The American Mastodon once made a film about a young man who, after having his arm severed in an accident at a grain elevator, returned to his home town after a stint in the hospital only to find his lady philandering with another, not-armless man. Unable to express his emotions through the naturally restrictive limit of words, he did what anybody would do: he killed a deer, removed its head, and left it on the girl's doorstep.
Before you think the AM is a psycho who had intended the film he made to be his own severed deer's head to an old lover, he should inform you that the story was based on an actual event that happened in the AM's hometown. A boy aged about 13, infuriated that his unrequited decided to end their relationship, shot a deer in the woods behind his house, cut off its head, went to the girl's house and, when she opened the door, threw the head inside and ran away.
The AM is intrigued by that thin red (blue? green?) line of human expression where words fail and only actions can communicate to others how you feel.
For instance: The father then walked into the garage, picking up a propane tank, a can of gasoline and a lighting device, police Capt. Tony Rode said. He smashed the van's window, got inside and set it ablaze, despite attempts by the Marines to stop him, Rode said.
Thursday, August 26, 2004
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3 comments:
Sometimes actions are the only expression of which your capable at a given moment. Ex: After discovering her ex-boyfriend was seeing someone new, the girl took his copy of "Boogie Nights" and decided to bash it on the steps of her apartment. Subsequently, her plan would involve sending the broken pieces of his beloved DVD to him in an envelope. Upon reflection, she decided to just keep the DVD for herself.
It's not as dramatic as a deer head on a doorstep, but an action based on emotion nonetheless.
Would the most famous "actions-over-words" event be that guy from the cover from the first Rage Against the Machine album? I think he was pissed because his buddies at the monastery kept pulling his robe up so the girls could see his dingaling.
Anyway, here's another story for your file:
ATHENS (Reuters) - She saved him from drugs and he loved her almost to death - it's a Romeo and Juliet tragedy updated for the 2004 Athens Olympics.
A lovers' tiff prompted Greek Olympic judoka Eleni Ioannou to jump off the balcony of the flat she shared with her boyfriend Saturday, six days before the Games' opening ceremony.
Guilt drove Giorgos Chrisostomidis to a copy-cat jump two days later. Both are in hospital fighting for their lives after the three-story fall.
According to Apogevmatini daily which ran the story under a headline of "They are fighting death for their love," the couple had been living together for more than one and a half years. The young man, who lost his father at a young age and was raised by his grandparents, was a drug addict until he met Ioannou, who supported him and got him into detox.
As a former drug addict, he had trouble getting a job, with Ioannou his major ally and source of consolation.
"The fact that she had helped him escape drugs had made him love her pathologically," wrote daily Eleftheros Typos.
"As he told police in his statement, the prospect of a short time apart -- as she was going into the Olympic Village with all the other athletes -- upset him, and his insecurity led him to fear he would lose her."
"They had a verbal fight, and he slapped her. She slapped him back in panic, then run off to the balcony and jumped," Eleftheros Typos added.
"She got through a tough preparation period, there was also pressure from her relationship, and that is how we got here. I ask all Greeks to make a wish for her," Ioannou's coach Giorgos Boutakis was quoted in Kathimerini daily as saying. Ioannou has been in intensive care since.
"After Eleni's fall, the world went out from under his feet," Apogevmatini quoted friends of the boyfriend as saying.
According to Eleftheros Typos, he was racked with guilt and thought himself responsible for her injury.
"On Monday noon, Giorgos was eating with his grandmother in the flat, when suddenly he told her 'I want to go to Eleni', left the table and jumped from the same spot on the balcony," Eleftheros Typos wrote.
"He had put himself on trial and condemned himself."
Man, that story is so Greek in its scope.
Oh, right. They are Greek.
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