Tuesday 8/17/21
Ran 7000 stairs today. 29,000 since Saturday. A lot.
Today on the stairs a charming gentleman screamed at several women that they were sluts and whores, that he would kill them, shoot them, stab them, and then he attempted to get in my face as I was running and called me the n-word. I have noticed that my heart rate does not go up at all when I have confrontations out on the street, whether it's this kind, or with an insane, Brookline trust-funder/lonely, rage-filled cat woman screaming at me about not wearing a mask, back when you had to, and I never did, given my beliefs in mental health, physical fitness, and fresh air. This guy I just shoved out of the way when he tried to bump me. Didn't break stride.
I worked more on the Meatheads sequel in my head.
Op-ed pitch:
Halloween idea. I know it's kind of a ways off. It's the 90th anniversary of what I regard as the definitive Halloween film, the all-timer, and for a very specific reason. That film is 1931's Dracula, which featured Bela Lugosi as the count, his visage going on to serve as the basis for just about every visual representation of the undead bloodsucker since. But the reason the film works as well as it does, and why it conjures the essence of Halloween, is because it compels the viewer to use their imagination in a highly participatory way, something more films could benefit from in this age.
The film was made during a period when Hollywood wasn't sure how to approach sound. The era of the era of the talkies had just begun, but the silent era still cast a long shadow. Dracula had a minimal soundtrack--there are only two snatches of music. There's a lot of what we can think of as "dead air," when silences hang between the characters, the same as silences do in real life. Music doesn't intrude to tell us how to think, how to feel. It doesn't barge in, it doesn't hector. We're part of a macabre, spooky compact, in which imagination can run free. A viewer can't watch Dracula passively, which is what makes it so great, and actively bewitching, so downright haunting.
I don't know of any film like this one. No horror film, no other film from that time period. And yet, it doesn't function as some relic. It's fresh--in the way of recently turned-over-earth, a sublime maker of nightmares--the good kind--and the ultimate representation of the cinematic spirit of Halloween.
Even more than Stoker's novel, even more than all of the vampire folderol that has come down the pike since and especially in recent years, it's this film that is the reason why Dracula is the quintessential Halloween figure, image, spirit.
Criterion made their announcement about Citizen Kane coming out in November. The editor of Criterion's site that features critical pieces ignores every single thing I send him. Imagine that? Every great idea. People bitched on Twitter about the cover of the upcoming Kane release. Who gives a fuck? It's the fucking cover. It's not a book cover. Films don't have covers. Watch the fucking film. Fucking losers carping about shit that they don't even care about at all, because that's their whole life. Then people being obnoxious about how Kane is boring, etc. I posted this on Twitter, which is true: "People are terrified of intelligence, which is why so many default to sardonic cracks—“snark”—when discussing Citizen Kane. But it’s also an intensely emotional—and emotionally visceral—film. Consider Welles trashing the bedroom, ripping his hand open, blood flung at the camera."
My Twitter will change your fucking life. Change how you look at the world. Make you smarter. Make you think, feel, grow. Inspire you. But because it can do these things, and it's not fucking moronic, it's scary and ignored.
You cannot overestimate how comforted a moron is by seeing another moron. It's everything to them. It's the entire basis of their existence.
Tim Tebow was cut. I don't know why people care about Tim Tebow. Actually, I do. He's simple. A big, dumb lug who is white, mindless, prays and does "Yea God, yea God." It's the same reason people like super hero movies. They're vapid, they're all the same, they're not even two-dimensional. What is more basic, what is more insulting to a human's ability to think, than a super hero movie? That's Tim Tebow. I give him credit for this--he's willing to fail. That's the best lesson you can take from him. He's willing to try. Most people aren't that way. Then again, why does he try? I don't know, but I can question the purity of the try. Sometimes, people just can't let go and move forward. Could be that. He strikes me as someone who will forever wish to return to college. That seems pretty unhealthy to me. But who knows. That's just my impression. He wanted to play in the league and he tried everything he could to make that happen. Kaepernick--who is inevitably brought up in these discussions--had no interest in that. He's a schemer, a fraud, a racist, a race hustler without a brain or any integrity, who worked the sick system now in place, who never wanted to play in that league again. Who knew he wasn't good enough. And he didn't give a fuck that he wasn't good enough. He wanted attention, he wanted millions of dollars for no work, he want to scam his way to pay dirt and glory that isn't real glory, but was all he could ever get. Fucking blackballed. Dude, you have no fucking clue what it means to be blackballed. I live that life. And you have no fucking idea. But you don't see me becoming a fucking racist, you don't see me do anything but try, against all odds, against real discrimination, against thousands of people, and I'm going to fucking win. Eventually, I'm going to win. And I would never give up, no matter what is actually being done to me, and I will always work hard until my day comes, and their day of reckoning comes. If that dude wanted to be a back-up, or play for less money, he could have done that years ago. But he didn't want that. The kneeling thing? As with the cover of the Kane box, who gives a fuck? Weird, obsessed, xenophobia people who treat the flag like others treat their eighteen cats? Fuck 'em. Stand, kneel, levitate in the motherfucking air. That's your right. Was never about that. Not for a second. If people actually care about the flag, then they support this. Because that's what that flag represents: freedom and freedom of expression. Standing is no more a statement of allegiance to that flag than kneeling is. Not really. Not in the ideological sense. Be about more than fucking flags anyway. Be about decency and truth.
But that's just me. I don't do no fucking "yee haw!" one way or the other. Grow the self, understand the self, facilitate the journey of others, move the fuck forward.
I was watching a Christmas episode of The Golden Girls last night. Blanche gives everyone a copy of her "Men of Blanche's Boudoir" calendar. Always makes me laugh. That's as Blanche as you get. I saw the other day that episodes of The Golden Girls will be playing in select theaters in next month. The girls on the big screen. I'd be up for that.
