Note: I know I am very behind in my posts, but here's a recap of tonight's episode. I'll be posting my recap and thoughts of last week's "Reckoning" sometime tomorrow.
Tonight's episode, directed by Nicole Kassell, opened with an intense intro of not only what is to come, but also redefines the title of the series. Witness the practice of killing. And here we stay, inside the prison, waiting to see what happens in the last few hours of Seward's life and what actions remain to be taken by Linden to make things right.
Sarah faces Seward in jail. It's eleven hours before his execution. Sarah asks him to identify a wedding band. He sarcastically recalls memories associated with the ring and after she hangs up on him he positively identifies the ring as belonging to his wife. Sarah continues to believe that Seward is innocent. She tries getting in touch with Holder who is continuing to mourn the death of Bullet in last week's episode. Sarah eventually speaks with Seward again, telling him she was in touch with the Attorney General's Office.
Seward's son Adrian is waiting to see him. Seward seems to know things about Sarah, which comes to a surprise to her, perhaps startles her into the slightest eruption of fear. He asks if her son plays baseball and you wonder how he knew she has a son to begin with. "Sometimes it's better that way." His response to Sarah and her son not living together. Eventually some prison guards including Becker interrupt their conversation and tell him to put his hands behind his back. Linden tries to stop it telling them she's a cop, but they ignore her and take him away.
Becker and Linden stand-off between bars. Finally, Becker lets her in to talk with him again after she throws state or federal regulation in her face. Seward stands, shifting from foot to foot, angry and scared. He tells her that they weighed him again; it takes up to six minutes to die by hanging if the neck doesn't break. She asks him about the ring again, anything else he can tell her. "If you go, they'll just send me back to my cell," he says. Sarah stays on the line. "Your son is here." He sighs. Now they stand-off between the glass, perhaps reflecting the previous image of her and Becker; they all share similar characteristics in the distance they place between themselves and others. "I don't have any qualms about you... I'm here because I made a mistake." Sarah keeps bringing the conversation back to Adrian. Her phone rings, she tells Seward she'll be back and she exits the visiting room to take the call.
Holder is at the prison with a cardboard box. He's been drinking since yesterday. He tells Linden that he's there if she needs him-- smokes, whatever. Adrian walks outside after Holder. He offers Adrian a smoke. I love Holder "serial chiller" that he is, but after last week's episode I was already hoping that he wouldn't fall back into his darkest depths. His attempt at making a connection with Adrian at least ends with the child's curiosity.
Sarah presents a picture to Seward, a birthday party picture with his wife wearing the ring. Sarah leaves again, Adrian is alone near the vending machine. "I saw your dad, he was real curious about you." Adrian asks if he can still see him. He continues to tell Sarah that Seward, his father, was the one that "was there that night," that killed his mother. Linden's face drops, looking to the floor.
Holder stops at the cemetery outside the prison, dirty white crosses with numbers (I think) carved into them. Filled with anger and disgust at himself and the situation he throws cans of beer, kicks the box. One can only hope that he's done punishing himself for Bullet's death.
Sarah goes back, picks up the phone. She's pissed. "You're not telling me everything about that night... why were you there?" She throws the phone at the glass. She storms out-- runs into Holder.
"He played me."
Her emotional state is heightened, out of control. We've seen this before. Holder tries to talk to her, she accuses him of being drunk and gets in the car, wanting to leave, run away. "We never stay and in the end we lose everyone. I'm not gonna try and kiss you again. Keep dreamin'." He keeps going until she cracks a smile. He opens the car door. The chemistry between these characters is absolutely wonderful. Finally, this is Linden's opportunity to not walk away. She gets the call-- no stay. Seward is going to die.
And we're back. Sarah is on the phone, waiting for Seward to pick up. "You're still here?" he says. "For Adrian, not for you," she replies. His execution is a little over an hour away. She says, "I'm sorry." She continues to badger him about why he was in the apartment that night. "If you didn't kill her... what are you hiding?"
