so if i wasn’t feeling disconnected enough my entire hosting service has gone kaput today. no web page no emails – it’s raining and i don’t feel like doing anything so i thought i’d try my luck at one of these internet cafes that’s all the rage with the kids these days.
I’ve finally moved in to my new place and i am begining to feel like a real person again.. sorta. these french keyboards are a bit weird which is also disconcerting. it takes me forever to do little things. funny that languge is so damn important. who’d a thunk it?! buying a mop this week has been quite a challenge. you can’t buy a whole mop here; you have to buy the stick; then the bottom piece; then the friggin cloth. i think i have evrything finally – all thats left is the assembly. jeez it would take less effort to get down on my hands and knees and lick the damn floor clean.
well the typing aggravation is too much here – and i cant even post this so i’m outta here.
i need a damn drink.
ok – advice to fellow websfroggers (yeah i jus made that shit up – i was going for something that sounded a bit like Robespierre and i was thinking of him.. god knows why). If yer gonna use a browser sniffer, make sure you’ve left room for more than just evil IE and narly netscape. there is a small but strong group of us who do things our own way. Let Us In!
I went and saw Apocalypse Now Redux (courtesy of the chopping block) at my local french art movie house. In France they are all art movie houses (rad). It has almost an hour of new footage and weighs in at apx three and half hours now. Luckily the seats in the theater are wayyyy comfy (rad). The thing cost me 25FRF (apx $3USD) owing to me being under 25 yrs (fucking rad). The last time i saw Apocalypse Now it was on video on a 14″ TV in a teeny and sweltering east village closet… err.. apt that i lived in one summer. Far different viewing experiences. But both were scary and claustrophobic in a way. This time was better, way better. Also when you’ve been struggling to communicate in a foreign language, seeing a film in good-ole-american is a breath of fresh air, kinda.
I think Apocalypse Now is brilliant. The new scenes are really perfect too. I thought since it had been nearly 5 years since i had last seen it i wouldn’t be able to distinguish the new stuff. But it’s a testament to how good it was the first time around that i remembered every part that i had seen before.
It was hard to not pay attention to the subtitles so i tried to use it as a french exercise. I learned a couple new words, which i have promptly forgotten. I was mostly struck by how shitty subtitles are. One particularly egregious example, when Robert Duvall asks how one of the gunners on his helicopters is feeling before they go out and blow a Vietnamese village to dust, he replies, “Like a mean mutherfucker, SIR!” The subtitle translation is “Ca Va!”
grr… it can only mean worse for English subtitles. I better light a fire under my french.
Anyway, it was a hard movie to see alone. Three and half hours and then no one to have a stiff drink and talk it over with. It was late Sunday night so i wasn’t inclined to take my chances alone somewhere. I like seeing movies alone usually, but this one was tough. It certainly is getting a bit lonely out here i must confess. I’ll leave the more artistic discussions of the film for a night out over a coupla stiff drinks. But on a personal note the film made me miss two things kind of poignantly. The first is Burning Man which i will be unable to attend this year due to severe distance. But to be frank, i was kind of waiting for an excuse to skip it because last year’s weather really took a toll on me, and i think i camped in a situation that was really less than ideal for me. The movie is, of course, like a big acid trip. Which makes sense since from what i’ve read, practically everyone involved was tripping balls the entire time. And anyway, sheeet, i wanna go play in the crazy scary trippy desert, wah!
The second is men. Lots of sweaty macho male bodies in this one obviously. It’s been a long time that I’ve been single now, actually the longest since I first started dating. And there’s something about guys really. The physical differences, i miss it. The square shoulders, the curve of biceps, an icing of chesthair… If only they weren’t such a goddamn pain!
On that note, a bietot! I might work a bit now. more later, mes amis.
well – i’ve been curiously absent here. partly because my thoughts have been kind of incoherent lately and partly because i have the urge to bitch a little bit, but pretty much everyone in my life reads this (even if just occasionally), and i am beginning to catch some heat from things i say. hmm it’s a hard one…
so obviously one of the biggest challenges here is the language. it’s totally changing my personality. the men here are fucking relentless. one particularly persistent creature followed me home on the bus the other day. he was sayin all sortsa stupid shit like, “i can see in your eyes you are a really romantic person.” and when i shot him my step-off look he said that my resistance was a cultural thing. ordinarily, i have a hundred and one snappy retorts for lines like this, but in my present language-impaired state, i was transformed into a mute. on the bus, he leaned in real close and asked me if i believed in god. obviously i start cracking up. he said, “is that a no?” me, speachless… oh let me also point out that he stank sooooo bad. fellas, if you’re gonna go out and shamelessly hit on a girl, it’s imperative that you bathe at least once that week. and eat a friggin breath mint! sheesh. also today at the bus stop this other stinky guy came over and started in with the “je te trouve tres charmante” bit. this is the standard line, i gather. this time i was prepared and told him i didn’t want to talk. after repeating that apx 6 times he wandered back into whatever hole he came from. am i sounding bitchy? i think i’m compensating for the sweet shy girl this country mistakes me for.
i miss smart-ass neille!
meanwhile, i have a renewed vigor for gnutella. did i mention i looooove the new aaliyah. also i found a bunch of tracks off the latest common album and also Talib Kweli who used to be in Blackstar. both got more bump than acne (tee hee). i have some samples in the downloads section. help yourself.
in the meanwhile – i’m going to drop some stuff at the new pad. i move tomorrow morning and i can not wait!
ok – i’ve officially purged my desktop of microsoft products. wow that feels good. now if i can just persuade the world to abandon excel and powerpoint..
ok – i am officially renouncing all MS products. i’ll be damned if explorer or outlook crashes my mac one more goddamn time. i’m already down with opera. and if that’s too weird, i have no problem with netscape 6. now does anyone know of a good e-mail client for a mac (with no ads!!!) that’s free or… err.. easily “borrowed”?
ok the new Aaliyah is totally hot. I can’t say it better than user Elmatic in his RS review (scroll down):“This album is off the hizzy.”
other music i’m investigating:
Aaliyah has a new album out
I really loved One in a Million. Actually I listened to it non-stop the last time I was in Paris, so…
CNN.com – Congressman seeks ethics rule regarding interns – July 27, 2001
notable quotable: said he would ask the House ethics committee to draft a rule making it clear that sexual relationships between interns and members of Congress are unethical.
next they should draft a rule making it clear that members of congress should not have sex with their pets. anything but maybe working on our bullshit healthcare system, or campaign finance reform. jeez. everything is irritating me today.
New Angeles Monthly, June 2008
Weekend America, March 30, 2008
Los Angeles Times, March 13, 2008
Los Angeles Times, March 6, 2008
Nil by Mouth is written by Neille Ilel. Neille is a writer, reporter and user interface specialist in Los Angeles. If you think that's a lot, she's also got a host of meandering sidelines including improv comedy, tennis, cooking, drawing and thinking about learning to play the guitar.
Nil is her given name. It's a long story.
E-mail her here:
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