Sunday 19 September 2010

The Wardrobe

That Hoarders show really struck a nerve. I just put a whole bunch of clothes into a garbage bag, and I'll need to sort the clothes out again in the morning because one garbage bag wasn't enough, I can't even tie it up.

I'm not going to simply throw the clothes away. I will donate some clothes to the material donation truck that has now moved to Union Square (I spotted it today on my way to the CoinStar at Food Emporium) and others I will clean and donate to Housing Works.

I also have a bunch of t-shirts sitting in a corner which will be attacked by material scissors tomorrow. I don't like the t-shirts, but I love the patterns and images on the t-shirt, so I'm going to cut them out and make them into a quilt of sorts... or maybe a banner... or maybe a pillow cover - I don't know just yet, but I don't want to part with them completely because some of the shirts instantly transport me back to a moment in my life so clearly and we all know how special that moments feels. So I feel like I'm making a compromise. I'm half-hoarding? I'm recycling?

So. Let's do inventory, shall we?

Underwear: 16 pairs (Oh, you need to know)
Socks: Err... Well I'd like to have 14 pairs of socks. That's the goal. I have more than that but most are crazy wide-eyed loner socks on a doomed space mission to Venus.
Bras: 7
Sleep Wear: 4 PJ bottoms, 1 PJ Top (I'm a bit grumpy at myself because I purchased a slinky garment to sleep in and now have noticed that the zipper is all misshaped. Waste of money. I sighed and muttered to myself, "You keep doing stupid things over and over again!" Drama.)
Tights/Stockings: 7
Scarves: 6
Gloves: 4 pairs
Hats: 1 Beanie
Jackets/Coats: 4 plus a Waistcoat.
Belts: 4
Ties: 2
Pants/Jeans: 7
Shorts: 4
Skirts: 3
T-shirts: 11
Shirts: 7
Dress Tops: 7
"Under" Tops (for wearing under sheer clothes or for layering): 6
Dresses: 13
Cardigans/Sweaters: 10

I like that all my clothes can now easily fit on my bed in neat piles. Small piles too, which means I could probably squeeze my whole wardrobe into a suitcase, which has been a dream of mine for a while. I can only imagine that I will get rid of more things once it gets colder and I know what I really need.

I hope that after a while of getting some "wear n tear," I can purchase some items that I feel closer resemble where I'm at in my head... because that is important and also not important at all but should still be acquired and shouldn't be at all.

OK. Great. All the clothes are now folded neatly or are hanging in my wardrobe. I don't have enough space for the cardigans and sweaters, so I'm just going to hang the hangers on top of the hook on the door.

Clothes: Done.

I can now calmly move on to getting through the newspapers, magazines, books and "things to post" that are taking up most of the space here in The Land of Caitlin. The books will be a problem, but I'm confident that I can tackle a sizable amount of magazines before the end of November.

Weekend Update: Luke gave me a jar of US coins to cash in at CoinStar because he had not done it yet and would have no use for them. It totaled to $16.00 but the CoinStar didn't say the usual, "Chi-Ching!" I was disappointed at the lack of chi-ching.

I then went to Cosi for a quick sandwich and was seated by a waitress and everything, which was really strange. My Mum called and we spoke briefly before I had to hurry on to the N train to get up to 59th St and 5th Avenue to see Mao's Last Dancer at the Paris Theater.

As I rushed around the Plaza Hotel, there was a crowd surrounding a line of official looking cars, but I didn't care, I just huffed and pushed my way through, wanting to make it on time to see the film. I was also really excited to be going to the Paris Theater for the first time.

I'm looking forward to seeing Morning Glory, the film has a great cast and it looks like it'll be a lot of laughs. Rachel McAdams and Harrison Ford on screen together??? It just has to be amazing.

Mao's Last Dancer was quite beautiful. I have the book back at home because my dance teachers during my first (and only) year at QDSE told us all to read it. I hadn't read it, which was good because I'm sure I would have enjoyed the film less. I loved Bruce Greenwood's performance and his awesome accent in this film, he was a delight. The ballet dancers also did a good job at acting, which is usually awkward to watch, so props to the director, Bruce Beresford. I especially enjoyed the subtle comedy, which was often delightfully awkward.

One line stuck with me, "Sometimes you just have to be strong." I need to tell myself that often.

Some of the people watching in the theatre were really loud, one lady was almost a heckler, she kept telling the Chinese characters to put their "papers" up... somewhere. One guy also annoyed me by whispering, "It's a flashback" to his partner during a flashback. Like you couldn't tell by the slow-crossfade? Come on, man.

It's always a pleasure to see Amanda Schull, because I absolutely adored her when I was a young wannabe ballerina and I really liked her and Chi Cao's chemistry on screen.

I was pleased to see, during the very fast-credits, that part of this film was produced in Australia and financed by Screen Australia, so that made me very happy because it seems like a good year for Aussie cinema, what with that and Animal Kingdom both out and doing pretty well here. Maybe Aussie cinema isn't as damned as I thought it was.

Afterwards I took some photos of the lovely window displays at Bergdorf Goodman and then headed down to Union Square to see Catfish with Molly, which was pretty darn incredible. I found myself recognizing so many moments that the main guy is faced with. It's just incredible what the Internet and that perfect block to hide behind called Texting can do to a relationship.

