Treasure!

It's been a while since I watched an old movie, so it was time to pop in one of my favorites, Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Some things have a way of being timeless because they embody genius that will never be equaled. Let's put Monet's Water Lillies, Coppola's The Godfather, and Yankovic's Amish Paradise in that category. Then there are other things that are timeless because they get the first word on a topic that is destined to be rehashed and repeated. Let's put Shakespeare's Rome and Juliet, Pachobel's Cannon in G, and Miyamoto's Super Mario Brothers in that category. Huston's Treasure of the Sierra Madre fits squarely into this second category.

What's it about?

Gold! Oh, and in case you're plagued by literal-mindedness and an AP English syllabus, "gold" is metonymous for greed. But it's also literal. Alright, so it's not exactly Faulkner, but easy-to-understand and thought-provoking can go hand-in-hand.

If I was a native...

I think at this divisive time in our country, it's nice to remember that at one time, apparently, out-of-work Americans tried to make a better life by seeking employment South of the Border. I guess anything's possible. Are you listening, Governor Brewer?

"You know, if I was a native, I'd get me a can of shoe polish and I'd be in business. They'd never let a gringo. You can sit on a bench 'til you're three-quarters starved... you can beg from another gringo... you can even commit burglary. You try shinin' shoes in the street, peddlin' lemonade out of a bucket, and your hash is settled."

I'd take only what I set out to get

Why do athletes hold out for a few million more? Why don't CEOs just retire young? Why the hell didn't I just sign a lease at the first livable apartment that was within my predetermined budget, instead of looking for two weeks and almost thinking I'd found something three times?

Because when you're actually in a situation where doing a little better is a possibility, everything changes.

"You start out to tell yourself you'll be satisfied with twenty-five thousand handsome smackers worth of it, 'so help me Lord and cross my heart.' Fine resolution. After months of sweatin' yourself dizzy and growing short on provisions and findin' nothin', you finally come down to fifteen thousand and then ten, finally you say, 'Lord, let me just find five thousand dollars worth and never ask for anything more the rest of my life.'...Here in this joint, it seems like a lot, but I tell you, if you was to make a real strike, you couldn't be dragged away. Not even the threat of miserable death'd keep you from trying to add ten thousand more. Ten you want to get twenty-five. Twenty-five you want to get fifty. Fifty, a hundred. Like roulette. One more turn, you know, always one more."

You know, the worst ain't so bad when it finally happens.

It's a comforting thought for all us worriers. This is good, old-fashioned cinema. You won't walk away thinking about much else, but then again, you can't walk away not thinking about it.

Not half as bad as you figure it will be before it's happened.

Distant Relatives tour does not disappoint

Summer Breeze: the annual University of Chicago tradition that brings a county fair right onto the quads. I was proud of how my compatriots in Intervarsity Christian fellowship kept their massive line moving along with deep fried twinkies, advertised under the slogan of "Meet Jesus faster."

With all the free stuff to enjoy throughout the afternoon, I've never in years passed opted to shell out for the evening concert. This year was different. This year had Damian Marley.

Apparently, a good number of my closest friends still don't know how much I love reggae and dancehall music. I spent most of the summer talking about a Buju Banton concert that was canceled due to the extreme political incorrectness of his early music, which thankfully saved me from having to decide whether I personally should join the boycott against his performances. I also spend a good amount of my time singing along to my favorite songs until the lyrics make me terribly embarrassed or I admit that I have no idea what anyone is saying. So the fact that nobody thought I would be excited by the concert is a little baffling.

Anyway, people with more concert going experience, give me a normality check on the following items:

Drunk fourteen-year-olds: I guess I'm glad that kids got to see some awesome music. At $15, what better options do you have for an entire Saturday night? But if I have to deal with the crocodile-smile-bearing alpha male, the pseudo-drama-wielding queen bee, or the volume-oblivious nerd, I'd rather it not start out by them being drunk before they get to the gate. Time to dispatch the minjas.

Tables of free food: Did the Major Activities Board have money to burn, or was it a sweet marketing deal? I recognized one tray of deserts from The Big Easy (deserts haven't changed since it used to be Orly's), and Fuze fruit juice was prominently displayed, but I have no idea who provided the unmarked, unwrapped cookies. I'd estimate the snacks consumed at $10 price/$4 cost--not bad on a $15 ticket.

Four opening acts, at least, possibly more, since the people playing before 6 (the officially billed start) were playing really short sets. I think the early acts were local, and the last one, Gold Horse, was actually pretty interesting, particularly for their unique instrumentation (violin, bari sax, bass guitar, drums, and acoustic guitar). Then they were ushered off stage for DJ OCD Automatic. Maybe some people were excited by his electronica dance mixes, but most people were too busy huddling up toward the stage or off getting beer to care. It felt like ambient music, and it went on for over an hour. The Dirty Projectors, who actually shared the concert billing with Damian and Nas, were great, although I certainly didn't know anything about them. And my sense from the audience's reaction (and crowd density) was that not many people were there to see them. In other words, they were another opening act. The best that can be said though is that they made me want to check out studio recordings of their music, because goodness knows their performance could have been helped by a better sound setup (let's just say it was easier to figure out what Damian Marley was saying than what these guys were saying). But they're obviously dripping talent, and if you like the idea of a band somewhere between the B-52s, No Doubt, and The Talking Heads, check them out.

