Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Sick

So I've been sick and feverish and both weird and wierd and watching a lot of daytime TV. Anything to make the time pass. Reality show knock-offs on obscure cable channels. "So You Think You Can Stand," for example. I have so shame.

So I fell in love all over again with Aaron Sorkin's "West Wing." Jeez, what a good show. Sharp writing, camera movement like Robert Altman's, rapid fire dialogue. Watching it always made me feel better. And its excellence served to remind me that a couple of things I was working on were just crap. Maybe fever burns away the delusionary bullshit that is usually made palatable by nine-year old bourbon?

Illness is not always a bad thing. Alternative doctors especially say, "Well, your body just needed some time away from whatever has been bothering it." Could be true. And one of my favorite novels -- "The Moviegoer" -- was written by a young medical student who contracted TB before he could start a practice. As he recovered, he started to write, something he was clearly meant to do, anyway.

I tried, by the way, to keep up with the sonnet-a-day assignment but couldn't after "fever" rhymed with "Leave It to Beaver" and then with "cleaver." I really didn't like the direction that was going.

RK

4 comments:

  1. I had something like Ebola just before the last winter residency and watched three seasons of West Wing and had a similar experience. I also thought maybe Josh Lyman would come and save me from all of this, but when I got well I discovered that he was fictional. Wierd.

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  2. I've seen "So You Think You Can Stand!" It's on right after that new Ric Ocasek vehicle, "Dancing with The Cars."

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  3. One of my favorite West Wing scenes is when Josh Lyman finds Toby playing pool at the pub. Josh: "I thought you were supposed to be writing the speech." Toby: Rattles off several pithy sentences worth of great soundbyte. Then says, "Pencils are for wimps."

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  4. If only, if only our minds could do it all. I haven't found a show I like as much as West Wing. Trying to move and recover from building a house, I got hooked on Mad Men dvd's - terrific writing and acting. You want to feel better about a rejection? Watch a few shows. Their ads get slammed every day and the women have no sense about men . . . Go to bed, Claire. Tomorrow it's back to writing.

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