It made me once again just want to shut the whole thing down. I don't like how open my life is to people sometimes. Someone commented on one of my old blogs saying that I do this because I "love" the audience... err, that isn't true. Let's just leave that there.

7 comments:

david1082 said...

I can't stand going to the cinema - all the noisy idiots, just shuttit all of you. I only enjoy films on my own (not those kind of films, honest). I've been to the cinema about 5 or 10 times in my life. Ones that I remember seeing:

Muppet Christmas Carol (1992, aged 9)
Hook (or maybe just on TV, I forget)
Apollo 13
Independence Day
Titanic (very regrettably)
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit

I've seen plenty more on Film4 and TCM over the years. Favourites I remember:

The Stunt Man (awesome cinematography, bizarre convoluted plot, Peter O'Toole stupendous)

Brotherly Love (or The Same Skin/Country Dance, Peter O'Toole and Susannah York comical brother and sister)

The Seventh Seal (existential games of chess with Death)

Zabriskie Point (ending sequence to end all ending sequences)

Savage Messiah (dir Ken Russell 1972, brilliant one-off performance by Scott Antony, Dorothy Tutin and Helen Mirren unforgettable)

Au Hasard Balthazar (donkey messiah, tragically beautiful)

Notre Musique

The Strawberry Statement (commie students take on the pigs, heroically fail)

The Dreamers (hard for me to judge this one properly since Eva Green's body dominates it so much, ah the memories)

I remember seeing some of the Dogme95 films years ago (Mifune's Last Song one was called), plus a bunch of semi-pornographic Japanese art-house ones that I've forgotten the names of. Seven Samurai is one I should get round to seeing as well.

People who love the way Pulp Fiction is structured should see Catch-22 from 1970, both for the circular plot structure and the apocalyptic scene where Milo is bombing their own base.

And lastly, I think it's good to be worried about how open you are online. While I do tend towards questionably obsessive, I'm perfectly harmless, but not everyone is harmless of course.

Chris in the Studio said...

I'll just leave this here:

I believe that sometimes you do do it for the love of the audience. And sometimes the love of your audience, when it suits you. I also believe there is not to much wrong with that other than your occasional propensity to want to throw it all under the bus when it becomes inconvenient. You are a micro celebrity weather you like it or not. It has given you opportunities and will continue to do so. Don't compare it to worse case scenario movies that may or may not be based on partial reality. Naturally, people inclined to move towards show business are going to expose themselves to more vulnerability. Take appropriate precautions.
Its not something you are incapable of dealing with, I think.:)

Oh, congrats on cleaning house!

Veksi said...

No love for us, eh? You're braking my heart, Caitlin :( But seriously, I can feel your agony when people in the theater are acting like bunch of monkeys...sometimes I feel like "one more idiotic comment and I'm gonna stuff his(usually his)fists down his throat x)

Kay Thomas Brown said...

Well I just wanted to say I enjoyed your post on your horderistic qualities. If NYC ever lost total power in the winter .. you could put all those clothing articles on at one time.. warming you.. I am glad I found you on here.. needed a Caitlin fix

Anonymous said...

SO DATS WHERE ALL THOSES SOCKS CAME FROM!!!!1 =/

...as I was flying in my spAceShip all tired and WideEyed... DETERMINED TO GET TO MARS... I looked behind my Desk RocketShip Captains Chair and there were all these SOCKS! ...at first i wondered where the #$@#@% they came from. but i eventually started accepted them as my friendly, albeit, a-little crazy(making little circle gestures around ears)...if you know what i mean... little wide eyed companions to that distant purple planet.

Thank you. aand caitlin, i would like to send out a formal invitation to you so you can come and eat cookies with me here on this thing .

Regards,

Jerry
On Venus.

Bilby P. Dalgyte said...

No Chi-ching!?

Socks. I don't know where any of mine are. I hope they turn up soon...

Also, I dated a girl who I had to occasionally explain that it was a flashback or some other minor thing. So you know it's good that he whispered instead of just saying it loudly. Loud audiences are so annoying... I actually moved seats just to slap someone across the back of the head because they were noisy when seeing Paranormal Activity 2. The ENTIRE cinemas was making a racket...

Yay for Australian cinema! I certainly hope it's getting somewhere, I am kinda going to be involved in the future of it in a few years. (Always fun when people go "AUSTRALIAN films? Hahaha" "....")

Also, yes, never miss a moment to tell yourself to be strong :) Also, the whole being open with the internet thing, I think you actually censor yourself sufficiently at times to not be too open (I've read things in people's blogs that read more like deeply personal emails to certain individuals than they do blog posts, things that really shouldn't be on the internet). You know your audience (which is a lot smaller for your blog than your youtube channel), you know who devotedly comments so perhaps whenever you do get personal it's not for an audience on a large scale, you're not going for attention seeking you're just saying what's on your mind knowing that you'll get responses from Chris in the Studio and Jer and the like.

In other news, damn I want to see Catfish :|

ADB said...

I think most people are hoarders in one way or another. Back in the day we used to call them "collectors", lol.

Seriously though, my family is hoard-central. My dad hoards films (DVDs) and CD's, my mum hoards clothes... and me, well I have a bedroom full of computer books, videogames magazines (going back to early 90's!), and multiple games consoles (we are talking double figures here).
Some people may hate it, but I will hoard 'til I can hoard no more.

Totals