So how was the real show?

Fantastic! For just a minute, think of what might happen that could make a promotional tour for a collaborative CD suck.

None of the classics that you know and love? Nope. There'd hardly be time to do them all, but they were generous with their solo performances. Damian performed almost all of my favorites. I don't know as much Nas, but If I Ruled the World served as a good reminder of why he might team up with a Marley in the first place.

No continuity between the two artists performances? This was the brilliant part of it: they'd perform a few new tracks together, then one would disappear while the other did a few classics, then another would start his part of a new song, and his counterpart would pop back on stage. It was fun waiting for the next phase each time.

The new tracks suck? They don't. As far as I know, their only prior collaboration was Road to Zion, and while that might be my favorite right now because I've heard it the most often, I think some of the tracks might stand a shot at dethroning it. (Tribal War sticks out in my mind, and I haven't even heard K'NAAN's part yet.) If I have to criticize, it's that most of the tracks feel Marley-centric (a good thing from my perspective, as I am way biased toward Damian), often with a more reggae structure and instrumentation, with Nas performing a verse for the bridge. Nas' uniqueness definitely adds, although it's worth noting that the two don't so much flow together as offset one another, and the same counterpoint could get a little tiresome if you're only casually interested.

If you have the chance to see them on this tour, it's worth it. Marley has so much energy on stage, and he forces the crowd to interact with him. That's no joke; he stops the band well into the middle of songs if the crowd isn't responding right. I guess it's no trouble to him; he performs many of his classics so exactly like the recording that you have to wonder whether he could do it in his sleep. Nas is fun too, but I had to laugh when whipped out his blackberry to remind him of the lyrics for the second song. Otherwise, check out Distant Relatives, and maybe buy a few tracks. (Who still buys whole albums, anyway?)

Managing Distractions at Work

It's been a while since my last post. I got caught unexpectedly by the crippling ennui of mere being.

Speaking of ennui, I'm getting a little bored with my otherwise awesome job, and I just haven't found the right diversion to help get me through it. In fact, I've actually been reading a lot these days about being productive and managing distractions at work. Living in a digital age, it is very tempting to spend time that should be used productively on dubious activities, such as reading or writing suggestions for self-managing your ADHD. Given that this blog is all about how to stay perpetually entertained, my recommendations may be a bit unorthodox, but I think I've hit upon two really good ones.

Don't Even Try

By far the most effective option. Goal achievement tends toward 100% as your target tends toward 0. I like this method because it's so easily implemented. Even a child could do it! Leave up those email clients, click through the wikipedia trails, play some youtube on your second monitor, check ze tweets, make sure you don't miss any hilarious bargains, and occasionally think about the task at hand.

There are a lot of assumptions that have to hold in order for this to be a possibility:

1. You can get away with this.

If not all these hold, you might need to pursue a different strategy.

Just because this strategy is possible doesn't make it profitable. We all need to do some soul-searching to decide whether it's appropriate for us. After my own personal reflections, I came up with the following reasons why I don't want to live this way forever:

1. The mind starts to develop a tolerance to distraction. Eventually, one web comic isn't enough for me. I start to figure out how to organized my daily bargains and internet radio into separate tab groups away from my work-related tabs. And then, whenever work presents the slightest complication or inspiration is slightly slow in arriving, I hit ctrl-pgdn like a junkie with a Hamilton. And I kind of feel like that's what I've become.
2. I keep imagining a day in the distance future. I'll have a teenage son then, and we'll be locked in an epic power struggle of identity and ideals. On that day, in order to get the upper hand, I'll need to cash in all the moral collateral I may have amassed. The more I slack off today, the less I'll have to cash in on that day.

Okay, so this isn't 100% accurate. #2 is less the product of recent soul-searching and more the driving focus that animates me. So this brings me to:

Keep a Rigid Relaxation Regimen Religiously

In the fine tradition of finding the one study to support the point you like, this research proves that internet use in moderation can actually increase your productivity! The mumbo jumbo about resetting your concentration after it starts to fade might be true, but I like to look at it differently.

My setup involves setting aside the first ten minutes of every hour as waste time. I let myself do anything from shopping to trolling technical help forums. But I have to get it all done in the space of time I allot myself. How do I enforce this? I use Joe's Goals for a little self-monitoring for now; maybe I'll write something custom for the task in the future.

The beauty of this system is that it totally mashes the working/wallowing switch in my brain; the fact that I need to fit everything into a specific window of time makes the whole process seem task-oriented. I'd like to watch youtube, but this personal email is really important. Don't bother me right now, these rss feeds won't read themselves. Oh, time's up! And I completely forgot to pay my credit card bill! That'll be first up next hour. And then, as I settle back in to work, no matter how daunting or tedious the task at hand seems, it's the only way to make the next fifty minutes go by any faster. That's right; getting actual work done is suddenly like taking a break from all the stupid odds and ends I've filled my free time with.

Really let that sink in.

There's absolutely no way my putative teenage son could possibly deny that this is a well thought out and upright course of action and that I am indeed worthy of being a role model.