138 Monster Masks

 

 

 

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p.s. Hey. ** Carsten, Thanks, man. I’m not surprised that Visconti’s not your thing. I did a tour of Ludwig’s castle back in the early 80s when I was nearby in Amsterdam. Like so many of those kinds of things, I mainly remember that it seemed so small. Paris used to have a lot of squats, even when I first moved here. I suppose there are still some, but they play it more lowkey. High hopes that that place comes through for you. I’m aware of the origin of the gif at the top. It was meant as a tip of the hat. ** Dev, Ah, score! It definitely comes through in his work even when he’s trying to play it cool. I loved the Oz books, yes. I think I read all of them. They were my go-to books as a kid. Strange that they’ve fallen so far off the radar. I would think they’re a Harry Potter-style movie franchise just waiting to happen. Ozma is a total proto-feminist hero character, in my memory at least. Goodest week to you. Spellcheck tried very hard to change goodest to gooiest, which maybe would work too? ** Bernard Welt, Mr. Welt. Bresson’s birthday is a bit of a holy thing in my neck of the woods, yes. I thought of ‘The Dead’, but that’s a short story. Great adds, thank you. ‘The Disappearers’ is the really the book du jour, it seems like. I can’t imagine I’ll read it, but Marlon James is a good guy, so good for him. I’m sure you know that Ange got married. And she’s great, and obviously some degree of a saint, haha. I will pass along your hi’s and unleash your name into the moody Paris air. ** laura w, It’s strange how films fall in and out of favor. It doesn’t seem like John Huston is a trending director in recent times, but that’ll shift. Oh, right, ‘Cabaret’, I blanked on that one. Off the top of my head, I would say unfaithful adaptations tend to make better films than faithful ones. ‘Cabaret’ is a good example. How was the nor’easter? I’ve heard mixed reports. I think the early Wim Wenders films can be quite good, but after ‘Wings of Desire’, I think they’re most pretty terrible. Lost his mojo or something. I guess I should have figured that the streets around the Pope thing would be totally blocked off, so I didn’t see a thing other than a lot stray Catholics tromping around in my hood. But there were 800,000 people there! ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. ‘The Leopard’ is worth your time, when you find the time, as my memory has it at least. ** Dominik, Hi!!! You’re like me with my Dutch, which is just barely there now. The French have gotten somewhat better at muffin making in the last year or so. They’re still a little too scrunched and moist, but I plop them in my mouth sometimes. No, because Zac and I need to be on London for the Halloween ‘RT’ screening, no LA Halloween this year. It’s rather painful. More than rather. As I told laura, the Pope’s thing was a giant success with 800,00 people, but I didn’t see a thing because my whole area was locked down with no access. Are there more French Catholics now? We will see. That love would make a good escort or maybe sugarboy. Love outlawing text messaging and making everyone send each other telegrams, G. ** Steeqhen, Hi, S. Well, to be accurate, I think the guy who made ‘Backrooms’ fed it into the mainstream rather than his thing having been stolen, if that makes a difference. Maybe that’s why the ‘Narnia’ film franchise petered out? After sitting through the Taylor Swift concert movie, I have the opposite of any interest in Taylor Swift, so I don’t know. ** James Bennett, Hi. I remember both enjoying ‘Possession’ while also thinking that it is very overrated. I met Ethan Mordden a few times in 80s NYC. He was very into musical theater, and we didn’t really have much in common. But he seemed nice and smart. He definitely was not in the Violet Quill in-group, but he was one of the respectable older gay fiction writers. I read a couple of his books way back, but I don’t remember them. Pretty conventional? I’ll try to have another peek. Weekend was okay. I had my biweekly Zoom club on Sunday, for which we read an excerpt from an Annie Ernaux novel. I’d never read her before, strangely. She’s an incredible writer, whoa. Only four days now, right? Pack your bags. ** jay, Hi! Oh, yeah, ‘The Leopard’ is a goody. I loved hearing you play the Mozart. Your speed and dexterity were wild, and it’s a pretty piece, at least under your auspices. Thank you for the adrenaline. At least your roommate didn’t say ‘The Marble Swan’. Every once in a while, someone says, ‘Oh, you wrote’ The Marble Swan’, and I have to tamp down my blood pressure. Edmund White always called it ‘The Marble Swan’, but that was him being mean. Love back from the top of a so-far drizzly week. ** HaRpEr //, The Helmut Berger autobiography is pretty amusing. I didn’t like ‘The Wild Boys’ or Mandico’s films in general. To me it seemed like a Guy Maddin ripoff without any understanding of what makes Maddin’s films magical. That endless scene on the ship made me want to kill myself. Sorry, but of course it/he is wholly supportable for making films that are deliberately out of the ordinary. Just didn’t do it for me. ** Right. Halloween encroaches. See you tomorrow.