Az- Envy: A Novel by Kathryn Harrison From The Washington Post's Book World Reviewed by Charles Taylor

There is something both tony and precious in Harrison's determination to shock. y
And when she introduces the possibility of incest into Envy, you feel as if she no longer even cares to convince us of her novel's reality. After revealing the incestuous affair she carried on with her father in her well-publicized memoir, The Kiss (1997), Harrison has no way to write about incest fictionally without it sounding like a rehash of her personal experience. y
I didn't find it this bad though:
Even without that development, there is enough to rob Envy of any claim to successful fiction, not least Harrison's writing-seminar symbolism. Will's wife has been unable to have face-to-face sex with her husband since their son's death; Will dreams of having sex with women while his face is shrouded in shadow; Mitch, his estranged twin, turns out to have a port-wine birthmark on his face. They're all vague and terribly programmatic symbols of shame and loss of identity. ...
Writers and critics who complain of the shrinking audience for literary fiction argue -- validly -- that huge advances and advertising budgets for blockbusters reduce the resources left to promote serious novels. But the chances of good literary fiction finding an audience are also damaged when books such as Kathryn Harrison's Envy are published and passed off as worthy. Ten pages of Envy are enough to make you yearn for the juiciest trash novel you can find; 50 will have you dreaming of box-top recipes, road maps, computer instructions -

Reviewer:

Jose Jones - See all my reviews

Having read all of Harrison's books, I can't recall her ever being overly worried about plot. But "Envy" is stacked with it. It brims over with shocking and explosive twists that fulminate like psychological bombs. There are two characters -- the main character's brother and a young patient of his -- who absolutely deserve their own books. I would personally love to see through their eyes. One is fascinatingly and purely evil and the other has mommy/daddy issues (and maybe just mental-health issues) so astounding she is a spectacular train wreck. oh, I tht she was the 'evil' one. she was pretty bad. but ok I guess he is more sociopathlike.




_

Don't play possum with me, he says, and I hear it, play possum, but the missing page has me too rattled to care.


THE KEEP see nearby posts

The Keep

Danny was thinking a few things:
1. That Howard was starting to sound a little nuts. Lots of powerful people were nuts, Danny wasn't sure why. But was Ann nuts? And what about Mick? Could they all be nuts?
2. That this hotel sounded like the closest thing to hell Danny could imagine.
3. That he needed to set up his satellite dish.


He felt weak, but there was no way Nora could see that. And the fact that Nora couldn't see it made Danny start to feel after a minute or two like he wasn't totally weak, and after another minute or two, feeling not totally weak started to make him feel stronger. I'm saying minutes, but it wasn't minutes, it was seconds. Maybe just once second. Short enough that all Danny noticed was that suddenly he felt a bit better.

Conversation, banter, whatever you wanted to call this thing he was doing with Nora -- to Danny it was like an IV dose of joy. He felt linked to her which made his problems seem like Nora's problems too, which meant if she wasn't freaking out about the fact that his satellite dish had just sunk into a pool full of rotten water, then maybe it wasn't such a big deal. Maybe it hadn't even happened at all. Danny didn't think this all out, he just felt better, so if he'd already reached a level of happiness, now he jumped up to level three. And because he'd recently felt bad --like shit, actually-- going from level-one to level-three happiness was like riding in one of those elevators that skips a lot of floors on its way to the top and makes your stomach flop against your lungs.

Within about five minutes of Nora going, the sun went, too. It dropped behind the trees and the second it did the pool and everything around it went dim. The change was huge, like an eclipse. And it wasn't just the light that changed, it was the mood; the mood went gloomy.
The jet lag was hitting him hard, or that was how Danny thought of it. But it wasn't just the jet lag, it was the fact that in the last half hour he'd lost:
1. His satellite dish
2. His girlfriend
3. His link to anyone outside this castle
4. His level-three happiness
5. His connection to Nora
6. The chance of ever possibly being at home in this weird place
7. His credit
8. The sun
All of which made Danny fell like his legs had been cut off, to the point where he didn't even have the juice to sit on a bench with no back, or to sit period. He lay belly-down in the marble, head in his arms, and looked at the water.

It always amazed Danny how much sleep deprivation was like being high, with the one big difference that being tired was never fun. Danny felt like shit: loose in the knees, sweaty, but also cold. And something else, too: prickling. On his arms, the back of his neck, all the way over his scalp so he felt the hair lift up from his head. On the streets of New York, this prickling would make Danny perch on a stoop or lean against a wall and open up his laptop, because nine out of ten times --no, nineteen out of twenty, ninety-nine out of a hundred-- wireless internet service was what he was picking up. It was an awareness in the air, a possibility. Danny felt this now. Very carefully, not wanting to disturb it or move out of range, he took the phone out of his pocket. He dialed Martha's number with some words in his head that were like praying. Danny felt the world out there like one of those phantom limbs -- it tingled, it itched, it hurt to be reattached to him. But the phone just searched. It search and searched and Danny waited, thinking (praying) that maybe all that searching would lead to something, a gap in this blankness. He waited, watching the hone, until his hope dried up. The loss hit Danny all over again, except this time without the release of yelling or kicking -- just that feeling of wanting something so badly you can't believe the force of your wanting it won't make it be there, won't make it come back.

....

Danny felt like shit. In fact he felt shitty in so many different ways that saying he had a headache or he had a stomachache would be wrong, because it would give the idea that the shitty feeling came only from his head or his stomach when actually it came from every part of him at once. Every part of him hurt or felt bad in whatever way it could, to the point where he couldn't do what he normally would do within ten seconds of waking up naked in an unknown bed n an unknown room (and it had happened to Danny before, more than once): get the fuck up. He felt too shitty to get up.

Danny washed his hands and his head in the sink, where the water was one or two degrees warmer than ice, and that made him feel the best he'd felt so far that morning, meaning toward the upper spectrum of very very very bad, so he went ahead and splashed his whole naked body until he was shivering on top of the shaking.
When he came back out, limping on his damaged knee, Danny spotted his pants dangling over the side of an old Chinese screen. They looked like they'd been thrown there, which made Danny actually say out loud, Don't think about it, meaning the exact scene or moment that had sent his pants flying six or seven feet in the air. Don't think about it. Just get the pants on. Danny tugged them over his wet legs He found his shit and jacket and underwear and socks in different parts of the same general area -- all thrown, it seemed. Don't think about it.
Within minutes Danny was dressed except for his boots. He couldn't find them around the bed, and when he moved beyond it, looking under furniture, thinking maybe the boots had gotten shoved or rolled or thrown (don't think about it), he found nothing but dustballs the size of grapefruits. The more he looked, the more his heart clenched up. These were Danny's lucky boots, the only boots he owned, although he'd shelled out enough repairing and resoling them over the years to buy five or six new pairs, easy. He'd bought the boots right after he got to New York, when he'd just figured out who he was not (Danny King, suchagoodboy) and was burning up with excitement to find out who he was instead. The store had a big rubbery dance beat coming over the sound system, a beat Danny had been listening to ever since, for eighteen years, in stores, clubs, restaurants -- he barely noticed it now. But that day in the shoestore, Danny felt like he'd stumbled upon the world's secret pulse. Danny gritted his teeth from excitement. He thought: I'm a guy who wears boots like this. It was the first thing he knew about himself.

