As Far As I Can Tell

My email is piling up and my desktop is cluttered with links I’ve been meaning to check out when I get the time. Outlook is relentless with popping up tasks I assigned to be done days ago. Worse still, after another 10 hour work day my eyes aren’t able to focus as I’m typing this. Tomorrow there is an internal review of the project I’m working on. After that I hope to slow things down.

I’ve turned to movies in my down time for the last couple of days — Russian Ark at the Music Box yesterday and Sleepy Time Gal on DVD tonight. The former was beautiful for the first half hour. After that I realized that there would be no story — only the slow pan of the camera over artifacts from Russian history. Definitely the most bored I’ve been in a theater for a long time. The main reason I went was because it’s the first film to ever be shot in a single take in a single shot. That’s still an exciting accomplishment, but re-enforces the purpose of editing. To be fair, the theme of longing for a bygone area and the celebration of Russian history are valid, it just wasn’t done in an interesting manner.

Tonight’s film was a step up, a wandering trip through the life of a woman as she’s sick and nearing death. She’s lived a full life as an activist, helping out many though alienating her sons. She claims that giving up her daughter for adoption years ago is her only regret though. The side story is that of the daughter — her life and eventual search for her mother. The ending had potential for predictability but steered clear through thoughtful editing and tact. The story let you get to know the characters, know their personalities, predict their actions.

I have to go wake up my sleepy time gal up from the couch. Meredith usually watches about half of every movie we rent the next day.

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Addendum:

As I was retrieving links for this post I ran across ATMitations at russianark.com. They’re fake ATM receipts that you leave lying around, or write your number on at a bar. Note: After seeing your balance, you’ll make a DEPOSIT INTO HER ACCOUNT in NO TIME!