The Private Eyes (1980) -- Lang Elliott
There's something unsettling seeing an aged Don Knotts. Forget that he lived another 26 years after The Private Eyes was shot, he just seems like he lost his vitality in the 15-odd years since The Andy Griffith Show (this is based on watching The Apple Dumpling Gang recently, too). Still, there's something about his presence I find soothing.
The Private Eyes was written by and co-stars Tim Conway and I feel like I want to be easier on it because I like Conway so much (and Knotts for that matter). It's not hugely funny, though it has its moments. The movie largely feels like it plays things safe in the name of appealing to mass audiences. It's very silly, but not in a Monty Python way and it parodies Agatha Christie stories, but not in a very clever way.
Still, I look back fondly on The Private Eyes. It's the little things. It's fun to see Deputy Fife and Malcolm Merriweather reunited and there's a recurring joke dealing with death notes that never made me laugh but somehow makes me smile every time I think back on it. The Private Eyes is the definition of a breezy, light, mildly forgettable comedy that I would recommend if you like the actors.
As a side note, The Private Eyes features the worst animated credit sequence I've ever seen.
Night of the Living Dead (1990) -- Tom Savini
What surprised me most about this remake of Night of the Living Dead is that even though Tom Savini directed it, there's still a lot of cutaway violence. Don't get me wrong, there's some good gore and makeup effects, but rarely do we get a view of a zombie bludgeoning. This might lie more in the ratings board's hands than Savini's
I get the sense that there are many horror fans believe this to be a vastly underrated movie, and while it's better than I expected, it lacks the tension and atmosphere of the original. Unfortunately, they stick pretty close to the original script (with some minor tweaks, mostly at the end), so if you've seen Night of the Living Dead '68, you've seen this and little is added by the color, which leaves us with the special effects.
I'm not sure if this is true, but I read that the original crew was used and the movie was basically remade so they could make money on it since the first one wasn't copyrighted properly. At least they didn't half-ass things. The cast is pretty good (love Tony Todd) and my only qualm in that area is the angry husband who is almost a cartoon.
Personal anecdote: Before I'd ever seen the original, I caught the opening scene of the remake on TV late one night while alone in my room. It scared the shit out of me and I turned the channel the moment Barbara's brother's head hit the grave stone.
The Wolf Man (1941) -- George Waggner
Lon Chaney is a beast of a man. I don't know why I never noticed how tall he is or maybe it was accentuated by his standing next to the diminutive Claude Rains, but damn, he's big!
It's amazing how quickly these old monster movies fly by. Larry Talbot arrives in town, acts like a lecherous creep, talks about wolves, and is bitten all within ten minutes. It's a remarkable pace. I particularly enjoy the way The Wolf Man messes with Larry's mind and one of the strongest traits of werewolves in the genre is that they don't know/can't control/genuinely hate being a werewolf. There's a lot of sympathy to be had for these creatures.
There are some weird inconsistencies, like why did Bela turn into an actual wolf, but Larry becomes a man-wolf hybrid or why does he strangle his victims, but those are minor complaints about an effective movie. When I think about these old horror movies, I don't actually think of them as scary, but I can totally see someone getting creeped out by this, especially if his or her age is right (look out, Ollie!).
Lastly, I want to play in the foggy forest set. That rules.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Response to a Facebook Conversation
I don't know how to put multiple functional link in a Facebook post, so I'm responding here. I promise it won't be too long.
I'll cede the point on Kimberly's comment since it is a brought generalization about close to half the population. That said, there is certainly a push from the (Christian) conservative side for abstinence-only education. After a quick internet search for sources to back this claim, I could only find websites that are inherently biased one way or another for each side of the story. I don't think it's any surprise that, ultimately, education is the best way to delay sex or practice in it a safe way (the abstinence-only class in this study apparently did not tell people to wait until marriage and did not have an anti-condom/birth control bias). Even more than the availability of birth control, I believe that the biggest step is making sure people get a solid sexual education foundation from a younger age so that they can make educated decisions about sex.
