Interzone: Lost and Found in the Cosmos

Now might be a good time to round up a copy of Walker Percy's Lost In The Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book (1983). I used to have one, but gave it away to someone who wanted a crash course in Existentialism. I barely remember the details, though I do recall enjoying its contents more than any particular Percy novel. One thing that stuck was how people -- we humans -- can't help but be mesmerized by disasters and epic events, especially if they are far away. There but for the Grace of God go I.  When you're in the middle of such things, on the other hand, you have to deal with them directly and immediatetely. By the Grace of God or by simple twist of fate, here I am and how do I get outta here as fast as possible? I swear I'll be good!

Also, happy birthday to William S. Burroughs (1914-1997);  a new documentary is in the pipeline (William S. Burroughs: A Man Within, 2010). And finally, RIP to Reynolds Price (2/1/1933-1/20/2011), who died in Durham, North Carolina.  He was a favorite of my high school "Southern Writers" English teacher, Mrs. Vick, who dared not utter the name of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman (she was originally from Mississippi and was also a big Faulkner and Shelby Foote fan; we read Walker Percy's 1961 novel The Moviegoer in her class). She cracked me up every time. 

Today's Rune: Breakthrough.  

One Step Beyond the Outer Limits of the Twilight Zone

Happy 80th Birthday, Rip Torn! He's an actor who gets all the better as he ages. Above, his character Nathan Bryce faces off with David Bowie's alien (Newton) in Nicolas Roeg's The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976).  One of my favorite Torn characters is the "slightly bombastic" author "Q" in Curtis Hanson's Wonder Boys (2000). "I - am - a - Writer," he proclaims.  He's got it down perfectly. I'm looking forward to the DVD release of Joseph Strick's Tropic of Cancer (1970) with Rip as Henry Miller.

Happy Birthday, Charlotte Rampling (65), great career actor along the lines of her peer, Catherine Deneuve (67). Whether in Georgy Girl (1966) -- popping out of the screen as Meredith -- or as Dorrie in Woody Allen's Stardust Memories (1980, above) or as Sarah Morton in Swimming Pool (2003), she rocks.

Also like Catherine Deneuve, Charlotte Rampling has taken on many edgy roles.

RIP, Maria Schneider (58), most famous for her portayal of Jeanne in Bernardo Bertolucci's Ultimo Tango a Parigi / Last Tango in Paris (1972) opposite Marlon Brando, who lived to be 80 and died in 2004.  For those who haven't seen it, Last Tango is dark, sandwiched between a suicide and manslaughter with Brando saying many bizarre things in French.  

Let's not forget a belated Happy Birthday to Angela Davis, who turned 67 on January 26. She's now Visiting Professor (Distinguished Professor of Women's and Gender Studies and African American Studies) at Syracuse.

Today's Rune: Defense.

Tết Nguyên Đán: Feast of the New Morning

Happy Tết, y'all -- Year of the Cat, Year of the Rabbit, Year of the Common Era, 2011. How it will proceed, nobody knows, but it's been a wild start. . .

Will we remain in the United States of Amnesia?  Remember all the emotional concerns over the Horrible Truth About Burma (the so-called Republic of the Union of Myanmar)? That was 2009. People forget the year, let alone the country or the issue. Too taxing on the memory, I guess. Tibet (various uprisings; latest reported, 2008)? Katrina (2005) many do remember. The Great Tsunami (2004)? The Great Blackout (2003)?  Y2K (1999/2000)? Tet Offensive (1968)?   




















Year of Catnip? What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966)   

Kinji Fukasaku's Black Lizard / Kurotokage / 黒蜥蝪 (1968).

Today's Rune: Movement.

007: Soundtrack for a Lifetime

John Barry (Prendergast, 11/3/1933-1/30/2011), RIP. This gentleman's musical compositions ranged from 007 to Midnight Cowboy, from The Lion in Winter to Ruby Cairo. 

Music is a key ingredient in films, TV series, life. Bond music comes around often in the mind, more often than Groundhog Day, and in the best way possible. Is there anything from pop culture that inspires you in this way?

Above: AGENT 007 i ILDEN : "THUNDERBALL" (Danish: Agent 007 in the Fire, 1965).
















