poetic justice

I had it coming. After venting about Kodak last week, I finally found someone who still uses the little order forms for reprinting negatives - our local HyVee (that's the Microsoft of Iowa grocery stores, for those of you scratching your heads!). I was thrilled. Everything was falling into place! Or so I thought...

I picked up the prints tonight, and about thirty seconds after paying for them I sat down and eagerly opened up the envelopes like it was Christmas morning. Lo and behold, I quickly discovered not one, not two, but THREE printing errors. There was a blue line running through one print, another I didn't ask for, and then they failed to reprint one negative I *did* ask for! They corrected their mistakes, of course, but then the cashier couldn't figure out how much to charge me for the prints. I tell you, it makes me long for a professional camera store. What's shocking is they are quickly becoming extinct. If you live in a city less than 100,000 people, you're very lucky indeed if you can find one listing in your Yellow Pages - that is, a listing for a store that specializes in camera gear and printing. I seems as if the Best Buys and other electronic behemoths have swallowed these chaps up whole.

On a more positive note, LeAnn came up from Cedar Rapids yesterday. We had a Guinness at the Busted Lift, and ended up having a lengthy conversation with one of the bartenders who also happens to be in a band. The topic of conversation was "the most distrubing movies ever made." In general, I'm not a fan of the John Waters, shock-for-shock's-sake genre. Most of the movies that LeAnn and the bartender mentioned I had not, in fact, seen - among them, Gummo, The Doom Generation, and anything by John Waters. It occurs to me now that I forgot to mention a recent favorite - Gus Van Sant's Elephant, which is inspired by the Columbine tragedy. What I appreciated about the movie, however, was its steadfast refusal to make sense of the event. There are no heroes, no dramatic arc, no resolution. I want to say that the film is more akin to a poem, riddle, or koan than story. You can keep your incestuous, cross-dressing necrophiliac murderers. The senselessness and brutality of life is far more disturbing in my book.

After finishing our beer, we had dinner at Los Aztecas - my favorite Mexican restaurant in Dubuque (try the enchiladas verdes). And we capped the night off with a little Mario Kart 64 and the Hugh Grant movie About a Boy. It's one of my favorites - the film hits the Hollywood trifecta - entertaining, thoughtful *and* funny! In a nutshell, it's a meditation on bachelorhood and independence. Hugh Grant plays a 38 year old bachelor who "discovers" single mothers as a goldmine of guilt-free, no-strings-attached relationships. Shortly after the movie started, it dawned on me that this may be sending the wrong message to LeAnn! (a single mom herself). I've said it before and I'll say it again: no matter how old you are, going on a date with someone is always rich in opportunities for faux pas, gaffes, and miscommunication. I suppose that's what makes it so much fun! *laugh*

Continuing the movie vein, tonight I watched Crash, which I really enjoyed. It reminded me of Traffic and Magnolia, in the sense that the movie wove several stories together with an A-list cast that played relatively small roles. The thematic thread weaving the stories togeter is prejudice, but the movie is not, in my opinion, pedantic. I would definitely watch it again, and I'm thinking about lobbying for the movie club at school to bring it to campus. It would be a step up from the Amityville Horror, which is what we screened Friday night!