Concrete Mysticism

While occasionally dipping into syrupy sweet sentimentality, My Architect: A Son's Journey is a fantastic documentary and fascinating exploration into the varied private and public lives of architect Louis I. Kahn.

Nathaniel Kahn clearly is not a professional documentarian - his interview style is amateurish and I was often forced to wonder if the musical advisors were actually present during the music selection process, or if they were just figments of the director's imagination.  Nevertheless, viewing this film was a powerful cinematic experience - and one that I hope to repeat.

The film's thoughtful visiting of several of Kahn's most inspired works - the Salk Institute in La Jolla and the National Capitol of Bangladesh among them - brought their beauty and intensity to life.  [I know that sounds lame, but let me tell you: Kahn's stunning creations evoke tears from people repeatedly throughout the film and left this little movie watcher crying as well...]

Kahn the younger also treats the viewer to an impressive line-up of interviewees: I.M. Pei, Robert A. M. Stern, Philip Johnson, and Frank Gehry.  By the looks of the stylishly bespectacled Johnson in his sweet and hilarious interview at the Glass House, My Architect may have captured one of Johnson's last interviews on film.  Truly important history here.

It was also fascinating to see the archival footage of Kahn in his prime - clearly a self-contained, passionate, intelligent man.  Yes, the tales of his extramarital activities shatter any idyllic image an architecture lover would wish to hold of this genius, but the "Family Matters" section was the least consequential segment of the film [for anyone outside of the immediate family, that is].  While it's understandable that N. Kahn needed to make the film personal, viewers everywhere should be thankful that he managed to surpass the private exploration of his father's life to provide an in depth portrait of a man and his craft.  Wow.

Perhaps unbeknownst to the filmmaker, he also provided ample evidence of the past and present sexism in the field of architecture.  Is it any coincidence that both of the women with whom Kahn had children, but to whom he was not married, were incredible architects in their own right whose names will be long forgotten?  [Remember: Ann Tyng and Harriet Patterson!]  Not to mention the builder or contractor interviewed in the film who described Kahn as being "like a wife" - always coming up with ideas that would have been good "a few days ago."  Argh.

There's really so much more to discuss - the mysterious circumstances of Kahn's death; Harriet's convictions that are sad in their strength and desperation; Ann's emotional revisiting of the Trenton bath house; the cool-ass musical boat.  Aw hell - just go see it for yourself.

Infinite Cat Project

Wow.  Check out the Infinite Cat Project found through elf-reflection.  Certainly one of the coolest things I will ever see in my lifetime.

Once I Related to Sex and the City

OK, so I'm not saying I'm a huge fan of Sex and the City - well, okay, I know all the complex nuances of the characters and their respective sub-plots - but there once was a time when I actually got what Carrie Bradshaw was saying.  I mean, really got it and was happy someone was putting it out there.

So, here it is: Carrie was complaining about how single people are expected to attend their friends' baby and bridal showers, weddings and baptisms, engagement parties and children's birthdays - all of which do not have an equivalent for the single person.  Sure, we get birthdays (and my friends are always good about remembering and celebrating those), but there's no comparison really, if you add up the various celebrations throughout a lifetime. 

Now, I'm not saying I don't want to celebrate friends' and relatives' happiness - I just wonder at the extreme societal forces pushing people together into couplehood and then continually creating ways in which to celebrate said couplehood through gift-giving, employee benefits, and general social acceptance.  Sigh.  It almost makes me wish DQ actually did make those cakes they advertise for root canals...

All of which I say as a preface to encouraging you to look at the Alternatives to Marriage Project.  A lot of what they spout makes sense to me.  And they make their point in fun ways - check out the Unmarried Song Lyrics page, featuring songs by Kristin Hersh and Joni Mitchell among others!  They also take up the important issue of Welfare and Marriage Promotion.

Damn it - the social forces are so strong, I once again feel the need to reiterate that I enjoy my friends' and relatives' happiness and hold no personal grudges against those who wish to celebrate such things as weddings and births.  I'm just raising the question about the social and religious structures that are in place that exert such a preference for certain lifestyles over others.

Exploding Dog

So maybe I'm the last person to have heard of Exploding Dog, but I find it amusing.  Some of them are rather cheesey and obvious, but others live up to the potential of what this website could be.  Some of my favorites:

• the end with you
• and he did that
• i am not really jealous
• don't wake me

Searching for The Fallopian Tubes

During my mass purchasing of used cds this past weekend, I ran across a $1.99 disc for the all-female band The Fallopian Tubes titled Because Rock and Roll Isn't Pretty.  Having never heard of them (the band, that is, not the tubes), I thought I'd give it a shot.  I was thoroughly impressed and amused by their unique sound and wacky, hilarious lyrics.  In attempting to find more information on the band, I ran across remnants of their existence, but no current info:
 
They once had an official band website.  Yes they did.  You can go to their former web address here.  As you can see, now there are just ads for tubal reversals and "Fallopian Tubes Products."  My curiosity piqued, I clicked on the "Products" link and was treated to the e-bay auction for the classic treatise The Fallopian Tube: A Reappraisal by Carl J. Pauerstein, which is now apparently extremely out of print.  I wonder what the initial "appraisal" concluded...
 
