Movies, Murakami, and Mailing

During these days of opening CDs, removing bar codes (so old school), and stuffing envelopes with said CDs and letters, my mind can wander. It may be the reason I’ve always loved clerical busy work. The trance you go into after the first hour of repetitive motion can bring about some wonderful ideas, or just make you question everything in your entire life. Love it!


The first thing that went through my head as I unwrapped CDs from their incredibly snug cellophane was “Do I like movies more than music right now?” Occasionally, this is how I feel when I haven’t heard a new band that I love in a long time but I’ve seen some fantastic films. Such was the case a few months ago after seeing “Rachel Getting Married” and “Vicky Christina Barcelona” in a relatively close proximity. But then I got a friend request on Myspace from a band called Dead Mellotron and their free EP, coupled with a reemergence of The Supremes and Smokey Robinson on my iPod, brought me back to the music side. Also, seeing Paul Verhoeven’s “Flesh + Blood” made me realize that the reason I think about this occasionally is because I don’t know how to make movies.

While folding and stuffing letters into padded CD mailers, I chide myself for not reading more often. Maybe it’s all the movie watching. Since finishing everything I could find by Raymond Chandler and Arturo Perez-Reverte, I picked up “Don Quixote” and got halfway through before being distracted by “Twilight”. I think I got 50 pages in before I gave up completely and lost interest in reading. Then I was given three books by Haruki Murakami which has slowly brought me back into the literary fold. I finished “The Elephant Vanishes” and am now on “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle” which I will follow up with “Kafka on the Shore.” His style is completely blowing my mind. He makes me want to write.

But I don’t write well and I don’t know how to make movies, so I’ll leave that to the pros and keep on making music and mailing it out to unsuspecting writers, program directors, and listeners while hoping for some sort of success. Something has to come of spending this much money on postage, right?