First of all, happy birthday to the soon papa-to-be Will Tong, whose wife used to claim they would name their sons Sal and Ed... (salad tongs, get it!?!)Ok, whatever....
So June 27 began with my first summer movie of the year... that's right... I have yet to see Iron Man, Indy, and a host of many others that I need to get to soon. But I've always loved being there to see midnight showing when a film first debuts. I would do it all the time in the 90s but then teaching and whatever Friday night activity (dance, football game, performing arts show, birthday parties, Giants games) kept me away... and that's why I love the Thursday night/Friday morning midnight madness premiere. So S. and N. got me a ticket and asked me to join them watch WALL-E. Now I'm not the biggest Disney fan, but I am a huge Pixar fan. You always know you're in for a treat when you get that opening cartoon that serves as a warm-up for the feature. It was about a magician and it reminded me of the old school
Warner Brothers cartoons with the Carl Stalling scores. Pixar shorts are great and that's why I bought that DVD. Now the main feature, WALL-E. I was curious how I would feel about a mostly dialogue-less film, but the story held strong for the most part for me. The parts that felt the most cartoonish happened aboard the Axiom, whereas the Earth scenes captured a beautiful stillness but depressing image of what humans are doing to the planet. Being a person who loves and hates solitude, I related to WALL-E in the sense of collecting things that have a hidden personal value that maybe no one else can share. WALL-E beheld a beauty in the simplicity of certain objects, though we might consider them to be consumable. These moments remind me of the lessons I have on Emerson's "Poet" and Whitman's "Preface" to Leaves of Grass. The main point of which is to ask the students to think about how particular words came to be and how every name/word was once a poem until it became everyday/cliche. One of WALL-E's treasured items is a VHS tape of a particular musical and it lends a humanity to WALL-E that seems to be waning from the souls of each successive generation (and the film comments on that concept as well). I particularly appreciated the lone survivor archetype (most recently seen in I Am Legend) and the homage to Kubrick's 2001: the music, the steps, the jogging track reference, and the autopilot/HAL character (my favorite Otto/autopilot is still from Airplane! though). I've read a couple of reviews from EW and the Chronicle and I agree with both to a degree. I did feel the movie possessed a soul and was educational without being in your face about it. While WALL-E may not produce the most merchandise ever (I don't know how many parents will buy toys of stuffed fat people in their hover chairs), I expect the film to resonate in viewers and hopefully our next generation will be like the one in the film and learn to value life a little differently.
And that was just the first two hours of my Friday...
The latter part of the evening ended with another set of great friends. For the first time in a long time, my softball team held a batting practice. Usually these sessions go for an hour or so and about 5 people show up. Last night we practiced from 5:00 to 8:30 pm, just long enough for all of us to start freezing our asses off. More impressive, 12 people showed up (nothing like losing your first two games to get people wanting to hit). But the practice felt like old times with a bunch of us cracking jokes ripping on each other (echoing Shaq's chorus to Kobe). Transitionally, we went out to eat at Fung Wong near the Gellert/Hickey 7-11. Often these meals are fun but not always so unified because too many of us are there to sit at one table. Well eight of us went to dinner and it was the best night of bonding and bitching... reminiscing... hopes... family... although not everyone came to practice... and not everyone who practiced went to dinner... the meal felt like a good family dinner... which i think is the most important thing for our team's psyche....
so thanks to all of you for helping have a wonderful summer night
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