Spalding is balding..

And Everything is Going Fine.


To be honest, I am not very fond of monologues. Especially, monolgues in English.

English is not my first language. It is hard for me to catch English subtleties and humor, which is a huge a part of monologue.

However, I was very interested in watching this movie, not only because I get 2 blog credits, but also because I wanted to learn more about storytelling. Most importantly, I was intrigued by a man who enjoyed to tell stories. It was Spalding Gray that interested me.

In Korean philosophy, there are 5 things that composes life:  joy, sadness, anger, fun, love. I think the reason that a person sitting in front of a table with a cup of glass was able to reach out to so many people was because he talked about joy, sadness, anger, fun, and love. However, that is not it. Who cares about someone talking about their own life. Why do I have to pay money to listen to someone having a therapy session for himself?

I believe that it was his longing for childhood and question of death that drew people in. I think childhood and death were the main topics of his presentations.

Have you ever looked at your albums of when your a baby or a little boy or a girl. Every time I spend some time to go though my pictures and recall moments of my childhood or look at my photos with my parents' commentaries, there is both sadness and joy in my heart. Joy, because they are funny. Sadness, when I realize those time of "purity" will never come back, and the fact that my parents became older as I have gotten older. Then I realize "Oh.. nothing lasts forever". With smooth transition, I start to ruminate about death.

Childhood/birth and death. They might be antonyms in dictionary, but by nature they seem to stand right beside each other. Life is a moment, and artists we attempt to catch the beauty of this life in that blinking eyes. What do I want to see? What do I want to feel in that moment called life.

"Emmanuel" what a comforting name that is...

 Throughout the movie, I felt futility from Spalding Gray, and after the movie Leeper said that he actually committed suicide. I was not surprised. My intuition was correct.

Spalding Gray was heavily influence by his mother, who believed in Chistian Science. Maybe that is why "And Everything is Going Fine". Maybe Spalding Gray wanted to say, "And Everything is Going Fine...Not"

Maybe storytelling was his own way of penance.