I’ve never been to Omaha, or indeed to most of the midwestern US, but I found this article in the Times today about cultural revival in Omaha fascinating. Bonus: it’s writen by Kurt Andersen who, among other things, hosts one of my favorite podcasts.
WalMart gives up on NYC. Why am I not surprised? I love my town.
Interesting profile of Joseph Gordon-Levitt at the New York Times (free login required). This part caught my eye:
Mr. Frank called Mr. Gordon-Levitt “one of the two or three greatest actors in his age group.” That age group is the mid-20s (he is 26), and the other greats in Mr. Frank’s pantheon are Ryan Gosling (“Half Nelson”) and James McAvoy (“The Last King of Scotland”).
Remember this guy? 10 Things I Hate About You? We loved him in Brick this past year.
We had a sublimely peaceful weekend, wonderful weather, very relaxing. Just what the doctor ordered.
Also, I discovered StyleHive. It’s like shopping with friends, social bookmarking, something like that. I think the site has a lot of cool potential. I’ve already found some incredibly links to nifty clothes/home things; many from Etsy, many from other places.
I applied this week to direct a staged reading — that’s theater we’re talking about — so hopefully something will come of that. Before golden boy Orson Welles made Citizen Kane at the ripe age of 26 he was doing theater here in New York. His infamous broadcast of The War of the Worlds was in 1938 at twenty-three, but even before that, two years prior, when he was just twenty-one, Welles staged an all-black production of Macbeth set in Haiti with voodoo witch doctors. It later went on a national tour and served as the concept for Welles’ 1948 film of the same play. Here are some newsreel clips from the production:
This actually is a pretty accurate article about tiny spaces in NYC. Very interesting. Our apt feels tight, sometimes, but not ridiculous. I’m fairly certain we couldn’t handle 100 sq feet, though couples do.
(AMNY is a free paper they give out at subway stations.)
Although, the idea of Jude Law acting in Cantonese does fill my heart with a lot of glee.
Altogether now; a great big hurrah for Friday!
Here’s a question - what do you all think of the use of semicolons? I can’t recall, at the moment, Strunk & White’s opinion, but I’ve been thinking about it lately (oh what a fascinating cognitive life I lead) as some people use them a lot, some people not at all, and I don’t remember being taught the proper care and feeding of semicolons in my twelve years of English grammar. (Twelve years of English grammar which may, in fact, have created a kind of hedge against four years of devil-may-care college literature deprivation. Also, I just had to look up how to spell “deprivation”, and that is sad, because spelling has always been my strong point. I thought it had two As.)
Anyhow. It’s been a very long week, oddly, too, as it hasn’t been a bad one. Since I last posted, on Tuesday (sorry), we’ve watched a handful of movies, Tom’s been working, I’ve been working, all that. I’ve been neglecting books (I think I burnt out on them last month, and then had a week where my eyes didn’t work at all this month), but I have completely devoured the Style issue of the New Yorker which came. Undoubtedly my favorite special issue of my favorite magazine, and I’m suddenly feeling shallow mentioning that. But the profile of Karl Lagerfeld totally fascinated me. The man never sleeps? Maybe? It’s weirdly inspiring to keep working and learning and just never stop. Those who do so seem to be the once who remain interesting throughout their lifetime.
It’s Dine-In Brooklyn week (since Monday until a week from now, the 30th, which really makes it more like two weeks), and as New York magazine pointed out at some point in the last week or two, a lot of the restaurants really don’t ever warrant spending $21.12 on a meal; however, we did go down to Blue Ribbon last night, and to be honest, it was awesome. I’d have to highly recommend it. I can’t believe it took us this long to go there (not for lack of trying, but did you know they don’t serve lunch?), but it was well worth it.
We watched Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love a few nights ago, and I won’t write much because it’s totally captured Tom’s fascination and maybe he’ll write something ::cough cough:: but it was splendid. I, for whatever reason, have serious difficult with Chinese movies - and maybe I’ve just seen the wrong ones, or maybe the aesthetic escapes me entirely - but I really enjoyed it. Lusciously shot (by Christopher Doyle), clever plot, and apparently a uniquely loose working environment.
The director’s next film, My Blueberry Nights, comes out this October. Credit cast includes Norah Jones (!), Jude Law, David Strathairn, Natalie Portman, Ed Harris, Rachel Weisz . . . and it’s in English, obviously.
