In 1969, a lonesome amateur scholar, David Rodinsky, disappeared without trace from his caretaker’s garret above the Princelet Street Synagogue in Jewish East London. His room, unsealed a decade later, was filled with curious artifacts, including a street atlas of the city marked up with routes of unusual walks, mystical tracts, and papers inscribed with […]
...moreMy Winnipeg, Guy Maddin’s ‘docu-fantasia’ film about Winnipeg, Manitoba, should be out on DVD soon. Apparently there’s a book in the works as well. If you don’t know Maddin’s work, it might be described as Canadian ice cream noir, blending outrageous narrative stunts with antique cinematic effects designed to make his films look like they […]
...moreThe PBS investigative documentary series Frontline presents some of the best television produced in America. At its web site (here), you can watch over 70 episodes of the program, all for free. In one recent installment (available in full here), The Hugo Chavez Show, Frontline went in depth on the man John Lee Anderson calls […]
...moreA truly terrible song must be: a) insanely catchy, b) ridiculously soulless, and c) absolutely serious about its own genius. Billy Joel’s ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’ takes the cake. (The astonishing video is here.) That song has lyrics like ‘JFK / blown away / what else do I have to say?’ (as it turns […]
...moreThis pre-election comment still pleases me: Here’s why you should vote: you are going to really love it, the whole strange procedure. You get to walk right into a building that you would never normally be allowed in, often an elementary school. You can pause in the hallway to look at all the weird school-art and […]
...moreSo, like, what’s your favorite love scene from the movies? I would like to know yours. Mine is this motel seduction sequence from Bottle Rocket. I believe that part of its imperfect perfection lies in the choice of music, “Alone Again Or,” by Love, with its mariachi horns absurdly invoking the allure of Inez. The […]
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