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Brief Recaps

It is amazing how interesting the internet becomes when there is studying to be done.

If I recall correctly, I last posted here one week ago. Since then, I turned in my analysis of In re Kayla N and met with my editor regarding my main piece, toured Rhode Island (with relatively brief stints in Mass and Connecticut) with S and her mother, viewed multiple movies and read a book (and some other stuff). I've also tried to squeeze in a brief mental vacation so that I can roar into finals and mentally rip into exams like a lion to a gazelle. It's more likely I'll end up some sort of scavenging cheetah thing though.

Highlights:

The last day of class, instead of a substantive class in ConLaw we played ConLaw Jeopardy. I had the great fortune of being on a team with a fellow with instantaneous recall as to ConLaw matters, so we handily won DVD copies of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (which, unfortunately, I've NOT yet watched).

Our charming guest in the apartment seemed to quite enjoy touring Providence, and I was glad to indulge and get to look at some parts of our fair city with fresh eyes once again. It is a pretty nice place.

In touring, I had tried to visit a park S and I had stumbled across forever ago when we were searching for apartments. Failing to find it for our guest, I somehow stumbled across it yesterday, perched on College Hill and overlooking the majority of the city, like the view from the Duomo in Firenze. Also quite nice.

A Prairie Home Companion
Despite my stint in Minnesota, I have yet to hear the radio show; the movie was apparently a strange mixture of departure from and adherence to the character of the show. I have to say, I found it a rather middling movie, but somewhat charming (perhaps as a reflection Keilor's manner of speech). All in all, it might best be described as a dark look at a musical variety show as an example of the death of a quainter and more pleasant era, perhaps with some consideration that the era was not actually as quaint and pleasant as it seemed.

Water
An excellent but depressing treatment of widows in India, framed around an eight year old widow, sent to live in a widows' colony, and a twentysomething widow forced to prostitute herself to support the colony, whom the young girl befriends. My extremely high regard for a movie I have described in a light that would likely not entice me to view is, I hope, a reflection of just how good it is, with excellent acting and shots which I might describe as lush were that not a cop-out word for Indian scenery.

Me and You and Everyone We Know
A fun movie to watch with a future mother in law, given its frank presentation of teenage sexual exploration; that, however, is not its focus. I don't know that I would describe it quite as superlatively as, say, Roger Ebert does, but I would certainly recommend it as a curious look at modern American society, and (as every review I've read states explicitly) an examination of people's struggles to connect in a kind of broken-down, distrustful suburbia. The main framing is a disjointed love story between a soon-to-be divorced man raising two sons and a struggling artist...intriguing? Why, yes.

Room Temperature by Nicholson Baker
I might have read once before but most of it was so fresh to me that I think I must have just read passages. Perfect for me in my life now, as Baker ruminates on the early days of cohabitation and marriage (though the focus here is on his infant daughter, which I suppose makes my earlier citation to perfection incorrect, given that babies are certainly not in my present or immediate future) in his beautifully precise and thoughtful prose.

I also re-read my comps paper the other day. I had forgotten how fun the topic is, and I think downplayed the persuasiveness of the argument in my mind, because I actually found myself somewhat convincing. It's also amazing how much classical knowledge (both substantive and procedural, e.g. historiographical methods) has been slipping from me lately; perhaps it is merely latent.

Finally, the Eagles might be readying themselves for a playoff run? I am so mixed up right now; I don't know where my relationship with this team stands. They've hurt me before so I'm tentative about throwing my whole heart and soul in with them, but I just can't keep away from them--we'll see how things go.

Well, that's probably more than ample procrastination. To work.