Day Forty-eight

Comfort in repetition

The sun setting down 13th street, over the Hudson River,
over New Jersey and into California.

It rained here this morning. Got on the subway and there was mass confusion because the trains were either delayed or not running because of 'signal problems'. Every time it rains in New York, the subways suffer. It's amazing. RAIN stops the trains, never mind terrorism. Rain effecting the subway system is new as of the past few years, because years ago I don't remember there being this problem, every time it rains. I got as far as Lexington Ave on the E train and the train was about to go under the East River to the next stop, which is the stop I get off for my studio, and the conductor said that Lexington was the last stop. I have to be at a meeting on 14th street at 11:30, so rather than risking getting stuck in Long Island City and miss my meeting, I decided to come all the way back home for an hour, change my wet clothes, go down to 14th street and then over to my studio on the 7 train. Hopefully I'll have better luck with the 7.
I'm glad it's raining. The heat has lifted so that makes things easier, and I enjoy working in my studio when it's raining out. I get more done. The sun is a distraction. We have some intermittent thunder rolling through the area right now. It's nice. The sky is dark and flat, almost like the light that is present during an eclipse. Whenever I think of eclipse's I think of the movie with Cathy Bates, "Dolores Claiborne" because an eclipse is featured prominently in that movie. It's one of my favorite films, and in my opinion, widely overlooked. Cathy Bates is stunning in this movie, the story is great, the filming is great, and the location is Maine. I believe it's a nice, solid, two-hour movie too, none of this one and a half hour crap that most movies tend to be these days due to marketing issues. Dolores Claiborne is one of the few movies I've seen multiple times. I place it in the DVD player from time to time just to have it on in the background. Some movies are just comforting to have on in the background; you know the scenes, the lines, the storyline, and the characters become a part of your life, even if they are just replaying the same situations over and over again each time you play the movie. Comfort in repetition. I have a couple other films like that, that I like to play now and then. "Grey Gardens" is one and so is "Jaws". I've probably seen Jaws more times than any other film I can think of, by far. I remember seeing it in the theater when I was a kid. At the Lord Theater in my hometown....or was it the Palace Theater? There were two, small, old theaters in my tiny New England town, before multiplexes and malls took over. It had a large, stained glass window in the lobby. It may even have been a Tiffany glass. I remember seeing the poster for Jaws and I begged my mom to take me. The poster as I remember it, was nothing like the iconic poster that the movie is known for now - of the woman swimming at the surface of the water and the shark rocketing up from the depths to attack. The poster I remember was much more gorey and cartoon-like (which of course made it all the more mysterious and frightening). I remember reading somewhere that at the time of the filming of Jaws, the physiognomy of a Great White shark was still somewhat unknown, for instance, they didn't know that the jaws of a shark are movable and able to 'pop out' of the mouth of the shark so that it can make a wider bite, tear, and chew it's prey. So the original drawings of the shark for the poster is an odd looking creature. Kind of like the drawings of fanciful sea animals from antique manuscripts, with tails and scales, like dragons. I collect copies of Jaws, the book, because until they committed to the final illustration as we know it now, the drawing of the shark and the design of the book went through several changes. One of the original drawings is just a thing with a mouth, it's amazing. (see illustration to the right). I could spend an afternoon just writing about the image on this book cover.
Anyway, Jaws is one of those movies, although horrifying, brings me comfort when watching it because I've seen it so many times over the past 30 years. Plus, I like the setting of summer, along the beach. It reminds me of my childhood growing up on the edge of where the Long Island Sound meets the Atlantic....not too far from where the fictional story of Jaws took place. That's also why I like Grey Gardens...it's the same time frame, 1975, New England/east coast. I'll have to write about Grey Gardens another time because I'll have to devote an entire couple days to that, seeing as though it's my favorite movie.
I'm going to Connecticut tomorrow to see my brother and his family. Theresa, my sister in-law has had her third baby a month or so ago and I haven't seen her yet. I'll stay a couple nights and then come back. I have quite a few nieces and nephews now, and they are always eager to go on walks with me, run around the house and get into mischief. I'm looking forward to seeing them.
That's it for today. I should really write longer on these three important films, but I've got painting to do. So, to sum up, rent the following, even if you've seen them before:
Dolores Claiborne (1995), Jaws (1975) and Grey Gardens (1975).
Oh, and throw in, "Safe"(1995) by Todd Haynes starring Julianne Moore. That is my other, all time favorite film. I'll most definitely talk about Safe on another day.