He went back to get Adrian. "I was gonna bring him with me... I went back and she was lying on the floor..." Sarah continues to tell him to see Adrian as Seward cries in the reminders of how he wanted something better for his child even though he went through heavy moments of not caring for him, reminders of impending death.
Adrian dips into the men's room on his way to see his father. Holder follows him in, helping with his hair, perhaps one of the most poignant moments this season captured in ten seconds or less. Sarah and Seward wait. "Do you think it will hurt?... I know you did everything you could for me. Thank you. What should I say to him?" We hear the cell doors rolling back.
Adrian, Holder, and the foster mom wait outside the final cell door. Becker looks down at the child and immediately you know something is wrong; Becker denies the entry and he walks into the room where Sarah and Seward wait and revokes the visit. Adrian can hear his father screaming to let go of him, 'I'll kill all of you." Sarah tells him to keep looking toward the trees outside his cell, referencing Adrian's pictures, Seward's final story. The moment happens so quickly, and it is so devastating. Holder takes the phone from Sarah as she tries to buy him that time. "It's over."
And we circle back to the opening sequence, but this time Seward is being dressed for execution. You can see him try to hold back, and as they turn the corner, he retreats into himself and collapses to the floor. He gets up, walks with hesitancy, eyes creased with fear and he looks to the window and sees Sarah with Adrian. Adrian waves to his father and Seward continues. His sight is blurred, the camera shifting and out of focus as he walks to steps to the top of the gallows. Sarah enters and stays for the execution. When asked if he wants to make a final statement, he says, "Salisbury steak is not steak; it's ground beef." Brilliant, up there with milkshake. He tells the warden to move on. He breathes deeply. Henderson places the bag over his head, the noose follows as Seward's gasps and tears, breath and the floor let's go. Sarah looks away, then turns back on hearing sound. His neck did not break. The camera stays on Sarah as we hear Seward's gasps in the background. Can Sarah live with his death on her hands? What will happen to Adrian? Did Holder stop himself from digressing into addiction?
I can't wait to see how the writers transition from this week's ending into the next episode.
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Sunday, June 16, 2013
And We're Back: Episodes 1 & 2 of AMC's The Killing: The Jungle and That You Fear the Most
Linden and Holder are back! And I'm already behind with blogging the show... yikes! Life happens, and other things take precedent, but I have not given up on AMC's The Killing.
Episode 1, The Jungle is written by show developer Veena Sud and introduces several new characters, and we also get to see what is happening with a few old favorites that will likely have less of a presence this time around. I am so excited The Killing is back for a third season!
Holder is looking sharper, more mature in a long black coat, shirt and tie. He looks cleaned up, professional; we can see that he is moving up the ladder. A dead girl is found in a garbage bag. The atmosphere is dark, rainy, grotesque. When Holder uncovers the body, he steps away from the corpse as if her death is something never seen before. Later we find out through the autopsy that the deceased has vaginal bruising, she is sixteen or seventeen years old, and she broke a finger attempting to fight back. Holder becomes fascinated by the murder of this young girl and immediately senses a connection to an older case.
We find out that Linden is working for the transit authority,and is no longer a detective. She's also in love, or at least finding sexual satisfaction from Cody, who appears to be a younger man; she's moved on from the broken relationships we saw last season. She lives in a small house that vaguely looks like Jamie's grandfather's house (interior) from last season. Perhaps some of the same props are being reused. Holder show's up at Linden's house, away from the city. She's been running everyday, she is happier with her life. Holder is doing great, solving seven out of seven cases with his new partner. and plans to take the sergeant's exam. "Ain't that sweet, Linden's dating." She receives an envelope from the Department of Corrections, but does not open it right away.
