WISDOM OF THE SAGES
EPISODE I
JANUARY – WINTER 2012
Hello People of the World;
By the time of this posting, looks like winter surprise attacked us, and, OH’s NO (!), snowed! Well, that is what happens, you know, during winter. I do not actively like or dislike snow. It’s all weather to me and you simply deal with it.
Here we are in Twenty-twelve! The New Year! With all of the same days of the week and months of the year as last year, the same rotation of the earth and orbits around the sun as last year as well. Hmm. Same weathers and daylight and night skies as last year too. Hey. What’s so new about this year other than getting a new kitten or ‘Twilight’ calendar?
Let’s get started, shall we?
1:[ First item of the month: Hey, I gots a new Man Purse for my laptop. I know, it doesn’t seem like that big a deal but I’ve been using my old bags that are falling apart for the better part of last year. So, it was nice to come into the office and find a brand new bag waiting at my desk. Thanks Jolene and T7!
2:[ I have decided that I need to get my movie making back on track. To this end I have decide that in addition to the long-in-the-works action, hit man movie and the full-text adaptation of “Hamlet” as well as the adaptation of “Three Kingdoms” that I want to shoot a 3D concert film. Maybe just a small show, you know, something local. So, it would be great if you have any ideas for whom I can film and how I can get my hands on a 3D camcorder.
Also, I am working up some breakdowns for two scenes from “Hamlet” that I want to shoot. The first is a part of Act One, Scene Two, where Horatio, Marcellus and Barnardo visit Hamlet at his apartment. I need an apartment to shoot in, a Horatio, a Marcellus and a Barnardo. The second scene is a part of Act Four, Scene Four, Fortinbas tells the Captain to convey his request. I will need a Fortinbras and a Captain. It would be great if I could get some Native actors to donate their time. I had always hoped to shoot this movie with as small a budget as possible.
Anyways, that’s what I have in mind right now….
3:[ More MOVIE TIME ADVENTURES:
+ Hugo or The Appeal to Filmistic Intellectual Ego and the Truth of the 3D Gimmick: People still have not explained to me how Scorsese used 3D as a storytelling device. I usually get, “It sets the place”, but any good director can do that without 3D. Others state it shows the depth and expanse of a scene, citing the crowds of the station within various shops at the station, but I have to say, that is what 3D is SUPPOSED to do. In the end, it was a well-crafted children’s movie. Once you had Borat fumbling around, you lost any claim of integrity to being a film for adults. The other thing I found rather manipulative was the appeal to the audience’s film intellect ego, that if you know who George Méliès is, then somehow it makes it a more powerful and artistic movie that it really was. Sorry. It wasn’t….
+ The Artist: this movie is always being hailed as a silent movie but it is not a silent film, so every one quit treating it like one. It has a soundtrack and while fun and whimsical to watch, it is a very manipulative piece of soundtrack.
+ Tintin: I really wished that this was the new Indiana Jones movie. Maybe, that’s how they revive Indy as a series of animated motion-capture movies. Yeah! Then, Andy Serkis will win the BEST ACTOR for playing INDIANA JONES!!! Still, even in 2D, it was fun story and adventure….
4:[ I was on the bus this morning on my way to work when this lady sits in the row in front of me and proceeds to yak away on her cell phone. First, she yells “Happy Birthday” to the fella she’s calling I know it was a guy because of the way she talked. She likes this guy, obviously. I have heard women not talk to me like that and talk to me in normal tones, so I would know the difference. What really set this conversation apart was, aside from her talking very loudly like she is in fact an exciting, going-going person was her hypocritical flip-flopping conversation throughout the conversation.
What was crappy was in the end it was all about her. She even calls the dude and first thing she says is HAPPY BIRTHDAY! And she goes on about the birthday for 7 seconds before “Now let’s talk about MY NEWS!” Sheesh. She didn’t even know when cellphones were invented. She mention the 1930’s “or whenever” in her excues to this dude why she’s calling about his birthday.
She was for a while critical of “stupid Facebook” but would immediate get mad at the dude and would tell him to “Read my Facebook Posts!” Sheesh. Have we- I mean, really? I was trying my best to ignore this but she was just speaking very loudly. If you talk louder than the actual bus noise, you want attention….
5:[ Ah yes, settle in Readers for more of:
Adventures at the Coffee Shop!
+ Ugh, sometimes I wonder if we are severely dumbing down our kids. My Bonnie and I were sitting there trying to enjoy our coffee when the stupid Frisbee Team Girl just began chittering away about how it was soooo awesome that she was the only girl on the Frisbee team and that they were all hot. She must have been twelve. Cripes. She wouldn’t even let her friend speak, she just kept going on on how cool it was that all the guys were paying attention to her…. Should that be the most important thing for a young lady to want in life?
