graciousness

the forbearance and real charity of the superior athlete or intellect
toward those of lesser abilties. In reciprocation, their respectful
admiration and joy at the guidance and the example of phenomenal
performance. A respectful taking on of the mantle and in return a
kind of piety, an assigning of importance. That's the ideal anyway.
Falling short of that is disdain of the superior intellect and mighty
and envy, schadenfreude all around. Money, power, recognition all
offer their escapes from the execrable nature of this fallout in the
natural order.

Crash vs. Lantana

would be useful to compare these two similar films. Crash has it
moments, but is deeply flawed and phoney. Lantana, if I remember
right, never loses its hold on truth.

arguments

effective debate must try to corral the opponent in uttering a
statement that you have already identified as being indefensible.
sophistry? debate teams? what lawyers do? all of the above.

No one happy first...

Each maintained that the others' foul mood brought him down. Yet no one was prepared to be happy first.

Man so jittery

eating a chocolate bar in the subway so jerkily it was like a strobe
light was hitting him.

Man so thin

his shirt hung from shoulders as from a hanger. Something called
forth the feeling of falling. Everthing about him was stomach in
mouth, freefall.

Ann Coulter

has a face about as subtle and inviting as an elbow.

Environmental Devastation

Uniquely painful to our generation? Which is both acutely aware of it and tasked with responsibility for it. We may be the last generation to remember (insular though our outlook may have been, but mainstream was insular) an environment seemingly not under threat, as a refuge of the eternal and regenerative. As in, the mtns could cure you, make you see the thing of beauty and strength in yourself. Now the mtns are ailing, as with everything else, and the prevailing public mind (in this country) is not to care, to be "real". While to me the real is fast disappearing.

Movie: Flight 93

Was moved by it, found it good, though also sui generis. A film
about a time we experienced that brought back waves of dread. Was
curious to know what exactly happened and admired the fidelity to
facts, the restraint. A bit bothered by the silly jiggling camera
particularly in all the suburban settings with people and kids. I
was spurred to see this by Martin Amis' positive review, but now I
see he was referring to Greenglass' "United 93" that just came out.
Will see that when it's on DVD. Would be interesting to compare the
films, say in a film school setting. Goes back to that exercise I
always envisioned of tasking a class to break up into groups and
shoot the same script on the same set with the same actors--the point
being that all versions would be different anyway.