Friday

I haven't written much in the past few weeks. This is in part because:

I started writing a longer piece and didn't save the whole thing-- twice. It's because I was using Vista at work and text edit on my Mac. Something happened with the conversion.

I've been painting again. I finished an old canvas and then started and finished an entirely new painting. I might cut out of work early and run to Plaza. I have an idea for a series...

The Road is okay.

It has nothing on the book.

I spent many hours in absolute terror reading the book. I stayed up all night to finish it. I haven't done that since about fourteen reading A Clockwork Orange.

I liked hearing about the director's choice in locations. New Orleans. PA coal towns. Real destruction, not set destruction or CG.

I cut my hair. I have a Josephine Baker meets Karen O look. I just need to dye it black. Come'on next paycheck.

It feels good, but cold, to have such short hair.

Birkensnake is taking "White Knees" for Issue Three. It's a handmade journal. I can't wait to see the cover art.

some happy monday morning reading

I'm writing a poem in English and Russian. It's about the recent crash into the moon and the water they found. A news report said something along the lines of, "We (meaning USA) will be able to use this water as a resource if we deplete Earth's water."

The report also mentioned that the minerals are being analyzed. I couldn't help but jump to the conclusion that Uranium is one of the elements that they hope they find.

The trouble with atomic energy is that, like oil, you have to dig something out of the ground to make it. And the supply is finite!

So, I am imagining another US and Russian fight for the moon.

Here is a link click to demonstrate what could happen if the conservatives get their way in regards to outlawing abortion. Netflix it.

Also, A Woman in Berlin is available as an instant play. I highly recommend watching it. I didn't think that I was going to make it through the brutal beginning, but it was worth it for so many reasons. I won't go into them because it would ruin the tension of the story.

I've been thinking about this for hours

I watched Crispin Glover's It's Fine, Everything is Fine.

Before the film, he performed eight books. This was brilliant. He took old books and cut them up and created new stories from the bones of the old story. He drew India ink pictures and added his own words. His timing was so on the mark and his intentionally awkward gestures were hilarious.

The film, however, was...

I can't figure it out. I'm close to coming down on the side of absolutely irredeemable.

It is a film about sex. It's about power. I guess it's not a film about sex. It's a film about power. Perhaps it is impossible to separate the two.

At first I was okay with the love interest's daughter pursuing the handicapped man as a sexual conquest. This relationship spoke to me about how teenage girls look for ways to express their sexuality without being hurt. That is-- they sometimes look for people to use, to gain the upper hand in sex because they are aware of their status as a commodity and they want to subvert it. It's complicated, but the man is not a victim here.

He kills her.

He kills about 6 women in the course of the film. The only woman that he doesn't kill is another "cripple," because she doesn't want to have to feed him and breaks their date.

The others pity him and sleep with him because they don't believe that he has ever been with a woman. This also spoke about power and subversion. I believe that these women-- with breast implants, etc-- felt that they were giving themselves to him out of compassion. He was aware of this and hated them for their kindness/condescension and their grab at power. He had to demonstrate his power as a male.

This was an exploitation film. The lead actor was the man that wrote the screen play. He was born with severe cerebral palsy. He can barely speak and cannot walk. He is not the only one that was exploited, however. He was allowed to bring his own fantasy life to the screen because he was handicapped. He could sleep (and yes, actually have sex with one of them on film-- not acting)with beautiful women and pretend to kill them.

What bothers me the most, however, is that I think people will only be talking about the actual sex on screen and not the larger themes. There was a gasp as one woman performed fellatio on the man. I had to ask if we were gasping because of the sex act or because it was a sex act with a handicapped man. It was the sex, I believe. And it was what made the biggest conversation point. Every single person in the theatre has seen porn, I'm sure, but it was shocking to see the act in an art film. I know Glover was trying to show that these lines are more fluid than we draw them.

I don't know. I'm not sure that I've expressed myself. I might need even more time to think about and add to this post.

I can say that I am enjoying trying to digest it.

I enjoyed the question and answer part of the evening, too. He is a fascinating man. He took the part in Charlie's Angels in order to use his salary to make this film. Charlie's Angels made this film possible. That's incredible.

now reading:

Jose Saramago, Death with Interruptions.
Brilliant idea-- what happens to the government, church, mob, family if death ceases? Read and find out.

Carol Kaesuk Yoon, Naming and Nature The Clash Between Instinct and Science.I'm skimming quite a bit, but the ideas are fascinating, particularly the part about our "omwelt"-- that is, "the perceived world, the world sensed by an animal, a view idiosyncratic to each species, fueled by its particular sensory and cognitive powers and limited by its deficits."