Again, if you are talking louder than the din of a coffee shop, you want attention….
+ So, recently I was introduced to the new Starbucks BLONDE coffee at the office. It didn’t taste like their usual overcooked coffee. I rather enjoyed it. But I will not call it BLONDE coffee. Sorry. Look, I’m hypocrite enough to buy the coffee but my hypocrisy is limited to not being conditioned to use sh*tty coffee shop vernacular like “tall”, “blonde” or “vente”….
+ So, there I was in the B&N again when one of the booksellers walks up to me and says “Can I ask you a question?”
I’m thinking “Ohhhh-kay?” but instead say, “Sure.”
“Is the American Indian Education Program still at Audubon school?”
Which completely caught me off guard. We stand there and talk about the new location and what we are doing currently, focusing on education equity and literacy, to which he replies “Oh I see, getting beyond the beads and feathers.”
“Yes!” I say, “That’s is exactly what we are doing.”
It was a pretty cool exchange and it made me hopeful that such conversations like this will be par for the course for the future….
6:[ Most dudes do not spread the love with their “bros”. I try to look out for my buddies. I will try to get them presents or things they want without asking for payback. Not that I’m a nice guy or a great friend. I just think you should look out for your bros. I wish more men felt comfortable doing that. It’s not weakness to show compassion or caring for a fellow “guy”….
7:[ And now Wisdom of the Sages presents:
“An Ever-growing List of Things That MUST Stop!”
+ You Idiots jaywalking into the streets? Will you please just stop that? I mean, come on….
+ Heading north to Skokie I found myself with a bunch of mouthy kids on the #290 bus. I mean, I so my best to not treat kids like kids, but as people but it gets hard to do that when they are trying to act like silly adults. Writhing in each others laps, swearing worse than most adults I’ve heard and calling each other “n*gga”, like that is something cool and grown-up to do. Man, I was happy that all piled off at the mall. This stupefying of kids needs to stop….
+ Here’s a question: Since when has banning books ever worked?
+ I overheard this conversation on the bus the other day when this guy gets on and the driver tells him he’s short a quarter and he make a big noise about how a quarter is no big deal, he has lots of quarters. He then proceeds to tell the guy sitting next across from him that he’s just happy to be working and to be able to have quarters. The man was loud because I suspect he had been drinking as his voice had that drunk-sense about it. Too loud and non-stop, you know the kind.
He gets into this conversation about the economy with the other fellow. They mention this guy’s job, an overnight one at that and that he’s heading home. That, again, the quarter was no big deal (Another sign of intoxication: repeated points.) and that he gives quarters to every homeless guy who asks, because he was there once and now that he can afford to, he will. The other fellow warns against give out money and that giving handouts doesn’t really help.
It was a weird conversation to hear because then the guy said “We need to get into another war” and then it turned into a discussion on how economies were built by warfare. The guy believed the US economy failed due to our involvement in rebuilding Europe and the other fellow was adamant that we take other countries money where ever we go to war at. The guy that got on was a white guy and the other fellow was a black man and what has to stop is my own judgment of how their races play into their views….
Or maybe people need to stop talking so damn loud that I can hear their stupid voices... Or something like that....
8:[ Speaking of cars, remember when luxury cars where in? I miss seeing those big boxy “luxury” cars like Lincolns and Buicks on the road. I remember how people would take care of their cars to make them last. These days, it’s as if cars are disposable and if they aren’t like the cars in “Fast and Furious”, that somehow they aren’t worth a thing. I had this whole diatribe about car insurance being a new status symbol and how people seem to drive “like they’re insured” because cars are disposable, but those with cheap insurance without all the coverage have to actually drive CAREFULLY. But it seemed to not fit. Anyways, I miss seeing luxury cars on the road….
9:[ From the “This Just In” Department: Maybe I am wrong. Maybe the world ends this year: SAY IT AIN’T SO!!
10:[ Last Item of the Month: I guess the billionaire space tourist made the first every sci-fi movie to be shot in space by shooting a short film, “Apogee of Fear” while he visited the ISS. Cool, huh? The Smithsonian wants it already because of its historical significance, but NASA will not allow any kind of distribution. I’d like to see it, but Yahoo News gives a synopsis of the movie.
That will do it for this month. First month of the new year. I hope this snow didn’t catch you off guard. You know how fast, stealthy and sneaky the turning of the earth is. Bundle up until the time comes when we can complain about how the heat snuck up on us DURING THE SUMMER! GASP!
Again, feel free to comment, critique, contradict or correct anything on this ‘blog. Also, apologies for the lightness of this month’s edition. I have been very busy with other things and have not been paying too much attention to the news and to politics and to the media and such, and, man, I gotta tell you, it feels great….
Until Next Time, “I try to show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control everything really are.”
© 2012 Ernest M. Whiteman III
