towns, they force suppliers to slash prices to a level lower than the cost of production, they help to fill the world's landfills with more junk...and so on and so forth.

The main reason I won't shop at WalMart is due to unfair labor practices. A large percentage of WalMart employees are given less than 30 hours a week of work. Typically an employee needs to work 32 hours a week or more to qualify for health insurance. This means that WalMart doesn't need to provide insurance to a fair number of employees. It means that employees are then insured by the state, so the taxpayers get to subsidize health insurance for the world's largest retailer. The other unfair practice is keeping employees working near 30 hours a week, making it more difficult to secure a second job to close the gap in hours.

People can tell me that WalMart is now doing all of these environmentally helpful things. This is, in my opinion, a last ditch effort in their losing efforts to compete with Target and is too little, too late.


Now what does this have to do with AC/DC? This is a band that is too "principled" to put their music on iTunes, yet they partner with WalMart making them the only retailer to sell their new album. I have tickets to an upcoming AC/DC concert in my area. I would love to hear the new album, I won't go to WalMart to get it. In fact, until I see some leading changes in the areas of environmental, social, and economic concern, I won't go to WalMart to get anything.