doing art stuff used to be such a big part of my identity.
ironically, since i’ve lost it i’ve been a happier person.
not sure what’s changed. getting older? finding a vocation i actually relatively like?
anyhoo, i feel inadequate being so blah and not making anything.
i think i shud start again.
… shit where to start?
where i left off last time seems like a good place.
since grad skool i’ve become so academic about art, like making it about ideas and thinking and meaningful thoughts. b4 then it was more gut reaction emotional. not sure if that’s bad or good. which is good or bad? i don;t kno.
ok. what interests u, betty?
A: start w/ the history of narrative – humans evolved w/ oral narrative. did narrative shape human thought or did human thought shape our narratives? ok then printed word blah blah blah shaped thought and culcha’ and shit. that parts not so interesting. but the next part, that post-literary (when printed word dominated) culcha’ is more like oral chulcha’ is interesting to me… ok. i should list out the ways… let me get back to u on tha.
last project, UBS. a traditional narrative in which you the spectator become a minor character. i still like this idea. i still have that pile of scripts for more shows. i should werk on it.
went to a recording of a this american life radio show at lincoln center. it was so awesome it was like a nerd convention. my demographic. i’ve never seen so many messy hairdos and nerd glasses in one place.
here’s some news: ira glass is not gay. he’s married to a woman he mentioned. i assumed he was gay. sillly me.
also, he’s 47 he mentioned. he looks good for 47.
dan savage did a gr8 piece on the only tv show he won’t let his son watch. it’ll b aired on march 17.
and they showed clips from the new tv show. and some shit they couldn’t use which was rillly funny. looks tres cool. dunno how i’ll c it tho cuz i don’t have cable… i figger out a way.
swanky reception: good food and booze. smart ppl. some hawt dudes but i dint meet any. i’m sure most were gay. the waiters were so cute.
roy’s new g/f sari is the editor of it. she;s hawt and smart and fabuluous i love her! i;m thinking “how did roy get a chick like that?”. i told him he should marry her. i like her friends too:
oh shit yeah the film is sad scary disturbing and upsetting.
omg the director is the chick who made girlhood which i saw a week or so ago and loved. i told sari (roy’s g/f) to tell rory (the director) that i;d work on a sequel to girlhood for free.
when i got home i looked up other films by her and came across the tidbit that she is the daughter of robert kennedy. wow i was in the same room w/ the neice of jfk. not that she ever knew them. i took this pic of her tho cuz she was my hero for making girlhood.
when they talked they mentioned some nfo that didn;t make it into the film — that the CIA intell ppl they intervewied traveled around iraq & afgh interrogating ppl using those unethical torture techniques, and they admit that these techniques are *not* effective. there are also govt studies they said that declare that these techniques are not efffective!
i wish they would have included that in the film. i don;t think they did cuz the theme was more about the young and somewhat naive but frustrated kids i mean ppl working in the prisons who were “just following orders”. even when they knew it was wrong. i believe they were not purposely malicious (the kids interviewed) but were a) following orders and in doing so b) taking out their frustrations on the situation by taking the pics where they posed w/ the prisionsers.
did u kno that they imprisoned women and children in abu gahrib too?? they were the relatives of the male prisioners. the torturers would use the fact that they had their innocent wives, mothers sisters & kids there and threatened to do shit to them. that’s FUCKED UP!! this was just stated in the film. i wish there had been more explanation about this. i mean WTF is up with that???
i felt guilty at this reception cuz here we were 100 american liberals eating gr8 food and drink in swanky hbo offices overlooking bryant park watching this film in a cushy screening room (why can’t all theatres be like that)… and the subjects of this film – where arethey now if they’re not dead and what are they doing? every day for your average iraqi is a sick fuct up hell – they could get bombed at any moment… and here we are engorging ourselves on fresh shrimp and sushi. i’m sure i’m not the only one to consider that.
