This Recording

Over the past few years my bookshelves have taken on a few...

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:15:56 -0400

Over the past few years my bookshelves have taken on a few “cultural self-help” books, as I call them: thin, brightly-colored volumes that aim to introduce Americans to foreign cultures, to expose what differentiates them from their peers overseas and to teach them how to be more…. whatever it is that the author deems is missing from the American way of life.

When he shouted, and now I hear you shout, I stoop down and...

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:45:15 -0400

When he shouted, and now I hear you shout, I stoop down and write with my finger on the ground.

It must be possible to constantly renew your experience so that...

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 15:45:45 -0400

It must be possible to constantly renew your experience so that you are taking the best of everything you know and don’t know and making it apply to your life.

Lois Lane is constantly saying, and this is verbatim,...

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:14:23 -0400

Lois Lane is constantly saying, and this is verbatim, “Where are the toner cartridges?”

She regretted ending the conversation that way, but it felt so...

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:11:42 -0400

She regretted ending the conversation that way, but it felt so bad to hear something sincere described insincerely.

my Passion review

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 11:14:48 -0400

my Passion review

She can vacillate from harsh seriousness to unexpected mirth...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:31:42 -0400

She can vacillate from harsh seriousness to unexpected mirth simply by using her lips and eyes.

He had other women he treated with respect, but not nearly as...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:07:33 -0400

He had other women he treated with respect, but not nearly as much respect.

this is william butler yeats speaking

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:12:24 -0400

this is william butler yeats speaking

She had never minded long stretches of time alone by herself. In...

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 23:44:30 -0400

She had never minded long stretches of time alone by herself. In a museum she felt protected, insulated: the opposite of a cat staring in a mirror. There no one ever had to ask why you were crying, because there was a recognition that when a present moment intersected with those of the past preserved in art, blowback loomed, unavoidable really. In one painting she could not tear from her mind, one child ran to a fence while her friend rested against it, composed where she was not. The difference between the two figures startled her.

the night we were about to have

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 17:51:29 -0400

the night we were about to have

He had also told her the worst quality of any one person is her...

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 15:44:28 -0400

He had also told her the worst quality of any one person is her desire to outstay her welcome.

The resulting portrait is frantic, as if she were a buzzing bee,...

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 15:12:22 -0400

The resulting portrait is frantic, as if she were a buzzing bee, flitting all over the screen until her macabre antics are squashed with the slash of a knife.

It’s a fleeting moment. It might be true that you cannot...

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 15:44:26 -0400

It’s a fleeting moment. It might be true that you cannot sustain romantic passion forever. But it is also true that you cannot sustain rage forever. It’s too hard on the heart. We are rarely privy to this part of the story, to what happens later, when we’ve willingly launched ourselves into the loss of our freedom that is loving another person. The daily ins and outs, disagreements, and pleasures are what our first connections, hopes and dreams move towards. This is a film about wanting the quiet moments in between the extreme highs and lows.

I had never read Hegel, but my mind had been full of Blake from...

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 16:09:20 -0400

I had never read Hegel, but my mind had been full of Blake from boyhood up, I saw the world as a conflict, and could distinguish between a contrary and a negation.

Everything Michael Cera says is funny, don’t try to make...

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 15:12:23 -0400

Everything Michael Cera says is funny, don’t try to make sense of it or note that the delivery is identical in every instance.

Their friends book a hotel room for them, complete with a bottle...

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 14:34:23 -0400

Their friends book a hotel room for them, complete with a bottle of wine and a couples’ massage, so that they can get away together and spend a romantic evening, but they spend most of it arguing.

Part of the gag is that they never learn, I suppose, but that...

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 15:44:28 -0400

Part of the gag is that they never learn, I suppose, but that just reinforces the idea that the show is more about wacky concepts than real people, and that I was not supposed to be turned on when the boy did that to his cousin.

We don’t know how it ends. We don’t know whether the...

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 15:12:20 -0400

We don’t know how it ends. We don’t know whether the couple is able to compromise. It seems like this fight, these differences, might be the end of them.

Who returns, again and again, to known experiences without any...

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 14:44:25 -0400

Who returns, again and again, to known experiences without any sense of wonder, without being as fully satiated as the first time.