Henry's Asylum

Netflix to the Rescue

I was just over at James Lileks’s site. The "daily bleat" told of his visit to his old hometown to celebrate the Easter holiday with his dad. A huge dose of melancholy, that. He gets that way, sometimes. One day, he could have me in stitches as he points out some hilariously inane concept that others are somehow taking seriously. The next day, I finish the article saying “Man, that was a downer.” Today was a downer. Believe it or not, it makes it hard for me to write after reading something like that. Especially since he’s a much better writer than I am (no foolin’, Henry? Really?)and knows how to seriously become poignant. Not only that, but with my own dad doing rather poorly at this stage of the game (he’s 96, has Parkinson’s and just got hit with a bout of pneumonia), this is not something I need to mull over during my lunch break, at work. Not only that, but one of my Production Leads’ (my “assistants” at work) mother just passed away so that’s pretty sad and, finally, I cruise on over to Lily’s blog and she’s talking about “Downfall”. “Downfall” sounds like an excellent film, but sheesh. I’m sure you know what I mean (Hitler and all). I visit Lily’s site because she’s a developing talent and I get to learn quite a bit from her writing style (Lilek’s, too, for that matter). But now here I am, sounding every bit as maudlin as James. One good thing, though (he said while pulling hard on the stick and instantly feels the terrific g-force generated by pulling out of that serious nosedive) – Neflix is sending me “Death Race 2000”. Yay! If I can just get it together and watch all 5 DVDs I’ll have from them, in my possession, I’ll be a new man. By the way, they are: “Rain”(1932), “Ju-On, The Grudge” (2003), “The Unknown” (Lon Chaney – 1927 with the “London After Midnight” photo recreation presentation), “Battle Royale: Special Edition (2001) and, of course, the aforementioned “Death Race 2000”. All right, moving forward…

posted by hbrennan @ 7:18 PM