Lynda Barry's Pandemic Diary Project

I am a recent convert to Lynda Barry and her awesomeness. During my time at home, I've been trying to do some of the exercises from her book, Making Comics, which I bought back in November 2019.

ANYWAY, the NY Times ran an article by Barry about how to remember this time, especially the period right when everything was changing, as there is "a particular clarity to the memory and feeling of the ordinary transforming into its opposite."

So, this morning I followed her exercise. I typed up some of my answers below. (I wrote them down in a notebook, originally. Also, I think we're supposed to do this exercise daily, like a true diary entry, but I will probably just do it once.)

"Scenes that come back to me when I think about started to change"

• Students in my class (about half?) wearing face masks. Some students wiping off their desks before sitting in them. 
• Joking with my coworker Scott on the way into the building about hoping the Coronavirus spread to USC so we wouldn't have to go to work. 
• Getting my nails done (on March 11, I think) in a salon (Nail'd It). No one was wearing face masks, but I remember thinking this might be my last chance to get my nails done for a while. 
• So much indecision re: flying up to visit college friends in the Bay Area (and celebrating Kaylan with a friends baby "sprinkle) the weekend of March 13-16. Decided not to go, ultimately. 
• Seeing First Cow (Kelly Reichardt film) at the Arclight Pasadena on Sunday, March 15. About three other couples there. Every other row was roped off. Theaters told to close the next day, I think.  Last movie seen in a theater before everything closed. 
• Monitoring cases n the Johns Hopkins map showing red dots wehre all the cases were. Kind of a big dot in Los Angeles. 
• Seeing that Pasadena had a confirmed case (in the LA Times) and wondering how concerned I should be.

Top Five Moviegoing Experiences - International Version

Today I'd like to share my favorite international moviegoing experiences (in chronological order, like the previous list).

1. Aladdin (1992) in Tokyo. This was the year my family was living abroad, and because movies were so expensive in Japan, my family literally only went to ONE movie in a theater that whole year. My Grandma Gene had sent me and my sister ALL of the Disney merch in advance of the film's release. I remember we had the step-up readers book, stuffed animals, and most importantly: the soundtrack, which we memorized and performed for our parents. I also remember I pronounced Jafar's name "Jaf-ee-ar" for some reason when I read the book. Anyway, to say I was primed to love the film is a bit of an understatement. I still remember feeling like I needed to pinch myself once the opening bars of "Arabian Nights" started (and I'm pretty sure I quietly sang along to all of the songs in the theater...).

2. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) in Bangkok. I got to live in Bangkok for a month after graduating from high school, since I had a friend, Pauline, who went there every summer to visit her dad. She invited me to come for part of the trip, and I was pretty lucky to have parents who agreed to allow me to go (despite the fact that I missed orientation for UC Davis!). Anyway, the movie itself was predictably terrible, but this experience stands out because before the film started, they played the Thai national anthem, and everyone in the theater had to rise and honor the king. The experience was bizarre; it was one of the times on that trip when I felt the most like a foreigner.

3. The Da Vinci Code (2006) in Göttingen, Germany. This was when I studied abroad in Germany for my junior year of college. I went to a decent number of films in Germany, but this one stands out to me for a couple reasons: 1. It was an "event" (I went with a group of American friends who had all read the book, so we were pretty excited to see the adaptation) and 2. almost all movies are dubbed in Germany (they don't like subtitles, apparently), so hearing Tom Hanks speaking German was super weird. I'd never realized how iconic his voice is! Also, in Germany, all movies that are longer than two hours have an intermission, so it was weird to experience that -- People buying beer and smoking in the lobby during those 10 minutes we had to hang out till we could go back into the theater.

4. Les Miserables (2013) in Surabaya, Indonesia. I lived in Surabaya for 10 months, teaching English as an English Language Fellow for the State Department. As with Germany, I went to the movies a lot during those 10 months, often as a coping mechanism for homesickness. I'm picking it out of all the movies I saw while in Indonesia because while I was watching the film, I remember thinking, "How much do these Indonesian audience members even know or care about the French Revolution??" while I was watching it. It was disorienting to watch a film about a historical event that felt so distant from the culture I was currently living in. Side note: As someone who did not grow up obsessed with this musical, this film did NOTHING to win me over. Good try, Hugh Jackman.

5. The Before trilogy (2014) in Paris, France. Once again, I am cheating, because I did not watch the trilogy in a movie theater. It was way better than that! On my first visit to Leah as a Parisian resident (she was living with her then-boyfriend, now-husband Urbain at the time), I had a wonderful time visiting all the usual tourist sights (the Centre Pompidou, Monet's garden, Versailles, etc.). But honestly, the best part might have been the day it poured rain and we decided to lie in bed and watch the whole trilogy back to back, projected on the wall. If you are a fan of this series, then you know. It was heaven.

