"Nothing for it . . . but to do it."

It was sweet to have new friends over for their birthdays last night. ("New" = from the past coupla years.)
Becky'd been here before (she helped me move two Julys ago), but Em hadn't, and the thing she seemed to like the best was this gouache on my fridge. It's one of my favorites too, so I'll post it again:
"Spike in New Mexico: Nothing for it . . . but to do it."

Good advice in job hunting season.
This morning I checked to see if that job I'd wanted at the History Center was still open--part-time in their book & gift store.
Of course it wasn't, but I'm going to apply to places I WANT to work, not just wait for openings.

I think I'll take the bus up to Duluth again later this week. The weather forecast is perfect: mid-70s, partly sunny every day. (Duluth is usually colder than the Twin Cities. Here, we'll be in the 80s.)

Marz will be busy with classes and work, but I have my own work: online job hunting, and printmaking: so portable. All I need is some lino, cutters, a brayer, black ink, and paper. I can finish "The Escape" [from the basement].
And I can go hiking right in the city.

Not today though: in half an hour, I'm going to volunteer at the thrift store.

Let's see... what else?
Oh, I watched Carnival of Souls!
(On Criterion--scroll down for essays on the film.)

It's low-budget art that works, and I liked it for that very fact alone. It was shot in three weeks for $30,000: you don't need a lot of money to make something good. (Or even a lot of skill, though the director, Herk Harvey, was an industrial & educational filmmaker, so he did have skills--only the main character was a professional actor--Candace Hilligoss, below, plays Mary).

Part of my experience of the movie was the message:
YOU CAN DO THIS TOO.
But you do have to do it. Enter the carnival!

The backstory of the film's existence is fun--the director wanted to make a film around a place-- the then-abandoned carnival-like Saltair Pavilion in Salt Lake City, Utah. [Wikipedia has a good article on the movie--with a link to watch the whole film free online.]

It's an odd movie--more atmosphere, organ music and lighting, than plot, but because it's all rather vague, it invites you to decide:
What is happening to this woman, Mary, after she mysteriously survives a car wreck?
The film offers a tidy solution at the end, but really--is that it?

For me, a different solution is the question a bogus doctor asks Mary: does she feel guilty?
The whole movie could be about survival guilt. Filmed in 1961 (the year I was born)--sixteen years after the end of World War II--was survival guilt a hidden stream in the national psyche? Even as it danced with a frenzy in an empty shell of a culture?