nah pop, no style

So the other night, I watched The Assasination of Trotsky, as noted in that post down below somewhere. I don’t know why I was counting on a film that I knew would culminate in an ice pick to the skull to go down easy, but it ended up much more psychological than I expected. The first half hour or so was slow and/or confusing, and made me mad, but I stuck with it and it ended up just unsettling. Also, the assasin himself reminded me a lot of this kinda sleazy dude who hangs around the 61C Cafe all the time.

A couple nights ago I checked out Born In Flames, made by Lizzie Borden in 1983, about America post-”second American revolution.” It’s all about factions of women fighting oppression by men in a “peaceful, socialist” society. Dystopian, kinda campy, kinda poorly acted (they weren’t professionals, by choice), good soundtrack. The closing scene (***SPOILER ALERT***) was what fascinated and amused me: one of the women, more and more of whom are resorting to violent direct action after the apparent assassination of one of their own by the police, PLANTS A BOMB IN THE TALLER OF THE TWIN TOWERS AND BLOWS THE TOP OFF OF THE BUILDING.

As she prepared for this, and it became clear what was imminent, I said something like: “OH NO SHE DIDN’T.” Then when it actually happened — the dramatic final scene — I laughed because of how unaffecting it was. Surely at the time it was subversive, speculative, frightening. Now it seems like a weak blow. Is that the best they can bring? Back to the drawing board, Lizzie.

Here are things that are working for me right now:

• Being caught up in my classes for basically the first time all semester, and as a result being able to enjoy them more (especially because we’re starting to actually read stuff other than Freud in Lit & Psychoanalysis). (I’m just waiting for the opportunity to pimp Kristevan semanalysis in class now.)
• Tara Jane O’Neil: her show the other night at GA was beautiful, and her new album is likewise. I noted during the show that it seems like shows at GA, more than shows elsewhere, or really most other experiences in general, tend to trigger my anxiety and send me into bizarre mood swings. But I stuck it out, and the whole show was great (Anita Fix - Mike Tamburo - Julie Sokolow). And TJO made wonderful sounds and I was glad that I stayed. I like watching performers’ shadows on the wall next to the stage at GA instead of watching the performers themselves. It fit well.
• Reading the Mark Foley AIM transcripts over and over and laughing until I cry because they merge the three things in the world that I think are funniest: cyber sex, old dudes using AIM and making funny typos, and the House of Representatives.

Talk about dramatic irony:

“Cute” malapropism or Freudian slip from a comic strip girl whose phenomenological knowledge with regard to her cartoon-nature is much more highly developed than we had orginally thought?

You be the judge.

At least this time Grandma isn’t trying to feed the girl her baby brother. Er . . . as far as we can tell . . .

PS — I’ve been tagged by That Darn Andy Horbal to do the infamous BOOK MEME that’s making the rounds. Because he asked nicely, and because I like books, and also because I’ve been hard-up for meaningful things to write in this space lately (witness the above posting), I will oblige, as soon as I find the time to seriously consider. Could be later this morning, could be later this week. But it’s coming.