post: 4 of 7, Chanukah: day 5 of 8, and some Christian thing too

"If you are sixteen or under, try not to go bald."
---Woody Allen


I went to a party at the Moon Mansion in Dallas last night as I have been doing every Christmas Eve for the last 4 or 5 years. 3 or 4 years? I don't know. I saw some Austin people there, and I generally see the same people there every year. It has a kind of time warp element to it because some of the people I see exclusively at that party once a year so it seems like déjà vu and that it is a continuation from the previous year. It is an old Dallas traditional kind of thing where a bunch of people go to this old hippie artist Ashley Bellamy's house. His house is a huge old church that I think might literally go on forever underground in a series of crazy shambling, cluttered basement rooms. Last year I got too drunk and ended up wandering around down there and it was incredible. It was surreal because every room I went into seemed to have some weird activity going on in it that was unrelated to the party. For example, there was some band that was practicing down there who seemed to have no idea there hundreds of people above having a party. Unfortunately, this year the basement part was locked. I spent a lot of time talking to my friend Alex K. about his psychedelic spiritual quest he has been on for the last few months. It was revealed that he was carrying a magic crystal in his pocket, and we both expressed concern that he might turn into a new-age fruitcake.

"Vertigo"--- I was actually a little disappointed by this movie. Maybe it was because I expected too much as it is supposed to be one of the best Hitchcock movies ever. It started pretty well and was mysterious and stylish, but I thought it got a little bogged down with melodrama the romantic aspect of the story. It's true that I'm a baby who hates seeing people kissing onscreen, but I thought it lost the cooler mystery element in favor of a more creepy love/obsession thing between James Stewart and the lady. It had a lot of really cool San Francisco locations and scenery. Not terrible or anything, I just expected more.