currently reading the big honking samuel delany memoir (the motion of light in water), which is a surprisingly quick read—he's so good at making writing fun without being overtly "style" forward. just started slow horses s1 AND true detective s1 AND i'm seeing Love Lies Bleeding today—does that mean i'm in my brave era?.......
been watching mad men for the first time and i finally got the season 6 DVD from the library! (after paying an insane $14 overdue fee??) i loved season 5 and its morbidity. i'd been trying and failing to watch this show for years but couldn't get past s1 bc i found advertising so boring lol so happy now to understand the references.
Had kind of a transcendent experience seeing Chinatown at the Egyptian in LA on 35mm (although kind of a dogshit print, which was disappointing). A movie I’ve watched many, many times but hadn’t seen recently, and it truly felt like watching it for the first time. Was kind of in awe at how dense and textured it is, and I found myself crying at the end, which had never happened in my numerous viewings!
In my quest to tackle the great horndog texts of the 20th century, I’m reading Lady Chatterley’s Lover, which has really taken me by surprise. As much about “trying to make sense of how to live in the world after the Great War” as anything else, which, in our present state of ongoing cataclysm feels as relevant as ever.
I also watched Timeline, which is suuuuuch a masterpiece of early aughts schlock. Deeply funny to send Paul Walker, a man with a voice that could have only been produced by Southern California in the latter half of the 20th century, rocketing back to 14th century France and have these medieval guys basically take his whole deal in stride.
this week i started isaac butler’s book on method acting—not something i’m particularly interested in per se, but i love to be immersed in a twentieth century “scene” (im hoping it will be my new mike nichols: a life). and i remember being very moved by a review i read of it ages ago by natalie walker where she talks abt vanya on 42nd street. the first part is about stanislavsky and russian theatre history — really fascinating!
I watched the first half of Shin Godzilla last night and it is so great. Austin said it feels like a Wes Anderson movie and… it does! It totally does! Hideaki Anno you will always be famous.
I subscribed around the time you had just finished middlemarch may but that kinda inspired me so im doing a (perhaps more basic??) middlemarch march 😅 i am def behind (a little over a third of the way through when march is half gone) but am enjoying it so far. Though like all books of this era from england it’s so easy to get lost in the sentences once it’s been going on for 10 lines in a book with the tiniest print!
Am also stepping out today to see the fugitive in a theater for the first time as a lot of critics i love and trust speak highly of it and its been a blind spot for me. Feels kind of sacrilegious to watch it without my dad but i hope he wont mind if i keep air force one in my back pocket
Saw Love Lies Bleeding and it's the best use of cigarettes in film since Maestro!!! Love gay cigarette movies. My book club suggestion is dune messiah lol. Have a good week fran
I am so late to this, but I saw Problemista a few weeks ago and am dying to know the official Fran stance on it. Mostly on the score, which I can’t believe I’m not hearing people talk about more.
I would like to whole heartedly recommend a double feature of JLo’s recent visual album AND documentary (in that order). I am a JLo sceptic (I agree, in part, with Ayo), and there is something so fascinating about watching someone self-finance and create an absolutely mediocre piece of art. Also Baffleck appears frequently both on camera AND as her talking head interviewer (and possibly camera tech?)
i have been largely illiterate recently but i am trying to continue my nabokov kick. finishing pale fire in the middle of a 16-hour flight on very little sleep was a religious experience but it also ensured that i still have no idea what was happening, so i am rereading. also doing ada.
film-wise i recently watched spring breakers...hmmmmm but also i liked those pink balaclavas. strangely enough i think early korine might be more for me if i get around to it.
I’ve had such a great week of movie watching. A theater by me does surprise screenings the second Wednesday of the month, and I showed up and saw Mel Brooks’ The Producers for the first time. Pretty amazing to see such an early Gene Wilder performance. Also watched Hunt for Red October for the first time. Dad-core all around
Also started Beef (which it feels everybody else watched over a year ago at this point) and at first I felt unsure of its “A24/indie/cool” aesthetic but a couple eps in and it’s really feeling very unexpected and super moving—really loving it.
