Grab the Lapels

Sunday Lowdown #237

THIS WEEK IN REFLECTION

As I commenced seeing the horror movies in theater this week, I had an unhappy reminder of how lack of accessibility can really ruin a person’s day. I showed up at AMC theaters to see Talk to Me, an Australian horror film that is basically a variation on a Ouija board movie. Knowing some Aussies are hard for me to understand, especially if they use a lot of slang, I got the closed caption device. Well, it didn’t work. So, there I am, five minutes into a movie, not knowing what anyone is saying, and unable to fix the device. They gave me a refund, and feeling mad and determined, I drove to the next county to an AMC theater there . . . only for their closed caption device to fail, too. Eventually, the staff pulled through at this second theater, and I had a good experience. But the point is I spend a lot of time and gas trying to see one film.

The following day I went to see The Last Voyage of the Demeter, which is based on the one chapter from Dracula during which he travels as cargo from Romania to England. I asked a friend from my interpreting cohort to join me. She’s a very devout Christian, so I didn’t want to do something shady like sneak a drink in my purse and have her think less of me. Turns out, she had a whole McDonald’s meal, drink and everything, in her purse. LOL. But again, the closed caption device did not work. When I bought my ticket, I emphasized the poor experience I’d had just the day before, so they sent the IT guy in with me, and he fixed the device in time for the movie to start. I was grateful, because there were about six different accents in The Last Voyage of the Demeter.

The biggest news of the week is I finished summer school (A’s in both philosophy and fundamentals of Christianity) and started the fall semester. The way the ASL Interpreting program is structured is the first two years of college are build up; you’re learning ASL and Deaf culture. The last two years you officially enter the interpreting program, where things really get serious. There is no sliding by, no excuses, no slacking. I liken it to entering any other type of practice profession, such as nursing, optometry, pharmacy, etc. Compared to a degree in English or history or philosophy, for which we don’t come out the other side ready for a specific career, our interpreting educational foundation is to do no harm, to not oppress the Deaf community, to be the best interpreters we can be.

Interestingly, one of my professors noted that other practice professions are intimately involved in people’s lives: the doctor knows your body, the therapist knows your mind, the lawyer knows your legal struggles. However, the interpreter knows all of those things, because we go into all of those situations, and more: weddings, funerals, family reunions, rehab, parent-teacher conferences, etc.

I was nervous about being back on campus and almost forgot to brush my teeth that day, but I made it through ASL 5, Interpreting 1, and the Interpreting Lab. I’ll have my first session of ASL fingerspelling/numbers on Monday. It’s four classes total and a lot of outside commitment. I’m glad I didn’t agree to teach an English 101 class at my college this semester, even though I was tempted. I was right in thinking there would be a pretty busy schedule outside of class time.

Because the program is so challenging, the head professor of the interpreting side of things had us decorate jars. We are supposed to give each other pieces of paper with a small note saying something to bolster ourselves. The idea is if we are struggling at some point this semester, we pull a piece of paper out of the jar and read the encouraging message. If you guys want, you can email me messages that I won’t read right away, but I will have Nick print them out and put them in the jar. I’m at grabthelapels AT gmail DOT com.

it didn’t make it to grab the lapels

Folks complimented my mini reviews of books that did not make it into a full review on Grab the Lapels, so I’ll keep this section up even though I finished 20 Books of Summer.

A Fig for All the Devils by C.S. Fritz: Death needs a replacement, and a depressed teen seems the best candidate. Really funny and scary in turns, though has some plot holes. Comes with a Spotify playlist and ghastly artwork.

The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean by Susan Casey: an audiobook read by the author about her fascination with being on the bottom of the ocean. I wish it had more personal reflection and less history, which is how it was advertised. By being both a memoir and timeline of deep sea explorers, my brain wandered.

THIS WEEK’S BLOG POST

I love that my review of Your Dog is in the Bar by Celia Rensch Day got folks thinking about their own diaries and who might be interested in reading them. Are we interesting people who encounter other rich beings in entertaining situations? Or are our diaries more the kind that should begin, “Captain’s log…”?

NEXT WEEK’S BLOG POST

Is it a zombie novel? Is it about Millennials and work culture? The synopsis suggests something like The Office meets Dawn of the Dead, but that isn’t accurate at all. Check out my review of Severance by Ling Ma on Wednesday.

BOOKS I BOUGHT

Books I paid for (that are not textbooks) since January 2023: totalling $39.05

BOOKS ADDED TO THE TBR PILE

Thanks to Anne @ I’ve Read That for her recommendation!

22 comments

  1. So here you are, back on time. Does that mean Saturday night was boring? You didn’t tell us if the Aussie movie was any good after going to all that trouble to see it.
    I think only 10% of the interest in diaries is in what happens, the rest is in the writing and in, well, people just like stuff about other people. It lets them know whether or not they’re normal.

