thin red line

Just finished watching the thin red line, just finished reading it too.
More often than not a film version of a novel falls short of doing the story justice and tends to undermine the underlying, fundamental importance of the tale. That is not the case here where the film manages to accomplish much in the way of complementing the novel. Malick and company do the film medium proud in this piece.

Much differs between the novel and the film and in most ways I think the cinematic version plays better; the dialogue in the film is stronger than it is in the novel, the complexity of the subject matter (death) is emotionally and intellectually explored, in my opinion, with more profundity than it is in the novel... Malick makes the green seem greener than it reads in its counterpart. This is meant as no slight against James Jones' novel, it is worth a read, if you enjoy war novels, and it reads quick too. James' novel is sharp and good.

The film does use some hyperbolic voice over, which in my opinion weakens it.

poem

Has this medicine
created the stench
that sticks stubbornly
to me?

fancy, ruled out well

three full days
this funk has shadowed me,
what can it be?

Thoughts of Poe

Gulliver's Stories

Gulliver sat up. Pigeon flames, he thought. Feathers and crowds, that lady throwing stale bread hard and with force, the teeth chattering along the concrete, white spots, sneezes. That was one dream I’d rather forget, but I’ll write it down anyway.

NYT Front Page - Friday 13th, 2009

foto by Ruth Fremson

concerning child starvation in India

yeah

blood is bloody
npr has a concert podcast on itunes that has a 2 hour tom waits concert recorded last year in atlanta... move your ass

ruminations....

we've been watching alot of weeds... Why? Oh, the comfort in television... being in the zone... or out of the zone... television is mostly bad, and weeds is no exception... i guess i like mary louis parker...

happy birthday erin!

Bibliotherapy

An interesting article from 1972 Time Magazine.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,903355-1,00.html

Sappho

To Andromeda

That country girl has witched your wishes,
all dressed up in her country clothes
and she hasn't got the sense
to hitch her rags above her ankles.
- Sappho
__________________________________________________
Her life has always interested me. Born around 630 BC, an aristocrat, married and had a daughter, Cleis. Due to the obvious advantages of wealth, she was able to dedicate her life to the study of arts on the island of Lesbos - a cultural epicenter at the time. Yes, we associate Lesbos with lesbians, and yes, Sappho did write most of her poetry to women and the love therin; however, she also wrote these same women their wedding songs when they went off and married men. In fact, her poetry was not condemned at the time for homo-erotic sentiments; it is only in these days now that we seem to call her out on this. Perhaps a woman's love for another woman was thought of differently back then - perhaps it was better accepted. Most of Sappho's relationships with women to whom she wrote her poems for, were teacher student relationships. I immediately think of Simone de Beauvoir and her apparent affairs with young women that seeked knowledge (She Came to Stay comes to mind).

Sappho was a lyricist because her poetry, like most poetry back then, was meant to be performed, to be sung and to be heard. However, what's interesting about her poetry is that is written from the perspective of an individual, not a god or muse; the personal vantage point.

I love this line most: "That country girl has witched your wishes." Maybe it's the alliteration of witched and wishes, or maybe it's just the image of a simple girl in checks, driving another mad - creating those dancing figures in the head.

*Note: The information above is from one source, others, might lead you to a different view of her life. We never do know...

fortune cookie

never set the tiger free if you live in the mountain.

Thelonious Monk at Town Hall

wnyc.org has recreated Thelonious' 1959 concert at town hall... was my very first jazz album owned... link on title...
How does he always manage to look so fucking cool?

Blade Runner

I stayed up late last night watching Blade Runner in bed and again I was impressed.

Aside from the voice over. I hate voice over ~ and I hated Harrison Ford's voice over. The film would be better without voice over! Voice over almost ruins Terrence Malick's films for me and I love him.

At any rate, already knowing the ending to the film didn't make it less enjoyable to watch, it was a bit fun.

In general I am not that big of a fan of hard-line Sci-Fi films, but Ridely Scott's film feels more Noir to me.

update: Ralph has just informed me that the director's cut can be viewed without voice-over.