Certainly, I agree with you that the government has limited rights as what they can force people to do (and I suspect that you might say they have no right), but I doubt it would go so far as to forcing people to take birth control. True, Oregon was sterilizing people 30-years ago, but the practice was halted and I have serious doubts that any American state could get away with something like that even if they wanted to. It's pretty rare that changes in civil rights move backwards.
In addition to what the linked article says about there being fewer births and fewer abortions, the subject of what happens to the children once they are born isn't brought up. You mention the tax payers subsidizing free birth control, but what about the cost of raising these kids? Especially the children of poor families? Certainly that is a tax concern.
Education and access are going to be the two determining factors in this discussion. If what this study is showing is factual (because, as we know, there is always more to be learned from studies and the results must be repeatable), then it seems like a great compromise. Hopefully, abortions go down (they will never go away, even if made illegal) and birth control usage goes up (including IUDs, which are more reliable). And I'm more than happy to carry my share of the tax burden for something that might help society. In fact, the government can just shift some of the taxes I pay to the military to this and I'd be quite satisfied.
Thanks for responding, John. I appreciate your well-reasoned ideas and don't even entirely disagree with your conclusions.
I'll cede the point on Kimberly's comment since it is a brought generalization about close to half the population. That said, there is certainly a push from the (Christian) conservative side for abstinence-only education. After a quick internet search for sources to back this claim, I could only find websites that are inherently biased one way or another for each side of the story. I don't think it's any surprise that, ultimately, education is the best way to delay sex or practice in it a safe way (the abstinence-only class in this study apparently did not tell people to wait until marriage and did not have an anti-condom/birth control bias). Even more than the availability of birth control, I believe that the biggest step is making sure people get a solid sexual education foundation from a younger age so that they can make educated decisions about sex.
Certainly, I agree with you that the government has limited rights as what they can force people to do (and I suspect that you might say they have no right), but I doubt it would go so far as to forcing people to take birth control. True, Oregon was sterilizing people 30-years ago, but the practice was halted and I have serious doubts that any American state could get away with something like that even if they wanted to. It's pretty rare that changes in civil rights move backwards.
In addition to what the linked article says about there being fewer births and fewer abortions, the subject of what happens to the children once they are born isn't brought up. You mention the tax payers subsidizing free birth control, but what about the cost of raising these kids? Especially the children of poor families? Certainly that is a tax concern.
Education and access are going to be the two determining factors in this discussion. If what this study is showing is factual (because, as we know, there is always more to be learned from studies and the results must be repeatable), then it seems like a great compromise. Hopefully, abortions go down (they will never go away, even if made illegal) and birth control usage goes up (including IUDs, which are more reliable). And I'm more than happy to carry my share of the tax burden for something that might help society. In fact, the government can just shift some of the taxes I pay to the military to this and I'd be quite satisfied.
Thanks for responding, John. I appreciate your well-reasoned ideas and don't even entirely disagree with your conclusions.
Monday, October 8, 2012
Halloween Horror Watch #2
Howling (2012)-- Ha Yoo
I hadn't heard of this until recently and only added it to my Netflix queue because Kang-ho Song, perhaps my favorite actor, stars. I could watch him in just about anything. Just last night, I Song-ed up my queue. He's amazing.
Going in, I was expecting a werewolf movie based on the title and the description. But no. There's a part-dog, part-wolf going around systematically killing people. Howling is OK and for a while it seems like it's going to have some big comment on male culture and a woman's place on the job in South Korea, but those themes drift away as the plot picks up. For the first hour, I was way more interested in the new female detective's experience than the actual plot of the movie. This was a good thing. Check it out if you like Korean cinema or Kang-ho Song (if you watch on Instant View, you have to use your computer so you can activate the subtitles).
V/H/S (2012) -- various
This is an anthology film most notable for Ti West and Joe Swanberg's involvement. It's a piece of shit. I made it through about an hour until I bailed because it wasn't worth getting motion sick watching a bunch of unlikeable people do unlikeable things then get killed. Plus, I correctly guessed the ending of the overarching story before the first short began, so I feel vindicated in not wasting my time.
