fears and insecurities of a nerd in love
Like a Woody Allen who digs deeper—way deeper—Kaufman has again found the truth of what makes us tick and has reflected it back to us.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind explores the fears and insecurities of a nerd in love, exploding the myth of facile young love inevitably ageing into distance and cynicism, and replacing it with a far more complex image of the truth for so many of us—we're just too damned scared to take intimacy another step forward, especially once the initial kamikaze fearlessness of a new relationship begins to wane. Kaufman's Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) is a man in search of greater meaning, but when he finds it in the form of the free spirited (and frankly slightly unbalanced) Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet), he's terrified without even knowing it. And so is she. There goes another myth—that of the free spirit having no fear.
Both Joel and Clementine seek out a novel way of avoiding the intimacy that so freaks them out ...
- brian webster, review of eternal sunshine of the spotless mind," apollo movie guide
Part of the mission of this website (its raison d'être? Oh God, is there any word that's not pretentious? You know what I mean: its point) is to write about movies, not as an object, but as an experience. In this sense, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the second collaboration between music-video director Michel Gondry and Being John Malkovich screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, is a High Sign movie par excellence. It's a film that operates on the viewer intrapsychically, like a drug experience, a dream, or a kiss; when it's over, you look to the person next to you and ask with real curiosity, not "What did you think?" but "How was that for you?" You can't be sure the two of you saw the same film. People will respond to this movie with whatever they bring into it, which is why, although he's smart and handsome and has a soothing voice on the radio, I'm not sure Elvis Mitchell is meant to be my own true man. (I know, I know: another heart rent asunder, right?) I just don't recognize anything from my experience of Eternal Sunshine in Mr. Mitchell's pronouncement that, "Even as you laugh, it's a movie you admire more than love." First off, I'm not sure there's an honest out-and-out laugh in this movie. There are smiles of recognition, tears of grief, and open-mouthed "O"'s of pure mind-fucked amazement, but not a lot of knee-slapping yuks. Second, during the movie's brief-seeming 108 minutes, I never felt a moment of anything detached and abstract enough to be called admiration. I'm not sure you could say I "loved" the movie either, though I certainly swooned in its general vicinity. Rather than offering itself up as an object to be loved (like, say, Sherlock Jr.—now that's a lovable movie) Eternal Sunshine is a movie that (again, almost psychotropically) causes you to experience, to remember, what love itself feels like ...
- Liz Penn, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Déjà Vu All Over Again," the high sign March 23, 2004
posted April 29, 2004 in film, print10 years to normal?
But we CAN tell you EXACTLY what the Gang of 500 is thinking about the race overall, because three of Maureen Dowd's paragraphs today capture it perfectly—in her column on the two candidates:
"An incumbent who sticks with the wrong decisions based on the wrong facts versus a challenger who seems unable to stick to one side of any decision, right or wrong ..."
"Bush strategists seem to believe that the worse Mr. Bush makes things, the better off he is, because nervous Americans will cling to the obstinate president they know over the vacillating challenger they don't know."
"Mr. Kerry errs on the side of giving the answer he thinks people want to hear, even as Mr. Bush errs on the side of giving the answer he expects people to accept as true."
Never forget that Ms. Dowd is a stellar reporter, even when you want to strangle her.
- Mark Halperin, Marc Ambinder, David Chalian, Anne Chiappetta, Jan Simmonds, Teddy Davis, Karen Travers, and Alexandra Avnet, with V. Brown, T. Peck and R. Thomasson, "We Keep Pretending That There's Nothing Wrong," ABCNEWS.com: The Note April 29, 2004
posted April 29, 2004 in politics, printhe does not love Mr. Sharon like you do
She was pouting like a bitch because this is what the photographer, Emmanuel D'Souza, was demanding of her, and the only thing Carol O'Mealy liked better than pouting like a bitch was being told to pout like a bitch by a man wearing leather pants and a scarf for a belt ...
