Oh hey, my article on One Million Monkeys Typing from the July issue of Paste made it onto the website. You can read it here.
I interrupt this brief stay-cation to mention that I have an article on Slow Food and buying local at Comment today.
Iron Man: the review, in far too few words. As Tom summarized over dinner last night and I briefly mention in the review, the genius of the film is that Stark has no real superpowers except privilege and wealth. Tom pointed out that he’s a prototype for what we all want, for those with power and privilege (that’s us, folks) to stop pointing fingers and take responsibility for righting wrongs.
I left work early on Friday to have lunch with the lovely Liz, who I’ve known through a couple different mutual friends for a while but hadn’t met. She was on her way from DC to visit her brother and had a stopover between bus and train in town, so we ate dutiful salads at a random Europa Cafe (oh, NYC lunch chains) and shared a kahlua brownie and talked for a couple hours. It was splendid.
I then went to see Made of Honor for a review which should be in WORLD (print!) soon. It was not very good, but it wasn’t painful. That’s about all I can say. Afterwards I headed downtown and jotted down the substance of my review before heading to a ukelele extravaganza at the Bowery Poetry Club, then the Half Pint with a horde. Definitely one of the better Fridays I’ve had lately.
On Saturday our dear Colleen came over; she was in town for a few days after moving home to Anchorage last year, and she’s headed Dublin-ward to Trinity this fall, and I am very excited for her. We had burgers at 67 Burger and then picked up some groceries. Alisa came by later on, and we ate copious waffles and drank rosé and discussed good books before everyone went home.
After church on Sunday, we had a lovely relaxing brunch in the garden behind Palma, and dinner at the Stone Home Wine Bar around the corner from us, all with friends. I also finished Brideshead Revisited and started Saturday, which is amazing.
Today I had one triumph - I convinced the university that I am properly immunized and managed to register for the Moby-Dick class. I’ve already bought the books, so I’m glad there were no snags. I am very excited for this class to start. I’m playing at being a grad student in the English department this summer, what with Moby-Dick and the British novel class, and I have to say, I think it’s a good way to spend the summer.
A relatively open week for me, besides work. I don’t even have class. On Friday I’m going to An Evening with Michel Gondry at the Museum of the Moving Image, and perhaps a tiny féte afterwards, and Saturday brings an Albany-bound train for Mother’s Day. I haven’t been home or seen my mom since January, and I’m very much looking forward to it. She tells me the Tulip Festival is brightening the pretty part of downtown Albany, and maybe we’ll get to see it this year.
Lastly, my review of Harmony Korine’s newest, Mister Lonely, is in this issue of Paste, but it’s also online. I tried, but I wasn’t a huge fan.
We moved to Fort Greene yesterday. Yes, we did. We have wonderful friends who came and helped us with about a day’s notice and everything is in our apartment now, though we need to send some stuff out to live in Tom’s old room in his parents’ house in New Jersey. But after working all day, it’s in livable condition. And though we’ll always miss living in the Slope, we like it here very much.
In the meantime, however, interesting things were published in Comment:
• An article on the “blog.mode” exhibit that just closed at the Met, or is about to, written by me.
• An interview with our own dear Dan Nayeri, writer of The Cult of Sincerity and various forthcoming things and pastry chef extraordinaire (you think I am kidding, but I’m not).
Ok, that’s enough for now. The two weeks ahead are enormously full of ridiculous amounts of things to do and I need a little rest before that begins.
I wrote about two recent movies, La Misma Luna and The Visitor, and about making movies about illegal immigrants.
The Cult of Sincerity premieres today on YouTube! It’s already gotten a ton of traffic today. Go check out the comments, then watch the movie.
If you’re still not convinced, here’s the trailer:
In other news, we are definitely moving. Probably next week. Details still to be determined.
And of course, work never slows down - here’s my review of My Blueberry Nights.
Hey look, I am on ApartmentTherapy (or more accurately, my photography is). I thought it would be a fun series to participate in.
I wrote a review of Shotgun Stories, which was released in New York last weekend. This was one of those wonderful films that greatly exceeded my expectations.
