I am vague.

Words spew out of my mouth…unstoppable.

That has been my day. Spent in a bubble of vague babblings. Woe to those who encountered me this day. Feel for the poor sales rep, I took visiting to libraries. He’s learning the ropes of libraries and databases and such. Then he got stuck with me. On a day when I was very vague, very disorganised, very little of what I needed to be.

“This is a library” I said “those are books” I said “…and computers too”

We wandered about, upstairs and downstairs…through two libraries. We chatted about searching: the way we do it, the way it sort of works, even played with a federated search at a real library. I think it was a real federated search too.

I am starting to relax a little…my babbling seems mostly of the mouth, and less of the fingers. Thus my worst babbles will escape permanent record.

I babbled so much I missed the first film, Lebanon, at festival. I heard it was good though rather overwrought…somewhat unsurprising as it was shot entirely within the confines of a tank. I arrived at my seat with minutes to spare before the next movie…rushed, I had not taken time to stop, to remember that I was at filmfest once more. Felt a bit strange. The second movie, Heartbeats, was good…ish. The director was more interested in telling a story through framing and image and in mood. He likes to use feet and shoes as something of a narrative device too. It was a story of two friends, guy and girl, who fall for the same chap. Unrequited. They play, they compete, they tussle, they get hurt. Not bad and an interesting start to the evening. A lot less angsty than I was anticipating and a more delicate mood perhaps than I’ve managed to convey.

I had had some hopes of this evening’s blog, being of a poem’s form as that’s the sort of space my head is almost occupying. Alas, such grand designs were dashed by the third movie of the evening, Howl. This was a mix of recreated reading, interspersed with reconstructured scenes from a trial. Howl is probably the best known work of Allen Ginsberg, the publication of which sparked an obscenities trial over whether the book should be banned. The movie is a retelling of the poem and trial, combined with animated effects to illuminate some of the imagery created by reading the poem. The poem was well read and there were also acted interviews with a younger Ginsberg. It was an interesting take of something that is for me mostly historical, a matter of which I am vaguely aware. To my shame, I am still yet to read Howl in its entirety.