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February 25, 2009

Lent

Sunday, Hopper

Today is the beginning of Lent. I'm giving up idly surfing the Internet and reading the news online for 40 days. I'll use the internet only when I need to communicate - and blogging is communicating - or for limited and necessary searches without getting caught on the vice of mindless site hopping which is the equivalent of channel zapping.

This is the best I could come up with. I can't think of any other things I indulge myself with to give up. I don't like sweets and I hardly ever eat dessert. The rest of the food I can't really afford to not eat or I'll slowly disappear. I don't watch TV. I don't eat snacks. I don't drink coffee. I don't smoke. Sex is non negotiable. I already avoid buying things I don't need as a principle so that wouldn't be much of a plan. Obviously there are things I love doing but to me the spirit of the thing is to abstain from activities or items without any real added value; I don't see it as much as sacrifice but as a way towards simplicity. Simplicity can also mean giving up things that are relatively useful but which aren't worth the time spent acquiring. I won't stop reading books, for example.

It's a shame I'm a non believer, I'm a sucker for arbitrary religious discipline. I even have my own version of the Sabbath which I must say I haven't been a good observant of: I try not to work, use machines or make noises on Sundays. I don't know, it just makes sense to me.

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February 19, 2009

Frabjous day

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February 14, 2009

Milk

I don't get what is all the hype about. It's a nicely filmed biopic but could as well have been made in documentary form. What really puzzles me is the number of articles about it claiming it's some sort of hagiography. Am I the only one to think this man was not a saint at all? On the contrary, he came across as rather nasty - from organizing riots that could have ended badly to outing people against their will, there's no end to the man's bullying. And people wonder why Dan White shot him - the killer was obviously deranged but the movie does not try to conceal the dishonest tactics Milk employed to humiliate him. But then again I'm the kind of person who believes the ends don't justify the means, no matter how much I support the cause. And I do support Milk's cause.

Sean Penn does a nice job - although the prosthetic nose gets a bit in the way - but I have this nagging feeling that he's getting some homophobic disguised praise. As in "Oh look at that butchy heterosexual man playing a slightly effeminate gay guy... he's an excellent actor." I'm also disgusted at the thought that he'll get an Oscar for it. Mostly because I can't tell if he'll get it because he is indeed an excellent actor or for the same reasons the award went to Daniel Day-Lewis for his cerebral palsy character, Dustin Hoffman for faking autism, Jack Nicholson for his obsessive compulsive stunt. They were all essentially playing the part of "The Other", "The Different". And that seems to be a challenge which strikes me as mildly offensive. Gay roles also seem to be the way to go, considering Tom Hanks in Philadelphia (oh please) and William Hurt in Kiss of the Spider Woman.

But the main thing is that this movie helps the LGBT movement as much as a biopic of MLK would help against racism. Now, what we really need is a Bill Cosby type family oriented sitcom where the parents are gay and their kids are as happy or screwed up as any other kids.

(Josh Brolin is magnificent; probably the most underrated actor around.)

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Orwell's own surveillance camera

It's just too ironic to be true. But it is. It's in Hackney by Broadway Market. I'm not sure Orwell would feel vindicated or amused. I ordered his biography after reading several references to restaurants in London from which Orwell was thrown out because he insisted on taking off his coat.

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February 05, 2009

New finds

(copyright Yvonne Mayer / Crafts Study Centre)

I found Lucie Rie through Ipek (who turns out to share my favorite Monty Python skit - which is the more remarkable as it is an obscure one that no one else seems to find funny).

*****

More than once, while browsing the non-fiction section, I can't help thinking that most of the books there would be fine reads as essays. Why ruin it by eliminating brevity?

*****

At the LRB, I always have a nanosecond of excitement when, neck twisted reading spines, I find "Anatomy of Restlessness". The hope that it is a cross between the Anatomy of Melancholy and the Book of Disquiet is shattered as soon as I find out (again) that it is just a good title for some writings on the author's (who I particularly dislike) theories (which don't seem more than whims to me). I wonder why I keep forgetting it exists.

*****

Thanks to Lisa, added Orwell's Diaries to my RSS feeds. Now I can keep track of the eggs myself. Also, I'm reading the Howard Zinn book she brought from Boston which R. says it gives me extra fuel for my fits of outraged, hand waving disgust at the occasional bit of political news.

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February 02, 2009

This is pathetic

I arrive in London to find that everyone's gone mad. My train was a bit late, I grant that, but it was speeding through snow covered plains like nothing was the matter. In London, cabbies were driving by with their usual disregard for human life. But, mystery of mysteries, there were no buses. Stopped by the supermarket on the way home from the train station and people were hoarding bread and pasta. It's 4 inches of snow. As Her Majesty should have said this morning - after all, what's a monarchy for if incompetent bureaucrats can decide to shut off the transportation system, making the country lose 1.2 billion pounds - "Keep Calm and Carry On".

Also, the view to the backyard is gorgeous. I love snow.

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