Bummer. Schmutzie posted a 6-part video of the mini-documentary at his blog that, for me, since he posted it, had become a daily ritual and a spectacular inspiration. It was pulled due, I can only assume, to copyright issues. Now I'll have to snoop around The Internet Web to get my fix.
So I've decided, once I get to Iowa, to build a 20' x 20' log cabin using nothing but native trees, tweezers and a nail file. It'll be my summer home.
What is it about us that moves one to, what, regress? Devolve? To let ourselves, yet again, be held hostage to domesticated fire? Several books and movies spring immediately to mind:
My Side Of The Mountain
Dances With Wolves
White Fang
Legally Blond
I have a severe and acute case of homesickness. But there's no "home" to go back to. Hasn't been since 1998. Is that what I'm doing? Trying to create a "home" on the prairie where it all began in the first place? Someday remind me to tell you about the first of my kin to be born in this country, Edward, son of Patrick.
What sort of retarded lunatic (yours truly) craves solitary confinement by virtue of context? Who among the sane longs to come down with a case of cabin fever?
Fear. Despair. Gotta work on that.
16 comments:
Still working out the etiquette of the Interweb, but it seemed like only a day or two before YouTube pulled the 6-parter for copyright issues, and Swerer's own thumbnail 10 minute job was the only YouTuberish thing I could find that had Dick's footage. I hope my blog wasn't the tipping point for God's sake.
Posted it with you specifically in mind; hopefully that was obvious. Very glad to know that it resonated with you.
Thank God for Japanese YouTube.
It's not the full 54 minutes, but it's about half.
is cabin fever worse than spring fever?
anyway, i'm available to proof read your manifesto, should you need it. [grin]
I guess the reason the first link was to a video that was sadly only about half of the whole doc is because they POSTED THE SECOND PART HERE!!!
Hey what can I tell ya? I'm fucking retarded and my Japanese is also not good.
Rock on, switters. Don't let fear or despair cloud the yearning for "home." (I kind of hate putting that in quotation marks, but you did, so I follow suit.)
My Favorite Mountain my be my favorite book of all time -- I have read it dozens and dozens of times, and am never disappointed in the sheer joy, bravery and LIFE that leaps of those pages.
I so wanted to be him.
So my hope/prayer is: you go be him.
My SIDE of the Mountain is my favorite book.
Sheesh. I have a Geezer brain that doesn't communicate so well with the fast fingers.
Hey, uh, "Switters" -- VPT regularly offers the DVD of Alone in the Wilderness during pledge drives. Just sayin'.
Google tells me you can buy a copy at publicvideostore.org. Still just sayin'.
It's surely got to be a matter of context, right? Are you taking on an act of virtuous non-cooperation or just sulking? Healing or punishing yourself? Staking a claim of independence or running away? You seem to have a healthy need for this from my angle, but my own ambivelence about these sort of questions has got to be pretty well-documented by now. Add Henry David Thoreau, maybe to your list, or Jack Kerouac, or all the generations of expatriate artists.
K (thanks for the plug btw, just saw that.)
Thanks, Smutty. You're a life saver. And thanks.
art, I should've included Into The Wild. I wanted to be that kid, too. In fact, when I was 10 or 11, I dressed up as him for a Come As Your Favorite Character From A Book Day at school. Everybody made fun of me. I can still hear the screams at night.
tia, you know perfectly well I can't watch those PBS fund drives. It's like they pick the ugliest people who work at the station to hock Geezer Bop, like snake oil pitched by side show geeks.
Might take you up on that, twif. The acuity of Spring fever in Iowa is in direct proportion to the brutality of its winters.
Keifus, it's some of both. I'm definitely running away from something (myself?), but as the weeks go by, it feels more and more like I'm being drawn to something. It's a risky proposition, because I happen to be having a pretty bad day after an okay week. It's a process, right?
Thanks you guys. You really do mean quite a bit to me. I'll try not to squander that.
just remember that you can run from yourself and towards your self at the same time.
Dammit twif - that is really good.
I have a daughter who really, really needs to hear that!
Mind if I borrow it?
Hey, switters, how was your weekend? I was at a conference down in Ocala, and off the computer all day Saturday and today.
Was thinking about you, though, and wondering if you were finding any clarity?
@ art&soul: go ahead. i won't even ask for royalties. [grin]
Did I mention that I like that pic up there?
Thanks twif - and btw, I totally dig your baby's face! Good gracious what a cutie!
he is. thankfully, he takes after his mom in the looks dept.
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