Rage At Dawn

Back in Milwaukee, but except for seeing my cat, Louis, I'm not exactly thrilled about it. It's cold here, and not just the weather, it's the attitudes of the people. I find that the Midwest is the least friendly place I've lived. People seem scared and suspicious of each other. I know that the film festival is an artificial environment, but it was nice for a few days, going to a movie and having the person sitting next to you start up a conversation.

I'll have to go back and look at my notes to see if there's anything else I want to write about. I've been too busy trying to spit phlegm into appropriate receptacles to get much else done. Here is something from my notebook yesterday:

I'm at the BSP (Brady Street Pharmacy), it's two degrees outside-- I actually feel good today-- felt like shit the last two days. I'm not sure if I don't feel better at high altitudes-- maybe I should try to move to a high altitude. Or maybe it's just the adjustment-- I got a migraine right after getting there, then no headaches at all, and then I got a migraine right after getting back-- yesterday-- a HUGE migraine-- but I'm not sure I didn't need to "catch up" on sleep, if that's actually possible. I slept a total of ELEVEN hours yesterday!-- (in four sessions)-- an all time record for me!

The first movie everyone was talking about was HOUND DOG, because of the controversy about the young actress in a rape scene. Then it was ZOO, about men having sex with horses, or the other way around. It's always sex, or crime, or perversion, or something twisted or disturbing that you hear people talking about. At least until distributors start buying movies, and then your hear about what "got picked up." To be fair, though, people do ask you what you've seen and how you liked what you’ve seen. There are a lot of movies, it's hard to figure out what to go see, and that's the best way.

The old Italian guys here at BSP are talking about-- movies! So I eavesdrop-- they're arguing about if something was a classic or not-- can't tell what they're talking about-- please don't let it be LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE. I listen for clues-- they argue-- then one of them says, "It was with Randolph Scott." Oh! They're talking about a movie that was made 50 years ago! But next they're talking about horses having sex-- they can't be talking about ZOO, can they? No-- I listen some more-- the conversation is about whether race horses can be artificially inseminated or not-- not whether it's physically possible, but whether it's allowed legally, within the regulations of horse racing.

Now, it's a little later, and they're talking about whether the size of steam tables has changed over the years. I feel at home. I feel much better.