The Levee

Two days ago I went to Chad’s apartment on S 2nd for the first time and I don’t know if I felt deja vu. I don't know what deja-vu is supposed to feel like.

There were pizza crusts in the stairwell. It felt mad hood: the kind of stairwell that people do business in. Dust everywhere; cigarette buts.

I know that Chad got the room on craigslist and moved in with strangers, so when I thought ‘I’ve been here before,’ I also thought, ‘maybe not.’

I sat in his apartment with his roommates and the layout was also familiar. ‘I’ve been here before,’ I thought, again. ‘Or a building like this, an apartment like this, some two years ago: visiting a bro who was new to the city, who I’ve since fallen out with.’ I asked them how long they had lived in the apartment and they said five years.

So it couldn’t have been the same apartment.

Then they said, ‘do you know (name of bro)?’ I did. ‘He stayed here for a while.’

‘Ahhhhhhhh. So I have been in this apartment,’ I said. ‘That’s neat.’

Chad and I went to a bar called the Levee, which used to be Kokies. They have a special with a shot and a beer for four dollars. Cheap beer and cheap bourbon.

It’s kind of grimy. You get the feeling that they are going for a 'pre-gentrification' vibe.

We drank bourbons and played Jenga. One of the bartender bros was playing The National. It felt like the end of something, or maybe the part after the end.

So we played pool. I have been on a good run against Chad lately. Then these girls came and put their name on the chalkboard.

We had seen the girls before. They had insisted on playing me in Jenga the last time we were at the Levee: a couple of months ago. ‘They must be the regulars,’ said Chad.

I will describe them. The leader is dark-haired and Italian looking, with tattoos on her forearms and big, pouty lips. She carries a small Paris Hilton like dog. She wears low cut V-neck T-shirts which reveal the sides and bottoms of both of her breasts. Her breasts are medium sized and hangy. She is loud. Her hair appears artificially straightened, and she carries maybe ten extra pounds. She is very good at Big Game Hunter.

The one I Jenga-ed is moon faced and slightly shorter than the leader. She also has dark hair and wears baby-doll dresses.

Then there is one that is very short and shaped like a barrel. The short one is the most employable looking.

Live Blogging the Oscars

My sister was in town. She is a law student, and has not yet purchased a blackberry. I found this kind of surprising, though I did not mention it to her.

I have thought of having a blackberry, so that I could 'live-blog' important things that happen to me.

1. Getting a new cat and neutering of new cat (story of loss and building of trust between friends)

2. Having a benign cyst removed from my head (part one the anxiety, part two the opiates)

3. Going to court for public urination (examination of NY judicial system, social class)

4. Becoming intoxicated at a bar ("1 beer down, feeling okay")

5. Working on a movie set ("sitting in a truck with a diet coke")

I'm on Twitter

I'm on twitter.

World War Z

How does an actor become a character actor?

Some are 'stars' in real life. They probably smile a lot and do adorable things without even thinking about it, making other people smile a lot.

Is a character actor someone who thought they could be a 'star,' or a 'lead,' and went through all of the acting training with that dream, and then was gradually pushed towards more 'character' parts?

How does a character actor become a lead? Does that happen only when the 'character' is something intensely relatable for a big audience? Like Bob De Niro's tough?

THREE Z'S

Zoe Kazan (Sept. 83, Yale, 5 ft. 4 1/2")
Paul Dano (Jun. 84, Eugene Lang)

Franny and Zooey
Franny = an actress going to Yale
"There isn't anyone out there who isn't Seymour's Fat Lady. That includes your Professor Tupper, buddy. And all his goddam cousins by the dozens. There isn't anyone anywhere that isn't Seymour's Fat Lady. Don't you know that?"

Zooey Deschanel (1980, Northwestern {did not complete}

*Bonus* JD Salinger's Uncollected Writing Online *Bonus*

I've wanted to use this pic for something for a long time but I don't think I will find a relative context so here goes

Picture Removed. It was not funny.

