Entry 19:

Rhodeman,

Sports talk? Sports talk? Is this from the mouth of the man I love? There must have been an alien possession overnight. As for the energy policy talk ... NOOOOO MORE. If readers knew how much we talk about energy policy, energy methods, energy bias, energy energy in our house, they would understand why I'm beyond bored. I know I should care. I did care a billion hours ago.

This morning on NPR they were talking about the Cannes Film Festival. It seems that with the exception of Godard's latest film, the viewers were not much impressed with the offerings this year, according to the NPR reviewer. In fact, the two most-talked-about films weren't even in competition. Coppola has added more story to Apocalypse Now, and the film has been remastered. It's now more than three hours long, but the NPR reviewer thought it was impressive for its print quality and expanded story details. I would sit through it again. Supposedly, Coppola presents a slightly different take on some aspects of the story. I'll bet it has to do with Kurtz in the jungle. Film viewers would accept a much darker story today than we did when it was originally released.

The other talked-about film was a 30-minute preview of Lord of the Rings. I'm apprehensive about that upcoming series. I was deeply moved by Tolkien's series when I read it; it was a curious and detailed new world. When I read, especially engrossing books, I develop a rich internal image of the book. It has been my experience that the filmmaker's representation does not match mine--often to the point that it prevents me from enjoying the film. I hope that doesn't happen this time, but it's been years since I read the trilogy.

Well, this e-mail is longer than I thought I would write. In fact, that makes me recall a story in the Times this morning. It was another of those women-are-from-Venus-men-are-from-Mars stories, this time about e-mail. Supposedly men write short e-mails with an information exchange the primary goal, and women write long, detailed missives. Huh? Not around our house.

swak,
G