A Mind on the Loose

My friend Craig sent around a funny blog entry from Larry David (co-creator of Seinfeld) currently up on The Huffington Post (Arianna Huffington's Blog). Click the title above for a link to Mr. David's rantings.

Speaking of Craig, while reading his recent interview with artist/filmmaker Miranda July on Greencine.com (use this URL to read it: http://www.greencine.com/article?action=view&articleID=215), I suddenly realized that I wasn't using the "comments" feature on Blogger correctly myself. So I have now finally turned it on for all to see and use. Next I will figure out how to link to stories within an entry, other than via the title. I've tried to figure this out before, but it just seems broken in my system.

Last note--I was in a San Francisco Whole Foods store yesterday buying lunch, and the place was packed right around mid-afternoon on a Tuesday. Some joker looked around the store and said to his buddy, "Wow, are we all unemployed or what?" His buddy responded, "No, we're just all way under-employed." I had to laugh at the painful truth of that one.

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Janitor Jim Belts Out Bushisms

My friend Jim Kivlighan should be famous (and is in certain circles). We grew up together in a small town where both of our families have lived for many generations (and he has settled there again after stints in larger cities). I believe our grandfathers and even great-grandfathers knew each other. In high school, Jim briefly headed an "infamous" punk band modeled after The Ramones called Janitor Jim and the Custodians. He is/was Janitor Jim, of course. So you can already see some of his genius. Anyway, he still enjoys making music and recently sent me the following email (in part) describing a performance I wish I'd seen:

**Speaking of music, I played solo and with another band last weekend.  One of my solo songs was very funny:  I started talking about how all the songs were original and I normally write by myself.  I added that I did write this one song with another guy.  I wrote the music and he wrote the lyrics.  I asked him to come and perform with me but he never returned my emails or phone calls so I'll do it by myself.  The song is called Bushisms.  I then played a screaming guitar sound with feed back for about 15 seconds; I stopped and read a Bushism while holding up different pictures of Bush.  I would then scream on the guitar again, stop, and read another Bushism.  People loved it.  Most there were liberal, but even the few conservatives thought it was funny.  The bushism that got the biggest applause was this:

"Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB/GYN's aren't able to practice their love with women all across the country."-Sept. 6, 2004, Poplar Bluff, Mo.**

URL to Bushisms (or click title above):
http://slate.com/id/76886/

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Michel Houellebecq --Enfant terrible of French lit?

I just read this extremely entertaining article by Brendan Bernhard in LA Weekly about the French writer Michel Houellebecq (pronounced "wellbeck" he tells us). Click on the title above to go to the article or insert this URL:

http://www.laweekly.com/ink/05/31/features-bernhard.php

The sad truth is that I have yet to read any of Hoellebecq's novels, but I will be out tracking them down later today. They sound rather strange, dark, nihilistic, negative, and wonderfully French. The portrait of the author as depicted in this article is of a 47-year-old over-caffeinated Frenchman living in Ireland who occasionally spouts off brilliant remarks between rather sleepy episodes of daily tedium. Here are a few choice quotes from Bernhard's piece:

"Few doubt his intelligence on the page, however, or the sense of isolation and loneliness that underlies his satire. The tone of his work is one of radical estrangement and ennui, and his books are studded with statements bleak even for a French writer who was once frequently treated for nervous depression."

And this one:

"Houellebecq’s first novel, Whatever, was about a bored, deeply unhappy software engineer who travels around France with a pitifully ugly co-worker, teaching a new computer program to business clients. It was short, pithy and filled with a visceral loathing for just about everything. (“I hate this life. I definitely do not like it,” the narrator says. “The society in which I live disgusts me; advertising sickens me; computers make me puke.”) It was based at least partly on the author’s own life and had the unmistakable tang of reality. (During the 1980s, he worked as an agricultural engineer and debugged computers for the French National Assembly, often traveling around the country to do so.) As he would continue to do in his next two novels, Houellebecq had given voice to a class of people — alienated white-collar office workers, basically — who tend to be ignored by literary novelists."