"I like this pout," said Emmanuel, who had stopped shooting and was now pouting himself. "But I am not convinced it is real. I am not convinced that this is the pout of a bitch. It looks more like the pout of a nice lady who is upset with her doggie. Her doggie who peed on the leg of her Hepplewhite chair, you see?"
Carol injected more venom into her pout, thinking of her mother. Emmanuel wasn't satisfied.
"No ... This is the pout of a nice lady whose copy of Family Circle came through the mail kind of—how do you say?—soggy. She cannot read the recipes. This is not the right kind of pout."
Carol straightened her back, squinted her eyes and threw hatred into her pout. Emmanuel still hadn't taken the camera off his shoulder.
"No, no. This is the pout of a Bikram yoga instructor who finds her nice hummus salad half-eaten in the communal refrigerator. She is sad about this for now she must go to the Whole Foods and get a new salad. This pout is not the right kind of pout."
Dave Eggers, "New Hampshire Is for Lovers," Salon April 29, 2004
posted April 29, 2004 in politics, printA misplaced word creates confusion whilst colouring in a closet nation
BFs come and go....but a f*ck buddy can last forever - 32
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 2004-04-24, 12:16AM EDT
A critical eye can never find beauty but often reflects our desperation
A misplaced word creates confusion whilst colouring in a closet nation
No book of rules can guide us now for love creates a lover
To them, a fake in a gilded frame
For you, there is no other
Always remember -- A demigod can not perform miracles
Only create illusions of perfection
----------------------------------------------------------------------
5-9, 150, 32, gym: 3x / wk., American of spanish descent......seeking masc GWM 30-37 for a real date....sex later. No feminine, overweight or old guys.
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
this is in or around Downtown NYC
no way
daniel lee: What makes you laugh hardest?
aiden shaw: Getting treated special because I have a big dick
d: Would you prefer not to be treated special because you have big dick?
a: no way
d: Say someone approached you (assuming they know who you are), but are really just interested in getting to know you. How would s/he have to approach you so you wouldn’t think that s/he is there just because you have a big dick?
a: I don't mind why someone wants to talk to me
as long as they're nice to me
d: What do you miss most?
a: Memory.
- Daniel Lee, "Aiden Shaw v.2003," hook
posted April 22, 2004 in sextomfoolery, business jargon
there are so many platforms around here in the form of cubicle desks, file cabinet islands, and countertops that it could be a great space for a musical. Imagine people springing above their 1/2 walls, legs splayed singing about tomfoolery, business jargon.
- tracey quagmire, April 15th, 2004
posted April 22, 2004 in performanceuh, "Tao longeeee!!!!"
one of his commenters nails it:
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- joana angelica, 100% HOMEM BOM !!!!!! april 21, 2004
posted April 21, 2004 in art, delivery, sexPerhaps it's a close shave that's cock blocking those suitors.
Let yourself go for awhile and relax, studies have shown that 4 out of 5 men surveyed prefer it rough, real rough. Trust me, I know! Stop shaving now, butch it up a bit with some facial hair ... Make grunting and growling part of a daily routine, puff up your chest and stomp around, these subtle shifts in behavior are actually signals to other mondo man apes that you're part of their playful tribe ... Go ahead pull on it, don't be shy now, loosen that tie and unbutton that dress shirt a bit, shave your head not your eyebrows! Drop it all down a notch or two, put your leather bag away and go urban commando, rail against the corporate HOMO-genization of gay culture and boycott shows like Queer Eye. Watch wrestling instead, it's a whole lot gayer and sexier anyway.
- jockohomo, April 19, 2004
posted April 21, 2004 in print, sexblip up, blip down
In the latest bit of poll mania, Bush is leading Kerry 50-44 in a USA Today/Gallup poll and 48-43 in a Washington Post/ABC survey.
