“Two dollars and twenty-seven cents…”
I am inspired by a poem by Allen Ginsberg: America. Written in l956 (I believe), and a good, still relevant poem. I am working with an image I took of him in l984, a year that had a powerful Orwellian tone. I read the book as a kid and expected a large change in culture. I was in art school in l984 and Ginsberg came to a conference with many other poets. So far the piece, a silkscreen is creating itself, with a triple portrait imprint and color imagery.
I reached a significant goal: Meet Patti Smith, and give her a silkscreen I made of Robert Mapplethorpe (using a series of photographs taken nearly 25 years to the day, across the street). It was a fantastic night. Here are two foreign films I watched over the Holidays, with keen performances by other powerful women:
DVD: Vincere. Skirts the rise and effect of Mussolini. Striking cinematography and acting by the woman who plays the dismissed ‘first wife’.
DVD: Mother. (Korea – 2009). From the very first opening scene, this actress dominates the screen. A look at the possible lengths we might all go to save, well, ourselves, really.
Plus, another two USA films with one superior actress, who has been consistently high art in all her work: Annette Bening.
DVD: The Kids Are All Right
DVD: Mother and Child
My means of measuring the goodness of a film is whether l) I remember six months later anything about the film and 2) would I watch it again, as something in it moved me.
CD: Have One On Me. The sweet chirpings of Joanne Newsom.
Books: Loving Frank. Good one slowly digested.
The Hunger Games – A YA (young adult) book, but I had to know what is going on, why this is so popular. I hear that maybe many YA writers are writing to get into a lucrative market. Don’t know if that is true, and many of these books appeal to everyone. Liked it, and am moving on to book #2 and #3. I wish the YA market had been bigger when I was a YA.
A movie to miss – Or I wish I had not seen
DVD: I’m Still Here. Maybe I get the impulse to want to make a film, but ultimately there is little to redeem this wasted footage. I think much less of Joaquin Phoenix as a result, even if it is a character and not him. It brought me back to all the immaturity of drunken frat boys at my ex-husbands Bloomsburg State in upper PA, when I witnessed all kinds of horror first hand.
James Franco impressed me this year, with his various projects and his smile.
SHUTTER GIRL 