Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Busy Little Bee
I've been a busy bee lately, mostly writing, teaching class and going to the gym. I love working out when it's cold outside. Something about cold weather makes me feel mushy, and so I go to the gym to feel less mushy. It's wacky.
Two funny stories for tonight:
I live in a nice building on 20th Street, and aside from the 12-year-olds that used to hover outside my window, it's a quiet place full of professional people who mind their business and don't drink heavily on weekdays. Praise be.
There are always things posted outside the front door, like UPS receipts and notes for mesengers, etc. There is no doorman. Most of the time these things are ignored by everyone since they don't pertain to them. On Monday afternoon, I noticed that everyone was stopping to look at one clump of papers that was stuck to the wall. Never one to pass up group think, I checked it out. Seems that some guy in Penthouse G (it's really just an apartment on the top floor) was being sued. And this wasn't just any old lawsuit, he was being sued by a credit card company.
My question is this: How much do you have to owe a credit card before they decide to sue you? The worst part is that everyone in the building was stopping to read these papers. I have a feeling he won't be living in Penthouse G for very much longer. But I can assure the tenant that life is just as nice down in the basement, if you don't really care about natural light...
Earlier that same day I went to a screening of Babel. It's the new film starring, among others, Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt and was directed by the same guy who did 21 Grams. I was pretty stoked to see the film, but I got there late and most of the seats were taken. I grabbed a seat next to some random guy and settled in. Seemed like a nice way to spend two hours. And don't forget Brad Pitt!
How wrong I was. Not only is Babel really bad, in an overly forced artisitic kind of way (the disjointed story with an ensemble cast is so Memento) but I also had to sit next to some guy who literally moaned in pain for the entire two and half hours.
I know what you're thinking, "Was he really moaning throughout the whole show?" Yes, yes he was. I started to watch as he twisted and fidgeted in his chair, and I realized, based on his body movement, that he probably had a herniated disc in his back, like me. This time last year I could barely sit through movies, but I certainly didn't twitch and moan and irritate everyone around me the way he did. More bothersome was that it was a screening at the Viacom building, so pretty much everyone there was a media person of some sort and probably had to watch the film for one professional reason or another. This was no matinee. Not that this guy cared. At one point he even leaned over to me and said in a loud voice, "You'll have to excuse me. I have a bad back." I am not kidding when I say that everyone in theater turned to look at us.
I decided to go the compassionate route with this guy and decided that after the show I would offer him Dr. Boris' phone number, my neurologist, since he worked so much magic on me. After all, what if he didn't know he slipped a disc, and all this pain was new to him? I might actually be doing him a big favor by telling him about cortisone shots. Yay me.
When the lights came up, I realized that The Moaner walked with cane and had a hard time standing. At first I felt bad, but then I wondered why someone would come to public screening if they couldn't sit through a movie. Why moan through it and disturb everyone around you?
I didn't know. I just picked up my bag and left.
Next week: It's the CMJ Festival in NYC! Bring on all the filthy hipster guys with sleeves of tattoos. You know I love you all.
