CK, forever

A Look at overlooked gems -- Here are 10 portrayals in 2006 movies, each very good, that didn't deserve to be missed
By someone or other
(well, not me)

``Some movie performances are simply destined to be overlooked, either because they are in the shadow of a showier lead actor or because the movie itself remained below most people's radar. Here are 10 performances from 2006 you should have noticed, and, thanks to the modern miracle of DVD, you can catch up with, now or soon.

so...here is picking three.

Lili Taylor as Paula Klaw in The Notorious Bettie Page. It will probably be Taylor's career fate to be among the perennially overlooked, despite the fact that she rarely gives a bad performance in a range of odd roles. This film about the real-life '50s pin-up queen belonged to the previously overhyped Gretchen Mol, but Taylor was much more interesting as the tough-talking photography-studio moll.

Catherine Keener as Christine in Friends With Money. In the ensemble cast of this far-above-average character-driven comedy, most of the attention went to Friends star and recent real-life divorcee Jennifer Aniston and Oscar winner Frances McDormand, who had a couple of showy, angry meltdown scenes. But notice the fine work from Keener as a screenwriter drifting apart from her husband-collaborator, a subtle, funny portrait of money not buying happiness.

Robin Wright Penn as Phoebe in Sorry, Haters. A reunion of the people who saw this dark-toned, post-Sept. 11 character study could be held in a very small room, and perhaps the mark of a first-rate actress is the ability to emerge unscathed from an unsuccessful film. Penn is riveting here as an enigmatic programming executive for an MTV-like cable network with deep-seated hatred, spontaneously lashing out with ethnic epithets. She remains compelling, even when the movie becomes hard to take.

There is only one wish on my mind

There is only one wish on my mind

When this day is through I hope that I will find

That tomorrow will be just the same for you and me

All I need will be mine if you are here

** you know who you are

good omen?

The previous tenant left MANHATTAN inside the dvd player. now, the diane keaton character had a maude in this movie. and lived alone. and erm. suffered from penis envy (which i don't btw). erm and yes. anyway it's a fab movie and it's now mine. ecco.

DAY TWO in new house

so. put out my back trying to fix the flipping murphy. strapped on some underwear from back in the day i wore any onto maude. the flapping mutt has been on the rag for a week now. how long do dog periods last anyway? she's poker dotted the new house. also can't work out the washing machine or rather the spinner so am craddling myself to sleep to the drip dripping of wet clothes. all i need now is maude to pee in the rug and my crappy/fab day will be complete. oh no internet of course. erm.
yes. er

f***king murphy bed

day one in the new flat

well, i've done a partial move. then got distracted by 3 bottles of prosecco and the ghieth sisters. suffering memory blackout at some point and unsure how i got home. i do battle with the above. something snaps. breaks. who the hell knows. am singing and dancing to karen carpenter while fighting the evil bed that wouldn't be slept on. fuker.

this is my karaoke song

come on....every one sing-a-long

this song makes me so happy, and weepy. at the same time. yay.

..Such a feelins comin over me
There is wonder in most everything I see
Not a cloud in the sky.....
...Got the sun in my eyes
...And I wont be surprised if its a dream....

the obsessions that continue into the new year...

sinners. redemption.

things to look forward to in 2007

1. preserving maude's virginity against all odds
2. uncovering new depressing songs for those select, PLUM amsterdam days
3. see to completion project joyless street, a work in progress
4. more crushes, and, *GASP* maybe, EVEN a girlfriend
5. cashew eschewing
6. surfing not in the U.S.A.
7. cook for myself and others
8. a spot of acid under the great oak
9. fencing
10.seeing alessia, avoiding tiz

my new home away from homes

i *think* on the corner may be the bar where i took a sip of someone's ``poncho'' but erm.. maybe not. klunkety klunk was out of commission over christmas. wish i could have said the same about la tiz.

all i seem to do is post films...but..

to paraphrase sic, "films are my life" (as are drinking, maude, the occasional drugs and maremma)

so......


Sulla scia del successo internazionale di Good bye Lenin ecco The Edukators, una nuova e inconsueta satira sulla società condita da una sana nostalgia. Ma le similitudini fra i due film non si limitano a questo: gli attori Daniel Bruhl e Burghart Klaussner recitano le parti principali. Il regista e sceneggiatore austriaco Hans Weingartner ha preso spunto dalle sue esperienze di attivista politico per realizzare The Edukators, opera che narra appunto le vicende di un gruppo di giovani estremisti di sinistra che cercano di cambiare la società nello spirito del ’68. La trama stravagante e i personaggi decisamente convincenti, riescono a mettere in scena perfettamente la natura idealista della ribellione e l’anticonformismo della società attuale.

it's a wonderful life!

every year, round about this time, i suspend my disbelief. and become a believer. again. thanks frank.


