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i've been more scrooge-like this december than i have in decembers past; i like to think i understand why. i'm feeling stressed about purchasing gifts for folks, i'm feeling shallow for i don't have a religion to base the celebration of christmas upon, i'm feeling confused with the little transition that my life is going through right now. bah humbug.

many who know me have heard me grumble about the abuse our postal system suffers under the free market, leading me to take a daily 20 yard walk for the sole purpose of transferring a pound of paper from a street-side metal box to a garage-side plastic bin. the holidays don't necessarily assist in my cause--loud flyers and thick catalogs fill my inbox moreso than usual, to my dismay.

but today, underneath a cell phone advert, i received a christmas card. red envelope, pretty return address sticker. my address handwritten in gold ink. a colorful card holds a warm wish and a "see you soon!" message from the senders.

"well, wasn't that enjoyable?" i think to myself. a nice breath of fresh air. maybe the postal service is worth having around after all. moving the card to the bottom of my deck, i have a look at the next envelope that awaits me:

COUNTY OF TRAVIS. OFFICIAL JURY SUMMONS.

[...]

i've been more scrooge-like this december than i have in decembers past; i like to think i understand why...

i rent

jonathan larson, how did you do it?

[...]

Don't breathe too deep
Don't think all day
Dive into work
Drive the other way
That drip of hurt
That pint of shame
Goes away
Just play the game

You're living in America
At the end of the millenium

You're living in America
Leave your conscience at the tone

And when you're living in America
At the end of the millenium
You're what you own

how time flies

all this time, i've thought i was the one among us without sin.

[...]

so that's why i've been living in fear? i didn't know it had a name.

[...]

sometimes, it's hard to tell whether this is heaven or calcutta. the fact that i can afford a modest, well-running car doesn't imply one way or the other. the fact that my emotions were fired up much more until i stepped outside of the theatre seems to imply the latter.

movie review: rent

whether my rent-junkie cmu friends knew it or not, i became one of them at the tail end of my pittsburgh years and the beginning of my austin years. i've been itching to see the film for the past week, so tonight i took care of that urge.

i'm anything but a journalist, so i'm just going to throwdown my thoughts blitzkrieg-style, and see what happens.

[spoiler]

- so, did the first 15 minutes seem like they were directed by someone else, or was it just me? i can only imagine that it takes a lot to cram a two-act broadway musical into two hours, and one of the things that suffered was a wickedly rushed character introduction. the title track, light my candle, and today for you seemed a little forced and unnatural. that's too bad because i love all of those songs in the car.

- along the "crammed" theme, angel's death seemed rushed. furthermore, i've always loved the rise-and-collapse feeling that the musical has when the sex scene precedes angel's death ("today for me"). the sex scene was 86'd in the name of cramming and what i can only suspect was an effort to keep the movie PG-13. i'm glad that they could keep it PG-13... i think this is a great movie for teenagers, and the rating makes the movie more accessible to them. i'd love to see how the director would put together the sex scene in a DVD extra, for example, but that's probably wishful thinking.

- maureen's monolouge on the soundtrack seems so serious and thought provoking. the monologue live on stage is wickedly hysterical. the monologue on the big screen is just... wierd. the director's take on the udder-drinking got a chuckle out of me, but everything else seemed a little forced.

allright, enough bitching.

- give it up for the trailers! the producers and memoirs of a geisha both look very promising.

- it was cool to see a couple elements that you don't get exposure to in the musical or soundtrack: roger's life before HIV, joanne and maureen's union celebration.

- LOVED take me out and tango maureen. there's more space to work with on screen than stage, and the director played his cards well with both of these numbers.

- LOVED i'll cover you (sidewalk shopping). in retrospect, i'm thinking "god, how was that not cheesy?" it was just great timing, great chemistry.

- LOVED santa fe (subway).

- both mark and maureen's screen presence was killer.

- the decision to make more flat dialogue out of the lyrics late in the movie was good. seemed to make the transition from song to song easier.

- the movie presented more of maureen's flirting habits, which brought a less-prominent facet of the joanne/mark/maureen relationship into the limelight, which was fun to watch.

- loved the director's theme for without you. you didn't get the perspective presented in the film in either the musical or soundtrack.

all in all, it was fantastic and worth the wait. i enjoyed that a majority (if not all?) of the original broadway cast participated in the making of the film. i'm quite certain that one of the rent CDs has found its way into my car stereo once every one-to-two months for the past 7 years, but i haven't "seen" the musical in over 6 years. viva rent.