I watched Joyland a few days with my boyfriend and flatmate which mostly made me angry about the patriarchy but also made me miss living in a big city in India. Okay I gotta say there is something to watching a film that is not in English and understanding it mostly - interesting to see for example when the script had Haider start using a more intimate form of 'you' for Biba, the queen.
I finally finished The Ministry for the Future which was like... well researched but so bloodless. I'm now rereading Caoilinn Hughes back catalogue so I can discuss her new book once everyone else has read it when it comes out in April. I reckon The Alternatives is gonna be a very acclaimed 'climate book' because it IS deeply interested in human relationships.
also having a great time with arts festival season in my city, there is some very cool experimentation of stuff like didgeridoo and chamber music that fills me with joy and curiosity! and this week I'm going to a magic show to review for work!
I also have a question for the Fran Magazine community that I would like some ideas about: when, or whether, do podcasts count as art?
I started watching Taskmaster UK on your rec and i’m hooked !!! My partner and I started with the most recent series and we’ve been working our way backward — any fav series/contestants? After years of being burnt out on Comedians In General it’s wild to realize there’s a whole other crop of cool/funny/hot people across the pond …
I inherited a nintendo switch a couple years ago and have been slowly trying out the video game thing - I got a pokemon game and its been a lot of fun catching up on what I missed out on in the 2nd grade
taking students on a field trip to see kung fu panda 4 this week so i’m sort of frantically watching kfp 1-3 to make sure i’m caught up on the lore (??). would not recommend…
i also started two new film studies classes last week and we’re watching keaton shorts rn. WOULD recommend!
reading The Sympathizer in anticipation/prep for the upcoming park chan wook X rdj miniseries. enjoying!
Somehow just watched Erin Brockovich for the first time, and what was I gonna do... NOT love Soderbergh's tiger-print "Zodiac"?
currently reading the big honking samuel delany memoir (the motion of light in water), which is a surprisingly quick read—he's so good at making writing fun without being overtly "style" forward. just started slow horses s1 AND true detective s1 AND i'm seeing Love Lies Bleeding today—does that mean i'm in my brave era?.......
been watching mad men for the first time and i finally got the season 6 DVD from the library! (after paying an insane $14 overdue fee??) i loved season 5 and its morbidity. i'd been trying and failing to watch this show for years but couldn't get past s1 bc i found advertising so boring lol so happy now to understand the references.
Had kind of a transcendent experience seeing Chinatown at the Egyptian in LA on 35mm (although kind of a dogshit print, which was disappointing). A movie I’ve watched many, many times but hadn’t seen recently, and it truly felt like watching it for the first time. Was kind of in awe at how dense and textured it is, and I found myself crying at the end, which had never happened in my numerous viewings!
In my quest to tackle the great horndog texts of the 20th century, I’m reading Lady Chatterley’s Lover, which has really taken me by surprise. As much about “trying to make sense of how to live in the world after the Great War” as anything else, which, in our present state of ongoing cataclysm feels as relevant as ever.
I also watched Timeline, which is suuuuuch a masterpiece of early aughts schlock. Deeply funny to send Paul Walker, a man with a voice that could have only been produced by Southern California in the latter half of the 20th century, rocketing back to 14th century France and have these medieval guys basically take his whole deal in stride.
this week i started isaac butler’s book on method acting—not something i’m particularly interested in per se, but i love to be immersed in a twentieth century “scene” (im hoping it will be my new mike nichols: a life). and i remember being very moved by a review i read of it ages ago by natalie walker where she talks abt vanya on 42nd street. the first part is about stanislavsky and russian theatre history — really fascinating!
I watched the first half of Shin Godzilla last night and it is so great. Austin said it feels like a Wes Anderson movie and… it does! It totally does! Hideaki Anno you will always be famous.
