retro reconstruction, future forwardation

I am an optimist.

I wasn't always one. I actually used to be the most pessimistic person I knew. Eventually so many other people became cynical that I became an optimist in order to spite them.

This is one reason I have a lot of respect for Quentin Tarantino.

If you do a little studying up on his movies, you discover that he's an acknowledged plagiarizer. Pretty much every scene of every movie is lifted from another movie he's seen. The interesting thing is that his movies are pretty good, but the movies he rips off... are almost always quite terrible.

I just watched Switchblade Sisters (which is also known as The Jezebels), a '70s exploitation flick about a girl's descent into (and eventual ascent to the top of) a vicious all-girl gang. It's hilariously terrible, yet eventually quite charming (especially through the performance of the bratty-voiced Lace, the gangleader). Personally, I could find some obvious parallels regarding my theory about how feminism has actually lowered modern women to the mere level of men.

Anyway, the point today is that Tarantino apparently lifted elements of this movie. Apparently the most famous rip-off is Daryl Hannah's character in the Kill Bill movies is based on the gang member "Patch" in this movie. Yes, the girl did wear an eye patch, but beyond that, the depth of Elle Driver is far from derivative of her inspiration.

Some people would say Tarantino's a rip-off con man. I, however, consider him an opportune optimist. Rather than dismissing garbage, he finds worth in it and reconstructs it into value.

I read a recent post by someone where they quoted famous film directors' trash talk to each other. Here's a link:
http://flavorwire.com/200745/the-30-harshest-filmmaker-on-filmmaker-insults-in-history

There's a lot of hate on Tarantino, but you'll notice in this article that Tarantino isn't spewing the hate on anyone else. The guy may be a lot of things, but obviously his biggest talent is looking for positive elements rather than negative ones.

Now it's time to go back to feeling sad.

Today I realized that one reason I've been bumming out lately and not worked on anything interesting or been social -- is because presently and lamely I'm not looking forward to anything specific. Once upon a time I've been in a position where I've had at least one future appointment (social, romantical, workal) that I knew could potentially endorphinize me. Somehow, my hope pool has evaporated into broad terms rather than specifics.

Okay, now I really have to think of what I'm going to be for Halloween.