First Things First

Happy 2004!  This month's update features the traditional monthly updates.  Elsewhere, which you are reading now, is a good read.  I also added two more pictures to the color section of Vista Drive.  Don't forget that American Bliss, the magazine, was updated December 22nd.  Go check it out, it's good to read.

Afterthoughts : Staring Contest

Years ago I had a crush on this girl that worked at Bullock's department store.  She was about 5' 7", with black hair, and a very pretty face.

I would often take my mother to the local Bullock's, to do some shopping.  My mother loved to look for bargains.  Who doesn't.  Not me, as it turned out.  I wasn't very thrilled about having to go to the store, so I would often take a book with me to read.  I got the biggest book I could find, something like 1,500 pages, and found a seat at the store.  They had some really nice big, plush, chairs for all the guys to sit on while the women shopped.  I would often sit on a nice big chair near the escalators.

One time, while looking up from my book, I saw this girl with a beautiful face, and with huge eyes.  I know she didn't see me, but I sure saw her.  I thought she was just a client.  I knew that wasn't the case when I went back a week later for more reading and saw her again.  This time she was fixing a rack of clothes to make it look nice.

In the weeks to come I found myself less interested in the book I was so eager to read.  I found myself reading the same passage over and over again, because I would try to catch a glimpse of this girl.  I would strain my ears to try to overhear the conversation she would have with another clerk.  I didn't move from that page for weeks.  By this time she had noticed me as well.  How could she not notice the guy that would sit in the chair weekend after weekend with the big dictionary sized book in his hands, always looking up at her.

More than once I eyes would meet in a uncomfortable middleground.  She was older than me, and I was too shy to attempt to talk to her.  Perhaps today it would be a different story.  But, back then all I could muster was a shy look, and when caught, a turn of the head back to my book.

During one conversation I overheard someone call her, Ann.  From that moment on she had a name, but no voice.  My ears never heard her say much.  Just words masked in distance, and the sounds of people walking by me with bags full of clothing.

It took me over two years to read that book.  Mostly because for the better part of that time I hardly read anything when I was in the store.  We stopped going to that store as often, and when we did it was only a quick trip.  Almost never enough time to sit in my old spot.  I still saw Ann, but not as often.  Then, one day I didn't see her, and I never saw her again.

I hadn't thought of her in years, until I right before writing this story.  I wonder where she is now.  I wondered so many things about her, like what she was like.  Was she shy, like me?  Was she nice?  I'll never know.

Editorial : No Growth

You know what my problem with 'singers' such as Britney Spears and those boy bands is?  The fact that they come fully formed.  Thought the years I've heard many great artist grow as artists.  However, these new made-up singers come out with album after album with the same music.  Same sound, same themes, and same everything, album after album.  There's never a new sound, a new style, a new anything.  It's the same thing over and over again.  Sometimes they will change the style around to fit what's in, but never, ever, do they push the envelope and develop something that is new.  They are followers, like the people who listen to them.  They wish only to sell the most albums, the most tickets, and the most T-shirts.  The music is an afterthought, just another of the cogs in the wheel of stardom.  That is why these so-called singers come out with a variety of merchandise.  From clothing lines, to key chains, it's all about squeezing as much money out of the public's pockets as possible.  It's never about good music.  It's a business made to create stars that are omnipresent, ubiquitous.  This is done to sell the main product, junk.  Junk that's going to rot away in some closet.

Etcetera : Ikiru

 This month the Criterion Collection label released perhaps Akira Kurosawa's greatest film, Ikiru.  Kurosawa is best known for such movies as the epic Seven Samurai, and Rashomon.  Between the release of those two better known Kurosawa films there was Ikiru, the story of a Japanese bureaucrat who spent his entire working life doing nothing but warming his seat.  I don't wish to have a play by play of the movie, because it would not do the movie justice.  Ikiru is much more than a movie, it's an experience.  I first saw Ikiru years ago.  I would go to the video store, and pass it over for other movies.  Finally, one night, I decided to take a chance on it.  I had seen other Kurosawa films, and loved each of them.  Little did I know then that a movie could change my way of thinking, and my way of life.  Because Ikiru is a film that delves deep into what makes us human.  It explores what makes our lives worthwhile, and what makes them empty.  This is not a throwaway, forget it five seconds after you've watched it, kind of movie.  It is a film of unequaled beauty, sadness, and redemption.  Because in Ikiru we can find that which we can redeem ourselves.  We find the key to what each of us can do to both better the world, and better ourselves.  That is no small feat for a film.  I hope that each of you out there find the time to see this wonderful film.  It is not a film you will soon forget.  If you are like me, you will find that it will resonate throughout the rest of your life.