The Ides of July

I didn't do as much dancing as I thought I would. Not as much zydeco anyway. Friday night we went to a country/western place.

Ever see a bunch of suburban cowboys dance? Even if you don't see much of the real thing (and this is NOT), it's still a bit cliché. Almost like a uniform; the stiff ten-gallon hats, startched western shirts, tight blue jeans, and well-polished boots. Then you watch a room full of people who all look like they learned from the same video. No, I didn't know the "El Paso," and I suspect this "good old boy" dance is copyrighted by somebody. But I know enough of ballroom type stuff to get buy, and I don't dress like the typical cowboy type. Close, but not quite. My hat is what's called the "outback" style -- a wider brim than a fedora, but not as prominent as the western look. I'm also partial to southwestern or South American shirts, bought directly from the natives themselves. It's cheaper that way, and they get all the money, for products which weren't produced at sweatshops.

The Common Ground festival on Saturday had perfect weather. We laid on the grass and watched the music. (Well, my friend watched. I found an excuse to try and fall asleep.) We left before the rain stopped.

Then she invited me to this movie night at her church. It's one of those unaffiliated megachurch-type places. You know the type. Like Willow Creek in Chicago, or The Vineyard in Cincinnati. The movie they showed was Pay It Forward, a 2000 drama starring Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt, and Haley Joel Osment, and directed by Mimi Leder.

I noticed they edited out all the naughty parts. You know, the bedroom scene and all that. Not that I missed it much, nor did its omission take away much from the story (duh!). But I asked the technician later how he pulled it off.

That's when I learned about a company in Utah called Clean Films. They purchase a DVD, clean it up, and rent out the edited version.

"We take out profanity and other offensive language. We also remove nudity, sexual situations, and extreme or gory violence. Our intent is to edit movies so that they become comparable to a PG rating, which often means that we will edit out content that the networks might leave in when they show the same movie on TV."

This gets better. For every edited version rented out, there is an un-edited original in the inventory. Thus they are compliant with copyright laws, the protests of Hollywood notwithstanding. What a plan!!! (My son Paul wants to see what they do with Goodfellas.)

Sunday I went to a party for the volunteers for this year's Buffalo Jam. No complaints about the light show, so I guess I'm on for next year. But after listening to a room full of college-educated Yankees determine the proper ethnicity of potential upcoming acts ("No, he's not Cajun enough... No, they're not real zydeco..."), I ducked out. Oh, to be a Southerner posing as a fly on the wall for this one. Fortunately, Dana and Fox brought their three-year-old son Sam, who is always the life of the party. We went back and forth over the bridge, stole cookies out of the dish, and he chased me down the street. Now that's a guy who knows how to party!

Monday I drove northwest of Baltimore to see a therapist. After failing to find the location, and unable to reach her by phone, I had to bag the whole thing. What a morning! Finally did reach her though. She was so nice about the whole thing, and we talked about my objectives for awhile, and agreed to reschedule at some point in the future. Fortunately, I was at the library in Westminster, where they were selling a complete set of Will and Ariel Durant's eleven-volume The Story of Civilization, in good condition, for only fifty bucks! Wow, this should hold me over until the CD-ROM comes out.

In all the excitement, I missed Bastille Day. Fortunately, Irish Elk did not.