Plus, after laboring over it last week, we went to see “The Little Flower of East Orange” at the Public, and Michael Shannon was the lead - and he was great. And I was in the front row, about six feet away from the front of the stage. He could have spit on me (and nearly did). It was a little unreal. (Also, his mother was played by Ellen Burstyn.)
It appears that my Run, Fat Boy, Run review made it online. It wasn’t a great movie, but it’s not like you go see a Simon Pegg comedy for a cinematic revelation. It was fun.
We are seeing “The Little Flower of East Orange”, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman at the Public Theater tonight (which I’m realizing I must clarify is an actual theater, not a movie theater, and this is not a film, because while PSH is amazing on-screen, he’s kind of a little god in the theater world as far as I’m concerned). I’ve been looking forward to this all week. Also to dinner at Applewood, our own little heaven on earth in Park Slope, tomorrow night.
Now if Bank of America would only SERIOUSLY get their act together and mail us that account confirmation letter (I mean, come on, I know it doesn’t take two weeks for something to get from Charlotte to New York), then we could put our application in for the apartment and start the nail-biting, and everything would be perfect.
I love weekends!
At ConversantLife, I talk a little about the idea of making goodness attractive, something that’s been on my mind a lot lately.
Speaking of Paste, congrats on their nomination for the National Magazine Award for General Excellence! More details here.
Paste subscribers: check out page 35 of the April issue.
Two articles at WORLD today: Be Kind Rewind and The Year of the Hollywood Outsiders.
I reviewed In Bruges, which was the opening film at Sundance and opens in theaters this weekend.
I reviewed 4 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days, one of the best films of the year (and sadly snubbed by the Academy).
I just discovered that Paste’s Art House Powerhouse issue has hit the newsstands. Go get a copy.
You can see some of the Art House Powerhouse feature here - I wrote the bits on Laura Linney, Josh Brolin, Joel & Ethan Coen, and Ken Loach. (Harder than it sounds.)
My review of Charlie Wilson’s War, which we really did enjoy.
I babble a little bit at Conversant Life about my most anticipated or intriguing movies of 2008.
If you’re interested: my review of Persepolis.
I have an article up at Radiant about goals, living intentionally, and the new year.
Happy 2008!
My review of Sweeney Todd is up at World, with some priceless comments.
My review of Youth Without Youth, Francis Ford Coppola’s latest, is up at WORLD.
I never mentioned how Monday’s program at the 92nd Street Y was. Robert Alter read from his new translation of the Psalms (quite a stunning one, too), as did Marilynne Robinson, who was there as a theologian and writer. There were a few musical settings of his translations as well as two of the Psalms in Hebrew. Between readings, Alter and Robinson commented on them, both as translations, as poetry, and as prayer. Alter sought to recapture the sound and alliteration of the Hebrew Psalms in a greater way than previous English translations such as the KJV have. To me, it sounded a lot like a combination of the raw, personal voice of Peterson’s paraphrase, The Message, but not as a paraphrase, and with a stronger emphasis on poetry. As he pointed out, this book is, in literary terms, an anthology of ancient Hebrew poetry.
Marilynne Robinson is phenomenally articulate - she speaks as she writes - and their observations on the nature of the Psalms both as sacred texts and as ancient poetry were valuable - particularly as Robinson commented on the difference between the polytheistic view of the individual and God’s/the gods’ interest in the individual and that of the Hebrews. (For instance, in most ancient religions, many natural phenomena such as wind, fire, and flood was attributed to disputes between the gods - but in the Psalms, it’s clear that this is something God himself produces, and while it’s fearsome, it’s celebrated.) I hope a recording was made of the talk. I know it was telecast to two Jewish congregations, one in New Jersey and one in Wichita, Kansas. (The 92nd Street Y, if you’re unaware, is actually a YMHA - Young Men’s Hillel Association - so though much of their programming is not overtly religious in nature, there’s a strong Jewish undercurrent.)
Tonight is my office Christmas party (all I can think about are Christmas parties from The Office), and then we’re heading to a screening of 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, which I’m fabulously excited about: it won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2007, it’s Romanian, and it’s about illegal abortion at the end of the communist regime in Romania. Review forthcoming.