'This story is the lousiest cheese...' Capra admitted to his star after making a rotten pitch. Stewart stuck by his favourite director. 'Frank, if you want to do a movie about me committing suicide, with an angel with no wings named Clarence, I'm your boy.'

"happy holidays" (huh?)

By Ethan Stanislawski
Tuesday, November 28th, 2006
There is no day of the year when I am more of a sadist than on Christmas Day. It’s too easy; all I have to do is say “Merry Christmas” to friends who know I’m Jewish, and, like clockwork, they will squirm and eventually come out with a “Happy Holidays.” Sometimes I’ll actively seek out Gentiles just to work this holiday magic.

I don’t bear any ill will toward Christians or Christmas. In fact, I kind of like to see families convene at the end of the year and come together despite all their problems. But what bothers me about Christmas is the guilt that goes with celebrating Christmas today. The “Happy Holidays” revolution represents a failure of political correctness—in exposing the fact that not all Americans celebrate Christmas, we’ve actually created more of a division in our society than we’ve remedied by increasing our awareness. In high school, one of my friends, a completely secular half-Jew, wore a Santa hat to school. She was stopped no fewer than three times and asked, “But aren’t you Jewish?”

This lapse doesn’t mean, like so many like to claim now, that political correctness is without any merits. If a group in our country is continually disenfranchised and excluded from the privileges of the rest of society, we should by all means expose that problem. But changing “Christmas” into “Holidays” solves none of the problems associated with the Christian connection to the largest American holiday. Desperately hyping other holidays which happen to fall in December is an obvious attempt to hide how much Christmas dominates this time of year, and no one is really fooled.

In this sense, I consider it more offensive to popularly celebrate Hanukkah. While Hanukkah is a relatively minor Jewish festival, virtually everyone in the country is aware of it. But how many of those people do you think have heard of Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, the holiest day of the Jewish year? Outside of a few metropolitan areas, that number shrinks dramatically. Are we really being egalitarian if we rank the importance of holidays of other religions by their proximity to Christmas?

The problem with arguing this case, which has caused me and countless other cynical Jews to tone down their rhetoric, is that reactionary conservatives argue along the same line. Bill O’Reilly’s “War on Christmas” is the most famous of these, but countless other far-right pundits have lashed out against the “Happy Holidays” phenomenon in syndicated columns, radio talk shows, and blogs. Are pragmatic Jews and right-wing Christian nationalists really united on this issue?

z, it's coming together, i've had a thought

"Louise Brooks embodied America in the 1920s, and she was also the emblem of decadent Weimar Germany. To quote Stephen Sondheim, in the Depression she was depressed. She is Edna St. Vincent Millay's candle that burned at both ends; the lovely light of the twenties extinguished, Brooks felt that she was a fuck-up, and her self-loathing turned her into a fascinating recluse who spent the rest of her life in bed with books and booze. We'd all like to link failure to integrity, and she managed that quite well. Brooks never lost that first disillusionment in adolescence that seems bottomless because there is nothing to compare it to. Frozen in mortification, her face a lasting monument to outraged purity, she learned not to expect anything from life. Pabst, her erstwhile Von Sternberg and mentor, finally gave up on her childish fury and aimlessness. 'Your life is exactly like Lulu's, he concluded, 'and you will end the same way.'''

Bright Lights Film Journal (Dan Callahan)

shortbus (part II)

We all bear the scars.
Yes, we all fail in love.
We all sigh in the dark;
get cut off before we start.

And as the first act begins,
you realize they're all waiting
for a fall, for a flaw,
for the end.

There's a path stained with tears,
could you talk to quiet my fears?
Could you pull me aside,
just to acknowledge that I've tried?

And as your last breath begins,
contently take it in,
because we all get it in
the end.

And as your last breath begins,
you find your demon's your best friend.
And we all get it in
the end.

