I haven’t posted in awhile, and for this I apologize. It’s difficult for me to keep up on any kind of routine event, especially when it is not associated with punishment for non-abidance. Besides, I have not been traveling or doing anything of much interest beside studying and spending time with friends.
But there was Thanksgiving.
I went to the dinner sponsored by the International Study Office. I have recently been eating an all vegetarian diet, despite my not having serious moral hang-ups about the whole meat thing. So I told Hazel Lander, the head of the International Office (or at least the person who sends me e-mail reminders), that I would have a vegetarian option. Jump forward a couple days. Awkward Americans sit side by side and across from one another, mostly strangers with this loose association that we all desperately cling to. You see, we think, we have nothing at all in common, but we do have this great granfalloon called the U S of A, and we all live there on occasion, I guess we can just keep talking about that. So we do and we complain. We all complain alot, about everything, about why they are serving roast potatoes when they should be mashed, and who serves pork sausages wrapped in bacon on Thanksgiving. And what is this? The vegetarian option? Ok. First impression- it’s a flaky breaded something with a little dribblet of thick tasteless looking tomato goo. Thanksgiving is ruined, they screwed it all up. They could have given me potatoes, I think, just a big plateful of potatoes would have done me just fine. It’s a cheese and spinach pasty, and it’s not that bad. Someone tells me later that there was Brie cheese baked in there, which is nice and classy. But there was no stuffing, bitter cranberry sauce, no mash, no greenbeans, no champagne, just English goo.
Not that I’m complaining.
It was free.
So I should be thankful.
But I wasn’t.
So we had another Thanksgiving. All out vegan, not a single animal product on the menu. It was me, Cody Baldwin, Theo Kindyis, Nile Arena, Fisher, and two of Cody’s friends – Martin and Sarah. I woke up with an extreme ‘headache’ in the morning, so I thought I was going to ruin it all. But luckily I sorted myself out with a whole lot of water and about 6 aspirin (over the correct period of time, of course). My task was to take care of the mashed potatoes (my personal fav) and green beans. I made authentic hand whipped mash with dill and garlic to spice it up a bit. We had Tofurkey, roast squash, two kinds of stuffing, cheese potatoes (provided by Martin), cranberry sauce, mash, green beans, vegetarian Haggis (which was basically a nutty stuffing and not at all like what I imagine Haggis to be), and a lovely sweet potato pie baked by the lovely Cody Baldwin (this country does not believe in canned pumpkin.)
Let’s just say- It was a meal fit for Vegan Gods. We finished the whole spread. Hardly a crumb left on the table. There was wine, warmth, and good conversation. And we were all so proud of ourselves, I just kept saying over and over, “that was really good guys, we made that.” And it was wonderful. I can never dream of replacing my family Thanksgivings, but this was quite an acceptable stand-in. I’m glad that we all pitched in to save the holiday. Plus Theo got his first Thanksgiving, and what can be better than a first holiday? Well, you’re right. A first holiday with presents.
I got to talk to Lyssa on webcam while she was visiting her parents. It was nice to see a moving face that I love. That moving face happened to have pneumonia, which is depressing, but she does get some sweet Codeine cough syrup and two kinds of antibiotics to make up for it!
The week has hit the center again. I have started on two more essays. They are both due on January 19th when we are back from Winter Break, but I figure that I won’t want to spend much time working on them while traveling. I’m writing about violence in Micahel Haneke’s Benny’s Video versus the kind of violence portrayed in Mellville’s Les Doulos. I nearly shied away from the question, because violence- to me- is prey to a constantly conflicting ideology- censorship. [A few people from the Film Society have been meeting down at this really sweet pub - Bramley's- that plays wonderful, subtle Indy music, provides a tin of sweet biscuits with any order of tea or coffee, has old Victorianesque furniture, paintings, and lamps, serves huge delicious sandwiches on wooden planks, and had a wide array of board games to play at your leisure. We meet outside of filmmaking because we want to be able to have a free and open conversation without the bureaucracies of leadership. We were discussing censorship this evening, as well as rating systems, feminism, and the Internet.] Which came first, the censor or the violence? Well the violence, or maybe it was the censor who perpetuated the violence. Perhaps the violence has shaped the ideology of censorship, or has censorship created the destruction? Why shouldn’t violence be ok? I am liberal, I believe in free-for-all. But do I?
The question fits the mind. Always bemused but constantly confused.
Film is mostly everything.
