One Of Those Days

 

That's from the cover of Marvel's Secret Wars #4. The bad guys dropped a mountain on the heroes, and The Hulk caught it. 

What can you do, right?

Saw Crazy, Stupid Love over the weekend. What a great film.

Seriously. Yeah, I love my sci-fi, my comic books, my superheroes, but I really do love a good romantic comedy, and I think Crazy, Stupid Love is about the best I've seen since Love, Actually (which is just unassailable, in my opinion, as the best romantic comedy since...I don't know, Annie Hall?). The cast is flat-out terrific, anchored by Steve Carrell and Mr. "so talented I hate him" Ryan Gosling.

Gosling, it appears to me, anyway, seems to be doing a riff on what the Hollywood system would like him to be, while Carrell is...well, doing that thing we all love him for. He's the hapless, good hearted guy who gets his heart stomped, makes a lot of mistakes, and still ends up a decent human being. They're matched very well by Emma Stone and Julianne Moore, respectively.

I liked how the film is just determined to play nice. No one's overly an asshole, and everyone has good qualities. It helps to drive home how easy it is to fall in love, and how hard it is to stay there. The supporting cast is all great, and the film provides a few twists that, I admit, I never saw coming.

Good time, a good date movie. Well made. When you see the trailer for New Years Eve (from the people who brought you Valentine's Day...because they somehow escaped our wrath) before the film, you realize how little thought an effort usually goes into this genre. I'll always champion an example that shows effort and talent.

*SIGH*

Ladies and gentlemen it's one of "THOSE" days....

I am tired, cranky, and I didn't run this morning, which means I MUST use some of my precious night off to do so, AND we have to clean for the impending arrival of CByrd's mom for the Springsteen show. Add various other frustrations and challenges, shake and...

One of "THOSE" days.

One of those days when I feel a ton of guilt over my schedule, and how it means I have to miss two nights of rehearsal going into tech week.

One of those days when I spend a lot of time thinking about how badly my auditions have been going lately, and I indulge a bunch of fears that I have reached the peak of my abilities. The fear that it's all downhill from here, and maybe quitting while I'm ahead is a good idea. Or at least switching to directing.

There are times when I feel uniquely untalented. When those old fears that, in fact, I am a sham, and that any work I've gotten over the last 15 years has been solely on the basis of my being able to fool a bunch of people into thinking I know what I'm doing. I mean, if I was REALLY talented I'd be making a living doing this, wouldn't I?

*SIGH*

Yeah, one of "THOSE" days.

Intellectually, I know this is just a phase, a cycle that every creative person goes through. Things don't go your way for a while, you don't get those roles you wanted, you can't get the guitar to make the sounds you want to hear, you're not getting any feedback on that play you wrote. Little things, but they start to pile up, and grow bigger in your head. It's insidious, really, and also inescapable. There's NO WAY to avoid it, it's as much a part of the creative life as rejection and critics that see our work far too clearly for comfort.

Yeah, one of "THOSE" days.

It's part of the deal.