...

The fact that his cousin hadn't already guessed about the baroness and Danny made him realize that he wouldn't guess; it would never cross his mind. And being one foot away from someone who couldn't imagine such a thing as Danny fucking the baroness made Danny feel like maybe he really hadn't done it.

Danny washed his hands and his head in the sink, where the water was one or two degrees warmer than ice, and that made him feel the best he'd felt so far that morning, meaning toward the upper spectrum of very very very bad, so he went ahead and splashed his whole naked body until he was shivering on top of the shaking.
When he came back out, limping on his damaged knee, Danny spotted his pants dangling over the side of an old Chinese screen. They looked like they'd been thrown there, which made Danny actually say out loud, Don't think about it, meaning the exact scene or moment that had sent his pants flying six or seven feet in the air. Don't think about it. Just get the pants on. Danny tugged them over his wet legs He found his shit and jacket and underwear and socks in different parts of the same general area -- all thrown, it seemed. Don't think about it.
Within minutes Danny was dressed except for his boots. He couldn't find them around the bed, and when he moved beyond it, looking under furniture, thinking maybe the boots had gotten shoved or rolled or thrown (don't think about it), he found nothing but dustballs the size of grapefruits. The more he looked, the more his heart clenched up. These were Danny's lucky boots, the only boots he owned, although he'd shelled out enough repairing and resoling them over the years to buy five or six new pairs, easy. He'd bought the boots right after he got to New York, when he'd just figured out who he was not (Danny King, suchagoodboy) and was burning up with excitement to find out who he was instead. The store had a big rubbery dance beat coming over the sound system, a beat Danny had been listening to ever since, for eighteen years, in stores, clubs, restaurants -- he barely noticed it now. But that day in the shoestore, Danny felt like he'd stumbled upon the world's secret pulse. Danny gritted his teeth from excitement. He thought: I'm a guy who wears boots like this. It was the first thing he knew about himself.

He felt weak, but there was no way Nora could see that. And the fact that Nora couldn't see it made Danny start to feel after a minute or two like he wasn't totally weak, and after another minute or two, feeling not totally weak started to make him feel stronger. I'm saying minutes, but it wasn't minutes, it was seconds. Maybe just once second. Short enough that all Danny noticed was that suddenly he felt a bit better.

Conversation, banter, whatever you wanted to call this thing he was doing with Nora -- to Danny it was like an IV dose of joy. He felt linked to her which made his problems seem like Nora's problems too, which meant if she wasn't freaking out about the fact that his satellite dish had just sunk into a pool full of rotten water, then maybe it wasn't such a big deal. Maybe it hadn't even happened at all. Danny didn't think this all out, he just felt better, so if he'd already reached a level of happiness, now he jumped up to level three. And because he'd recently felt bad --like shit, actually-- going from level-one to level-three happiness was like riding in one of those elevators that skips a lot of floors on its way to the top and makes your stomach flop against your lungs.

Within about five minutes of Nora going, the sun went, too. It dropped behind the trees and the second it did the pool and everything around it went dim. The change was huge, like an eclipse. And it wasn't just the light that changed, it was the mood; the mood went gloomy.
The jet lag was hitting him hard, or that was how Danny thought of it. But it wasn't just the jet lag, it was the fact that in the last half hour he'd lost:
1. His satellite dish
2. His girlfriend
3. His link to anyone outside this castle
4. His level-three happiness
5. His connection to Nora
6. The chance of ever possibly being at home in this weird place
7. His credit
8. The sun
All of which made Danny fell like his legs had been cut off, to the point where he didn't even have the juice to sit on a bench with no back, or to sit period. He lay belly-down in the marble, head in his arms, and looked at the water.

It always amazed Danny how much sleep deprivation was like being high, with the one big difference that being tired was never fun. Danny felt like shit: loose in the knees, sweaty, but also cold. And something else, too: prickling. On his arms, the back of his neck, all the way over his scalp so he felt the hair lift up from his head. On the streets of New York, this prickling would make Danny perch on a stoop or lean against a wall and open up his laptop, because nine out of ten times --no, nineteen out of twenty, ninety-nine out of a hundred-- wireless internet service was what he was picking up. It was an awareness in the air, a possibility. Danny felt this now. Very carefully, not wanting to disturb it or move out of range, he took the phone out of his pocket. He dialed Martha's number with some words in his head that were like praying. Danny felt the world out there like one of those phantom limbs -- it tingled, it itched, it hurt to be reattached to him. But the phone just searched. It search and searched and Danny waited, thinking (praying) that maybe all that searching would lead to something, a gap in this blankness. He waited, watching the hone, until his hope dried up. The loss hit Danny all over again, except this time without the release of yelling or kicking -- just that feeling of wanting something so badly you can't believe the force of your wanting it won't make it be there, won't make it come back.

3/17/09 note that there are a lot of short posts here re THE KEEP (look at month archive to see all, I suppose) & this was before blogger labels, so I've just added book haphazardly to a few of these posts...
"funny Danny who needs *needs* that connection to elsewhere through the phone lines."

Danny was thinking a few things:
1. That Howard was starting to sound a little nuts. Lots of powerful people were nuts, Danny wasn't sure why. But was Ann nuts? And what about Mick? Could they all be nuts?
2. That this hotel sounded like the closest thing to hell Danny could imagine.
3. That he needed to set up his satellite dish.

You don't make the kind of money I've made unless your instincts are pretty fucking astounding.
Danny: Well, my instincts tend to fuck me up. So we've got your instinct to bring me over here versus my instinct to come.

Danny felt like shit. In fact he felt shitty in so many different ways that saying he had a headache or he had a stomachache would be wrong, because it would give the idea that the shitty feeling came only from his head or his stomach when actually it came from every part of him at once. Every part of him hurt or felt bad in whatever way it could, to the point where he couldn't do what he normally would do within ten seconds of waking up naked in an unknown bed n an unknown room (and it had happened to Danny before, more than once): get the fuck up. He felt too shitty to get up.



No, you don't look at nothing, Davis. But I do look at nothing.
Well, that's a poor use of your time. As far as Davis is concerned, all I do in here is waste valuable time.