Goldfinger (1964). This is the first record I remember adoring, as a young kid. Loved it -- still do, especially Shirley Bassey belting out the title song. 



Barry broke out the sound synthesizers for On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969).

Today's Rune: Strength.  

Chicago Area, 1967, Part 2

Red Cross flag, Oak Lawn, Illinois, circa late April, 1967. 
















VW Beetle in the same area. Something you don't see quite so much these days in the American Midwest. Reminds me of the Coen Brothers. A Serious Man gets at the severe weather angle, and is set in 1967 in the Twin Cities, Minnesota.

Today's Rune: Initiation.

Chicago Area, 1967

Digitizing 8 mm and Super 8 mm film is particularly useful because with VLC and other software, you can extract snaphots, etc. They're a little grainy, but are like time portals. Here's a still from along the path of the April 21, 1967, Belvidere Tornado Outbreak, in Oak Lawn, Illinois. Dozens of people died. We were living in Justice, another Chicago suburb. I've seen that building on the right in news reports about the event. Not sure who took the footage, probably my Dad, though he may have been driving.  On July 2, 1997, I was looking for an apartment in the Detroit area during a series of tornadoes there, too.  Tornadoes can -- and do -- strike in large parts of the USA.

Chicago is now bracing for what may be the biggest snow storm in the area since 1967. We were there at the time. Hopefully someone in my family has pictures. My Dad -- it's his 77th birthday on February 1st and it was my Mom's 76th on January 30 -- was out of town but he remembers fire trucks delivering food and other supplies to areas where power went down. I remember those Chicago years as wild times: fires, tornadoes, blizzards, protests, riots and general craziness.  We next moved to Mendota Heights, Saint Paul, Minnesota, and from there, Durham, North Carolina.

Today's Rune: Movement.  

The Most Beautiful Thing in Tokyo

William S. Burroughs -- Commissioner of Sewers: A Film by Klaus Maeck (1991; DVD 2003), constructed around a cogent interview conducted by Jürgen Ploog interlaced with film and readings cut up by the following chapters:

The Do Rights
A Writer
Western Lands
The Cut Ups
Roosevelt after Inauguration
Young Writers
Young People
The Word
Thanksgiving Prayer (2-minute film by Gus Van Sant currently available on YouTube)
Traveling
Dr. Benway
The Future

Weirdly compelling, Burroughs' dry and sardonic delivery style, peppered with sarcastic mimicry, always reminds me of my maternal grandmother, who was born in the same year (1914).  They also shared some of the same attitudes about life.

A few excerpts from Burroughs musings from this interesting documentary:

My past experience becomes meaningful in terms of material for writing in the future . . . I wrote Junkie at the age of 35 . . . it was published in [1953]. Publication is . . . of importance to a writer.  If I hadn't succeeded in publishing Junkie I might just have given up writing.

Other topics covered in this section include different precepts behind the Tibetan and Egyptian Books of the Dead, Buddhism, and Burroughs' alter ego Kim. 

. . . one very important aspect about art is that it makes people aware of what they know and don't know that they know . . . [This] applies . . . to all creative thinking.  

Galileo,  Paul Cézanne as examples.

Once the breakthrough is made, there is a permanent expansion of awareness but there is always a[n initial] reaction of rage, of outrage, at the first breakthrough.

James Joyce, stream of conciousness as examples.

So the artist then expands awareness and once the breakthrough is made this becomes part of the general awareness . . . Seeing things that are there.

On the cut-up (or cut up) method derived from artists' montages [and collages] and from collaborating with his friend Brion Gysin:

Life is a cut-up.

Closer to the actual facts of perception, your conciousness is being cut by random factors.

Though in some ways this was "old hat," Burroughs continued experimenting with cut-up writing in efforts to transcend linear narrative.  

We know things are happening simultaneously but there's no way to show this on a page -- it's just not going to work --  [though] it can . . . in painting and cinema.

The title derives from Burroughs proclamation that he'd rather have been Sanitation Commissioner for Saint Louis County than the President of the United States.

"The most beautiful thing in Tokyo is McDonald's." -- Andy Warhol (1975). 

Today's Rune: Partnership.