Maybe that will be my word for 2018: Early. I am up at 6am, with little to no sleep behind me, as per the night before. Feeling disorganized in this new, probably temporary adventure in waking up before the sun rises instead of going to sleep as the lights turn on outside. I thought of taking a sleeping pill last night but defeated that plan by seeing if my body sans any pharmaceutical or over-the-counter number would handle itself any differently than the night before, with a ½ a panic pill ingested at bedtime. There was no difference.

I will probably drink tonight, but only if I eat plenty, which I probably will. I could wait another night for beers and booze but I need to sleep. Or do I? I actually feel fine on so little sleep, which is strange.

…

Having finished Cat People (1982) I am going to find another movie I can watch whilst waiting for the payphones to appear. That could be the name of a category for the PP web site: Waiting for the Payphones. They showed up right from the get-go in Cat People, making only a couple of illusory background appearances after the opening scene at the New Orleans Airport.

Released in 1982 I assume all those airport phones were owned by BellSouth, but I also wonder at times if rogue independent providers did not stuff their phones into the shadows back then, as certain smaller companies do today.

…

Watching Dead Ringers (1988), a Cronenberg film. Who would have thought I’d be watching two bondage films in a row? Well, only that last scene in Cat People included bondage, if you could even call it that. Dead Ringers is more detailed about the bondage, though it is not its centerpiece… so far. I’m at about 22:00. The lead woman, featured in the bondage scenes, looks shockingly like a friend’s wife, or at least the way she looked when I first met her some years ago.

I guess Cronenberg films are all kind of weird but it’s strange to see lunacy mixed with depravity all frosted with excellent acting from serious performers. You could see something like this in the hands of stoners and it would not go well.

I spent half this film thinking Jeremy Irons deserved not just one but two Oscars for his role(s). As the film wore on I started to see why he was not even nominated. This shit was just too dismal in its progress to win over happy- or inspiration-seeking Academy voters. He played both twin brothers, at times so seamlessly it was weird. But the coming apart of the characters, as played by the same guy, was masterful.

Best of all there was a payphone scene at the end. I waited all the way through this film with no expectation of such an appearance, yet there it was, mysterious and sad in its brief few seconds as a player in this cast.

Meant to write more today but got distracted by the piano and other things. More later!