BEFORE: I didn't talk much about it, but I was sick for the entire month of January - it was definitely a bad cold, but I'm not sure about whether it was the flu - today's news is full of terrible statistics from the flu epidemic, like the number of deaths and the terrible inaccuracy of the flu tests at doctor's offices around the country. (Seems that Punxsutawney Phil does a better job of predicting the weather, and he only reaches 36%) I haven't FELT sick for the past two weeks, but I've still been coughing up junk - but that's normal for me, almost every cold I've ever had has gone down into my lungs and made itself at home for about a month.
A few weeks ago, I also started to hear a strange humming sound in my house. I began to hear it when I was at my computer late at night, writing this blog or logging in my new comic books - it sounded like it was coming from outside, a sound sort of like someone strumming the same note on a bass guitar, over and over. I thought maybe a neighbor was learning to play the bass, and maybe got stuck on Lesson #1, playing just the low "E" over and over. But over time the sound grew louder, and started to sound more like a constant hum - and while it still sounded like it was coming from next door, it began to resemble the sound of machinery, like a generator or something.
Now, we had repair work done to our heating system in December, and before that, there was a lot of banging coming from the walls. Someone had dialed up the temperature on our boiler (instead of our hot water heater) and over time, this caused all of the water in the radiators to boil away. So we got the system fixed, with a new feeder to get water BACK into the radiators, and then the repairman dialed down the temperature on the boiler, and dialed UP the temperature on the hot water heater, which was what should have been done two years ago. Bottom line - we're having hotter showers now and our dishwasher is getting our dishes much cleaner.
But around the time that this banging in the walls ceased, the humming noise began - so this led to the theory that there was a new problem in the heating system, only now it was some weird vibration in the walls, instead of banging. What concerned me, though, was the fact that only I could hear it, and my wife couldn't. Was my hearing better than hers, especially in the bass register? (Makes sense, I'm a man, with a lower singing voice...) Was the hum coming from the television, another appliance, or from the construction site down the block? Was there a generator or an iron lung next door that got moved too close to the walls? Or was I slowly going crazy?
Yesterday, I finally figured it out when I started to hear the same low humming sound at work. The only constant in every scenario was ME! The sound is being produced in my own head, possibly some form of low-frequency tinnitus. And somehow the noise in my ears is registering in my brain as a vibratory sound coming from outside, or from the house next door. I proved this last night by tipping my head up to look at the ceiling, which made the hum stop. Face forward, I hear the hum - tip my head back, it stops. Maybe there's some fluid build-up in my Eustachian tube after the month-long cold or something, I've got a doctor's appointment tomorrow to try to find out, plus I should get my hearing checked at the same time. It's a relief to know that I'm not going crazy, not for this reason, anyway.
Today's film is another easy choice - Joel Edgerton carries over from "The Gift". And it looks like I finally found a way to acknowledge Black History Month in my romance chain! "Far From Heaven" was close, but didn't really count as "history" since it was pure fiction - but this film is based on the 1967 Supreme court case of Loving v. Virginia, which had an impact on the anti-interracial marriage laws and marked an important moment in civil rights.
Here's the TCM line-up for tomorrow - Wednesday, February 7, featuring nominees and winners in the Best Special Effects category:
6:15 am "Blithe Spirit" (1945)
8:00 am "One Million B.C." (1940)
9:30 am "Mighty Joe Young" (1949)
11:15 am "The Time Machine" (1960)
1:15 pm "The Spirit of St. Louis" (1957)
3:45 pm "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" (1957)
6:15 pm "The Enemy Below" (1957)
8:00 pm "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968)
10:45 pm "Cocoon" (1985)
1:00 am "Logan's Run" (1975)
3:15 am "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972)
Ha, now we're getting into my wheelhouse - I've seen 6 out of these 11: "The Time Machine", "The Spirit of St. Louis", "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Cocoon", "Logan's Run" and "The Poseideon Adventure, bringing me up to 31 seen out of 78, or just under 40%.
THE PLOT: The story of Richard and Mildred Loving, a couple whose arrest for interracial marriage in 1960's Virginia began a legal battle that would end with the Supreme Court's historic 1967 decision.
AFTER: While it's not an outright entertaining film, it can still be an important one, right? Maybe there should be more films about Supreme Court decisions, like, umm, "Amistad"? Or maybe I just need to take this as a simple story about a man who wanted to marry his pregnant girlfriend and then build her a house. That's really all this is, except for the fact that it was technically ILLEGAL in Virginia for him to do this. There really were laws on the books in that state in the mid 1960's against that, which seems insane now in retrospect.
The couple was clearly aware that they were breaking the law, because they drove to Washington, DC to get married, assuming or hoping that Virginia would recognize their marriage as legal. People have been driving over state lines to get married for decades, for one reason or another, right? But I think it's only recently, with the gay marriage issue, that all states have been forced to recognize marriages they don't like which were performed in other states. Richard and Mildred are found guilty of breaking Virginia's anti-miscegenation law, and told they can avoid serving time by leaving the state, and not returning together for the next 25 years.
Which, by the way, seems like a very strange penalty, essentially it almost seems unenforceable. I mean, Virginia is a rather large state. What happens if one of them appears in western Virginia while the other one visits the family in eastern Virginia? Who would even know that they're in the state at the same time, or be able to prove that? I guess essentially this is just a way of this one county in Virginia saying, "We just don't want to see the two of you together." But the legal fight against this Virginia law ultimately affected 15 states that still had active similar laws - that's huge.
But then when their ACLU lawyer is unable to appeal their case, because too much time has passed, he advises them to return to Virginia together JUST to get arrested, so that the new arrest can be appealed and challenged. The Lovings refuse, so I guess they just weren't that committed to the cause after all. Whenever I see people protesting, they're just BEGGING to get arrested, because that's more publicity for their cause - or perhaps they're trying to impress someone.
But I think the ACLU lawyer was on to something here - because this sort of tactic was used again on the gay marriage issue. Gay people got married in a state where it was legal, then moved to a state where it wasn't, and forced the new state to accept their marriage. When the homophobic state then passed a law specifically making gay marriage illegal, that law could then be challenged as unfair and unconstitutional, which meant that it would be struck down, thereby making gay marriage legal in a roundabout way. (I'm not a legal expert, but I think that's how it happened...)
I think I just prefer my films to be more entertaining, though, and this just wasn't, even though the issue in the film is very important. Because at the end of the day, that's what I base my score on, by how entertained I feel, which I understand is quite subjective. Taking a dry subject matter and MAKING it entertaining, that's exactly what I expect a director to do, even if that seems impossible.
Also starring Ruth Negga (last seen in "Warcraft"), Marton Csokas (last seen in "The Equalizer"), Nick Kroll (last heard in "Sing"), Michael Shannon (last seen in "Cecil B. Demented"), Bill Camp (last seen in "Jason Bourne"), David Jensen (last seen in "Free State of Jones"), Terri Abney (last seen in "Triple 9"), Alano Miller, Jon Bass, Chris Greene (last seen in "The Founder"), Sharon Blackwood, Christopher Mann, Winter-Lee Holland, Michael Abbott Jr., Will Dalton, Matt Malloy (last seen in "Far From Heaven").
RATING: 5 out of 10 cinder blocks
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