I could spin these numbers either way. To wit:
1) The latest polls are awful news for John Kerry. After all, Bush has just endured one of the worst months of his presidency. Escalating violence in Iraq and disturbing questions from the 9/11 hearings have battered the president and thrown him on the defensive.
If Kerry can't eke out a lead after the avalanche of negative headlines for Bush, how can he win the election? ...
2) Kerry's candidacy is alive and well, according to the latest polls. Despite the fact that the Bush team has dumped $50 million of advertising on his head, portraying him as a big-taxing, soft-on-defense flip-flopper, the senator is only a couple of points down.
- Howard Kurtz, "Numbers Game," Washington Post April 21, 2004
posted April 21, 2004 in politicsyou go to where the silence is
Amy Goodman: There's a hunger for more voices, a dissatisfaction with the media. You have this same small group of pundits that is on every network ... This small group of know-nothing pundits who know so little about so much, who just pontificate. And now they're wringing their hands, "How did we get it so wrong in Iraq?" Why don't they have someone in who didn't get it so wrong?
NYP: DO YOU THINK THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY NOW! WOULD HAVE BEEN SO EXPLOSIVE WERE IT NOT FOR BUSH, 9/11, THE WARS ...
AG: I don't know. What I do know is that we should not be so unique. We're just doing the basic job that journalists should do. You go to where the story is. You go to where the silence is. You go to the people closest to the story ...
I think about Elisabeth Bumiller, the Times reporter who explained why the press didn't ask Bush tough questions on the eve of war in one of his oh-so-rare news conferences: "Because of the gravity of the moment," she said. Which is precisely why you have to ask the questions! The gravity of the moment is sending young men and women into war! That's when you ask the most important questions of the day.
NYP: DO YOU SEE INDEPENDENT MEDIA THRIVING?
AG: People across the political spectrum are very skeptical. Look at military families, for god's sake. They've paid the price with their loved ones' lives. More than 660 soldiers dead. More than 18,000, perhaps upwards of 20,000 evacuated, medically evacuated from Iraq. That's pretty astounding. We never hear these figures. More than 12,000 serious injuries. We never hear these figures. And they're saying "Why?" now. It's the media that failed them. Yes, their government did, but the government can only get away with it when the media doesn't challenge it.
- Amy Goodman, "BREAKING THE SOUND BARRIER: A Q & A with Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman," interview by Alexander Zaitchik, new york press April 14, 2004
posted April 21, 2004 in politics, print, speechwhenever politics give rise (huh-huh)
- Someone else reads what other people say about reading what other people say about listening to Air America so you don't have to. [Radio Weisblogg]
- Yes, yes. "Colin and Dick." We're so happy you think of us whenever politics give rise (huh-huh) to a Beavis moment. Thanks again to the 538 people who sent this link. [CNN]
- Compassionate conservatism shows its colors. Color. Whatever. [GeorgeWBush.com]
- OK, we are sort of picking of a theme here. Colin Powell on serving the president: "We understand one another. I know what he wants and I work every day . . . trying to give him what he wants." [USAT]
- Veep-O-Matic 2004 [WP]
- Oh, why stop now? Derbyshire: "The second-rate great man is on his knees to other men, like Whitman." [NRO]
"Remainders: He Said "Dick." Huh-huh Edition," wonkette april 20, 2004
posted April 20, 2004 in crap, politics, printAre you sure?
Early this year, the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks played four minutes of a call from Betty Ong, a crew member on American Airlines Flight 11. The power of her call could not have been plainer: in a calm voice, Ms. Ong told her supervisors about the hijacking, the weapons the attackers had used, the locations of their seats.
At first, however, Ms. Ong's reports were greeted skeptically by some officials on the ground. "They did not believe her," said Bob Kerrey, a commission member. "They said, 'Are you sure?' They asked her to confirm that it wasn't air-rage. Our people on the ground were not prepared for a hijacking" ...
