She was moving out in all directions.
My ass appears to be on the line with far too many people these days. Take a fer instance. My ex-roommate, when he moved in with me, was never actually put on the lease, because he claimed that his credit rating would never get him approved. Fair enough. In my haste to find a roommate I let him move in with just me on the lease. No problems, besides the other ex-roommate related problems, have cropped up with this arrangement. Except that when I moved out on the 7th, he was still left in the apartment, and I'm pretty sure he has yet to move out. He has 2 days to move out. Unless he moves out in two days, it's my ass in a sling. This jackass is quite possibly the least trustworthy human being on planet earth, and I'm supposed to trust him to have good intentions vis-a-vis my security deposit? Dang.
Then there are a few issues with my new apartment. The hot water is still MIA. I've taken to the rather off-putting habit of not showering until later in the day because I want to have time to warm up first, so the cold water doesn't feel so dang unpleasant. I have to trust my landlord and some miscellaneous "handyman" to fix the thing, which I'm not entirely sure (and which they are not entirely sure) he can. Fortuately, the guy who manages my apartment has used the word "compensation", so perhaps I'll get mine. I wonder how that's calculated. It seems to me that I should think: "How much would someone have to pay you to go without hot water for two weeks?" And I'm thinking, oh, $150. Something like that. I mean, I really love hot showers. Perhaps a little too much.
In other news, I watched True Stories, the movie directed by David Byrne with John Goodman and a lot of Talking Heads music in it. It was a really interesting, bizzare little film. The thing is, with David Byrne (and with a lot of the Talking Heads songs), you can never really tell whether or not he's being ironic, or whether the sentiments he expresses are genuine. Take a fer instance. There's one sequence in which the "Narrator" character, played by Byrne, is examining a row of prefab metal warehouse buildings outside a fictional small Texas town and commenting on how amazing they are, that they're totally efficient, without all the mucky-muck of bricks and mortar, and they show up and guys put it together for you in a couple of days! This particular scene seems ironic to me. But another scene, where the camera is panning across a row of tract housing, where all the houses are constructed exactly identically, with only slightly changed colors, seems a little bit less clear. As the camera pans, Byrne's character asks: "How could anyone think this isn't beautiful?" And, I don't know, for a minute it does seem beautiful - the symmetry, the lines, etc. Of course, this might be ironic: who could possibly think such a suburban wasteland beautiful? But, I don't know, it's unclear. Which is why I like the Heads so much, I think, and also why this film is really interesting and surprising. There's a sense in which you might just read everything Byrne says as ironic, but I think some of the stuff he says really is in praise of the ways of life people have adopted. Take the lyrics of "(Nothing But) Flowers" for instance.
Anyway, that was too long on True Stories. See it, and let me know what you think. It's good stuff. Or maybe it isn't.
Then there are a few issues with my new apartment. The hot water is still MIA. I've taken to the rather off-putting habit of not showering until later in the day because I want to have time to warm up first, so the cold water doesn't feel so dang unpleasant. I have to trust my landlord and some miscellaneous "handyman" to fix the thing, which I'm not entirely sure (and which they are not entirely sure) he can. Fortuately, the guy who manages my apartment has used the word "compensation", so perhaps I'll get mine. I wonder how that's calculated. It seems to me that I should think: "How much would someone have to pay you to go without hot water for two weeks?" And I'm thinking, oh, $150. Something like that. I mean, I really love hot showers. Perhaps a little too much.
In other news, I watched True Stories, the movie directed by David Byrne with John Goodman and a lot of Talking Heads music in it. It was a really interesting, bizzare little film. The thing is, with David Byrne (and with a lot of the Talking Heads songs), you can never really tell whether or not he's being ironic, or whether the sentiments he expresses are genuine. Take a fer instance. There's one sequence in which the "Narrator" character, played by Byrne, is examining a row of prefab metal warehouse buildings outside a fictional small Texas town and commenting on how amazing they are, that they're totally efficient, without all the mucky-muck of bricks and mortar, and they show up and guys put it together for you in a couple of days! This particular scene seems ironic to me. But another scene, where the camera is panning across a row of tract housing, where all the houses are constructed exactly identically, with only slightly changed colors, seems a little bit less clear. As the camera pans, Byrne's character asks: "How could anyone think this isn't beautiful?" And, I don't know, for a minute it does seem beautiful - the symmetry, the lines, etc. Of course, this might be ironic: who could possibly think such a suburban wasteland beautiful? But, I don't know, it's unclear. Which is why I like the Heads so much, I think, and also why this film is really interesting and surprising. There's a sense in which you might just read everything Byrne says as ironic, but I think some of the stuff he says really is in praise of the ways of life people have adopted. Take the lyrics of "(Nothing But) Flowers" for instance.
Anyway, that was too long on True Stories. See it, and let me know what you think. It's good stuff. Or maybe it isn't.
posted by dd0031 at 10:59 AM
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