Wednesday, August 13, 2008

The Day After Tomorrow

The title here is the title of the movie I've been watching for a couple hours. I'll play a movie over and over as I do artwork. I think it keeps me company, but now I'm not sure about that. For one thing, when the music gets all oh my god! we're all gonna die, I actually wonder what it does to the cells in my body. Do I viscerally respond to scary music? Am I causing stress even as I think I'm just having fun spreading paint around?

And what about the critters? Is Sunny now having cocker-spaniel nightmares because of the music during The Day After Tomorrow? We know Mittens is having night and daymares because she's forced to stay inside because of a mosquito-bite hyper-sensitivity. She has sentenced herself to The Hole -- under the couch -- until such time as she's able to figure out the door knob or develop opposable thumbs. Benji just wants to please everybody but refuses to go to Al-Anon.

Anyway, I don't think animals pay much attention to fake sounds. Sirens outside don't even get a glance.

Maybe later tonight I'll try music instead of a movie and see if it's the same.

The Day After Tomorrow is about global warming, about catastrophic storms everywhere, about the end of the world. It's quite satisfying, really -- like the story of Noah. It's a clean-sweep sort of movie and that feels good. I truly don't know what to do about racism or homophobia, let alone good old-fashioned sexism. I don't know how to fix pollution or correct my bad habits, of which there are many. I can't even control my temper.

But look at this -- if there's a big fat weather problem that wipes out half the population, why, then, we can start over, only this time will be different. This time we won't make the mistakes our forefathers and possibly -mothers did. I say only "possibly" for the mothers because, as far as I know, only one woman helped to make America, and she just sewed a flag.


Speaking of flags, here's a bunch of East African flags (okay, and south, too). I prefer West Africa, but you've got to admit that the East Coast has cooler flags. Well, you only have to admit it if you know what the other flags look like so, fine: I'll include them, too. I don't know how the East African flags got turned on their heads, but there they are.

But back to the apocalypse ...

When I was younger and watched such movies, I'd always wonder if I have what it takes to survive that weather or that plague or that outer-space invasion. Now that I'm middle-aged, I know I don't have it and probably never did. Now I think I'll let the young men and women start the fire while I sit in the corner, bundled up, looking wise and grey-headed. Or maybe I'll tell them, with a shaky but noble voice, to go on without me.

* * *

And now a correction from the last posting. My friend Lee, who can be shown a square inch of any vehicle ever made and tell you its make, model, year, and often, but not always, its first owner's mother's middle name, has informed me that that beautiful Honda Accord art car is actually a Honda Civic.

2 comments:

xzentricity43 said...

Maybe it is a Civic, though I remain unconvinced; it bears an AMAZING resemblance to the other '95 Accord's that I've seen roaming the roads of this little burg during the 4 years which I've been driving it.
The '94 Civic which I drove for about a week just prior to buying the Accord was a slightly smaller vehicle & weighed a bit less. Though the Civic was also a 2.2L 5 speed transmission (before I hydroplaned it off of I-275 into a ditch, ass end first, at 65 MPH), it had a little more giddy-up because of it's smaller mass.
I presume the Civic bot better MPG too, but I didn't drive it long enough to evaluate that; it was deemed a total loss (the insurance paid for it, thankfully).

skymetalsmith said...

I found you Barbara. Please forgive me for explaining to you what a web log is. I guess you were just joking LOL! I have been hanging out far too long a LATOC (lifeaftertheoilcrash.net) and consider myself a doomer. I love your car. I love all cars and what they can do as a tool. I don't think we get to keep them much longer. Thanks for visiting our State (Ohio). You are the only person I have ever met who could help me with punctuation of a phrase I made up. "After you know what you know...You Know...You Know?" Please show me how it really should be written. Thanks Concha PS I know you don't work for free...can we barter for my own edited quote?