Relationships in a Paragraph

A wonderful challenge.  Reminds me of Felix Feneon's Novels in Three Lines.  My contributions follow:

1. We played tennis on a warm, dry afternoon. I missed every volley I returned. She gracefully conceded defeat and left with a wry smile.
2. She polished her blood-red boots with particular care. She didn't polish much else. Sometimes there really is nothing to say. But she said it so eloquently.
3. A drowsy turtle is a dilemma. To tap or not to tap? I did a bit of both. The turtle eventually arrived, but the hare was long gone.
4. The stars perform in the windshield and demand the same in return.  Our absent-minded kisses soon became inadequate. But she was a far more diligent performer than I.
5. At the time, I never wondered why she laughed. She smiled when I touched her, over and over. She smiled when she drew the line. And she smiled when I brought her roses. She knew they were wilted, even if I didn't.
6. Many are born administrators. Only a few realize it. She knew how to do things properly and gave careful instructions. There's no use pretending you can train the untrainable.
7. Wild-eyed, I followed her home. So ripe, so wrong. An open secret: the hypnotized always act on their desires.
8. She watched me laughingly in class, and I performed for her. I loved her best when she was gone, and I suspect she agreed. Exasperated, she dropped me once and then again. There won't be a third time.
9. As a writer, she found the film academic. As a writer, she found the article dull. As a writer, she didn't much care for him. As a writer, I was done writing.
10. Elegantly, she brushed out her hair. Daintily, she picked though her salad. Discreetly, she signaled her boredom. Quietly, I walked away.
    

Suggested by The Sheila Variations via From the Archives.

The Godfather of Avant-Garde Cinema

In September 2007, Senses of Cinema published my interview with Jonas Mekas, Me, I Just Film My Life.  This interview was a follow-up to another, also published by Senses of Cinema.  Yeah, I know the introductions are similar.  I had to write it really fast.  Anyway, I think the second is better, and that's what counts, right?

The avant-garde is about sex. Like it or not.

On October 17, 2007, the Stranger ran my review of Other Cinema DVD's release Xperimental Eros.  It's really a good disc.  I'm an especially big fan of Naomi Uman's Removed.

Is that a movie in your pocket?

Time to catch up with some old reviews, as I'm finally back in NYC.  On May 23, 2007, the Stranger ran Hey, Full Series Pass!, a column I wrote on the occasion of the Seattle International Film Festival, recommending websites presenting unusual internet videos.  Don't worry, it's pretty tame.

Monster by Mail

A few weeks ago, Boing Boing noted a cartoonist ("jawboneradio") offering to draw the poster for any horror film you cared to name on a postcard, and mail you a time-lapse movie of its creation. I requested a poster for "Uncle Fishhook's Free Bicentennial Zombie Underground," a title derived from a Jack Smith performance aimed at Jonas Mekas (aka "Uncle Fishhook). Here's the photo and the movie.

The Peculiar Story of United States v. Miller

Jackson "Jack" Miller

I recently posted my first completed law review article, The Peculiar Story of United States v. Miller on SSRN. The paper provides a historical account of United States v. Miller (1939), the only Supreme Court case construing the Second Amendment. The Siloam Springs, Arkansas police picked up Jack Miller (pictured above) and Frank Layton with a sawed-off shotgun, and the federal government charged them with violating the National Firearms Act, the first real federal gun control law. The district court held the NFA violates the Second Amendment, and the Supreme Court reversed. I argue Miller was a test case arranged by the government and Judge Ragon of the Western District of Arkansas. I argue the Supreme Court didn't adopt a theory of the Second Amendment right, but did imply it protects a limited individual right to possess and use firearms suitable for militia service.

Professor Dudziak of the University of Southern California Law School and the Legal History Blog graciously posted a notice of the paper here. More images follow:

Paul E. Gutensohn (Miller's lawyer)

Judge Hiram Heartsill Ragon
of the Western District of Arkansas

Irish O'Malley (born Walter Holland)
"leader" of Miller's gang

Kenneth Anger Review

This week, The Stranger ran my review of Fantoma's new Kenneth Anger DVD, which includes his first five extant films, Fireworks, Puce Moment, Rabbit's Moon, Eaux d'Artifice, and Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome.

Tribulation 99

Thank god for DVDs. Even if Alain's right about their demerits, at least they give me an excuse to write about films. A few weeks ago the Stranger ran this review of Craig Baldwin's Tribulation 99.

Robert Beck, R.I.P.

In this week's Village Voice, Ed Halter covers the Collective for Living Cinema tribute at Anthology Film Archives. Which looks like an excellent program. Not to mention flattering, as I'm included. Unexpectedly, as I arrived in NYC well after the Collective had closed its doors. In any case, what struck me was his mention of the former Robert Beck Memorial Cinema in his opening paragraph. There's nothing for feeling old like becoming historical. Even if it feels premature. But I guess the Robert Beck was mostly archival from the get-go, anyway. Or at least aspired to be.

Via Andrei Khrenov.

A New Theory of Hollis Frampton's Lemon

Q. What's yellow and equivalent to the Axiom of Choice?
A. Zorn's Lemon.

From the December 23, 2006 edition of The Economist, Post-modernism is the new black:

In one of his last lectures, in January 1979, four months before Margaret Thatcher came to power in Britain, [Michel Foucault] shocked his students by telling them to read the works of F.A. Hayek if they wanted to know about "the will not to be governed".

See also here. The irony lies not in Foucault's admiration for Hayek, but in the fact it comes as a surprise at all. That the most famous post-modernist is also the least understood.

Moths drink the tears of sleeping birds

"But one alone, a bird, renews and re-begets itself - the Phoenix of Assyria, which feeds not upon seeds or verdure but the oils of balsam and the tears of frankincense." Ovid, Metamorphoses 15.385.

via Mike Olshan