Chemistry still rides high between Linden and Holder and it's wonderful. They talk about Jack, he has a girlfriend. Holder comes to her with his new case and explains the working girl's death that was revealed earlier in the show. He tells her that the file box on a case he was looking for was checked out by someone else. Sarah states that they're always misplacing files. Holder leaves his case photos behind on her table, knowing she cannot resist the psychological impact of the girl's death, nor completely deny that there isn't a connection between Holder's case, and Linden's from three years ago. "Not every victim is worth it," she says, but Holder doesn't buy it. The sound is a bit stifled in this episode, or perhaps I need hearing aids, but he mumbles something about never thinking he would ever hear that from her.
Peter Saarsgard is new this season, and plays a disturbing, ruthless, character named Ray Seward, a man who murdered his wife and left his son with the decomposing corpse for several days. His son is the child we heard about last season with Sarah was hospitalized, hence, Sarah's case from three years ago. Seward is now on death row, thirty days until his execution. Later in the episode we witness something horrible that reveals exactly how dangerous and manipulative he is: a priest sits outside the cell. Seward talks about the trees outside the window and comments about nothing but trees (remember the drawing from seasons one and two?). His name is Ray Seward. "Are you gonna be there when they kill me?... If I was gonna ask for forgiveness... what I did to my wife and my--" He grabs the priest by the head and begins slamming his head against the rails of the cell. Later, we see Ray on the phone with his lawyer. The discuss going to the governor for an appeal.
Holder continues investigating the opening murder and stops street-side to interrogate the two street kids, Callie Leeds (Cate Sproule) and Bullet (Bex-Taylor Klaus). Holder answers his phone, "Hey baby... " maybe he has a new love interest too. We find out later that her name is Caroline. The young butch street kid
We also see that Regi with her partner Ellen for the first time. Jack looks a little older, and definitely taller than his mom. Following a celebratory drink, Jack sits with his mom, who smokes after telling Holder she's quit. Jack is living with his dad. Their conversation is poignant. Jack asks her if she ever thinks about moving to Chicago, "Why are you still here then?" She checks her watch. "We should go, we don't want to miss your plane." Sarah is still controlled by her past experiences, which prohibit her from moving forward and developing closer relationships with the people in her life. Everyone remains at a distance.
Holder and his partner have lunch in the office; he inquires about the Jane Doe and his partner... the ID comes in over the phone. Holder meets with the parents. He finds out their daughter is fourteen. "Your daughter, her body was found this morning. I need you to come down to the coroners office and identify the body."
Callie tries going home. Her mom has changed the locks. Her mom doesn't let her stay there, and doesn't look much older than Callie; they could be sisters. She puts on the TV, cartoons play in the background. "You can't stay here. Maybe this weekend, but not tonight." They argue over the mom's boyfriend. Callie is a red-head like Linden, which reminds me of Linden's own childhood trauma with her abusive mother who came to abandon her. Callie's situation is very similar. We see a child who is unwanted, and mom sees her more as competition than as a daughter.
Later, we see Sarah running and a thunder storm breaks. She finds shelter under what looks like an old barn. Inside is a dead animal, several carcasses. She looks out over and there is nothing by cow skulls. One cow is still breathing, lying near death, but we see the head move slightly, the mouth release a bleating sound. She cannot escape the depravity she has lived with her entire life.
We meet Twitch (Max Fowler). He is the boyfriend of another street girl named Lyric (Julia Sarah Stone). Bullet is jealous. S/he tosses the ring to Callie. Callie's number for a bed doesn't come up. She lies and says she can stay at her mom's. The kids without a bed leave, go back on the street.
Sarah gets home from running to find Cody looking at the pictures Holder left behind. Sarah runs upstairs and comes back with a hand gun. Flash over to Holder-- he looks for the rings in the picture the parents brought with them.She goes back to the barn, puts the dying cow out of its misery. Sarah begins going through the evidence boxes from the case. She looks at photos of a murdered woman and we see the killing is identical. The first hour closes with Callie getting into a car driving away for the night.
