A slippery slope

Oh my. I gotta tell youall that capitalism is dangerous. Not news? Yeah, well, I just kind of got reminded of it. See, a few months ago, I got this TV set that my neighbor was getting rid of. I brought it in the house and it just sat there for a while, facing the wall. And then I got a sofa, because I'd been wanting one, but also I though it would be nice to sit on the sofa and watch teevee. Plus then with the sofa I got a table that was just right for the TV set, so I put it there in the corner, but I didn't plug it in or anything, just set it on the table, with some stuff in front of it.

I was thinking I'd kind of like a DVD player to watch movies, eventually.

So last week I finally got around to getting a DVD player on eBay. I was holding out for one that had an open country code, but then I found out that you don't have to pay extra for that -- you just have to find out from the manufacturer how to re-set the country code (check the manufacturer's website and you should be able to figure it out) and I got one for pretty cheap.

So it sat there for a while and I watched my very small collection of exercise videos and some so-called girl-o-centric porn that I'm kind of, frankly, bored with, and decided last week to join one of those places that send you DVDs and you watch them and return them and they send you more. On Julie's recommendation (she is a librarian after all, and librarians know everything) I chose Blockbuster over Netflix, but really didn't see all that much difference if you wanna know the truth. So last night I got my first two movies.

The first one I watched was the new-ish Leonard Cohen tribute/documentary/concert video called "I'm Your Man," which is totally fucking great. Or at least if you love Mr. Cohen like I do, anyway, it's great. I'm not exactly objective about this kind of thing. This is one movie that I will watch over and over again, and it's on my wish list at amazon.com if you want to buy it for me.

I was disappointed only in that there were two songs on the soundtrack (which I already have) that weren't included in the film but that I really really loved and was hoping to see. One was Martha Wainwright's performance of "Tower of Song" (that link is not to the same performance as on the CD, but it's also very good -- that girl can fucking sing) and the other was Teddy Thompson's "The Future"(click on the song title wherever you can see it). But the rest of the movie was good, with some highly excellent performances, and some sweet interviews with Mr. Cohen. Other performers (and interviews/commentary) include Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Linda Thompson w/ the Handsome Family, Perla Batalla, Nick Cave, U2, Jarvis Cocker, and a whole bunch of others.

The other movie I saw last night was "Kissing Jessica Stein" which was funny and goofy and queer and ultimately I guess not queer but I don't want to wreck it for you. Which I guess I already did. It was kind of just a phase for Jessica, being queer, but it was a good phase, and the ending is happy enough. I didn't find it disappointing or offensive in any way. But then I'm bisexual, so I don't think it's really all that big a deal no matter who she ends up with. It's funny also if you're Jewish and got to a certain age without marrying anyone, or if you've ever dated someone who's Jewish and you're not.

So, but there I am watching these movies and thinking "gosh it would sure be nice if I had an endtable or a coffee table type thing to set my wineglass down on." Because you know how it is if you're innocently holding a wineglass in your hand, and the glass is all full of wine, and the dog jumps up on the sofa and causes you to spill it all over yourself. Sort of a bummer, and wet. And then there's no more wine.

So it's like I got this one thing, the teevee set, and then I had to get the DVD player, plus the sofa, and now I need a fucking endtable?

When will it end?

It's just evil.