I've got your number, pal, he tells me. Oh yeah, I've got it now.
He's used that one before, I've got your number. I already wrote it down.
Don't play possum with me, he says, and I hear it, play possum, but the missing page has me too rattled to care.

THE KEEP see nearby 'older' posts

Bloomberg.com: Muse -The Keep
a moldering castle in Central Europe; an angry crone in a tower; a boy abandoned in a dark cave; a medieval torture chamber; two small children drowned many decades ago; a bust of Medusa; a radio that is said to pick up the voices of the dead. ...a suspense tale drawing on a stockpile of gothic commonplaces [the above? the torture chamber, crone in tower, etc?] so stale the weariest hack might blanch at deploying some of them.
"The Keep'' is, in fact, madly enjoyable. yes.
She structures it -- once again following something other than the dictates of freshness -nice- as a novel within a novel. The inner story is the one about the (possibly) haunted castle and its towering keep. The outer one is about a prison writing class in which a convict named Ray is writing ``The Keep'' in installments for Holly, the teacher he is falling in love with. The prison is the harder of the two settings to shake off, the dread it engenders more acrid int, and the subject of writing is one that Egan -- obviously -- takes seriously.

In the story within the story, Danny, an aging New York hipster -- black clothing, black dye job, lipstick -- receives an invitation from his very rich cousin, Howard, to assist in the renovation of the castle Howard has bought with the idea of turning it into a luxury hotel. Howard's invitation comes at an opportune time, as Danny needs to get out of town fast, following a never fully explained incident involving some mob goons that has left him with a bum knee. But there's a strong possibility that friendly Howard still nurses a grudge against Danny for an evil and very nearly lethal prank from their teenage years. mm well done sum.

Danny is the perfect horror-story protagonist: an emotionally fragile smart aleck who, after years on the edge of the New York underworld, has developed a kind of second-nature paranoia. As a plucky but nervous mess, he belongs to the unlucky line descended from the young governess in ``The Turn of the Screw.''
When things start to go weird on him, as they do almost immediately, the weirdness may be the result of (1) supernatural powers; (2) elaborate payback by the seemingly affable but possibly vengeful Howard; or (3) the collapse of Danny's own mind. good.
When things start to go bad for Ray, the convict writer, the reasons have to do with the emotional tap he has opened by writing, with his ominous convict classmates and with Holly. When things start to go bad for Holly, they have to do mostly with Ray.
nice nice nice

"The Keep'' is a beach read of a very high order, but Egan has layered it with enough meanings to keep anyone who feels like scrambling for them busy. The decaying castle is Danny's decaying psyche writ large, and like Danny's psyche it houses an impregnable keep sheltering a woman (in one case an old girlfriend, in the other an old hag) whose presence is formidable. Howard has some appealing ideas (''Let people be tourists in their own imaginations'') that he is attempting to bring to fruition in his strange hotel. Et cetera.
But the surface was plenty for me. I loved the mildly hardboiled writing and the sensation of being manipulated by an artist who knows exactly what she's doing. These funhouse pleasures aren't so easy to deliver without making a reader (not to mention a writer) feel cheap. ``The Keep'' is anything but cheap, and calling it a beach read doesn't do justice to Egan's craft, which is so serious that it never feels serious at all.

(Craig Seligman is a critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

Craig Seligman - Ggl Search - Oh well of course. Sontag & Kael. I liked that a lot.
---read: village voice > books > Craig Seligman's Sontag & Kael: Opposites ...
and look into articles he's written ... Craig Seligman - Salon

"The writing itself always remains instinctive, but there is a strong analytical counterpart, when I figure out what I'm doing in terms of plot, characters, thematic underpinnings, and then scheme about how I can do it better. I save every draft until a book is done; a towering pile of paper that I eventually, joyfully, recycle."
Amazon.com: The Keep: Books: Jennifer Egan 10 sec intrvw

what she says about the book doesn't make it more int to me. I guess mainly what I liked was funny Danny who needs *needs* that connection to elsewhere through the phone lines.

From Publishers Weekly: Claustrophobic paranoia, intentionally mediocre writing right I guess but most of it is great right? and a transparent gimmick which? dominate Egan's follow-up to Look at Me, centered on estranged cousins who reunite in Eastern Europe. Danny, a 36-year-old New York hipster yuep who wears brown lipstick (and whose body can detect Wi-Fi availability) -good-, accepts his wealthy cousin Howard's invitation to come to Eastern Europe and help fix up the castle Howard plans on turning into a luxury Luddite hotel (check your cell at the door). In doing so, Danny can't help recalling the childhood prank he played on a young Howie that left the awkward adolescent nearly dead—or so writes Ray, the druggie inmate who's penning this novel-within-a-novel for his prison writing workshop. this is much better than the jacket copy. Subsequent chapters alternate between Danny's fantastical castle travails (it's home to a caustic baroness bent on preserving her family seat) and Ray's prison drama. There are funny asides and trappings (particularly digital technology) along the way, and the sendup of castle narratives wait where generates some chuckles. But the connection between the two narratives, which Egan reveals in intentionally tawdry tawdry? I believe you I just- fashion, feels telegraphed from the first chapter ah that's what you call the gimmick, making for a frustrating read. (Aug.) hmm. well I sort of knew but only specifically determined the cnnxn twd the end with Ray remembering 'school' and that must have been meant to be a big frickin clue.
Amazon.com: The Keep: Books: Jennifer Egan

Hearing voices / In 'The Keep,' Jennifer Egan stakes out new territory, combining the ordinary with the supernatural in Eastern Europe:
She says 'The Keep' is 'the perfect antidote' to 'Look at Me.' The book begins with Danny, a semi-shady, punkish character of unspecified employment, arriving at an Eastern European Gothic castle late one night. His cousin Howard has summoned Danny to help him convert the castle into a hotel, but the cousins share a secret from childhood that makes Danny, and the reader, nervous about Howard's true motivation. well sure.
By setting the story in this "Gothic, 'Turn of the Screw' " environment, cut off from the contemporary world, she sets the stage for questions about the overlap between disembodied voices in the classic ghost story sense, and voices that we all hear every day. hmm so that's what she is thinking about overall here (or at least one of the whats)~ read the story as about telecommunications--ghosting. "The questions had to do with telecommunications, and how it parallels eh supernatural experience. What does it mean that we are engaged in disembodied communication all day long?" she asks. "You see someone walking down the street having an animated conversation, you don't think, 'Oh they're in la-la land,' you think, 'Oh, they're on the phone.' And they may actually be in la-la land, in which case they actually are hearing voices and responding to them. Gee, that's an awful lot like being on the phone. At a certain point, what's the difference?" 1) no, at the first point. 2) however there is a difference. is the voice from within or from without? 3) or that may be an unreal question, if a voice from within is experience no less as a given, an experience that happens to you, that one suffers. if you're relation to it is unaffected by it being (or believing it to be) within (your own self) or without (other - eh).

