A day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
-- NOT--
Lesson # 14053
Well the weekend has passed and I'm already back at work. I normally try to get this written and posted on Monday but that seldem actually happens. Friday and Saturday were relatively quite, what am I saying, they weren't relatively quite they were down right dead. I spent both evenings at home watching the stupid boob tube. I've always known that I can easily become addicted to watching TV but had been able to off set that propensity by the fact that I really enjoy reading and would read for hours at a time when I was in the middle of a good book in stead of having my head stuck infront of the TV. But since I stopped smoking I have done little reading. I always knew that I smoked a lot when I both watched TV and read and assumed that once I quit smoking that the ratio of one to the other would not be effected. So I am perplexed by the change. Hopefully it is temporary. You may have noticed that what I listed as what I am currently reading hasn't changed in a while. I have finally finished that and gone on to start The Pocket Aquinas it is a collectoin of St. Thomas Aquinas' writings from Summa Theologica and some of his other writings. Normally I would prefer to read the original work but though I find where his writings have lead the Roman Catholic Church enteresting, I am not sure that I will find his complete original writings that spell binding. Once I finish I will let you know what I think.
Part of the reason my reading has slacked off may be that I have been reading a selection of weighty tooms. Normally for every book of merit that I read I read at least one that is fairly light. It seems that the last four or so that I have read have been rather deep. I'll have to make sure that the next one I read is for pure pleasure and see what happents.
Back to my weekend. After having spent such a quite Saturday I had a fairly busy Sunday. I normaly do house work all weekend long with frequent and extended rests inbetween chores. But on Saturday I didn't do any realyhouse work. So I spent most of Sunday morning catching up. My friend Eric picked me up about noon and we went to to a Victorian house in Indepence that was featured on the show " Great Castels of America" As I probably have said before we share an interest in Victorian Architecture. Though we have been touring the city and photographing exteriors for the last few months this was our first chance to look at the interior of a local land mark.. After the tour we went and had a late lunch and discussed what we had seen. I then went home, took a nap and then joined Andy formally of Charles and Andy for a movie and dinner. I had thought that I might have lost him as a friend as part of the fall out of their break up seeing how I hadn't heard from him in some time but it apears that I was wrong. We had a great time together.
We went to see "Irin Brokovich" what a great film. I would recomend that you go see this one if you haven't yet. But before warned this is not for kids. There isn't any violence but the language really isn't suited for young kids. The movie is both funny and poignant. It was two well spent hours.
We went to see this movie at the Ward Parkway Theater. Andy lives in Overland Park one of the more affluent western suburbs of the the city. We usually go to the movies either out their or on the Plaza this time we went to Ward Parkway which is between both of our places. It is in a better section of the city proper but lately has been getting a more working class clientel. Well I won't go into the details of the history of the place I'll just say that now you see a larger number of working class blacks, whites and hispanincs at the theater.
One of the effects of the intergration of the mall is that at movies you have more visible reation to the film. When Whites go to a movie they are usually pretty staed. They don't laugh very loudly or make any other noise. Blacks and hispanics on the other hand enjoy interacting with the film and with other theater goers. Do you remember the scene in Amadais where he and his wife were at a vaudville type opera that he had written and the audience talked , acted up and interacted with the actors on stage the whole time. Well that is close to how blacks and hispanics often behave in a movie theater. Now we do want to hear the film but when somehing extra good or funny happens on screen we have no problem voicing our pleasure. Now when I watch a film with my friends at a predominately white theater I have no problem following the edicate that is expected there. But this movie was so funny that I on a couple of occasions reverted back to the way blacks react at the movies. See also Blacks in a White World. From what I could see when I sat down and again when the movie ended I was the only black in the theater. That didn't stop me from reacting it just made me self conciouse after the fact. My reaction was so spontaniouse I was surprised.