Also, we are seeing Sweeney Todd at midnight tomorrow night, because we are apparently nutty fans of slasher musicals and possibly only a little less insane than Sweeney himself. If I am awake at all on Friday, I’ll get my butt in gear and write a review as well.
Last night I carted two very heavy bags of Christmas presents that have been piling up in my office as the mail comes in, and locked myself in our tiny bathroom to wrap Tom’s presents. It was kind of acrobatic, and I very nearly had to stand on my head a few times to maneuver the paper properly, but it’s all good and now we have bags of wrapped gifts to bring to Albany.
I did make Tom open one of his presents early because it weighed about forty pounds. It was - what else? - the new Pevear/Volokhonsky translation of War and Peace, which is lovely to look at. But I’m glad we don’t have to cart it up on the train.
Speaking of the train, we leave mid-morning on Saturday for Albany, to celebrate with my mom, my brother, a handful of aunts, uncles, and cousins, grandparents, and a healthy helping of Albany-based friends. We haven’t been home to visit since Sean graduated from high school in June, so this is very exciting. Also, they have snow. A white Christmas for the first time in a while.
I got the following press release from Paste today:
NAME YOUR PRICE!!
PASTE Magazine Subscriptions On Sale For, Well,
Whatever You Want…“the best among American music titles”
– The Wall Street JournalDecatur, GA (October 29, 2007) – Beginning today, and continuing for the next two weeks, PASTE magazine will be offering one-year subscriptions—and readers can name their price! New subscribers can sign up, and loyal subscribers can renew online at www.pastemagazine.com for a minimum payment of $1, though all are encouraged to pay what they think the subscription is worth. Anyone paying more than the $19.95 PASTE typically offers for a one-year (11-issue) subscription will be thanked in print, in a future issue of PASTE.
The campaign came about from a casual conversation at the PASTE offices discussing the recent Radiohead campaign and the Jim Collins book, Good to Great. “We were curious to know what our customers thought we were worth. And what better way to find out, than to let them tell us,” explained PASTE President/Publisher Tim Regan-Porter. “While it’s certainly a bit unconventional, we also see it as a chance to get our product in the hands of people who could become lifelong fans. It’s been our experience that once people become familiar with PASTE, they turn into loyal readers,” added Regan-Porter.
Interested readers can order multiple subscriptions to PASTE, as long as there is a valid mailing address, so even gift subscriptions are encouraged. Each issue of PASTE comes with a CD sampler, so one subscription will give you 11 CDs of great music, in addition to the award-winning writing and entertainment coverage.
Voted “Magazine of the Year” by the PLUG Independent Music Awards for 2006 and 2007, and having won the Grand GAMMA Award (along with 4 Gold awards and 1 Silver award) at the 2007 GAMMA Awards, Paste is rapidly emerging as the go-to source for music and film aficionados.
Paste magazine is one of the fastest growing independently published entertainment magazines in the country, recently named “Magazine of the Year” at the 2007 PLUG Independent Music Awards. Providing thoughtful analysis on the best in film, books and other aspects of popular (and alternative) culture, Paste is the premier magazine for people who still enjoy discovering new music, prize substance and songcraft over fads and manufactured attitude, and appreciate quality music in whatever genre it might inhabit. Now in its sixth year, Paste has grown quickly with international distribution in over 12 countries. Paste is available on newsstands all over the U.S. and Canada. www.pastemagazine.com
My debut article in Comment magazine about making friends off-campus.
I’ve been told it will show up in the newest print issue of Comment, as well. It’s a great privilege to be able to write for such a fine journal.
Read the web supplement to my interview with Anne Dayton & May Vanderbilt in the summer issue of Radiant, and here for the extended review.
My article about Flannery O’Connor is in this week’s Radiant e-newsletter - if you’re not a subscriber, you can read it here.
I have a short interview and book review in Radiant this month - check it out.
I have been busy, so there are many more articles in scattered venues forthcoming!
My reviews of Coeurs (English: Private Fears in Public Places) and Paris, je t’aime (a new favorite and totally worth seeing) are up at Relevant.