Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller

I have reached the limits of endurance. My back is to the wall; I can retreat no further. As far as history goes I am dead. If there is something beyond I shall have to bounce back. I have found God, but he is insufficient. I am only spiritually dead. Physically I am alive. Morally I am free. The world which I have departed is a menagerie. The dawn is breaking on a new world, a jungle world in which the lean spirits roam with sharp claws. If I am a hyena I am a lean and hungry one: I go forth to fatten myself.

Park City, Utah... here I come?

Real Estate.

After making their way through CMJ, playing Pianos and Santos Party House, and supporting Girls at Bowery Ballroom two Fridays past, New Jersey's Pitchfork-approved Real Estate have finally released their debut LP, Real Estate, via Woodsist Records. "Beach Comber" is the lead single, and it reminds me of early Death Cab for Cutie (circa We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes) and Modest Mouse. Lo-fi goodness covered in sweet, sweet reverb, I say. It makes me want to go back to the Jersey Shore, which is kind of frightening to me. Cover art, tracklisting, and MP3s (courtesy of Pitchfork and Stereogum) below:

01. Beach Comber

02. Pool Swimmers

03. Suburban Dogs

04. Black Lake

05. Atlantic City

06. Fake Blues

07. Green River

08. Suburban Beverage

09. Lets Rock the Beach

10. Snow Days

Click here to download an MP3 of "Beach Comber".

Click here to download an MP3 of "Black Lake".

Click here to download an MP3 of "Fake Blues".

Click here to download an MP3 of "Green River".

Click here to download an MP3 of "Suburban Beverage".

You're not really anybody in America unless you're on TV.

If you saw my dog, you'd know it's impossible to hate him.

Looking forward to: A Single Man.

Click here to watch the trailer.

Click here to watch the new trailer released by the Weinstein Company that is just a tad misleading and homophobic (similar to the poster above).

Release date: December 11, 2009 (Limited)

Directed by: Tom Ford

Written by: Christopher Isherwood (Novel), Tom Ford and David Scearce (Screenplay)

Starring: Colin Firth (won Coppa Volpi for Best Actor at Venice Film Festival), Julianne Moore, Matthew Goode, Nicholas Hoult

Distributed by: The Weinstein Company

Amy Taubin on A Single Man in the November/December issue of Film Comment: "The flashback sequence where George receives the telephone call informing him of Jim's death, and, by the way, that George isn't welcome at the funeral which is for family only, is almost entirely composed of a single unbroken take. We see George's face freeze in shock and then dissolve into grief as the realization that he has lost the love of his life overcomes him. It is an amazing piece of acting, and, also, a display of trust on the part of Tom Ford, who has the courage not to cut away or gussy it up."

Expect an analysis upon my viewing of this film; it looks like it could break into my top ten of the year.

Bob (le flambeur) as the Anti-Meursault.

Recently I re-watched Jean-Pierre Melville's Bob le flambeur (1956), a loving ode to American gangster pictures and one of the first solid French New Wave films. In the beginning, there is a sequence where an acquaintance of the titular character asks him for money to be bailed out of beating his girlfriend a little too hard. This acquaintance is a pimp, which Bob does not like. All of this really reminded me of Albert Camus' The Stranger, when Meursault's neighbor Raymond, also a pimp, asks him to help take revenge on his girlfriend, whom Raymond believes is cheating on him. Meursault does this with just about no persuading, as he sees no reason not to. When Bob is asked for the money by his acquaintance, he tells him no and to get out. In this sense, Bob comes off as an anti-Meursault.