Nocturne

Errands, TV baseball -- Giants lost playoffs series, boo hoo -- then a little house cleaning. By then I just didn't feel like doing any work -- any writing, that is. I went to see Casa de los Babys. I thought it was kind of boring, frankly, though it was nice to see all those great actresses together. Marcia Gay Harden was fun as the uptight bitch, though I couldn't stop thinking "Wow, that's Marcia Gay Harden doing a great job acting like a Midwestern bitch." And I've always liked Mary Steenburgen, ever since her Oscar-winning role in Melvin and Howard.

I emerged from the Embarcadero theater and saw, between the buildings of Embarcadero Center, the pastel shades of sunset over the bay. So I walked down there, and out over the bay on the newly completed pedestrian walkway on the side of Pier 1. Only a couple of fishermen were out there, discussing baseball. On the softly lit bay, a tugboat pushed a barge under the Bay Bridge and past the pier, while out toward Treasure Island, another tug towed a barge in the opposite direction. A ferry departed from the Ferry Building next door, heading off to Marin County. There was a haze keeping the opposite shore of the bay indistinct; not fog exactly, more like the haze that's left over when the fog has blown in.

At least temporarily, the film got me out of the funk I've been in for the past week. Maybe now that the Giants have been eliminated, I can start focusing on something else besides baseball. I really do spend too much time watching baseball on television and thinking about the Giants. But I'm not crushed by their elimination; the last two games were great games, and the Marlins are a good team. Ugh, nothing's more boring than someone blogging about sports.

So what am I in a funk about? It really started a few weeks ago when I had a party at my place. A minimal number of people came to the fête, not quite enough to make it a really good party -- though I was, of course, grateful to those who did come, especially N and N, two ex-girlfriends I hadn't seen in a long time. But since then I've been feeling sort of socially isolated, and I've gotten very little writing done, as well. It's just a funk, pure and simple. Awfully boring. A film generally gets me out of it. But it might take a better film than Casa de los Babys. After thinking about it, I realized what is wrong with that film. John Sayles was basically attempting to make an Almodovar film. It has the requisite elements: an ensemble of well-known female actresses in their 40s, an exotic location, a woman-friendly theme (children, adoption and mothering), even a slender, darkly browed nun. But Sayles will never make anything close to an Almodovar film, because: 1. he is American, and 2. he is not queer. Nice try though.