Tonight we had an NLG presentation -- I got it together at the last minute. In case you didn't know (sarcasm very much intended because NO ONE really knows this) -- March 1st is Student Day Against the Death Penalty (says the NLG). So, I thought it would be pertinent if the NLG chapter did a presentation. I printed out 2 packets of 30 pages each on my precious printer with facts and statistics and a "how much do you know about the death penalty" quiz (haven't seen that one on quizilla have you?) AND we showed Dancer in the Dark. Yea, well, I guess no one else really agreed that the presentation was a good idea cause no one showed up.
Actually, that is a lie. I had 100% backing by the President -- Pete. He was there. And! the first person to be in the room was not even a "member" of the NLG but an amazing friend of mine (thank you Eva!). So yea, pete and eva and me watched the movie by ourselves.
Actually, that is another lie. About 1/4 way through the movie the homeless guy from the library comes in.
"Is this the presentation against the death penalty"
[Melissa looking totally confused] "ummm, yea." [Melissa's latent sense of spread the love] "wanna packet?" (c'mon no one else was taking them...)
"no thanks, i'm fine" (still fucking can't get rid of the packets. poor printer, how I waste you)
[homeless guy moves to back row with big pile of paper napkins that he will continuously spit/cough into throughout the movie].
Now...for those who have seen Dancer in the Dark it is a very powerful movie and it deserves some conversation at the end. Homeless guy agrees. He delights himself by telling us of his talents: "I come up with really good ideas, I can help you guys come up with them" and his secrets: "I have a huge hole in my head but I'm not crazy" (followed by "come up to me in the library, but don't tap me on the shoulder because that makes me paranoid")
The thing about it is though -- what is the craziest -- is that I actually enjoyed talking to him and he had some really good points -- etherial maybe and kinda tangential -- but like, i guess he frequents the library a lot and he is mad that there is gonna be renovation on the library because its only cosmetic ("for example, they are putting in bar stools for you guys to type in. Seems like law school will become a little lackadaisical and law school shouldn't it should be serious. It's almost as bad as moving the coffee shop indoors" -- which btw yes, we have a starbucks in our library now). Anyway, putting two and two together (two and two million different thoughts that is) -- Dancer in the Dark, to me at least, is about how fucked up the American system is -- how greedy a cop can be because he doesn't want to "let his wife know" that she can't spend as much...how two-faced and hypocritical our society is because in the court room scene the prosecutions whole case makes Selma (bjork's character) look bad when she has done nothing except (as eva put it) exhibited her naivete. Now, add that "two" to the fact that there is this homeless man who has "decided to be homeless" and is writing a manifesto on the housing system and how living on the "streets" makes teenages mean because they fundamentally need people to care about them and they need a "home" -- those "twos" together definitely make some strange kind of "four".
Yet, the whole time I was enlightened I had this bad look on my face like -- Oh my g-d, why is he talking to us, it is getting late, I am scared. But really when thinking about it -- I was scared because I didn't want to get into such a conversation because to take the plunge means I will take the plunge -- I will sit and talk for hours about how fucked up everything is. But isn't that exactly what this guy represents: a plunge-taker? How could I reject someone so authentic?
Maybe I am the crazy one finding wisdom in this guy who smells and has braids in his long beard. But he has exited the world so proficiently and isn't that what I have been complaining about all throughout law school? Don't I want to stop feeling bad about myself because of other's influences? Hasn't he isolated himself so that he nicely mocked me and my incredulous stare and turned it around and made him seem like the crazy guy?
The people we connect to are so few and far between. Even if its over a stare or a week or a year -- don't be afraid when it happens. It will be as natural as this tonight -- like when the homeless man came in, yea, it was sorta weird, but then Eva, Pete, and I kinda took it as normal (to a certain extent).
I think tonight deserves a smile. Here's looking at you kid.
Actually, that is a lie. I had 100% backing by the President -- Pete. He was there. And! the first person to be in the room was not even a "member" of the NLG but an amazing friend of mine (thank you Eva!). So yea, pete and eva and me watched the movie by ourselves.
Actually, that is another lie. About 1/4 way through the movie the homeless guy from the library comes in.
"Is this the presentation against the death penalty"
[Melissa looking totally confused] "ummm, yea." [Melissa's latent sense of spread the love] "wanna packet?" (c'mon no one else was taking them...)
"no thanks, i'm fine" (still fucking can't get rid of the packets. poor printer, how I waste you)
[homeless guy moves to back row with big pile of paper napkins that he will continuously spit/cough into throughout the movie].
Now...for those who have seen Dancer in the Dark it is a very powerful movie and it deserves some conversation at the end. Homeless guy agrees. He delights himself by telling us of his talents: "I come up with really good ideas, I can help you guys come up with them" and his secrets: "I have a huge hole in my head but I'm not crazy" (followed by "come up to me in the library, but don't tap me on the shoulder because that makes me paranoid")
The thing about it is though -- what is the craziest -- is that I actually enjoyed talking to him and he had some really good points -- etherial maybe and kinda tangential -- but like, i guess he frequents the library a lot and he is mad that there is gonna be renovation on the library because its only cosmetic ("for example, they are putting in bar stools for you guys to type in. Seems like law school will become a little lackadaisical and law school shouldn't it should be serious. It's almost as bad as moving the coffee shop indoors" -- which btw yes, we have a starbucks in our library now). Anyway, putting two and two together (two and two million different thoughts that is) -- Dancer in the Dark, to me at least, is about how fucked up the American system is -- how greedy a cop can be because he doesn't want to "let his wife know" that she can't spend as much...how two-faced and hypocritical our society is because in the court room scene the prosecutions whole case makes Selma (bjork's character) look bad when she has done nothing except (as eva put it) exhibited her naivete. Now, add that "two" to the fact that there is this homeless man who has "decided to be homeless" and is writing a manifesto on the housing system and how living on the "streets" makes teenages mean because they fundamentally need people to care about them and they need a "home" -- those "twos" together definitely make some strange kind of "four".
Yet, the whole time I was enlightened I had this bad look on my face like -- Oh my g-d, why is he talking to us, it is getting late, I am scared. But really when thinking about it -- I was scared because I didn't want to get into such a conversation because to take the plunge means I will take the plunge -- I will sit and talk for hours about how fucked up everything is. But isn't that exactly what this guy represents: a plunge-taker? How could I reject someone so authentic?
Maybe I am the crazy one finding wisdom in this guy who smells and has braids in his long beard. But he has exited the world so proficiently and isn't that what I have been complaining about all throughout law school? Don't I want to stop feeling bad about myself because of other's influences? Hasn't he isolated himself so that he nicely mocked me and my incredulous stare and turned it around and made him seem like the crazy guy?
The people we connect to are so few and far between. Even if its over a stare or a week or a year -- don't be afraid when it happens. It will be as natural as this tonight -- like when the homeless man came in, yea, it was sorta weird, but then Eva, Pete, and I kinda took it as normal (to a certain extent).
I think tonight deserves a smile. Here's looking at you kid.
posted by mjs at
1:04 AM
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