fame as infection

self-regard wrested from self.
of course the alternative is isolation. think of conrad's nostromo--horrible didacticism but that image of losing sense of self adrift under merciless sun

art =

need
be crushed by the need, enfeebled, flee it, bury it
or meet it

chapters in film - bildungcinema

1. shyness
2. cowardice
3. greed
4. lust
5. dysfunction of the above
6. the city
7. the dogooders
8. the family
9. the country
10. the career

Movie: You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

kept you strung along, but it had that kind of static mechanized quality of much of late Allen (last 20 years...) where the characters were ultimately looked down upon, judged on their folly, and simply instrumental to a worked out plot. characters never overflow it, control it. that said, it was very entertaining. Vicki Christina had something extra that's been lacking in many lately, including this one. Anthony Hopkins such a grotesque, maybe too close to home. it's funny, but I think of Mike Leigh and I think of Woody Allen, and while there's this huge level of caricature often in Leigh, he sears right through to something elemental so often. plot doesn't take the upperhand as much--more like Altman that way. all about behavior...though so much more discipline than Altman.

film capturing the moments of retirement

of various people. the weightlessness. the drear to follow

of certain friends on facebook

i say to myself, come on, they can't be that narcissistic, they can't they can't. not even shy about it, not even trying to ironize it, cloak it, they can't not disguise it...oh yes they can..

professional appreciator

laudable as that would be, cannot be one

Musical Chairs

film about midlife crisis, feeling an imposter, never installed, never fitting in

Loudmouths doc

Auctioneers, dance callers

Being right

The last refuge of the powerless.

The virtue of being right vs. actually achieving the goal. Distrust of manipulators...

how did one get from here to here

soft sensitive caring precious
to
knee-jerk carping alarmist hording avaricious

nyc as sentimentalization of money

self-congratulatory, emotionally extorting, hypocritical gloss-over brutality
creator of "despite the odds" stories of those who clawed through the bloody flotsam
triumph of the human spirit story
apologist for this seething mess

millionaire who intentionally falls for every scam

internet or otherwise in an effort to down in flames