On Random

Who wouldn’t love a band called Bohren & der Club of Gore, especially when they title their songs “Maximum Black,” “Street Tattoo,” “Destroying Angels,” “On Demon Wings,” “The Art of Coffins,” “Nightwolf” and so on. What’s funnier is that my Windows Media Player lists their music as “easy listening.”

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Finished Yes by Bernhard. Loved it. That I am just discovering his work (as arrogant a thing to say as can be said, much like Columbus “discovering” the New World or the yuppie brigade discovering green wine) mildly upsets me. I seem compelled to put another writer’s book between his, having read The Loser, and then Mammals by Pierre Merot, then Yes, and am now starting Swallowing Stones by Lisa St. Aubin de Terán, which, so far, based on 24 pages, is pretty captivating, though there’s a long way to go. More on that as I progress.

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Didn’t see the Dirty Harry is a racist with a shotgun and doesn’t want kids on his lawn movie, though I really want to. Instead, saw Brad Pitt as an old man who backwards ages, which I enjoyed quite a lot, thank you very much. It appears that I am incapable of watching standard American 90 minute films. The last few movies I’ve sat down and watched were loooooooong. Ben Buttons (which was not very much like the F. Scott Fitzgerald story) was long. I spent the hellidays watching Peter O’Toole in The Ruling Class, which was amazing and, yes, quite long. I have, at home, La Dolce Vita. And then there’s the Bollywood movies mi niña brings over, the last one, Silsila was a solid 3 hours. I’m feeling slightly exhausted.

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Began teaching the class last weekend. This shall prove interesting, agonizing, odd. Stay tuned for updates in that regard, but yeah, moving on…

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That’s it, goddamnit.