This Is A Race

SOMETHING JUST...CHANGED

2010-02-17T11:01:00.003-05:00

I publish this blog from Blogger via FTP and apparently Blogger is shutting that down soon. I don't care enough to migrate or even fix it, really. I dunno. We'll see.

Anyway, this is Villa Malaparte, from Godard's Contempt. Seems apt for this blog. I've fallen out of love with it, but I can't say why. Saturn Returns?

YOU'RE NO FUN

2010-01-10T21:57:00.001-05:00

Sometimes I miss 2003.

OH IT'S BEEN YEARS

2010-01-05T00:28:00.004-05:00

I guess I was real lonely before school started or something cause now that I am not spending 95% of my time in my room I haven't had the urge to post for a while or write in my Dear Public Diary.

Anyway, had a nice vacation in New York with Parker, Smallhead, Willy-Trilly, and Dickie while baby-sitting Becky the dog in DUMBO, then saw the fam and a few friends on a low-key visit to Toronto and Muskoka.

About to settle in and catch up on Jersey Shore under 5 blankets in my uninsulated room. It's like being in Jukkasjarvi. I like it.

After shooting a short film when I get back to New York I'm looking forward to seeing Columbia Film Alum ZOE BELOFF screen her Coney Island Films at THE MOMA on January 18th. Join me, yes?

JEANNE_CLAUDE

2009-11-19T14:04:00.003-05:00

Artist Jeanne-Claude of Jeanne-Claude and Christo has passed away at 74. I didn't get to see THE GATES or any of their works, but I do have a piece of fabric from The Gates tucked away in my box of treasures. It's like having a little piece of her hair.

Read more on NYTIMES.COM.

DO WHAT YOU CAN WHERE YOU ARE WITH WHAT YOU HAVE

2009-11-19T13:57:00.002-05:00

This is a video by artist KOKI TANAKA from the 2008 Taipei Biennale. It was on College Humor. I think I like that but I'm not sure yet.

I HATE MY FRIENDS

2009-11-15T14:49:00.004-05:00

Weee! So this is the video I directed for SEBASTIEN GRAINGER (click on that link to see Sebastien's pubic hair, no joke) in the summer. I'll put a best quality crab version up on my videos page at some point.

MIKE LEBLANC did the beautiful camerawork on the video, JEREMY BAILEY art directed, and the girls were amazing. You should have heard them screaming on set. It was unreal. Sebastien's wife EVA MICHON did the makeup. She's the best. And if you look closely you can see that the purple leopard face paint matches the shoes she's wearing.

Otherwise things are good. I'm writing a paper on Otto Preminger's film Laura at the moment, working on figuring out some music rights for a short I've written about a girl named Ariel who stalks her lifeguard while singing Part of Your World from The Little Mermaid, getting ready to shoot another short film over the break, finishing my treatment for a feature film about a body-switching homo, and getting ready to launch the screening series that CHARLOTTE and I are starting at Columbia. The series will be of queer film and video artists. The first event is a co-sponsorship with the MA Film Program bringing queer theorist Tom Waugh to screen and speak about the film Montreal Main. The next event is a screening of Matt Wolf's Arthur Russell documentary, Wild Combination. Matt is going to come speak about the film as well.

I'll post more info about those as they happen. They are Columbia events but outsiders can attend.

Okay gotta run! Class on a Sunday yuck! But yay!

BODY LANGUAGE

2009-11-14T23:00:00.001-05:00

Genius. Flotsam & Jetsam kill me.

MOONSTRUCK

2009-10-09T00:57:00.004-04:00

I went to my first opera tonight. I saw The Barber of Seville at The Met. I got rush tickets for twenty bucks (normally almost three hundred dollar tickets!) and my seat was 15 rows from the stage. I couldn't believe it.

With all this talk of Aristotelean act structure and reading a lot of Bazin's realist film theory in school I thought it would be a good idea to go see live theatre. It's cool to watch from the perspective of wanting to write and direct films - how the writer weaves the story, how the director directs the eye on stage and interprets the nearly 200-year-old opera. Also, I realized how much exposition there is in opera and musicals in general - somehow you can get away with telling the audience exactly how you feel and what you're thinking when you sing, unlike in non-musical theatre where the more intriguing externalization of the psyche is brought about through the characters' actions, the mise-en-scene, the editing, the camera movements - pretty much anything but saying it right out loud. (Basically all this is me trying to spit back out what I've been hearing in class every day for the past few weeks - I feel like I only really know something when I can explain it to someone else - maybe I'm doing a bad job but this is helping me...so sorry for the zzzzzz).