A group of douchebags break into a home looking for a specific VHS that someone will pay good money for. In the search for it, they watch a series of tapes. These are our shorts. Oh, the douchebags tape everything they do, so the screen is constantly erratically moving and the shorts are similarly shot. It really bugs me that most of the shorts are shown to be shot on some type of digital device, yet someone took the time to transfer them to VHS. This is a stupid movie and I waste of Ti West's skills as a director (his main strengths are his control of the camera and his patience with storytelling, elements completely absent from movie). Lastly, it's not scary.
Die, Monster, Die! (1965) -- Daniel Haller
It's German for "The, Monster, The!" Daniel Haller was a set designer for loads of American International films and this was his first as director. It's based on the Lovecraft story, "The Colour Out of Space," though it only loosely follows it. As with many AI movies, it's good, but the advertising and aesthetics are the best parts. I love seeing Boris Karloff* in anything and it's been great discovering him in non-Frankenstein's monster/Mummy parts. I wonder if Bela Lugosi was ever jealous that Karloff's career continued with moderate success after the Universal monster movies. At least the film offered Suzan Farmer to crush on for an hour and twenty minutes.
*Apparently, he was 5'11". I'm taller than Frankenstein's monster!
I hadn't heard of this until recently and only added it to my Netflix queue because Kang-ho Song, perhaps my favorite actor, stars. I could watch him in just about anything. Just last night, I Song-ed up my queue. He's amazing.
Going in, I was expecting a werewolf movie based on the title and the description. But no. There's a part-dog, part-wolf going around systematically killing people. Howling is OK and for a while it seems like it's going to have some big comment on male culture and a woman's place on the job in South Korea, but those themes drift away as the plot picks up. For the first hour, I was way more interested in the new female detective's experience than the actual plot of the movie. This was a good thing. Check it out if you like Korean cinema or Kang-ho Song (if you watch on Instant View, you have to use your computer so you can activate the subtitles).
V/H/S (2012) -- various
This is an anthology film most notable for Ti West and Joe Swanberg's involvement. It's a piece of shit. I made it through about an hour until I bailed because it wasn't worth getting motion sick watching a bunch of unlikeable people do unlikeable things then get killed. Plus, I correctly guessed the ending of the overarching story before the first short began, so I feel vindicated in not wasting my time.
A group of douchebags break into a home looking for a specific VHS that someone will pay good money for. In the search for it, they watch a series of tapes. These are our shorts. Oh, the douchebags tape everything they do, so the screen is constantly erratically moving and the shorts are similarly shot. It really bugs me that most of the shorts are shown to be shot on some type of digital device, yet someone took the time to transfer them to VHS. This is a stupid movie and I waste of Ti West's skills as a director (his main strengths are his control of the camera and his patience with storytelling, elements completely absent from movie). Lastly, it's not scary.
Die, Monster, Die! (1965) -- Daniel Haller
It's German for "The, Monster, The!" Daniel Haller was a set designer for loads of American International films and this was his first as director. It's based on the Lovecraft story, "The Colour Out of Space," though it only loosely follows it. As with many AI movies, it's good, but the advertising and aesthetics are the best parts. I love seeing Boris Karloff* in anything and it's been great discovering him in non-Frankenstein's monster/Mummy parts. I wonder if Bela Lugosi was ever jealous that Karloff's career continued with moderate success after the Universal monster movies. At least the film offered Suzan Farmer to crush on for an hour and twenty minutes.
*Apparently, he was 5'11". I'm taller than Frankenstein's monster!
Friday, October 5, 2012
October Horror Movie Watch
A year ago, I watched 31+ horror movies and wrote reviews of each and everyone. It was a lot of fun and I felt like the reviews trended upwards in quality. Unfortunately, I don't have the same amount of time to dedicate to watching and writing about movies this October (something about working more and having a son). Still, reading various friends Twitter and blog posts about what they're watching made me feel left out, so I'll updating this (neglected) space with the titles I'm digesting and a few words about them. This post is to get us all up to speed.
The Innocents (1961) -- Jack Clayton
An adaptation of Henry James' Turn of the Screw, The Innocents combines three of my favorite horror genres: haunted house, creepy kids, and decent into madness. The film is quite slow and Andrea couldn't make it to the end (the Sandman punched her in the face), but it's got beautiful photography by Freddie Francis and a foreboding atmosphere throughout. Horror the classy way.
