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[dreamshark]

It was fun. Programming went pretty well. I am ridiculously exhausted. It seems like I didn't do much of anything that wasn't related to running Programming, but that doesn't mean I didn't have fun. I probably talked to lots more people than I otherwise would have, and almost all the conversations and encounters, brief or extended, were pleasant. Came home a little buzzy from the coffee I'd drunk to give me the energy to pack up my stuff and get checked out of the hotel, but too fried to do anything remotely constructive (like unpack). So Richard and I went to "The Alamo," now playing in a theater near you. It was very good, although it's a little grim watching an entire movie about a battle where you already know that everybody on your side is going to die. Billy Bob Thornton makes a remarkably good Davy Crockett (or David, as Mr. Crockett preferred to be called). I'm currently planning to go to the Dead Dead Dog party tonight, but might not have the energy. Maybe I'll perk up a little after I eat.

Comments

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

It was very good, although it's a little grim watching an entire movie about a battle where you already know that everybody on your side is going to die.

That's easily remedied by not thinking of the Texicans as one's own "side." Not to go all political here, but in the larger context of that time, I probably have at least as much feeling for the Mexicans.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

**** SPOILER ALERT *****
(assuming that you have no idea how the battle of the Alamo turned out)



Yeah, but DAVY CROCKETT dies. And Jim Bowie, and Bill Travis, and pretty much every other character in the movie that we've gotten to know and like except for Sam Houston. General Santa Ana doesn't die, but we kinda wish he had (even the Mexicans didn't seem to like him very much). Some of the Mexican soldiers were presented sympathetically -- as they were in the process of dying. Big whoop.

About the only thing to feel good about at the end is that Sam Houston wins the battle of San Jacinto and Santa Ana gives up Texas. And, as you have pointed out, it is certainly possible to have mixed feelings about that.