January 2012
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“Jesse: How did the movie adaptation of Girl come about, and what did you think...”
– Quietly mourning the idea of a Sarah Jacobson-directed version of Blake Nelson’s Girl. (via Sadie Magazine) Did you know that the guy who directed Girl is now a “Tea Party troubadour?”
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Something you should write
It’s pinging around in my head, but I can’t get to it right now. Maybe James Franco can do it: “20something” “authenticity” + moments of realness = The link between mumblecore films, Tao Lin, and bands featuring banjo-plucking earnestness (let’s say… Mumford and Sons? The Avett Brothers? Fleet Foxes?). Hint: it’s not that they’ve...
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“An article on Monday about Jack Robison and Kirsten Lindsmith, two college...”
– From the department of New York Times corrections, December 30th, 2011. Even better, a self described “adolescent with Asperger’s” pointed the mistake out, initially, in the comments. (PS, crankily: FIRST.)
December 2011
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My E-Reader, My Self
I have to admit that I’ve been a fierce luddite when it comes to the idea of E-books. For me, books are a physical thing, an object of beauty. They’re tailsmanic objects with their own energy. I got an e-reader for my birthday. It was a lovely, thoughtful gift, something I’ve been expecting ever since they were released. It was also, in a way, something I had been dreading a bit....
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Surprisingly, I am less sure than this guy on...
towirr:
A gentleman named Farhad Manjoo just posted a proudly contrarian article on Slate explaining why independent bookstores are not only irrelevent but maybe even harmful. I work at an independent bookstore, so that’s an argument I’d be very very curious to see made well. Honestly, I know the failings of small booksellers as well as anyone, and it’d be good to see them articulated. But...
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More William Kennedy (legends of cinema gossip!)
It’s really fun talking about the movies with William Kennedy. Couldn’t fit it in the piece, however, since this was the part of the interview where I talked a lot about articles and ephemera from Riding the Yellow Trolley Car, a greatest-hits journalism compilation that plays, in its own way, as a fascinating autobiography of a writer. William Kennedy: “Ingmar Bergman thought...
November 2011
6 posts
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“He showed up the first day I was in Cuba, in 1987. I was in the house of...”
– I talked to William Kennedy for The Paris Review, and it was really fun. Had to cut out sections where he talked about Hunter S. Thompson and The Rum Diary, Ingmar Bergman, and watching Meryl Streep perform “He’s Me Pal” in Ironweed. Good times!
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October 2011
10 posts
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Bill Murray Poetry Competition
stusherman:
So while I think the Bill Murray poetry contest may be a scam, I am still damn proud of my entry.
Tonight Only: Ghostbusters on Both Screens I saw a man sitting on the concrete stoop In front of the DSS office on Washington street In a white jumpsuit like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man Starring at a pile of scratch tickets with his Bill Murray eye. You know the kind. With all...
“In Generation X, one of the protagonists, Andy, reflects that “we live small...”
– Generation Catalano: The generation stuck between Gen X and the Millennials.
Doree wrote a great piece for Slate about this weird generational no man’s land. It’s nice to read this, cos I totally identify with this angst! I think I mostly prefer Millennials, but if I’m in a bad mood, it’s Gen X all...
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“Today, Dunst is clad in a striped A.P.C. shirt and a Balenciaga skirt she bought...”
– Kirsten Dunst, I understand you. Imagine what it’s like for me, living close to the ever-tempting, ever-juvenile, largest Forever 21 on the eastern seaboard!
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Feeling Henry David Thoreau
(Photo by Stephanie Foster Photography) I am spending next week in a Dune Shack in Provincetown. It has no electricity. I will be totally off the grid for the first time in a long time. It’s really exciting! I brought books about American Transcendentalists, Don Quixote, which I’ve always wanted to read, and William Kennedy. It’s going to be an adventure. See you in late...
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“I understand they have freedom of speech and freedom of expression, but we have...”
– Boston mayor Thomas Menino. Hey, I’ve got a suggestion for you: go read some goddamn history and see how much of what people have agitated for has happened because of the civil disobedience you so decry.
Please keep in mind this is the Thomas Menino who lost his shit and declared an emergency when...
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WatchMy Dad is 73 years old today. I accidentally took this video with my digital camera that’s stuck on Macro, permanently. The results feel nostalgic, even if they are current.
September 2011
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The Last American Man →
tetw:
by Elizabeth Gilbert
Eustace Conway is not like any man you know. He’s got perfect vision, perfect balance, perfect reflexes and travels through life with perfect equanimity. He is smart and fearless and believes he can do anything he sets his mind to - like saving America.
Read this article, it’s amazing, and the book is amazing too. Elizabeth Gilbert’s journalism made me...
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“It was in that context that The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou came out in...”
– An apt article on Wes Anderson’s work, from Reverse Shot. I do think that Anderson’s work - and its legacy - has certainly suffered from the fact that so many films have aped Anderson’s style. Seeing Aquatic in theaters was a nightmare, however. Every “joke” was just...
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"I'm here to make a movie. I'm not here to make...
[What killed this piece? The fact that the US-remake Dragon Tattoo trailer leaked that very weekend in the States. But I had a glorious 24 hours where I was one of the first people who saw the trailer! Note: Fincher superfans in Sweden all resembled Meatloaf in Fight Club, which was odd.]
David Fincher took a break from day 133 of shooting on his American remake of The Girl with the Dragon...
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From a 2008 interview I did with Jeff Nichols, the director of Shotgun Stories* (go see it on the biggest, prettiest screen you can find - 35 mm of gorgeously shot film) and the upcoming Take Shelter: One thing I was curious about, Michael Shannon and his weird head? It’s enormous, isn’t it? I had never met him in person before, but you couldn’t miss him coming down the...
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