I found I had something in common with Count Almaviva and Rosina in the Music Lesson Scene. In this scene, Almaviva is pretending to be Rosina's music teacher so that they can speak as lovers, but Rosina's benefactor, Doctor Bartolo (the man who intends to marry her before Almaviva can), is in the room. So Rosina and Almaviva sing their messages to each other through a fake aria called "The Unnecessary Precaution". They profess their love to each other in plain view of Bartolo. This kind of code shows up in Moulin Rouge when whoserface and whatsisname pretend to be practicing for the play but are really singing about themselves.

I realized I have regularly done the same thing. How many times have I tried to get out some secret message using songs as code? I often attach great meaning to music and then put the music out there in hopes of the intended recipient getting the message. It's so silly. I remember being very young and blaring Alanis Morissette's "Perfect" from my room when I was mad at my mom. It didn't get any better or any less cheesy from then on. I guess in these instances of trying to get my point across, pure exposition would serve me better - I should just say what I mean. Easier said than sung, I guess. Or vice versa.

Anyway, school has been very busy and great. I have also seen some NYFF and other screenings. I will give my brief reviews now:

To Die Like a Man - As one review I read put it: "It's difficult to make a film about drag queens, murderous gay soldiers, and heroin addicts tedious, but that's exactly what this film does."

Trash Humpers, Harmony Korine - Yes Yes Yes! I think I'm going to be a trash humper for Halloween. "Three

Min Ye (Tell Me Who You Are), Souleymane Cissé - This was difficult to watch without understanding the context of women's rights and current politics in Mali. It felt really cyclical and never really resolved for me - I think that was the point. I'm glad I stayed to hear the director speak about the film. He himself said that at first, this film appears to be quite banal, but when you understand the politics of Mali right now, how women were just denied many rights, this is a very important discussion. (The film follows a woman in a polygamous marriage who is having an affair with a man who is also in a polygamous marriage - Big Love Mali style).

Rachel Is, Charlotte Glynn - My classmate Charlotte made this film about her developmentally delayed sister, Rachel, and their family's search for housing for Rachel. It was really great and if you get the chance to see it you should. Check the website for more info and a trailer - RACHELIS.COM.

Otherwise I'm working like heck at school and I'll have lots more to share, just not very often. I'm starting to write a treatment for my reverse oedipal sci-fi thriller feature length script. When I finish the script next semester maybe I'll share it with you dear friends. Wish me luck!

DROP OUT

2009-09-26T22:30:00.004-04:00

I dropped out of Columbia. But the good news is that I managed to get late acceptance to Professor Fuzzyblot's Clown College in Utica. I'm majoring in Balloon Sculptorology.

A HOT MINUTE

2009-09-24T22:47:00.003-04:00

I'm getting into the swing of things at school which is great. First shoot is on Sunday - a directing exercise. If it's worth anything I'll post it here. I'm trying to make it worth something.

They are screening Police, Adjective by Romanian director/screenwriter Corneliu Porumboiu at school tomorrow. My friend Kevin said he saw it at TIFF and that it was great - so I'm excited cause I like Kevin's taste. The director will be in attendance which is nice, since it's a small screening room.

I feel like going back to school is kind of like having a baby. You get really excited about having it, then it arrives and you're like "Wait, this is what I wanted? It's a lot of work and I don't love it yet." Then it looks at you in the eyes and giggles and you go "Ohhhh...I get it!"

I'm going to a couple of films for the New York Film Festival. I'm going to see Min Ye (Tell Me Who You Are) by Malian director Souleymane Cissé and To Die Like a Man by Portuguese director João Pedro Rodrigues (which is the image at the top of this post).

Also, my new friendsie and classmate Charlotte will be screening her film Rachel Is in New York on October 7th at Anthology Film Archive on East 2nd Street at 2nd Ave. The screening begins at 6PM. See the trailer HERE.

Okay that's it for today, babies. See you on the Facebook!

QUERELLE

2009-09-16T23:57:00.003-04:00

I finally saw Fassbinder's final film, Querelle, today. I watched it after class in the media library at school. Maybe not the most appropriate place to watch a murderous sailor gay porno. However, I think I got the eye from the fellow sitting across from me. So apropos getting cruised while watching such a cruisey movie.

I'm interested in the film's philosophy - is Querelle such a despicable character/emotional sociopath because faggots had to be monsters back in 1966 (when the book was written)? Or is it a self-loathing thing? Or is his behaviour not meant to be connected to his sex? His desires seem to change so rapidly and whimsically in contrast to Seblon's devotion. Obviously Seblon is a good gay, so they existed, just not in leading roles.

I am gonna go look up some reviews of the film to find out more...

WINK WINK SICK KITTEN

2009-09-15T23:42:00.004-04:00

Two films I saw today concerning the first inclinations toward continuity editing. Mary Jane is my girl.