This trailer is deeply misleading:
Fright Night (1985) -- Tom Holland
I watched this a few years ago, rated it two stars (out of five) yet somehow wound up owning it and not selling it in any of my various DVD purges. Boy, am I glad I kept it. On second viewing, I found Fright Night to be immensely entertaining. It's kind of weird to classify because it's not very scary and it's not very funny (though it has its moments). What Fright Night does well is create a believable and interesting situation with some decent characters and runs with it. Also, the ending is spectacular, featuring lots of great practical effects. I'd love a double feature of this with The 'Burbs.
Parents (1989) -- Bob Balaban
I was drawn to Parents primarily because I love Bob Balaban, but I'd never (knowingly) seen anything he'd directed nor do I associate him with horror. This movie falls into the Fright Night category of being neither scary nor particularly funny, but adept at holding one's attention. In some ways, Parents feels like a Tim Burton movie without the flights of fancy. Randy Quaid is great and it legitimately makes me sad to think of his late career and recent woes. The man was nominated for an Oscar, for christ's sake! I blame the National Lampoon Vacation movies. Definitely worth checking out.
Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998) -- Don Coscarelli
I'm a big fan of the Phantasm series and Don Coscarelli (stoked for John Dies in the End!), but this was a piece of shit. It doesn't feel like anyone's hearts were in it. There are bizarre attempts at humor that fall flat, generally coming from the typically solid Reggie Bannister (who supplies a awful end credits song). There's little suspense or horror because the movie feels entirely confused. If I didn't know any better (and I do), they only made this in order to highlight the "iv" in "Oblivion" to make the Roman Numeral "IV." Not even completists should waste their time.
The Orb boobs were pretty fun, though.
The Lost World (1925) -- Harry Hoyt
Basically, King Kong before King Kong. An expedition to a mysterious land. Encounters with prehistoric creatures. Bring one home. It gets loose and kills a lot of people. That doesn't make it any less fun than it's more famous imitator. The stop motion effects are pretty awesome and I love that it's a brontosaurus (which, hey!, doesn't exist) on a rampage. The effects are all the more impressive when you realize that this was released eight years before King Kong. If there's one fault with the movie, it's that the characters a basically vessels to get to the spectacle and have little resonance (and in their effort to create interest in the characters, they have our engaged hero become engaged to another woman when it doesn't look like they'll make it off the plateau [which Paradise Falls from Up is modeled after], yet when they do return, it seems like our hero is going to shaft his initial fiancee after all).
Monday, September 24, 2012
A Message to My Football Loving Friends
It's becoming increasingly popular to hate on the NFL replacement refs. Do a quick Deadspin search for "replacement refs" and you'll see the current state of public opinion (for some reason, it won't let me link to my search, so you'll have to actually do some typing. Sorry). I don't care about football of any kind, so I feel completely comfortable and unbiased in proclaiming a solution to this problem. If you want the regular refs to come back, you need to stop watching professional football.
There is absolutely no reason for the owners to give in if people keep watching the game, no matter how much people complain. It's just like NBC's coverage of the Olympics. What incentive did they have to show things live when they were scoring huge ratings anyway? So if people stop watching football games, it takes the power out of the owner's hands. Just think how long it took baseball to recover after the '94 player's strike. I'm not trying to suggest that this is the same, but I do think the owner's will be afraid of fan dissatisfaction if they actually start to see the numbers drop. It's not like there isn't another football alternative on TV every week, anyway.
Being a fan is bittersweet most of the time. It sucks not watching your team and sometimes it sucks more watching them. But if you want to do away with the anger (and, let's face it, excuses) at the replacement refs, stop watching. Think of it as your team getting rid of the old expensive stars for some young talent. Sure, things look bad now, but they're working towards a better future. Plus, by avoiding football, you'll actually have an impact on the game at the field level.
