Failed Film-Goer

Few beings as sad and dejected - in this status quotidian American kakocracy - as the frustrated audient, wannabe audience member, turned away from a sold-out show. This then was my humbling experience today at the Berlin and Beyond Festival when I arrived a half-hour before the screening of DOWNFALL, with Bruno Ganz in a controversial depiction of the last days of Adolf Hitler. Ganz is one of my favorite actors, but in classic slacker fashion I failed to obtain a ticket in advance and faced the predictable consequences for this negligence. Not the first, and won't be the last time I'm turned away from a capacity theater crowd. Some of the down-est days of my life have involved being so turned away, but this was only a minor self-annoyance.

At least I received the bad news from friends. They were waiting hopelessly in line, but seemed resolved to not getting in themselves. Perhaps I should joined them in an optimistic but likely futile exercise in radical patience. But I did not even finish locking my bike. The sun was setting and with the rain in abeyance it was at last good riding weather.

On route home, I saw an all too common sign of superfluity and excess: an abandoned living room couch cluttering the sidewalk. The graffiti behind it was a poignant but enigmatic scrawl. If I can figure out how to, will link to a picture of this bit of waterlogged ejecta.

Bowling with Cherry

Call from my friend Cherry to wish me happy new year, and to schedule lunch for when we are both at our respective jobs in Berkeley. Next week some time.

She tells of her blog at bowlofcherry.blogspot.com. I check it out, and am suitably impressed. Good way to ventilate holiday issues, and other issues of the day by writing about them in an online medium. In c-space we might all hear each other dream.

As a long-time futurist, late-blooming early adopter, I am way overdue to end my days sans blog. Here it is then, one of many "probes" - as McLuhan might have called them. Queue e-D!