Bookslut | The Keep by Jennifer Egan
pretty well done summary - funny but less funny than the book - which was really really funny to me at points - funny funny Danny -
The publisher’s blurb says the two main characters, Danny and Howie, are “bonded by a childhood prank whose devastating consequences changed both their lives.” One, that sounds like they were in the movie River’s Edge or something; two, I hate book-jacket hint-dropping, because I spend all of my reading time trying to figure out what it is and waiting for the author to spill the beans; three, the statement isn’t quite accurate; four, is “whose” the correct pronoun for a prank? right the prank is the who. but all that bothers me is that it isn't accurate and niether is the rest of the jacket copy, I would like it if publishers wrote accurate jacket copy, can the author be more involved (is she?) ? Egan gives it up within 17 pages: Danny, in an attempt to be cool in front of an older cousin, sells out friend and cousin Howie and, oops!, almost kills him. Howie goes from a D&D-playing fatty nerd to reform school j.d., while Danny becomes the perfect son. Is that a bond? good sum
They don’t speak again for 20 or so years until the now wildly successful Howard (Howie is long gone) sends Danny a ticket to some mysteriously-named East-European country where he’s renovating an 800-year-old castle into a high-concept hotel -- so could Danny maybe just pop on over to help?
Danny sure could, but he has to pack a portable satellite dish first so he won’t miss any important calls while he’s gone. Danny, Danny… Danny's so funny While Howie was transforming into Howard, the handsome guy who Has It All, Danny cultivated his gift for getting close to people in power -- and then really pissing them off so that leaving the country to visit with a cousin he almost killed seemed like a godsend. good
Danny complains that, after 18 years in New York, he can walk down Lower Broadway and recognize every face without actually knowing anyone, and feels compelled to greet them; he can’t afford to be rude, really, when his entire life is about connections. (What he’s trying to say is: Girls would turn the color of an avocado/When he drove down the street in his El Dorado.)
So this castle has… a Keep, which the castle’s ancient-and-magical-realistic heiress good is using as a fortress against Howard and Co. ...
At the outset, the book seems to be Danny’s story, but then we find out that, no!, this campfire story is in fact the product of a prison writing class, and the author, who claims to be recounting a story someone told him, seems to have a lot of empathy for Danny huh I guess well he writes from Danny's point of view -- and writing talent, too. So we get bits of the author’s prison life mixed in with the initial narrative.Then the book has this excellent ending, but what’s with all of those extra pages? oh . we don't agree. I did not like the ending. the xtra pages were okay with me (maybe added sth, maybe not much, did not detract.) tell me how the end was excellent! felt like the only false note in the song to me. but I'd like to hear it differently...
the extra pages were okay. sort of pleasant. a kind of third incorporation ('layer') of the telling. H puts tgthr R's manuscript re D. 'whose story is it?' and there might be other things to say about it as H's story ~? .
sad though, this layering. because I felt like I lost D. and then that was almost okay bcs left with R and maybe it's his story and I am int in him. but the lost him? well no, I guess that's why I like the last part. H lost R, but her telling sort of gives more of him to us. and then mind the loss of D less.

The Late Cord
song: "My Most Meaningful Relationships Are With Dead People"
One Track Mind :: Philadelphia City Paper. 25 Years of Independent Journalism.
Enigmatic Texans Micah P. Hinson and John Mark Lapham (aka The Late Cord) are longtime buddies enrolled at two different schools of multi-instrumental thought: Hinson's the folklore-quoting straight man, while every one of his partner's barely audible electro-samples screams 'decode me.' Regardless of the pair's inclinations, the beauty of 'Dead People,' from Lights From the Wheelhouse (4AD), lies in what they don't do. As the track begins, Hinson breathes on piano keys with all the complexity of a scale exercise, but that doesn't mean he skimps on the gravitas. When he shows a bit of life, Lapham follows suit, complementing each somber note with sitarlike sounds that may or may not be leaking out of a Casio keyboard. 'Is it too far gone to be saved?' Hinson wonders, backed by smatters of eerie chanting. 'It's so remarkable that you found your own way.'

jennifer egan dot com

book tour for The Keep

Washington, DC
Monday, August 28, 2006
7:00 pm
Politics and Prose

Something's Gotta Give (2003): In addition to these two outstanding performers, the film boasts excellent supporting work from Frances McDormand as Erica's pragmatic, clear-headed sister; Amanda Peet as Erica's level-headed daughter; and Keanu Reeves as Harry's handsome young doctor who finds himself smitten by Erica's mature beauty and charm.

3/17/2009 I have since pictured this Frances McDormand character as a model of adulthood possible for me. still long haired, still outfitter ruggedish clothing...

ok, maybe mcass (1st reg - html ylrx) for current ~ mostly country.
amanda, pure prairie, redheaded stranger -bozulich -nelson -bozulich hands on wheel.

+ tvz, lyle lovett (she's alrdy made up mind .. ah: North Dakota, there's the one.)

they currently don't have "I don't wanna be with me" by conway twitty though do have some other albums.

----
and mcass2 more for reminiscent.
fast car. pictures of you. ~iowa.
my sunday songs might go here... sentiment. pure song statns can go on mcass1.
madonna. ...childhood. marcy playground. ...mcx. but also just catchy = sentiment.

re Pandora logins~personal 'stations'

Hands On The Wheel - Carla Bozulich - Pandora Internet Radio: acoustic sonority
meandering melodic phrasing - paired vocal harmony - a vocal-centric aesthetic - major key tonality - slide/pedal steel guitars - acoustic rhythm guitars - solo strings - vocal duets - romantic lyrics - a laid back shuffle feel mm love. - triple note feel
---------
huh Can I Sleep In Your Arms? - Carla Bozulich - Pandora Internet Radio: has "sad lyrics"
and still "a laid back shuffle feel"

not at all laughing at the adjectives, just int'd by them. am curious how they attempt to make a convention of distinguishing which to call romantic / sad / great. but not bcs I mind if inconsistent. I'd rather idiosyncratic, course.