The band's apparently still around, though, as a recent article mentions their performance at Girls Rock! Day in St. Petersburg in April 2004.  Anyway, my search for info on the band was extremely brief, so if anyone unearths more about them than their Floridian affiliation, I'd be interested in hearing it. 

Straight from the Jackass's Mouth

Just a quick note to say: Check out the latest State Department press release re: funding for UNFPA and its work in China.  Despite a State Department sponsored fact-finding mission report to the contrary, Powell and the Bush Administration continue to hide behind the supposed link between UNFPA and coerced abortions in China as their reason for not funding UNFPA.  Will wonders never cease...

Free Ride on the Chungking Express

One of the best things about Washington, D.C. in the summertime: the annual Made in Hong Kong Film Festival at the Freer and Sackler Galleries.

Tonight's viewing should be fantastic - featuring Running on Karma, a Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai co-directed flick that stars one of Hong Kong film's best, Andy Lau. To and Wai are the same masterminds behind one of my favorite screenings from last year's festival, Fulltime Killer, which also starred Andy Lau and an equally impressive Takashi Sorimachi.

The rest of the festival's schedule looks appealing too, and includes the requisite Wong Kar Wai feature - this year it's the ever-so-popular Chungking Express. Though I've seen it more than a few times, I never get tired of the idea of expressing one's secret love through the stealthy cleaning of an apartment.

Appropriate Appropriations

And two items from the ever-expanding files of "Why Having Women in Elective Office Matters"...

1. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME)introduced and helped pass an amendment to the latest Department of Defense appropriations bill that would require the grossly negligent DoD to pay for abortions for military personnel, their spouses, and their dependents who have been raped or are victims of incest. It's one step in the right direction, but there is so much more to do on this issue...

2. Rep. Nita M. Lowey (D-NY)'s remarkable opening statement at the FY2005 Foreign Operations Subcommittee Markup on June 23rd. Just in case you don't read through the whole thing, here's her rad chastisement of the Bush administration's continued failure to give funding to UNFPA.

I would like to register my displeasure that, once again, our bill fails to include language that will restore funding for the life-saving activities of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). I expect that there will be an amendment on this issue at Full Committee markup, and I hope my colleagues will support it.

Rape Nation

"Rape is one of the greatest tools of war, and our government is essentially saying that rape of human beings is acceptable. We are a rape nation and this is all being done in our name." Check out the entire revealing AlterNet article here.

Cure for the Common Curse

While the current AL East standings have me feeling less than thrilled, a June 30th NY Times article actually presents a happier side to the infamous Sox/Yanks rivalry.

It also provides yet another piece of evidence for why Tim Wakefield should go down in Red Sox history as being one of the classiest, most entertaining, most humble players ever to have the honor of wearing the Sox uniform.

What's in a song?

It's amazing how individual songs and their respective covers can have such different meanings and evoke such a variety of feelings depending upon the artist, venue, and life context of the listener.

I hate to get all schlocky about this, but Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" is certainly one such song for me.

I must admit that the first version I heard was Jeff Buckley's haunting interpretation on his album "Grace." It was certainly the most beautiful song on that album and continues to be one of my favorites.

When I finally did hear Cohen's original, I thoroughly enjoyed it, but it somehow did not spark the same emotional response. And though I love Rufus Wainwright, his all-too-speedy, flippant cover of such an amazing tune was extremely ill-advised.

Having recently undergone a substantial move (from Minneapolis to Washington, D.C.), I was happy to spend my first Saturday night in the District listening to a friend of a friend play some respectable coffee house music at Murky Coffee. He was followed by a similarly respectable performer, who I was content to listen to while gazing out the window or talking with my friend and her brother.

Then - the performer, Sam Kim, muttered something about doing a "cover of a cover" and proceeded to knock me cold with a cover of Jeff Buckley's cover of Hallelujah. Welcome to D.C., Sarah.

Scraping the dregs

So it appears the Democratic presidential nominee is proposing an increase in the minimum wage. It's about damn time, but is it enough?

