Sunday, February 19, 2006

Gnome Hat, Movie Reviews and Lighters


Gnome hat
Originally uploaded by mygothlaundry.
The second hat, or, as I like to call it for obvious reasons, the Gnome Hat. M likes it and has adopted it; meanwhile, A took the first hat, so I'm making yet another hat, which is tentatively titled Enormous Floppy Hat. Somehow it is gigantic.

Knitting without really having a clue what you're doing has it's drawbacks, it is true, but I kind of like the randomness factor. Also, fuck reading directions.

Last night M and I watched Grizzly Man, which you've no doubt heard of, and Kurosawa's take on King Lear: Ran. It was kind of a strange combination, but they're both such insanely good movies that it didn't much matter. Grizzly Man is amazing; the footage of the bears and foxes alone is worth the rental, and then you get Werner Herzog saying in that inimitable German accent "Nature is about chaos and cruelty" or something like that, which is just, um, indescribably delicious. I also nearly lost it when he talked about Timothy Treadwell losing it on the beach: "I have seen this on a film set" and, since even I have heard insane stories of the filming of Aguirre, I bet he has. Celebrity name drop! When I was a dissolute teenager living on Mallorca, I used to babysit for Del Negro's son Aureliano. Del was Brother Gaspar de Carvajal in Aguirre. Also, when I was a dissolute twenty something living in Baltimore, in the phase we like to call Felicity In the Land of the Lost Boys, my lost boy roommates became completely obsessed with that movie and as a result I have seen it approximately 70 times, but never all the way nonstop from beginning to end.

M is obsessed with Kurosawa films and so we are slowly working our way through them one by one, with Ran being the latest entry. There isn't much I can say about it that hasn't already been said, unless you're going to watch it thinking it's a lighthearted uplifting trifle, in which case you are in deep, deep shit, my friend. It is dark, depressing and incredible - indelible, too: I doubt I'll ever forget it.

And now, let us pause for a moment to consider the peculiar life cycle of disposable lighters, a subject on which I am well qualified to pontificate, as I have spent much of my life observing them in their natural habitat, namely, pockets and the local bar. Lighters are herd animals, and if you allow them to range freely they will breed and bring more lighters home to you. Alas, the natural antithesis of this simple fact is that if you have only one lighter in your possession it will be lonely and leave you. That's why today I have 3 lighters in my pocket, whereas yesterday I didn't even have one.

5 comments:

Edgy Mama said...

Great hat, girl. I wear hand-knitted hats all the time in the winter--though I can't knit, but because I wear them a lot, people like to make them for me (that's not a hint).

arratik said...

a kurosawa/herzog double feature? that sounds like the kind of thing i would have @ my house when i was working for a record/video store.

yeah, nothing like getting high and watching even dwarfs started small...

Anonymous said...

very cool hat!

Sweet Tea said...

While we're on the subject of heads, I just thought that it may be helpful if I gave you my new number. I'm so sorry!!! I've been wondering why I haven't heard from you. Then the thought hit me that maybe I never gave you my new digits.

e-mail me at greenladyfayATyahooDOTcom

mygothlaundry said...

Email sent, hon! But it's totally my fault and not yours, I've been lost in the caverns of lame for a while now, and making phone calls is one of those skills they strip from you in there. Thanks for the hat compliments, y'all, I like it myself and I must say, it seems unfair that as soon as I knit these my kids snatch them up. But, on the other hand, it's a compliment. ;-)