How bizarre. Several other envelopes from people I didn’t know looked like they contained one or two sheets of paper — possibly checks. After staring at one of these for a few seconds, I realized they weren’t in the right box. It’s not unusual for me to get mail addressed to someone else but properly delivered to my box number because someone got the address wrong. In this case, the post office employees had given me a whole stack of mail for a different (but very similar) box number. Clearly these envelopes were the result of a request for funds — you know, the “we desperately need your help” letters that we all get.

As far as I know, there’s no way anyone would have known what happened to the money if I’d just kept it. Cash payments are meant to be untraceable. Sure the donor could have complained to the organization who would have just said they didn’t receive it. At least the people sending checks would have been able to find out if the checks were cashed. But in the meantime, if I were a larcenous sort of person, I could have kept the cash and had several checking account numbers. Kind of scary.

Needless to say, I put the envelopes back into the postal system — they have a designated slot for misdirected mail — and went on with my day. Finding money on the sidewalk is one thing (not that that’s happened recently) but finding money that clearly was on its way elsewhere is another. Maybe the lottery gods will smile on me since I put that found money back into its proper place.  Stopped to buy a lottery ticket on the way home.

 I saw Whip It and liked it well enough but it had to deal with Hollywood style plot lines.  Brutal Beauty isn’t lacking for drama but keeps its focus on the girls and the derby. It’s not just about the skating but about the effect of physical team sports on young women and the community it creates.  We see them at home as well as skating — the film follows several of them through most of 2009. And remember this is a volunteer sport — they all have day jobs to support themselves.

For those like me who don’t quite understand the rules of roller derby, the film has a wonderful sequence where one of the coaches — who happens to work at Voodoo Doughnuts — uses a group of doughnuts to illustrate the various player positions. Another only in Portland touch.

Mabry is submitting the film to several festivals, planning to get it on Netflix and talking to some TV folks about getting it shown on TV. You can find out more about screenings and cast at brutalbeautymovie.com   For people in Portland, it will be showing at Clinton Street Theater  April 19-21.

If you’re interested in the Rose City Rollers and maybe even becoming a Roller Girl, check out rosecityrollers.com

Short blurbs about the 68 films I saw in 28 days posted at http://pdxwatch.wordpress.com/piff-33-2010-blurbs/ with a separate alpha list including scores at
http://pdxwatch.wordpress.com/piff-33-2010-blurbs/alpha

Most of us associate ukuleles with the whole grass skirt, Hawaiian hula theme. The film includes some of that, but now I know where the Hawaiians got the ukulele in the first place. And I know a whole lot more about how popular it has been over the years and what’s going on right now with the current revival. Portland, as you might expect, has a group that was involved in the making of this documentary, the Portland Ukulele Project. Members of that group did a short performance after the film showing. You can find more information about them and their concerts on their Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/PUP-Portland-Ukulele-Project/206901778323  “Mighty Uke” was the runner-up for People’s Choice Award at the Whistler Film Festival in December and has played various other festivals. Clips from interviews with the filmmakers and scenes from the film are at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GauvDamjcVM   There will soon be a DVD of the film and may be other showings. Check the film website at http://mightyukemovie.com/ for further information.

The thing that really struck me was how happy everyone seemed to be playing the uke. It doesn’t seem to inspire the kind of angst you get with music lessons on more traditional instruments — it just seems like fun. There’s a program of teaching ukulele to schoolchildren in many places in Canada — one of the groups covered in the film is the Langley Ukulele Ensemble. The musical director, Peter Luongo, is one of the most enthusiastic teachers you’d ever want to see.   http://www.langleyukes.com/LUE/

In fact, that enthusiasm was the striking thing about all the groups and performers — the uke seems to inspire it. As someone who took piano lessons as a child, I remember being criticized much more than being encouraged. Piano itself was fun but only when I was away from teachers or other adults who were more intent on correcting than enjoying. The ukulele folks put the emphasis on enjoying and are clearly having a good time.

Other uke performers coming to Portland — Jake Shimabukuro will be at the Aladdin on March 15. Details at http://www.aladdin-theater.com/show_page.aspx?eventid=1791

This year, however, I thought I would be smart and save myself some extra work by not putting the boxes away right after I took down the decorations. I know it involves a lot of shifting and I also know I’m expecting some more boxes to arrive any day. The other thing I keep in that closet is various boxes from computers, electronics, etc. I know I could throw them away (recycle) but then I’d just have to figure out what to put those things in when I move, so as long as I have some space I’m keeping them. This is all caused by moving just one too many times in my life.

So it made perfect sense — let these boxes just sit in the middle of the floor — walking around is good exercise after all. And then when the new stuff arrives (which should have been the week of New Year’s) I can unbox it and decide how things are going to fit into the storage closet. Did this plan work? No, of course not.

