Eloquence...

From Jim Lilek's site, on some recent remarks made by Martin Scorsese:

We always make the mistake of conflating the art with the artist - if we like the product, we want to like the person who made it. We may not agree with them, but we want some sort of simpatico bond. And they always disappoint us. Always. Not because they’re human - we can accept it when they fail or stumble. No one dislikes an actor who has a powerful thirst, but I think everyone in the Western World thinks Russell Crowe is pure fresh buttcake, because he compounds his boozyphilia with violence and poor hygiene. It wasn’t that Woody Allen married a woman young enough to be his daughter, it was the fact that she was, indeed, his daughter. Sort of. Scorsese has flaws by the steamer trunk, but none of them bothered me. I’m not bothered to learn that he might have behaved poorly now and again. What disappoints me to learn that like so many of his profession, he has a big fat blind spot that betrays both intellectual complacency and his disinclination to study the very thing he thinks he understands.

[...]

You know what I’d like to hear, just once?

"As a New Yorker, I remember too well the death and destruction that arrived on our doorstep that day in September. As an American, I worry about regimes who possess both the means to kill innocent citizens and the devilish will to do it. As an artist, I value the freedom I have in a pluralistic, secular democracy, and I realize that these traits are not only rare and worthy of defense, but deserve to be extended to people in other nations. As a student of history, I am impressed by how our military - which has the ability to annihilate cities and nations - has spent billions to develop weapons that destroy a single building. Surely this says as much about us as our crass and extroverted culture; what other nation with our abilities would take such care? Presented with enemies who build weapons factories next to kindergartens, we invent missiles that take the former and spare the latter. This may not mean we are right, but it surely means we are are bound by a notion of decency our opposites lack. As a human being, I mourn the loss of innocent life that will surely attend any war - but I must admit, if we could have prevented 9/11 with a military action that cost a dozen innocent lives, I would have supported it with the reluctance that must attend any act of organized violence. And finally, as a filmmaker who lives in a special kind of isolation, surrounded mostly with affluent like-minded people from the arts community, I must admit that when it comes to foreign affairs and military matters I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about."

Cheers...

Another quiet Friday...

My, but these daily reports seem to be so-o-o repetitive: Get up. Go to store. Do report. Come home. Work.

I've been getting some mysterious phone calls from people who would like to use my resume in their proposals. All the calls seem to be for the same project. The only flaw in the project - in my perhaps arrogant view - is that if the end client insists on having all work done by dedicated translators at the client's premises, the winning team is not going to be staffed by very many experienced translators.

Experienced freelancers have an existing customer base (or they don't last). Asking such persons to abandon those customers for 18 months or so and dedicate themselves to one client is not something you do lightly, or with the expectation that said freelancer will jump at the opportunity to demolish a painstakingly built "practice," experience the joy of relocation (or extended stays in hotel rooms), and so on.

Not unless the rates you offer are scrumptiously attractive, which is not typically the case in the industry. (Indeed, one of the parties that called me is well known for offering rates that are 50-60% of what one might consider "mediocre" rates - you read that correctly - and who tehn tries to sweeten the deal by offering high volumes of such work!)

* * *Sasha finally responded to the medication I gave her this morning at 2 am. When I got back from the store, she was gingerly walking around the upstairs, in a circuit that took her from the hall, to the living room, the dining room, the kitchen, and back to the hall. After a little while, I figured exercise would be beneficial for us both, and took her for a short walk. I winded myself with little effort, which did not make me a particularly happy camper, but I'm happy to have taken the time for the walk.

Today was Brady's last day at the store. He's leaving for his adventure on Monday. I hope he does not chance across any misadventure while helping search for sunken treasure off the coast of Chile.

Galina is intent on driving down to Houston starting Monday. There had been some talk of her going down with a local resident who had business down there, too, but that did not pan out, so Galina's going to be doing all the driving, which will put her ETA in Houston at sometime on Tuesday, I suspect in the afternoon.

It's going to be lonely here, all by myself. I think I'll go upstairs and break out the foot cream.

Cheers...