(scott matthew)

i have not been this moved, well since last week

and this is the man's link (am overcoming my lifetime aversion to thatspace, fuk it)

YUP!

chico buarque de hollanda

"He writes every day. His country of birth and city of residence still surprise him. 'Every time I drive into Rio from the airport, I see the city for the first time and think how strange it is,' he says. But it is here in the glamour capital of Brazil where the favelas [shanty towns] cling to the mountain sides and Christ the Redeemer stands with open arms to offer protection to the city, that Buarque finds his inspiration. He worries about Brazil's escalating violence. He believes in the democracy of the beach and the passion of football. He supports Rio's home team Fluminense. On his study wall is a framed photograph of himself as a young man with Bob Marley. Both are dressed in football strip. 'Good times,' he says.

A helicopter's shadow passes suddenly overhead. Somewhere a dog begins to bark. It is time for his stroll along the pavement of what is arguably the most famous beach in the world. In Rio even Chico Buarque can walk freely on the beach." (guardian 2004)

Amou daquela vez como se fosse maquina
Beijou sua mulher como se fosse lógico
Ergueu no patamar quatro paredes flacidas
Sentou pra descansar como se fosse um passaro
E flutuou no ar como se fosse um principe
E se acabou no chao feito um pacote bebado
Morreu na contramao atrapalhando o sabado

loss of childhood

"ricordo improvviso che mi passa ora per la mente come un flash e tu giá semiadolescnte, 13 anni credo, ma con paura di crescere, che ti impegnavi a voler vedere film infantili, andammo a Barcellona, credo, a vedere un filmsu cani e gatti molto 'da bambini' e tu ti sentivi giá fuori posto, fuori dall'infanzia, e io lo sapevo, ci siamo entrambe stufate, abbiamo entrambe constatato senza dircelo,ma con un po' di tristezza, che l'infanzia era passata, ma tu non volevi ammetterlo e ti ostinavi a dire che ti era piaciuto! Ti ricordi questo particolare?"

yes, but not the title of the film

yesterday evening

i have faith

Three days was the morning.
My focus three days old.
My head, it landed
To the sounds of cricket bows...

I am proud man anyway...
Covered now by three days...

Three ways was the morning.
Three lovers, in three ways.
We knew when she landed,
Three days she'd stay.

I am a proud man anyway...
Covered now by three days...

We saw shadows of the morning light
the shadows of the evening sun
till the shadows and the light were one.

Shadows of the morning light
the shadows of the evening sun
till the shadows and the light were one...

True hunting is over.
No herds to follow.
Without game, men prey on each other.
The family weakens by the bite we swallow...

True leaders gone,
Of land and people.
We choose no kin but adopted strangers.
The family weakens by the length we travel...

All of us with wings...
All of us with wings...
All of us with wings!
All of us with wings!
All of us with wings!
All of us with wings!

Erotic Jesus lays with his Marys.
Loves his Marys.
Bits of puzzle,
Fitting each other.

All now with wings!

Oh my Marys!
Never wonder...
Night is shelter
For nudity's shiver...

All now with wings...


for those that cannot get enough of donnie darko keep an eye on this

more more and more

errr

left the turdette for two hours and she managed to climb to the top of the balcony piping (feline-like), in an abortive attempt to climb into my room through the window, and trap herself into a treacherous and dangerous corner. she yelped and
after a scurrilous inspection, appears unharmed. i sometimes wonder if she will live past puppyhood.

a struggling single mother...err

F.A.

Hi, my name is errrrr, and i'm a film addict.

8:24 a.m. and it's been 7 films straight.

feeling quite fuked.

goodnight.

loved

overlooked..underrated...featuring both penns...loved (1997)


A man is on trial for battering to near death three ex-girlfriends. prosecutors want to put him away. but they need one of the women to act as a witness against him. she won't. for she believes he was the best thing to have happened to her. and was it? Asked on the stand how she would describe their relationship, she waits, before replying: "I wouldn't."

a wee cracker

“I’m glad to be out of there.”

"am tired"

dedicated to: lil' p (lisa)

the page turner

mmm....am noticing a common denominator.........
rewind to a few years back....a weee french film called... l'accompagnatrice (1992)
now, can anyone who has seen it, forget, la pianiste (2001)?

what am getting at is .... get a french woman, near a piano and a camera and what do you have? 3 bunny-boiling crackers.

beautiful, beautiful, and noble creature

"The baiji, regarded in China as the ``Goddess of the
Yangtze,'' was one of the world's oldest surviving species, at 20
million years, according to the foundation's Web site. Less than
a century ago, as many as 5,000 specimens lived in the Yangtze,
and the population had dropped to about 400 by the 1980s. The
last survey, conducted in 1997, recorded just 13 individuals, and
the last confirmed sighting was in September 2004." and now? nothing.
zilch. finito. basta. no more. nada. ok, stop. (SIGH)

