Merry Christmas...

Celebrating during the holiday season.

A beautiful story...

The country can be a peaceful place to visit...but the urban offers great excitement.

A DAY OF THANKS...
Thanksgiving is such a busy time but apparently, a stressful time for people who have difficulties with family or those who find themselves lonely.

As one eats with one's loved ones, my hope is that people can accept in a spirit of gratitude. But there are times when people carry things that are difficult to face, when people suffer and struggle and the burden is made acute by the holidays. Does one pray for them or ignore them?

Happy Thanksgiving. So much for which to be grateful...

The glories of the fall are the flowers one can find available. These bright orange marigolds have offered comfort.

The weekend can be a quiet time of rest and relaxation. It can also be a time to take walks...

Travelled to Pigeon Point Lighthouse, Pescadero.

Corbin's biopic, Control, based on the life of Ian Curtis, lead singer for Joy Division, is a difficult film but a powerful one for people who enjoyed the music of a band that would eventually become New Order. Riley who plays Curtis offers a fine performance. When in concernt, his pinwheel-marching gestures, flinging about to a pulsating beat, draws a viewer's attention. He is not boring to watch in the least but painful in his desire to maintain a struggling family life while simultaneously pursuing a pretty Belgian woman, Annik, who waits for him patiently. Fans already know the ending and the road there is a tough one.

"Please God I need this job..."

from A Chorus Line

Sometimes, our relationships can crowd us. Other times, we find ourselves in good company. How does one strike a balance? Is solitude important? If so, how?

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

"Quoth the raven, nevermore..." Edgar Allen Poe

The day after Halloween one feels a bit hung over even though it has been a quiet evening of sitting with friends, eating pizza, and watching thrillers. I viewed Shyamalan's The Village, once again, which remains for me, a film of certain evocative power. At one level, it is a novel story about a small community, at another level, it is a love story. The pizza was acceptable but the company was even better.

A provocative film. But also worthy of viewing.

Henry Fuseli, The Nightmare (1782)

Trick or treat! This little sensationalist gem often finds itself used for various editions of Gothic anthologies. Students are quick to point out that it would be better if the objects of horror might be suggested instead of made explicit.

Justin Lin's new film, Finishing the Game, is a fine documentary-comedy, about the perils of being Asian/Asian-American in racist Hollywood. The ending provided was effective. Worth seeing if just for the laughs.

A dear friend came to visit for awhile. We laughed, talked till the wee hours amidst lit candles, and ate heartily. We told each other stories about our personal lives and found out new things about one another. The difficulty of friendship today is that too often, people rush intimacies and wonder why their friendships do not last. But I was intrigued when my visitor acknowledged a detail and said: "That's something I didn't know," even though we have been acquainted for a few years. But his knowing now adds dimention to our friendship and it is a detail that will remain in his memory just as I will recall his own stories of his childhood, things that I had not heard before nor would have wanted to know until he was ready to share them. I would not have prompted them not because of a lack of curiosity but because the art of friendship means knowing what to ask and what not to ask. I am not able to do so flawlessly but art is in the attempt.

Happy Halloween

Flowers continue to make things manageable.

The end of summer boasts a nice harvest.

Still one of my favorite novels. A chiller.

A film worth seeing...

Down a dark hall...

Silence.

Sometimes eating outside can be a nice change.

The holy can still inspire.

What is the purpose of cultivating diversity?

A return to summer fruits once more.

