Looking at the property supplement that came with the free newspaper while listening to the
Gang of Four was quite a strange experience. Couldn't help but tamper with one of the adverts
in the manner of old Go4 album sleeves- it's too big to upload onto this post, but will try it independently (so there'll either be nothing or an image called The Wait is Over
Plenty of OBM this week (Old Bastard Moments)- namely "All the music around at the moment
sounds like [insert name of band you were passionate about as a teenager]". Well, sod it,
Arctic Monkeys are the Wedding Present and I claim my £5.
Guitar shop staff must get so sick of people who either know nothing or pretend they do (I fall
squarely in the second caregory). Whatever, I'm no nearer to finding an electric guitar I feel
comfortable playing- til then I'm still an acoustic saddo.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
So the middle of February is upon us. Still bursting with New Year's resolve ? Apparently last Monday was the biggest day of the year for gratuitous sickies. Must admit to feeling a little jaded myself, but nothing that listening to "Bryter Later" can't cure.
Despite having progressed to passable competency in most things computer-related, had to admit the other day that I've never managed to successfully cut and paste something between Word documents ! If the high heejuns of the University world are to be believed, I could never pass for an undergraduate in that respect..........Anyway, if I manage to carry out aforementioned operation, there will be below this a little ramble I wrote a while ago. Hope it entertains you........
Making out in the movies
It’s probably fair to say that most people, in the West at any rate, receive at least some of their sentimental education from films. That awkward first date, first kiss, first time…..but also the very first hurdle before any of them. Whilst watching Scorcese’s "Taxi Driver" again on TV the other night, I began to worry I had picked main character Travis Bickle’s approach as the paradigm of how to approach women. I first saw the film when I was nineteen, and still fairly desperate for any kind of clues as to how this men/women thing worked.
Travis is, of course, deeply disturbed, most likely by his Vietnam experience, which the film only briefly alludes to, at the start. His courtship of the beautiful election co-ordinator, Betsy, begins to progressively reveal this, as his attempts at romance include a visit to a porno movie. A shame for them both, after the very promising start he makes, and which still looks like a good example.
Travis has a very stressful job, with little meaningful human interaction- most of his passengers are the "scum" that he wants, and later begins, to try and eradicate. Each day he sees a woman in the same place, through her office window, and, as people are wont to do, loves her from afar. She notices him, and remarks on it to her male colleague, with whom she has rapport but no empathy.
What can anyone do when lumbered with a crush ? Live with it, and hope that, like a headache, it will eventually go away ? Or act on it, give it your best shot, and accept that even if you fail, at least you tried ? Travis would be unlikely to accept that latter condition, so it’s just as well for Betsy that she accepts his invitation to go for a coffee and slice of pie. This, however, is just one of two possible outcomes for Travis when he first strides into her office, leans across her desk and tells her she’s the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen, before delivering the above-mentioned enticement. The other is the big fat "R", the rejection that threatens to pull the rug from under any man’s resolve.
The notion of stalking didn’t exist in the mid-70s, and when combined with his daily leering, Travis’s directness would probably qualify as such. But Betsy is impressed by his nerve, especially his accurate response to her challenge of why she should accept- namely that she’s lonely. Being played by Robert de Niro, he also cuts a swarthily chiselled figure, by comparison with her nerdy, bespectacled co-worker, who glares jealously on. Crucially, while she deliberates over his response to her challenge "why ?", he admits briefly to how it ain’t easy for him standin’ here- so he has guts but not arrogance.
Compare this with another, more recent, film example, this time shown to be a good one, from the end of "Roger Dodger". Whilst attempting to instruct his 16-year-old nephew Nick in the ways of New York womanising, silver-tongued advertising exec Roger realises that his style has finally collapsed into arrogant confrontation, brought on by rejection by a woman he actually loves- not only that, she’s his boss. In the film’s final scene, he visits Nick in his Ohio hometown and sits with him and his friends in their high-school canteen. He elicits the name of the girl they all lust after and asks how they might think of approaching her. No response ensues, so he suggests the following strategy- walk up to her and tell her, Angela, I notice you every day, but every time I try to approach you I get so nervous that I can’t. So I wonder if we could go for a soda and just talk.
Naturally, Angela’s response to this brave but honest approach would depend on what kind of girl she is. After his uncle has left, Nick turns around to find that, on his way out, Roger has sent her over to him to hear something that "will really blow her mind". But we never do hear his answer or her reaction, as the end freeze-frames over him opening his mouth in reply. Maybe he adopts this strategy, though judging from his expression, he’s probably about to deliver one of the killer chat-up lines that Roger forced him to improvise earlier in the film. Women like a GSOH as well as good looks, bravado and vulnerability, you see.
Despite having progressed to passable competency in most things computer-related, had to admit the other day that I've never managed to successfully cut and paste something between Word documents ! If the high heejuns of the University world are to be believed, I could never pass for an undergraduate in that respect..........Anyway, if I manage to carry out aforementioned operation, there will be below this a little ramble I wrote a while ago. Hope it entertains you........
Making out in the movies
It’s probably fair to say that most people, in the West at any rate, receive at least some of their sentimental education from films. That awkward first date, first kiss, first time…..but also the very first hurdle before any of them. Whilst watching Scorcese’s "Taxi Driver" again on TV the other night, I began to worry I had picked main character Travis Bickle’s approach as the paradigm of how to approach women. I first saw the film when I was nineteen, and still fairly desperate for any kind of clues as to how this men/women thing worked.
Travis is, of course, deeply disturbed, most likely by his Vietnam experience, which the film only briefly alludes to, at the start. His courtship of the beautiful election co-ordinator, Betsy, begins to progressively reveal this, as his attempts at romance include a visit to a porno movie. A shame for them both, after the very promising start he makes, and which still looks like a good example.
Travis has a very stressful job, with little meaningful human interaction- most of his passengers are the "scum" that he wants, and later begins, to try and eradicate. Each day he sees a woman in the same place, through her office window, and, as people are wont to do, loves her from afar. She notices him, and remarks on it to her male colleague, with whom she has rapport but no empathy.
What can anyone do when lumbered with a crush ? Live with it, and hope that, like a headache, it will eventually go away ? Or act on it, give it your best shot, and accept that even if you fail, at least you tried ? Travis would be unlikely to accept that latter condition, so it’s just as well for Betsy that she accepts his invitation to go for a coffee and slice of pie. This, however, is just one of two possible outcomes for Travis when he first strides into her office, leans across her desk and tells her she’s the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen, before delivering the above-mentioned enticement. The other is the big fat "R", the rejection that threatens to pull the rug from under any man’s resolve.
The notion of stalking didn’t exist in the mid-70s, and when combined with his daily leering, Travis’s directness would probably qualify as such. But Betsy is impressed by his nerve, especially his accurate response to her challenge of why she should accept- namely that she’s lonely. Being played by Robert de Niro, he also cuts a swarthily chiselled figure, by comparison with her nerdy, bespectacled co-worker, who glares jealously on. Crucially, while she deliberates over his response to her challenge "why ?", he admits briefly to how it ain’t easy for him standin’ here- so he has guts but not arrogance.
Compare this with another, more recent, film example, this time shown to be a good one, from the end of "Roger Dodger". Whilst attempting to instruct his 16-year-old nephew Nick in the ways of New York womanising, silver-tongued advertising exec Roger realises that his style has finally collapsed into arrogant confrontation, brought on by rejection by a woman he actually loves- not only that, she’s his boss. In the film’s final scene, he visits Nick in his Ohio hometown and sits with him and his friends in their high-school canteen. He elicits the name of the girl they all lust after and asks how they might think of approaching her. No response ensues, so he suggests the following strategy- walk up to her and tell her, Angela, I notice you every day, but every time I try to approach you I get so nervous that I can’t. So I wonder if we could go for a soda and just talk.
Naturally, Angela’s response to this brave but honest approach would depend on what kind of girl she is. After his uncle has left, Nick turns around to find that, on his way out, Roger has sent her over to him to hear something that "will really blow her mind". But we never do hear his answer or her reaction, as the end freeze-frames over him opening his mouth in reply. Maybe he adopts this strategy, though judging from his expression, he’s probably about to deliver one of the killer chat-up lines that Roger forced him to improvise earlier in the film. Women like a GSOH as well as good looks, bravado and vulnerability, you see.
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