The new information produced by the commission so far has led 6 of its 10 members to say or suggest that the attacks could have been prevented, though there is no consensus on when, how or by whom. The commission's chairman, Thomas H. Kean, a Republican, has described failures at every level of government, any of which, if avoided, could have altered the outcome. Mr. Kerrey, a Democrat, said, "My conclusion is that it could have been prevented. That was not my conclusion when I went on the commission" ... Urged on by a number of families of people killed in the attacks, the Kean commission has used a mix of moral and political leverage to extract presidential communications and testimony. Among the new themes that have fundamentally reshaped the story of the Sept. 11 attacks are:
- Al Qaeda and its leader, Mr. bin Laden, did not blindside the United States, but were a threat recognized and discussed regularly at the highest levels of government for nearly five years before the attacks, in thousands of reports, often accompanied by urgent warnings from lower-level experts.
- Presidents Clinton and Bush received regular information about the threat of Al Qaeda and the intention of the bin Laden network to strike inside the United States. Each president made terrorism a stated priority, failed to find a diplomatic solution and viewed military force as a last resort. At the same time, neither grappled with the structural flaws and paralyzing dysfunction that undermined the C.I.A. and the F.B.I., the two agencies on which the nation depended for protection from terrorists. By the end of his second term, Mr. Clinton and the director of the F.B.I., Louis J. Freeh, were barely speaking.
- Even when the two agencies cooperated, the results were unimpressive. Mr. Kean said that he viewed the reports on the two agencies as indictments. In late August 2001, George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, learned that the F.B.I. had arrested Zacarias Moussaoui after he had enrolled in a flight school. Mr. Tenet was given a memorandum titled "Islamic Extremist Learns to Fly." But he testified that he took no action and did not tell President Bush about the case.
- DAVID JOHNSTON and JIM DWYER, "Pre-9/11 Files Show Warnings Were More Dire and Persistent," new york times april 18, 2004
posted April 18, 2004 in politics, printavoid eye contact
Radiohead dot com is back. Yes it is. It is as if the bubble never burst.
(They used to offer us millions of pounds just to put banners up here. We said no. Now we are kicking ourselves. Ah well.)
BETA VERSION 1.1 Operational from 8.4.04. MORE TO COME.
1.
This the Radiohead Internet Site. We have done other sites before. We build 'em up we break 'em down. Why do we keep doing that? They don't disappear though, they end up here. We also ended up building an internet television channel recently, which transmits from here.
- radiohead, april 2004
posted April 16, 2004 in musicFile Whitney McNarry!
In the spirit of Whitney McNally's horribly misguided "spoof," Gothamist imagines that Fairchild Publications is passing around a memo like this:
If you hear someone yelling, "File Whitney McNarry!" that's really "Fire Whitney McNally!" - the Asians sometimes have trouble with the r's and l's. And stop by HR to pick up your coolie hat; they are being distributed so you can enter the building without getting pelted with pelted with thousand year eggs or egg rolls. And we recommend you watch Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Kill Bill if you haven't. They know kara-TAY, kung pao chicken, and some other violence-without-weapons techniques. Remember, Asian women can be fierce - the lotus blossom thing is a trick.
- jen chung, protesting details," gothamist april 15, 2004
posted April 15, 2004 in printAs if art caused the ugliness
Earlier this month my local paper, The San Francisco Chronicle, reported that a college student had been expelled from art school here for submitting a story "rife with gruesome details about sexual torture, dismemberment and bloodlust" to his creative writing class ... Homicide inspectors were called in; a criminal profiler went to work on the student. The officers found no evidence of wrongdoing. The unnamed student had made no threat; his behavior was not considered suspicious. In the end, no criminal charges were brought.
In this regard, the San Francisco case differs from other incidents in California, and around the country, in which students, unlucky enough to have as literary precursor the Columbine mass-murderer Dylan Klebold, have found themselves expelled, even prosecuted and convicted on criminal charges, because of the violence depicted in their stories and poems. The threat posed by these prosecutions to civil liberties, to the First Amendment rights of our young people, is grave enough. But as a writer, a parent and a former teenager, I see the workings of something more iniquitous: not merely the denial of teenagers' rights in the name of their own protection, but the denial of their humanity in the name of preserving their innocence ...