OOPS, i did it again (in more ways than one)

surreal conversation with my brussels bureau chief



boss Floop!
f we've been for dinner. oops, i did it again
boss Isn't she lucky?
f she's going to SHOCK and AWE us with her comeback.
boss Stronger....than yesterday
f TOXIC
boss But....I thought the old lady threw it into the ocean at the end
f NOPE. she got lost in the game


THE END

post credits:

f: we're done with the doorstepping. FLAP. the big guns are out. and in bed. as are we. doorstepping tomorrow at 8am. be there or be cristina aguilera.
boss Will you be stronger than yesterday?
f: my lonliness ain't killin' me no more

well, i got a brand new pair of red shoes

cardinal virtues...deadly sins

"Your sin has been measured. You have committed many sins, but Pride is the mortal sin that has done you in. Just below, discover your full sinful breakdown and learn what it is about you that codemns you to hell."
measure YOUR sin

la pod's....

Greed: Low

Gluttony:Medium

Wrath: Medium

Sloth: Medium

Envy: Very Low

Lust: Low

Pride: High

the rest is a blur (or blurrier)

10 minutes into london. sicily oggles her pirelli calendar. full of tasteful and artistic pictures from the world's leading fashion designers (aka full of naked girls).

christ, help me decide.

too little? too late?

when timing is everything. when the moment is past. when fear sets in. when you think if not now, then when. when you think, fuk it, why not. you only live once. when something holds you back and you're not sure what. when you look for clues. and see signs everywhere. when all you hope for is divine intervention. and not to regret it. now. ever and for the rest of your life. but you do. of course you do.

no words

R I P little red rucksack

utterly lost without it.

my companion in many adventures. through ups and downs. without it, well. i'm just not myself.
it was my last connection. the zipper was broken but it had some mileage yet.


Pictures hanging in a hallway
And the fragment of a song
Half-remembered names and faces
But to whom do they belong?
When you knew that it was over
You were suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning
To the colour of ............

sofia coppola is soooooooo talented

ho-hum. ahem

i love country music

i really do...bloody hell........
i love it all...
the good...
the bad...
the trash. the classics. all of it. YEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAH. love those hillbillies


mmm...downloaded some real crackers...

"to daddy" anyone?

"cowboy take me away"??? (ok this is not one of the best...)

and also those unacknowledged greats...eh? "always on my mind" originally written by brenda lee...before seeing it swiped from under her feet by the hip-swinging elvis. poor brenda. i haven't forgotten you. (ERR)

after a day sick in bed

les chose de la vie II

"Claude Sautet creates an understatedly haunting, sophisticated, and insightful portrait of emotional attachment, indecision, and intimacy in Les choses de la vie. Structuring the narrative of the film in medias res as the middle-aged protagonist is transported to the hospital, Sautet figuratively reflects Pierre's emotional uncertainty as he struggles with the inertia of commitment and a new life with Hélène, unable to sever the bonds of common history associated with his failed marriage to Catherine: Hélène's self-imposed exclusion (and unshared family memories) from the Bérard island home in Ré; Pierre's procrastination over a visa application for a long-term business trip to Tunisia; his fixated preoccupation with a damaged table in the summer house; his impulsively written, unaddressed letter to Hélène that reveals his innate ambivalence. Inevitably, as Pierre unconsciously ponders his unfinished household tasks - the trivial "things of life" that bind him to his estranged family - what is revealed is a resigned longing for a lifetime of irretrievable memories and an irreconcilable sentiment of profound regret." (strictly film school)


p.s. strictly undubbed

les choses de la vie

do you know why she came to be known as lea massari? find out.

fuking fukk fukkkkk it

ok. i'm fuking ILL. i'm groggy. all i want is to be cosy, under my duvet, with maude and a FILM and maybe SOME TEA. is that too much to ask. i don't think so. but these fuking italians and their fuking mania to DUB everything have fuked me over yet again. is this 1943, when dubbing was common practice? NO. do you get the english-speaking population TODAY, 2006, BUTCHERING italian films a la gattopardo). NO. not anymore! we've grown, evolved. we WANT to watch things in the original language as INTENDED. to get the depth, the nuance, and hell maybe we can even stretch ourselves and learn a language or two. but no. DVDs, the wonder of modern technology,TODAY offer alternatives. mandarin with polish subtitles. hoorah!.