Episode 2: That You Fear the Most, written by Dan Nowak
Linden goes to the murder scene. In the dark of night, the rain still pours. Her flashlight moves over the blood that remains on the floor. Net we see her walk into Holder's office. She leaves the photos on his desk, but he flips on the lights. "You miss it?" he asks. He knows she went to the murder sight. As she walks down the hall, you can see the difficulty in leaving, her expression confused, pained.
Bullet tries calling Callie-- she can't be reached. S/he tries going to her mother's house. The mother slams the door in her face. Twitch and lyric hang in a room together, she begins to cry while he talks about his fantasy of Hollywood parties and the desire to look sharp and good like the magazine add. Lyric looks so young. "I don't want you working today," he says to her. Maybe he's her pimp. He's a little creepy.
The jungle is a section of the city. The tombs. Bullet goes to the police looking for Callie. and runs into Holder. Bullet shows her picture and he notices the ring, but it doesn't register with his murder victim. Seward tries to manipulate a prison guard into letting him call his lawyer. And it works. He cuffs him in the the cell.
Linden stops by to see someone-- maybe her old partner that helped put Seward away. Linden says she always had questions. "What if there's a connection?" "What if Ray Seward didn't kill his wife?" Turns out Seward called him earlier inviting him to his execution. "I just want to be sure we're executing a guilty one." She leaves, gets in her car. His wife comes out and tells her to "Stay away from us. I've forgiven him, but I never want to see you again." Either Sarah and her ex-partner had an affair, or perhaps she entrenched him so deep in the case that his absence was unforgivable.
Sarah is heading back over to the island; Cody jumps in her car. "I break things" she says, "I break them and they never get fixed. But this thing, this one thing..." Cody offers to help her, but she won't allow it. We see there is no relationship going anywhere.
Holder and his partner go to the boarding house in the jungle. Ashley, the murdered girl. The Beacon is the name of the place.
Twitch is with his probation officer for his last piss test. Twitch isn't interested in getting his GED; he's got Hollywood dreams. Flash to Lyric, who is telling a girlfriend about Twitch inviting her to California. This vile guy makes a crack about a girl getting her throat slashed.
The other security officer, Frances Becker, (Hugh Dillon) lays into the other who let Seward use the phone. He goes to talk with Seward-- "... it's a family business-- prison guards and race car drivers." Frances describes death by hanging.
Holder and his partner go to the hotel on 'nine' as suggested by the Pastor back at the Beacon. His partner gets pissed when Holder decides to look around, maybe talk. He lays on the horn, "Get in or I'm leavin' ya." Holder knows something is up with Callie.
Regi walks in on Sarah looking at case files. Adrian drew that, over and over after I found him in the apartment. He had been trapped in the apartment for six days with his mother's decomposing body." Sarah discusses seeing him, the boy who drew the tree pictures over and over. She goes to see Seward. He picks up the phone, stares at her through the glass. "I remember you from the trial , you're his partner." Seward is... "What did you do with your wife's ring?" "I pawned it." Not once does he look away from her. She asks him about the trees. He immediately breaks his gaze. he calls for a guard to take him back.
Ray spends a lot of time facing away from the cell doors, looking outside toward the trees. A new prisoner comes in that knows Ray.
Twitch attempts to die his hair; he spent Lyric's money on hair die to get head shots with the hopes of modeling. His attempts are delusional. Lyric says she'll go out to turn tricks to get more money. Twitch makes some comment about Callie going with some guy. Bullet breaks in somewhere, it's dark and filthy, the guy she had an altercation with on the street. He comes up behind her, holds her down the camera pans away and we hear him shush her, slight cry escaping her lips. The knife is wide and curved. bullet had tried to force her way through a locked door when he came up behind her.
