A Fresh One (Again)

University has begun afresh for the new year. My first semester subjects are Writing Fiction, Advanced Screenwriting, and Modern Drama. For that subject, this week, we are reading Henrik Ibsen’s ‘Hedda Gabler’; I have read ‘A Doll’s House’ before but that’s it, so this should be interesting. We watched a clip from a TV dramatisation of Henrik's ‘The Master Builder’, and I felt (rather cornily, I admit) that it should perhaps have been entitled ‘The Master-Bator’ instead, ’cause this whole scene was basically about how the dirty old builder wanted to erect big, firm spires on the tops of houses and how his young female friend, remembering (or fantasising – Ibsen couldn’t work out which aroused him more, I think) how, when she was 13, he’d kissed her, and who knows what else beyond – the builder’s fingertip hammering at her clit? or even more? - , was groaning in hot desire for him to take her out and show her his biggest erection. Very funny stuff!

Speaking of unfunny stuff now, I have some kind of viral infection. I got it free, and didn’t even have to pay a tip. My body was all so ache-crimped for a couple of nights that falling asleep and remaining under was none too easy, and by last night I had developed a cough but was physically drained enough to get a good, long slumber and now this morning my throat is feeling rough and swollen and my nostrils a bit drippy and, yeah, I just feel like crap all-round. Unhilarious stuff!

… Onto other news, I hear that the great Martin Scorsese finally won an Oscar statuette. This is a real shame. No-one that good deserves the insult of winning something so shoddy as an award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Look at the wonderful company of ne’er-do-wins he leaves (and this is even excluding the so-called ‘foreign’ directors, who are too many to list here, what with my headache and drowsiness): Charles Chaplin, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Preston Sturges, Hal Ashby, Charles Crichton, Stanley Kubrick, and Robert Altman, to name big 'uns who never won a best director Oscar and but come to mind just now. And besides many other problems endemic to such silly rubbish, since when was art or entertainment supposed to be a competition? If you want that kind of aggressive shit, watch or partake in some sporting activity. Although, I don’t begrudge Scorsese his acquirement, for he’d long declared how much he’d love to win the award, and, despite how daft it is for him to have yearned thusly, I am happy for him because such a great artist and entertainer as he deserves to get what they want.

As a footnote to this, if I were ever in such a position to be nominated for an Oscar I would almost certainly accept it. The main reason for doing so would be the benefit of the public exposure that (often, not always) goes along with it all. And so let’s hope recent winners like Roman and Martin are now finding it easier to get proper funding for their projects, for even such big directorial names as these have, of course, experienced difficulties with this in the past.

… And the most important news of all: Shantoozy and I have been together for nine years today! Happy Anniversary, Shantoozy!