Now: Sometimes I cruise theories on wikipedia.

The World Values Survey.

I read about that guy who wrote that.

Postmaterialism and the Postmaterialist.

I just read Revolutionary Road after seeing the movie, and I think it was a good way to read the book - even though I was picturing Leo and Kate vibrating with anger pretty much the whole way through - because I was very aware of it's structure without having to read it 2x.

It reminded me of Erving Goffman, and Dramaturgy.

Dramaturgy = good way to think about jobs you're not into.

Heavy Vietnam Vibes

I watched The Deer Hunter last night, and started Apocalypse Now this evening. Maybe it is because I read Tree of Smoke earlier, but I feel like I am just coming to a place where I can understand/process those heavy Vietnam vibes.
The opening of Apocalypse Now gave me tingles. I couldn't find it on youtube, so here goes:
1) Slow mo jungle trees swaying with the beginning of the Doors' 'The End;' yellow smoke inexplicably rising from below like mustard gas, and helicopters flying through the front of the frame in slow mo, but still so quickly that you barely see them; and the helicopter noises are all stretched out and bass heavy - 'whuk whuk whuk whuk'
2) Trees burst into flames as Jim Morrison begins his singing 'this is the end,' the camera panning to the right, until Martin Sheen's face is super-imposed onto the left side of the frame, upside down, smoking a cigarette, sweaty, 'beautiful friend.'

buying a toothbrush

Today I bought a toothbrush. I had to choose between like 10,000 toothbrushes at the Duane Reade. All of the toothbrushes were colorful, and bright. They ranged in price from roughly 3 dollars to about 10. There were four or five brands, and one no-name Duane Read brand.

I didn't want to get the no name brand toothbrush because it didn't have those little plastic feeler-things on the side. The no-name's bristles were lighter colored, too, and set perpendicularly to the handle; whereas the other brushes had angled bristles that looked, I don't know, more agile and effective.

I settled on the Oral B Advantage Glide with a lime green handle and a tourqoise head and feelers. It was around five dollars. I think it is a middle of the road toothbrush, which is what I wanted.

how would you feel if, when you were at the height of your powers, you were still quite weak?

Last night Chad and I peed on a building and got tickets for it.

Three Movies I liked More than any others I saw in 2008-early09

Click here.

Airplane The Movie

I enjoy finding little towns - patches of buildings really, skirted by curvilinear highways - and speculating on the daily lives of the people in the towns.

I direct anger towards airlines. The person responsible for the headphone policy on major airlines will undoubtedly go to hell, and end up somewhere near the manufacturer of the plastic containers used in college cafeterias.

I also like to speculate on the lives of the stewardesses. Do you think anybody really ever has sex in a plane these days? It seems pretty much impossible to do without being totally obvious.

Burn After Reading/Bright Lights, Big City/ Bret Easton Ellis

My heart pounded like crazy at the border but the guy let me through. Thereafter, I immediately drank a 22 ounce beer and ate a crispy crunch.

I watched the first thirty minutes of Burn After Reading on the airplane. I was psyched that they had it on an airplane, and psyched that I had noise canceling headphones.

I watched it before with my friend Matt. This time, on the plane, reminded me how funny it is. Esp. John Malkovich.

On the weekend I read Bright Lights Big City, which Matt also recommended to me a little while ago. I thought it was okay. I can understand why McInerney has not grown into a great novelist.

But I did read the book all the way through, and quite quickly. So there is something. And Raymond Carver blurbed it. There is something else. Here is a picture of Jay and Bret Ellis in 1990 with a model, meant, presumably, to underscore the 'lifestyle' people were interested in them for writing about.

I don't want to put those guys in the same boat though. I really loved American Psycho.

I think what separates a writer like Ellis from a writer like McInerney is that Ellis makes a more convincing sad face.

Stuck in Saskatoon Commentary

I did some research on Saskatoon last night, and went back over the piece written by Lindsay Coleman recently for Vice.

