I watched J’ai perdu de vue le paysage at Vision Du Réel last week and I don’t know whether I like or dislike this documentary, ironically for the very topic that it is exploring. The idea of the eternal return, repeated over, and over.
The premise of the documentary was simple. “I have a neighbour and I want to make a documentary about him preparing his next show”, except that inspiration is hard to find, and then the pandemic comes in and scuppers plans for the show to take place, and then there is uncertainty during lockdowns, and the wait for public life to be rebooted, and then the show takes place.
For years I automatically took the car for everything I did, or almost. Over the last seven or eight years that habit has changed as I grew used to walking locally, and catching the train to activities. This shift in habits is due to two things.
The first is that I met with people who take trains. If you meet with such people it makes sense to take a train with them.
Almost every time I get into the car I wish I was going on a road trip. I wish I was driving from point A to point B and that the drive would take hours, rather than minutes. As much as I hate “commuting” between point A and point B on a daily basis I love travelling from A to B as a journey. I love sitting for many hours in a car, thinking, looking at the landscape, remembering things, thinking of the future and more.
When I was younger I switched from skiing to snowboarding and I loved the sensations. I loved how quickly I adapted my skiing knowledge to snowboarding. Within hours I felt okay. I often feel that I could have progressed faster if I had been in a group with people who were just experiencing winter sports for the first time.
When I was a child I sometimes played with a skateboard but I just went up and down a street.
mousewords - Mar 1, 2008
Congratulations, and best wishes to you in your new journey!
Last night’s drive was amazing. It’s just the type of drive you want to have. It starts in the middle of the afternoon as a friend helps you load the car and you set off for a 900 kilometer drive. At the beginning you have to deal with London traffic/congestion. After this you’ve got part of the m20 that’s closed so you need to take a slip road. As I got into France I was welcomed by a lot of snow coming straight at me, like the windows screensaver from a decade ago.