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    • I wasn’t out terribly late on Saturday. Just an ice cream cone near the beach of Lake Michigan and home again. The Aussie movie was interesting, but it has been touted as innovative online, and it was not. If I hadn’t heard the buzz, I would have enjoyed it more. Also, there were plot holes that needed some love.

      I love your claim that diaries help us figure out if we’re normal!

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  2. How frustrating with the closed caption experience. James wears hearing aids because he has hearing loss from his MS and we almost always have the subtitles/closed captioning on at home whatever we watch (unless we’ve watched it so many times James can recite the dialogue), and even though I don’t have trouble hearing, I still like the captions because sometimes accents are really hard to parse or various other reasons. So I can imagine how being in a theater and not having captions can mean you miss most of the movie, which is not right. In spite of the frustrations, I hope you were able to enjoy the films. How was the dracula one btw?

    So fall semester has begun? Are you in year 2 or starting in on year 3 of the interpreting part of the program? Congrats on your A’s!

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  3. That does sound frustrating about the closed captioning devices not working. Makes you wonder if any of them work ever. But congrats on the A’s and on starting the new semester. Also congrats on finishing 20 Books of Summer. As for diaries, I have journals from many years stuck here and there and am contemplating getting rid of some or most of them. I already threw one away that was from a particularly “messy” era, ha ha! I was listening to a podcast episode today in which the guest was talking about getting rid of her journals and likening them to workbooks, as in she was working out her life on the page and they were made for her to do that. Not for posterity or whatever. I hadn’t thought of journals in that way before but it makes sense.

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    • That notion of journaling does make sense. I think we all have this idea that some day someone will want to read our words, but I don’t think that is common unless we’re living through an incredible time period and are observant, interesting people. Some old journals may even hurt the people we write about.

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  4. 1st : Congratulations on finishing summer school and so well. Good luck for this year. I look forward to continuing to follow your journey. I’m learning a lot.

    2nd : I was going to say what Bill said – did you enjoy the Aussie movie? But, I’ve read your answer now. That’s hopeless re the captioning technology. It shouldn’t be that hard.

    3rd: I clearly missed this week’s review so will read it now. I have used journals cathartically, that is, to process difficult times. I would hate others to read them so will get rid of them soon. I nearly did during the downsize but kept them to quickly peruse for anything I may want to remember.

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    • 1st: Thank you! Those summer classes were much harder than I remember my summer classes during my first bachelor’s degree being. Not sure why, perhaps the content, or perhaps the online format–though likely age-related stamina loss.

      2nd: One Aussie horror movie I love is Black Water, which is based on a true story about a crocodile. The director used real footage of crocodiles and superimposed it on the actors and their movie footage, so you can see that it’s not real, but it’s real enough to give me the scares!

      3rd: I have a journal I need to destroy. I wrote some pretty awful stuff in it now that I do not believe even a tiny bit, but should someone find it and read it, it would be devastating.

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  5. Well done on the A’s, that’s brilliant! And I’m emailing you a Nice Thing to put in your jar …

    I have been thinking about diaries again as I re-found my ones from 1995-1999 ish when trying to clear out more of the room we’re having work done on in a few weeks. Goodness. Once I got to London they were my wild years and I am going to have to burn them, I fear!!!

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    • Thank you, Liz. That is so kind of you!

      I’m always surprised that some people can use a diary daily. I guess I don’t use a diary to tell the story of me. It’s more about processing, which something I learned in CBT. In fact, it looks more like listing in categories than a diary.

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  6. I go to a fair number of places that claim to be “accessible” and “ADA compliant” but they have one of those cheap and easily broken elevators that no employee ever knows how to work or whatever would help with accessibility is locked up and no one knows where the key is. And it’s not my job to complain every single time. Sometimes I just need to go on as best I can.

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    • I will write a heated letter. I’m not sure how effective that is these days, but I always feel a sense of accomplishment. However, you’re right, Jeanne; it’s not your job to point out the problems of every place you go. Makes me think I should write a form letter and keep it to send off.

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  7. Congrats on finishing your summer school, and with such good marks, that’s incredible. How was the Voyage of the Demeter – did you like it? Ugh I’m not surprised you had so many issues with accessibility, that stuff always falls by the wayside for corporations, which is unfair and unfortunate! That’s so annoying.

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    • The Last Voyage of the Demeter was a little draggy in the middle for me, but I enjoyed it overall. Probably not something I would watch again because I didn’t find it compelling. There are so many places that could have been tweaked slightly. You know how there are sensitivity readers for novels? Horror directors need die-hard horror fans to check their work!

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  8. Congrats on your great marks and the start of your new term! I laughed when you said that your friend was a devout Christian who smuggled in McDonalds because I have definitely smuggled in my share of my illicit movie snacks!

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