Growing Up

Today I had to get new tyres for my car. That is a first for me. I had to go out and write down the details on the side of my wheel and then tell the guy on the phone.

Apparently my wheels were quite out of alignment. The guy reckoned that when the lady drove into the side of my car it might've moved the chassey (?) a bit. Bloody mean lying lady! I had just gotten used to having to correct my direction frequently (like one of those people drive a car in front of blue-screen in an old movie, turning the wheel willy-nilly either way, without looking at the road).

It was fairly painless.

Now I just have to figure out how to get the bloody new bulb into the headlight thingie on my car and I'll be able to pass my warrant!

* * *

'My Kid Could Paint That' (film fest doco) was great.

In the morning I went with two of my best and brightest students to a lecture by the director at the American Embassy. We had to walk through metal detectors and hand in our cell-phones and pass our bags under a scanner. Very serious stuff.

One of the kids has a wallet with Communist symbols on it.... she realised this just as she was getting it out to produce photo-ID.... Oops. She hid it in the palm of her hand. Bless those angsty liberal teenagers and their political statements.......

The talk was very good. It was this American guy, possibly of Turkish descent (Amir Something), who was quite pleasant looking and olive-skinned, wearing traveller's clothes. A bit short for me (plus he was holding hands with a girl at the screening that night).

He told a good story and explained things nicely. It was a perfect documentary to talk about with Media Studies students - all about the ethics of making a film about people you have gotten to know, and how he was conscious that how he framed 'the truth' in his film would affect them hugely. It was very reflective on the whole construction-of-truth process, the film, because the main issue is that we don't really know if the kid was really do the art unaided or not. There are elements of doubt both ways.

I went to the film that night with Reidun, who has an art degree, and he spoke afterwards, holding the audience's attention for a good hour or so until he waved us all good-bye. It was interesting talking with Reidun about what constitutes 'art' and where the value comes from and what modern art is (etc) because she has sold abstract art for decent money and has her own views and what she wants people to get out of her pieces.

We ate Tangy Fruits.