Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Trying to Find My Future

Started the day at work. I spent the first half of the day alternating between doing carts and doing returns, and the second half shelving candy. I did end up in the registers briefly twice...once ten minutes before I was leaving. Thankfully, the afternoon bagger was there by then, and I was able to corral him to help with the last customer. We were once again between dead and mildly steady; the only reason we were busy later was more because of a lack of help than it actually being busy. It was too nice for anyone to be shopping, anyway. It was sunny, and while it was breezy, it wasn't nearly as windy or chilly as it had been over the weekend.

This time, I went straight home after work. Took out the trash and the recycling, then did some research. Honestly...I'm not sure what I want to do. I want to write, and find places that'll take my writing...but there's that pesky "selling myself" thing. No one ever said what to do with my writing. They just said "write." And I only need something that I can do a few days a week.

I never really considered what my future would look like. I think I'm sort of dreading it. I can barely get past day-to-day living a lot of the time. Where do I want to be in five years? In a small cottage, writing, baking, do things I want to do, preferably without people cursing downstairs. I wouldn't mind working with kids, if I could do it for a few hours a week in the afternoon and still have time to enjoy writing my blogs and fanfiction. It's just so nerve-wracking to push myself out there! I know my writing is good...but I'm not so sure about me.

Worked a little bit on my fanfic later. Leia stuffs the bag with the tapes in the arms of one Rudolph "Rudy" Detonski, a local plumber, handyman, and the Rebel League's gadgeteer genius. His friend Charles "Charlie" Thompson, a fastidious translator and office clerk for Councilwoman Marla Mothma, is less-certain about all this...especially once Vader tries breaking down the door to the building...

Broke for a quick soup dinner at 6:30. Watched The Golden Child while I ate. Chandler Jarrell (Eddie Murphy) is a social worker in Los Angeles who searches for lost children. On one such search for a missing local girl, he runs across a young Tibetian woman, Kee Nang (Charlotte Lewis), who insists he's the "Chosen One" who must find the Golden Child. The boy was kidnapped from Tibet by the sorcerer Sardo Numpsa (Charles Dance), who wants to corrupt  him and destroy all the good in the world. Chandler understandably doesn't believe her at first, until he finds the girl he was looking for dead, and it turns out that her case and that of the Golden Child are connected. Their search leads from the seedy abandoned buildings of LA to the mystical mountains and mazes of Tibet, as Chandler must prove that he's worthy of finding the special child...to Kee, her father, and most of all, to himself.

Ok, this was...really, really weird. The 80's loved its oddball action fantasies that tossed together vague mythology with a tough-guy out of his element. Dad-Bill and my sisters and I loved this movie when I was a kid, but it hasn't dated well at all. To give it some credit, it moves pretty fast for a big action comedy and Kee's a fairly strong character (even as Chandler keeps trying to push her aside). Murphy, however, is completely out of place as the guy who doesn't get all this magical mumbo-jumbo, and some of the special effects, especially towards the end, look pretty obvious now.

Unless you have fond memories like I do, I'd say this one is strictly for fans of Murphy or 80's action or fantasy.

Ended the night with the far more subtle Rear Window. L.B "Jeff" Jeffries (James Stewart) would probably love to see a Golden Child at the moment, or anything besides the view from his tiny apartment in Greenwich Village. He's been laid up with a broken leg and has spent the last six weeks watching his neighbors from his window. His nurse Stella (Thelma Ritter) wishes he'd finally agree to marry his elegant fashion seller girlfriend Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly), but Jeff is reluctant to give up his regular job as a globe-trotting photographer.

One night, as he's watching out the window, he notices some unusual activity in the apartment of a salesman (Raymond Burr) and his quarrelsome and bedridden wife (Irene Winston). He's convinced the man murdered his wife. Neither the ladies nor his detective friend Tom (Wendell Corey) believe him, until one of their neighbors' dog is killed, and the ladies start to think that Jeff is on to something, too. But when Jeff sends Lisa to investigate and sends notes to get the salesman out of the house, he realizes that he may have pushed things a bit too far...

Unique, atmospheric mystery benefits from terrific performances by Stewart, Kelly, and Ritter and the awesome camerawork and massive set that shows off every bit of the details into these people's lives, even the ones we maybe shouldn't see. The Hitchcock touch lends a suitably creepy air to the proceedings, especially in the second half, where Jeff starts pressing his case and Lisa does everything she can to show that she's every bit his equal in detecting.

If you're a fan of Hitchcock, mysteries, or the cast, you owe yourself to check this one out.

(Oh, and a note: there was a remake of this on TV in the late 90's, I think, with the by-then paralyzed Christopher Reeve as Jeff and Darryl Hannah as Lisa. I actually watched it when it debuted. While not Hitchcock, I remember quite enjoying it at the time.)

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