Mrs. Weegee Junior

So this chick is a total badass.

Way into Jill Freedman. Bringing Weegee style photography back. Check her out.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/04/26/nyregion/042708-Freedman_index.html

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The Hour of the Star. Why?

I’m not sure the point of writing about an insignificant person, and commenting on how insignificant they are. It’s depressing. To create a character and mistreat them so deliberately is just cruel. Poor Macabea, created, abused, given hope and then killed. Why? Why read this? Why write this? And the commentary on the actual writing of the book is for the authors journal, I’m uninterested. It just seemed self-indulgent.
Olimpico was an asshole.

The only thing I am remotely interested in is the sexuality of the narrator. I got some male vibes, for example I think he had a beard. So has Clarice Lispector created a male novelist and chosen to write a story about him writing a story? I just don’t understand. I just didn’t care. I don’t know what to say.

Mrs. Dalloway

Well, I’ve had my fun; I’ve had it, he thought, looking up at the swinging baskets of pale geraniums. And it was smashed to atoms- his fun, for it was half made up, as he knew very well; invented, this escapade with the girl; made up, as one makes up the better part of life, he thought- making oneself up; making her up; creating an exquisite amusement, and something more. But odd it was, and quite true; all this one could never share- it smashed to atoms.
-Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf (pg 34)

I have one word. Disillusionment. All the characters in this book are so tragically disillusioned. Each one has some sort of vice that they lean on, as they make up the world around them to feel less lost in it. It’s heartbreaking, no one seems satisfied, except for maybe Sally. They all carry on like children; Clarissa, planning her ridiculous party and holding grudges against poor people. Peter pining after the same woman his whole life, and making up lifetimes with strangers he sees on the street. And Richard who can’t even say “i love you” to his wife. In a society when society is all that matters, everything is a masquerade ball, life isn’t great but you can at least pretend it is. And if you can’t, you jump out a window.
There is also a strange obsession with youth throughout the novel. Youth and the past. Peter lives in his past, while Clarissa separates herself from it. Peter is always noticing the young people around him, how he admires them, he comments on how times have changed since he was young. They still act so young and nieve though, the passing of time has not seemed to do anything but give them wrinkles. Very odd. I feel very bad for these people.

Do The Right Thing

 

  Thanks to the oh so fashionable 80’s, this movie is very visually colorful. However, as far as the film itself, it is a simple black and white.
The characters are, more than anything else, defined by the color of their skin, and remain static throughout the film. The plot is driven by racial tension. The movie is beautifully simple yet highly effective. Spike Lee was making a clear comment on racism, he wasn’t interested in the bells and whistles, well, besides the very strange love scene in the middle of the movie. Though the film would have held more relevance and shock factor in it’s own time, the message has not been lost.
One thing I found to be an interesting concept, was the fact that Sal relied on the fact that he was different in order to run his business. He mentions in a conversation to his son, that he can’t have the pizzeria in their neighborhood because there would be too much competition. In Bedstuy, he is THE pizza guy. He has the monopoly. Sal being a white man in a black neighborhood is what allows him to make a living, but in the end it causes him to loose everything.
The main idea in this movie is the idea of association. Associating oneself with a group, specifically a racial group. And being part of a group means, you stick with your group no matter what; there is little room for personal opinion. The characters in the movie are in no way complex. The answer to why? is simple. Why? Because we are black. Because we are white. End of story. Like Mookie for instance,  Mookie has a moment where he just barely grazes on an advanced thought process. Radio Raheem has just been killed and the angry mob has gathered around the pizzeria, tensions are high. Mookie watches, moments before the fight (in a hilariously corny and contrived scene) Sal has told Mookie that he is “like family.” It was very touching. HOWEVER, Mookie doesn’t think as an individual, Mookie thinks “I am black,” and throws a trash can through the window. “Stay black!” Get it?
Then there is the question of exception, does race rule or can there be stronger elements that overcome skin color? There is a brief redeeming scene in the film that flirts (literally) with racial prejudice. When Sal shows an affection towards Mookie’s sister Jane, we might stop to think that some things (like romance) can over rule race hate. But what do I know.
Do the right thing. What a title, what a phrase. Do the right thing? What is the right thing? Did Mookie do the right thing? Is the right thing to be fair? To be kind? To be violent? Oh the irony.

Yo! Hold up! Time out! TIME OUT! Y’all take a chill! Ya need to cool that shit out! And that’s the double truth, Ruth! 

lunar

what’s it all about?
tonight on wednesday. i will go to the roof
you know the lillied have died and i’m longing for august
in the fall
but tonight on wednesday the moon eclipses
and if we’re lucky the UFO will join us from Texas
rosie meows, she’s just a cat
in a bunny cage in London
in a chair on the roof with the moon and the gin and me
i wanta hold your hand
Lennon’s whispering to Dylan from the Dakota
and the loft was in fall and has fallen
now turtle backs on pluto
smoking on the green roof
walking with my fathers tastes for New Jersey tornados
baseball games with Huckleberry Finn wearing a mask
and drunk on gin and swimming
spanish flannel convers my only Jeremiah in a box
cars and subways
banana splitting helping write this poem
and it’s a square roughly. i’d say.
but this ain’t the USA. this ain’t voting day.
it’s anywhere
tonight on wednesday on the roof
not even the moon will see us
what are we gonna go?

