Happy Thoughts

How life does sweep me away in its current... last night T and I were scrolling through the "on demand" free movie options on our too many choices TV box and decided to give the 90's "Hook" a shot. Who can really pass up a Robin Williams tale, especially if the theme is Peter Pan?! We didn't actually make it to the end (we got sleepy) but there were a few things that were quite striking!

For one thing, the sets were real. This movie was made enough before the time of digital everything in modern movies, and it was so refreshinging! I will never cease to be amazed by what my fellow humans can build. The set of the lost boy's tree house was so shockingly cool that we both got all woozy wishing we could build one just like it in our backyard. Also, Captian Hook's ship (who I believe was played by Denis Hoffman!?) was a set marvel with wonderful details all over the place. The actors were trilling around in this magical made-up kindom of imagination that was an actual place in some movie lot somewhere! It is so much more fun to watch them in that environment! Much similar to "Aeon FLux"-- a film that was shot in Berlin. Upon first view of this incarnation of Aeon's story (having been a big fan of the liguid television version when I was in High School) I was really struck by the atmosphere of the settings, though I was sure they were all computer generated. But when I learned that they were real places in a city I have long wished to see for myself I was doubly struck by the coolness of it all. Certainly "Aeon Flux" was a digitalized version of Berlin-- while "Hook" was movie magic old school-- they have in common the transformative allure that happens when a story is being told in a real place. All this action packed, digital mumbo jumbo in the virtual world of a computerized scene is fun (don't get me wrong, I just watched "Across the Universe" and was really touched by the whole thing)-- but I crave real sets!

I guess this seems like a silly thing to blog about-- especially as it has been so damn long since I wrote one-- but that is about where my head is at these days. There just seems to be so fcuking much to do all the time (school, future, house, maintanence of the modern life, etc...) that talking about a really impressive set (or setting) in a movie is actually more interesting. I mean I really coud have edited a poem last night, or reckoned the checkbook, or found an outfit for the Island wedding in April-- these all would have been more effective uses of my time last night. But is this not the exact lesson of the Peter Pan saga? Somedays you need to just engage what is enjoyable about life. As Joesph Campbell says: We can reckon the meaning later-- right now it's all about the experience!