To those who have asked, or are wondering - we haven’t seen and probably won’t see 300 (I definitely have no interest), and we haven’t seen Zodiac yet, though we definitely want to. It’s just very long and we never think of it with enough time to actually go see it. We have not, in fact, now that I think of it, seen a movie in the theater since The Lives of Others several weeks ago. I guess that’s what happens early in the year!
We’re going to see Matthew Bourne’s production of Edward Scissorhands at BAM tomorrow night. Yes, it’s a ballet. No, neither of us have seen the movie (yet, though we have it from Netflix).
Joe Roth at Revolution Studiosmade his own cut of Julie Taymor’s psychedelic Beatles-driven love story Across the Universe that has her considering taking her name off the film . Taymor, for the uninitiated, also directed Frida, made the Broadway version of The Lion King, and designed and directed the production of Mozart’s Magic Flute that the Metropolitan Opera put up this winter and that showed in a number of movie cinemas.
The article goes on to quote Roth as saying that this is pretty normal (which it is) and he’s screentesting for maximum commercial potential. Taymor says it’s the final cut; Roth reduced it by thirty minutes. Brings up the ever-present issue of director’s/artist’s say versus the studio. Who wins? Who should win? Roth apparently decided never to allow a director full say after the disaster that was Gigli. Taymor’s had mixed success in Hollywood despite being a runaway Broadway success. On the other hand, Roth’s directing credits include such lovely numbers as Christmas with the Kranks and Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise. So who’s to say.
We actually stumbled on this film when it was still “Untitled Julie Taymor Production”, as it shot for a couple of days right out in front of my apartment. The big yellow taxi (no joke) was a giveaway. (via New York Times, free login required)
An intriguing demographic study of women in New York City. Most interesting to me: women in New York are 14 times as likely to be actresses as anywhere else in the country, even LA, and nine times as likely to be authors. (Via New York Magazine Daily Intelligencer.)
I don’t mind being up at this time, but since Daylight Savings Time kicked in, the heat isn’t on! And I’ll leave the house in a little while and it will be completely pitch black out and there are creepy people outside when it’s dark out. It’s the first week I’m going to actually make it there in a long time, as I’ve been traveling, sick, and whatnot.
Oh well. The things I do for an early morning Bible study.
Happy 48th birthday, Dad. I hope they got you a good cake.
We miss you down here.
I’m seated at Tea Lounge in Park Slope because I’m a bit afraid to go into work (nasty deep cough, red runny eyes) and I’m going to the doctor in a few hours; our internet has been out STILL at home (Verizon never apparently sent the technician on Tuesday, and they’re officially on my hate list, which is short owing to my general affability toward humankind) and so I’m here using theirs and drinking Moroccan mint green tea. Blessed throat relief.
We saw the Wooster Group’s production of Hamlet last night, which was experimental and crazy. Basically, they took the 1964 Richard Burton stage production that was filmed in front of a live audience and edited it so the speech was in iambic pentameter. They run it through monitors around the stage so the actors can watch, and then they projected another more edited version (with people erased from the background) and the actors essentially imitate the actors on the screen they’re watching.
It’s a bit bizarre and they splice in other random productions (Charlton Heston, and did you know there’s a film version of Hamlet with Bill Murray?!) but pretty cool to watch. Daniel, the lead from The Cult of Sincerity (the film Tom just finished) is in Hamlet as a host of different characters.
Ok. Off to go get medicated . . . I hope.
With no apparent connection to anything I’ve recently experienced, I dreamed last night that I was hanging out with Sergei Rachmaninoff. He was young, and cool, and very touched that I’d studied his music and loved it so much.
Also. I’m not a footwear snob (I think Uggs are kind of comfy and cute, as long as they’re only worn in snowy wintry weather), but I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing those ridiculous clunky Crocs from last year. However, I saw these in the April Lucky and they’re pretty cute, for summer rainy day footwear or commuting to work. I’d wear them.
Lastly, I saw this article a while back in New York magazine. They had two models, a show producer, and a fashion editor track their food intake during Fashion Week. Surprisingly healthy, normal diets. It inspired me to drink more green tea.
Last night we watched In the Bedroom. I think I’m officially a Todd Field fan now. Tom had seen the movie ages ago, but I’d been wanting to see it for a while, as I’m reading a book of Andre Dubus’ collected stories and the basis for this film is one of them. So, we watched it. And it was great.
I’m on a trading floor this week, and it’s noisy and kind of fun. Traders crack me up.
I love my husband. He is the bestest thing ever. I kid you not. Why do people think being married is boring? It totally rocks.
Did you know that chai (which I almost never drink) happens to be very good for a very sore throat?
