Errata is a web journal written by Robert Davis who has neither spent a night in a ghost town nor pulled a turnip from the earth. He doesn't even know if turnips grow in the ground. Perhaps on trees, like candy corn. Therefore, Errata is a non-commercial project.

Observation #1: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious."

Observation #2: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious" at the top of your lungs. Bring your eyebrows together before you say it. Effective!

Observation #3: Same for books. Even at libraries.

There is a prize for people who correctly guess the thing about Metropolis, Nevada.

Except where the text specifically states otherwise, Errata's vagaries are indicated vaguely and its authors are indistinct in the traditional way of the Internet, except where the authors lay claim to their work. In some cases Robert Davis lays claim to work that is not his own but has been abandoned like so many ghost towns. Except where held presently, fistfuls of dirt are suspended via dispersal, or dispersed via suspension (in the air), and thus their dissolution is their transcendence, or their transcendence is their dissolution. And yet our eyes tear, and our vision is impaired, demonstrating for the umpteenth time that one entity's gain is another's fit of sneezes. Except where indicated, storms shall outlive the clay upon which they rain, unless storms are improperly delimited by their clouds, which dissolve, rather than by their inevitable return. Thus the clay loses, unless the clay is said to own the storm, to use it to make itself heavy, to make itself cling to white garments, refuse dispersal, cake upon the facades of abandoned buildings, and sit like Man [sic] upon the earth where it is pelted by a storm that it owns. In which case the clay still loses, if you ask us.

Some of the above is legally binding and should be considered a mental contract between Errata and those upon whom it acts. The bit about the prize should be considered an overstatement insofar as prizes differ from dirt and prize dispersal differs from dirt dispersal. Please recall that ownership is a weight and, therefore, hope that you do not win the prize.

One day Errata or its representatives will call upon you for a favor. It is expected that you will hop-to without delay.

You may contact Robert Davis by email unless it's about the rock that was thrown in anger. The rock is more properly called a clod. Why do you continue to raise the topic?

15 May 2003

Together

2002, China

director: Chen Kaige

On paper this movie about a violin prodigy and his father who travel from the country to the big city to find a suitable music teacher probably reads like a paint-by-numbers sentimental crowd pleaser, and in many ways it is. Poor country people are simple but noble. Rich, successful city people are cold and manipulative. And eccentric characters are lovably eccentric as they tragically shield themselves from life's risks and rewards. These elements are straight from the stock international heart-warmer catalog, but the glue that holds them together is a true love of music. Director Chen Kaige proves that the sentiment is genuine with pervasive violin pieces and such attention to detail in the performances that the actors really seem to be playing their instruments. (I say this as someone who does not know how to play the violin. But still.) The climax encapsulates all of this: two characters who we predict from an hour away will find each other and thus be completed are aligned near the end, but they merely stand near each other as they listen to the boy play his violin. I happened to see this movie in a theater full of high schoolers on a field trip, and they responded very positively.

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