The other day I went to a double feature at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood and had the privilege of meeting one of my favorite directors Werner Herzog. All I can say is wow! I was really impressed. Herzog was the most down to earth person I’ve ever met. That night we were suppose to watch Stoszek and Woyzeck two films Herzog directed in the 70′s, however the print for one of the films was very poor so Herzog ended up calling one of his producer friends that very same night and had him deliver a copy of Rescue Dawn to the theater so the people wouldn’t be disappointed. He also had many funny and insightful stories that he shared with the audience after each movie. What impressed me the most was that between the films Herzog took the time to take pictures and answer questions from people in the lobby of the theater. He made an effort to interact with everyone that approached him. He did not have a big ego whatsoever compared to the many other big names that make up Hollywood. His philosophy on becoming a good director, getting as much life experience as possible has motivated me in my filmmaking career. Overall I was very happy to have gotten to shake the hand of one my all-time favorite directors.
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The other night I watched Pacquiao go in for another victory. This time his challenger was Joseph Clottey from Ghana. Sadly to day, this had to be one of the more boring fights I’ve seen with Pacquiao. To sum it up, the fight seemed more like a glorified sparring session. The whole time Clottey with his peek-a-boo style of boxing was more concerned with just lasting in the ring with Pacquiao instead of trying to win the fight. At one point as Clottey was hiding behind his gloves, Pacquiao double punched him on the side of the head. After being warned from the referee, a mischievous smile was on Pacquiao’s face for what he had done. In the end Pacquiao out punched Clottey winning every single round and eventually getting the unanimous decision for the victory. I had much high hopes for this fight but in the end I was really disappointed.
The other day I had a conversation with my friend that dealt with how people perceive time. Ever since I came back from the cruise ships, my perception of time has increasingly sped up. Days go by at an increasingly fast rate. I wake up in the morning only to realize that it’s already night time moments later. However, when I was living on a cruise ship time seemed to go by at a much slower rate. Now that I think about it, life on sea was about twice as slow compared to land. Six months on a cruise ship literally felt like one year. As I was thinking back about my whole experience, it felt that I had been gone for a long time. When I talked to my friends though, they did not share the same opinion. For them, my absence only felt like a fraction of time for them.
As I celebrated New Years Eve at the end of 2009 I could not help but be fascinated by how slow that year felt. While others were complaining at how fast 2009 had gone by I was left wondering about why that year felt like an eternity for me. My theory is that when someone is subjected to a new environment for a lengthy period of time, they will encounter many different experiences that will eventually alter their perception of time. When people settle down on a routine that’s when time seems to go by very quickly but when they radically break from that routine and are put into an environment that in no way resembles their old one, time begins to feel distorted. On a more personal level I feel that people who go out and strive to experience as much as possible will have much more satisfaction at the end of the day. As for me when I am an old man, instead of seeing life having gone by in the blink of an eye I would rather look back and feel like I lived a life of an eternity.
So I was on youtube the other day looking for some funny Japanese shows and I ran across this show called Silent Library. The basic premise involves a group of six contestant sitting at a table in the library. One person draws out six cards face down and whoever grabs the card with the skull and cross-bones must receive the punishment for that round. And because they are in the library, they cannot laugh or make a sound. When I watched this, I was cracking my ass off the whole time. The Japanese are the masters when it comes to game shows no doubt.