Documentaries on Friday

 

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 I considered going to a football game Friday night but decided to watch it at home instead.

 This is high school by the way. Around here they show at least one game per week on TV, usually the best match up of the week. I wasn’t able to find it after scanning the channels though. Same thing happened last week. What’s likely going on is that the game is only available on the cable affiliate. I’ve got an old school antenna and no, I don’t miss having cable TV. Other than high school football games I don’t watch sports anymore. I’m through with woke sports; this is year two of pretending the baseball and football don't exist at the pro level.

 Golf is the one exception because it’s positively focused on the sport. But I wouldn’t rush home to in order to watch a match. If it’s on great, if not no big deal.

Without sports I won't pay for cable, the internet however is another matter. The high school game was supposed to be on a YouTube channel but it never started. I might have had the wrong station but the date and teams were correct on the description line. Whatever. I had already convinced myself I wasn’t going to write or do any sort of work last night. I surfed Hulu for bit, then Amazon.

Finally I landed on a documentary about drummers on Netflix instead called “Count Me In”. Anytime I can listen to a gifted musician, or artist or athlete talk about their process I'll check it out. I’m not even a big Rock N Roll guy anymore. I hardly listen to music on a regular basis anymore. When writing I like to put on a Pandora station (jazz mostly) for background.

 Documentaries are to me what sitcoms are to others, nostalgia and silly stories. But right in the middle, I’d call it the sweet spot, are professionals talking about their love of craft. Try it next time you watch any of these shows featuring pros, experts. It works for cooking, painting, home restoration builders, actors and countless others. They really love what they do and it’s inspiring.

I recognize most of them contain a lot of filler. Here is what I mean. On the drummer doc there was a lot of talk about Keith Moon (The Who) and John Boham (Led Zeppelin). Others were mentioned as well from the early jazz guys like Buddy Rich and Art Blakey. I don’t have any special inside knowledge on styles or sounds or creativity, but these are names most people know. If you didn’t know the names of the drummer you’d certainly know the bands. My point is you can fill up a lot of time talking about legends and showing old footage.

 It’s easy to do and it becomes a point of reference for the rest of the story. It brings the viewer back to something they likely remember from childhood.  

 In fact, most of the film consists of drummers breaking down their inspirations. Just a side note here: not one of these current band members referenced Neil Peart from Rush. Really guys? Not one mention?

I recognize how simple this format is and I still love it. Sitcoms come to mind because the  educational value is zero, just entertainment. This is how some documentaries are done and you either love it or you don’t. ESPN did one called just last year called "The Last Dance" about the Chicago Bulls and their final championship run in 1998. The series stretched over 10 episodes and included a ton of old footage. It was a masterclass in how to do documentaries right.

Some are more historical or investigative, this kind relies heavily on interviews to move the story.

 "Count Me In" reminds me a of the "VH1 Behind the Music" series.  There is a story running in parallel to the parade of old rockers detailing their influences. Four drummers prepare for kind of jam session (Is that what they’re called?) in middle of telling their origins. Stephen Perkins (Janes Addiction), Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Cindy Blackman (Lenny Kravitz), Jess Bowan (The Summer Set).

The session right at the end of the film was intense. I’m not that into long drum solos but for those inclined it was skill central. I like the stories, the history, the inspiration and the creativity. For that reason documentaries work well for bored days when nothing else will do.

Or if you can’t find your high school football game on the YouTube.

Restoration of the Mind

 

So I finished my kitchen on Sunday. I had a goal to repaint the cabinets in an off white color for a different look. Not only was the color uneven before but it should have been done years ago. That’s on me. I’m not the most eager home improvement type. Some of my friends spend every other weekend doing some home project. Their houses look amazing because of it too. But for me I like to read and write . . .  everything else is a distraction from that.

Despite my lack of energy on the whole effort I didn’t take any shortcuts. I took everything out of the drawers, cleaned the shelves, taped the corners and put on 3 coats of paint. My mom helped me for a few hours saving me serious time. I found some inexpensive paint at the re-store (a habitat for humanity center) and covered the wood with it. Years ago my plan was to sand off the old mocha paint that covered the cabinets. My brother started on this when he lived here. It was clear this was going to be more work than I wanted to put in, him too. He sanded off the top coat of paint to reveal a kind of shabby chic, rustic look. It was purely accidental but I kind of liked it.

Also I was lazy and decided to leave it alone.

The new off white is better if only because it’s a fresh coat of paint. Nothing is easier to accomplish and brighten up a home’s interior than new colors. I wonder how much of that is purely mental. Does the new color and clean look actually look better, or am just responding to the feeling of accomplishment? The answer doesn’t actually matter. It works every time I try it.