BUT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. not here. not in the capital of dubitopolis. here it's dubbing central. here they have the NERVE to DUB almodovar and not even offer you the option of watching it in spanish. would that have been TOO MUCH FUKING TROUBLE. not asking you to subtitle fuking mongolian. this is not any old vintage almodovar, it's the latest film. am shocked. appalled. and convinced that everything that is WRONG with this country is linked to the DUBBING issue. that needs to be addressed as a matter of state urgency. i don't want to hear any more talk about the roman bloody empire or the renaissance. dubbing is barbaric. italians are barbaric. your films SUCKKKKKKKKKKKK. why? because you're too fuking busy DUBBING everything to put out a decent film of your own (exceptions don't count). visconti is turning in his grave. and spits in your face at the travesty of it. you succccccccccck. suuuuuuuuuuuucccccccccccccccck. (sound of wailing).

end of rant.

where are my pills


england prevails
(correction: when it comes to non-dubbing)

flashback to the good times

why did hannibal turn into a cannibal

the answer:



done for the day. will indulge my obsession at home with a splash of red sorghum, som raised lanterns, a spot of ju dou, perhaps a sprinkle of concubine.

glad i got that off my ..ahem..chest

gong, you are a goddess

one-act play

f: oh pal. you'll have to indulge my little obsession just a bit
longer
o:OH crrap. bring it on
f: same one. this curse of the golden flower has me whipped up in
a state.
o:having a crush on a screen idol who is dead, was gay and would be 100 years old now has ME in a state (montgomery clift)
f:yes. mine is just your average, bi-annual bout of yellow fever
o: more like hexannual

the end

``dancing is my life'' (copyright sic)

here's to you, sic, dancing queen that you are.

fuking AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I'm excited

do we believe in this?

Ho capito che ti amo
quando ho visto che bastava
un tuo ritardo
per sentir svanire in me
l'indifferenza

Yes? no? errrrrrrrrrr
perhaps no. i know i'm late most times. so maybe i love myself? mmmmmmm

ignore

you are soooooooooooooooooooooo

weird



you know who you are? whachy. whackoooooooo. kookoo. odd. loopy. kooky.



you are the crush

pure.perverse

Japon (2002)

look right through me, look right through me

All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere
And their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow
And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
'Cos I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very, very
Mad World

live from istanbul

the momentous occasion of the pope's visit to turkey, his first to muslim country....the first papal visit To the country in 30 years...blah blah.....well for a snapshot of what it's REALLY like for the foot soldiers of journalism...look no further than this.

FIRST PHOTO: trecking 2 km on the highway toward istanbul airport because of over-zealous security
SECOND PHOTO: where i filed my stories from
THIRD PHOTO: 4 a.m. arrival to ankara airport, which was prematurely completed and sported an unshakeable WHIFF of cat piss

to be broody or not to be broody

well i guess the answer would have to be "no."

my closest straight, guy friend has popped one out. on the cards, the kid will be a knock out. big, burly, blue-eyed. high-spirited, vivacious. clearly my photos do him no justice. but i heaved him up, off the ground and said sweet nothings to him.
erm.......yes.

z

a couple of frankly random photos of people whose names i can't quite remember but left some kind of impression.

the occasion: z's birthday
celebrated (randomly): in paris

the people
someone: who worked with diane keaton, hence de facto fabulous. blonde. i think
someone else: who wants to marry the above, loves tennis. indian descent. did much "high fiving" with him

several other randoms who plied us/me with champagne in their flats were not photographed since my photographing skills were shaky at best.

winging it

so was dragged out for a night out and nurturing the mother of all hangovers, the likes of which i have not seen, well, in months...i was shaken and stirred awake in florence, shipped off to lucca and mercifully delivered into the hands of chirac, for a state flight to paris. god bless the french, their smelly cheeses and inferior wines.

ship along the bosphorus

hands down, my favourite city in the WORLD.

a knock-out

what was in store.......

mercoledi, 29 novembre

05:00 Prima colazione (gnarl)
05:00 Distribuzione dei discorsi
05:15 Santa Messa





errrrrr...

nov. 28-dec.1

more to follow on my return......

ck & jake

lovely & amazing

new year, 1994. in some dump. somewhere. freezing. i watched "short cuts" indifferent to the seconds ticking by that would drag me, reluctantly into a new year. and why would i have noticed or cared. i had this, perhaps the definitive vision, of what i cannot even farthom, (humanity, perhaps). raw. cruel. real. heartless. it left me with the indelible memory i have carried with me since then. much imitated. but to no avail. no one had his touch. few his vision.

the ghetto's finest

what more do you want?