I subscribed around the time you had just finished middlemarch may but that kinda inspired me so im doing a (perhaps more basic??) middlemarch march 😅 i am def behind (a little over a third of the way through when march is half gone) but am enjoying it so far. Though like all books of this era from england it’s so easy to get lost in the sentences once it’s been going on for 10 lines in a book with the tiniest print!
Am also stepping out today to see the fugitive in a theater for the first time as a lot of critics i love and trust speak highly of it and its been a blind spot for me. Feels kind of sacrilegious to watch it without my dad but i hope he wont mind if i keep air force one in my back pocket
Saw Love Lies Bleeding and it's the best use of cigarettes in film since Maestro!!! Love gay cigarette movies. My book club suggestion is dune messiah lol. Have a good week fran
I am so late to this, but I saw Problemista a few weeks ago and am dying to know the official Fran stance on it. Mostly on the score, which I can’t believe I’m not hearing people talk about more.
I would like to whole heartedly recommend a double feature of JLo’s recent visual album AND documentary (in that order). I am a JLo sceptic (I agree, in part, with Ayo), and there is something so fascinating about watching someone self-finance and create an absolutely mediocre piece of art. Also Baffleck appears frequently both on camera AND as her talking head interviewer (and possibly camera tech?)
i have been largely illiterate recently but i am trying to continue my nabokov kick. finishing pale fire in the middle of a 16-hour flight on very little sleep was a religious experience but it also ensured that i still have no idea what was happening, so i am rereading. also doing ada.
film-wise i recently watched spring breakers...hmmmmm but also i liked those pink balaclavas. strangely enough i think early korine might be more for me if i get around to it.
I’ve had such a great week of movie watching. A theater by me does surprise screenings the second Wednesday of the month, and I showed up and saw Mel Brooks’ The Producers for the first time. Pretty amazing to see such an early Gene Wilder performance. Also watched Hunt for Red October for the first time. Dad-core all around
Also started Beef (which it feels everybody else watched over a year ago at this point) and at first I felt unsure of its “A24/indie/cool” aesthetic but a couple eps in and it’s really feeling very unexpected and super moving—really loving it.
I watched Joyland a few days with my boyfriend and flatmate which mostly made me angry about the patriarchy but also made me miss living in a big city in India. Okay I gotta say there is something to watching a film that is not in English and understanding it mostly - interesting to see for example when the script had Haider start using a more intimate form of 'you' for Biba, the queen.
I finally finished The Ministry for the Future which was like... well researched but so bloodless. I'm now rereading Caoilinn Hughes back catalogue so I can discuss her new book once everyone else has read it when it comes out in April. I reckon The Alternatives is gonna be a very acclaimed 'climate book' because it IS deeply interested in human relationships.
also having a great time with arts festival season in my city, there is some very cool experimentation of stuff like didgeridoo and chamber music that fills me with joy and curiosity! and this week I'm going to a magic show to review for work!
I also have a question for the Fran Magazine community that I would like some ideas about: when, or whether, do podcasts count as art?
I started watching Taskmaster UK on your rec and i’m hooked !!! My partner and I started with the most recent series and we’ve been working our way backward — any fav series/contestants? After years of being burnt out on Comedians In General it’s wild to realize there’s a whole other crop of cool/funny/hot people across the pond …
I inherited a nintendo switch a couple years ago and have been slowly trying out the video game thing - I got a pokemon game and its been a lot of fun catching up on what I missed out on in the 2nd grade
taking students on a field trip to see kung fu panda 4 this week so i’m sort of frantically watching kfp 1-3 to make sure i’m caught up on the lore (??). would not recommend…
i also started two new film studies classes last week and we’re watching keaton shorts rn. WOULD recommend!
reading The Sympathizer in anticipation/prep for the upcoming park chan wook X rdj miniseries. enjoying!