Goodbye, Mr. Superman

It should be pretty apparent by now that whenever I don't blog for a while, it usually means I've been on a shoot. Such was the case this weekend, when I holed up in a good buddy's flat for two whole days on end, trashing the place (I did clean up what I could though, but I hope we're still friends after this), feeling absolutely guilty, and also getting pissed off at everything that was going so slowly and stupidly. I swear, the amount of communication that goes on for a shoot in this fucking corporation is ridiculously low, so no one knows what the fuck is going on. But that's not the point of this post.

See, I've been robbed.

Not "robbed" robbed. More like "dropped my wallet, someone picked it up and took my stuff" robbed. The bastard made off with over $160 in cash, which I'd gotten back in return for concert tickets but forgot to deposit in the bank, and my just-topped-up EZ-link card ($20). I also had to replace my credit/debit cards, which is gonna cost another $30. So all in all, that's over $200 out. Bugger. It's cold comfort that someone else had the decency to return me whatever was left after the pillaging.

I thought I was gonna have to beg, borrow or steal to get through the rest of the month (for the reason why, check out an earlier post regarding my financial situation), but then I get a pleasant surprise today when I find out that the rest of the money for my film grant has come in from the Singapore Film Commission. Yay. So now not only am I not poor, I am richer than I was on payday last month. God bless people who give other people money to make movies (God in the most generic, non-religious sense of the word, that is).

I haven't been keeping up with the news, so it was a great shock to me today when I heard of Christopher Reeve's passing on the radio. Damn these shoots (had one today too). Fortunately there wasn't much traffic in the parking lot where I was, or I probably would've run into something. It was more traumatizing than Superman #75 way back in '92 or '93 (Comic geek reference!).

I remember being a little boy and watching reruns of Superman on the TV and really, truly, believing that "a man can fly". He wasn't my hero or anything, but for a while, he came pretty close. Any way you look at them now, the first couple of Superman flicks are still really fucking awesome, and probably the only other superhero movies that come close are the recent Spider-Man ones. Still, no matter how ridiculous you think it may be, no one pulls off the sense of nobility while dressed in silly blue tights like he did. And I ate it up like candy, I really did. It worked. He worked. If I had to describe the experience, it would be "quasi-religious". And I'm sure many people feel the same way.

So goodbye, Mr. Superman. And I'd like to think that not only is he no longer a paraplegic, he's flying again, somehow, somewhere. Just like he used to.

"You will believe a man can fly."
- tagline for Superman: The Movie (1978)

I did. And I still do.