Sidewalken

I’m lucky enough to have a job where the busyness ebbs and flows. Some weeks are very intense — long hours and almost no me time — and others are way less so — I know when I’ll start and when I’ll finish. (Oh no! Three em dashes in one sentence — a crime!) I’m in the middle of one of those busy weeks right now and feeling frustrated that I don’t have time to do anything even vaguely creative, so that’s what I’m doing now — writing a blog post to push some part of me out into the world. So here are some random thoughts so I feel for a moment that I’m not just an organic work machine.

• I love driving at night on deserted roads and find a weird pleasure in following all the road rules to the letter even though, or especially because, there’s nobody around to see. My favourite is coming to a complete and total stop at a stop sign. I have no rational explanation for why I find this so satisfying.

• A while back I subscribed to the New York Times with one of their $2 a month specials. Mainly I was wanting to read their lifestyle and culture and health stuff. A very bad decision! (Not a full sentence — crime number two!) I found it way too easy to click on and start reading the endless Trump commentary. A few weeks ago I finally quit. I’m going to miss the articles on four ways to sleep better, but I think I’ll sleep better all the same.

• A long while back I heard Sometimes by Perth band Paint on the radio and it was, idiot that I am, the first time I realised that people from my hometown could make poppy rock music I enjoy just as much as those from Stockton or Amherst in the US. This Friday I’ll finally get to see them live. I missed the chance of seeing them earlier in the year when a friend offered me a ticket to the Lemonheads, which I turned down because I was exhausted after one of our busy weeks and had no idea Paint were opening. Finally!

• Last weekend I found out just in the nick of time that the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice was playing at a cinema in town. Although I’ve seen it a million times, I knew I wanted to see it on the biggish screen (it was playing in one of the smaller cinemas). Once I got there after all the everyday rigmarole of getting myself cleaned up and fed and transported to the cinema I wondered whether I was wasting my time. Would I be bored knowing everything that happened? Oh my god, no. It was one of the best cinema experiences of my life. Although I frequently watch bits of it again and again, it’s been years since I actually watched the whole thing from start to finish and I loved every bit so much – the script, cast, cinematography and music are all perfect. So much humour and warmth as well. I spent the whole two hours with a huge goofy grin on my face. A wonderful film to see with an audience who laugh in all the right places and who you know has also seen it many, many times. Laughing in groups for the win!

• Speaking of cinema, there were three films I was really looking forward to seeing this year: Materialists, Pavements, and Friendship. (Oh no! Oxford comma – another crime.) I saw each of them as soon as I could and ended up not enjoying any of them very much. Maybe it’s a me thing. But it was weird being surrounded by people laughing at stuff I found completely unfunny. There’s one more film I’m hanging out for this year — Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind. Fourth time lucky?