Winding Down

On the last day of my staycation, I plan to do laundry.  I am an excitable one, aren't I?  Not having to go to work, I've spent most of the past 7 days wearing sweats.  Comfy, eh?  That's the idea.  I had planned on getting more running and cycling in... well, they didn't happen as much as I had hoped.  Keep in mind, flexibility is essential for survival.  Things narrow when you strictly follow a regime excluding chance or choice.  I know people who are rigid and unbending and wonder how they can live a life so void of opportunity.

Anyway, I don't know if Maddie's entry yesterday on scrotox influenced me or not, but yesterday afternoon I made meatballs.

I've also spend quite a bit of time working on the final draft of The Body in the Loch.  I like to think my books are a cross between Hitchcock an Christie.  This one is a bit different, however, more like Hitchcock turns Downton Abbey into a thriller.

And, of course, I have been thinking about the next book.  Right off the bat there are certain things I need to exclude:  water, snakes, towers, museums, ghost towns... oh, and tango dancers.  I might go artsy, with a touch of art deco.  One of the titles flitting around in my head is The Body in Repose, sort of like a still life painting... with a little murder.

The impeachment is in the process of wrapping up.  Trumps idiot defense team took all of 3 hours to lie.  Either today or tomorrow the Senate will vote on his guilt or innocense.  Most think they already know the outcome.  During this trial we've seen Republican Senators doodle, and dawdle, and even disappear from time to time.  These Republicans believe many of America's voters have a short term memory, that by the time the 2022 election rolls around they will have forgotten January 6.  They really don't give Americans much credit, do they?  Niki Haley, however, is breaking ranks.  She understands that the far right, the MAGA heads, will never vote for a woman, so she's setting her sights on all those dissatisfied, moderate Republicans.  Breaking with Trump will give her some advantage, however, her socially conservative background is a big hindrance since American now realizes that without Social Conservatives, there would never have been a Trump in the White House. 

Uncomfortable

Well, it's Wednesday and it's still snowing.... still.  The dogs are loving it.  They run around outside and when they come in I drive them off with a big, green fluffy towel.  They love that, too.
"Vertigo" is playing at my local AMC this evening - I'd like to go but probably will skip the show.  Not because of the snow, more because the last time I watched it I found it uncomfortably creepy.  Jimmie Stewart stalking Kim Novak while mentally unraveling.  The way he dresses her up like the dead Madelaine, where she's just a shadow of what he's looking for.

Her business suit is actually grey, the green light is from a neon light outside the hotel room

And Hitchcock lit that scene in squeamish green, a favorite color of his in this film.  "Vertigo" is considered his masterpiece, and many consider it the best film ever made.  He forces your eyes to move, to focus on the specifics he wants you to see.  Look at how he frames Kim Novak over, and over, and over again.

Anyway, the Idiot Jerk in the White House congratulate the dictator of Russia for winning another phony election.  And, of course, Sarah Scumbag tried to put some sort of spin on it, as did his supporters.  Interestingly enough, only a very small percentage of Americans feel he's leading the country in the right direction.  And that number seems to be sliding downward.  Oh, and I see that an ex-playboy bunny is getting in on the lawsuit action - another one he had to pay to keep her mouth shut.  Oh, my.  His reprehensibility just seems to be growing, and growing.  And evidently people are beginning to quit Faux News, calling the network a "propaganda machine" for the Idiot Jerk.  Oh, dear me.  This is sooooo uncomfortably funny.

Vertigo = Number 1

Since 1962 (a long time ago) Citizen Kane has been considered the best movie of all time.  In this classic, Orson Welles made cinematic history with innovative camera shots, unconventional story telling, and set a precedent by thinly veiling an unauthorized biography of William Randolph Hearst.  Over the years, however, other films have slowly inched their way either up or down that ladder; time always tells.  Now, Citizen Kane has been knocked down a rung and finds itself in the number two position.  What replaced it?  Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo.

I have to say I am in full agreement.  While I've liked Citizen Kane and have seen it 3 or 4 times I have always seen it as a demonstration of innovative genius rather then cinematic genius.  Vertigo, on the other hand, has fascinated me ever since I saw it on TV as a child.  Back then I thought it was just "wow" without any understanding of the psychology involved.  In my twenties, I watched it again and realized it was not just about one man's fear of heights.  I began understanding the psychology involved.  The word "obsession" began entering my vocabulary when I talked about it with friends, while we postulated the differences between obsession and mental illness since this film is about both.  I watched it again a few years ago and must say there are times in it when I felt truly uncomfortable most especially the scene where James Stewart dresses up Kim Novak as the dead Madeleine.  

This scene creeped me out so badly I almost got up and walked out the room because at that moment  I realized just how crazy James Stewart's Scottie had become and like the police officer who falls to his death in the beginning, Scottie has stepped off the roof of reality.