orange moon just above the horizon
May. 26th, 2002 09:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gurdonarkWe had a grand day today. Ken and I went to see the new Star Wars
while my wife and Heidi took the toddler to the community swimming pool. We live in one of the "high tech employer" areas north of Dallas, so we are in a prime Star Wars demographic. I knew to go to the theater at 10:00 a.m. to buy the 12:30 p.m. tickets, but
I had not expected that we would need to return at 11:00 to stand in line so that we could get good seats for the "digital" showing.
Stand we did, though, although the other folks in line, who brought notebook computers, good novels, or even ewok lore to share, were
better prepared than we were. Ken "does" art while I dabble in it, so it was fun to talk to him about what "real artists" do.
We liked the movie. I am a big Yoda fan, but I think that's just saying I'm a typical geek. Natalie Portman was a bit of a pleasurable juxtaposition for me, because the last time I saw her she was Susan Sarandon's sensible daughter in that movie about moving to LA in the 60s to try to escape the humdrum humdrumness of existence (obviously, a dream shared by nobody who has been stuck in traffic on the 101 Freeway--"Ventura Highway in the sunshine", bumper to bumper, without cessation--the days are indeed longer, and I was gonna go,I know....).
We all had a wonderful dinner at Blue Mesa Grill, where they always seat us immediately, bring us elaborate and more than adequate helpings of southwestern cuisine, serve those sweet potato chips with the corn tortilla chips, and make my wife's margarita by hand without a mix. Then we headed home. My wife settled into "Endless Summer", the charming surfing movie on ESPN, our friends and their daughter settled in for rest, but I felt that need for a quiet moment outdoors.
I headed off, my cheap French binoculars in tow, to Glendover Park, which is quickly becoming a sort of outdoors home for me. I sang to myself an old Bill Nelson song, with the line "and in the back row of the Empire/she dreams she hears the gasworks band". Ten
kids were playing American football in the near-dark on the field usually used for kiddie soccer. I don't think they could see the ball, but it didn't matter. I passed by them into the tiny mini-grove of trees, which apparently predates the surrounding housing.
Lightning bugs (my CA friends remind me that non-southerners call them "fireflies") lit up the night everywhere, like little silent fireworks. The show was not for me, but I still felt I had a front row seat. When I came upon the pond, frogsong erupted from it,
all fairly high pitches, on my left and on my right. It was always staccato, now a somewhat industrial sound, then a somewhat chorale sound. I circled the pond, noting the single swift flying overhead. I saw the planet Venus and the planet Saturn and tried to examine them through the binoculars, but I think that the half-moon Venus and the hint of rings around Saturn were
a figment of my imagination rather than a figment of the lens resolution. For the first time, I longed for the reflecting telescope that I gave two years ago to Glendale College when I realized I was using it but a time or two a year, when it deserved weekly use. I got that telescope from a man who lived in the Los Angeles hills, and who hinted to me that he intended to use the proceeds for some religious observance for a California based sect known for its predilection for expensive religious observances. I did not really ask him outright why he would sell this telescope through which he could show me nebulae at the center of God's creation in the name of religion, though. To ask a man why he is really selling his telescope is something akin to asking Roy Rogers why he is selling Trigger.
Well, my cheap French binoculars do not qualify as Trigger or Buttercup, and are mainly used to look at butterflies and distant wildflowers, for which they are ideal. Still, I tried to see distant planets with them, as well as two airliners. I thought about all the air miles I fly over suburban lights like the lights of my neighborhood,and imagined cheap French binoculars trained on my plane, and somehow felt connected with all that. As I walked back home, though, I saw the moon, all orange, just above the horizon. I tried to remember if orange moons in Spring have a name like Hunter's or Harvest, but felt stymied because I convinced myself that both those names are Autumn names. The binoculars showed me the craters, and I tried to imagine what shape the craters most resembled, but abandoned the effort when I realized that they most resemble craters, and then I half-formed a prayer, but the prayer faded away into the craters, and whatever invocation the moment caused was lost in that very same moment.
When I got home after my brief walk, the fellows on "Endless Summer" had found the "perfect pipe" in Cape St. Francis, South Africa. Tomorrow Ken and I will do toddler care, to facilitate a shopping trip. I was born to look at the moon through cheap French binoculars and to play with toddlers.
while my wife and Heidi took the toddler to the community swimming pool. We live in one of the "high tech employer" areas north of Dallas, so we are in a prime Star Wars demographic. I knew to go to the theater at 10:00 a.m. to buy the 12:30 p.m. tickets, but
I had not expected that we would need to return at 11:00 to stand in line so that we could get good seats for the "digital" showing.
Stand we did, though, although the other folks in line, who brought notebook computers, good novels, or even ewok lore to share, were
better prepared than we were. Ken "does" art while I dabble in it, so it was fun to talk to him about what "real artists" do.
We liked the movie. I am a big Yoda fan, but I think that's just saying I'm a typical geek. Natalie Portman was a bit of a pleasurable juxtaposition for me, because the last time I saw her she was Susan Sarandon's sensible daughter in that movie about moving to LA in the 60s to try to escape the humdrum humdrumness of existence (obviously, a dream shared by nobody who has been stuck in traffic on the 101 Freeway--"Ventura Highway in the sunshine", bumper to bumper, without cessation--the days are indeed longer, and I was gonna go,I know....).
