A Few Minutes In May
And it’s May, and the snow has melted from the flurry that came this morning. And even though it’s dusk the birds are acting like they’ve just woken up, bathing themselves in what’s left of the snow in little puddles around the neighborhood. I can see this because I’ve excused myself from my 3 children, and with my 11 y/o firmly in charge of the household for a predetermined 7 minutes and 30 seconds, which has been set using the kitchen timer, I’m allowed singular use of the trampoline, and some time for introspection. And I have my music and I’m bouncing lightly, scanning the neighborhood in the mini-valley behind our house.
Then I stop, and lay down, and look up at the sky. And it’s mostly sunny, but there are tiny flakes of snow still visible against the green of the pine overhead. Some land directly in my eye. To the east, where the mountains are, the snow is falling much harder than it is here. And there is a chill, but it’s not chilly. A breeze, but not windy. And I’m by myself, but not alone. And tonight’s thoughts cover me like a warm blanket.
And even though my mind drifts about, I know my time is almost up. All the difficulties of the day have evaporated from the forefront of my thoughts, and that’s all it takes, it’s really quite simple. Most of the time it’s much more elusive. But it’s really all I need. And the one thing I seem to rarely get. So I’ll take it in small doses, especially when life presents a situation where I can control my time by preventing others from doing so. And despite the monotony and the drudgery of a less than normal day, I know I’ll fall asleep feeling a little better, and all it takes is seven and a half minutes. Some days it takes more, but not today.
Wes Anderson And The Dream Of Living In Hotels
The prologue to The Darjeeling Limited is a short film called Hotel Chavalier. It stars Portman and Schwartzman. It’s quirky and eccentric and there are a lot of things that are left up to the viewer to piece together. When The Darjeeling Limited was released, we found the correct places for a few of those pieces.
So we have this room, and we have Jack Whitman (Schwartzman), we have an ipod playing music about Marlena Dietrich (song by Peter Sarstedt), there are odds and ends and all that. So Portman (billed simply as “Jack’s Girlfriend”) is walking around, checking out his place and picking up his trinkets and whatnot. Which, really, would be weird. If I was living in a hotel and some girlfriend came in and started picking up my belongings, examining them, and placing them back down in a different place? Well I would probably change the music, not give her any chocolate, and certainly not put my weiner inside her. But I’m getting ahead of myself. All these things to set up this scenario that builds to the scene where they are out on the balcony, it appears to be a wonderful view, but we learn it’s not. It’s just a view of the hotel across the way. Not really my point.
This stuff doesn’t matter to me. What matters to me is that this guy is LIVING AT A HOTEL. And I’m thinking about how great that would be. Seriously. I’m at one now, and I could stay here forever. I’m in wool slacks, a button-up white collared shirt, and my dress shoes. But I’m sitting in a lawn chair in 80 degree weather. It’s perfect. Except the sinus infection.
In about 7 minutes I’ll be getting back to my novel and I won’t have anything to do for about 3 hours. Simply amazing. Hotel living. My wife will return from rescuing drowning airline passengers, and we’ll go out for crab or something. We’ll watch Juno, most likely, and fall asleep together for the last time for the next few weeks. But still, the hotel thing. If I ever have the means, and I’m sure I will, I’m totally going to do it. Living at a hotel. I’ll even know the maid’s names by heart. And it will be by the beach. And I’ll get to know the manager so well that I’ll have a special place to keep my surfboards. Most likely outside in some shed where he makes his own root beer or something.
Royal Tenenbaum did it, Jack Whitman did it, and the boys from Bottle Rocket did it for a spell. What is it with Wes Anderson and people living in hotels? Whatever it is, I’m buying into it. Hotelology or whatever. I don’t care. We can have spaceships and spirits and electric soul catchers or whatever, I don’t care. I want in the hotel club. Another small point: Wes Anderson was born in 1969. I was born in 1974. This means I have at least 5 years to be his creative equal. Damnit, I just realized he did Royal Tenenbaums at 32 so I’m pretty much always going to be underachieving. I’m glad he’s not my older brother. THEN I’d have issues.
And I’m trying to figure out how much it would cost to do it. I’m figuring this place is $100 a night, 365 nights +/-, so that would be $36,500 to live at the Sheraton Gateway in Atlanta Georgia. I’m sure they’d give me a bulk rate so I’m gonna stick to $35,000.
But then if I had $35,000 to blow for living…ok so some guy just came by and asked my how I liked my Apple. People really shouldn’t do that to me unless they have 15 minutes and 3 large burning a hole in their pocket. MBPro’s rock, go buy one, you can stop buying self help books and start writing them.
So I’m thinking about $35,000 and what that could do for me…say….somewhere in Mexico. I’m sure I could have no problem living fairly large in the Brian sense on $100/day for a year. Just think of the blogging I could get done.