Here in Minnesota, a Humphrey Institute professor and economist recently published a brief that makes "A Case for a Substantial Minimum Wage Hike for Minnesota." She and her colleagues note that the real value of the minimum wage in Minnesota has fallen from $8.27 to $5.15 over the years, and they also call for an increase to $7/hr. [The authors also astutely note that those who claim a minimum wage increase will disproportionately affect the income of teenagers or other, apparently less worthy, single workers are making an argument that is remarkably akin to those made to "legitimize" paying women less than their husbands...]

Of course, people are also afraid of the negative economic consequences of such a "substantial" increase to the minimum wage. While Card and Krueger have been forced to revise some of their conclusions, I do believe that their research offers some powerful evidence that, in the limited circumstances they analyzed, the minimum wage increase did not have a severe negative impact on the local economies in question.

While I'm still not sure of the adequacy of the $7 level, at least the minimum wage discussion appears to be starting again on the national stage. Especially given the CEO salaries compiled by xx in today's posting, you would think companies could pony up a bit more.

Oh yeah. But I forgot that companies like Wal-Mart are spending all their money in order to engage in sleazy tactics like there's no tomorrow. How could they ever afford to pay their workers more than $7 when they're spending millions to bust up unions?

Don't Tell Me What's 'Intellectually Stimulating'

From a "dear bitch" letter in the Spring 2004 issue of Bitch magazine:

I know some intelligent people who gave parenting a real try and weren't turned on by it. But I can't help considering that a character flaw. People who are intellectually alive ought to be capable of being interested in children.

-John Schapiro
Philadelphia, PA

First, I can't help but notice that the author of these accusatory statements is a man. Assuming, of course, that the loaded prenom 'John' usually represents a male perspective...

Second, now not only are women who choose not to breed (1) upsetting the "natural" gender order, (2) demonstrating our ultimate self-involvement, and (3) letting the rest of society down by not contributing to the furthering of the human race, but we are also...(4) quite stupid.

Clearly, if women who claim to be intelligent cannot connect to children, they are just not using their intelligence properly. Or they are simply not as smart as they claim to be. Yes, clearly. Say what?

Due to the variety of human nature, individual people are stimulated aesthetically, intellectually, and, I might add, physically and emotionally, by extremely different works of art, pieces of music, writings, films, people, places, scents, sexual acts, foods, etc., etc. Why should children be the universal intellectual stimulant?

John's argument seems to be, conveniently, yet another way of making women who decide not to pursue childrearing feel guilty, de-gendered, and now stupid as well. Enough already.

I do not find children intellectually stimulating. I just don't. And I don't feel guilty about it. I don't want to be criticized for preferring: to watch a film noir, to read a feminist detective novel, to analyze anti-poverty policy, to bake goodies, to walk or rollerblade or skateboard around my neighborhood, to chat with adult friends, or to sit in my own quiet apartment by myself...to raising a child. I am not saying that there aren't women and men who find raising children intellectually challenging and rewarding. I just think it's dangerous to question the intellect of any person who does not "get turned on" by raising children.

So - if I have to choose between having a character flaw or having children...goddamit, please just call me stupid.

What a Difference a Year Makes

Things I am legally allowed to do in this country:
1) Vote
2) Join the armed forces and fight, though only in limited situations due to my gender
3) Give birth to and raise children, as frightening as that scenario is to me
4) Run for certain elective offices
5) Fly a plane
6) Practice law or medicine, if I desired to attend and was smart enough to speed through medical or law school

What I must wait one more year to do, according to most of the companies I contacted today:
1) RENT A CAR!

Oh, the absurdity of it all...

Ghost Dog It Ain't; But Still Quietly Fun

Some recent criticism of Jim Jarmusch's latest flick, Coffee and Cigarettes, seems to take the "unreached potential" slant, a view with which I have a little trouble aligning myself.

For example, in an overall favorable IMDb review of the Benigni/Wright skit that opens the film, Filmjack 3 writes, "The letdown is that the laughs aren't as great as they could've been."

Additionally, a fine friend and fellow blogger discusses the "irritatingly trite and banal" dialogue in which the actors engage throughout a great number of the skits, and also slanders the amusing and endearing Waits/Pop skit as "wasteful."

My perspective on why the movie appears to some not to have always met its "potential," especially with respect to the verbal exchanges and level of celebrity witticism:

1) The actors/musicians/famous peeps in this film are supremely talented folk. We expect them to be brilliant, especially in a film that echoes certain French New Wave films from a certain era of which we're all aware that emphasized deep conversation and astute insights into humanity...oh the profundity! [An obvious comparison I'm somewhat ashamed to make here...]

