Month: October 2008

I went to the movies in the middle of the day yesterday, one of my favorite things to do. I saw Stranded: I’ve Come From a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains.  I’m not sure the movie was a complete success.  I was into it because I’d read Alive and was curious about these men’s lives now, all these years later.  On that it was very satisfying.  They all live in the same town they were living in as boys, they never left.  And they have remained friends with Sergio Catalan, the shepherd they spotted on a horse when they first came out of the mountains and who went and got help.

Afterwards, when I was googling the story, I was sorry to learn that the survivors were not happy with Piers Paul Read’s book.  From the acknowledgments section: “…when I returned in October 1973 to show them the manuscript of this book, some of them were disappointed by my presentation of their story. They felt that the faith and friendship which inspired them in the cordillera do not emerge from these pages. It was never my intention to underestimate these qualities, but perhaps it would be beyond the skill of any writer to express their own appreciation of what they lived through.”

Yeah.  He was never going to be able to completely see it as they saw it, but if he stuck to the facts, and I didn’t find any complaints on that score, it would still be an accurate picture, just from a different point of view.  And I think he did such an amazing job.  And I think their faith and friendship does come through.

Of course the whole time at the movie, like when I was reading the book, I kept asking myself: would I have survived?  I got the sense that the survivors don’t like to be thought of as heroes, and maybe heroes is not the right label. Nonetheless, I would like to think I had their strength and determination and courage.

I took this picture at the Film Forum while waiting for the movie to start.  “I’m sorry.  I’m playing with a new camera,” I had to say to my fellow film-goers, who were okay with it once I explained.

It’s Wednesday morning. I’m sitting here at my computer with a cup of coffee, Finney is curled up on my lap and purring, and today the window is closed because it’s chilly.

I start every morning this way and it’s quite pleasant and serene.  I ease into the day slowly.  So!  What is up for today?

– Call Bell Labs.

– Call Bomb Squad.

– Write ghost pitch (for a local magazine).

– Go to the gym.

Is that a perfect day or what?? I cannot believe I get to live a life which calls for getting in touch with people at Bell Labs and the Bomb Squad. (Apparently I like calling places that begin with the letter “b”.) I love my life.  Mostly. Okay, one part I’ve been a miserable failure at (relationships!) but what the hell.  A lot of people suck at that.

I’m also going to try to get to the movie Stranded: I’ve Come From A Plane That Crashed on the Mountains.  It’s a documentary based on the rugby team that crashed in the Andes in 1974.  I’ve read the book Alive close to a billion times. I can’t get enough of this story.

The picture is another from my Vermont fog series.  I was up and out before the inn I was staying in started serving coffee and breakfast so I took pictures while I waited.

Seriously.  Watch them for just a minute and you will see.  They started crying this morning, something outside of camera range got their attention and I had to turn it off. I got too upset that they couldn’t get at whatever it was they wanted to get at.  This is why I can’t have puppies.  I would let them destroy everything I own, just to stop their little puppy cries.

6:15 Breaking news!  Mom is here!  Puppy feeding frenzy.

We’re starting to ease up on the anxiety over here on Perry Street and allowing ourselves a moment of relaxation.  One of many good parts from the Anchorage Daily News endorsement for Obama:

“Sen. McCain describes himself as a maverick, by which he seems to mean that he spent 25 years trying unsuccessfully to persuade his own party to follow his bipartisan, centrist lead. Sadly, maverick John McCain didn’t show up for the campaign. Instead we have candidate McCain, who embraces the extreme Republican orthodoxy he once resisted and cynically asks Americans to buy for another four years.

It is Sen. Obama who truly promises fundamental change in Washington. You need look no further than the guilt-by-association lies and sound-bite distortions of the degenerating McCain campaign to see how readily he embraces the divisive, fear-mongering tactics of Karl Rove. And while Sen. McCain points to the fragile success of the troop surge in stabilizing conditions in Iraq, it is also plain that he was fundamentally wrong about the more crucial early decisions. Contrary to his assurances, we were not greeted as liberators; it was not a short, easy war; and Americans — not Iraqi oil — have had to pay for it. It was Sen. Obama who more clearly saw the danger ahead.”

(I actually took this picture because Finney and Buddy are fighting these days, I don’t know why, and this was a relatively rare moment of detente.)

I couldn’t post about it beforehand because it was a surprise party, but I went up to Vermont on Saturday for an 80th birthday party for my father. His birthday isn’t until Christmas Eve, but having it now guaranteed it would be a surprise.  We had it in a firehouse in … oh God, I forget the name of the town. Rupert!  (I think.)