I watched the movie The Right Stuff today, which was a meandering romp through the early years of the U.S. space program, starting all the way with the breaking of the sound barrier by Chuck Yeager and ending with the last flight by the Mercury Astronauts team in…1963, I think. After that, we switched to the Apollo program to get us to the moon.
It sounds like the perfect movie for me, right? Almost. I found parts of it to be quite well-done and exciting…but man, it was rough. The historical figures in the movie, including most of the freaking main characters, were so unbelievable and over-the-top, it was like watching a cartoon or a parody a lot of the time. I seriously didn’t get it. Especially when they made the scientific team look like buffoons that needed to be put into their place by the heroic pilots. I mean, fuck. It was so *unbelievably* far from what we all know for a fact is the truth, and it was just so hollywood in the really derogatory sense of the word. LBJ was a pouting child. Totally out of touch and inconsistent with the sometimes-reverent tone of the film. And I’ve watched plenty of movies from that time period that dealt with historical events that handled real people with realism and subtlety…man, this movie did not. It was very disappointing. And a bit confusing to me, considering the praise that was kinda heaped on this movie. I didn’t see it. Big time. Do not recommend.
It *did* make me look into the origins of our space program, which is definitely a positive side experience…but not so much with the movie itself. You know what it was about it? It felt out of time. Like, this was the version of the story that they would have written back in…say, the 50s maybe. Or even all the way back in the 30s, when newspapers pumped up stories and made the real-life people involved larger than life. THAT’S what it felt like. Immature story-telling…like before we knew you didn’t have to embellish so much to make people fall in love with a dramatization of historical events and people. Well, we know now, and they freaking knew then, so I just don’t get it. It’s a movie that felt out of its time.
Today, I wasn’t quite as lazy as I thought I would be, but I was still pretty damn lazy. I did my writing hour. Set a timer this time for 30 minutes and work solid all the way through. Going to do the same thing tomorrow. I like this timer idea, because I can gradually extend the time that I’m devoted 100% to writing. Work my way up to a full hour…hopefully even 90 minutes. Or at least 80 of those 90 minutes. I think that’s probably about my max in one single stretch of time, but we shall see.
I then also did laundry, including the bedding, which I’m definitely looking forward to partaking of tonight 🙂 Hung out with the pups. Did the dishes. Watched the A’s get swept by an honestly very mediocre Pirates team…watched the movie. Went on walks. And took an hour-or-so nap in the afternoon.
It was one of those days off towards the end that leaves me feeling kind of unsettled and anxious. I don’t like that. I don’t think it’s a good sign for my psyche, the fact that I start getting anxious about relaxing and not doing anything. Like I can’t just sit down and do nothing for a day, I have to be moving, working…a person should be able to just sit still for a while, I think…and it’s clearly something I need to work on. Work days are for working, and off days are for rest. I need to get better at both of those.
Anywho, it’s time for the sleeps now. I forgot yesterday to post the accompanying video to the blog post, but I did it tonight. Hope you enjoy. It’s a fun exercise every so often, documenting each of my days with some video. It’s all a big journal project, you see. Documenting my life so I don’t forget things…it’s so easy to forget things. I haven’t read one of my entries from last year in a while. I think I’ll do that tonight before bed.
That’s all the news from Lake Woebegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.