Willie Nelson

The Red Headed Stranger

Red Headed Stranger

country roots - great lyrics huh I like that that's a feature.
acoustic sonority - repetitive melodic phrasing - meandering melodic phrasing
major key tonality - a smooth male lead vocalist smooth? can I read their discussn/thinking re these features?
a heavy twang in the vocals hear hear! is this it? willie nelson, dw yokam, ~graham parker
acoustic rhythm guitars - subtle use of acoustic piano
triple note feel cool whas tha?

and the Bozulich version:

Carla Bozulich - Red Headed Stranger - Red Headed Stranger

acoustic sonority - thru composed melodic style - major key tonality
slide/pedal steel guitars - solo strings - heartbreaking lyrics ---heartbreaking/great ... course we're talking about the very same lyrics.
narrative lyrics

ah so - just logged out then in under 1st regstrtn. pandora only shows the songs played so far on station for the duration of that session. once logout, that clears. bummer. well I'd wondered how long that could get...

mcass1 html ylrx
mcass2 gml way+t-z

I do like the two other stations I created: amanda (waylon jennings) and pure prairie league (artist) which latter surprised me how great I liked it. they didn't have a listing for the song Amy or I would have used that. it is called that isn't it? ~version came up (1st I think) as "Falling in and out of love with you"

With Three Chords and the Truth, her 1997 debut album, Missouri-born Sara Evans not only wowed listeners with her superb vocal chops, but also boldly and unpretentiously staked claim to a neo-traditionalist style that suggested she'd done a lot of listening to Loretta Lynn and the late Tammy Wynette in her younger days. With Born to Fly, her third album, Evans continues her descent from the neo-traditional high ground and her move uptown. She makes it clear she's also listened quite a bit to the likes of Trisha Yearwood and Bruce Hornsby, whose 'Every Little Kiss' she ably covers here. On the exuberant title tune and on fine country-pop ballads like 'I Could Not Ask for More' and the lovely 'Saints and Angels,' Evans proves she can just as sweetly and deftly patrol the uptown territory as she can the down-home highlands, which she revisits on the steel guitar-adorned weeper 'I Learned That from You.' Though not every song on Born to Fly insinuates its way into listeners' imaginations like the above-mentioned gems do, this solid, ambitious 11-song collection stands as another feather in this gifted young singer's colorful musical cap. --Bob Allen az rvw Born to Fly: Music: Sara Evans

title song certainly is catchy, caught me back when, heard on radio I guess.
"and he says Girl you've got nothing but time"
[wmp]: 1. Born To Fly Listen

bookmark songs as play on statns.

bookmark artists that I know, am thinking of, want to look at. (separate from the song marks like a statn listening record b log)

remember how you used to love to dance

You Used To Love To Dance - Melissa Etheridge - Pandora Internet Radio
Melissa Etheridge
Brave And Crazy ah right.
You Used To Love To Dance

Melissa Ferrick .. reminds?

Til You're Dead

Melissa Ferrick

Fast Car Radio

mellow rock instrumentation folk influences acoustic sonority
repetitive melodic phrasing
extensive vamping major key tonality acoustic rhythm guitars angry lyrics

huh she sounds so familiar, felt like I was placing her, but I don't think I know this name.
so who is it she sounds like? one person or an amalgam? is it the song?
I think maybe it is the song, the instrumentation the line there just like..?

ah under similar songs (love this I love this) indeed ani defranco went thru my mind but discarded bcs this reminds me of someone else (also) who I like better. indigo girls, yes wondering that. but ah maybe it's etheridge, maybe so. I have long very much liked this song:

Loading Sample Playing Sample You Can Sleep While I Drive
by Melissa Etheridge
album Greatest Hits - The Road Less Traveled

but no that doesn't account for the familiarity. maybe it is defranco. maybe so.
well ok think of eteridge We used to love to Dance.

Singer/songwriter Melissa Ferrick emerged in 1994 as part of a group of new female alternative singer/songwriters, much in the vein of Liz Phair.

liz phair? ~ that's not the striking similiarity.

this is getting me enough that I may want to buy this song.
so now the deal is one goes to az to buy albums and one goes to itunes to buy single tracks.
"so pay attention I said" - mm.

Loading Sample Playing Sample Romeo And Juliet
by Indigo Girls
album Rites Of Passage

ok maybe that crossed with ani defranco. good song. goodness there have been good songs I've known... too many~"I don't have any more love songs" had not thought - had undone so many. the abundance is overwhelming.

things are gonna get easier - child -

Loading Sample Playing Sample Ooh Child (Alternative Version)

Beth Orton

Fast Car Radio

rachel (and others?) have recommended beth orton to me.

I do like this song, though not sure I like this version better than.

• O-o-h Child by The Five Stairsteps (1970)
  • O-o-h Child by Nina Simone (1971)
  • Ooh Child by Richie Havens (1974)
  • Ooh Child by Molly Johnson (2002)
  • O-o-h Child by Beth Orton (2003)

radio poein

so ok - statns to make:

-pictures of you -the cure -- try my other classic favorite since fast car so well.

tvz (artist, not specific song)
dwight yoakam (artist)

sunday -title? track#18 song by lucinda williams yes it's 'Sundays'
~sunday mornin by kris kristofferson
nobody knows me by lyle lovett

--sara evans first album -? the hardc ctry roots album.. hmm. = three chords & the truth, not listed in their ('backstage') selected discography, does that mean don't have its songs?
mm samples on az. title song. oh her voice is great.

freakwater (artist, but also song: good for nothing, dog gone wrong)
portland,or -by loretta lynn, jack white

sex&candy -by marcy playground

ooh what madonna have I loved? "over & over"
in to see what is similar to Like a Virgin

dar williams iowa.

ooooh make a station from RedHeaded Stranger - Willie Nelson. which song on that album?
well... title song. Time of the Preacher.
+ Can I sleep in yr arms & Hands on the Wheel.
or/plus Carla Bozulich versions of those.

try also Anna Begins. I do like that song. [Amy not on file but made pure prairie league statn, and made Amanda (by waylon jennings] statn, and I like both of those.

woman's work. another tracy chapman. score, score, score.
I do love.

maybe I lessened the value of my first Fast Car statn by saying 'play more like this' re Ben Harper I think. better keep pure. though maybe this succession is just luck.

fast car. -tracy chapman
landslide. -fleetwood mac
desert sunrise -brett dennan
true colors - eva cassidy
woman's work - tracy chapman
blowin in the wind - judy collins. nice.

Eva Cassidy - true colours (cyndi lauper)

Loading Sample Playing Sample True Colours

Eva Cassidy

Fast Car Radio

mellow rock instrumentation - folk influences - mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation
a vocal-centric aesthetic - major key tonality - a breathy female lead vocalist
acoustic rhythm guitars

In 1996, just when she had begun to record more frequently on a small, local basis, Cassidy was diagnosed with cancer, which had already spread throughout her body and rapidly claimed her life.
...her music was posthumously championed by a BBC disc jockey, and amazingly, the anthology Songbird became a number one million-selling smash in England.
A native of the Washington, D.C., area, the painfully shy Cassidy earned a local reputation as a masterful interpreter of standards from virtually any genre, blessed with technical agility and a searching passion that cut straight to the emotional core of her material.

