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October 12, 2006
Quick Fall Break Update
FSU's fall break began today, so here's a quick update on what I've been doing the last few days:
- First, I used the start of fall break as an excuse to drive up to the Triangle and catch the latest installment of Michael Apted's "Up" series, 49 Up (my first visit to the very cool Carolina Theater). The "Up" series began with 7 Up in 1964, in which several British children were interviewed regarding their views about the world. The filmmakers have returned every seven years to receive updates from many of the participants. In this version, I was fascinated to see how many of the subjects discussed the "difficulty" of participating and their ambivalent relationship with the process of revisiting their lives every seven years in such a public forum. More later, but if you have a chance, I'd highly recommend seeing it.
- From there, I drove across the Triangle to Chapel Hill to catch Built to Spill in concert at Cat's Cradle, with Camper van Beethoven opening. A very good show, but I got terribly lost on the way home, driving down the darkest, loneliest two-lane roads I've ever seen in a terrible driving rainstorm. The result: Wednesday was a very late night, even for me (I didn't get home until around 4 AM).
- In other news, somebody "keyed" my car in the FSU parking lot. I'd be angry about it, but my car's paint job was already awful (from some repair work my father did when one of my parents wrecked the car a few years ago), plus the vandal misspelled the curse word they tried to carve into my car's hood (I'll try to get a picture tonight), which made the whole thing sort of funny.
- Also, if you're local to Fayetteville, there is a drinking liberally event tonight at Huske Hardware from 7-9 PM. Hope to see you there.
Posted by chuck at October 12, 2006 11:56 AM
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Comments
I'm interested to read anything more you want to write about the Up series. I reactivated my Netflix account just to be able to get the previous films, but I haven't watched any of the others yet. Glad you got to see it.
What is this fall break business? I am at the wrong school. No fall break, and our semester officially runs through Dec 22. Bah.
Posted by: Heidi at October 12, 2006 4:25 PM
University of Illinois used to run 14 weeks without a break, and it was exhausting, so I can sympathize. I've only seen some of the films (7 Up, 28 Up, maybe 35 Up?). I'm still fascinated that twelve of the fourteen original subjects continue to participate, even if their motivations for doing so are different from ore even at odds with Michael Apted's original stated goals for the series. I'll try to write a review tonight or tomorrow, but I have a realtively immediate writing deadline, so we'll see how things go.
Posted by: Chuck at October 12, 2006 6:13 PM
love love love the up series.
Posted by: zp at October 12, 2006 6:51 PM
Something in the Carolina water? One of my local friends had his truck's hood keyed with the exact same word, Chuck.
Posted by: George at October 12, 2006 7:30 PM
Have you seen the Up in America ones? I think there are ones for 7 and 14, with 21 supposed to be out this year. While I've known about the original ones for a while (just never got around to watching them), I hadn't heard of these until someone here at school mentioned them after the film. Getting through the Apted ones may be my limit, but it's interesting that there's another attempt. It would be more interesting if it spread to a different region of the world.
Posted by: Heidi at October 12, 2006 11:10 PM
George, did they spell it correctly on your friend's hood?
Heidi, I'd heard of the American version, which is now focusing on the subjects at age 21, but haven't seen it. I'd be curious to see the American version, too, if only because Apted's focus on social class in the UK would play quite a bit differently here in the US.
Posted by: Chuck at October 13, 2006 11:00 AM
Yeah, I think the spelling was correct.
Posted by: George at October 14, 2006 5:59 PM
Sorry about the keying, even if it was pretty funny. Any idea why it happened?
Posted by: CM at October 14, 2006 10:52 PM
CM, I think it was just random bad luck.
George, maybe that reflects better on the schools in your neighborhood. Their vandals can spell their profanity correctly wheras my vandal still has some learning to do.
Posted by: Chuck at October 16, 2006 12:11 PM