The weekend

[ellen_datlow]

Friday evening I watch The Bourne Ultimatum which I quite liked. However...Joan Allen, who in the past has been a marvelous actor, seems to have gotten a face lift since the last movie and has lost all movement in her face. What a shame.

Then I watched the rest of the first season of Dexter. Liked it a lot...if anyone talks about plot points in the comments please use a spoiler warning so that the uninitiated who intend to someday watch the show can do so in blissful ignorance.

Saturday I went with Rick Bowes to a matinee of a Paul Taylor dance concert. Lovely, charming, and light as a feather. Some amazing dancing (and yes, I've seen the terrific Chinese acrobats with the ballerinas dancing Swan Lake--and yes, they're great) with women leaping into the arms of their partners from a few feet away. Breathtaking.

Today I spent seven hours (count em) from noon to 7pm at Robert's apartment, with (at different times): Ellie Lang, Jack Womack, Gordon Van Gelder, and Rob Killheffer. Rob and Gordon took a car full of garbage bags filled with donations (mostly clothing) to Housing Works. We bagged up about ten bags of garbage (probably more), some of which we were able to take downstairs, most of which we left in the apt fo the next round of helpers to remove. Now that we have one room cleaned up a bit, Rob and Gordon, and I started organizing the audio tapes, dvds, cds, books, and video tapes, and record albums into piles. It finally looks like we've made progress. I was able to reach over to turn on the water in the kitchen sink today--not easily--and it's fine. Jack worked in the back/first room, the one I worked in the first time I was there. He found another mattress on the floor, filled with stuff. Now we can walk on the mattress to get to the rest of the room. Jack filled several bags full clothing (I think) that are to be disposed of. I took home some great blues and jazz cds and promptly tried to get rid of some of mine that I haven't listened to in ages. We all found stuff to take but are veryaware that this could be dangerous. Hell, going to Robert's to clean out the place has made an impression on all of us. Interestingly, since this has been going on, I've been hearing of more and more instances of people who suffer from this syndrome of being unable to throw anything away. Houses filled up to the attic, which cannot be opened easily because it's filled with papers and other things.
Anyway, enough. I've still got to finish my 2007 summary before I leave for Orlando Wednesday....aighhh.

Comments

[catsparx.livejournal.com]

I love all the Bourne movies. The books suck but the movies ROCK!

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed them a lot. Perfect entertainment. I never read the books and have no desire to.

[catsparx.livejournal.com]

seriously, the novels themselves are utterly unreadable. I can't imagine how they ever got published, the writing is so bad.

[nick-kaufmann.livejournal.com]

Yay Dexter! Seriously, it's a great show and I can't wait to see season 2.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Yes! I'm really impressed and wondering where it goes (or has gone) from the end of the first season.

[oldcharliebrown.livejournal.com]

I've watched season two, already :p

[catsparx.livejournal.com]

we just bought season one but haven't started watching it yet

[nick-kaufmann.livejournal.com]

You'll be hooked. Everyone is. There's no escape!

[sdn.livejournal.com]

do you guys need any more apartmenthelp?

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Hi Sharyn,
You can ask Ellie Lang, but I do think we're covered.

I was about to take a small table I'd gotten off the street to my basement

[mouseworks.livejournal.com]

when I was living in Philly. I decided I didn't want to be the kind of old lady with one of those basements and put it back on the street.

Sorry to hear about Robert (and Janet Kagen died around the same time).

Re: I was about to take a small table I'd gotten off the street to my basement

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Yes, I kept taking things and putting them back :-).

Janet died about a week later. A bad time.

[scottedelman.livejournal.com]

When my Uncle died in a similar situation, the family wasn't allowed in, as the apartment was condemned by the Health Department, who entered in their hazmat gear and brought out what few items that could be rescued. Which has led to me living as stripped down a life as I possibly can.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Hooboy! That's pretty bad. Luckily, Robert's place is clean, aside from dust.