We don't want teenagers to write violent poems, horrifying stories, explicit lyrics and rhymes; they're ugly, in precisely the way that we are ugly, and out of protectiveness and hypocrisy, even out of pity and love and tenderness, we try to force young people to be innocent of everything but the effects of that ugliness. And so we censor the art they consume and produce, and prosecute and suspend and expel them, and when, once in a great while, a teenager reaches for an easy gun and shoots somebody or himself, we tell ourselves that if we had only censored his journals and curtailed his music and video games, that awful burst of final ugliness could surely have been prevented. As if art caused the ugliness, when of course all it can ever do is reflect and, perhaps, attempt to explain it.
Let teenagers languish, therefore, in their sense of isolation, without outlet or nourishment, bereft of the only thing that makes it all bearable: knowing that somebody else has felt the way that you feel, has faced it, run from it, rued it, lamented it and transformed it into art; has been there, and returned, and lived, for the only good reason we have: to tell the tale. How confident we shall be, once we have done this, of never encountering the ugliness again! How happy our children will be, and how brave, and how safe!
- MICHAEL CHABON, "Solitude and the Fortresses of Youth," new york times April 13, 2004
posted April 15, 2004 in artevasion
QUESTION: Mr. President, why are you and the vice president insisting on appearing together before the 9-11 commission? And, Mr. President, who will we be handing the Iraqi government over to on June 30th?
BUSH: We'll find that out soon. That's what Mr. Brahimi is doing. He's figuring out the nature of the entity we'll be handing sovereignty over.
And, secondly, because the 9-11 commission wants to ask us questions, that's why we're meeting. And I look forward to meeting with them and answering their questions.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) I was asking why you're appearing together, rather than separately, which was their request.
BUSH: Because it's a good chance for both of us to answer questions that the 9-11 commission is looking forward to asking us. And I'm looking forward to answering them.
- Text of President Bush's Press Conference, new york times April 13, 2004
posted April 14, 2004 in politicslove/mean
artists are again plainly smarter in their bones than art intellectuals are in their brains. The operative word is "plainly" ... Framing and the delineation of vision reign. Tactility counts. Aesthetics trump politics, without suggesting withdrawal from the world.
- PETER SCHJELDAHL, "The Whitney Biennial," new yorker march 22, 2004
9. Having said all this mean stuff, the show was still fun: better cumulatively than object by object. Even mass infantile regression beats Larry Rinder's earnest, tedious 2002 effort. It helped seeing it with a large audience of toddlers, teens and bus-tour seniors: through their eyes, it was an adventure. If only that sense of awe & enthusiasm could be piped into Chelsea's dreary classist environment.
- tom moody, "Notes on the 2004 Whitney Biennial," april 10, 2004
posted April 13, 2004 in artwhat's with the u.s. marshals this week?
A federal air marshal accidentally left her gun in a restroom beyond the security checkpoints at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, officials said today.
"US air marshal leaves gun in airport restroom," sydney morning herald online April 11, 2004
"Thirty-five minutes into the speech we were approached by a woman who identified herself as a deputy U.S. marshal," [antoinette] Konz told me in a telephone conversation on Friday. "She said that we should not be recording and that she needed to have our tapes" ... the speech [antonin] Scalia was giving ... was about the importance of the Constitution ... The marshal, Melanie Rube, insisted. The A.P. reporter tried to explain that she had a digital recording device, so there was no tape to give up. Ms. Konz said the deputy seemed baffled by that.