What does it mean when people choose us in friendship and we do not choose them in return? Knowing the feeling of rejection, one might feel a bit uncomfortable to deny someone who makes overtures towards one. But I am not certain that rejection is as unavoidable or as irreparable as people imagine. Early in life, there are those experiences of being treated poorly. We learn on the playground how saying and doing the wrong thing leads to social exclusion. Conversely, saying and doing the "right" thing can lead to social acceptance, friendship, and perhaps popularity. As one matures, one makes different choices and refines accordingly. But what if one does not refine one's behavior? Is one necessarily left to be rejected? As young people, there are rules and we learn them. But what if one refuses to learn them because one believes that one's behavior is entirely acceptable (even though it really isn't)? Unfortunately, these same people are the ones who devolve down into friendlessness. Loneliness visits them more frequently than others because there is no one with whom to play games with to keep the dark away. They are the ones at cocktail parties who talk too much, drink too much, and say very little. They grab at conversations because their needs are too great. Do people have to change? They do if they desire human connection. As adults, it is not about popularity anymore. It is about being connected, feeling alive, and perhaps even seeking a connection to the transcendent. But at what cost must the friend-less change? Their desire for human connection must be exchanged for the false personhoods they have created. No monster will survive the loneliness. Dr. Frankenstein learned the hard way.

Seattle is glorious.

All the pretty maids in a row...

In spring, it is a wonderful time to host dinner parties. The sun sets later and twilight exists for a much longer period. It is during that time one has drinks, sits and chats, and finds the time to exchange ideas about what one has read, seen, or experienced. I listened to stories about work, plans for vacation, and even a story about one's own past that I had not remembered for quite some time.

Afterwards, there are those things a host must do, apart from the tiresome but real responsibility of cleaning up. Nobody wants roaches and I for one would prefer to keep those miserable creatures at bay. Having conversations days after, people will inevitably mention their experience, the good time they had, etc. In one conversation days later, I chatted with a male guest who spends much of his time feeling the need to keep elevated boundaries, particularly in the workplace, because his co-workers are often boorish and disrespectful in conversation. It is unfortunate that as people's social abilities diminish more and more, that fewer people are able to socialize appropriately at a dinner party. Instead, people find themselves braced for that selfish conversationalist, the one who makes everything about him or herself. He is a nincompoop of the worst sort, the one whom a good host will have to undermine at every turn in order to protect guests. Or, one might even suffer from the neanderthalesque charms of the one who insists on speaking of inappropriate topics: physical ailments, prurient commentary, or bathroom humor, all make for poor conversation.

At a dinner party in the late fall, two partners almost began a spat in the middle of the table when they could not agree on when they had started dating. The confusion between them ignited a potential rift which was gently swirling into an inescapable whirlpool only made colorful by their humor between them which was rapidly depleting. Before it could escalate further, I commented quickly on the cake, loud enough to generate a ripple of mitigating laughter, something which they all recognized, including the lovers, the moment I said in an unmistakably stentorian tone: "Oh, this mango cake is lovely..." One of them thanked me discreetly, knowing full well that it was not the time to discuss when they had first found each other worthy of deep love. At least, not at a dinner party intended to celebrate another person's life.

A friend gave his public recital at a music conservatory today. He sang his heart out from what I hear. I want him to know that his friends praise him and support him, that we love him and know that he will do great things with what he has learned. Triumph matters occasionally, it is something which my friend has worked hard to achieve. I am sure there were folks there happy for him but I am also aware of the envy that exists. We do not escape the reality of sin. Let those who envy simmer in their dark juices. Let the rest praise God for human gifts. All my best to you Aloha Kitty. We are waving even from a distant coast...

To be buried in something so glorious...beauty seeks to replicate itself.

A lovely day to visit the museum.

Still one of the more frightening films released. After seeing a midnight showing on April, Friday the 13th, I wondered what sort of people would go to this kind of film. Curiously, there were a fair amount of folks at a little art house theatre in the city. A mixture of young and some older. I suspected a fair number of folks had yet to see the film and if they had, they had not seen the film in on a large screen. Cunningham's classic still offers a few scares but mostly, it is a whodunit thriller which gradully brings about the kind of suspense that one does not always see with the thrill-ride horror so common in films these days. Friday the 13th is not a rollercoaster ride but something a bit disturbing. At times, even a bit subtle.

It is always a matter of perspective.

At twilight, sometimes known as the gloaming, it is quiet. There is little sound and the city is peaceful. I can hear a bit of traffic in the distance and sometimes, a fire truck sirens by. But most of the time, atop this hill, I enjoy the cool evening before it darkens completely.