(Side note: let's say you're the future of America, and you schedule an appointment for 8 am on Saturday. One way you will certainly piss off your teacher, aka "The Present of America," is to not show up on time, or more exactly, twenty minutes late. And yeah, I split that infinitive. That should be a clear indication of how angry you have made me. Grrrrr).
(Work-related side note two: I've been working on a project at Tutor Corps that has involved evaluating our sample SAT and ACT tests for discrepancies in difficulty. Yep, I was looking for variance in tests that are specifically designed not to have variance. I didn't split that one, but please don't feel that I am not equally annoyed. This project involved perusing (used correctly) the various tests, noting the number of steps involved in the math or science problems, guesstimating the difficulty of reading problems or grammatical errors. In other words, about a week and a half's work of BLAR. And guess what, at the end of the day: no significant difference. The positive part of me looks at this as some kind of Koan-esque experience).
So I came home, walked the pups, and waited for the Beck to return from her veterinary adventures in west Phoenix. I caught a horrendous Cubs game in the meantime. Barf. But Beck eventually got here, and we packed up our blanket and headed down to ASU to watch the 12th annual ASU outdoor film festival. (Big thanks to Beck & Nyet's personal cultural coordinator iPMM!!!). Because, yes, in Tempe, you don't really have to worry about such things being rained out. The venue was nice; just a little crowd gathered on the steps in the courtyard outside the museum. Here's a swiped view:
Saturday night featured a crystalline night sky unlike this pic from above; consequently, our viewing backdrop included Orion and the moon. Just a great setting; the night blue sky behind the buildings definitely added to the atmosphere. We sat on a blanket towards the front right - we had to move there after a brief altercation with some chair-sitters who were so unthoughtful as to sit in front us (fear not, Beck told them what was what). Little did we know that our entire evening would be thereby colored by the set of three lady JACKASSES sitting behind us.
So I'm all for cultural practices, and I recognize the whole "be quiet and appreciate the artists' work" angle is an attitude steeped in my own white middle class suburbanism. I don't mean this as a racial observation; I don't really know what race or culture of origin the jackasses in question were, but the point I am trying to make is that I recognize that different people have different manners of enjoying art, and that is all well and good. Attending the Rocky Horror Picture Show and sitting there quietly and hoping to hear all the dialog would be equally stupid. Note first, though, that there is a when in Rome aspect to life, and when you are at an artsy outdoor film festival, you are decidedly in my white suburbanite Rome. Note second that when you are outdoors and the sound for a film festival is coming from some low watt rented amp system, it is not always easy to catch the music/dialog from the film. So when you TALK and say "OH noes" or "Damn" or whatever the hell idiotic thought escapes the boundaries of your non-functioning frontal-lobed head, it is as ANNOYING as HELL. But trumping that annoyance is your categorical response to every event in every film that was even slightly odd or off-beat or weird. And that would be the ubiquitous:
"Ohhhhhhkaaaaaay."
I would suggest that next time, you just shout out "I am too close-minded and unsophisticated to even attempt to understand what I just saw, it being well out of the realm of standard commodified entertainment to which i am used. I am, how do you say it, an idjut."
SO that's enough of that; just imagine that while we were trying to enjoy some rather offbeat and weird films, we had running Beavis and Butthead commentary coming from the left and behind us. Beck suggested that if they were ASU students and they ended up in my class, I should fail them. Done and done.
Outside of that, the festival faired pretty well. You can check the program here, and I'm sure that the bulk of the films are google-able. The highlights, in Beck's and my humble opinions, were My Blue Friend, Three-Fifty, The Birthday Girl, The Lemon Tree, Urban Sprawl, You Can Awesome, Shuteye Hotel, Beth, (...almost like one of the family), and The Execution of Solomon Harris. In fact, what the hell, I'll do the legwork - here are the ones I can find on Youtube (some are just the trailers):
So, a good Saturday night. Next day, next post.
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