First of all the boxes have attracted other clutter — much the way wire coathangers reproduce if you turn your back. So now there’s more stuff in the middle of the floor. Secondly, the new boxes have not arrived. Items backordered, order delayed, etc. The first notice I got I just thought, oh, well another few days. When the end of those few days came and another delay was reported, it suddenly dawned on me the universe is giving me more delay and my own delaying is not helping.

So tomorrow morning I’m shifting those boxes into storage and getting them out of the floor — not enough light in that room at night to see what I’m doing so that would just be asking for more trouble.

That natural impulse toward the opposite view sometimes leads me to resist advice and/or suggestions that I might be better off  following. So this year I’ll listen a little more to the supposed voices of reason and give them a chance. Which is all just a lead-in to saying that I finally went to Avatar after having everyone I know tell me it’s a must-see and the greatest thing ever and so on. To be fair there were plenty of warnings that it doesn’t have a strong story line. In any event, I finally made it to a 3-D showing yesterday and enjoyed it very much.  A different kind of movie on a different kind of world seems just right to start 2010.

The other advice I listened to (getting two off my list with one event) was to go see a film at the Roseway — a refurbished theater in NE Portland. It is indeed very nicely done, although the seats are a little low. I like seating that gives me a better chance of not having someone’s head in the way. Still, I’d go back there to see another film and it worked well with the 3-D.

He’s trying to be a serious man, or at least what he thinks a serious man would be, but is overtaken and perplexed by out-of-the-blue events. This is a Coen brothers’ world where things aren’t exactly explained, you get more questions than answers, and there are some very strange characters involved.

I assume I missed some references because this is a very Jewish movie — and I don’t have a strong background there. Need to go back with a friend who can tell me about some of that. I’m particularly interested in the music which may just be traditional Jewish music but didn’t seem to be credited in the music credits. I’d also like to see all those items in Rabbi Marshak’s study again — some things like the picture of Abraham sacrificing Isaac were clear but there were lots of little things sitting around. Danny is taking it all in through a haze of marijuana which just adds to the otherworldly feel.

But the whole aura of illogic, of blank suburbia filled with somewhat alarming neighbors, and trying to explain that you didn’t buy something to people who seem to be from another universe fits right in to our general idea of a Coen story.

Film gets the award for most hilarious ending credit: “No Jews were harmed in the making of this film.”

Some of my specific questions may be answered in reviews (I don’t generally read them till after I see a film) which I’ll be getting to later today. Some of them may be answered in another viewing. But I suspect, like Larry, most of them won’t be answered at all. That’s the way life is, in our world and the Coen world.

Sometimes if you’re just dithering about something because you can’t choose between options — or want to keep your options open till the last possible moment — you can get an unexpected bonus. So procrastination in this sense is leaving enough room for the universe to help you out.

I’d been contemplating buying tickets for a particular show this weekend but couldn’t quite decide whether it was worth the time, whether I’d really want to go when the hour rolled around, etc. The final push in not going ahead and getting tickets was that I’d need to make a credit card order online; there was no way to get actual tickets in person in advance. I’m fairly resistant to the just-go-ahead-and-put-it-on-your-card syndrome. So that was enough to convince me that I’d just wait till Saturday and see what happened. That way I could decide to go or not go with no issues either way.

And if it sold out and I didn’t get a ticket, then it just wasn’t meant to be. Not a make-or-break event either way. Then, out of nowhere, I discovered an opportunity to get tickets for free for the very show I’d been contemplating. Wow. Now I have tickets for the same show and I didn’t have to go through the two-step of credit card stuff.

Procrastination actually pays off!

I used to work with a woman who was famous for that instant flame of email to tell you her way, her ideas, her everything was better than yours. Luckily I’ve never been that bad but still. Her reactions just resulted in other people taking her off their email notices so they wouldn’t have to deal with the responses.

Twitter is a lot like that, only faster than email. Generally just let those people go by or unfollow them if they’re just obnoxious. Life is too short. But occasionally I’ve made an impulsive decision to follow someone and then regretted it when my whole tweet stream turned into messages from them.

I really don’t want 40 messages within minutes from the same person, even if they’re interesting. If they’re just RTs of someone else, then the value goes down. So I’m now contemplating unfollowing…but I guess the procrastination thing should kick in here and give it a day or so before I pull the plug. Anybody can have a day with too much caffeine or not enough else to do besides tweet.

Once when I was a software manager, I had a consultant who was supposed to add cool new features to one of our apps as well as generally keep things running.  He was always cheery and full of enthusiasm and really good ideas. The problem came in with the coding of those ideas into actual programs.  Not that he couldn’t code, he just had a really hard time getting around to it. 

So every couple of weeks we’d have this meeting and he’d start talking about his latest idea. When I asked about one of the earlier ones, he’d look at me and say “But we talked about it.”  And we had indeed talked about it.  The talk just never translated into action.

I guess I’m actually one step behind even that. I’m not even talking about it necessarily, just thinking about it. Sometimes thinking does indeed make it so, but not as often as putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard).