"Regrets: Hobbies"

[ketida]

I took it on a much lighter note....as the humorous entertainment I believe it was meant to be. Like most good humor, it makes me laugh more if I can relate to it at least a little bit. It was over the top, and not an overview of a real person (I think).

I also think the maudlin music in the background had a huge effect on the films impact...perhaps even more so with C & F folks since they are musically inclined to begin with.

It was just for laughs, and I enjoyed it!

[Cynth]

I saw a version of myself in the fellow instantly, like rh and chrisoff, or I wouldn't have watched much of the video at all probably. And I seemed to take it on a pretty heavy note---but then I would .

For me, and everyone would be seeing it a different way I'm sure, there were some funny parts, more toward the beginning, but I actually found it quite saddening as it went on and I never took it to be a comedy skit---I think whoever made it must have been going for more than laughs. I didn't feel the guy was whining. I thought he was ranting at himself. He is angry at himself. At one point he says "C****t, I'm a f*****g idiot". He means it too. No one would wish more than he that he could stop doing it. But he can't.

I think that, as chrisoff and rh said, he is an all or nothing person. Everything has to be perfect---there is no middle ground. And he never gets to the point of actually DOING the hobby. His interest is genuine in some sense, but by the time he gets perfectly prepared (his need to find the perfect engineer's hat, for example) he has gotten burnt out or lost interest or has found it is just all too much to deal with. He is sort of leading an armchair existence. He experiences things only by reading how to do them, how to best prepare for them, not by actually doing them. I think this is not very funny at all.

Why does he keep doing it if it hurts? I don't know. Is his perfectionism getting in the way of his doing things he might actually really enjoy doing, or is his perfectionism serving as a mechanism to avoid really doing anything at all? Why would he want to avoid doing anything at all? I don't think the questions are that simple to answer. I interpreted his manic affect to be a manifestation of his intense anxiety---I mean, he is one supremely anxious person in my opinion.

I am finding the huge variation in responses very interesting.

Oh, and I don't seem to understand what you are meaning by "the one about boxes", my little chickadee .

[Wanderer]

I don't really identify with the video..but it totally captures my wife's brief obsessions with hobbies!

[mutepointe]

i HAD a friend like that. i google him every now & then just to be on the safe side.

[djm]

I don't seem to understand what you are meaning by "the one about boxes"

There is a series of five short films on the first web page you linked to, all on the basic topic of Regret. You selected the Regrets: Hobbies one, but I watched some of the others, like Regret: Boxes which I mentioned. The more I watched, the less funny they seemed.

Yes, I definitely recognize myself in the Regret: Hobbies film. I am an armchair nothing. But I found no humour in the ranting, and no resolution offered, so what use is the film; to me, at least, if to no-one else? The rest of the films just get sadder and sadder. (Well, okay, Regrets: Spoon was pretty funny)

djm

[peeplj]

Is it funny? no. Yes. Maybe.

Does it hit home?

You tell me.

enthusiastic voice: "I'm doing it! I'm doing it! I'm making that sound."

many less than enthusiastic voices: "Congratulations. Now please stop."




--James

[sbfluter]

I'm not like that at all. I might get obsessed, but instead of getting all the stuff I really need for my new hobby I do everything I can to avoid spending any money on it.

The only time I ever did spend enough money on a hobby was for hiking and backpacking because I learned that when it comes to life and death, or at least the ability to use your feet to survive, you really shouldn't skimp.

It's crazy-worse not to spend money on your hobbies though. I mean, so I'm thinking maybe I should try mountain dulcimer so instead of buying a nice mountain dulcimer I bought one from the thrift store that someone had started to build but never finished. I'm probably not going to finish it myself, so now I'll keep wondering back and forth how I'm going to get a mountain dulcimer or how will I finish this unfinished one, despite there being a store full brand new fully-functional dulcimers of every kind right within walking distance from my house.

[Denny]

I feel so ... normal


I am, so, not used to this

[Nanohedron]

You know, it's weird. People I know will come up to me and say, "Are you still playing that music?"

And I'm, like, "Um, well, yeah."

It's like I'm expected to be flighty or something. Hmm. I'll admit that once in a while I'd try something and found that I didn't have it in me to keep at it, but if that was the case, often it took a few years or so to find out. When I find a good niche for me - like ITM - I'm pretty well focused, and never bored. Can't pry me away with a crowbar.

[scheky]

It's VERY me actually. The whistle (and of the last few months, the flute) are pretty much the ONLY things I've stuck to.

I've spent quite a load of cash over the years. My obsession with knowing everything about something vastly overwhelms my actual desire to do it in most cases.

Shameful really...

[rh]

I didn't feel the guy was whining. I thought he was ranting at himself. He is angry at himself. At one point he says "C****t, I'm a f*****g idiot". He means it too. No one would wish more than he that he could stop doing it. But he can't.

This was my take on it too, more like "why do i put myself through this". It's overplayed, of course, and the music adds to that effect, so i don't think it's meant to be taken so seriously.