Why bother to mention such an easy renovation, a weekend job that a lot of people can do in half the time? Because success builds on success and even little projects you didn’t want to do will teach you how to increase in complexity for projects. I didn’t just need to paint and remove hinges from the old cabinets; I had to put them back the correct way and make sure they fit. This sound easy but it’s tough to make them fit again. I had the cabinets doors switched around the first time. Technically they should fit either side but they don’t. Each door only fit right in the exact spot I removed it from.

The cabinet doors didn’t line up great before my little fix anyway. My house was built in the early 1940’s so a lot of the structure is worn and a little crooked. A settled house means doors never hang right. I assumed I’d screw the hinges back in, line up the clasp to the lock and attach the hinges to the spine. It’s never quite as easy as you imagine it. But then that’s restoration. The increasing complexity is in lining up the hinges after you’ve taken them down. You can’t just use the old holes if the hinges on the door aren’t lined up exactly right, and mine weren’t.

 The problem solving comes from figuring out which door fits where.

I got to a stopping point and finished for the night. A stopping point for me is when I’ve made improvements beyond what a non-carpenter will put up with, but not tried for perfection. It’s better than “That’ll do” not as good as “Wow, that’s amazing!”

It sounds funny to mention problem solving in such a straightforward paint project. For a lot of guys this is stuff they can do half drunk while watching a football game. But home repair stuff is on my ‘hate to do list’ if such a thing exists. For other guys it’s events like funerals or birthday parties. Some guys don’t like to do anything creative on their own. They’re social animals and cloistering in some library to study local history or scanning databases for academic research is anathema.

 Problem solving home repair is my kryptonite, or at least it used to be.

I’m a big believer in positive confession. Everyone should speak positive confession over their mind and body on a daily basis. It’s crucial when we have obvious setbacks or are prone to laziness. I’ve addressed the issue of problem solving in my prayer time. I see myself as a new creature in Christ with new habits and new mindsets.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20 NIV

This is my daily verse and I’m starting to believe it.

Consistency over Competition

 

Have I said everything I can say about running? 

Not a chance. 

In the early days of my blog I focused on things like health and fitness, injury and advancement. I’d list the distances and the increasing running load. I’d mention breathing, water and how the cold affects the lungs in January versus October. The weather is always a concern, it determines so much about the run. But jogging year round makes one flexible to extremes.

I’m at a point where I run less throughout the week but with more consistency.

 Here’s what I mean. When training for a race I stay on a schedule. That schedule usually demands 3 to 4 days a week with increasing difficulty. I run hills for a day and then flat ground, up the distance and the pace after a month. I only ever did a couple of half marathons so my training load wasn’t crazy. But sticking to a schedule is important to build muscle and endurance for race day.

But I never wanted to race and quit. It’s more important to develop a regular pattern for staying in shape. I choose running first but not only. I use the stationary bike and the stair climber at the gym. It breaks up the boredom of jogging at the same pace and exercises different muscle groups. Besides, I’m not as competitive as many of my friends.

 I like to compete with myself and show improvement over time, but it’s less important that getting up every day and putting in work. I don’t want to lose my drive to stay fit. It’s too easy. Life can get busy and unless it’s a priority it quickly goes away. We often put too much emphasis on the competitive nature of whatever we are doing. Who is the best? What’s my time? How’s my average?

These might keep you going for a while but quickly fade in importance. Only the most competitive stay at the top and push themselves past age and injury. For most of us consistency is a more achievable goal. That’s where I’m at right now. And No, this isn’t an excuse to explain why I haven’t done races for 2 years. But there is a nagging assumption (in my head) that not increasing is actually decreasing.

Let me explain. In business if you don’t grow you die. No company that expects to grow can say “No more accounts please we’ve got enough”. You don’t turn away business. You add staff, buy more machines, invest in better software and streamline where possible. It’s the nature of capitalism, grow or die. It’s a model of success that rings true. It’s mostly true with the physical body, we build on previous strengths.

But the body breaks down over time. Why can’t I run as fast as I did in when I was in the Army? If anything I’ve improved my average distance by orders of magnitude. But 22 isn’t 42, as if we needed a reminder. My goals have to be different now. Our bodies don’t respond the way a company does. Decay is built in at the foundation and although we improve we’re not able to break out of the code.

I hope that’s not too much of a downer. Consistency creates a hardness that overcomes the superficial nagging elements at work in our bodies. I get up early and early and run because. . .I get up early and run. I don’t think about it too much. The decision is already made. It’s raining? Hit the gym. I’m sick? Do it tomorrow. I don’t feel like it. Then go half distance.

