Happy Almost June!

So. I got a part-time job at a video store. It's all part of my evil plan for WORLD DOMINATION. Well. Actually, my evil plan is way less stressful than that & totally hedonistic. The point is, at my part-time video store job, the employees choose "staff picks" every month. I obviously have exquisite taste, so what could be better than being obligated to show off the knowledge gleaned during those years I did nothing but watch movies all day, every day? I get to be silently pretentious. I know. Whoo hoo!

I went for a non-Babette's Feast food(-related) theme for June & chose the following:

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Luis Bunel, 1972 A bunch of boring Frenchies & the ambassador (diplomat?) from a fake South American country spend the whole movie trying, & failing, to sit down & eat. Clever, if you like Bunuel - & I do, very much. (I personally prefer The Exterminating Angel, where a bunch of people sit down to eat & then can't leave, but - horror! - it's not yet had a proper DVD release. Boo.)

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover - Peter Greenaway, 1989
I gather this is considered summat of a commentary on Thatcherism. I don't know about that, but this is a wickedly excellent, madly disturbing film. Which like as not I will never watch again. I would like to take this opportunity to berate Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix for forcing me to break my solemn vow to never, ever, under no circumstance EVER watch Michael Gambon eat again. Also: Helen Mirren 4ever!

How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman - Nelson Pereira dos Santos, 1973
C'mon. Best movie title in the history of the world. Also, political film? Not so much. I'd shove a broomstick up Godard's ass before I'd ever endure Tout Va Bien again. But somehow, I'm mad for Brazil's Cinema Novo. It manages to be deliriously dreamy & earthy &, heavens forbid, entertaining within its politics. Et tu, Brecht?




Conspirators of Pleasure, Jan Svankmajer, 1996
Hahahahaha. Like the others, it's actually not really about food, although I wouldn't tell that to the postmistress. It's about sexual fetishists in Prague. A pornographic film with no naked bits. And, I daresay, tremendously funny to boot.



The Gold Rush, Charles Chaplin, 1925
Well, really! I'd have been remiss to exclude it. Jolly well brilliant, it is. Besides...Gold Rush relates to Conspirators relates to The Cook, the Thief relates to Frenchman relates to Discreet Charm relates to Gold Rush. I just can't make it a circle for you unless you've seen all five.

What, you thought there wasn't some grand master idea behind all this? I inject all sorts of narrative into my fucking mix CDs, fer chrissakes.

Too Many Books. Brain Is Fried.

I have not managed to do one iota of work today (yet). Whoopsy. See, what happened is, yesterday I was on Powell's website (a thing of much beauty) when I discovered that you can sign up for used book notifications. Pick as many categories as you want, & every day they will send you an email for each category detailing all the used books they've processed.

This morning I received my first batch of notifications. It is insane. There were over 200 newly arrived used art books alone. This is really, really bad news for my re-emerging book purchasing addiction.

Then I figured out that I can browse all of their sale books. A good many more than are on display in the stores come up. Just what I needed.

Of course, at some point during all this I discovered that I can keep a wish list. So...in five hours I've managed to get through the used books in my nine categories, all twenty seven pages of the film & television sale books, & fifty pages of art sale books (sixteen pages left to go!). And that's it. I would be shaking my fist & cursing your very name, Powell's, if my attention weren't so terribly distracted by your enchanting little rucksack, which would be the perfect thing in which to haul all this book booty. Sigh. I confess, I am weak.

Anyway! The moral of the story is, if you ever feel compelled to the depths of your soul to buy me presents, I would urge you to go here, type in my email address to access my wish list & get me the most expensive thing(s) on said list. You can even make me pick it up at a store location (Hawthorne, please) & save on shipping.

Unless you want to go to Abebooks & buy me an English translation of Condillac's Treatise on the Sensations. But then I will really love you even more, as that is the book I want most in all the world.