Sarah goes to check on Adrian. the foster mom takes her into his room. He's playing in the backyard. The foster family haven't ... a copy of the woods drawing is hanging on the wall. Sarah finds the scene, matches the drawing to a real place. I'm not sure where this location is. She walks through the woods, the area is dense with trees, nothing but her own footsteps, peep frogs. A mist grows thicker and the scene becomes more and more frightening. Across the water-- she has discovered several decomposed bodies, in red trash bags. The camera frames her back centered, moves away and we see this is a killer's dumping ground. How does Adrian know this place?
Drink of choice: Lots of coffee.
Episode 1, The Jungle is written by show developer Veena Sud and introduces several new characters, and we also get to see what is happening with a few old favorites that will likely have less of a presence this time around. I am so excited The Killing is back for a third season!
Holder is looking sharper, more mature in a long black coat, shirt and tie. He looks cleaned up, professional; we can see that he is moving up the ladder. A dead girl is found in a garbage bag. The atmosphere is dark, rainy, grotesque. When Holder uncovers the body, he steps away from the corpse as if her death is something never seen before. Later we find out through the autopsy that the deceased has vaginal bruising, she is sixteen or seventeen years old, and she broke a finger attempting to fight back. Holder becomes fascinated by the murder of this young girl and immediately senses a connection to an older case.
We find out that Linden is working for the transit authority,and is no longer a detective. She's also in love, or at least finding sexual satisfaction from Cody, who appears to be a younger man; she's moved on from the broken relationships we saw last season. She lives in a small house that vaguely looks like Jamie's grandfather's house (interior) from last season. Perhaps some of the same props are being reused. Holder show's up at Linden's house, away from the city. She's been running everyday, she is happier with her life. Holder is doing great, solving seven out of seven cases with his new partner. and plans to take the sergeant's exam. "Ain't that sweet, Linden's dating." She receives an envelope from the Department of Corrections, but does not open it right away.
Chemistry still rides high between Linden and Holder and it's wonderful. They talk about Jack, he has a girlfriend. Holder comes to her with his new case and explains the working girl's death that was revealed earlier in the show. He tells her that the file box on a case he was looking for was checked out by someone else. Sarah states that they're always misplacing files. Holder leaves his case photos behind on her table, knowing she cannot resist the psychological impact of the girl's death, nor completely deny that there isn't a connection between Holder's case, and Linden's from three years ago. "Not every victim is worth it," she says, but Holder doesn't buy it. The sound is a bit stifled in this episode, or perhaps I need hearing aids, but he mumbles something about never thinking he would ever hear that from her.
Holder continues investigating the opening murder and stops street-side to interrogate the two street kids, Callie Leeds (Cate Sproule) and Bullet (Bex-Taylor Klaus). Holder answers his phone, "Hey baby... " maybe he has a new love interest too. We find out later that her name is Caroline. The young butch street kid
We also see that Regi with her partner Ellen for the first time. Jack looks a little older, and definitely taller than his mom. Following a celebratory drink, Jack sits with his mom, who smokes after telling Holder she's quit. Jack is living with his dad. Their conversation is poignant. Jack asks her if she ever thinks about moving to Chicago, "Why are you still here then?" She checks her watch. "We should go, we don't want to miss your plane." Sarah is still controlled by her past experiences, which prohibit her from moving forward and developing closer relationships with the people in her life. Everyone remains at a distance.
Holder and his partner have lunch in the office; he inquires about the Jane Doe and his partner... the ID comes in over the phone. Holder meets with the parents. He finds out their daughter is fourteen. "Your daughter, her body was found this morning. I need you to come down to the coroners office and identify the body."
Callie tries going home. Her mom has changed the locks. Her mom doesn't let her stay there, and doesn't look much older than Callie; they could be sisters. She puts on the TV, cartoons play in the background. "You can't stay here. Maybe this weekend, but not tonight." They argue over the mom's boyfriend. Callie is a red-head like Linden, which reminds me of Linden's own childhood trauma with her abusive mother who came to abandon her. Callie's situation is very similar. We see a child who is unwanted, and mom sees her more as competition than as a daughter.