2) BUT: that is precisely not what Jarmusch set out to do! As described in the official synopsis of the film on its website [note: by way of using the word 'official,' I do not mean to imply any superior authority of perspective], "Jarmusch delves into the normal pace of our world from an extraordinary angle..."
Exactly - he wanted to capture the normal awkwardness and ineptitude that many of us face in day-to-day social situations, including coffeeshop interactions. Celebs are not to be exempted from these social difficulties, even when meeting people with whom they ostensibly have much in common (thinking the Waits/Pop vignette here...)

3) The film's efficacy lies in the very fact that the viewer is not allowed to be mesmerized by witty repartee (though, as Cheek notes, the visuals are quite mesmerizing...), but instead is forced to confront the fact, which I find rather endearingly human, that everyone is subject to periods of social awkwardness, though some experience far more of these situations than others. [On a side note: I actually did find the verbal exchanges, even those seemingly reeking of banality, amusing..."Are you saying I'm a Taco Bell kind of guy?"]

4) If you accept my interpretation of Jarmusch's choice of dialogue, or anti-dialogue, if you will, for his comic skits, then the combination of the words, music, and visuals of the film make it starkly original, smart, and beautiful. Which, in my book, meets any possible potential a creator of a film may want to meet.

Though not as subtle and entertaining as Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, C&C was a fine way to spend a Saturday afternoon in good company, and I probably will see it again.

P.S. Do check out the official movie website for some clips from the movie, as well as the cool, though rather unnecessary, opportunity to customize a cup of coffee for your very own virtual coffee break...

Goose on a spit

“‘All I know is I feel good going to bed nights, Doug. That’s a happy ending once a day. Next morning I’m up and maybe things go bad. But all I got to do is remember that I’m going to bed that night and just lying there a while makes everything okay.’”
-Tom to Doug in Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

“...rolling over and over, four sides at five minutes per side, a Goose upon Insomnia’s spit...”
-Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon

Lately I've been plagued by bouts of insomnia worse than usual. I'm not entirely sure what that's about, but I do know that being speared and cooked on "Insomnia's spit" completely negates the comfort that Bradbury's character purports can be found in bed. Instead, it seems as if my bed has become a nightly opponent who can only bring frustration, inspire mindless punches into my mattress, or deliver bouts of fear related to ants and spiders.

Ahhh...well...who needs sleep anyway?

City Scape

Word on the street in DC is that there was a plethora of tour buses in the city, carting around folks interested in viewing the casket of the former Prez. [Literally, this was the word on the street, as my friend was relating the tour bus viewing while he was walking the streets of Washington today.] This friend, a federal employee, also let me in on the fact that all federal employees were told to be gone by 3:30 p.m. While an interesting factoid, what intrigued me even more during our conversation was the fact that while he was walking the streets of DC talking to me, I was walking the streets of Minneapolis. And how someone had planned the layout and names of these streets. And how some urban planners are supremely more inspired than others.

Here are some of my faves:
Pierre-Charles L'Enfant, who of course is largely responsible for the plan of our fair District of Columbia. [Check this out for an interesting glimpse into (or perhaps random speculation about) L'Enfant's personal life.]

James Edward Oglethorpe, who designed Savannah into a gorgeous, squareful city. Check out this biography and portrait expertly executed by children of the Calvary Baptist Day School.

Baron Georges Hausmann, who obviously knew what he was doing in creating a brilliant 12-spoke wheel within Paris. But - I wonder if the city would have maintained more of its charm without the expansive streets of Hausmann's design that are now lined with Gaps, Sephoras, and other capitalist enterprises...

Madam Secretary

If only she could run for President...

This afternoon at a discussion about her book Madam Secretary Madeleine Albright unequivocally demonstrated her wit, intellect, and just general awesomeness. She provided clever insights into the current administration's [mis]behavior and related some rather humorous stories about her tenure as Secretary of State.

A particularly witty story about her relationship with and role in ousting then-UN Sec-General Boutros-Gahli:

[As related by Albright and re-imagined by myself]
BBG: I went to a Nigerian seer and he told me there was a woman named Madeleine and that she would betray me.
MA: [thinking to herself] My name is Madeleine...and so I will...

I have yet to read her memoir, but am now looking forward to it. She supposedly wove gender throughout her telling of her personal and political exploits.

Speaking of gender, in addressing a question about the women involved in the Abu Ghraib atrocity, she emphasized her belief in the necessity of having women in the military, but stated that they can't just become "one of the boys"...mmmhmm, yes.

[On a side note, I was the recipient of a random act of kindness today when a Loft Literary Center board member, upon overhearing of my lack of funds and consequent inability to purchase a book to have Ms. Albright sign, turned around and gave me her extra copy. "I have two and was trying to decide who I should give the second one to anyway..."

People can truly be beautiful when they want to. Thank you, Joanne.]