The Time That Comes

The day that we knew would inevitably come is now almost here. David Letterman has declared that he will soon be retiring. He hasn't said exactly when, which lessens the impact of the moment, but he seems sure enough that it will by next year. I will admit that I haven't watched "The Late Show" in years and years. I used to watch religiously, but I don't anymore. You might as well know that since I'm making like I've been heavily invested all along.

I always loved Letterman, and never was very fond of Leno. Leno's style was safe and his comedy was  more like research than writing. Letterman's style was caustic and outsidery. His comedy was smart and often absurd. I related to him as a person. I have always thought that if everything goes my way and I do as well as I possibly could, my ceiling would be like his. It has always upset me that he was so long second in the ratings on account of Leno's big hooker interview with an actor no one cares about anymore.

Failure To Read!

I did something yesterday that I usually don't. You see, I've been reading "Atlas Shrugged" for the last nine weeks. I had tried to read it years ago, but failed to get very far. It's a long book, and at times an especially difficult one to read. Much of it I enjoy a great deal, and I see something even in its philosophy (though I wouldn't myself go as far as Rand). Still, there are those tough stretches, and it's VERY long, so I just couldn't finish it in the amount of time the library permits.

I knew yesterday I would have to return it, but I expected I'd be able to check it out again. I don't think I was thinking very clearly, though. I brought the book to the library and looked around for a copy already there. I didn't find one. They had the audiobook version, so I took that thinking it might be neat to listen to while waiting to get a book copy. I remarked to the desk clerk that some books can be finished in the amount of time the library allows and some cant. She agreed, saying "depending on the number of pages". She's a real bright one.

Throwing Shades

A while ago, I lost my sunglasses. I don't recall the details about it, except that I was mildly upset (since they were very cheap, but slightly difficult to locate). The place where I found them only sometimes has them there, and I couldn't be bothered to go over and check, so instead I kept wearing bad sunglasses that I had on hand in a props and costume box I have. They were not stylish at all, let alone stylish in the way that the ones I had were.

The ideal sunglasses for me, I feel are mirrored aviators. That's what I lost, and that's the only thing that was going to suffice for me in the end. They fit the look I have, and they occupy a lot of space on what I regard to be an expansive face and forehead. It's no good to have a ton of empty space above glasses of any kind. It's nothing you notice when the face is unadorned, but it's pretty glaring under any other conditions. I've just got to have big frames.

One More Screaming Fit

Yesterday I wrote about watching the Scream movies, and I gave a short accounting of the original. I still like it. The sequels I was watching fresh, and I didn't like them so much, although they weren't all bad. I'll just hit them all today, since I doubt I have enough enthusiasm to carry this beyond today. "Scream 2" still had for itself some aspects of horror films left to skewer. In particular, making a sequel lets you jab the genre's known propensity for sequels.

It seems evident that some deliberate effort was made in the first sequel to be more diverse in casting. Including one actor with a tan would have made the sequel more diverse than its lily-white predecessor, but they went much further. They didn't cast anyone of color in an especially meaningful role, but I guess what they did was something. In any case, the first sequel had some value to it. It's not that bad that they made it, though reuniting everyone who survived the original in this new college town is iffy.

Scream, Scream Again

Earlier today (because these days I am not up to the task of remembering to write a post every day and then following through) I wrote about watching the entire series of Scream movies, which I should say, if you are not yourself familiar, amounts to four films. They were in my assessment good to passable, which is more than I can say for some movies I've been given to watch. I thought I might delve more thoroughly into them after delivering very broad strokes.

"Scream", the original, was a revelation. It really was a breath of fresh air that revitalized the horror genre as a whole and the slasher film in particular. It was satirical without being a spoof, and it delivered some fair scares while making a lot of valid points about the movies it was following. It came from a place of affection, which I think is very important, and it was focused, which is also important but which has been forgotten for a long time.

The Completist

There are a lot of things that I had hoped I would have done by this point in my life. We all have that, I'm sure. All of us, however accomplished we are in life, see more as having been in the cards. For some of us, that's a very reasonable opinion considering our abilities and our accomplishments, but for others it's an irrational thing. For me I think it's something closer to the former, but probably we all think that. I can think of one thing that I hadn't done that I probably didn't have to.

Following on the heels of a mostly complete viewing of the Howling films, it was someone's idea to watch all the "Scream" films back to back. I had always had some interest in the Scream sequels, having enjoyed the original fairly well and somehow having never gotten to the rest. Here was my chance to make things right. It's a chance that, lamentably, we all too seldom are granted in life. I was determined to take advantage of it in this case.

More Complaints About Progress

We are in a time of much change, both big and small. Freedom is on the march in some sectors, and on the retreat in others. There are great innovations, and great setbacks. In all of this there is fear and confusion that we must get over. One of the more interesting areas of puzzlement for me is in television, and yet on the other hand it isn't television at all. It was, I suppose, only a matter of time before the internet's ability to handle video led to video made just for the internet, but what are we to call it?

I was reading an article about Michael Connelly's "Harry Bosch" character. I was mildly curious because I had started one of those novels after picking it up at a bus station. I didn't finish it, but I started it: "Trunk Music", I think it was called. In any event, a show about the character is in the offing. I call it just a show because it's going to be run by Amazon.com. It's a show that will be streamed on the internet. My mind cannot accept it as a TV show, because it won't air on television.