September 2010
2 posts
J - It’s a remake of a 1950’s film, with a few key changes to “modernize” the story. Most notably, instead of rescuing the girl, the star finds her dead body and gets mad. Vengeance ensues.
Initially, icing the love interest struck me as gratuitous, but the writers have reassured me that it merely reflects a common male fantasy - you have sex, and then the girl either dies...
Dedicated to all my favorite graduating English majors:
“Law school was a word I kept lodged at the back of my mouth, like a cyanide tablet, just in case”.
-Jonathan Rosen, Eve’s Apple
July 2010
1 post
February 2010
2 posts
2 tags
1 tag
December 2009
7 posts
“Big Fun” - Teenage Suicide (Don’t Do...
File Under: Hell Is Other People
I attended a forensic psychology conference today. One of the people invited to speak was a young woman who told us about a man who had stalked her for two years before making an attempt on her life last May -in other words, it was a very sad, riveting story about an extremely traumatic experience. It was very intense, the room was very quiet, everyone was...
October 2009
3 posts
2 tags
September 2009
1 post
July 2009
1 post
June 2009
4 posts
FML - Kafka edition
I woke one morning from uneasy dreams to find myself transformed in my bed into a gigantic insect. My terrified & disgusted family responded by confining me to my bedroom for days. Dying of loneliness, I tried to run into the living room one night when I heard my sister playing the violin. But when he saw me, my father started yelling, “Get the fuck out of here! Do...
“My news are the great news that all my children have at last disappeared to their various places of education. My unhealthy affection for my second daughter has waned. I now dislike all my children equally. Of children as of procreation - the pleasure momentary, the posture ridiculous, the expense damnable.”
-Evelyn Waugh in a 1954 letter to Nancy Mitford (From The Letters of Nancy...
I have to interview people for a position today. Knowledge of Spanish is required. The first candidate claimed she minored in Spanish in college.
Me (in Spanish): Is this your first time in New York?
Her (in Spanish, if Spanish drove straight into a tree and suffered brain damage): I like spring in New York.
I can see the next candidate from here. She’s wearing fucking capri leggings....
May 2009
25 posts
CC,
That’s because England & America are good at different things. For example, the English are good at making richly crafted, emotionally resonant period films, and Americans are good at not going to them.
noonish:
I associate getting my hair cut with going to confession, because in both situations I have to awkwardly apologize to someone about how long its been since my last time and pretend to care.
I associate getting my hair cut with dating, because both situations usually start with a rash decision and end with tearful screaming, threats of legal action, and yet another man that has...
Here Comes Your Man - Pixies
Point: Wisdom of...
Today, I Am Wrecking More Illusions Than Darwin.
Or: On Dating During a Heat Wave.
“A sweating woman is a wrecked illusion”
-Susan Brownmiller (Femininity, 1984)
Chris Isaak - Baby Did A Bad, Bad Thing
Dedicated...
Deeply Moving Encounters With Great Literature:
The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - that you’d thought special, particular to you. And here it is, set down by someone else, a person you’ve never met, maybe even someone long dead. It’s as if a hand has come out, and taken yours.
-Alan Bennett
...
So, I’m back from my vacation, most of which I spent traipsing around Europe & Latin America. It was wonderful and much like all those Eat, Pray, Love/Under the Tuscan Sun-style memoirs & movies in which a young woman leaves her empty Western existence in search of self-knowledge, wisdom, and spiritual enlightenment in foreign lands.
Although I must admit that I did not have any...
Patti Smith- Gloria
A little sacrilege to...
Feeling Good - Nina Simone
Birds flying high you...
Chaiyya Chaiyya - A.R. Rahman
Saare Ishq Ki...
Bitchy Observations Monday
I am reading scripts today for a woman I shall call “Helen”. She has perched herself on the side of my desk to dispense her imitation pearls of wisdom and is not budging.
In case you were wondering: I need highlights, which would look super, like, I mean, totally incredible; men who are good drivers are good in bed; if you file down the heel on one of your...
M.I.A. - Paper Planes
Dear Overlords,
I’ve...
doublejack:
Nina Simone — “Feelin’ Good” (Verve...
josephweisenthal:
““Hollywood has the best moral compass, because it has compassion…We were the people who did the fundraising telethon for the victims of 9/11. We were there for the victims of Katrina and any world catastrophe.””
— That’s Harvey Weinstein, discussing Hollywood’s reaction to the Polanski case. (latimes.com)
C’mon, you guys. Look, I know that some of you...
April 2009
31 posts
Portishead- Glory Box
Certain songs have been...
Good God, be quiet. You couldn’t sing slop up a dark alley. And I think you’re hurting the baby - my mother, 1986
Why are you people doing this to me? Are you deliberately planning social events which will require me to sing for the express purpose of tormenting me?
I have a terrible voice. And when I say “terrible”, I mean that my singing voice causes organ failure &...