Until finally:

“He is obviously very secluded, very isolated, there are many parts to him that he doesn’t show,” (Olivier) Touraine said afterward (of Houellebecq). “In a way he is an enfant terrible in a generic French way, burning the candle at both ends. But he is also the best contemporary French writer.”

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Repent Sinners (& F o r n i c a t o r s)

Repent Sinners
Originally uploaded by franksutter.

This guy hangs out on Market Street in San Francisco sometimes and you have to love his sign. I'm already getting slightly bored with the Ladder Series (see previous posts), so I think it may now become the Signs and Ladders Series. My friend Craig said he thought the Ladder Series was "pretty random," so maybe the Signs and Ladders Series will appease him. Anyway, funny how this guy's sign is designed so from a distance what jumps out at you are the words, "NO SEX." Of course, the best line is probably, "Quit your whoring now!" I don't know about you, but I secretly kind of like the idea of being called a fornicator. We need to bring that word back into vogue. Having just googled it, apparently there is a Swedish punk band called The Fornicators.

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New Haruki Murakami Story in Harper's

There's an interesting new Haruki Murakami short story in the latest Harper's Magazine called "Chance Traveler" (translated by Philip Gabriel). What I found interesting was the unexpected introductory essay at the beginning of the story, which starts out as follows:

"The "I" here, you should know, means me, Haruki Murakami, the author of the story. Mostly this is a third person narrative, but here at the beginning the narrator does make an appearance... "

He goes on to tell what I assume are two true stories (or anecdotes) about odd coincidences that happened to him while hearing a live jazz musician performing at a club in the U.S. and when buying an old record of a jazz recording here in the U.S.. I won't tell you his stories because you should read them for yourself, but I have my own related tale that I wanted to write down real quick.

Here it is. I was in Tokyo several years ago, and at some point I read this article in The New Yorker, I think it was, about Miles Davis and a version of the tune "On Green Dolphin Street" he did with John Coltrane on an album titled "On Green Dolphin Street." I had never heard it before and became obsessed with hearing it, so I coerced my future wife Rie into taking me to Shinjuku to a Virgin megastore where they had an amazing jazz CD selection. I knew that the Japanese love jazz and that if anybody would have it anywhere, they would have it there in Tokyo, and I wasn't disappointed.

After my frantic search ended in success, I purchased the CD and we headed outside onto the bustling sidewalk filled with literally thousands of people going about their business in hundreds of different directions. But here's the strange part--a group of scattered Japanese kids, roughly college-age, were holding up these little handmade signs with single words in English written on them. At least two (out of only five or six) were holding up signs that said "DOLPHIN" on them. I have a photo somewhere to prove it. I was just rather amazed that of all the words they could have chosen, they chose dolphin, in English, right after I had been so obsessed with finding that album, "On Green Dolphin Street." Then to read Murakami's little similar stories of jazz-related coincidences seemed further related somehow, so I thought I should tell you about it.

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Ladder Series #3

Ladder Series #3
Originally uploaded by franksutter.

I caught this guy on the fly as I walked along Sutter Street one day in San Francisco. The signs around him are sort of interesting--Color, Shipping, Breakfast. Also, he just really seems to be enjoying that smoke, right down to the filter.

B L O O M S D A Y -- June 16, 1904

Holy Buck Mulligan! I almost forgot that today is Bloomsday, the day that James Joyce's "Ulysses" takes place in Dublin. Last year was the 100-year anniversary of this fictional event, so that one overshadows today, the 101-year anniversary. However, I was in Dublin for Bloomsday back in 1998 (an awesome experience for a Joyce fan like myself--see Washington Post article by clicking on title above)), so I like to celebrate it every year (when I can remember). There's a new (2004) Irish film now available on DVD based on "Ulysses" called "Bloom." It stars Irish actor Stephen Rea ("The Crying Game") as Leopold Bloom and was directed faithfully by Sean Walsh. I bought a used copy through Amazon.com recently and plan to watch it tonight for the first time. The actress who plays Molly Bloom, Angeline Ball, seems to have really thrown herself full-force into the role in what appears to be a wonderfully lusty portrayal of the cheating wife, who says, "...first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes."

