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 Citizen Kane was stupid - he hated the way people were made up, that hairline, that bald wig on Welles. Bergman was a man of faces.

He said we could come see the rehearsals on King Lear. He had just finished Franny and Alexander and I saw a 5 hour cut with a wicked hangover.

Said hangover was the result of Aquavit.”

“He showed up the first day I was in Cuba, in 1987. I was in the house of [Gabriel] García Márquez. It was after lunch, I was sitting in the rocking chair, and Gabriel—Gabo—said to me, “Would you mind moving to another chair? The Comandante is coming and he likes the rocker.” Fidel came in, in his field jacket and his cap. He was very bulky in the chest and was probably wearing a bulletproof vest.”

— 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!

Working hard, trying to remember what’s important.

vespering:

Sam Rockwell’s Confessions of a Dangerous Mind screen test (x)

Sam Rockwell dancing is one of the joys in film. I was watching The Winning Season on Netflix the other day, a sorta Bad News Bears with Sam Rockwell as the alcoholic coach of a girls’ basketball team, and it was a pleasant surprise (because Sam Rockwell rules, and it had the girl from Half Nelson, too!) and it even had him dancing, just a little bit.

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 the pain of an American Pierrot
Not knowing in the play he is the buffoon.

I love this poem.

“In Generation X, one of the protagonists, Andy, reflects that “we live small lives on the periphery; we are marginalized and there’s a great deal in which we choose not to participate.” It’s no coincidence that Gen X’s greatest artistic legacy is probably grunge, which is all about glorifying marginalization and alienation. Millennials, though, have been forced to live lives on the periphery, when they had always expected that they would be at the center. As Malone points out, the Fleet Foxes, led by 25-year-old Robin Pecknold, sing about thinking that they were “special snowflakes” but finding that they are in fact “cogs in some great machinery.” In contrast, the most famous musician from Generation Catalano is probably 34-year-old Kanye West, who actually is something of a special snowflake—and at the same time that he has released some of the best music of the last few years (and gotten very rich off of it), he’s also been engaged a very public battle with himself. Like West, Generation Catalano is never fully comfortable with its place in the world; we wander away from the periphery and back again.”

—

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 the way.

(via perpetua)

I agree, I liked this piece a lot as well. There’s just one thing missing in detail - I do think that some of the displacement between generations could be chalked up to the evolution of social networking in the past ten years. The difference between friendster, myspace, and facebook, you know? When you’re communicating in a certain way - by phone call, let’s say - and then five years later it’s subsumed by texting. I think that when you’re navigating those sea changes when you’re a “fully formed” adult versus navigating them in high school when they don’t matter as much, it leads to a greater gap between the years. And we’re the generation that’s dealing with that gap. It’s not like the kids born in 1971 are all that different in experience from the kids born in 1974, but there’s a sea change of experience between 81 and 84. I feel bad for the shy girls younger than me who never had a chance to have formative experiences crushing on record store clerks, you know?

PS. Bryan from Newbury Comics, I will love you for-evah!

“Today, Dunst is clad in a striped A.P.C. shirt and a Balenciaga skirt she bought the day before at Barneys (“I didn’t shop for a long time — people bother you”), an attempt, she says, to inject a little more maturity into her wardrobe. “I’m currently cleaning out my closet of childish dresses. I want to start dressing like I’m 30. Some of the things I have are like, I can’t wear this anymore, it’s not cute.””

— 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!

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 October!

“I understand they have freedom of speech and freedom of expression, but we have a city to manage. I’m open to suggestions, but civil disobedience will not be tolerated.”

—

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 someone left Lite-Brites of a Moonininte (from Aqua Teen Hunger Force) all over the city in 2007.

Boston mayor says he sympathizes with protesters, but they can’t tie up the city - Metro Desk - Local news updates from The Boston Globe

(via thethirdshift)



Henry David Thoreau is disappointed in you, Menino.

My 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.