watching... the girls go by

This is brilliant.

I just watched two movies. One was a documentary about Spencer Tunick, a photographer who I can't help but admire even though I KNOW that he's a gimmick a one trick pony. The sad thing is I think I may have seen it before. The whole thing. I may or may not have rented and watched that whole lo-fi, silly, disorganized documentary about a subject I dig and NOT REMBERED it at all. Which is really too bad. It's called Naked States and it takes place in the late 90's before he was "famous" and he had a harder time encouraging people to pose nude for him. There are some great moments, like when he asks a young woman at the Sturgiss bike ralley to pose and she tells her dad, who overreacts in a stereotypically macho biker way... or all the moments when well-meaning rural people in diners and bookstores explain with a firm smile that they understand that of course HE does this sort of thing because he's from New York, but "People 'round here don't do that. 'cept up at the school, but you know, that's art." Actually I think I liked the movie quite a bit. Which is great because in all likelihood I'll rent it in a few years and get to enjoy it all over again for the first time.

Also woke up at 5 this A.M. to see the Women's world cup Semi Final. US vs Brazil. I will not comment in case anyone's going to watch a rebroadcast... oh, that's right they don't bother rebroadcasting this World Cup because it's just a bunch of CHICS!

Then after the naked movie, I watched Who's Life Is It Anyway, a movie with Richard Dreyfuss which is awesome... and (spoiler!) about a quadriplegic who wants to kill himself in the early 80's. I had NO idea about some aspects of hospital life during this time period, but this movie made me feel very grateful (I'm serious here) for Anita Hill and every other woman who spoke up about sexual harassment. In this film an orderly routinely CHASES a young nurse around small offices and elevators (she eventually goes out with him!) a patient loudly complements a doctor's breasts (sorry, a "woman doctor's breasts") and she then sort of blushes and gets all melty in a gross undoctory sketchy sketchy way.

Sexual politics aside, the right-to-die as ground-breaking brand new question was really sweet and innocent and clean. Everyone was examining and reexamining this question as thought it had just been thought up, and everyone walked around down hospital hallways and through rainstorms (or in the quad's case, laid there, looking straight ahead until a hot young nurse wandered by to be harassed... sorry.) People got angry, but NOBODY talked about God. It was refreshing, and jinkies but nothing beats a young Richard Dreyfuss... 'cept maybe a young Richard Dreyfuss in that hat from Jaws (which he TOTALLY wears in this movie for like a second while he can walk!) and of course young Dustin Hoffman.