2003-09-05 - 5:06 p.m.

On the internal soundtrack: "Operator" and "Six Days", from the opening of "Phone Booth"

Friday, September 5

OK, so. Today I've been thinking about the whole "alpha male" thing, and what males do (if anything) to establish a "hierarchy", or whether they bother to try at all.

Awhile back, P mentioned that sometimes men will hold a handshake too long, or squeeze too hard, or even twist the wrist so that their hand is on top during the handshake. Apparently some men -- particularly salesmen he's encountered at work, he's noticed -- have a need to establish "dominance" of a sort immediately upon meeting other men. This can also be done in verbal ways, rather than physical ones -- I guess by talking about one's knowledge in a particular area until they show that they know something the other doesn't. Sometimes it's called a "pissing contest", I guess, or "dogs circling each other".

What is that all about? Please explain it to me. (I tried Googling, but could only turn up articles describing how women also establish hierarchy (contrary to what was previously thought) and they do it through negotiation rather than direct displays of power.) P says he'll tell me more when he gets home from work, but I'm too impatient.

I'm interested in the specific ways in which men establish hierarchy. I'm also interested in WHY some men feel the need to establish dominance, and why some men couldn't care less. No matter which camp you're in (or if you're merely a female observer), I'd like to hear more about it. Also, is this more of a straight male phenomenon, or do gays do it, too?

Do you ever get really enthralled by some part of a film, or with a particular song, and watch/listen over and over and over again?

For some reason, I'm completely in love with the opening of "Phone Booth".

I was surprised in the beginning when they had an a cappella song, "Operator". I knew the movie was a thriller, and I thought the song incongruous. But I loved it anyway -- I love the interplay of the different rich voices, without any bass drowning them out -- and enjoyed the imagery tracking a phone call from earth to satellite and back again. I'm a sucker for that kinda thing.

And THEN, they show you who's singing it -- a group of casually-dressed black men on a busy street in Manhattan, and a new song fades in that has the heavy bass and minor key that I would expect from a thriller. And they keep showing you people using the telephone, a montage of cell phone usage, all over Manhattan, interspersed with general street scenes, including muscular young black men doing what used to be called breakdancing. Did I mention I'm also a sucker for street scenes as well as men who sing and dance?

It just pushed all the right buttons, I guess. Between the music and the montage I was compelled to watch thing scene about 8 times, I think. Maybe I'll buy the DVD.

And in case you were wondering: I can hear the voices enough to enjoy them and appreciate the quality, but I can't understand the words they're singing, and I can't hear all of the voices all of the time. That last bit is really weird, I know, but I think what happens is that someone who's louder or whose voice is at a pitch I can hear better than the others is the one dominating what I hear.

Oh, and I reallllllly hate to admit this but I have the hots for Colin Farrell. Sigh. He's everything I hate -- scruffy, messy, cocky, too young, too pretty, and too aware of it -- and yet I watch his movies and watch him emoting with his pretty brown eyes and I'm a puddle of lust. And he didn't even take his shirt off in this movie. How embarrassing. And here I am telling you about it, of course.

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