Last week, I think, I bought a DVD player. I bought the DVD player for the purpose of watching the Wholphin DVD collection that's available at Video Rodeo. For the past week and a half I've been watching through them. I'm on number 3. The first two are good. I liked number 2 a lot. I liked Miranda July in number 1, and when I saw her I saw the girl I've been obsessing about for the past two months. I just watched "A Stranger in Her Own City" which starred Namjia, a badass thirteen year-old girl, who went around without a veil, riding her bicycle (which is illegal for women in Yemen), and hanging out with boys, playing street-games. She was street. She was dirty, but always had a smile. People on the street yelled insults at her, and she'd snap back at them with snide remarks, insulting their fudamentalism. At one point in the short she was cursing Sanaa (or Saana?), and said she wanted to leave. At the end of the short, it said that seven months after the filming, Namjia had quit school and began wearing a veil. I felt very sad about this. I imagined being Namjia, and hating to wear the veil, but wearing it. I imagined being her and wanting to breathe fresh air. I imagined being her and wanting to run away from that place. The feeling was so intense that I turned off the DVD player and walked over to Library West, where I am right now typing this to tell someone how I felt about Namjia.
Right now, outside the building where I sit, there are many people dressed in orange and blue, drinking beer, staring at each others' faces, waiting for the football game.
Right now I'm going to stand up and walk to Reilly's and feed Mr. J, go home and check my mailbox and be disappointed if nothing's arrived, and continue watching Wholphin.
4 comments:
That is so depressing, but it is difficult to be one against your family, your community, your culture. It feels like being against the world.
I have a plan for these kids around the world. I have no idea HOW I'm going to do it, but it's happening. Right now I'm in the planning stages. Because someone's got to do something, dammit. (I think I possibly have told you about it before?)
Don't stay down for too long, Mr. Riverbed. If you want, e-mail me your address and I'll mail you something so you won't be disappointed!
Oh by the way, you NEED rent the documentary Born into Brothels. Do it!
Whenever I see somebody in a veil I want to push them to the ground and just tell them how retarded they are for acting like such an asshole. I was at a falafel joint in Brrokline and in comes this couple: woman in veil, all wrapped up, pushing two babies in a stroller. Husband all wearing windpants and Reeboks and gold. Religion is so bad for people, I really think it holds back humanity.
I have a friend who flew from Boston to watch that Gainesville football game, I guess she went there for school.
But what I'm getting at here is Wholphin rocks hard. In the later episodes, keep your eyes open for a piece called "Site Specific Las Vegas" and another one called "Chonto." Whenever a new Wholphin shows up, I'm happy.
i love you andy riverbed. i want to say it's not guy but your "time to fuck" video is totally a turn on. this is all of a course a joke. listen, i am going to call you sometime soon to tell you about how and why i am going to give you webspace for christmas, because everyone should have a website, especially writers.
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