Beasts of the Southern Wild

Thanks to Netflix (or no thanks to Netflix) we watched Beasts of the Southern Wild last night, and I came up scratching my head. “Whuuu?” I thought. “What did I just see?” Maybe the one or two times I fell asleep kept me from seeing some really insightful scenes. Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis), the six-year-old protagonist, narrates through most of the film, and I had a terrible time trying to decipher what she was saying. Generally, I guess she was talking about being one tiny piece in the overall scheme of the universe. I guess. Praise for the young star may be overstated in that she didn’t really have much acting to do, just sort of be herself bobbing and weaving through her junkyard community of Louisiana Bayou misfits. After reading a few reviews of this movie, I expected more. And I got less.

The wind is blowing today. Sun is out, but it’s windier’n hell. Today was our day for pickup of recyclables. When I went out to retrieve our plastic tubs, I found them at various distances down the street, doing a little plastic dance as they slid to the west. As I said, windier’n hell.

Our new year, 2013, is three days underway, and all our resolutions are now in play. Number one is for both of us to give up smoking . . . again. It’s very expensive and so very bad for one’s health, but it’s such fun. “Fun” may not be the right word but it comes close. How about time-fillingly satisfying? We’ve been smoking recreationally for half a year now. Recreationally means about ten a day, almost all of which we’ve been smoking on our back patio. Charlie, who always accompanies us wherever we go, was most confused this morning when we didn’t go out on the patio. “Come on, guys. Let’s go out, let’s go out. Come on, come on!” And when we finally let him out by himself, he just looked at us, waiting for us to join him. We didn’t, and soon after, the wind and chill got to him and he decided to come in.

A writer’s words to live by: “Writer’s Block: when your imaginary friends won’t talk to you.” And finally, “Even if it’s crap, get it on the page.”