quietly bad service at La Indita (waitress was a "volunteer"), then huge hard-to-know-how-they-are-connected-but-apparently-a-family family came in and moved chairs and banged into me. We moved the table and then my chair to the other side of the table. I glared my fiercest glares but they didn't notice. Patriarch of the family was a fabulous ( Read more... )

I don't have the silent version of Blackmail. I found a bootleg copy online for $45, which seems steep even after the 15% "educator discount." But I must have it. I will forego the other obscure Hitchcocks also available on this site, at least for the moment, because they are reaallly expensive ( Read more... )

Damn Hitchcock, anyway--damn his eyes and the eyes of Jimmy Stewart looking through his long lens in Rear Window. Damn Cary Grant and his elegance in a suit even when running from a plane. Damn Peter Lorre throwing subtlety out the window and beginning his career of leering in The Secret Agent. Damn vanilla-flavored Joan Fontaine in everything ( ( Read more... )

Just when you thought I'd never post again!
Trying to write a book on performance in film is kicking my ass. Once again I wonder if academia is worth the damage. It's a lot better than coal mining, but I bet coal miners don't blame themselves for their mental inertia. Well---black lung. Think about it. But that's my problem: thinking.

Paper cuts always seem so unfair. You are virtuously shuffling papers and then--blood spurts from your extremities.
I just collided with my dog's head--shinbone to head bone contact. His head is the hardest substance known to mankind, so this is a debilitating injury.

Have you ever noticed how unattractive skinheads usually are?

http://www.freewebs.com/idateskinheads/

An irritating grad student in my department once said to me, "You look exactly like Rosie O'Donnell!" He seemed oblivious to the idea that that might not please me, not that she's that bad looking, but it's like a Republican telling you you remind him of Hilary Clinton ( Read more... )

The Dow Jones lost 777 points yesterday and has gone up about 270 points so far today. That's like me gaining seven pounds but then losing a kilo the next day. My body, my stock market.

I lost 4 pounds and then gained them back. I guess it was just because I was sick.

The building blocks of my life are crumbling. I guess it's good to be in free fall. Like the time I decided to go to Honduras although my wallet had been stolen and I had nothing but a passport. Free fall.