Well I gotta go call my Mom and see if they are running out of diapers.
Oh, and I also took a picture of the pool. I took it seconds ago, tweaked the highlights, shadows, curves, then turned it into an exposure from Kodak’s 3200 ISO B&W film. I like it. I’d post the original, but then it would reveal just how lame the original is, lamer than you may think the final version is. And that just won’t fly. I’m sure there is something to the 5′15″ sign. I’ll figure it out someday.
This post was written with the music of Satyajit Ray, who sounds a lot like Anandji Kalyanji from Thicker Than Water. Check it out.
Click This Link To Watch Hotel Chevalier For Free
Saturday (the book), Flights, Sinus Infections, and Marital Blogging Tandems
There is a scene in this book that I’m reading in which a man wakes up, walks to the window, opens the shutters, and looks out at the city. What makes this so unique is that the author describes this event in precise detail, with a rhythmically flowing prose that makes a narrative about a man walking to the window profound and inspiring. Nothing happens, mind you, except the walk to the window. But it lasts about a dozen pages. It’s wonderful. 3000 words to describe a trip from the bed to the window. And there isn’t a wasted or unimportant word.
On that note, I’ve missed reading, I really have. And it’s not so much about my lifestyle with work and kids and being a husband or even time. My mind won’t slow down long enough for me to digest words on a page, or words on a website, or words in a magazine. I can sense a shift back to simplicity, and back to the joys of reading. But there is so much out there to distract me.
That’s the trouble with all this media these days. I just don’t know what to turn to. For instance, right now I’m on a plane and I have a book, 2 magazines, my laptop, and my iPhone. So in the space of just over 2 hours I’ve:
- Watched 3 video shorts on my laptop
- Watched 1/3 of “The Savages” (Philip Seymour)
- Composed 3 mini-blog entries, including this one
- Organized my iTunes playlists and pruned unwanted songs (only 43GB now)
- Organized my iPhoto slideshows (including my 178 photo slideshow I made for Senja last year)
- Created a new desktop wallpaper mashup in Photoshop
- Read 24 pages of my Ian McEwan novel (Saturday)
- Read the entire May edition of MacWorld.
- Started reading the May edition of Mac|Life
And this is just media that is distracting me. I’ve also been thinking about:
- What I’m going to do and/or say when I land?
- When I’ll be coming home?
- Did Luke and Juli get their eyedrops?
- Are the Braves playing tomorrow?
- Exactly how long will this battery last?
- Legal expenses
- The shark attack today in SoCal and how many times I’ve been in those waters. 17 ft shark?!?
- Why CNN seems to always bash on Obama
- Why I only drink ginger ale when I fly
So yea, my mind is busy. It’s ALWAYS busy. At any given time I could make a list at least a dozen items long of things I’m thinking about…concurrently. I’m sure you could to. My point is though that…well I don’t really have a point except I guess I’m beginning to realize that I need to downsize. And I’ve known this for quite some time. Things just need to be let go. The things that hold my attention; are they worth it? The things that are worth it, stay. The things that aren’t, well they go, or have to wait for a better time. So how do I go about doing that? There are a few things to eliminate that are easy enough.
- TV
- Direction-less internet surfing
Well that is all I can think of right now, but that should free up some time. Not so much TV because I don’t really watch it. But aimless internet surfing? I’m guessing about 10 hours a week. So what is the solution? An internet surfing plan? I guess so, I mean why do I people use the internet, why do I use the internet? How could I use it better? How could I get more from the internet while using it less? Yes, see, THAT is the question that needs to be answered.
So back to my book. Literature needs to stay. But it has to be there in the first place, and I’ve lost my way as I entered parenthood. But it’s back, it’s part of the plan, and the only reason why I’m writing this is because of a certain paragraph in the book that set off a fire in my brain. Now the fire is out, and the charred remains are here for you all to see.
Senja and I blogged today at the same time, a rarity. She blogged about fires and silicone, and I did this. There is a joy that comes in blogging together, at least for me. Letting that creative side out, side by side.
Time For School Sweetie…
and the pillow covers the head.
Travis Barker Is Good And Stuff
Take Five - Dave Brubeck Quartet
Checking Out Flickr Video
Capitola, 41st Ave. Small wave but I get launched after a late takeoff during a closed out set. I’m thinking I caught a rail. Footage by Senja.
This Didn’t Happen Before We Bought A Memory Gel Bed
Every morning, bodies in the bed multiply starting as early as 4am. Good thing we went for the king size. I didn’t pull the covers off Luke, he generally doesn’t like them in the morning.
Baseball Bat Meets Face At MLB Game
The First Time Facebook Has Actually Enriched My Life
Graffiti from Sen, imitating Luke.
I'm Brian Utley