But it's not about movies, is it then? So go read some out of "Ulysses" on your own, if you please. And, as they say in Dublin, don't be a begrudger! As legend has it (and the biographers), Joyce chose the date of June 16, 1904 for his novel because that was the day he first had a real date with his future wife Nora Barnacle. Supposedly she gave him a hand job that day, as well, for which he was apparently forever quite grateful. Here's the text of a letter Joyce wrote to Nora dated August 15, 1904 that give you a good idea of how head over heels he was for this fetching red-haired Irish lass (from "Selected Letters of James Joyce" edited by Richard Ellmann):

"My dear Nora It has just struck one. I came in at half past eleven. Since then I have been sitting in an easy chair like a fool. I could do nothing. I hear nothing but your voice. I am like a fool hearing you call me 'Dear'. I offended two men today by leaving them cooly. I wanted to hear your voice, not theirs.

When I am with you I leave aside my contemptuous suspicious nature. I wish I felt your head over my shoulder now. I think I will go to bed.

I have been a half-hour writing this thing. Will you write something to me? I hope you will. How am I to sign myself? I won't sign anything at all, because I don't know what to sign myself."

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A Japanese Literary Rebel

There's a recent New York Times article about the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami that's worth reading. I'm in an alumni writing workshop and we are currently reading Murakami's novel "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles." I'm reading it for the second time, and I must say it holds up for me. If you try to read it, make sure you stay with it through the first 200 pages before deciding it is too slow (as some of my fellow workshop mates were saying). Trust me, it gets better and better from that point on (or you may love it from page one).

I wrote previously about seeing Murakami read an excerpt from "Wind-Up Bird" when it first came out in English. I appreciated learning about his writing routine in the current article. His most recent novel to be released in English is "Kafka on the Shore" which I bought but haven't read yet. Here's a quote from the article by NORIMITSU ONISHI:

"He wrote "Kafka" in six months, starting, as he usually does, without a plan. He spent one year revising it. He follows a strict regimen. Going to bed around 9 p.m. - he never dreams, he said - he wakes up without an alarm clock around 4 a.m. He immediately turns on his Macintosh and writes until 11 a.m., producing every day 4,000 characters, or the equivalent of two to three pages in English."

Sounds a lot like Graham Greene's routine.

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Ladder Series #2

Ladder Series #2
Originally uploaded by franksutter.

Here's another ladder shot, taken in my hometown of Staunton, VA not too long ago. I'd say it speaks for itself. This will be an ongoing series, so stay posted for more soon. This image has a lot of interesting lines in it, and the bush in the lower center seems well-placed somehow.

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W I L C O -- Jeff Tweedy & Co. rock the Greek

I saw Wilco perform last night at the Berkeley Greek Theatre, and all I can say is--wow. The weather was perfect, the real Big Dipper hung in the sky above the stage, and frontman Jeff Tweedy was in fine form, his voice at full throttle thanks to this being the first show of their summer tour, leaving him well-rested and fully present. Tweedy also mentioned that he just quit smoking not long ago, so that may have helped, too. He's put on quite a few pounds since I last saw him last November at the Paramount in Oakland (he stuck his gut out at one point to show the audience), but he sang and played as well as I've ever seen him. The rest of the band was right there with Tweedy throughout the show, but it was clearly his show all the way (but not in a selfish sense). They opened with "Misunderstood" and went on from there through an excellent set list that included "Hummingbird," "Handshake Drugs," "California Stars" and "Kingpin" among many others, ending finally with "Heavy Metal Drummer." If they play anywhere near you on this summer tour, I highly recommend scoring a ticket.

