between the desire and the spasm

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Sun, 19 May 2013 13:30:09 -0400

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Sat, 18 May 2013 13:30:14 -0400

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Fri, 17 May 2013 13:30:16 -0400

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Thu, 16 May 2013 13:30:04 -0400

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Wed, 15 May 2013 13:30:09 -0400

tiger-milk: Caterina Giglio

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:30:22 -0400

tiger-milk:

Caterina Giglio

pre-raphaelites: Ivor Gurney, “The Silent One”.

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:30:13 -0400

pre-raphaelites:

Ivor Gurney, “The Silent One”.

Bill Brandt, London (1954)

Sun, 12 May 2013 13:30:23 -0400

Bill Brandt, London (1954)

Bill Brandt, “Edinburgh” (1942)

Sat, 11 May 2013 13:30:21 -0400

Bill Brandt, “Edinburgh” (1942)

Thay suggests that our search for fame, wealth, power and sexual gratification provides the perfect...

Sat, 11 May 2013 12:14:00 -0400

Thay suggests that our search for fame, wealth, power and sexual gratification provides the perfect refuge for people to hide from the truth about the many challenges facing the world. Worse still, our addiction to material goods and a hectic lifestyle provides only a temporary plaster for gaping emotional and spiritual wounds, which only drives greater loneliness and unhappiness.

Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh: only love can save us from climate change

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Fri, 10 May 2013 19:20:54 -0400

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Thu, 09 May 2013 17:32:49 -0400

L A T E - N I G H T L O N E L Y B L U E S (songs for nursing...

Wed, 08 May 2013 19:53:24 -0400

L A T E - N I G H T L O N E L Y B L U E S
(songs for nursing a half-empty glass of whiskey and a broken heart in forgotten corners of cafes and seeing his/her silhouette in every shadow of the empty rain-soaked streets)

01 richard hawley - COLE’S CORNER | 02 tom waits - ALICE | 03 billie holiday - I GET ALONG WITHOUT YOU VERY WELL | 04 sonna - ONE MOST MEMORABLE | 05 rivulets - SHADOW OF A GHOST | 06 bohren & der club of gore - DESTROYING ANGELS | 07 trembling blue stars - KENSINGTON GARDENS | 08 nils frahm - OVER THERE, IT’S RAINING | 09 chet baker - ALMOST BLUE | 10 ed harcourt - LATE NIGHT PARTNER

listen
download.

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Wed, 08 May 2013 14:00:29 -0400

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Tue, 07 May 2013 15:10:55 -0400

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Tue, 07 May 2013 13:12:38 -0400

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Mon, 06 May 2013 11:57:33 -0400

gunsandposes: A happy people’s birthday to comrade Karl Marx (5...

Sun, 05 May 2013 16:31:00 -0400

gunsandposes:

A happy people’s birthday to comrade Karl Marx (5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883)

(New York Public Library)

Rembrandt Peale, “The Sisters (Eleanor and Rosalba...

Sun, 05 May 2013 14:15:02 -0400

Rembrandt Peale, “The Sisters (Eleanor and Rosalba Peale)” (detail), c.1826

have you been watching Hannibal? (i assume you have, given your sometimes macabre taste) if so, what do you think of it?

Sat, 04 May 2013 16:18:00 -0400

I have been watching, but rather half-heartedly and will likely not continue in the future. I find the show dreadfully unimaginative and don’t see the point in torturing myself on a weekly basis. The character of Lecter and the Hannibal ‘mythos’ is rather…dear to me, and so perhaps I had rather unfairly high expectations entering into this, combined with the excellent (on paper) cast. In practise, I was dismayed to see how terrifically lacking was the execution.

The idea of a series in the Lecter universe is incompatible to the very nature of the titular character. The chilling effectiveness of Lecter in the novels/films is that he appears intermittently - “sometimes he would open his eyes long enough to insult some academic who was trying to pick his brain” - and disappears, only to cast an aura of constant presence throughout the rest of the scene. Having Lecter appear so often rather spoils the clout of why the character is so memorable, rather ‘too much of a good thing’. Moreover, while I ardently admire Mikkelsen, his speech delivery does no justice to the character. Harris (and Sir Hopkins) made rather a point of emphasising Lecter’s polite condescension for other people, punctuated by his sharp and often ironic diction style. True, that this is pre-Red Dragon era and therefore early days yet with Lecter’s psychopathy yet to be exposed, but being so far from the spirit of the Lecter universe makes the show seem a cheap go at tacking a popular name onto an otherwise mediocre show.

The writing is the other major issue for me, horribly disjointed and incoherent for the most part. Between the piss-poor dialogue, thoroughly unengaging characters and storyline(s), the tragic underuse of Caroline Dhavernas, and Will’s weekly apocryphal hysterics (“pure empathy”? really? the psychology researcher for this show requires some revision), it holds very little interest for me. It is trying too hard to shroud the viewer in symbolism and metaphors, while completely losing track of the narrative (not to mention, the rehashing of the “having a friend for dinner” line is getting very old, very fast). I appreciate Mikkelsen in fine suits serving gourmet meals, and that’s about it. Divorced from the Lecter universe, it may be a passable show, but I find its relation to the spirit of the novel(s) in name only.