Stuff. The tangible kind and others.
1) I've been thinking about picking up some prints from the Cordair Gallery. I stumbled across this establishment late last year; it is the only gallery that features work from artists whose paintings and sculptures I would actually love to look at. As it is, I spend ten minutes at a time just looking at Damon Denys' October Eve. And Bryan Larsen's Heroes inspires a feeling in me that I can't quite describe -- probably because I'm not used to feeling happy and hopeful when I look at art.
That's the problem with most art that has come out of this past century: it's all designed to bring you more in line with the artist's point-of-view: that the world is either worthless or meaningless. And I've always begged to differ. More on these artists/these paintings/art in general some other time.
2) I've been meaning to get a new digital camera. I've been thinking somewhere on the "prosumer" (I hate that marketing term) end of things. However, Best Buy, Circuit City and Fry's only have, at most, two models each on display at their local stores here. I need to pick up a camera, hold it in my hand and play with it if I'm going to lay down over $500 on one. I can read all kinds of reviews online, but nothing sells me a camera like tactility. Perhaps I'll sidle into a local (read: more expensive) camera joint and see if I can handle the merchandise.
3) Possibly one of those cool Sharper Image air filters you see the infomercials for on the TEE-vee. About a month ago, I discovered that Sharper Image has an outlet on eBay -- their air filters are available at quite a discount. Why am I not a 78-year-old man for wanting an air filter? Because I have two cats and their hair is everywhere, I tells ya: everywhere.
I also picked up Rudy real cheap at the Best Buy today. It's a very fine film, I must say. And it's personal to me on a different level, too: it was Vince Vaughn's first movie -- and for those of you who don't know, I was his stand-in for a movie he shot in Houston before he hit the big-time. Seeing him in his first film reminds me that everyone does start somewhere, and that I could start somewhere too.
The moment that gets me most in Rudy is when he comes home for Christmas after being away for a semester in South Bend. He sees his father and brother -- and listens to their unsupportive grumblings about him -- and then he finds that his longtime girlfriend has now hooked up with his other older brother. It's the moment he realizes that he has nothing left at home for him. And facing that fact, the first thing that he says is: I've got to go to work. Next scene: Rudy alone on the football field, busting his ass even harder, wrestling tackling dummies and high-stepping through the ropes to get himself in better shape.
I just want to know: when the hell did I stop having that be the first thing that I thought? And how quickly can I make it a habit again?
Posted by Matt at June 9, 2003 12:15 AM