I think that, as chrisoff and rh said, he is an all or nothing person. Everything has to be perfect---there is no middle ground. And he never gets to the point of actually DOING the hobby.

Yeah, i personally do something with it -- like i can play the same three tunes on a dozen different instruments. But then, something else will come up that interests me and off i go. So it's not exactly the same thing -- i wouldn't personally be so concerned with getting the hat before the trains, but i would be likely to research railroad history and then buy only trains and accessories that corresponded with a certain period that i liked, make it rigorously accurate, that sort of thing.

I also tend to burn out quickly in an activity after intense involvement with it. If i keep the stuff around, i'll eventually get re-interested in it, for example my on-again-off-again relationship with the flute.

I'm better about it than i used to be, whether it's because of age or working on my nafs or whatever, but i still know it is a strong tendency in myself and i can laugh at myself when it comes up and have compassion for others when i see it in them.

and God knows best

[fel bautista]

SO WHAT'S WRONG WITH SALTWATER FLY FISHING WITH AN 8 WT FLY ROD!! HUH !!!!HUH!!!

this is being passed around my family ( not that it reminds anyone of someone in particular...NOT ME!!!)


Thanks for the link.

[cowtime]

I can see some of that -the obsession part- in myself. I do tend to stick with it though.

i would be likely to research railroad history and then buy only trains and accessories that corresponded with a certain period that i liked, make it rigorously accurate, that sort of thing.

There's any other way that would be acceptable?????

(remember the "sewing frenzy"late last fall and the had to be absolutely authentic 1878 Victorian outfit?)

Yeah, I identify.....

[djm]

Don't forget the railroad songs that are obligatory when wearing the cap:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=UaVzQFhpDw0

djm

[Cynth]

I don't seem to understand what you are meaning by "the one about boxes"

There is a series of five short films on the first web page you linked to, all on the basic topic of Regret. You selected the Regrets: Hobbies one, but I watched some of the others, like Regret: Boxes which I mentioned. The more I watched, the less funny they seemed.

Yes, I definitely recognize myself in the Regret: Hobbies film. I am an armchair nothing. But I found no humour in the ranting, and no resolution offered, so what use is the film; to me, at least, if to no-one else? The rest of the films just get sadder and sadder. (Well, okay, Regrets: Spoon was pretty funny)

djm

I don't know how I missed that, I even looked at the page after I read your response and missed it again. I've watched them all now and I experienced quite a lot of sadness and not much laughter too.

Just addressing the Hobbies video from my point of view only, first I found your comments to be very thought-provoking so for me the video has had a purpose. It seems to me that many books, movies, paintings migh portray an aspect of the human condition without necessarily presenting a cure for it---they are just saying "This is how it is." Since this video was supposed to be funny, I think dark humor might be what the category is called, then one can think about what there is to laugh at in the situation. rh seems to be able to laugh at himself when he goes on a hobby bender (although he is not so extreme as the fellow in the movie)---maybe I could think about that a bit. Again, you refer to yourself as an "armchair nothing". Is that really accurate? Finding oneself in a predicament is not the same as being "nothing" is it? Really, it is the same as being human---everyone must have some predicament they are in. So there again is something to think about. Why would we equate that predicament with being nothing? I'm not saying the video should mean something to you, just saying what it means to me on this fairly small amount of thought I've given it. I just know that it really struck me.

The Boxes video was also very interesting to me. Especially the part when he runs up the hill to see what else is out there and he comes down again and says "Nothing". That seems like a sort of existential moment to me---it has to do with man and the universe, it can be a hard, almost impossible realization to live with although if you are having a good time it doesn't seem to matter very much. I can't explain it. I do realize many people believe there is something else, so I'm just expressing my own beliefs.

The whole series is interesting to me because I have been interested in the idea of regret. You hear someone interviewed who is very old and many times the person will say he or she has no regrets. You seldom, it seems to me but maybe I'm wrong, hear someone say he or she has regrets. How is that possible? Should we not regret certain things? What is this series saying about regret? Surely the woman who keeps forgetting her child should regret that, and she does sort of, but she just keeps making insane excuses. And then the man with the hobby problem is filled with the self-loathing you'd think the woman would feel. Why don't I find the series to be as funny as I think I am supposed to? I don't know. I find it all very puzzling but very interesting.

fel bautista---Fishing. Oh dear. Okay, I was able to hold off on the fly-fishing rod (although I did feel compelled to buy some books about it) but I have several perfectly organized boxes of lures, line, hooks, rigs, jigs, spoons, sinkers, metal leaders, floats, and books along with a spincasting reel and rod. My husband (who finally went along with it and got a reel and rod) every once in a while asks if we should take our rods on vacation, but it all seems so complicated now since we never really learned what to do and we would have to take the line off the reels and go outside and stretch it and then get it back on right and I would first have to find the instructions for how to do that. Someone actually did once tell me that I wasn't going to catch anything if I didn't get my darn hook in the water . Maybe that's the problem---I'm afraid I might actually catch a fish. I did go on my own a few times and I almost caught a giant frog with my rubber frog lure---talk about having a heart attack!