-- lovely. I really like True Colors. cyndi lauper -

Brett Dennen

Loading Sample Playing Sample Desert Sunrise

Brett Dennen

Fast Car Radio

Folkie singer-songwriter Brett Dennen's self-titled debut has the easy-going lope and world music influences of Jack Johnson or Dave Matthews, and his voice is oddly similar to that of Tracy Chapman, with the same slightly nasal quality and occasionally bluesy inflections.

Fast Car -tracy chapman
Landslide - fleetwood mac

wow. 2 for 2, love.

FAQ:
Q: Why won't Pandora play the specific song/artist I want?
Our music licenses do not allow us to play specific songs by request. Your song selection is used to generate a station that will play similar music. Your song will be played eventually, in the mix with lots of other great music.
Q: Why isn't there a BACK or REWIND button?
Our music licenses do not allow us to let you back up the music to replay a specific song.

but hey! playing Fast Car itself.
I wanted to see if wld play same sequence, startg with Ben Harper burn down.
no, it doesn't. guess it is set to be ~random.
which incl actually playing the song of the station.
god I love this song.

Flickr: Upload photos:
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If you "thumbs down" two different songs from a particular artist, it will ban them from the station. However, if at any time you gave this artist a "thumbs up", they will not be banned.
-->
Q: Can I skip as many songs as I'd like if I subscribe?
No. Our licenses do not allow unlimited skips per hour. The idea here is that you should not be able to skip ahead to find exactly the song you might be looking for. An unlimited number of skips could effectively provide "track on demand" which is not allowed in a streaming radio product.


---
huh I can't find anyth re how to change email address (user name). or password, for that m.


---
Our music library contains approximately 400,000 songs from over 20,000 artists. The collection is amazingly diverse and covers every type of music except classical and world. It's great music from all sources: the big record labels, the indies, and musicians recording and self-publishing from their garage. We think of it as the very best music from the last 100 years.

Q: When I try to create a station from my favorite song or artist, Pandora has not heard of them. Can you fix that?
We're constantly analyzing music: every week, all the time, new releases and back catalog. If we don't have something you're looking for, let us know and we'll get it.

---
For almost six years now, we have been hard at work on the Music Genome Project. It's the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken. Together our team of thirty musician-analysts have been listening to music, one song at a time, studying and collecting literally hundreds of musical details on every song. It takes 20-30 minutes per song to capture all of the little details that give each recording its magical sound - melody, harmony, instrumentation, rhythm, vocals, lyrics ... and more - close to 400 attributes! We continue this work every day to keep up with the incredible flow of great new music coming from studios, stadiums and garages around the country.
We've now created an interface to make this available to music lovers so they could use this musical 'connective-tissue' to discover new music based on songs or artists they already know.
Pandora™ is the doorway to this vast trove of musical information. With Pandora you can explore to your heart's content. Just drop the name of one of your favorite songs or artists into Pandora and let the Genome Project go. It will quickly scan its entire world of analyzed music, almost a century of popular recordings - new and old, well known and completely obscure - to find songs with interesting musical similarities to your choice. Then sit back and enjoy as it creates a listening experience full of current and soon-to-be favorite songs for you.
The Music Genome Project was founded by musicians and music-lovers. We believe in the value of music and have a profound respect for those who create it. We like all kinds of music, from the most obtuse bebop, to the most tripped-out drum n bass, to the simplest catchy pop tune.

At the Music Genome Project, we treat each song as a totally unique musical performance. We don't have a pre-conceived notion of what the artist usually sounds like, or how they're usually categorized - in fact we're really trying to avoid that. What matters is the song itself. We carefully listen for all of its elements; everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and all things vocal, and use that to build the playlists. this is great. site and project seems really well done. intelligent.. Since we never pigeonhole artists, and since artists often record in a variety of styles, you'll see some surprising bedfellows. But you will also hear a much broader and more interesting mix - all centered around your favorite parts of the musical universe. --faq --Q: My station just played two artists that I never thought would go together. How can that happen?

...someone who's cooler than me, but only a little.
I'm a fan of both funny/goofy/quirky and smart/thoughtful/self-aware. hey. monkey , wolf .

I used to think the perfect guy would have cable tv, central air conditioning, and a car, but now I've got cable and ac myself, so it's really only the car I'm looking for.

27, f, Philadelphia, PA

pg 51 ---- book

CONS: -Compared to my OLD cheap Nokia, this phone reception is severly crappy. I get so many drop calls per day, I don't have enough fingers to count (this only happens while driving) (sigh I miss my old Nokia) --Yes I know this doesn't operate like my old cheapo Nokia phone but that phone just worked. If you folks want a phone to work as a phone, stick with Nokia.
Reviewer:Bernard S. Yu "Bizzle Man" (Sunny Southern California) - See all my reviews

--I really like the whole setup of the Slvr, the iTunes connection is nice and the sound is clearer than I've ever had. huh.

-The SLVR is a phone that is designed to attract Nokia fans with the candybar format, but with the sleekness and design edge of the new Moto line.

-you can save ringtones and pictures to the memory card, but if you want to use them as ringer or picture IDs they have to be saved to the phone.
The camera also has no flash and if you don't have a steady hand you'll get blurry pictures.
I would suggest buying this phone especially if don't have an ipod or are sick of carrying both your phone and ipod everywhere.

American Apparel - Press Center - Recent & Provocative Ads

>>>New York Times Magazine- April 23, 2006 - And You Thought Abercrombie & Fitch Was Pushing It? Everything you ever wanted to know about Dov Charney but were afraid to ask. read full article



Inc - September 2005 - Dov Charney, Like It or Not
American Apparel is exploding, and sometimes it appears its founder might do the same. All id, all the time — is this any way to run a $250 million company?

read full article

In the basement of the store, it's a manic enterprise—boxes are unpacked, shirts are folded, a guy is taping up tiny plastic bags that Charney plans to stuff with "little underwears." The bags, he explains, save money because they increase the density on the floor. Initially, men's briefs struggled. But since being bagged and placed in bins at the entrances, they've become a bestseller. That's found money—the underwears are made from fabric scraps. "I think if we can get another $400,000 out of this space, we're golden," Charney says of the basement storeroom. 'this store is a prototype store; there should be nothing wrong. What we're doing is getting this one right and then we spread like an infection."
He's recently come to the realization that one reason his stores—which, it should be noted, break their own records regularly—are not as successful as he'd like is that the makeup of the floor staff is just a bit off. The makeup of AA's staff is a mad science that is hard to teach—or even explain. Right now, Charney feels there's no one here he can trust to do it, and so he's interviewing staff himself—hundreds of prospective workers a week. "I made a mistake with these stores," he says. "I didn't do it myself and it's wrong. So I've had to let people go and there's nothing that I hate more than having to get rid of kids. It breaks their hearts. But you know what? It affects sales. Should garment workers at my factory suffer because we f—– up casting?"
"What I'm looking for is style—that's not something you can teach a person. You have it or you don't. Let's say one girl has an acne problem but good style, while another is beautiful but has no style. I'm picking acne!"