Quicksand

To Helga life seems like quicksand, every move she makes she seems to just sink further and further in to her own depression. This seems contrary to the texts we have been reading. Helga is disconnected from every city she tries, there is no feeling of belonging. Not in Naxos, Chicago, Harlem or Denmark. It’s ultimately the story of a sad girl so unhappy and uncomfertable in her own skin that no location can make her feel more whole. It’s entirely depressing. It’s also so densely didactic that it almost drags you in to her mindset. “She had ruined her life, made it impossible ever again to do the things that she wanted, have the things that she loved, mingle with the people she liked. She had been a fool.” No thank you.

meditations in an emergency

okay frank has finally given me some poetry i can get down to. not that i know how to say why or what it does it for me. maybe it’s because it’s relatable, to me.

“why should i share you? why don’t you get rid of someone else for a change?”

fuck i dont know.

wang

okay i want to give this guy a proper introduction but i’m way too excited about him to even put my thought in order. anyways, he’s a family friend who takes a lot of pictures. go to his website: http://www.harveywang.com then buy his book “Harvey Wang’s New York.” it’s amazing and well worth your money and time and appreciation.

KIDS

So. Harmony Korine wrote a screenplay when he was 19.
fuck. i’m 18. what have i done?
So. Harmony Korine wrote a screenplay when he was 19. he wrote it in a week.
a week? what have i done this week?
So. Harmony Korine wrote a screenplay when he was 19. he wrote it in a week. he wrote it about his friends. he wrote it to get payed.

“It was just luck, I guess. I’d never written a script before. I just met this guy Larry in the park, and it just kind of happened. He started taking photos of me and my friends, and we talked about movies. He asked me if I could write a script, and I said, I never have before, but I’ll try. So I went back to my grandma’s house, and in seven days I wrote it. No re-writes or anything.”

it’s called KIDS. its about kids. in new york. having fun. kind of.
Larry Clark says, “Hey, you wanta write a movie?”
Harmony says, “Why not.”

It’s amazing

Christopher Street

Part Uno: Personal Experience

Before my parents moved to Brooklyn, they lived in Greenwich Village on Christopher street. So did I, if you count being in the womb. I had been there (in the flesh) only once, years ago, so I thought I would head back and check it out for this project.
It was great to see that I were conceived on a street littered with fetish shops. The neighborhood had a very happy buzz to it, happy couples holding hands and smiling, The men on the streets were quite warm and welcoming, even if I wasn’t quite their type.
My favorite part of the day, was when I found the pier at the west end of the street. It was a sunny day but there was a cool breeze off the water. New Jersey was too my right and Manhattan to my left, with the Statue of Liberty standing in the middle of the ocean. I realized I hadn’t seen her since I had been moved here in August. I know it’s cliche, but seeing things like the statue really hit hard for me, I sometimes forget where I live until I can’t help but stare straight at it. It was beautiful.
I ate a falafel because I have been meaning to try one. I wasn’t so into it.

Part Dos: The Facts

When I chose Christopher street as my neighborhood to visit then research, I was not aware that I was opening a Pandora’s box of gay history. Not that the neighborhoods sexual orientation isn’t obvious, I just didn’t know the colorful history behind it. I had found the motherland.

Because my main site on interest upon visiting was the pier, I will talk a little about that. The pier was built in the 17th century when New York was still New Amsterdam. Trading boats would dock in the harbor. With a pier on the western end of Christopher street and Jefferson Market at the east, the neighborhood boomed. An elevated train was accessible at both ends.
In the 19th century brought a class divide to the opposite ends of the street. The eastern side became a bohemian and artistic community, where as the western end was the working class. Then in 1932 a series of racial riots broke out between the white shore-men and the black strike breakers.
As early as the 1920’s and 30’s there started to be a hint of a homosexual feeling to the neighborhood. But it wasn’t until the 1950’s, after World War II, once the shipping industry started going under, did the neighborhood become more well known for it’s growing gay community. After all the dock workers cleared out, the taverns and bars needed some new customers.
The abandoned pier became “cruising” territory, a place where lonely men could be sure to meet other lonely men. They would line up in trucks after nightfall, ready and waiting. “What made Christopher street gay was the fact that the trucks were at the end of it.” Samuel Delany said in his autobiography, The Motion of Light on the Water. I’m not sure if “cruising” was really as shady and trashy as I just made it sound. Haha. I’m a little confused.
Okay, there is SO much I want to say, too much. So let’s run through the big things. As the gay population rose, inevitably so did violence and hate crimes. The police raid of the Stonewall Inn on July 27th, 1969 resulted in a surprising revolution, not only on Christopher street but in the entire gay community. While being barricaded by walls of police men the Peaceful Gay Liberation Force organized a “stoop-in”, where everyone sat on the stoops, claiming the street as gay territory. The street became known as “The Gayest Street in America,” and now in honor of this day, sometime in July the Gay Pride Parade is held all over the country.
Of course the community continued to face obstacles, and they continued/continue to fight them. When conflict occurred the bird call would be made, “Out of the bar and into the street!”

There’s a lot more really interesting stuff about the street online, I found this particular article to be very thorough and infrmative: http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0425,hoffman,54512,1.html