Turn, Turn, Turn

[seahearth]

 So this evening, after a lovely dinner, me and Charlotte and Landingtree met up with Sam and.... had the distressing and confronting experience that is Boots Riley's Sorry to Bother You.
And I am not going to write about that, except to say that I'd seen it once and gotten hope out of it, and so invited the others, and this time I don't think any of us got much out of it except hurt.
But after leaving Charlotte and Landingtree to go hopefully find comfort, and after Sam left me to scooter home, and after I wandered around for a bit and got myself together and walked towards home and got to the somewhat lonely somewhat dark hill road to Vogeltown, I decided to listen to Nina Simone's Here Comes The Sun. I opened my playliist entitled Help, and tapped the song title, which expanded into the screen --
Which seemed to flash and then for a very brief moment displayed another Nina Simone song entitled Turn, Turn, Turn (something or other) -- and then died. My first thought was, well, shit, there's a symbol, my second thought was gosh, was I really listening to that before? and my third thought was to turn around, to see the car approaching up the hill, slowing down and stopping beside me, and the man inside. The window scrolled down and he said a word -- I wasn't sure what it was,  edged slightly closer to the window -- he said it again -- it might have been Sorry, it sounded like a question -- he said it several times, then shrugged, drove off. 
The word was Tory, I believe, the name of a street in Wellington Central which he and I were both leaving. He did not turn around, as I did to see him, because I didn't tell him to. He sailed off into the night, the wrong way.

Comments

[seahearth]

I should say, now I'm home and Sam is here and has made me tea and given me hugs. And there is a lorakeet hanging out with me in bed.
But fuck.

[seahearth]

And now I've listened to the actual song, which is called Turn! Turn! Turn! (to everything there is a season), and which Simone sung in 1968 after Pete Seeger wrote it and sung it in 1959, and which is, as well as the turning of people, about the turning of the earth.

[seahearth]

Huh. A strike which is the biggest strike there's ever been is currently ongoing in India... day 2.

Ecclesiastes

[justy]

I'm glad about the tea, hugs and lorakeet, and will avoid the movie!

The source for "Turn, turn, turn" is Ecclesiastes 3:1-8:
1. To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Re: Ecclesiastes

[seahearth]

Ha! That’s neat.

[landingtree]

I got things out of the film except hurt. I loved the first two thirds of it, and I... recognize why the last third exists. If Charlotte didn't have a) strong emotional reactions to characters in fiction generally and b) strong emotional reactions to that particular kind of horror and c) experience working in a call center, and if I hadn't been exhausted, I think I'd have come out of it impressed, instead of hating it and convinced it had wanted me to hate it. Which reaction is now dying down! I mean, I do think the film wants to punch people in the nose, but there are times when... actually there aren't times when I'd welcome a punch in the nose, this metaphor fails, but you know what I mean.

And (spoiler) I liked the place of labour movements in it, in that when the man organising the union first showed up, I was convinced that he would cause terrible damage by trying to produce a union in circumstances where it had already proved untenable. And he didn't. Which reflects on how I usually see unions presented, I think.

I am sorry that thing with the song and driver happened.

[seahearth]

Ok, I’m glad. I’m still very very sorry I didn’t warn the three of you... but I’m glad you liked the start.
I disagree that the film wants to punch people in the nose. I’m inclined to think Boots Riley wants to inspire his audience to solidarity. Which I experience as the really amazing thing about the last third, how he uses horror to make solidarity really feel like rescue from nightmare.
Which I guess is a bit violent as a tactic, hmm. But the first time round I found it more like being shoved off the side of a swimming pool.

[tcpip]

(Random Melbourne person visiting Wellington and dropping into your journal whilst bored on a Thursday night)

"Tory" is a British pejorative term for conservatives who supported the monarchy and the established church, and opposed to the liberal "Whigs". It derives from Irish Gaelic word tóraidhe, meaning "outlaw"!

[seahearth]

Ha! Did not know that about the origin. Ok, new working theory, the guy was looking for an outlaw to help him with something.
(By odd chance, I’m walking up that same road as I write this.)
Hope you enjoy Wellington!

[tcpip]

I love Wellington, and try to visit as often as possible.

I'm NZ born (Invercargill, you have to be born somewhere) however, so I might be a bit biased.