FIRSTS

2009-09-08T23:31:00.003-04:00

Today was my first day of class. I'm so excited. I was at school so early I had time to watch a movie before class started. I watched 8 Women by François Ozon, which stars one of my favourite actors, Isabelle Huppert. I could watch her forever. I'd take her over Catherine Deneuve any day. And the maid, Emmanuelle Béart, looks exactly like Cillian Murphy. It's bizarre how much she looks like him.

I didn't know the film was a musical. It was a pleasant surprise. Izzy's song is the best, of course.

I also have a few posts I haven't published because I couldn't upload images for a while. Seems to be working again so I'll get those up soon.

Also, it turns out I live in Greenpoint, not Williamsburg. I like it here. I sat on my stoop last night for the first time with my Pollack neighbours (is calling them "Pollacks" racist?). It's Polish here, but not Roncesvalles Polish. They are nice and none of them are stealing dirt from the construction sites in the dead of night or blocking the sidewalks or stopping to listen to other people's conversations. That's definitely racist.

CASTING CALL

2009-08-10T20:00:00.002-04:00

TORONTO CASTING CALL for Sebastien Grainger video. Girls aged 12-16 (cousins and younger sisters!) email: planetofcasting@gmail.com

INTELLIGENT DEATH

2009-08-07T12:38:00.004-04:00

You can audit Yale's Philosophy of Death course from your bed. Click HERE.

What should my attitude toward death be?

1980

2009-08-07T10:16:00.002-04:00

This was made in 1980 using fractal generators. I can't imagine the render times. It took me almost 8 hours or something stupid to render one of THESE.

THE PAIN OF THE HOME

2009-08-06T12:50:00.002-04:00

Hollis Frampton's 1971 film Nostalgia is a recording of 12 photographs being burned on a stovetop one at a time while a description of each photograph is read. The descriptions, however, are not of the photograph we are watching as it burns, but rather of the next photograph that we will see. By the time we see the photograph that has already been described all we have is the memory of the story of this image. We somewhat desperately try to remember the description while listening to the description of the next image. Nostalgia (from the Latin nost meaning home and algia meaning pain) has us doing the same - desperately remembering in an achy way the lives we have lived while trying to pay attention to what is coming next. It's easy to get confused.

CHRIS COLLINS

2009-08-06T12:03:00.002-04:00

iSight Experiments #1. Sometimes the experiments are the best part.

SMOKING IS FUN

2009-08-05T22:55:00.003-04:00

You've heard all the bad news over and over again, but when I'm assuaging my guilt for enjoying a cigarette or three I like to read THIS ARTICLE and remember the social and therapeutic benefits of cigarettes. So drop the guilt, cause feeling guilty will make it harder to put them down.

A THICK OIL SKIN

2009-08-04T09:21:00.001-04:00

THE RARE FLOWER

2009-08-02T11:57:00.005-04:00

TANYTH BERKELEY likes the special ones. She likes the pale ones, the large headed types, the big bodies and the long giraffe necks. She likes the Robert Crumb shapes and the vampire faces, the glowing white skin and the men-in-dresses with womanly laces. She likes the eyes set back in the skull or the shoulders holding up those big heads that are smashed in like a pretty pumpkin in certain places. Her specialty is the awkward, the rare flower, the big cheek boned and special feminine shells and large sizes and different races.

(Doug Rickard of AMERICANSUBURB X)

This is what I mean. Not creating the awkward, and not exploiting the subject. Not glorifying it either. Just showing it for what it is - not hiding their flaws, but making such beautiful photographs that you can't help but be attracted to them. Genuinely attracted, free of irony. Some empathy from the photographer, but no pity.

Via Graham at WLYS

CALIFORNIA I'M A COMIN' HOME

2009-08-01T19:41:00.001-04:00

She always knows just what to say!

SNORITZ

2009-08-01T12:46:00.002-04:00

I don't know why I haven't posted a link to her before, but I'm going to be living with STEPHANIE NORITZ in the fall. Click HERE for her website and HERE for her blog.

CAN DO

2009-07-31T21:39:00.003-04:00

DRIVEMEINSANE.COM has been running since 1997. It is a webcam site where you can control things in the person's home - mainly lights. You can turn five different lights on or off (Christmas lights, regular lamps, plasma lamps, etc.). Every time I've gone over the past few days there has been someone there. It's really disconcerting. I feel like Buffalo Bill. It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again!

HELNWEIN

2009-07-31T16:41:00.004-04:00

I had seen, but nearly forgotten about, GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN'S self-portraits from the 1980s (above). So perfect. I had not, however, seen his paintings (below). I've been drawing lately. I really suck. But I'm making improvements. Every drawing I do comes out looking like a picture made by the fat quiet girl in the back seat of math class obsessing about the quarterback sitting in front of her. Not far off, really...