Stendhal Syndrome is the clinical term for dizziness in the presence of great art. What’s the clinical term for wanting to see as many Italian movies as possible while you’re in LA and the Italian cultural institutes are colluding to throw a free film festival at Continue reading
Who do I think I am?
The holy grail of a "real self" motivates Jeckyll & Hyde.
Where did I get this used paperback (W. W. Norton, 1966, $4.95) of Karen Horney’s Our Inner Conflicts (1945) and why has it taken me this long to Continue reading
Why Journalists Die*
Marie Colvin (1957-2012) lost an eye to shrapnel in Sri Lanka in 2001.
Marie Colvin wore a pirate’s eye patch and had been Paris bureau chief for UPI. Dashing figure. Now she’s been killed in Homs, Syria, reporting the shelling there, which seals her reputation as a relentless Continue reading
Sinead O’Connor in L.A.
Almost everyone kept their cool at the El Rey Theater on Wilshire Blvd.
Franco Nero Rides Again
Mexican Revolution Buddy Flick, 1968.
I’m so excited about the free Italian films offered to the people of Los Angeles as a gesture of aesthetic good will, starting yesterday, through February 25, that I’m typing this post with my thumbs on my new Continue reading
Love Your Inner Monster
ANGRY YOUNG MAN, JAPANESE-STYLE.
The best or do I mean most important film in SF Indie Fest* screens tonight in the classic sleeper slot of second feature in a 9:30 pm double bill — on a Sunday night. Toyoda Toshiaki’s Monster’s Club (2010) shows again, same slot, on Wednesday. I could be mistaken in my sense this is not prime positioning but I do worry some folks who’d love this flick won’t go because… Continue reading
In a Lonely Place
ASSUMING FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR ONE'S DEEDS.
The anti-Valentine sentiment: the need for solitude, self-determination, life without prompts.
Do you believe in Love?
WHAT DOES A PINK FLAMINGO HAVE TO DO WITH THE CONCEPT "LOVE"?
At a reception before the meeting of the L. A. Board of Supervisors this morning, I was confronted with a dubious pastiche of the great Romantic ideal.
Costco Fever
NOT FOR THE AGORAPHOBIC.
I tend to discover things on the verge of their extinction. I hope my recent embrace of this miracle of merchandising doesn’t signal its demise.
And Now For Something Truly Gruesome
A CHARISMATIC KILLER INITIATES A SIMPLETON INTO HUMAN BLOOD SPORT, IN SNOWTOWN.
The lone Australian entry in SF Indie Fest, Snowtown is structured as an initiation into sexual humiliation, torture, and murder as a cure for homosexual panic. We voyeurize Continue reading
