21.january.2002 | how
soon is now?
reading: a woman's view by jeanine
basinger, a fabulous history of women's films from the 1930s to 60s.
(thanks, john!) also reading evening by susan minot and the new
2001 volume of the best american poetry series, edited by david
lehman and robert hass
listening: lots of live pj harvey mp3s from
this site,
langley schools music project, the white stripes, ludacris, fischerspooner
watching: the virgin suicides
(the more i watch it, the better it gets for me), mulholland drive
(again), a beautiful mind (one of the actresses from my short
film is in it, so i feel obligated)
it's become very, very difficult for me to write about politics these
days. it's not that i haven't been thinking about things; not a day
goes by when i don't notice how the politics of everyday connect to
much larger issues. i feel much, much too overwhelmed to articulate.
it's like a tidal wave of history, power, entanglements, desires, movement,
stasis, vulnerabilities; they all pile up pell-mell and i just don't
know how to begin.
do you have any advice for me?
7.january.2002 | like
a bad teen novel
when you start filling in film festival applications, they make you
send them this stuff:
SYNOPSIS: Set in the dreamlike, somnambulant atmosphere of
an almost empty airport, MOTION SICKNESS explores the negotiation
of sexual and romantic terrain during the liminal stage between female
adolescence and adulthood. It also glimpses into a certain type of
voyeurism—how young women look at and perform for one another.
Three girls drift through the deracinated space of an empty airport
and encounter others (and one another) in a series of small incidents.
Some of these vignettes lead to "pre-packaged" scripts,
stories everyone knows; some of these lead to unexpected pleasures
and dead ends. Either way, the next morning all three learn that you
simply move on and leave seemingly momentous events behind, like a
dream in the night.
in the middle of re-configuring sentences, i'm downloading all of pretty
hate machine by nine inch nails because i am feeling nostalgic and
i miss being a cheesy alternateen. we used to drive around rockford
when i was 14 and listen to all this industrial, goth-y music and then
find ourselves in an all-night diner, inhaling black coffee, bitching
about how slow rockford was and how we were going to be famous and fabulous
and rub it in the faces of all the people we hated. just killing time
while waiting for the waitress to kick us out of the smoking section
because we only ordered $2.00 worth of grub. oh, the angst.
1.january.2002 | in
no particular order
[ the usual round of lists ]
TEN FAVORITE FILMS OF 2001
needless to say, i thought this was a good movie year.
1= in the mood for love :: evocative, beautiful, moody and
atmospheric, my favorite because it simply feels like memory. longing,
loss, desire are more erotic and haunting than the most explicit sex
scenes hollywood could ever give you, and maggie cheung and tony leung
(two of the most beautiful people on the planet) give such restrained,
tender performances. beautiful music, hauntingly gorgeous cinematography.
2= the lord of the rings: the fellowship of the rings :: epic,
larger than life and pure movie magic, this makes you realize that
film can do certain things no other medium can do because of scale
and sheer kineticness.
3= mulholland drive :: strange, dark magic, filmed with a
seductive palette. i heart david lynch, even though he sometimes confounds
me. but that's probably why i love him.
4= fat girl :: catherine breillat's film is less distant and
uncanny than her last film, the equally controversial romance,
and in a sense it is emotional investment that creates the inchaote,
white-hot anger we feel at the film's conclusion, which is admittedly
shocking and horrific on many levels--narrative, aesthetic and ideological.
i put this film on my list because rarely have i left a theatre as
devastated and angry than i did after i saw this film about how young
women negotiate various narratives of sex and sexuality.
5= under the sand :: a cool yet compassionate study of grief
anchored by a superb leading performance by charlotte rampling. director
françois ozon leaves his previous flourishes of shock and trusts
in his material for the emotional gravity--and in rampling, still
as hypnotic and feline as ever, for its strange spell of seduction.
6= amelie :: candy-colored and self-conscious, with touches
of perversion in all the right places and the most exuberantly adorable
actress ever. it's a frothy concoction of a romantic comedy but with
all the right fantastical touches. photobooths! fabulous clothes and
hair! cute french boys! what more could you want from a romance?
7= the gleaners and i :: agnès varda still makes films
that still resonate with wit and acute observation. here, she trains
her camera to look at how society deals with excess and waste and
refuse on many levels.
8= amores perros :: stylish, brutal and sexy, a pure guilty
pleasure that owes much to a tarantino-esque narrative structure and
the soulful, sheer hotness of gael garcia bernal, one of its lead
actors. it manages to be both quietly penetrating and visceral in
the same film.
9= moulin rouge :: at first i didn't like this, but then i
saw it again and admired it for its audacity--it's a movie that is
deeply flawed but passionate and exuberant at the same time and i
respect any film that wholeheartedly believes in itself with such
force. plus, it's the movie that made me realize nicole kidman could
be the closest thing we have to a modern-day 60s catherine deneuve.
i used to hate her but now i love her, so goes the song.