My first goal is to keep going. Everything else flows from there.

 

 

 

Val Kilmer is Not Acting

 

Val Kilmer’s new movie Val looks back over his life and career with appropriate nostalgia and a shade of gratitude from an actor who never needed it.

 He looks terrible. That’s the first thing you notice. He’s 61 but is reeling from the cancer treatment he underwent just recently. The surgery put an end to his Mark Twain dinner performances and left him without the ability to use his voice. He does manage to talk through a hole in his larynx, but his son narrates much of the film.

Val takes a day in the life approach but the home video stuff shoulders most of the load.

 Kilmer’s story is shown chronologically but overlain with recent developments in his life. His mother died at some point during the filming, or just before it. There have been a slew of these documentaries about a particular actor’s life that are no better than long winded reminiscences (see Kid 90). I’m not picking on them. I enjoy a trip down memory lane as much as anyone. But they often lack a theme, choosing instead to have actors talk about the good ol’ days.

If you aren’t careful you lose the message in a flurry of old VHS recordings no one cares about.

 If there is a theme in Val it’s how fortunate a life he’s had.

 It’s a long movie, but I wasn’t bored or frustrated with all the ‘look at me’ getting famous stuff. He’s an artistic sort of guy that comes alive whenever a video camera is around. Some souls just need to perform; that characterization fits Val like the eclectic Jim Morrison role he inhibited in the Doors. I don’t know anyone who loved the movie, but no one would argue how brilliant he was. Whenever I hear “Break on Through” I picture Val Kilmer’s Morrison leaning drunkenly on the mic stand in a dark night club.

There is a little inside baseball stuff on the Doors but not too much.

I don’t usually like to see behind the curtain of movie making. It rarely improves my opinion of actors. One example is the mess that was The Island of Dr. Moreau. Marlon Brando in particular comes off spoiled, lazy and so overweight that the studio just replaced him another fat guy and took away his lines. Kilmer can’t stop talking about how much of genius Brando despite his obvious indifference to the film, and life itself it seems. Val sounds a bit whiny in some of the off screen stuff as well, earning him the “difficult” moniker.

Supposedly he was difficult in Top Gun as well, his first real break.

Mostly he says he played up the rivalry with Tom Cruise the same way their characters battled in the movie. Whether that’s how Tom remembers it is anyone’s guess. As a kid I like the Iceman character “It’s how he flies, ice cold, no mistakes” and scene stealing arrogance Lt. Tom Kanzansky (Kilmer) radiates.

His best films are the ones where he gets to reimagine a character, or just add a little extra uniqueness. He’s a loyal friend and hopeless gambler clinging to life in Tombstone. He’s a master thief in the Saint, a decent movie that shows his range.

I thought he was wasted in Heat. Part of the appeal of the movie is the big names: Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Jon Voight. Val Kilmer plays a bag man with too little screen time to stretch the limited role. I like the characters he created in Spartan and the Salton Sea, determined and just a little nuts.

There is a telling scene in Val when Kilmer is at an event in Tombstone, AZ signing autographs for fans. At night the crowd gathered for an outdoor showing of the film that made him famous for playing Doc Holiday. After the hoopla, and pictures with the faithful he makes his way back to his cabin in a slightly wistful mood. He’d rather not be doing this sort of thing but recognizes how grateful he is to have had the career he’s had. If not for the original roles and popularity it all goes away. He might even think it a little pathetic but knows not to complain.

A younger, cockier Val Kilmer wouldn’t show gratitude like this. That comes with age and wisdom. So many things need to go right to make it big in Hollywood. The world is full of great actors and actresses that will never sniff fame. Watch his performance on Inside the Actors Studio. He’s at the top of his game, arrogant and playful--soaking in the awe from the crowd. That’s a guy who directors bring movies to.

He was picky about roles early in his career despite making some mistakes along the way. He doesn’t pretend that Batman Forever was a great movie, “Count how many times I put my hands on my hips”. Clearly he didn’t think it had much to do with acting; as a Julliard trained theatre prodigy he ought to know. Still, a lot of guys would love to be working on such a big picture. I think that reality has set in finally.

There is an aspect of religious expression he embraces now. I hesitate to say dogmatic adherence to a set of principles, he’s way too artistic for that. His parents were members of a Christian Science church, the spirituality of which found its way into his paintings (yes he paints too). A lot of it has to do with his cancer and treatment. Disease levels all of us and we feel something we might have never felt otherwise, vulnerable. I don’t know his level of faith in God or even what Christian Science teaches, but I hope he finds Christ in all of it.   

I hope he gets back to acting on some level. I’ll always be a fan. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.