June 7, 2010. First: I absently sacrificed my favorite pair of sunglasses to the 16th floor of the Brown Hotel in Louisville, KY. This was devastating to me, as I have the peculiar condition of really believing in my heart and soul, despite all my protestations of being a rational human being, that inanimate objects do in fact have consciousness and feel neglect – if not outright abandonment – when I lose and/or throw them away. At this moment I can’t help but think they are still up there – 16 floors up, though it might as well be a million billion – waiting for me to rescue them, as I have often had to do. Sadly, this is impossible. So I am coping the only way I know how – I went out and bought the exact same pair (Panama Jack, CVS, $17.99.) Well, almost exactly the same – these are a bit darker. As am I, now. Sigh.
Second: I saw Vincenzio Natali’s film SPLICE yesterday, and it has been playing over and again in my head for 24 hours now. The movie is beautiful (if small) to look at, and very ably acted by Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, and Delphine Chaneac. I find myself feeling protective of the film (yes, which is another inanimate object) because it aims so high in a genre that rarely does, but I was ultimately let down by the story’s hysterical reaction to its own events. Human cloning and genetic engineering are at the story’s core, but SPLICE is really most effective when it draws comparisons to “new parent” anxiety. One event in particular – the psychosexual event late in the film that seems designed to draw outrage – I found least effective because it seemed unmotivated by anything else in the film. It just happens. The justification for the event comes later, and it is essentially this: “We already broke a bunch of rules. Now nobody knows what’s right or wrong anymore.” It’s the slippery slope argument, and this truly is a film that should know better – because it is, especially for the horror genre, a very good film.
Third: I felt compelled to write a new ten-minute play this morning. I don’t know whether I’m stalling on my revision of WAKE-WALKING or whether there’s some other internal combustion churning away (likely the latter), but I have a new ten-minute play now called TRICK OF THE MOONLIGHT, and I like it. Let’s hope I can put it up somewhere soon.
(update, July 7, 2010: the new play is now called CREATURE OF HABIT.)
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