After a fitful day of trying to focus on one thing or another but mostly fussing about and not getting anything done, I went for a bike ride. It was the perfect remedy to relieve pent-up tension, which I tend to build up a lot of if I don’t get out for fresh air and exercise. But isn’t that us? After all “pent-up” means confined and that’s what we are still.
By the time we got back and cleaned up for dinner, it was dark out. But the moon was bright and beautiful through the living room so we sat at my piano desk and admired a full moon. Or so I thought until my sister informed me that full moon is tomorrow while Martin explained that the only truly full moon is a lunar eclipse.
Sitting at the piano desk looking at the moon brought Debussy’s Clair de lune, a poem by Paul Verlaine, to mind. I had thought about learing to play it, but there are other pieces I prefer concentrating on right now. But I enjoy listening to Clair de lune, especially from this scene in the star-studded Ocean’s Eleven, which also has a great score. It’s like all the A-list actors at that time, except Leonardo Dicaprio, was in Ocean’s Eleven.
Speaking of eclipse, Paul Verlaine, and Leonardo Dicaprio, Total Eclipse in which Leonardo Dicaprio portrays Arthur Rimbaud is worth seeing. Leonardo Dicaprio delivers one of his best performances before Titanic superstardom. And if nothing else, it’s a film by Agnieszka Holland, one of the few female filmmakers actively working then. She made Europa Europa, which deeply impressed me when I saw it way back when on VHS.