Capitulation

DECEMBER 25, 2006

DEAR LEAH,

HO HO HO! I hope you enjoy what I’ve brought you! I think you will. After you’ve read this letter, go downstairs and see what’s waiting for you.

You have to give him a name, OK?

I know that you will take good care of what I have left. You will be responsible for taking care of him, but you should let other people play with him and love him, too. He has enough love for everybody!

I know that when you sat on my lap we talked about how you would need to do a lot of work to keep him. I know you will do well. There are some things that you need to do in particular.

First, read the book that I’ve left for you, starting with the chapter on housetraining. Second, take him for walks on his leash at least twice a day, even when it is cold. Third, clean up after any messes he makes inside or outside. Fourth, he should sleep in his crate until he has been fully trained. Fifth, give him a hundred hugs and kisses a day!

Merry Christmas, Leah!

SANTA

P.S. He’s about ten weeks old. He’s a mix of Cairn Terrier and Shih Tzu.

The telephone conversation I just had with my dad:

He: What time do the Steelers play tomorrow?
I: 1:00, I think.
He: Are they at home?
I: No, it's in Carolina. Well, I guess that means it's a home game for Cowher, but it's an away game for the team.

There have been a lot of complaints about the NHL's unbalanced schedule.

And, to a large degree, I agree with them. While the increased number of intradivisional games have helped to try to recreate some of the longstanding and rancorous divisional feuds, it's also taken away one of the draws of seeing hockey in person. Under the old schedule, I always thought that one great argument for buying season tickets was that even with the sport essentially untelevised on any sort of wide, national level, you'd have the chance to see every great player in person at least once a year. That's not the case any more, and one of the public relations downsides for the sport that I've seen cited a few places is that with the unbalanced schedule there are certain Western Conference markets that won't have an opportunity to see the Penguins' young talent-- Crosby, Malkin, Fleury and Staal-- in person any more often than once every three years.

For his part, Crosby also agrees that the schedule needs to be changed. He'd like to see a setup where the Penguins play the Flyers 82 times a year. In the 5 wins this season, Sid's piled up 15 points (7 goals, 8 assists), or 7.5 points for every tooth of his Derian Hatcher chipped last year. Over a full season, that translates to a SEGA NHL '95esque 246 points (115 goals, 131 assists).

DISCUSS:

(Do not care if this is old webjunk)

OLD JOY

I saw OLD JOY through the Three Rivers Film Festival as the front-end of a double feature with CLIMATES. I think it's an impressive film, and I'd like to see the rest of Kelly Reichardt's work.

To its credit, OLD JOY is not terribly preoccupied with plot. It follows two men-- Mark (Daniel London) and Kurt (Will Oldham)-- who take a weekend camping trip to some remote hot springs. Both men are wrestling with adulthood, albeit in different forms, and their friendship (which seems to have originated in college or thereabouts) has faded over time and as a result of their varying stations. Kurt is an unreconstructed hippie; he talks a little about some ongoing schooling and mentions that he doesn't expect to be allowed to live in his house for much longer. When he calls Mark to ask him to go on the trip, Mark seems ambivalent. He'd like to have a weekend away from his pregnant wife, but solicits her permission so as not to appear too eager. The men intended to drive Kurt's shag-carpeted van to the mountains, but settle instead on Mark's more reliable Volvo wagon. Mark's dog comes along on the trip.

The two men start out on their journey, get lost along the way, ask for directions and finally find the place they're looking for-- hot springs reachable after a lengthy hike through the forest. But the act of reaching the hot springs, and the physical sensation of being in the springs, is of lesser significance than the insights into each of the characters picked up along the way.

The trappings of Mark's comparative stability-- the wife with child, the newish car, the talk of a community program he has started-- are the outwards symbols of the divergent ends the friends have chosen, but they're ultimately unnecessary in telling us that these two have less in common than they once did. When Mark and Kurt talk about things, past or present, there's an undercurrent of inequality, as if what Mark regards with a fond but faraway remembrance is still present-tense for Kurt. As Mark and Kurt walk though the backdrop of lush forests that remain unchanged by time, their routine and destination is the same as it presumably was a decade ago, but they're not. There's still the common interest of the springs and the hike, but not much else. The divide is generally played out quietly, with jokes or remarks that seem to be offered plaintively and responded to politely. In keeping with the film's understatement, no attempt is made to plumb the depths of their difference, or to talk things out and relentlessly hammer home the obvious. They've just changed. At one point things do bubble up suddenly, as Kurt tries to rub Mark's bare shoulder while Mark lies in a spring. It's a friendly gesture, meant to show how much Kurt wants Mark to be relaxed, but the intimacy necessary to pull off something like that is long since gone, and it comes off as creepy, with Mark responding angrily.

The title comes from a line in the film which defines sorrow as used-up joy. When the men get back to town, they return to the lives that divide them. Reichardt's subtlety holds at this important moment, and she resists giving us the scene where Mark settles into bed with his wife, hand resting on her pregnant belly and faithful dog at the foot of the bed. It is enough, way enough, to see Kurt not long after he is dropped off meandering around outside a store, fumbling into one ambiguous social encounter or another, searching for the sort of fellowship that can't be revived even by walking together through the world's beauty.

November, 2006 film viewings

11.1 DEKALOG 7
11.2 35 UP
11.3 OLD JOY
CLIMATES
11.4 FRANKENSTEIN (1931)
BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN
42 UP
11.5 49 UP
11.8 TONY TAKITANI
11.11 STAR WARS
BAND OF BROTHERS, EPISODES 1 & 2
11.13 OFF THE BLACK
11.14 DESISTFILM
11.16 UNFAITHFULLY YOURS
11.18 THE ADVENTURES OF SHARK BOY AND LAVA GIRL
11.21 A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE
11.23 CASINO ROYALE
11.25 KASABA

Happy Birthday, Ali

The look on your face
Yanks my neck on the chain.
And I would do anything
(I would do anything)
To see you again.