Saturday Night's Alright for Wrestling

Tonight the Huskers had a dual with American University. They won, and for the fans, only 3 of the 10 matches went the full seven minutes. Unfortunately, one of the matches that ended early involved a distant relative of mine, David Ingalls. He had the uneviable task of wrestling Muzaffar Abdurakhmanov. Notice that Muzi majors in Russian (what a stretch for someone from Uzbekistan).

The Husker match was at 7pm. At 5 this evening I went to my local public library and got two books from Junichiro Tanizaki, one a set of seven short stories, the other Some Prefer Nettles, and a book of pictures of Lee Lawrie's work mostly from the Nebraska Capitol. I was introduced to Tanizaki in my Non-Western Lit class at Union. I read and presented on an essay from him "In Praise of Shadows." I loved this essay and recommend it for any artist or aesthete. Here is an excerpt:

A glistening black lacquer rice cask set off in a dark corner is both beautiful to behold and a powerful stimulus to the appetite. Then the lid is briskly lifted, and this pure white freshly boiled food, heaped in its black container, each and every grain gleaming like a pearl, sends forth billows of warm steam-- here is a sight no Japanese can fail to be moved by. Our cooking depends upon shadows and is inseparable from darkness.

I looked thru (side note: Emerson pushed for that spelling of through to be standardized to make the language more efficient) the Lawrie book while enjoying a dish of peanut butter and jelly, grape Nerds, and toasted almond ice cream at Ivanna Cone.

After wrestling, I went to Donnie Darko at Starship 9. It was the director's cut which I think helps frame the film a bit better. It was nice seeing it in the theater, but I wonder why Douglas is showing it now. I'll find out. Donnie Darko is a 5 outta 5 (the fifth star is for Wendi). The casting deserves an award for how accurately everyone is placed. As per six degrees of separation, Katharine Ross, Donnie's therapist, was the girlfriend of the Sundance Kid and Benjamin Braddock and daughter of Mrs. Robinson; Patrick Swayze is a motivational pederast; one of the bullies Seth Rogen is also in 40 Dollar Virgin as Cal, the bigger friend. Noah Wyle one of many Dr. Dreamies on ER, and Drew Barrymore, child star turned Tom Green divorcee are also in it as teachers. Then you have the only performance with Jake and Maggie as brother and sister. I'll stop now. I know more and could tell you more, but I'll stop now.

Keyser Soze