Monday February 9th, 2009

The exercise:

I've linked yesterday's post to the left under Daily Writing Music for future reference and I'll add more links as I do more musical linkstravaganzas. Which I will. I was remembering today all the great stuff I forgot to mention yesterday. You've been warned.

Today's starter: out of the loop.

Mine:

I've always tried to avoid watching trailers for movies I know I'm going to see anyway - they always show too much, or the best scenes, or whatever. I do love a good teaser trailer though; it gets me excited about seeing the movie without giving anything away whatsoever.

Only getting one channel on our TV means I don't have much trouble dodging movie trailers... but it also leads to me not hearing about some movies altogether. Thankfully, being totally out of the loop like that can lead to truly great discoveries.

I was in our little neighborhood video store Saturday afternoon looking for a rental and was having trouble picking something out. It ended up coming down to two movies and, to be totally honest, the reason I chose The Visitor was the cover - an old man, apparently in a subway station, playing the djembe. Kat and I have two of our own and playing them is really something we should make more time to do.

Would I have enjoyed this beautiful little movie more if I knew that Richard Jenkins has been nominated for the Best Actor Oscar? No. In fact, I would have enjoyed it less. I would have gone in focused on his performance, with high expectations, and it would have been totally distracting. But I didn't know and the movie totally won me over on its own merits.

Sometimes knowing less is more.

2 comments:

Greg said...

I just caught your reply to my comment yesterday -- when you're ready to protagonize about Katrina Klap and her friends I'll gladly collaborate :)

How come you only get one channel on the TV then? Though I'm no better, I don't actually have a tv... just a projector and laptop to play movies through.

But to the writing, before I have to get back to work. Out of the loop:

The steps are steep and his heart is heavy,
He drags his feet and lets his head droop,
He stumbles across the oaken scaffold
Trying to keep his neck out of the loop.

Marc said...

Oh lord... I'll keep that in mind, haha.

We don't have cable here and the TV only gets one channel without it. I really don't mind, it's pretty much all junk anyway. I don't have time to watch anything anyways.

I like your interpretation of the starter :)