"Wherever there are young people with a little creativity and a little money," he says, "we'll be there." With a few exceptions, his stores are tracking 10 times the rent.
"Give me the chance of going to Harvard or being where Google started and I want to be there making $3 an hour sweeping their floors. Or Apple when Steve Jobs started it. 'maybe I'm delusional but that's what I think American Apparel is."


New York Times Magazine- August 1, 2004 -Conscience Undercover

read full article

Founded in 1997, the company at first sold only to the ''imprintables'' trade -- screen printers and others who used its clothing as a canvas for original designs or band logos and so on. The emphasis was on quality of fabric, cut, fit and manufacturing. but? so thin. rips easily. ..?
As it expanded, the company started receiving (and courting) attention for being ''sweatshop free.'' At a time when practically every clothes maker was off-shoring to cut costs, American Apparel made its wares at a downtown Los Angeles factory where the average industrial worker (usually a Latino immigrant) is paid $13 an hour and gets medical benefits.
But today the core of American Apparel's pitch isn't quality or social consciousness or logo-escapism. It's youth and sex. ''We make sexy T-shirts for young people,'' summarizes Dov Charney, the 35-year-old company founder. The sex part is certainly apparent in the company's ads. Yes, there are references to quality and ethics in some of them, but generally in small type under a photograph of a half-naked young woman shot in a raw and vaguely decadent style reminiscent of Larry Clark or Nan Goldin. These ads run not in Utne magazine but in The Village Voice and Vice and in more rarified publications like Beautiful/Decay. frequent backpg of Chicago Reader.
Not surprisingly, American Apparel has been accused of using exploitative soft-core pornography. Charney's view is that it's too simple to say that he is selling sex. He is selling youth culture, to young people. That's what guides everything from the no-logoing to the styles and colors he chooses, from the location of his stores (Echo Park in Los Angeles, the Lower East Side in New York) to those provocative ad images, which he says are not just sexy but ''real.'' The women aren't models; they are people whom Charney has met and in some cases photographed himself.

Ad Age - August 29, 2005 -Media Guy Slips Into Coma; Are Print Ads to Blame?

read full article

Say what you will about AmAp and its famously pervy founder, Dov Charney, who is the mastermind behind the ongoing campaign. His ads are not only hot (they show his sexy employees modeling the merch) and briskly reinforce the brand message (which is about well-constructed, no-frills, eminently wearable, sweatshop-free clothing), but are refreshingly not celebrity-obsessed. And the ads have a genuinely interesting narrative through-line (the new "¡Viva Mexico!" ad, for instance, stars a guy named Eduardo who is helping to open AmAp's store in Mexico).

flatrock.org.nz - topics -Intellectual and Entertaining:
If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.
- The web

"Nothing is interesting unless it is catalogued." - Germander Speedwell, Sayings
Hooting Yard June 2005 : Nothing is interesting unless it is catalogued

flickr fxn note:
upload 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
where 1 is at top of column-list and is first selected --

1 will appear furthest back in photostream:
6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. ..previous uploads..

sensible: uploading 1 earliest, 6 most recently.
most recent leads in photostream.

Restless - Sara Evans - Bio
“All I'd ever done my whole life was sing hardcore country and bluegrass. I knew that I wanted to be a singer, and that was my life's destiny. But I really didn't have a handle on who I was. When I did 'Tiger By the Tail,' everybody in the studio just freaked out about how 'country' I was. So I just went with that, thinking, 'Obviously, this is my niche.'”
When she released Three Chords and the Truth as her debut CD in 1997, it wound up on many critics' “best of” lists for the year. But radio stations didn't embrace her back-to-basics country sound. so that's what I want to hear.

az: Three Chords and the Truth
Produced by Pete Anderson (famous as Dwight Yoakam's producer), this is one of the finest traditional country albums to appear on a major label in recent years.
The Bakersfield influence is reinforced by the inclusion of I've got a tiger by the tail (one of the best covers of a Buck Owens song I've heard) and another up-tempo song, If you ever want my lovin', that sounds like it could be a Buck Owens song but is actually an original, one of seven songs here that Sara co-wrote.
..what really makes this album are the brilliant original songs, Sara's great voice and Pete's tasteful production.
I enjoy Sara's subsequent albums but this seems likely to remain my favorite. If you enjoy traditional country music, especially if you like Dwight Yoakam, you'll love this. If you became a Sara fan because of her more recent albums (especially Born to fly) and you're not sure about this, you ought to hear some samples before buying this.
_
If you ever want my lovin' / You gotta show me every day / But if you're thinkin' that you won't
And even if you don't / You're gonna get it anyway

-This is probably one of the best counry performances, ever. Sara is not ony beautiful but she is a dynamic singer who puts her whole being into her singing. Hearing her sing "Imagine That" puts her a very close second, if not and equal, to Patsy Cline. I have never heard anyone other than Patsy sing this song with the feeling and quality that Sara does. "I've Got A Tiger By The Tail"? Absolutely super! This CD is a must for anyone who loves pure country.
-The first three tracks are excellent, kind of like Dwight Yoakam, early Mavericks meet Patsy Cline. I was skeptical at first but she won me over right away with "Shame About That." I knew Evans had talent when I heard her sing with the great Ralph Stanley on Clinch Mountain Sweethearts. I wish all of her music sounded this authentic.

Deana Carter 1996 Did I Shave My Legs for This?
that's funny, I remember getting this at the Navy px. probably in cupboard at 9619 or maybe put away bcs didn't like it much, but was somewhat hooked by

Strawberry Wine

Listen

si igned be wildered
si igned un happy
si igned just married

Dear Abby
[1993:] I was in Europe, and my first wife and I stopped in Rome for the day. I wanted a newspaper, and all they had was the International Herald Tribune, which is all the tragic news in the world crammed into six pages with no sports results and no comics. And yet here's 'Dear Abby'. She was the only relief in the whole paper. And that's where I wrote most of the song - in Rome, Italy, that is. Years later, somebody took the verse about the guy whose stomach makes noises, wrote it just out of kilter enough so it didn't rhyme, and sent it to "Dear Abby." And she answered it in her column. She suggested that he seek professional help. She got loads of letters from people who knew the song and told her she'd been had. (Notes 'Great Days - The John Prine Anthology')
____________

For then I more closely resemble the half a man that you've made of me
Willie Nelson w/ Merle Haggard
____________

and it was Johnny Cash's so lonesome..

Hear that lonesome whippoorwill?
He sounds too blue to fly
The midnight train is whining low
I'm so lonesome I could cry.

Did you ever see a Robin weep

That means he's lost his will to live.