[bev-vincent.livejournal.com]

My wife's uncle's apartment was the same. Stacked with stuff to the extent that we had to shimmy around stacks to move from place to place. A lot of things purchased that were never taken out of their boxes. Kitchen gadgets purchased from TV shopping networks--and he didn't have a kitchen. Books on every subject known to mankind, including advanced calculus. We ended up with the sort of home library which meant that our daughter had access to resources on anything she ever had to write a paper about.

We delivered the contents of a 24' U-haul truck to Goodwill; people were buying stuff out of the parking lot before they managed to get things into the store. We brought a second 24' truckload back with us, filled to the brim, and it was a tiny two-room apartment.

Re Dexter: I'm watching the first season on CBS, the stripped-down episodes edited for broadcast television, and loving it.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I wonder if it's a syndrome mostly in men? I don't think I've ever heard of this happening with females. I mean my place is overcrowded, but not like that and it will NEVER be like that.


I wonder how much they've trimmed from the original episodes...

[bev-vincent.livejournal.com]

In my wife's uncle's case, he suffered a head injury as a young man that robbed him of some of his mental acuity. From the subjects of the books that he purchased but never read, we theorized that he somehow hoped to regain what he lost.

The reason for the kitchen gadgets in a kitchenless apartment defies rational explanation.


Re DexterI know that I'm hearing the phrase "motherlover" a lot, which robs the original term of some of its bite. I have seen at least one abrupt cut to commercial that was probably more of a cut to the bedroom.

[(Anonymous)]

There are women who leave behind houses packed with stuff - but it tends to be new purchases and not old magazines and dumpster trash. Back at the old Sixth Avenue Flea Market there was always some dealer who was cleaning out some suburban house that had twelve coffee tables and forty sets of dishes. But I think the equivalent to the pack rat syndrome for women is the cat ladies who have a hundred cats (think of the Grey Gardens mother and daughter in the musical last year).

Rick Bowes

[plattcave.livejournal.com]

Have you read the Dexter novels? Quite enjoyable.

I've heard some personal stories about packrats that scared me straight. I've been paring down for years now (three moves in five years helped), but the elephant in the room is still my comic book collection. Scary.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I haven't. Are they worth reading now that I've seen the series?

The super packrats are an inspiration to us all ;-)

[clockwork-zero.livejournal.com]

I got vertigo watching the Bourne Ultimatum on the big screen. It was terrible. I liked the first few but my goodness... I'll have to rent it. I think I only saw 10 minutes with any clarity. It was the first time I had vertigo as well, though Cloverfield was the second.

Oh no! off to Orlando... Now i'll be worried you haven't received your package! :D But have a safe journey!

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Really? Maybe on the little screen it won't affect you like that. It's worth seeing.

Thanks--I'll be going to the post office today --but my house and cat sitter also picks up my mail so nothing should go astray!

[joeicarus.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

I also get vertigo from watching movies with the shaky camera thing that is so popular now. Weird. I reckon eventually I'll see the third Bourne movie on TV.

I used to read Ludlum a lot, when I was a teenager. I really liked his books at the time. I couldn't tell you now specifically what the plot of any of them is, though. That's okay; it entertained me at the time. I reckon it's better if I don't go back now and see how well they stand up . . . why ruin a good memory?

[joeicarus.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

Actually, I figured it out! I feel so clever!

As for the other thing . . . . yeah, it was horrible about seven or eight years ago when I was futilely involved. Now . . . well, it's still horrible, but it's horrible at a remove. ::rueful grin:: I've uninvolved myself in the situation, because it's one I can't fix.

Honestly, it feels really weird to make that my introduction to your blog, because it's something I don't talk about a lot, but I stumbled upon it today, and lo and behold, you were talking about something I actually had substantial experience in. Go figure.

-Joe Iriarte

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Well, as soon as I posted about it, I started hearing from more and more people about their experiences with --mostly--relatives, and some friends. I hope it helps to both "talk" about it and listen to others discuss it.