Boy, was Woman in the Dunes slow. I thought Tokyo Story was slow, but this movie I watched on fast-forward, reading the subtitles. I must admit that the subtitles are usually much more garish than the actual dialog. I usually want to turn them off on a Japanese movie.

I also watched Run, Lola, Run which I found to be clever but amateurish.

Woman in the Dunes was bleak, but I can understand the protagonist’s feelings. At least neither movie left me feeling as lonely as Next Stop Wonderland. It’s set in Boston, and I have recurring dreams of how my life derailed after going to college in Cambridge, MA, and how I’m back in the dorms to set it back on track. The movie had a much happier ending than what usually happens to me after my dreams: waking up to more horrible news from NPR and then slogging my way to a job where my main career goal is to keep from getting fired and a close second is to keep from quitting.

But other than the movies, all I did today was talk to no one on the radio, and return so many Coke cans that I made $10.20. (In Oregon, we have a 5¢ deposit on every can, and we can return the cans to get back the nickel. That’s 204 cans, or 34 six-packs. Returning a lot of cans is usually something the homeless do for cash.)