She describes a very terrible place - she deals with prostitution, drug addiciton, child abuse, gang violence, and pubic stubble in under two thousand words.

I must admit my impressions of Saskatoon have not been so extreme thus far.

Yet I am staying a mere six blocks from the intersection Lindsay Coleman writes about.

Here is the picture from her facebook profile.

She says that Saskatoon is 15 years behind everywhere else. Saskatoon is a small northern city. I think it's culture is somewhat indifferent, and somewhat independent. I don't want to bother getting farther into this. The story reeks.

HNIC

I am here:




This is my first experience of 'Real Canadian Winter.' It is not so bad!

I am watching Hockey Night in Canada, and feel like I am in 'Real Canada.' Apparently, while I have been gone, there has been a change to the Hockey Night in Canada theme song. This caused many people to be angry.

The new song has bagpipes, which is interesting, because most of the people here look Scottish. I think it is very good. In around thirty years it could possibly have the same level of emotional significance as the old one, maybe.


8.7 out of 10.

Movie Reviews

Two Movies with Overlapping Relevant Themes - BOTH ARE VERY GOOD

1. Happy Go Lucky
-watched this at nyff
-made me think about charity, positivity, naivete and evil

2. Operation Filmmaker
-watched this last night
-had a sinking feeling, like, holy shit

I will write about these together more later.

Bertuzzi

Caught the 7 train home at Sheridan square and walked a block underground to the L train at 14th street and 6th ave. A lot of people were waiting for the train.
We all squeezed into the train, until we thought that we couldn't possibly squeeze any more. Then some guy said, 'everybody come on, let's go we've got to get in here,' and we squeezed even more.
I hated this man. I hated when he said that.
The doors tried to close a number of times but couldn't. The guy said, 'come on.' We squeezed even further.
We squeezed so much that the train couldn't run. The speaker said 'because of the door problems this train will be an express train and the next stop will be Bedford ave.'
People gufffawed and exited the train en mass. The whole time people were exiting the doors were trying to close on them. Then one guy put his back into it and held it open.
When the next train came we squeezed again. By the time we all got in it was so packed that a girl in front of me was having something of a breakdown. She said 'can you not push me!' to me, and I shrugged in the direction of behind me, where four or five people were pushing and squeezing. The girl gasped a little bit, as if she couldn't breathe.
Another, earthier woman called her out. 'You know nobody likes this,' she said, 'you're not the only person.'
The first girl pretended not to be offended in the way of a high school valedictorian.
Most of the people who were squeezed were quiet, including the main squeezer from the first train. I appreciated it.

Dissapointed that Nadal Beat Federer

I hate the way that Rafa dresses and I love the way the Swiss presents himself. Rafa reminds me of Villalobos.

Which is funny, because lately I've been listening to more music like this:

I like it because when you listen to it it's just there. Leave it alone. You might start to feel it after a while: if you can just stop thinking about whether or not it is good, or if it could be your thing, or if you would want to be seen listening to it.

Interview with Ricardo Villalobos:

You can imagine what his life is like.

I think he is interesting.

Have you seen it's all gone Pete Tong? It's about a DJ. I remember there are scenes of Pete Tong in Ibiza doing lots of drugs. 'Living the dream,' basically. And then the script makes him aware of his mortality, I think.

Goals

Thinking of making myself look more like Lou Reed circa 74.

Thinking about Lou Reed a bit, ego, and the meaning of drugs. Drugs are no longer an act of transgression. Smoking, too, has changed. And fur. I think people look like morons when they wear fur.

I figured that, because he is in jail, I could write Conrad Black and request an interview. That was about three weeks ago, and he has not responded.

For a long time there has been a story inside of me about the Klondike Gold Rush. I love Pierre Berton's book.

I am also thinking of writing a book of interconnected short stories about people living in a tree planting camp. I think it should be about as long as Jesus' Son. I would self publish and send copies to people by mail. It could become my calling card.