Lessons Learned Self-Publishing With Lulu via rw
Everyone can be an author. You just need a time-out to write, an idea about what to write, and the motivation to finish. You are not restricted to novels or non-fiction books, you can also publish calendars, photo books, even comic books (take a look at what others have done on Lulu). If you ever felt like quitting your day job to do something different, maybe this is it?

There are several book sizes available on Lulu.com but there is no great variety; I wasn’t able to choose a “typical” trade paperback size. It was either too small or a little too large (which was still OK in the end, but maybe other self-publishing services offer more sizes...). huh.

cmmt:getting an ISBN from Lulu.. Dave's also has an interesting expereince hyperorg.com/blogger/mtarchive ...:
There's lots to like about Lulu, but not their instructions for how to use an ISBN number (well, technically "number" is redundant in the phrase "ISBN number) with their Global Distribution package. The problem is that it seems like you have to submit your finished book and cover in order to get an ISBN, which means that you can't include the ISBN in your finished book and cover. funny. post includes workaround: edit finished bk to add isbn, after submitting for isbn.

cmmt fr Martin: There is something really nice about the Lulu ethos, and behind the scenes their system works well. I just wish they'd improve their user interface.

Tadeusz Szewczyk 1 hour ago # What are the advantages of Lulu compared to the average book on demand publishing service? right that's the qstn

-Now this? Is promising. And makes up for the selected-by-focus-group anything. Which is not. Promising.
[re Mark Valley on cast, and re change of name bcs Boston Legal did better in focus groups than The Practice: Fleet Street.]

-He said something like "I really should have written something down...You all have made wonderful choices with your footwear and clothing tonight."Just when I thought I couldn't love him more.... [Spader won an Emmy - for The Practice ? ]
-Yes, his acceptance speech was unassuming, amusing and really quite endearing.

-Spader was on The View last week and was his usual fabulous self-- smart, witty, and very odd. He also seemed to have genuine affection for Star Jones, which was sort of shocking.

Oct 3, 2004 @ 11:03 pm - after pilot aired [p.4]__

-And then there's Spader. Love Spader. Love that he's found this subversive character and is just wreaking havoc and won an Emmy for it. Love it.

-Once I accepted that it would have little to do with reality, I relaxed and enjoyed it for the camp classic it will undoubtedly become. I was surprised to find it actually attempting - and succeeding - at summoning up a shallow level of depth at moments.
Loved the whole "Annie" plotline, and the mother/daughter combo stole every scene. [yeah the mom was great: "..through my own personal ingenuity."// "annie's not a comedy. it's full of suspense - about whether the little girl gets to live with the rich guy. it's dramatic."]

-Not a bad pilot at all. Glad to see this show isn't Ally McBeal, but that it also isn't The Practice. My only fear with it is that I know DEK seems to have a wonderful first few seasons with his shows, but then they flame out spectacularly (The Practice) or go out with a whimper (Picket Fences, Boston Public, Ally McBeal). I just like Spader's character and would prefer to not see him suffer the fate of other DEK characters.

- ..$5 says Spader has enough sense (and maybe dollars socked away) to take a walk before this thing runs out of gas. Just saying.


---------------------------------------------------------
____________________________________
May 3, 2006 @ 6:19 pm · Post #2926
--And when Brad looked and Denise and said "When do the benefits start?" Mercy, that man is attractive.
During her little speech to him, I could barely breath, good lord that man is hot.
--But when he and Julie Bowen were kissing and walking backward through the bedroom door and she was stumbling and he just picked her up and kept going... *whew*


Jun 18, 2006 @ 6:29 pm
MJF all the way for Guest Actor, if only for the courtroom exchange when he talks about his cancer, the other attorney objects and MJF tosses off a wry but meaningful, "You object?"

--I didn't watch The Practice so I'm not real familiar with Spader, other than seeing him in Primary Colors with Cusack. I did catch him on Ellen last week, and he was sweet. They showed the Emmy clip of him, he seems very real. He was also pinging my Gaydar.

-Dear woopwoopkitty (woopwoopkitty?), Mr. Spader should be pinging your gaydar, straightdar, bi-dar, sexual geniusdar. From what I've read, he basically views sex as The Final Frontier--something of crucial and central importance to be explored. Also, I've never seen it, but I think he has said that Primary Colors is one of his least favorite movies of those he's done--I believe he found the role too predictable and boring playing (I presume) a complete whitebread stereotype. Do yourself a favor and see Sex, Lies, and Videotape, and, or Secretary. -idwtgtb

Busted Flush Nov 9, 2004 @ 11:12 am Post #385

Speaking of Spader the omnisexual, go out and see Crash immediately. I have hated virtually everything I've seen by David Cronenberg, but that movie is fucking fantastic, if only in terms of style. And Spader just goes for it, doing all the fucked up shit that he's asked. Plus, he's naked!

The Stranger Seattle Film Feature The New Guy
Northwest Film Forum's Incoming Program Director -BY ANNIE WAGNER

Jaime Keeling has been the lead film programmer at Northwest Film Forum for nearly five years, presiding over the most explosive growth period in the organization's history. She started off assembling a quarterly schedule of movies for a cozy 49-seat neighborhood theater in North Capitol Hill; [here I'd have preferred a sentence re what she was doing in last year - moving them into a much bigger, more centrally located space - being the programmer for all of it .. then new sentence- ] at 28, she's become a major tastemaker in the Seattle film scene, responsible for bringing hundreds of films every year exclusively to Northwest Film Forum's two-screen cinematheque. This week she will pack her car and head to Arkansas to visit family. She plans to relocate permanently to New York City.

The transfer of power won't have a dramatic impact on the kind of films you'll see on the Film Forum calendar, though Sekuler would like to program more short films in conjunction with features. It's helpful that Sekuler already has established relationships with the distributors that rent film prints to Northwest Film Forum. (While a theater's location, its total number of seats—and, in the case of chains like Landmark, the possibility of expansion or holdover of a film—dictate many of the choices distributors make about where to send their titles, personal relationships with programmers also have weight, especially when dealing with valuable archival prints.) Seiwerath says that the fact Sekuler is coming from Minneapolis—which, like Seattle, has a large number of Landmark screens—was also a point in his favor. He "understands the ecology" of that casual competition.
But expect subtle changes—a shift in tone rather than direction. Jaime Keeling was all personality. I don't see any more participatory theatrical adaptations of bad surf movies in the Film Forum's future (Keeling conceived and helped produce Point Break Live! at the Little Theatre in 2003), and I expect there will be fewer double-dutch jump-rope demonstrations at Film Forum parties (Keeling was a member of the local troupe On the Double). I haven't met Sekuler in person yet, but I suspect that when I do, he won't be wearing an astounding vintage coat with a collar made from the fur of some unidentified animal, as Keeling was when I saw her last.