Saturday, October 27, 2007

Monday, October 22, 2007

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Title?


Friday, October 12, 2007

Do You Still Believe in Eternity?



Who Is This Young Man?
Guess it

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Pliny's Law: Invasion of the Pod People (2007)

This movie is about a ginger plant from space that clones and replaces its victims, and is redeemable for at least one reason.

The heroine of this film, who escapes cloning, is in several sexual encounters before the second reel. It is notable, given the genre and its expected turns, that she remains completely covered throughout this period. We reach a pivotal scene at least 40 minutes in, where she bears witness to the intrigue and sapphic excesses of her ostensible co-workers, the titular pod people.

After being seduced by her female boss (double psychosexual damage), we see her yield to complete disrobement and acquiescence. The metaphysics of it all -- prior to this, we are pondering the nudity clause of the actress' contract with every delightful furrow of her brow, every tic and gesture that distinguishes her from the otherwise wooden cast -- heightens the tension. A novelty that did something physical to this reviewer, and made him dream of a beginning, a brief return to the flying days of love.

Otherwise, an all-too-easily-imaginable hunk of rat shit with terrible sound and spare, repetitive effects. Two and a half stars.

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Gifted



To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour...

And Now Some Prose: Sviatoslav Richter, The Maestro


From the early 80’s, he performed only with a score in more or less darkened halls where it was difficult even to make out his massive silhouette, but where he created a gripping atmosphere, convinced that he was prevneting the spectator from sucumbing to the demonic temptations of voyeurism.

Yamaha placed two grand pianos at his permanent disposal, together with the staff necessary to maintain them, and they accompanied him wherever his imagination took him. Well, not quite everywhere. They remained behind when, over seventy, he ledt Moscow by car and did not return until six months later, covering the distance from Vladivostok and back, not counting a brief sortie to Japan, in conditions one can barely imagine, giving a hundred concerts in the remotest towns and villages of Siberia.
[Years later, when asked to return to Japan, he said that] he would go to Japan under a general anaesthetic; he would be put to sleep in his hotel in Paris, an ambulance would take him to the airport and he would wake up in his hotel in Tokyo. This demand seemed eminently reasonable to him, but it failed to impress the doctors who were consulted.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

WORDS (W.B. Yeats)


I had this thought a while ago,
"My darling cannot understand
What I have done, or what would do
In this blind bitter land."

And I grew weary of the sun
Until my thoughts cleared up again,
Remembering that the best I have done
Was done to make it plain;

That every year I have cried, "At length
My darling understands it all,
Because I have come into my strength,
And words obey my call';

That had she done so who can say
What would have shaken from the sieve?
I might have thrown poor words away
And been content to live.

Monday, October 1, 2007

I read Tolstoy once

but now it's Nabokov.

"Somebody told me later that she had been in love with my father, and that he had lightheartedly taken advantage of it one rainy day and forgotten it by the time the weather cleared."

Tell me, how much do you love that line?

 
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