10 = donnie darko :: one of the most original films i've seen
this year, but no one seemed to have seen it. it's a wonderfully flawed
skewering of genres: coming-of-age, teen romance, time travel. darkly
imaginative and emotionally engaging.
HONORABLE MENTIONS :: ghost world (even though i had serious
reservations, i can't say i wasn't interested); the others (old-fashioned
suspense horror without being retro, beautiful to look at, nicole kidman
rowwwrrrrrr); memento (because it became one of those zeitgeist-y
things that people love to talk about and unravel); training day
(a very flawed but surprisingly riveting travel through the world of
race in los angeles on an ideological level, a phenomenal performance
by the incredible, volatile, charismatic, [insert superlative adjective
here] denzel washington, who finally plays the bad guy and will probably
win a million awards for it.)
THIRTEEN (OR SO) FAVORITE RECORDS/SONGS OF 2001
this was the year i gave up punk for beats, r&b proved more
sexy than rock (till the strokes came along), and my hard drive proved
more compelling than the crap they sell you in the record stores.
1= the teaches of peaches, peaches :: sexy, tough electro
beats and x-rated rhymes. guilty pleasure yet also abrasively brilliant.
trashy and flashy, yet very smart and witty at the same time. bow
down, motherfucker!
2= vespertine, bjork :: another lady with a sampler and pro
tools, but this time used to make the most ethereal, sparkling valentine
of an album ever. incredibly romantic with the emotional purity of
bjork's gloriously unconventional voice and composed, asymmetrical
sense of pop.
3= miss e...so addictive, missy elliott :: yet another lady
with beats, and the best one of them all. the mad-scientist genius
vibe is strong here with sickly infectious grooves anchoring the best
get-busy anthems this side of '80s prince. "get ur freak on"
= hell yes.
4= white blood cells, the white stripes / is this it,
the strokes :: the duo of albums that saved old-school rock and roll
for me. i'm purely enamored of the white stripes with their bits of
zeppelin, and while i'm affectionately skeptical of the strokes, god
knows they're hot and they do a fabulous 70s NYC impersonation like
you wouldn't believe.
5= other animals, erase errata :: okay, so i didn't give up
entirely on punk. skittish, rhythmic and passionate, at times chaotic
and then extremely controlled, this is what punk should sound like
but often doesn't.
6= "we need a resolution," aaliyah :: aaliyah's untimely
death left me sad, and it is really strange to listen to this sinuous,
sexy come-hither of a song and realize she's just not on this earth
anymore. the middle eastern flourishes and typical timbaland brilliance
can't disguise the psychodrama of the song, which aaliyah brilliantly
presents in all its strange, seductive mystery. no r&b singer
has aaliyah's sense of mystery and reserve, and no one ever will.
7= let it come down, spiritualized :: grandiose, epic and
unabashedly sincere, like if a rock band went to church and took lessons
from the gospel choir. "i didn't mean to hurt you" is the
song i wish all my ex-boyfriends would sing to me.
8= the coast is never clear, beulah :: so i gave up entirely
on indie pop this year, right? i was no longer down with it, it had
become so boring and dull. but then i heard this, with its sunny pop
melodies tempered with pavement-like sardonic wit, and i was hooked.
which goes to show you, one never knows when the bug will hit.
9= it's a wonderful life, sparklehorse :: like a strange,
eccentric, musty faulkner novella, with elliptical lyrics and a pop
tunefulness usually not associated with such southern gothic fare.
plus, tom waits and my girl pj harvey make guest appearances--and
how could i resist that?
10= no more drama, mary j. blige :: all hail mary j, okay?
not her best album, it still rocks and swings with the best of them.
she has an ear for the sick sample and a voice weathered with emotions
ranging from despair to joy.
11= anything produced by the neptunes :: from busta rhymes' "what
it is" to jay-z's "i just wanna love you" to britney
spears' "i'm a slave 4 u," nearly everything the neptunes
turned to gold and platinum. not as instantly distinctive as timbaland,
their taut sense of rhythm and flourishes of psychedelia were the
bridge between pop and r&b and hip-hop. get bling to the neptune
sound, indeed.
HONORABLE MENTIONS :: soundtracks for in the mood for love and
waking life (just beautiful); tara jane o'neil in the sun
lines (for a lovely fall afternoon); anything by sigur ros (i think
most of their stuff came out in 2000, so i can't put it on the list);
tindersticks can our love.. (because it's so lush and sexy and
that guy's voice is so sexy); "hey baby" by no doubt, which
is outrageously fun to listen to, and "fallin'" by alicia
keys because how can you top that beginning?
did i miss anything?