There is absolutely no reason for the owners to give in if people keep watching the game, no matter how much people complain. It's just like NBC's coverage of the Olympics. What incentive did they have to show things live when they were scoring huge ratings anyway? So if people stop watching football games, it takes the power out of the owner's hands. Just think how long it took baseball to recover after the '94 player's strike. I'm not trying to suggest that this is the same, but I do think the owner's will be afraid of fan dissatisfaction if they actually start to see the numbers drop. It's not like there isn't another football alternative on TV every week, anyway.
Being a fan is bittersweet most of the time. It sucks not watching your team and sometimes it sucks more watching them. But if you want to do away with the anger (and, let's face it, excuses) at the replacement refs, stop watching. Think of it as your team getting rid of the old expensive stars for some young talent. Sure, things look bad now, but they're working towards a better future. Plus, by avoiding football, you'll actually have an impact on the game at the field level.
Friday, August 17, 2012
Shop Smart, Shop Pet Smart: A Tale of Evil Dead Ownage
This post is for Paul. It will probably be of minimal interest to most of you, but he requested it and I've got a cheesecake in the oven, so here we are...
I finally had time to run some errands this week and one of said errands was to hit up the grocery store. Within this errand, one of the items on my grocery list was dog food since as of the most recent dinner time, Shasta was plum out of it. Conveniently, Pet Smart shares the parking lot with my grocery store so I hopped on over before the real shopping began so that I could have more food options for my pup. This is where the ownage takes place.
On this particular day, I was wearing my Evil Dead: The Musical shirt, which I procured at a preview performance in New York (at the New World Stages, I believe). Of all of my awesome t-shirts, this one probably gets the most comment, generally along the lines of, "there's an Evil Dead musical?" When I where it at work, I have the same conversation about fifteen times.
After wandering the many aisles of dog food (I should have just stuck with the grocery store. There are simply too many options at Pet Smart, none of which were Shasta's brand*). Having something adequate for Shasta's needs, I met my soon-to-be sparring partner/pile of bones left in my wake: the cash register guy (I didn't catch his name on his tag, but I'm going to imagine it was Chet. He didn't look like a Chet, but after our encounter, he sure seems like a Chet).
"There's an Evil Dead: The Musical?"
"Yeah. Though I don't recommend seeing the touring show because it kind of sucks. I got to see it in New York, and it was awesome." -- I'm not going to act like I don't come off as a pretentious know-it-all during this interaction.
"I don't really see how they could make it into a musical. I mean, it's got the clock scene and the dancing corpse, but that's about it." -- I pretended I knew what he was talking about. Only reflecting upon it now do I think he was trying to pinpoint scenes in the movie that had music. I have no idea what he meant about the clock, though.
"Well, it lovingly pokes fun at the series."
"Yeah, the first one is cool because you can take it seriously or laugh at it. One of my buddies new those guys when they were shooting at Michigan State."
"Well, they may have shot some of it there, but most of the film was shot in a cabin in Tennessee." -- I'm pretty sure that none of it was actually shot at MSU and that the member(s) of the crew who had gone there had already dropped out, but I wouldn't bet money on it. I also refrained from mentioning that the basement scenes were shot in one of the crew's parents' garage in Michigan (I think Raimi's).
"Really? I'll have to ask him. I've never heard that. Are you sure?"
"I'm certain. I've got the Evil Dead Companion to back me up. They shot in Tennessee because they thought it'd be warmer there at that time of year than Michigan. Tennessee ended up having one of it's coldest winters while Michigan had one or its warmest." -- I'm surprised I didn't mention having watched the commentaries for all the movies, plus all related DVD bonus features, plus reading Bruce Campbell's book, plus reading Josh Becker's Evil Dead journal.
With that, there wasn't much else to say. "Chet" mentioned that he loved Army of Darkness and I told him the musical only dealt with the first to since getting into the Army of Darkness stuff would make it a bit too expansive for the stage. I left, knowing that "Chet's" "friend" was an unreliable source and that I had won that day's socialization challenge. Immediately, I tweeted my victory.**
*The neighborhood pet store we usually go to was closed by 6:30 PM, which is when I was out.
**I have a very real fear that someone (say... Keith) is going to read this and correct some tiny or glaring inaccuracy in my assertions.
