We can't stop here, this is bat country!

It's so strange to miss class so early on in the year; in fact, it's really messing up my mindset for the semester already.  I definitely need to catch up, and fast.  It's amazing how losing out on just two hours in a lab, spending them instead revisiting lunch on the ceramic throne in my Emerson dorm, can feel like such a casualty to my learning already.  Sure, I did the usual talking to friends in the class to see what I missed, emailing professors that needed a reason for my absence, but I can't help feeling a little lost anyhow.  Have you ever noticed how anxious you get when you know that you've probably missed something important (in my case, creating a group and working on a scene), but the only thing you can really do to get back with the program is to barrel forward blindly and hope for the best?  It's definitely an awkward position, especially since we're only in our second week (I think...?).

So, instead of feeling like I'd totally lost my ground, I opted to watch a movie in between trips to the bathroom.  My first thought was to pick something off of Arturo's extra credit links, just to see what kind of hidden gems are out there, only to realize that I should probably watch something I know a bit better if I was going to be frequently running away and missing large chunks of time.  Thus, I put in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Don't know the movie?  Check out the trailer:

It's absolutely fascinating to me, as far as storylines go; who would ever dare to push human limits in such an insane way?  I've always been curious about what Thompson was thinking when he wrote this book (though I believe he wrote it based on personal experience, which then leads to even more questions).  Then, I look at the intriguing ways that they manipulated the cameras and shots in Gilliam's film, and am both amused and intrigued by it.  Certainly the effects aren't anywhere near up to par (I mean, the movie's over a decade old), but it's curious to see how such psychedelic effects could be portrayed to the audience without entirely confusing them.  Going back and forth between seeing the "trip" and reality was a good choice, in my opinion; it brings out the chaos in both characters' minds for viewers to better understand while also showing them how strangely the two men are truly acting in the world.  It's comical, yet it poses a somewhat alarming question: how far will people go just to have a little fun?