There aren't many bands out there right now that I get truly excited over, to be honest, but Wilco is definitely one of them. And they are currently in top form. Tweedy has been clean (off prescription drugs) for about a year now, I read, and he himself said during the show that he was feeling "happy, in a sad way" but that seemed to translate into great music. At one point late in the show Tweedy was playing an acoustic tune (I'll name it soon), there was a brief pause, and some guy from the crowd yelled out, "Jeff Tweedy, you're beautiful" to which Tweedy kind of turned in his direction and continued with the song, the next lyrics being, "the music was my savior." And in that moment, as they say, it all came together. Or, as an old hippie once said after a Bob Dylan show I saw at the Berkeley High School auditorium years ago, "Oh man, that was the furthest."

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Downing Street Memo Redux

The Downing Street memo (click on title for link) is getting renewed attention thanks to organizations like MoveOn.org who are demanding that President Bush "must directly address the evidence in the Downing St. Memo of intelligence manipulation and public deceit in the rush to invade Iraq." This demand is in the form of a petition letter prepared by the office of Representative John Conyers.

The memo was originally released to the public on May 1, 2005 by the Sunday Times of London. The Christian Science Monitor, of all places, has a fairly comprehensive article on the matter at hand (posted back on May 17, 2005):

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0517/dailyUpdate.html

Here is part of what that CS Monitor article says:

"In a letter to President Bush released May 6, 89 Democratic members of Congress said the memo "raises troubling new questions regarding the legal justifications for the war as well as the integrity of our own administration." This move failed to gain the sort of media attention that normally elicits a quick response from the administration, which did not comment on the memo until Monday."

I haven't formed a strong opinion as to why this memo didn't garner more US news coverage back in early May, although my guess is that this wasn't much of a shock to anybody. Didn't Bob Woodward's recent book on Bush entitled "Plan of Attack" already reveal similar information? According to Woodward's account, the number one agenda item for Bush (as per Cheney) even before he was inaugurated in 2001 was "discussion about Iraq and different options."

Still, what I continue to find deplorable about the top brass of the current administration is their contempt for both Congress and the press (not to mention the Constitution, all liberals, and anything else that stands in their way). They really don't want to answer to anyone, and until the American people stand up and say otherwise they may not have to. In this week's New Yorker magazine Seymour Hersh has an excellent short piece about covering Watergate back in 1973:

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/050613ta_talk_hersh


Hersh ends his article with the following poignant comment:

"As memoirs by both Nixon and Kissinger show, neither man understood why the White House could not do what it wanted, at home or in Vietnam. The reason it couldn’t is, one hopes, just as valid today: they were operating in a democracy in which they were accountable to a Constitution and to a citizenry that held its leaders to a high standard of morality and integrity. That is the legacy of Watergate."

Sometimes it appears that we've learned nothing from our own history.

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Ladder Series #1

Ladder Series #1
Originally uploaded by franksutter.

This is the first in a series of ladder photos I've been taking wherever I go. I know it's a bit odd, but that's why I like it. This shot sparked the idea, and I plan to start posting these ladder images regularly here. Some day I hope to compile a book of ladder shots.

Cinderella Man

I was going to write about the new movie "Cinderella Man," but now the question is, will Russell Crowe go to prison for his two felony charges after he assaulted that New York hotel desk clerk with a telephone? Here's a URL for the NY Times article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/07/nyregion/07crowe.html?

His publicist is already trying to spin it as an accident, saying (from NYT article):

"After asking the front desk several times to replace a faulty phone in his room - and getting only attitude from the clerk on duty - Crowe brought the phone down to the front desk in an effort to address the situation in person. Words were exchanged and Crowe wound up throwing the phone against the wall. He regrets that he lost his temper, but at no time did he assault anyone or touch any hotel employee."

Of course the real story appears to be that Mr. Movie Star threw the phone directly AT the employee, nailing him on the cheek under the eye and opening up a small cut (but one that didn't require stitches). Unfortunately for Crowe, that has become assault with a deadly weapon, so he could be forced to spend up to seven years in prison (although with his money and clout he will no doubt settle out of court, get the charges dropped, and go on with his life as arrogantly as ever). I like Russell Crowe as an actor, but he obviously has some major anger-control issues in his private life.

This story will no doubt become huge and everybody will know all the details and the media will talk about incessantly. He came out of the police station wearing Ray-Bans and a "Cinderella Man" jacket. Talk about an unusual publicity stunt.

