no particular reason

It just occurred to me to do a Top 5.

Top 5 Movie Scenes of All Time

1. Jules' speech at the end of Pulp Fiction

"There's a passage I got memorized. Ezekiel 25:17. The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you.

I been sayin' that shit for years. And if you ever heard it, it meant your ass. I never really questioned what it meant. I thought it was just a cold-blooded thing to say to a motherfucker before you popped a cap in his ass. But I saw some shit this mornin' made me think twice. Now I'm thinkin': it could mean you're the evil man. And I'm the righteous man. And Mr. 9mm here, he's the shepherd protecting my righteous ass in the valley of darkness. Or it could be you're the righteous man and I'm the shepherd and it's the world that's evil and selfish. I'd like that.

But that shit ain't the truth. The truth is you're the weak. And I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm tryin' real hard to be a shepherd."

2. The moment the boat breaks in half in Titanic.

That scene took the breath out of the theater every time I saw an advertising trailer for it. A phenomenal fucking scene.

3. Trinity running from the agents at the beginning of The Matrix.

Just a gorgeous scene like nothing you'd ever seen before.

4. The campfire scene in My Own Private Idaho

Scott Favor (Keanue Reeves) : I only have sex with a guy for money.

Mike Waters (River Phoenix) : Yeah, I know.

Scott Favor: And two guys can't love each other.

Mike Waters: Yeah. Well, I don't know. I mean... I mean, for me, I could love someone even if I, you know, wasn't paid for it... I love you, and... you don't pay me.

Scott Favor: Mike...

Mike Waters: I really wanna kiss you, man... Well goodnight, man... I love you though... You know that... I do love you.

5. The walk down the sidewalk in You and Me and Everyone We Know.

A typical quote from the movie:

Richard (John Fawkes) : I don't want to have to do this living. I just walk around. I want to be swept off my feet, you know? I want my children to have magical powers. I am prepared for amazing things to happen. I can handle it.

Honorable mention:

Any conversation from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Clementine: This is it, Joel. It's going to be gone soon.
Joel: I know.
Clementine: What do we do?
Joel: Enjoy it.

song for a melancholy moment

The 40-Year-Old Waitress game that my coworker Sally used to play deserves its own blog entry.

In December, I was feeling rather melancholy--mostly due to a girl, who had allowed me to kiss her and crush out on her before she realized she wasn't into me. Such things happen. It was a Friday night and I had nothing to do, so I invited myself into Sally's car to go see our student art show. An hour later, I sat outside, smoking a cigarette and looking beaten-down. "I feel melancholy," I said. I think I was trying to look like this:
"You know what you're doing," Sally replied. "You're playing 40-Year-Old Divorced Waitress." Hmmmm? "Sure, I used to play that when I was a kid. I was a waitress, divorced, living alone, coming home to my empty apartment. I used to struggle at the door with my keys...that was important, the struggling and rattling with my keys...then I'd come in, take off my shoes, rub my feet. Smoke a cigarette. A fake one, like a crayon or something. And I'd feel sad about my lonely life."

"You played this as a kid?"

"I was about nine. Ten. I still play it sometimes. My friend will give me a call at night, and I'll answer the phone with a pathetic voice--'yeeees?'--and she'll say, 'You're playing 40-Year-Old Waitress again, aren't you?' She always catches me. So that's what you're doing."

We paused, while I smoked.

"When you're melancholy, I say revel in it! It's so freeing. Claim the moment."

Feeling faintly ridiculous now, I ditched the cigarette, and we walked back inside.

Sally gave me a burned CD for Xmas--Peggy Lee. She labeled it with a black permanent marker: Songs for a Melancholy Moment. Of course, for about a week after that, I was completely crushed out on Sally. I got over it when she started ordering me around the office again. I still play that CD, though. Revel in it!

workaday

At work today, I approached Sally Pseudonym's cubicle to ask her a question. She has a charcoal sketch pinned to the outside wall of her cubicle--we are an art school, after all--and in leaning down to talk to her, I inadvertently pressed my palm against the sketch.

"Aaarrghhh...ahhhh...." I said, slapping my hands together to get the dust off. I looked at her and explained the clapping: "I put my hand on the drawing."

"Oh," she said, "I thought maybe you were, you know, hearing the beat."

Sally shouldn't act so non-neurotic. She's the first-born in her family (hence our office manager, ordering folks around with abandon), and she used to call her parents "Ma" and "Pa" due to the Little House on the Prairie books. Also, she used to play a game called 40-year-old waitress that involved rubbing her feet and smoking fake cigarettes; she was nine.

Anyway, the nude sketch above is not the drawing that I sullied. It is one of my favorite pieces, though, from a class we're holding in South Los Angeles for youth age 14-24. The students are all Latino or African-American, almost all local public school kids from Crenshaw High School or Washington Prep, and I'm proud of the class. I'm proud of what we're trying to achieve in southern California.

Posted below is a piece from a high school illustration class. These kids are good. I may post more, just to satisfy my pride in them. Our students are quick, witty, and rather modest, considering their abilities.

My co-workers are also very funny, if not a little too focused for my slacker INFP self. Especially Jeremiah, who once told me this story:

"So I go up to this guy [at an Armenian fast-food joint] and give him a twenty. He looks at it, trying to figure out the denomination, you know, so I say to him, 'It's a twenty.' He goes [Armenian accent], 'No waaay! You must be kiddin' me! It's a twenty! Hey, Shant, you ever seen one o'these before? It's a twenty!' So I tell him, 'Oh, yeah, I got a whole wallet full of 'em. You want me to sign it?' and he says, 'Oh yeah, sign it for me!'. I ask him for a pen and he gives it to me and I scribble on it, then give it to him, y'know--'There ya go. Keep it, I got a bunch of 'em.' He's like, 'Thanks so much!' and gives me my change. Asshole."

"You're crazy, Jeremiah," I told him.

"Fuck him and his wise-ass remarks. I'll sign the goddam twenty for him every day of the week. Twice on Sundays."

That's my office right there--quick, helpful, sarcastic, won't give an inch. I'm doing my best to fit in.