Meditations on Originality and Longevity

You'd look like that, too, if your dead, abusive mate arose from the bathtub.

I dreamt the other day that there was freezing rain in some places and not in others. For example, on the train tracks but not on the brush beside the tracks or even the ballast that held the tracks in place. The media would not let go of this. They said, "On the train tracks but not on the brush beside the tracks." They interrupted radio and television programming to reinforce their earlier assessments of the weather. They filmed close-ups of the tracks. Locomotives were slipping forward, backward, and, inexplicably, sideways. Some went around in circles, helplessly, on those turn-tables you don't see much of, anymore. The engineers, though, were stoic. They wore those half-baseball, half-engineer caps. They installed snuff on their persons. If an engineer had no teeth he snorted the snuff instead. If you saw an engineer on the street, you might think, "ne'er do well," on account of his beard, but that would be mistaken, as he would be a man with a job, a union card, some snuff, and one of those caps. His t-shirt would read, "Engineers Do It in the Boiler Room."

Not enough haircuts come with massages. I don't mean where you lie down on the table and get all greasy. I mean a short chop-chop-chop that relaxes your neck muscles, after the haircut is done. Such a haircut exists in Olney, Md., but not many other places. I feel that, if someone wanted to open a Haircut / Massage Parlor, she or he might really clean up. Her / his clientele might be a real Who's-Who of haircut / massage recipients. If the business were successful, then the proprietor could consider the act of Settling Down. Conversely, the proprietor could consider additional Risk. She / he might serve Black-and-Tan beer conglomerations before the massage but after the haircut. There would be legal ramifications, of course, but with a few extra dollars or piasters or euros or Peruvian coins to grease The Fat Palm of the Law, one could rest at night. One possible refinement of that idea would be to serve an Irish ale of some kind along with Heinz Treacle or Heinz Spotted Dick Sponge Pudding. Before the haircut and before the massage but after the Who's-Who had been seated and gowned.

All right. Let's get down to Originality and Longevity. First of all, see Diabolique (aka Les Diaboliques aka The Fiends) if you haven't already. Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot (1954, in French); that's his wife, Vera, on the poster above; she stars in the film. It's a masterpiece of psychological disintegration (in Vera's character) and supposedly the grand-daddy of shock endings upon which many other shock endings are based. The movie is either a thriller or a horror-flick, and I was, personally, very much unsettled (if not exactly horrified) at the end. So, for me, the film had Longevity, though I'll have to take it on faith that it was completely Original in its shocker conclusion. To me, anyhow, Longevity and Firstness are inter-related, although many Americans, in my opinion, could give a rat's ass about Firstness, rightly or wrongly so. Of course, Longevity is in the eye of the filmgoer, or what have you. I would posit that a more recent movie like The Usual Suspects, the ending for which may in fact derive from Diabolique, will have less Longevity perhaps due to the fact that its Firstness rates about a 6 or 7 out of 10, whereas Diabolique, apparently, rates a 10. Most things erode, though, and folks don't always have the good sense to look back. It was Lot's wife who became a salt-lick, not you or I, Dear Reader, or are we perishing -- in part -- because we don't respect the past? Thoughts? Good day.