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[proximoception]

Is it really September 7th?

I wonder how my customary Summer-happy stupidity/Autumn-intellection/Winter-vague depression/Spring-exaltation cycle will be affected by the climate here, where, from an Ohioan perspective, January just disappears and the other months stretch out to fill the void. For that matter, how did Vancouver affect it? I remember being adrift a lot during the rain months. I have a bit of a craving for a classically harsh winter, actually, like I tasted in Hamilton while school-visiting. Which I'll likely get soon enough, thanks to BushCo.

Been reading Underworld and Franklin's memoirs this week, both great fun for the most part. The Crossing, Murphy and "Penelope" (yes, still) are lying handy, to be finished some weekend. The town library has several Galateas. My classes seem easy enough. Been 80% unpacked for weeks. The IMAX experience of a new place is settling down to sitcom routine at last.

We got TV, real TV, despite my fervent objections. Bill Maher and John Stewart went satisfyingly left during the eight years since I last had cable, clearly. And The Colbert Report is gold. We're also experimenting with Netflix, enjoying the Beckett on Film series and Burns' Civil War DVD set.

Also I have a cellphone, which got boring fast. And clearly I can't leave the country for three years without things going straight to hell: sold at the local Kroger's are frozen corndoglike products consisting of smoked sausages wrapped in pancakes full of chocolate chips.

Comments

[proximoception.livejournal.com]

I grew up in Columbus, Ohio, am in South Carolina now--which has apparently been colonized by Kroger's. And I'm not eating those chocolate sausage dogs! Yuck!

I've only watched a disc and a half so far...least favorite would be one where I couldn't penetrate the Irish accents, I think Rough for Theatre 1? Total lack of subtitles, quite cruel to the deaf. Also Julianne Moore's tone seemed wrong in Not I. But I'm not a fan of that one on paper either.

Is it fair to skip straight to The Unnameable if you're allergic to Molloy? That seems to be the one people swear by. Hard to think of anything less pleasant than Molloy.

[paris-hat.livejournal.com]

Kroger's mystifies me. I'm still in denial that I actually shop there. Except for cheese and bakery items and sushi.

Oh, wow. I'll be giving a paper at USC in a few weeks. Yes, skip ahead to Malone Dies first, then Unnamable. If you haven't read Watt it's better than all three. Also: you must see Buster Keaton in "Eh, Joe." Really powerful. I was in a course Christopher Ricks taught on Beckett when he showed that and afterwards he was crying so hard that he had to cancel the rest of class. Yeah--there's another film version with Irene Worth in Not I. She was perfect.

My sophomore year, I skipped school for a week to go to Dublin to watch every version of every Beckett play ever filmed. Bad for my grades but worth it.

[proximoception.livejournal.com]

I wish they'd included Eh, Joe and Quad and all those old ones in the new set. And wasn't there a TV version of Krapp, or was it Godot, featuring the actor Beckett had actually written the main role for?

So many of the most intelligent people have a real love for Beckett. Says something about me that I can't seem to get over certain reservations, though nearly everything I've read of his has been terribly impressive.

I miss those vegetarian sushi containers with their chrome soy sauce packets. Great 2 AM food. Though down here you can get a jug of cheese balls bigger than your torso.

Email me the what, where and when of your reading?

[paris-hat.livejournal.com]

It appears that your email address got lost in my crappy program! And I don't have the "where" part yet. The paper is part of an Eng. dept conference on Harry Berger, Jr.'s work on Renaissance lit the weekend of Oct 13-15 and I"m on on Sat. late morning. I can't promise a wild ride but a few smart people will be there too.

[paris-hat.livejournal.com]

At the risk of sounding like less of a diehard Beckett fan: I guess this is true of some experimental writing in general, but I think that a little of his work seems kind of dated. While I love some of the immersions into pure patterning or rhythm, they can come across as contrived, and so mainly the wit and the utter sadness sustain my interest and on another level get to me every time. That would be my reservation if I had one.