Sometimes, Melissa runs her legs. Sometimes, she runs her mouth.
Who is excited? Just me? okay. I don’t care. I’ll do a happy dance by myself.
Okay that’s not true.
This is a fundraiser for the Arkansas Shakespeare Theater and as such I must ask everybody and their Mama to come to help raise money for a good cause. Did I mention the Arkansas Literary Festival is in town as well?
If you waited until the last minute to do your taxes, don’t claw your eyes out. Read some these news links and then get back to work!
Well around the time right after watching Joseph Campbell, I came down with something. I was sleeping and sleeping and MORE SLEEPING! Then when I was awake I was exhausted. I was wondering what the hell is wrong with me? I had visions of thyroid conditions, diabetes, cancer . . . I was starting to get concerned. Then I found out that the flu has been going around. I had a flu shot and so I thought that maybe I just got half of it. Or that my immune system is going to pot.
By the time I thought “oh shit I have to go to the doctor now” I started to get better. WHEW
Work is work. Sometimes it’s good. Sometimes it’s bang my head against a brick wall bad. With that, I can’t complain.
The Little Rock Marathon is in a little over two weeks. I am more than a little nervous about the thing, especially since I haven’t been running lately since I was so freaking tired. So now I’m hoping I haven’t lost enough fitness level to not finish. My only goal is to finish and I am getting kinds of nervous that I won’t do it.
I also realized I haven’t made hotel reservations for this thing.
OOPS!
I’ve been reading Dreams of My Father by Barack Obama.
I also made french toast one day.
Overall, it’s good.
For the past two days, I have been watching Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth
Campbell manages to know all the myths that surround the world we live in and their explanation of why we are here. He manages to get to the basic core of them and find the similarities.
He also has developed a life philosophy: Follow your bliss. I have to admit I have heard the “follow your bliss” mantra for quite a while but never knew anything of the man who coined the term and the original meaning of it.
The philosophy is very similar to Shakespeare’s quote of “to thine own’s self be true” It’s simply find the one thing that makes you truly happy and do it, no matter what everybody says about it. It sounds very simple but I have learned since moving back to the hometown of my youth that sometimes it’s easier said than done. I find myself doing things solely for the parental approval or more specifically for the lack of parental nagging. Something about the parental nagging sends me into a tizzy and I find myself doing anything to avoid it even if it makes me completely miserable. Part of it is that my father is quite stubborn and sometimes it’s just less time consuming to suck it up than to listen to his bitching and moaning.
I guess in some ways I’m still trying to find my bliss. I know I liked investigating in a larger city more than lawyering in a small town. I’m not sure if the larger city was due to the fact that no one knew me initially and I could be anyone I wanted. I managed to be me and found compadres. Here there’s expectations and my youthful drama queen self being imposed on me even though I’m not sure how much of that is still here. Oh who am I kidding, more of that is here than I want to admit. But sometimes the people who know you through trying times or see you going through trying times who don’t know all the details see you as someone you are not. I was very private about certain incidents and as a result, seem more of a spazz than I was or am. It’s a “you would cry too if it happened to you” sort of instance.
So yeah. I am in the process of figuring out what I want to do and going for it. What makes me happy and why? For some reason, this question seemed simpler when I was a kid. Maybe I don’t need to know the answer of “why?” Maybe I just need to do something.
For whatever reason my biggest skills seems to be finding people and keeping up with their business. People are always asking “whatever happened to so and so?” and for whatever reason, I know where so and so is and what so and so is doing. I’m not sure what jobs are out there that utilize that skill but whatever it is, I would be brilliant at it.
I do feel better. IT’s amazing what a lot of sleep will do for you. Apparently, I was sleep deprived or something.
oh but now my sleep schedule is still messed up because it’s 2:37.
Love is not a victory march. —- Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen
It’s Valentine’s Day. I’m single. I should be bitter or have some great negative screed about today but I don’t.
It’s not that I don’t believe in love. I think love is great. I just don’t manage to get any of it.
TOWNCRAFT
I vividly remember the first time I saw Slingblade. It was a matinee showing in a five screen movie theater in Dupont Circle (Washington DC). I remember scaring the other viewers because of my giggling. The movie itself wasn’t necessarily humorous but there were moments in that movie that were so quintessentially Arkansan and so represented Arkansans and people I knew that I couldn’t help but laugh in recognition.
This feeling of recognition was one I also felt while watching Towncraft.
Towncraft is about the punk scene in the late 80s/early 90s in Little Rock Arkansas. Apparently, one of the cool things to do during that time was start your own punk band or make a zine about the punk bands. Many fourteen and fifteen year old boys and girls began playing in bands. Eventually, venues began to open up for them to play. One guy opened up his own record store. They began making their own records and going on tour —All before they finished high school.
Of course, like all things involving high school kids, the bands break up and the musicians make new bands. This means that each time you see a person talking, s/he has a different band name under his or her face. That was amusing to me.
Several of the bands went to larger cities to try and make it. Some made albums. One guy, Jason White, is now a guitarist for Green Day. This movie is more about people being true to art than actually making. It’s also a nostalgic trip down memory lane for anyone who’s around Arkansas.
Amazingly enough these were my peers. Some of them I have met. Some of the people on the edges on this scene were friends of mine. I’ve seen some of these bands live.
The movie also has a companion website that has all sorts of goodies.
Supersize Me
Holy Shit! This movie scared me. It’s a simple premise. Morgan Spurlock decides that he’s going to eat nothing but McDonald’s food for 30 days. He’s also going to only walk the average number of steps as an “average American.” He manages to gain a truckload of weight. He gets liver damage. He develops heart palpitations and one doctor even demands around day 20 that he stop this diet.
All on McDonald’s burgers, fries, chicken nuggets, and shakes.
Hubert Selby Jr.: It’ll Be Better Tomorrow
Hubert Selby Jr. is known as the author of Requiem for a Dream and Last Exit to Brooklyn. This documentary includes interviews with Selby, his friends, the makers of Requiem for a Dream and Last Exit to Brooklyn, Henry Rollins, and a whole host of other people who have been influenced by the author. Selby, like his characters, endured a life of illness and heroin addiction.
I should be asleep.
I ran 8.6 miles on Sunday. It was supposed to be ten. I, however, got ridiculously tired and bored and just stopped. Yeah I’m naughty like that. I did meet another runner stretching as I was beginning. It turned out that she lost bout 60 pounds running. Well over 90 total but she’s gained some back. I see her running a bit. She gave me breathing advice once.
When I was running at the local track, there would be walkers who would wave to me and say “good to see you here.” There was this hardcore running guy who told me “good job” I guess I fake the athelete thing a little bit too well sometimes.
This week, I didn’t run at all except for the 8.6 miles. Oh that was bad. the whole weekend in Northwest Arkansas messed up my stride and my routine.
I spent last weekend in the northern part of the state due to business. More succinctly, I had business in the area on Friday and hung around for the weekend because I had never been in the area before. I will get into more detail about all of this later but here is a picture of my dinner from Saturday night at Doe’s Eat Place in Fayetteville.
I forgot how expensive this place was with a steak dinner costing 30 dollars. Now the steak itself was pounds! (seriously a serving of meat is supposed to be only 5 ounces but steak houses serve 11 and 16 and 24 ounce steaks. SERIOUSLY!) So i ordered the tamales and left it at that.
The tamales themselves were tasty and nicely spiced. The cornmeal was tightly packed. The chili was spicy without being hot. The bread in the basket tasted like less sweet beignets without the powdered sugar. They were good. No
I remember the meal being pleasant but I felt nauseous for the rest of the evening and part of the next day after eating this meal.
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