Roadtrip to Wash-35
I knew it was coming, but it's still getting to me now how many of my favorite places have closed in the past two years. Because the best places are usually the least suited for this housing market, this world. (Then again, why does it bother me so much that the Fairway in Harlem closed? Because I once saw a firetruck pull up to the side and a bunch of firefighters scurry in and pick up lasangas at the hot food bar? Because it was really nice right there in an unexpected quiet place by the river? I might have shopped there like, three or four more occasions total in my entire life—a grocery store! But it does bother me!!)
So I was pleased to be able to drive to The Montague Bookmill the other day and see it—masked up—the way it ever was. If I ever end up in one of those old folks homes in Germany that looks like a place from someone's past, or commission my own Wash-35 from Now Wait for Last Year, my own private "Forever 2006" would basically be something like this bookstore. Fall foliage, shelves of old books, coffee, sitting outside. A perfect day.
Brendan Byrne is my friend and he is also one of my favorite writers. I cannot say enough good things about his novella Accelerate. Another new book I really liked is Trashlands by Alison Stine.
I also finally read Alan Moore's From Hell for the first time and I feel like anything I'd say about it would be too obvious and prententious. Like recommending The Great Gatsby or something.
I have complicated feelings about Last Night in Soho: I loved watching it, and agree with everyone who says it’s bad. Everything anyone can possibly say about this movie is correct. You should see it!
I was clicking around the archives of Sunset Gun the other night. I miss reading posts like this on random blogs. I’m sure there’s writing like that on the internet, still—on blogs or newsletters—but I find it harder to stumble upon these days.
How about this poster on the wall of the (very fun place to explore) VintageTek Museum in Portland? (I’ve got more photos from that place here).
I wrote a short radio play supposing how people will teach the history of the internet to high schoolers in the future. It's also kind of a utopian set-up. Benjamen Walker produced and recorded the actors. The official version of the podcast will be posted online in some official way eventually but for now you can listen to the draft of it on my website. It's only six minutes long and I think it came out pretty great.
My latest essay in Filmmaker magazine is something that’s been kicking around in my mind for awhile: why are we still doing humanoid robot stories? I mean, I still love these books and movies, but back in Rod Serling’s time, an android was no more or less possible than the internet. Now we know it’s not going to happen, at least, not in a meaningful—will I wake up one day and discover I’m a machine and that my entire life is a lie sort of way. The piece ended up being not very easy to write (all that kicking around in my head had been in circles) and I’m grateful to my editors for helping me bring it to actual coherence. It’s part of the wonderful 25 New Faces of Film issue.
An earlier piece I wrote for Filmmaker, on All About Lily Chou-Chou, was reprinted in this excellent zine that was distributed at a screening this week in London for the series Lost Futures.
I’m visiting New York sometime after Thanksgiving. Not sure of the exact dates but sometime in the first or second week of December. Mostly seeing museums and friends. Let me know if you’ll be around.
I've been trying to remember what it was I ordered at like, three am last Saturday night but now it's in the mail I know it was Wild Palms on DVD and the The Wild Palms Reader. I feel like I talk about the series way way more than I remember it, and doubt it will hold up, but that’s one of my other plans for the coming weeks.
Thanks for reading.