The Lonely Crowd

Other orientedness was a popular subject in mid-20th century sociology. David Reisman's The Lonely Crowd and Erving Goffman’s The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life are two noteworthy examples. Max Weber coined the term “disenchantment.” He would have shuddered at the discipline of socioometrics which is tailor-made to the kind of outcome studies favored by marketeers for whom focus groups are more telling than values.The tools of modern sociology like those of  behavioral psychology are geared to selling rather than understanding. If you travel to Rome and wander around grand old neighborhoods and even outliers like Rebebbia, the home of the prison and the last stop on the B line, you might or might not be thinking about Talcott Parsons another sociologist, but probably not. Instead thoughts of Lucretius’ great poem De Rerum Natura, On the Nature of Things along with Stephen Greenblatt’s The Swerve, who begins his  meditation on the poem by describing his mother's life-long fear of dying.

start your New Year by reading  "Died Young" by Francis Levy, The Brooklyn Rail

and listen to "I Love to Love (and My Baby Just Wants to Dance)" by Tina Charles (1975)

Time Machination

 

from "The Clock"

It's very simple, really, no magic. You travel from New York to Rome at Christmas and supposedly “lose” six hours in the process. You're literally racing to sunrise. Arriving 7:00 AM at Fiumicino, it is still only 1AM in New York. When you would have gone to sleep, you are asked to get up and start your day. Ostensibly you will gain the lost time on the way back, arriving at say 7PM and ready to start your evening which is already over in Rome. Were you back in Rome, you would have been getting ready for bed. It's not similar to Proust’s concept of “lost time,” which really refers to the “involuntary memories" often triggered by sensation. Time zones are one of those interesting sometimes labyrinthine notions which end up being exercises in rationality of a very literal sort. There is, for example, Greenwich Mean Time, but so what? Speaking of time, Christian Marclay's 24 hour movie, "The Clock" will be running at MoMA through February 17th.

"Em

Brendan Behan and Jackie Gleason

You may have noticed that Irish people say 'em. It's a sound that's a form of reflective pause. Sounds are different from vowels and they're definitely not words which boast of meaning. Does an utterance which could be part of a noun tantalize with the prospect of association? A breath may hint at the prospect of naming. After all intention always lurks in the background. 'Em is a vibration that men feel in their Adam's apples. It is right below a growl though there's nothing threatening at work. The sound is that of an engine idling. The motive is less to hesitate than to warm up in the way one does before a drive through a snowy landscape. Ireland is full of cold and mist and one can see why many if its countryman might need to do away with the blarney before they set about their business.

Listen to "Mustang Sally" by The Commitments

The Room Next Door

Pedro Almodovar's The Room Next Door, the director's first English language feature, is based on What Are You Going Through, the highly acclaimed novel by Sigrid Nunez. But the presentational style is so arch and self-evident, one wonders about the director's intent. Is the consequent humor inadvertent or intentional, in such a way as to make the movie a parody of itself? It's the old say it versus show it dealt with in Creative Writing 101. The invention Almodovar used in Tell It To Her (2002), about the grief for a comatose female matador, is absent.The story of a terminally ill journalist Martha Hunt, (Tilda Swinton) who appoints an old friend Ingrid Parker (Julianne Moore) to be the witness to her suicide is hardly the stuff of comedy. In this case it's the occasion for a series of flat linear stories that one may initially try to excuse. At one point Damian (John Turturro) a former lover of Ingrid's states that she has the unique ability to suffer while not making those around her feel guilty. It's an odd locution. Just as you're about to discountenance the obvious deadpan plot, doors open up just like the red one which Martha will eventually use as a signal. One wants to give Almodovar credit, not of the directorial kind, but in terms of the benefit of the doubt. It's not really clear what he's up to, but that may be part of the effect. Verisimilitude is not the aim and the final ending, which bears some comparison to Bergman's Persona, undoubtedly casts an unexpected shadow of clarification on what has come before.

read Francis Levy's review of "Broken Embraces," TheScreamingPope

and read Francis Levy's review of "The Skin I Live In," TheScreamingPope

Cruise to Nowhere

Retirees tend to be big travelers. Petra, Angkor Wat (also known as Angkor, What! to some argumentative couples). Cruises to Antarctica together with long distance balloon trips and 20 000 leagues under the sea in submersibles are all on the itinerary. Tourism has become a developmental stage. Is it a preparation for the final journey over the Acheron with Charon as oarsman?  The search for ever more exotic locales has become increasingly frenzied. Safaris are tantamount to social security. Just about everyone you meet is coming or going from one and flying Air Emirates whuch offers pasha- like treatment for those who can afford it. What do sites afford? Young back packers generally are looking for adventure. They free solo and skydive. They slum. But the Seven Wonders are the province of those who are on their way to the afterlife. Perhaps they will sign up for one of the appropriately named Cruises to Nowhere.

listen to "25 Miles" by Edwin Starr 

and also listen to "Boogaloo Down Broadway" by Fantastic Johnny C

Matt Gaetz For Senate!

Matt Gaetz would have been qualified to run for the Roman senate during Caligula's reign. It will be interesting to see what he is like after he gets out of rehab. Or will he be like Eichmann who claimed he had been taking orders from his superiors? DJT is a hard act to follow since he can provide a guide to living--"Access Hollywood"--that would send most who follow it to jail. Apparently Gaetz had sex not once but twice with a 17-year-old, on one of which occasions, there were witnesses (eg he likes doing it in public). Chacun a son gout is an expression that will probably be banned in light of the Gisele Pelicot atrocity. It isn't hard to imagine Gaetz and his boss surrounded by pulchritude and fruit. Rome provided the model of governance in a "Girls Gone Wild" ambiance.

listen to "Tears of a Clown" by Smokey Robinson

Economy of Scale

Have you ever awakened and not known where you are? It's easy to do in one of those nameless hotel chains say a Courtyard Marriott whose design is based on the production line principle of replicability. Economy of scale can apply to dwellings as well as Campbell's soup cans a la pre fab houses of the 50's that paradoxically have become relics the more they disappear from view. It's hard to get ones bearings in a world of uniformity. His does Big Brother figure here? Orwell couldn't have dreamed this one up? Due to ubiquity modernity has a leveling effect. There's no pace like home, literally!

read "Died Young" by Francis Levy, The Brooklyn Rail