Top Five Moviegoing Experiences

Wow, it's been a while since I posted here. Ever since our stay-at-home orders, I've been thinking about trying to blog a bit more. But unsurprisingly, I wasn't actually motivated to do it until I was inspired to write about movies.

So, a little background first. My favorite podcast is Filmspotting, and every week the two hosts do a top five, inspired by the film High Fidelity. This week, they discussed their top five moviegoing experiences, as a nostalgic look back on the days when we could actually go to movie theaters. Their list inspired me to create my own list. Once I'd started it, it became clear I needed a U.S. list and an "international" movie list (I love going to movies in other countries!!). Without further ado, here is the U.S. list, in chronological order.  (I'll post the international list tomorrow; this post got too long for two lists.)

U.S. Top Five
1. Titanic (1998) at the Mann Theater in Monrovia with Cammy. LEO! I distinctly remember not being able to stop crying after the movie ended. We went shopping at Mervyn's after (in the same strip mall as the theater) and I broke down in tears at least once amongst the t-shirts. So began my years-long obsession with Leonardo DiCaprio. (1998, I think -- I remember I didn't see it right when it came out at the end of 1997, because it was a debate with my parents about whether I was even allowed to see it or not.)

2. Fast and the Furious (2001) at the Krikorian in Monrovia with Cammy and her boyfriend Ed and his friend Mike. I think this is the closest I've ever come to a double date at the movies? My sophomore year of high school had just ended, and it was so fun to start off the summer by going see a movie with BOYS. The movie was perfect for a sort-of double date; I actually think I enjoyed it quite a bit. (I have zero interest in revisiting that film because...let's just keep the happy memory, right?)

3. Chicago (2002/2003) at the Pasadena Paseo. This was the year I camped out for the Rose Parade with a bunch of high school friends during our senior year. Billy McLellan and I were sick of the cold (and likely very bored), so we decided to go see the last showing of Chicago (I think it started at about 10:30pm) at the theater that was closest to where we were camped out. We had both already seen it at least twice already. Maybe one or two other people were in the theater with us?  We put the arm rests up, so we could lie down across multiple seats. Midnight struck while the film was playing, so we didn't even celebrate it, which was just fine with both of us.

4. Requiem for a Dream (2004? I think it was freshman year.) in Wellman Hall (?) on campus at UC Davis. This one is a bit of a cheat, because it wasn't in an actual movie theater. My friend Scott figured out that many of the buildings on campus at UC Davis were not locked at night, and you could just go into some of the lecture halls and project a movie onto the screen. So a group of us snuck in at least twice to watch both Reservoir Dogs and Requiem for a Dream. After that, I think the staff caught on and started locking the doors so we couldn't do it again. I am putting Requiem for a Dream as my main memory here, because I had a strong feeling of "...whoa" after watching it. Reservoir Dogs I disliked because it was too nasty and violent. Which--I mean, Requiem is pretty much equally violent and nasty. To be honest, I am not interested in revisiting either film. But sneaking in to watch these films with a bunch of my new college friends was thrilling.

5. Ran (2009) at Film Forum with Ari. So began my love affair with Film Forum (and with Ari!). This was my first time visiting Ari in New York City, and it was basically a perfect trip. It was also my first time spending time with Ari off the cruise ship, and my first time visiting NYC outside of a 4-day trip one other time in senior year of college. Ari played tour guide and took me to the repertory theater Film Forum, since he knew I was a budding cinephile. He picked Ran (a rather challenging pick, honestly), but it was perfect. When I moved to NYC a year later to start grad school, I became a member of Film Forum and basically caught a film there whenever I had free time. Film Forum remains the only theater I think of as "mine." 

6. Adding another one because I want to! Wonder Woman (June 2, 2017) at the Vista Theater in Los Feliz. I've never been a person who felt she had to see movies on opening day. But in summer 2017, Ari and I were doing a thing where we tried to explore a new area of Los Angeles (actually new to Ari, somewhat new to me) every Friday. We happened to be exploring Los Feliz on the day Wonder Woman opened, and we walked by the Vista Theater (a cool, old-fashioned one-screen theater) at the end of our exploration. We were planning to head home when we saw the line forming for the first screening of the day, probably around 1pm. I managed to talk Ari into buying a ticket and getting in line. This meant we had to wait in line (Ari hates waiting in line) for a good 45 minutes or so, but once we got in--and got really good seats!--I knew it was worth it. Everyone was SO into the movie and I had the experience so many women had of crying uncontrollably during some of the most bad-ass fight scenes with Wonder Woman. I am NOT a fan of superhero films in general, but this movie totally won me over.