“JOKING, OF COURSE”: Three more quick thoughts about The Comedians and “Greeneland.” 1. Honky-Talk Heroes: It’s possible that you’ve heard the phrase, “What these people need is a honky!” It’s usually used to describe a particular kind of movie–I haven’t seen either of these, but Dances With Wolves and Avatar are pretty frequently cited as culprits–in which a nonwhite or coded-as-nonwhite culture can only stand up to its oppressors once it’s been shown the way by the white-ass honky man.... Read more

Are you gonna go to the Sodom and Gomorrah Show?It’s got blogwatching you need for your complete entertainment… Crazy Bus Stops. I want to catch the s4 from a peach or a watermelon! Or a swingset, wow. What a completely different understanding of public space is implied by that concept. I love it so much. And so I don’t mean to chastise whoever thought of it. I think it’s great. But honestly–if bus stops are your refuge, is this the... Read more

CINEMA PURGATORIO: Lots of quick film notes. I wish I had something more substantive to say about all of these, and welcome your thoughts. The Comedians: An all-star cast does Graham Greene’s Haiti novel. Masks are what we have instead of command; masks are what we have instead of peace. Haiti is shocking and it isn’t much prettified. (I don’t know where this was filmed.) The Catholicism starts to feel strenuous–even in Haiti, I’m pretty sure you can invoke the... Read more

PLAYING SPIDER: ZOMG you guys you guys!!! The Final Girl Film Club is this Monday, and I get to be in it… because they’re doing Spider Baby!!! You can play too; click here for details, but basically you just watch the movie, which you can do online, and then post something about it. Read more

IN STENCIL on the mudflaps of a passing truck, Scott Circle: SAFETY IS JOY. Read more

THANK GOD FOR MISSISSIPPI: There is a fun meme called “red families vs. blue families.” This Seussian formula may not be especially based on the book of the same name, which I haven’t read and which I therefore don’t want to assimilate to the sins of its followers. But the meme itself is not really new. The idea is that families in “blue states” are relatively adept at transmitting some aspects of a marriage culture to their children. Massachusetts, e.g.,... Read more

GEORGIAN CONVICTS SWAP CELLS FOR MONASTERY: …The main difference, though, is that Tariel is not a fully-fledged monk, but a prisoner now serving out his sentence at the Father Ambrosi Khelaia monastery near Tbilisi. Having spent four years behind bars and barbed wire, he is now allowed to roam the calm surroundings of a pine forest on the outskirts of the city, as one of the first candidates in a government-led rehabilitation programme. A devout Orthodox Christian, he shows me... Read more

“TOP 12 THINGS I NOTICED FOR THE FIRST TIME UPON SEEING CITIZEN KANE IN A THEATER.” My old post about CK noir-as-horror is here. Read more

[clipped] You sinned well enough in your youth. Don’t drag its legacy on. –Solomon Ibn Gabirol, tr Cole Read more

TELL MY HORSE: Nalo Hopkinson’s first novel, Brown Girl in the Ring, comes with cover blurbs from Octavia Butler and Tim Powers; and if you like either of those authors, you should definitely check it out. It’s set in a future-Toronto urban wasteland, with goats cropping grass in the parks and feral children living in the subways. A Caribbean-Canadian mother and daughter fight to save the daughter’s lover from the clutches of the local gang kingpin, with the equivocal help... Read more