the comment meme

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I've been seeing the meme about how many comments different users have put on my LJ. It lays it all out in graphic form. I went and deciphered the cryptic instructions and got the results and pasted them here, and you know what? They were too bleeding depressing. I've made over 300 more comments in my own LJ than the next person in line. Some of my best friends turn out to have only found me worthy of comment once or twice in over a year of posting here. The evidence indicates I am of interest to very few, and not very much of that. I'm not so sure any more that this is the best use of my time.

I must think about this.
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two movies

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I was productive today. I got my paycheck into the bank, put gas in the rental car (it was on empty!) and a gas can (for the generator, in case the power decides to really go out), returned deposit cans and bottles (about five bucks' worth), returned Sarah's book to the library, and renewed the books and videos we have out.

Returning home, I decided it was time to watch one of the videos. I chose Trekkies. I guess I regret the choice. I passed up a nap to watch it, and I would have enjoyed the nap more. The movie just made me kind of sad without telling me anything new. It's like Fred Huggins was there with his ukelele singing "Water Is Wet" over and over. All in all, a depressing waste of time, and it was my fault for sitting there with the remote right close at hand where I could have stopped the whole thing.

A day or so ago I watched all of Reet, Petite and Gone in one or two sessions. I had previously watched the first few minutes, but decided to just start at the beginning and get it all. Turns out it's about an hour and a half long, an hour and ten minutes of that being musical numbers. Take out those, and what's left is a pretty insubstantial tale of bandleader Louis Jarvis (played by bandleader Louis Jordan) and his scheming lawyer's plot to get control of Louis's dad's estate by marrying him off to his (the lawyer's) secretary, Rusty, who is also scheming. It was worth watching to see Louis Jordan and his band in action, but even so, after a while I wanted them to quit playing and have some story. Although with the quality of story, I wanted them to quit acting and have some music, so some people are never satisfied. I thought of seeing if I could extract a couple of numbers from the soundtrack, but each time I got to thinking that, there would be a splice and part of the song would be gone. Splices notwithstanding, I liked "Wham, Sam, Look At Those Gams!" and the one about the Texas and Pacific Railroad. I was a little mystified at one detail: Louis's girlfriend, the daughter of his dad's long-lost love, is supposed to have been a singer, but I can't recall seeing her sing, except for one number (in a flashback, portraying her mom while Louis portrayed his flashback father). By the end of the movie, it was like I was waiting for her to show everybody she could sing, and she let it end without opening her yap again. She let her friend, who travelled with her, do the real heavy lifting, song-wise.

And now, for no good reason, I append a painting I did 16 years ago in college. It occurs to me that lots of folks probably haven't gone over to my web page to gawk at my backlog of ancient creative product, so I may run some of it here. For starters, here's my assignment to paint a fruit. I chose "apple." (Gouache on illustration board)