Raygunn13 t1_ja2mtpf wrote on February 26, 2023 at 11:18 AM

Reply to comment by maxkmiller in I Like Killing Flies (2004) profound and profane philosophies from an iconic New York restauranteur as he navigates gentrification in his neighborhood [1:18:14] by maxkmiller

haha nice! one of many solid moments in the doc

Raygunn13 t1_j9xwdp6 wrote on February 25, 2023 at 10:28 AM

Reply to comment by thorneparke in I Like Killing Flies (2004) profound and profane philosophies from an iconic New York restauranteur as he navigates gentrification in his neighborhood [1:18:14] by maxkmiller

yeah absolutely! followed immediately by the title- that was a moving sequence for sure

Raygunn13 t1_j9xgd56 wrote on February 25, 2023 at 6:50 AM

Reply to I Like Killing Flies (2004) profound and profane philosophies from an iconic New York restauranteur as he navigates gentrification in his neighborhood [1:18:14] by maxkmiller

At 1:09:55

"...it gets into a subject that really has not much to with me but has to do with humanity. a great lack in America... the great ^(uhh) belief that ^(uhh) was a flaw: once we lost our Christian background or whatever the fuck we had, we never as a country tried to figure out what the meaning of life is. We still don't. All these issues about terrorism, race, [inaudible], school prayer... it'd be a lot simpler if we had a meaning of life going for us. Not that that's easy to achieve but.. nobody seems to be looking! Am I with my busywork seeking to inject meaning into my life? ^(the fuck is the marinara sauce..) The way I choose to function is to pick an arbitrary stupid goal, become totally involved in it, and pursue it with vigor. And what happens to you in that pursuit is your life. Understand that it's stupid but not stupid to pursue because it's the only way you can inject meaning into your life. Otherwise you're left with this great 'why bother?'"
[I did my best to transcribe what I thought he was saying]

I'm getting Myth of Sisyphus vibes from this. The man has some pretty interesting insights for sure, and it's even more interesting to see his philosophies contextualized by the way he lives his life. Watching this doc I get the distinct sense that this is someone who knows himself very well.