I finally had time to run some errands this week and one of said errands was to hit up the grocery store. Within this errand, one of the items on my grocery list was dog food since as of the most recent dinner time, Shasta was plum out of it. Conveniently, Pet Smart shares the parking lot with my grocery store so I hopped on over before the real shopping began so that I could have more food options for my pup. This is where the ownage takes place.
On this particular day, I was wearing my Evil Dead: The Musical shirt, which I procured at a preview performance in New York (at the New World Stages, I believe). Of all of my awesome t-shirts, this one probably gets the most comment, generally along the lines of, "there's an Evil Dead musical?" When I where it at work, I have the same conversation about fifteen times.
After wandering the many aisles of dog food (I should have just stuck with the grocery store. There are simply too many options at Pet Smart, none of which were Shasta's brand*). Having something adequate for Shasta's needs, I met my soon-to-be sparring partner/pile of bones left in my wake: the cash register guy (I didn't catch his name on his tag, but I'm going to imagine it was Chet. He didn't look like a Chet, but after our encounter, he sure seems like a Chet).
 |
| The design of my oh-so-popular shirt (without the Time/Life icon or "Cast Recording" text). |
"Yeah. Though I don't recommend seeing the touring show because it kind of sucks. I got to see it in New York, and it was awesome." -- I'm not going to act like I don't come off as a pretentious know-it-all during this interaction.
"I don't really see how they could make it into a musical. I mean, it's got the clock scene and the dancing corpse, but that's about it." -- I pretended I knew what he was talking about. Only reflecting upon it now do I think he was trying to pinpoint scenes in the movie that had music. I have no idea what he meant about the clock, though.
"Well, it lovingly pokes fun at the series."
"Yeah, the first one is cool because you can take it seriously or laugh at it. One of my buddies new those guys when they were shooting at Michigan State."
"Well, they may have shot some of it there, but most of the film was shot in a cabin in Tennessee." -- I'm pretty sure that none of it was actually shot at MSU and that the member(s) of the crew who had gone there had already dropped out, but I wouldn't bet money on it. I also refrained from mentioning that the basement scenes were shot in one of the crew's parents' garage in Michigan (I think Raimi's).
"Really? I'll have to ask him. I've never heard that. Are you sure?"
"I'm certain. I've got the Evil Dead Companion to back me up. They shot in Tennessee because they thought it'd be warmer there at that time of year than Michigan. Tennessee ended up having one of it's coldest winters while Michigan had one or its warmest." -- I'm surprised I didn't mention having watched the commentaries for all the movies, plus all related DVD bonus features, plus reading Bruce Campbell's book, plus reading Josh Becker's Evil Dead journal.
With that, there wasn't much else to say. "Chet" mentioned that he loved Army of Darkness and I told him the musical only dealt with the first to since getting into the Army of Darkness stuff would make it a bit too expansive for the stage. I left, knowing that "Chet's" "friend" was an unreliable source and that I had won that day's socialization challenge. Immediately, I tweeted my victory.**
*The neighborhood pet store we usually go to was closed by 6:30 PM, which is when I was out.
**I have a very real fear that someone (say... Keith) is going to read this and correct some tiny or glaring inaccuracy in my assertions.
Monday, August 6, 2012
Some Thoughts on Regrets in the Shadow of My Popper
I've managed to live my life with very few regrets. Until recently, they've boiled down to not taking my piano lessons seriously and putting the minimal effort into learning French in high school (we could stretch it out into not putting more effort into high school, but I did pretty well for myself and I don't yearn to have a better understanding of Moby Dick or the ins and outs of cellular biology the way I wish I could speak another language). In the past few years (probably shortly after I moved to Portland), I realized that I there is another glaring missed opportunity from my youth: I wish that I had learned how to woodwork from my grandfather (henceforth known as Popper).
Obviously, hindsight plays a lot in this desire. I was a pretty active student. I played sports year round and dabbled in jazz band, pit orchestra, and stage crew (my mom stressed that I be well-rounded). There wasn't a ton of free time during the school year and even the summers could get pretty busy. Plus, all one wants to do during those school years is hang out with friends. It's only now when I look at myself and see that I don't have that many tangible skills and I'm surrounded by people who have a craft that they not only love, but are good at (seriously, Portland is a terrible town to be in if you don't have tangible skills).