We had a very quiet, slow weekend, but mostly because we’re both sick, and I considerably so. Went to bed happy and well on Friday night and woke up Saturday achy, sore throat, headache, all that. It’s less severe now but still bad enough to make me very unhappy to be at work (and I can’t leave today, might even have to stay late).
Enough bellyaching. We are currently very grateful for the 50-degree weather we’re experiencing. It’s nice to not be totally freezing.
Hey, for those who wanted to read my Amazing Grace article and don’t subscribe to Paste, I just noticed it made it to the web as well as print.
One last post for the day; I forgot to mention that while at the IAM conference a couple weekends ago, I became fully convinced that my ideal job is film (and possibly theater) producer.
Why?
The most fulfilling, rewarding job I ever had was as a music administrator at my large home church while I was in college. I just loved it, and my favorite parts were getting everything ready for big events like the concerts we did with artists such as Steve Green and Michael Card. I remember getting ready for the dedication ceremony for the new sanctuary when it opened, and how enjoyably stressful it was. I really felt fulfilled doing that.
Also, producers need to maintain a big list of contacts and friends. They need to be able to read fast, write relatively well, distinguish the great from the lackluster, and have a real passion for good stories told well. And producers need to be able to multitask and deal well with large amounts of information and decisions.
Yeah, that makes it pretty clear. But how to start. That is the question.
I’m thinking more about Killer of Sheep. Tom and I were discussing how it portrays African-American culture with a different touch than most movies and television of that era, or the years afterwards - it was produced in 1977. We could mainly come up with television shows portraying black families, like All in the Family, or a little later, The Cosby Show (a whole different matter). Is it possible it paved the way for shows like The Cosby Show - which has an affluent black family whose ethnic origin isn’t the predominate factor in the show? Killer of Sheep seems to be more about the streets and the culture of the poor black families in LA than about being black.
(NB: I actually had to look up “black” on the internet to see if it should be capitalized or not. I came up with this article from Poynter.)
It is suddenly frigid in New York. Not sure why - it was fifty degrees this weekend. I could feel any moisture in the skin around my ankles freezing on my walk to work this morning. Everyone looks a bit shell-shocked.
To round up last weekend for those who enjoy such things: I stayed home from work on Friday. All the traveling and the sick people had conspired to make me feel out of whack, so I stayed around the apartment, took a nap, drank tea, that sort of thing. Saturday found me feeling better, and after cleaning our little shoeboxapartment and a late brunch, we saw a movie. Sunday after church we had brunch at SmorgasChef at the intersection of West 12th and West 4th in the village, then hung out in Strand until it was time for the wrap party for Tom’s film in Williamsburg at Stain, involving a lot of nice mild mulled wine.
Movies we watched this weekend included Mutual Appreciation (surprisingly awesome), Hollywoodland (eh), The Mummy (gotta love the cheese), and The Lives of Others (superb).
Last night we saw a press screening of Killer of Sheep at MoMA. It’s considered by many to be one of the most important American films, so I’m still trying to sort it all out. Certainly innovative, and it makes a statement, though it’s not exactly what I’d call gripping. More on that later, I think.
Josh handed me his book in a box on Sunday (hand-numbered pages, folks, that’s dedication). I’m his editor. I’m very pleased about this, as I’m somewhat immodest about my editing skills. I’m also willing to volunteer my mad book editing skillz to others, for a limited time only (i.e., until I start getting paid to do it), so please, send ‘em my way.
In any case, I started reading it last night when we got home and after Tom’s mouth-watering dinner of gnocchi in herbed butter (sage and parsley, I think). The book: so far, Josh, I’m liking it. I was sucked in at the end of the first chapter. What?! So more to come. I will read it through before I start digging in with my red pen.
Also, if you like Threadless T-shirts, you should know that they’re having a $10 sale on nearly all the T-shirts. As always, there’s a handful of truly great ones in there.
Lastly. I’m officially un-recommending Verizon DSL. I think ours has been on the blitz one-third of the time we’ve been paying for it, and it’s not like we fiddle with settings or something. This last outage is on its fourth day this morning. It’s nice that they have customer service and all, but I don’t want to have to talk to them every other week, right?
Very busy. But, The Lives of Others is very worth seeing. Perhaps more later today.
We saw Jack Goes Boating last night, and oh. Wow. Philip Seymour Hoffman on stage was worth the price of admission. I’ve never seen anyone with such control over his voice such that he never appeared to be projecting (or barely talking above a mumble most of the time) but you could hear every word. Incredible. And funny, too.