Shakespeare could have done no better

Stop me if this story sounds familiar...

ACT I
A young woman of meager means grows up in a tumultuous household, dreaming to one day be well-known and successful. Moving from discouraging job to discouraging job, she eventually becomes performer.

ACT II
She's famous now, beautiful. Desired by all. She meets a rich important man and becomes his wife, much to the dismay of the man's family. The man dies, and disputes arise over his assets. Courts cannot decide the matter, sapping much time and energy.

ACT III
Her performances are worse and worse. She's the laughing stock of the land - constant fodder for the peanut gallery. Her condition is laughable and sad. Out of the limelight, she raises her son although she is desparate to return to stardom. She tries and fails, reaching an all-time low. Struggles for inheritance continue.

ACT IV
Turning things around, she works her way back into public view, still the source of curiosity and ridicule. Her main opponent in the inheritance case dies, bringing new hope. A lover enters the picture, and eventually a daughter. Suddenly her son dies.

ACT V
In a whirlwind, legal troubles mount. Her health and mental state begin to deteriorate, and another man stakes a claim to her daughter's paternity as her wedding to her lover is not binding. She is forced from her home because of financial problems. Under the pressure of everything, she dies, leaving behind a daughter, and two men jockeying for position for the inheritance that she never gained in life...


Seriously, though, how ridiculous is it that CNN.com was soliciting "photos, videos, and memories" from fans like Anna Nicole Smith was some national treasure... an historic figure? I mean, she gets the same treatment as Gerald Ford? Really?

Good night, sweet attention hound. And flights of trailers sing thee to they rest.

"All right, you wanna hear a stupid pop song I wrote in about a minute?"

That's a video from 1997 (?) (ish?) of an Elliott Smith show when someone asked him to sing "I Figured You Out," a song he wrote but ended up giving away to his friend Mary Lou Lord. It kinda does sound like the fuckin' Eagles. Who wants that? I don't. And The Dude certainly doesn't.

It's funny how things that come so easily are often the things that don't bring the most satisfaction. (Although, if you think about things in terms of amount of work required vs. amount of satisfaction gained...) I think most people have the curse where certain things are just so easy, and even though the results are good or maybe even great, there just isn't much to gain out of it.

Could I be a better friend?
Could I be a better fiancé?
Could I be a better paintings conservator?
Could I be a better poker player?
Could I be a better cook/baker?
Could I be a better screenwriter?
Could I be a better blogger?
A better person?
A better neighbor?
A better video game player?
Better organized?
More financially responsible?
In better shape?

And it goes on and on. Of course, the answer to all of these questions, simply, is yes. Would any of those things take much work? Nope. Something a little sad about that. How satisfied am I with just good enough? I want to be better than that, but being just good enough is so easy. Mediocracy and mediocrity are evil, evil things... I could always try harder - does that mean I never try enough? [And the waters get a little sludgy, though, when you add in social mores and expectations. Some people value physical shape and appearance over all. Some find video games a waste of time. Some find poker immoral... and some don't really care what other people think.]

But anyway. Onward to less philosophical matters.

7 Good Things, 6 February 2007 (in some order, but I'm not quite sure what)
1. alluc.org. Go watch episodes of Mythbusters. I kind of have a crush on Kari Byron. Shh. Don't tell Karla.
2. I have a job lined up for the next two years, starting in September. Craziness. I will be living in the Berkshires, where I will enjoy falling on my ass whilst trying to learn how to snowboard. If all else fails, I can go tubing and drink hot chocolate.
3. Gotta admit, I kinda like Jenny Lewis. I'm not turning this into a music blog. I'm just not hip enough and not quick enough - what drives the whole music blog thing is finding The New Cool Obscure Thing before anyone else. And what do you know, five minutes later, it's not obscure anymore. So on to The Next New Cool Obscure Thing. We are gluttons for cool with ADHD and loyalty issues. Anyway. I like Jenny. I might write her a part in a movie and name her character Jenny Lewis.
4. Watched Donzoko this past weekend. It's Kurosawa's 1957 adaptation of Gorky's Lower Depths. It's a real slow burn - if you look at Jean Renoir's 1936 adaptation, the beginning scenes are about 45 minutes into Kurosawa's. It all ramps up to the last 5 minutes where everything kind of explodes into what is essentially drunken beatboxing (remember - 1957, Japan. OK.) and then an abrupt ending that kind of sums everything up, in a minimal, existential sort of way.
5. During a recent trip for work, I stayed in a room on the 14th floor of a hotel. That's hotel for 13th floor. They don't use 13 because of superstition. The entire time I was there, I kept thinking about Mitch Hedberg: "Hey, what room are you staying in? 1401. No you're not - jump out the window, you will die earlier."
6. I will soon have been on this planet for a quarter of a century.
7. Gametime is coming soon.

xomatt