Chinatown on election day

I'm very excited about Tuesday. Tuesday is the eve of glorious things. I don't usually get all political, but I just want to encourage Californians to vote NO on proposition 4. Many families are open and loving and teach their kids to do the right thing. Some families aren't so healthy, and some girls would be beaten or kicked out of the house if they came home pregnant. Some would not be allowed to get abortions if they wanted them. I know some of these girls. So please vote NO on 4.

I like voting in my neighborhood. The area is all million dollar homes and families and our one apartment building (Which also means I got lots of parking) so I get to go vote at somebody's house. For the primaries it was a garage in some dude's mansion. The old ladies running the voting booths were eating fried chicken. And they gave me extra "I Voted" stickers. So voting in my neighborhood is fun. I'm going to ride my bike.

Also Tuesday I get to start the noir film showcase. I'm starting with Chinatown. It's odd, I had seen Chinatown long before, but I was studying it after I originally read Syd Field's Screenplay. I think I was looking too hard at structure to appreciate the film from a story perspective.

But the other day I watched it again. And this time I just watched it to make sure there wasn't anything I had to worry about or explain for the classroom - for instance, the fact that LA is located in a desert. And as I watched the film again I realized just how beautifully tragic it is.

Sometimes I forget to just watch movies. I'm so busy analyzing, reviewing, picking apart the details to see what works and what doesn't, that I forget to bask in the beauty of a good story. But right there alone in my apartment watching Chinatown I felt so damn sad at the ending in a way I never felt before when I watched it. And sometimes, if I'm careful, I can make the kids feel it too. If you introduce a movie just the right way they'll love it forever.

So I hope we all have a good time watching Chinatown on election day. Kind of fitting, I think.