balancing the terror of living against the ecstasy of being alive.
For Monday through Thursday 9am-5pm:
The mentally ill of Benzie County
From Friday through Sunday and 5:01pm to 8:59am Monday through Thursday:
People of African, Asian or Hispanic decent who would like to pose for my camera.
Also,
two gay men who are ok being photographed together in the buff.
A while ago got my meathooks on the EMI re-mastering of the 1954 La Scala performance of Bellini’s "Norma" staring the incomparable Maria Callas. She is why god gave us ears and yet the devil took Callas to sing for him. It’s breathtaking to hear a human voice impart such unmitigated passion so as to find a fissure of gentleness in the most wooden heart. She did not have a voice that was technically all that exceptional (listen to Montserrat Cabelle sing the same opera and you’ll see what I mean) but when Norma sings of her doomed love for the Roman soldier, Orpheus himself must have put down his lyre for pure despair.
More recently, I’ve developed quite the little crush on Anna Netrebko. Yet despite all my adoration, I just have the sinking feeling that she doesn’t even know who I am. :-(
Besides Opera, iTunes says i really like Manu Chao and Miles Davis a lot.
I have to say my favorite movie is Showgirls. In 1995 this horrendous piece of celluloid excrement hit movie screens across America, where it was rightfully dubbed the “Softcore Ishtar.†This movie was awful in every possible way, I mean, when I was 19 I didn’t think it was possible to have a fully nude lesbian sex scene be boring… but apparently it was. The acting was abysmal, the direction was shameful, the editing was laughable, the writing was painful, the cinematography was hideous, even the soundtrack was bad.
For this movie, MGM/UA gave the director Paul Verhoeven $45 million after all the overbudget expenses; of which it recouped around $20 mil (though from where I have no idea). Even as a “Cult Hit†it flopped.
But why I love it so is because it directly refutes F. Scott Fitzgerald by proving that in America there are indeed second acts in some people’s lives.
A matter of months after laying this turd called Showgirls, the Director Paul Verhoeven was given twice the budget (nearly one hundred million dollars) to produce a film about giant, man eating insects and the young buxom plastic-looking white people who battle them. Yep, Starship Troopers, the film that broke all box office records in 1997 is by the same guy.
Showgirls teaches me that no matter how bad you fuck-up, you can always get another chance, and that life goes on.
Besides Showgirls i like "the French New Wave" to "the New German Cinema" and everything in between.
It’s been so long since I’ve updated this part that I wonder how many of you now wonder if I am, in actuality, functionally illiterate. Well here’s what I remember reading in the interim.
America: the Book by John Stewart - I found it somewhat amusing, but I read the entire thing sitting on the can, so what isn’t moderately interesting in that situation?
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini - A well crafted book, not really a challenge, and the characters are very compelling. But it does have the conceit of so many contemporary stories that I have come to really find it repelling in a story. That of a singular life-altering event that a person remembers and is fucked up by for the rest of their life (think Sweeny Todd or Batman). That’s just not how my life is, changes that cut down to my core are weeks/months/years in the making. Most everything else I can get over, or at least deal with and have my central character remain intact (think Citizen Kane or better yet, A Clockwork Orange). It kind of reminds me of the cyclical model of evolution’s fits and starts as proposed by Steven J Gould usurping the classical conception of evolution as a plodding, gradual endeavor. O.K. that might be a bit of an esoteric reference, but I see this as a [somewhat erroneous] leitmotif in our era.
Taking Care: A Guide for Nursing Assistants. [2nd ed.] by Christina Spencer.- Aside from being written at the fourth grade reading level, what strikes me about this text is that throughout the book the only illustration of a Male nurse is next to the paragraph describing the sexual abuse of patients by health care workers.
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing Of The Three By Stephen King- Alright, King gets a bad rap. Carrie, Cujo and the others were kinda dumb, but I tell you, that author has a way of description and building characters that is downright inspired. I like this book a lot, it’s creative and compelling; great for the beach. Oh, I also read a few of his short stories in the last few months.
I am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolf - Ugh, I couldn’t make it through A Man in Full, so why do I keep buying the hype that Wolf is a good author? Charlotte was bland and boring and absolutely impossible for me to finish. I mean, really, my cat has a better understanding of contemporary college life, and I am not nearly offended by the description of teen sex that seemed to get everyone else all in a snit.
Chain Of Command by Seymour M. Hersh - Sadly, it seems the only people who read this sort of researched, journalistic, non-fiction book are those who already have some grasp what the hell is going on. So a book like this is not “Speaking truth to power” it’s “preaching to the Choir.” Thusly you may disregard anything I have said as the prattle of a liberal elitist.
The Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandella - eh, it was fine.
The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell - eh, it was fine too.
Rameau’s Nephew by Diderot - oh, I’m bored with typing, so let’s just say I’ve read a few other things and I’ll critique them some other time.
The people whom i truly envy are those who can write quickly. It’s a skill i lack profoundly. As i get older and further away from college work, the worse i become. Every sentence and each word become laboured until the whole piece gets bogged down. People i know can churn it out then polish it all in one revision. They are my heros and whom i aspire to be one day (or at least hire).