winter sunset

the stories we tell ourselves

we all tell ourselves stories about ourselves; we invent our reality even as we live it. some of us tell more outlandish tales, but it is predominantly the mundane ones, the simple narratives that are the entirety of a human life story: the simplicity of boy meets girl and a house and some kids and a dog might be the whole thing, and any likely stray need venture past to find the story realized. and some with more discerning eyes, seem to detect that variation in how much people want us for ourselves, or simply to fill space in their own stories. and then what happens to the reality in which we cast ourselves? we can only choose to accept the role we have been offered, or bow out and follow our own invention, and see where it will lead. choosing not to collaborate, and recognizing a story you are telling yourself has no happy denouement does not seem to diminish its sway -- one can only hope for a late variation on the theme you have chosen, or a surprise ending.

RIP Captain Beefheart

farewell. i loved thee though i hardly knew ye, and i thank ye for all that ye have left us.

(how else does one say goodbye to one with such a pseudonym? :)

delia derbyshire

is the woman who composed the famous dr. who theme. i saw a documentary about her last year, and i think about her a lot. she was a genius. and crazy, of course. :)





from the album she collaborated on in 1969. she and two others comprised the band called white noise.

i dare you not to groove -- stefano torossi

many moons ago i got my hands on a collection from easy tempo (an italian label) that was brought together a bunch of great tracks from italian film in the sixties and seventies. most people think of ennio morricone when they think italian composers but there were some other really great ones. the one that really stood out for me in the collection i have is a guy by the name of stefano torossi. i love his stuff. the first two tracks are on my collection and come from an album called "feelings" that is very rare, and that i covet very badly. the third track is also from that album, while the fourth is a video i found on youtube from a score he did for
a horror film called, "omicidio per vocazione". if you don't feel like like wigglin' it just a little bit, then it is true that confusion and anarchy reigns.

can't wait until december 17th to see tron: legacy?

happily, one of my friends, mr. martyn conterio is a film critic based in england, and he's already seen it! he's posted this review at the filmshaft.com website. you should check it out -- he manages to give an in-depth review without giving anything major away, so it will whet the appetite, and also edify! hurray for martyn! hurray for tron: legacy!

tron-to by night (yes, i like to imagine the city in the mythos --
the streets are perfect for light-cycling :)

best love song for a horse i can think of...

hobo with a shotgun...

has me intrigued. of course, had they called it "rutger with a shotgun" i would have been immediately captivated. i'm a sucker for rutger.

here's the trailer:

you might say i'm listening to wings too much

... but i'm not sure that i'd care. i am fascinated by what's happening in this video though -- is paul travelling through time? through magic tea? magic telephones? magic glow-in-the dark suitcase? is that one dude jack the ripper? :P

two movies with tumbleweeds i wanna see

i'm not sure if this is a resurgence of interest in the western genre, or just fluke but the remake of true grit is coming this christmas, and i can't wait. i loved the portis book when i read it, and i think jeff bridges will make an excellent rooster. and matt damon as leboeuf! yes! i have high hopes for this one -- let's hope it's not one of the coen brothers' movie i hate, like intolerable cruelty. boy, was that a stinker. and this is a movie that could go either way. there is already a classic looming behind it, and nobody who has ever seen it can forget john wayne. and yet, this trailer feels a lot more like the book i read.



the other film called cowboys and aliens is coming in july of next year. let's see if favreau can keep up his winning streak.

and then there's this: sweet shot

i used to demand they play this at the trasheteria when i was in university. it was perhaps the peak of my dancing frenzy: i generally went out to shake my moneymaker four nights a week back then, so you can imagine why they took my requests seriously. well, there was that, and the fact i was helping one of their bouncers (i called him thor), and one of my oldest friends, aaron, run an after-hours boozecan when the bars closed, where people could continue to drink. and dance.

i can still remember walking, in one of my little dancing dresses, with aaron down george street, through the eye of a hurricane and actually feeling i could shout it down. the adrenaline and the rum, and rage were coursing through my veins, and for a moment i thought i could challenge nature and win. and then sometime soon after, the same path that we took, that the hurricane took, was razed by the bouncer, spray-painting a path to my door, eventually banging at it, and nearly shaking the house down. it trembled when thor called. and then finally a small but brave man talked to him quietly, and made him go away. i think about that little man often though i have not seen him for years. he was a hurricane-whisperer.

right. sorry. was lost in a memory. time to dance now.

just le right mot - vicissitude

so i was sitting and thinking about "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" tonight, how a reprieve is a happy thing even if it isn't the best thing or even a thing we truly desire. and i wanted just one word that conveyed that sense, rather than the phrase from the bard. and then i remembered a great one, one that makes a lovely sound:

vicissitude

now, ultimately we can find the root of this word in latin, the word vicis, meaning change, and mostly it tends to be employed to communicate the moment fate casts a dark glance in our direction, or seemingly hurls imprecations and obstacles in our path.

most commonly, we speak of the vicissitudes of daily life as potentially negative things. but vicissitude does not need to connote a sense that all our vigour trembles at the end of a point, or lash, or stone. it can bluntly remind us that life is happenstance; that change is upon us even as we cry it off, and once in a while we hear rather than feel the dart, like an angry bee move past our cheek with a wind. that might not save us any misery, but at least it alerts us to change, and reminds us to check ourselves, and perhaps choose another way, perhaps even a more visceral way.

post script: i realize i have read hamlet far too many times. :)

Paul McCartney - Maybe I'm Amazed (1974 Studio Rehearsal)

the warriors: i will watch it a thousand times more

i know people who won't re-read a book, or watch a film, or t.v. show more than once because once they've seen it, they "know" it, and they get bored if they try to watch things again. i am not even remotely like this, and can revisit things i really like over and over, because even though i'm aware of what's going to happen, i so enjoy the anticipation of what will happen next, that it doesn't matter that it isn't new to me. it just matters that it kicks ass.

almost the epitome of that experience for me, the warriors is a ninety-minute movie. i'm sure i've mentioned elsewhere that sol yurick's novel, on which it was loosely based was itself loosely based on xenophon's anabasis, in that the characters are like the soldiers, journeying home. it's a quest movie: the boppers travel in an attempt to find somewhere that they can be safe. it's fast, with little (and stilted) dialogue, a lot of running, and some fighting, and a tiny, little bit of social commentary. but then they get home to coney island, and then there's this:



pins and needles, my friends. pins and needles.

i can't see myself ever getting tired of this movie. as long as i don't have to watch the director's cut, that is. :)