What I Watched: Francis, Ha
“
Have you forgotten what we were like then
when we were still first rate
and the day came fat with an apple in its mouthit’s no use worrying about Time
but we did have a few tricks up our sleeves
and turned some sharp cornersthe whole pasture looked like our meal
we didn’t need speedometers
we could manage cocktails out of ice and waterI wouldn’t want to be faster
”
or greener than now if you were with me O you
were the best of all my days
— “Animals” by Frank O’Hara
“We’ve been in New York a while and nobody has asked me to be in a flash mob yet.”
— Jenny
Real quick pickle stop.
Tattoo by J. Madberg
The Graduate
In honor of Cannes starting today here is a photo of me from when I went to the festival during college. We got a couple hours of sleep a night, drank copious amounts of cheap wine, saw the premiere of No Country For Old Men and stole a taxi from Harvey Weinstein. It was the best of times, it was… pretty much just the best of times.
Shooting a video with the amazing tattoo artist Amanda Wachob today.
Very proud to be from Minnesota, the 12th state in the country to legalize gay marriage.
What I Read: Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? by Raymond Carver
I won a White Castle scented candle tonight at Bingo. I thought I had at least 50 years before I would say something like that.
The Met today.
After being on my bookshelf for years I finally got around to reading this. It was an interesting look at American cinema in the 70’s and the madmen and women that populated it.
The most interesting part for me was reading about the personal and professional crises these filmmakers went through. Finding out Scorsese considered himself a failure even after having made Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and The King of Comedy, how Spielberg, Coppola and George Lucas had periods of self doubt and creative misery even after having had some of the highest grossing films of all time.
There’s something kind of perversely reassuring in hearing about the struggles of these masters during their heyday. It makes you realize that your own personal struggles and insecurities are ok and normal.
I also compiled a list of about twenty films from that era that I need to watch.
The Rain Room opens tomorrow at MoMA, can’t wait to visit this.
People in New York: Stories We Tell opens today at the Angelika and Lincoln Plaza and I can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s one of the most beautiful, touching and well crafted documentaries I’ve seen in ages.