I don't know if Popper was still making stuff by the time I hit high school. I know he built a lot of badass doll houses for my little sister and his house features a grandfather clock that he built (very literally a grandfather clock, for me). It's not as if I lack the time or access to pick it up now (my wife's dad just picked up the hobby in the past year or so), but there's a good fifteen years of practice that I've missed out on. Plus, even if he was passed handling the tools, certainly his mind was sharp enough to guide me as I gave things a go.
Popper passed away on August 5, 2012 and it's gotten me thinking about this missed opportunity a little more than normal. I learned he was ailing about a week before my wedding and he died a week after the last time I spoke with him. The last time I saw Popper was at Christmas and we generally spoke during events (birthdays, anniversaries, and the like). Even in my adult years, I was just hitting the bullet points.
There are untold hours I could have spent learning things from him and about him just by sharing an interest in his hobby. I don't feel guilty about it, because from a teenager's perspective, everyone has loads of life to live and I had loads of stuff that needed to be attended to immediately. As an adult, it's just as easy to take for granted that there's always time even though, rationally, you know that's not true. And I don't have any regrets about moving to Boston then to Portland. I met the wife and mother of my son in the latter. But I can't help but feel a little sad knowing that had Popper remained healthy, he and my grandma wouldn't have been able to make the trip to my wedding. And it's disappointing that Popper never got to meet Ollie. Lord knows they told me enough how they wished I hadn't moved. But that was all because they wanted to be able to share in those moments even though they weren't necessarily inevitable and I know how happy and excited they were/are for me.
I'm fortunate to have had someone who supported me so much throughout my life. It's just a shame I didn't realize that I could have learned some valuable skills from him until I'd long-since moved. I know Popper would have enjoyed that time, too.
Obviously, hindsight plays a lot in this desire. I was a pretty active student. I played sports year round and dabbled in jazz band, pit orchestra, and stage crew (my mom stressed that I be well-rounded). There wasn't a ton of free time during the school year and even the summers could get pretty busy. Plus, all one wants to do during those school years is hang out with friends. It's only now when I look at myself and see that I don't have that many tangible skills and I'm surrounded by people who have a craft that they not only love, but are good at (seriously, Portland is a terrible town to be in if you don't have tangible skills).
I don't know if Popper was still making stuff by the time I hit high school. I know he built a lot of badass doll houses for my little sister and his house features a grandfather clock that he built (very literally a grandfather clock, for me). It's not as if I lack the time or access to pick it up now (my wife's dad just picked up the hobby in the past year or so), but there's a good fifteen years of practice that I've missed out on. Plus, even if he was passed handling the tools, certainly his mind was sharp enough to guide me as I gave things a go.
 |
| He also made this badass rocking/toilet training seat. |
There are untold hours I could have spent learning things from him and about him just by sharing an interest in his hobby. I don't feel guilty about it, because from a teenager's perspective, everyone has loads of life to live and I had loads of stuff that needed to be attended to immediately. As an adult, it's just as easy to take for granted that there's always time even though, rationally, you know that's not true. And I don't have any regrets about moving to Boston then to Portland. I met the wife and mother of my son in the latter. But I can't help but feel a little sad knowing that had Popper remained healthy, he and my grandma wouldn't have been able to make the trip to my wedding. And it's disappointing that Popper never got to meet Ollie. Lord knows they told me enough how they wished I hadn't moved. But that was all because they wanted to be able to share in those moments even though they weren't necessarily inevitable and I know how happy and excited they were/are for me.
I'm fortunate to have had someone who supported me so much throughout my life. It's just a shame I didn't realize that I could have learned some valuable skills from him until I'd long-since moved. I know Popper would have enjoyed that time, too.
There's a strong possibility this doesn't entirely make sense. There are lots of thoughts running through my head and everything fits together in there just fine, but it may read a bit scattershot. I apologize if that's the case.
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