- BOB HERBERT, "A Justice's Sense of Privilege," new york times April 12, 2004
posted April 12, 2004 in politicscuadernos de la mierda
many governments, including the u.s., provide direct funding for the arts. but mexico's program also provides artists a unique venue for expressing their innermost felings at tax time. some officials still stifle chuckles about the time two years ago when francisco toledo, the nation's most prominent artist, handed over 27 sketchbooks which he had titled "cuadernos de la mierda," or "notebooks of shit," as payment for the 2000 tax year.
his earnings for that year had included $446,000 for a single piece sold at a christie's auction—a personal record. officially, the art experts say the sketchbooks, which include a diagram of 31 different piles of dung and a drawing of a skeleton defecating, are an "exploration of the scatological influences in pre-columbian culture."
"you could say there was some irony in that," says mr. toledo, a lean man with wild black hair who spoke between sips of dark beer. mr. toledo, who spends much of what he earns funding free museums, theaters, an art institute and other programs in his home town of oaxaca, says he can do more than the government bureaucracy by donating much of what he earns. "i'm doing the government's job."
in fact, mr. toledo complains that his own tax break is nothing compared with the exemptions enjoyed by the owners of the nation's biggest banks, banamex and bancomer, who paid no capital-gains taxes after selling the institutions for billings of pesos during the past four years.
- john lyons, "sculpture or tax loophole? mexico demands more of artists in 'pay in kind' program," wall street journal april 6, 2004
posted April 10, 2004 in artthe more they dress for sex the less sex they will have
prada has her own style, and she doesn't understand women who don't. "what all these actresses wear to the academy awards now—it's just dresses," she told me one evening. "they have no personality. you rarely see them think about it. it's as if women were afraid to explore who they are anymore. now, how can that be sexy? watch them. look at nicole kidman. she is beautiful, and she is nice. but sexy?" prada shook her head sadly. "a zero."
"sometimes i think that the obsession with fashion is just about the desperation of being sexy," she said. "my young assistants come to work and they wear these amazing things. very provocative. and they are so obsessed about being beautiful and sexy, and they are always alone. and i tell them that the more they dress for sex the less sex they will have. it's so basic, but they don't seem to understand me."
- michael specter, "the designer," new yorker march 15, 2004
posted April 05, 2004 in printde-unionizing
same-sex divorce is already keeping legal minds busy. herma hill kay, the former dean of the law school at the university of california at berkeley, argues in a forthcoming article in the king's college law journal that american states are not prohibited by federal law from recognising same-sex marriages performed in other states. therefore, she says, they should be able to grant same-sex divorces—and even states that oppose gay marriage may have an interest in doing so, because they would be ending something they view as a problem in the first place. if conservative states refuse to do so, they will make the marriages even more binding than those between heterosexuals.
- "lawyers' delight," economist april 3, 2004
posted April 05, 2004 in politics, seximplying that it is remediable
Every serious British newspaper carries two, three or more pages of arts commentary and criticism which report, reflect and review a razzle of activity in a style which may be ponderous, or provocative, or purely piss-taking.
No American newspaper dares venture past the first of these p's ... When the head of the Met decides (or is obliged) to step down, as Joseph Volpe did some weeks ago, he does so in a friendly interview with the New York Times which does not once inquire whether Volpe quit because he's pushing 65 or because his box-office has gone dead since 9/11 ... What I describe as the death of classical recording, US newspapers refer to as a 'crisis' , implying that it is remediable.
America suffered the incorporation of many arts institutions. London has five international orchestras, three year-round opera companies, two ballet troupes, three international art galleries, two great engines of modern art at Tate and Saatchi, a National Theatre and too many smaller companies to count. New York has one monolith in each art form, two at most. A British paper can, if so minded, call for the closure of English National Opera, secure in the knowledge that another paper might take a very different view if only for the hell of it. The New York Times dare not challenge any arts institution because there is no outlet for any alternative view. If City Opera or the Met were to shut down as the results of an impetuous editorial, the Times would never be forgiven.
- Norman Lebrecht, "A critical gap," la scena musicale online March 31, 2004
posted April 05, 2004 in art