Thursday, December 15, 2005

Tales from Holiday Retail

I'm home from a long day at work and soothing my tired mind and body by catching up with the online world.

Money is tight right now for me, and I'm taking advantage of winter break to work as many hours as they'll give me at the book store. Of course, the holiday season falls in the middle of all of this, and I'm sure we can all agree that no matter what holiday you celebrate, it tends to be somewhat expensive.

One thing I will say about this year, compared to my other years working in retail during the holidays, is that the people I've encountered so far have been pretty nice. It always feels so much better to help people when they've been decent to you. This time of year usually seems to bring out all the frustrated, cranky, and rude people (quite often non-readers shopping for readers) who avoid social interaction the rest of the year. But so far this year the pleasant people outnumber the jerks, and on behalf of all my fellow employees, I thank all of you who are nice to those of us who are truly doing our best to get you what you're looking for.

The best thing about working in a bookstore is that most of the customers are readers, though I do work at one of those chains that also carry DVDs and CDs, so that's not always a guarantee. But when you're dealing with someone who is a reader, no matter what they read, there is usually a common bond between you on some level, and I love that. I don't think people who work in other forms of retail get that very often.

The holiday I celebrate is Christmas, and I'd like to take this moment to ask Santa to leave Jake Gyllenhaal under my tree this year, wearing nothing but a big red bow and that Santa hat from Jarhead.

About a month ago, I had a birthday. My friends all wanted to take me to see a movie, and their original plan was to take me to see Elizabethtown. It's time to confess an embarrassing secret. I used to like Orlando Bloom waaay too much. What can I say? I really like guys with British accents and he totally did it for me in Pirates of the Caribbean. But that's the only thing he's ever done that hasn't sucked, in my opinion. Now, don't be bombarding me with e-mails, all you Lord of the Rings fans. Those movies just aren't my cup of tea. I think they present a really ridiculous good vs evil, black or white, overly simplistic picture of the world. It's far too easy to watch those movies and hear Bush saying "You're either with us or against us." That's the kind of mindset those movies embody for me.

Anyway, back to my embarrassing crush on Orlando Bloom. So, my friends all know that he was my guy not so long ago and were set on taking me to see Elizabethtown. The last Orlando movie I bothered to actually see was Troy, which pissed me off because it eliminated the part of the story where Achilles goes mad over his LOVER'S death by changing Patroclus into his cousin. Please!

My waning affection for pretty boy Orlando and the dismal reviews for his latest film lead to me suggesting we pick a different movie, and we ended up going to see Jarhead. Jake Gyllenhaal is one of those guys who can be either really hot or kind of scary looking (he did nothing for me in The Good Girl, for instance), but lately he's been looking oh so fine. I really love the hairy chest and he's got one of the hottest treasure trails I've ever seen.

Jarhead was an okay film. For entertainment value, it didn't do all that much for me, other than giving me a chance to ogle Jake. But I did think it dealt very well with a lot of the harsh realities of a soldier's life, especially after they've been to war and more or less tossed aside (I'm talking about the flashback to Jake's father, a Vietnam vet, and the end of the movie itself).

I really can't wait to see Brokeback Mountain, speaking of Jake. My only concern is that they won't come near to doing justice to the short story, which is truly beautiful. It's about time, though, that Hollywood presented a gay love story between two men who are the idealized version of 'manhood' (ie cowboys) and just happen to be gay. They're still so stuck on the accepted stereotypes of gay men for the most part.

Anyway, I guess that's all for tonight. I just wanted to write because I've been a very bad blogger so far. I freely admit this and hope to do better.

Sunday, December 04, 2005

Mea Culpa

Okay, okay. I seriously misjudged the amount of time I'd have free on a holiday weekend. And the week since has been what is affectionately termed 'Dead Week' here on campus.

Now, I hear these wild tales that some colleges actually give students the week off from classes to study in the week before finals, hence the name 'Dead' week. Here, though, it's called Dead week because you're dealing with looming finals on top of classes and many Profs think it a dandy time to have projects or papers due.

Finals week starts tomorrow, but I think for me this term Dead Week was actually much worse, so I can actually start to breathe a bit easier. Once my finals are behind me, I'll have a month of 'freedom', at least from classes.

Anyway! I've got a stack of things I've been jotting down to blog about for over a month now. Most of it is already hopelessly outdated, so I'm going to just start fresh.

I hope those of you who live in the United States had a pleasant Thanksgiving. I know dealing with family can be less than fun a lot of the time for most people. One of my favorite holiday films is Home For the Holidays. If you haven't seen this movie, you really should. It's very funny.

Still, I did enjoy seeing most of my family this year. I did have to refrain from throwing a turkey leg at one of my Aunts, though. This particular Aunt is a 36 year old single mother to a nearly five year old daughter. You'd think she'd have a lot of important things on her mind. But what was her main topic of conversation at dinner? The split between Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey!

I wish I were kidding, especially given the fact that most of the people at dinner had no idea who she was even talking about.

Don't get me wrong. Celebrity gossip can be fun at times. It has its place. And I don't mind saying that I wouldn't say no to a few sweaty hours of alone time with Nick Lachey should the opportunity present itself, though I'd hate myself the next day!

But this was clearly the topic that was of most interest to my Aunt and it depressed the hell out of me to see someone so given over to the inanities of pop culture (if you can even call Nick & Jessica that) and so blinded to anything that really mattered.

One such thing is the proposed splitting up of the Ninth Circuit court. I live in one of the states that will be most effected if such a thing occurs, and it's truly a scary thought. Yet if I'd raised the issue at dinner (and really, why didn't I? That's a failing on my part that I must own), I'm probably not wrong in thinking that no one would have had any idea it was being planned.

Bernie Sanders, the man who should and hopefully will be Senator Elect Sanders at this time next year, had some very important things to say on this topic in his recent interview with The Progressive.

Like with many issues, I seem to be one of the all too few around me who understands that what is happening in politics isn't just some distant sideshow you can tune in and out of and that has no bearing on your life. The Simpson/Lachey breakup would be what falls under that category.

Most people do just want to tune out, like my friend Andie who always proclaims "I don't want to talk about anything negative today!" While they're tuning out, things are getting worse. Maybe being a gay man lends me a more attuned awareness of how it all matters? If straight people had to watch the political climate to see if they could marry or not, maybe they'd pay more attention to Washington DC and less attention to the The Newlyweds?

No, that's not fair. And it's also not accurate. I've been gay all my life, but I used to be just as oblivious as others are. And Andie is a lesbian who just doesn't want to think about serious matters.

I guess I just had the good fortune to make a friend or two who were able to help me open my eyes to what was going on.

And maybe that's what we all need to do. Next time you're talking with a friend or sitting across from an Aunt at Thanksgiving dinner, listen politely to their in depth discussion of the current murder case du jour or the celebrity break up of the week, and then respond by going just as in depth on something that REALLY matters.

I'll have to keep that in mind for Christmas dinner.