Ack Monday! And it's raining. I had a 3-day weekend so it's particularly hard to come back today but ... here I am.
Friday found me in court all morning. More on that later. Fresno Friday (as I've come to think of my Fresno judging gigs) went pretty well. Still striving for that slam dunk though in terms of numbers. The company on the journey down there was great. Fun conversation with three funny and intelligent women (the rest of the judging panel for that day). Saturday was a day dedicated to driving in circles and household chores ... eek!
Sunday afternoon I finally vegged and watched cable. I saw "The Making of Dances with Wolves" followed by the director's cut of "Dances With Wolves" -- about 4 hours of heaven for me. I already loved that film for so many reasons and now I love it more. I got two things out of this viewing -- first, props to the editor for the original screen version. While I loved seeing the director's cut, I know that movie so well that I instantly identified every second of added film and I have to say ... the movie didn't need 'em -- and second -- I couldn't help but draw comparisons between film making and choreographing a winterguard show. It's not as ridiculous as it first sounds. So many of the same elements are involved; set design, costuming, and casting, and both are deeply personal and creative processes focused ultimately on reaching the audience on a gut level and giving them something from the performance to take away for themselves. The sense of family and the sense of pride the creators obviously had for their project was very familiar and struck a chord in me.
The SAG awards had some great surprises this weekend. I'm impressed that "Crash" did so well. I saw it a few months ago. Watching it the first time, I'll admit to being a little confused. It's not a film to see for it's entertainment value and I had to see it twice to truly understand and appreciate it's message. It says some really interesting things that as a society we're not comfortable articulating but can certainly relate to.
