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Saturday, November 11th, 2006
I watched it again tonight, and I am hoping to do so tomorrow as well. So many little bits are catching my attention! I want to make observations about it here but i fear they would mostly just be on the order of, "and then that scene, the one where the Cléo broke her mirror and AngèleDorothée was trying to reassure her [or whatever the content is of the scene that I am talking about], wasn't that just amazing?" and not have much to say about it that would help if you haven't already seen the movie. So see it, then we'll talk.
posted evening of November 11th, 2006: Respond
➳ More posts about Cléo from 5 to 7
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Friday, November 10th, 2006
I am watching this movie right now and it is just stunningly good. Check out this lyric: With all doors open wide
With the wind rushing through
I'm like an empty house
Without you
Without you
Like a derserted isle
Invaded by seas
My sands slip away
Without you
Without you
With beauty unseen
Exposed to cruel winter
My soul cannot dream
Without you
Without you
Gnawed away by despair
My body decays
In an open bier
Without you
Without you
If you wait too long
I'll have been laid to rest
Ashen, pale and alone
Without you
Without you
Without you (This sort of reminded me of Syd Barrett's performance of "Golden Hair" by Joyce -- I'm not sure why though.) There is a sort of interesting thing going on too, with a sort of hedonistic or romantic refusal to engage reality, I'm not sure if it is exactly a criticism of that tendency, it might be a self-criticism or a derogatory description of an other, or something else. Also: Pee-wee Herman's inspiration must be the character in the film shown during the "Projectionist's Booth" sequence. (Wow -- just looked at IMDB and realized that the actor I am saying is Pee-wee's inspiration, is Jean-Luc Godard.) (Here is a pretty interesting post about this film.)
posted evening of November 10th, 2006: Respond
➳ More posts about The Movies
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Friday, October 27th, 2006
I felt proud of Sylvia today -- we have been taking a beginning Mandarin class together and making gradual progress -- tonight we went to listen to the Music from China ensemble playing at Seton Hall. We were looking at the program (which was in both Chinese and English) and Sylvia pointed to a 小 and said "Look Dad, 'xiao'!" And she was right. I was surprised, because I had not even been looking at the Chinese characters figuring I would not recognize any of them. So we looked at them for a while and found a number of characters we recognized, mostly numbers.
posted evening of October 27th, 2006: Respond
➳ More posts about Sylvia
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Saturday, October 21st, 2006
We watched Porco Rosso tonight -- I liked it way better than any other Miyazaki movie I've seen to date, and I have loved every one of them. For one thing the ending is really haunting, where all of the others have finished up pretty tidily. And I just love that sort of inter-war jazz aesthetic, which wasn't in the others -- it had a similar feel to Casablanca, which worked in a really surreal way with the anime/little girl nature of Miyazaki's work.
posted evening of October 21st, 2006: Respond
➳ More posts about Hayao Miyazaki
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I have been doing some posting at Coming out of the Cave, the blog I've established to try and unravel Blumenberg's Höhlenausgänge. So go read there if you're interested in it. (I would be putting up another post but Blogger is not cooperating right now.)
posted evening of October 21st, 2006: Respond
➳ More posts about Hans Blumenberg
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Thursday, October 12th, 2006
Blumenberg's Höhlenausgänge was just now brought to mind by something Teofilo said. Now I'm really interested and want to go back and look at it some more. Update: I got in touch with a philosopher at Texas Women's University who has done some work on Blumenberg. He recommends I look at the first section of The Genesis of the Copernican World and the material on gnosticism in Part II of The Legitimacy of the Modern Age as an already-translated source for Blumenberg's ideas about the city as a recapitulation of the cave. Update: I have started a new blog: Coming out of the Cave, dedicated to understanding Höhlenausgänge.
posted morning of October 12th, 2006: Respond
➳ More posts about Readings
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Steadman uses as an epigram for The Joke's Over, a bit of advice Thompson gave him: "Ralph, never write. You'll bring shame on your family." And to tell the truth, his writing is a bit uneven. There are bits that seem hackneyed and trite. Other parts however are keenly insightful, and his artistic vision (and the interesting events being described) make up for the uneven prose quality.
posted morning of October 12th, 2006: Respond
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Wednesday, October 11th, 2006
I have moved the on-again, off-again READIN Family Album offsite -- You can find it at Flicker, where you will be able to browse around through the photos way more flexibly than you ever could here.
posted evening of October 11th, 2006: Respond
➳ More posts about the Family Album
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I stopped in at Coliseum Books last night, to savor the short remaining time before it closes. One of the "staff picks" is Ralph Steadman's new book, The Joke's Over: Bruised Memories: Gonzo, Hunter S. Thompson and Me. I picked it up and was immediately blown away by Kurt Vonnegut's brief preface -- I had never realized he was friends with Steadman and Thompson though it makes good sense. I've been reading about Steadman's meeting with Thompson at the Kentucky Derby of 1970. Lots of laughs so far but objectionably little illustration -- I want to see the drawings he is describing. (He says the editor of Scanlan's lost them.)
posted morning of October 11th, 2006: Respond
➳ More posts about Kurt Vonnegut
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Monday, October 9th, 2006
David of Blagdaross (who tells me his blog is a bit inspired by READIN) has tagged me with a meme -- how exciting! He asks me to poke through my bookshelves and find 10 books that "I'm really glad I own and will definitely get around to reading". So (in no particular order): - The Bible. (King James translation). Over the years I have read some portions of it; as my life goes on I look forward to reading more.
- The Koran. (A.J. Arberry translation). I'm fascinated by some things like Rumi's poetry that I think I could understand better if I had more of a passing familiarity with the Koran.
- Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon. I have technically read this book, in the sense of sitting at my desk and moving my eyes over the words on all of its pages. But am at least 2 or 3 readings away from any kind of real comprehension.
- On Beauty by Zadie Smith. If you have been reading my entries much lately you know how much I have admired her other two books. This one is on my list for soon.
- Dombey and Son and David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. When I was reading Bleak House this summer, loving it, I picked up these two books at a yard sale meaning to read them soon. Got distracted by other stuff; but they are still on the queue.
- The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil. I'm always starting this book and getting about halfway through before I get distracted. Possibly it does not belong on this list as there is no real guarantee I will one day start it and be interested enough to read it through.
- Inferno. (Robert Pinsky translation). When I turned 35 I started rereading this (having previously read it in a different translation, at the tender age of 18), thinking that age would give me some special insight. As it turned out I grew quickly distracted. But sometime soon I will sit down with it again.
- Lost Highway by Peter Guralnick. Music journalism is kind of a bane for me -- it always seems like it should be really interesting but when push comes to shove, I can't stay with it for more than a few pages. But everybody tells me this book is great.
Some notes: I did not include any foreign-language books -- there are many in my library (mostly in German and Latin) that I hope one day to read; but being able to read the language is an important first step. Also I did not, by and large, include any of the books I am meaning to reread -- I would not know where to start such a list. Looking through my shelves this evening I am reminded of how many books I have read and have only fleeting memories of -- a phenomenon which I founded this web site, in part, to combat. Thanks David, for the opportunity to go through the collection.
posted evening of October 9th, 2006: Respond
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