Meanwhile I spent yesterday researching the real life of boxer Irish Jim Braddock and his heavyweight title opponent in the film (and real life) Max Baer, who killed two of his opponents with his deadly right punch (one died in the ring, another died later after a subsequent fight). Crowe himself did a ton of research about Braddock and realized he was a genuinely decent man who returned the welfare money he had borrowed during the Great Depression after his boxing career had been rejuvenated. Crowe even purchased the original receipt for paying the money back at an online auction (revealed during a Charlie Rose interview). Braddock apparently carried that receipt around with him in his wallet until the day he died (according to Crowe).

The movie itself is pure Hollywood, but the true story behind the film is so strong and compelling, plus the performances of especially Crowe, Paul Giamatti as his trainer/manager Joe Gould, and Bruce McGill (who played D-Day in Animal House) as the money man in boxing, are so good that the film couldn't miss. The period sets are pretty convincing overall, too, plus Ron Howard found a way to film the boxing scenes in a fairly convincing manner.

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Deep Felt Throat

Yes, I did get caught up in the Deep Throat story because it is pretty fascinating "espionage" kind of stuff. Last night right after midnight I pulled up the Washington Post web site to finally read reporter Bob Woodward's version of how he met W. Mark Felt of the FBI (when he was a young Navy lieutenant serving as a courier to the White House) and how their acquaintance bloomed into a kind of mentorship, followed by the whole famous Watergate story as told in "All the President's Men." I still love the 1976 movie version with Redford and Hoffman, by the way, especially Jason Robards' portrayal of Ben Bradlee (he won an Oscar for his role). Now I suppose we'll have to suffer through some kind of remake of the film with the added story of how Woodward met Deep Throat in the first place. Nothing could beat the original film though, I'm sure.

Another element to the Deep Throat story is covered in the Wall Street Journal today. The headline of their story is "How a Lawyer Finally Unveiled Deep Throat." John D. O'Connor is the San Francisco lawyer who now represents W. Mark Felt and his family, and he is also supposedly the "author" of the story that ran in Vanity Fair revealing Deep Throat's identity. I read elsewhere that O'Connor was paid roughly $10,000 to write the story (NYT 6/2/05). The family seems anxious to cash in on their patriarch's fame, so I am afraid we have not begun to hear the end of this story, even though all of the suspense is really over now with the revealing of his identity. Plus, Woodward still seems to possess the real story, and apparently he has already written a book about how he got to know Felt that is being rushed to press as I type this. It remains to be seen if Felt has additional juicy details from behind the scenes that we don't know about yet. We do know that at the time of Watergate, he did provide Woodward (and Carl Bernstein) with amazingly accurate information that in some cases took years to substantiate.

O'Connor is a "conservative corporate litigator... best known for his work defending a cigarette company" according to the Wall Street Journal. That company was R.J. Reynolds (now Reynolds American), by the way. So we're all very happy that he was able to cash in on revealing the identity of Deep Throat. Anyway, he had heard for a number of years that Mark Felt was very likely the infamous Watergate informant, and then he met Felt's grandson Nick Jones through his daughter because the two were classmates together at Stanford. I'll go ahead and include that part of the story as it appears verbatim in today's WSJ (written by Joe Hagan and Katherine Rosman):

"At a dinner in 2002, Mr. Jones mentioned to Mr. O'Connor that he was Mr. Felt's grandson. Mr. O'Connor recognized the name and said to Mr. Jones, "Your grandad is Deep Throat! Did you know that?", repeating a rumor he had heard for years. Mr. Jones replied that he had heard the rumor, too, and said, 'just recently we have started to think maybe it's him.'"

O'Connor eventually met Felt through the grandson and coaxed a kind of confession out of him that he indeed was Deep Throat. I guess you know the rest. They sold the story to Vanity Fair (or however you want to look at it), and now Woodward is scrambling to have the last word and release everything he had planned to release as soon as Felt died, rather than now while he is still alive at the impressive age of 91.

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