We all had a wonderful dinner at Blue Mesa Grill, where they always seat us immediately, bring us elaborate and more than adequate helpings of southwestern cuisine, serve those sweet potato chips with the corn tortilla chips, and make my wife's margarita by hand without a mix. Then we headed home. My wife settled into "Endless Summer", the charming surfing movie on ESPN, our friends and their daughter settled in for rest, but I felt that need for a quiet moment outdoors.
I headed off, my cheap French binoculars in tow, to Glendover Park, which is quickly becoming a sort of outdoors home for me. I sang to myself an old Bill Nelson song, with the line "and in the back row of the Empire/she dreams she hears the gasworks band". Ten
kids were playing American football in the near-dark on the field usually used for kiddie soccer. I don't think they could see the ball, but it didn't matter. I passed by them into the tiny mini-grove of trees, which apparently predates the surrounding housing.
Lightning bugs (my CA friends remind me that non-southerners call them "fireflies") lit up the night everywhere, like little silent fireworks. The show was not for me, but I still felt I had a front row seat. When I came upon the pond, frogsong erupted from it,
all fairly high pitches, on my left and on my right. It was always staccato, now a somewhat industrial sound, then a somewhat chorale sound. I circled the pond, noting the single swift flying overhead. I saw the planet Venus and the planet Saturn and tried to examine them through the binoculars, but I think that the half-moon Venus and the hint of rings around Saturn were
a figment of my imagination rather than a figment of the lens resolution. For the first time, I longed for the reflecting telescope that I gave two years ago to Glendale College when I realized I was using it but a time or two a year, when it deserved weekly use. I got that telescope from a man who lived in the Los Angeles hills, and who hinted to me that he intended to use the proceeds for some religious observance for a California based sect known for its predilection for expensive religious observances. I did not really ask him outright why he would sell this telescope through which he could show me nebulae at the center of God's creation in the name of religion, though. To ask a man why he is really selling his telescope is something akin to asking Roy Rogers why he is selling Trigger.
Well, my cheap French binoculars do not qualify as Trigger or Buttercup, and are mainly used to look at butterflies and distant wildflowers, for which they are ideal. Still, I tried to see distant planets with them, as well as two airliners. I thought about all the air miles I fly over suburban lights like the lights of my neighborhood,and imagined cheap French binoculars trained on my plane, and somehow felt connected with all that. As I walked back home, though, I saw the moon, all orange, just above the horizon. I tried to remember if orange moons in Spring have a name like Hunter's or Harvest, but felt stymied because I convinced myself that both those names are Autumn names. The binoculars showed me the craters, and I tried to imagine what shape the craters most resembled, but abandoned the effort when I realized that they most resemble craters, and then I half-formed a prayer, but the prayer faded away into the craters, and whatever invocation the moment caused was lost in that very same moment.
When I got home after my brief walk, the fellows on "Endless Summer" had found the "perfect pipe" in Cape St. Francis, South Africa. Tomorrow Ken and I will do toddler care, to facilitate a shopping trip. I was born to look at the moon through cheap French binoculars and to play with toddlers.
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whoa.
Date: 2002-05-26 09:14 pm (UTC)Very nice writing here on this... beautiful imagery and vibe.
I feel such wonderous love-energy in the air... so sweet.
mmmm :D oxoxox
Re: whoa.
Date: 2002-05-26 09:29 pm (UTC)I omitted mention of how gorgeous Natalie Portman looks because I get a bit hesitant when actresses are ages when I could theoretically have fathered them, but she did look stunning, didn't she?
People who say they cannot understand the sheer attention that monastic devotion requires have never watched a toddler. What glorious attention-grabbers they are!
no subject
Date: 2002-05-26 11:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-05-27 10:22 am (UTC)you see, i wait until the hubbub dies down, then i'll go see the movie. especially if it's funny. when the theatres crowded, i can't even here the dialog over the laughter. besides, i like it the feel of a private showing *smile*
i saw lightning bugs for the first time in Heber Springs, Ark. where i spent about six months. there was a big party and i walked outside for air along the 40,000 acre wandering lake there and the creatures were within arm's reach at the edge of the trees. they always make me think of Pirates of the Carribean, though.
no subject
Date: 2002-05-27 11:43 am (UTC)The first Star Wars movie came out when I was in college.
I remember a sense of exultation when it was over, a "yes, that WAS a movie!". It was a pick me up in drear college days.
no subject
Date: 2002-05-27 11:51 am (UTC)Star Wars
Date: 2002-05-28 07:30 am (UTC)We saw it as well in a "normal" theater. I guess I let expectations run away with me but the latest movies have never given the the thrill that the original one did. Certainly an entertaining movie and I'll probably even buy the DVD but I still get annoyed at some things.
Is it just me or did some of those big vessels sound like B-17's?
Re: Star Wars
Date: 2002-05-28 08:33 pm (UTC)at first I misread your comment to ask how I liked the digicam, and I was dreading telling you it's still in the box.
then I saw you meant digital sound....yes, you can really tell the difference....it's much better that way...
Didn't everything sound like B-17s and P-38s? I don't even know one plane from another, but I mean that everything sounded like either a WWII plane or a 1980s jet.
I see this one as worthy of the first 3. I like it as well as Empire, altho oddly, many critics now think Empire is the finest of them all.