Later, we see Sarah running and a thunder storm breaks. She finds shelter under what looks like an old barn. Inside is a dead animal, several carcasses. She looks out over and there is nothing by cow skulls. One cow is still breathing, lying near death, but we see the head move slightly, the mouth release a bleating sound. She cannot escape the depravity she has lived with her entire life.
We meet Twitch (Max Fowler). He is the boyfriend of another street girl named Lyric (Julia Sarah Stone). Bullet is jealous. S/he tosses the ring to Callie. Callie's number for a bed doesn't come up. She lies and says she can stay at her mom's. The kids without a bed leave, go back on the street.
Sarah gets home from running to find Cody looking at the pictures Holder left behind. Sarah runs upstairs and comes back with a hand gun. Flash over to Holder-- he looks for the rings in the picture the parents brought with them.She goes back to the barn, puts the dying cow out of its misery. Sarah begins going through the evidence boxes from the case. She looks at photos of a murdered woman and we see the killing is identical. The first hour closes with Callie getting into a car driving away for the night.
Episode 2: That You Fear the Most, written by Dan Nowak
Linden goes to the murder scene. In the dark of night, the rain still pours. Her flashlight moves over the blood that remains on the floor. Net we see her walk into Holder's office. She leaves the photos on his desk, but he flips on the lights. "You miss it?" he asks. He knows she went to the murder sight. As she walks down the hall, you can see the difficulty in leaving, her expression confused, pained.
Bullet tries calling Callie-- she can't be reached. S/he tries going to her mother's house. The mother slams the door in her face. Twitch and lyric hang in a room together, she begins to cry while he talks about his fantasy of Hollywood parties and the desire to look sharp and good like the magazine add. Lyric looks so young. "I don't want you working today," he says to her. Maybe he's her pimp. He's a little creepy.
The jungle is a section of the city. The tombs. Bullet goes to the police looking for Callie. and runs into Holder. Bullet shows her picture and he notices the ring, but it doesn't register with his murder victim. Seward tries to manipulate a prison guard into letting him call his lawyer. And it works. He cuffs him in the the cell.
Linden stops by to see someone-- maybe her old partner that helped put Seward away. Linden says she always had questions. "What if there's a connection?" "What if Ray Seward didn't kill his wife?" Turns out Seward called him earlier inviting him to his execution. "I just want to be sure we're executing a guilty one." She leaves, gets in her car. His wife comes out and tells her to "Stay away from us. I've forgiven him, but I never want to see you again." Either Sarah and her ex-partner had an affair, or perhaps she entrenched him so deep in the case that his absence was unforgivable.
Sarah is heading back over to the island; Cody jumps in her car. "I break things" she says, "I break them and they never get fixed. But this thing, this one thing..." Cody offers to help her, but she won't allow it. We see there is no relationship going anywhere.
Holder and his partner go to the boarding house in the jungle. Ashley, the murdered girl. The Beacon is the name of the place.
Twitch is with his probation officer for his last piss test. Twitch isn't interested in getting his GED; he's got Hollywood dreams. Flash to Lyric, who is telling a girlfriend about Twitch inviting her to California. This vile guy makes a crack about a girl getting her throat slashed.
The other security officer, Frances Becker, (Hugh Dillon) lays into the other who let Seward use the phone. He goes to talk with Seward-- "... it's a family business-- prison guards and race car drivers." Frances describes death by hanging.
Holder and his partner go to the hotel on 'nine' as suggested by the Pastor back at the Beacon. His partner gets pissed when Holder decides to look around, maybe talk. He lays on the horn, "Get in or I'm leavin' ya." Holder knows something is up with Callie.
Regi walks in on Sarah looking at case files. Adrian drew that, over and over after I found him in the apartment. He had been trapped in the apartment for six days with his mother's decomposing body." Sarah discusses seeing him, the boy who drew the tree pictures over and over. She goes to see Seward. He picks up the phone, stares at her through the glass. "I remember you from the trial , you're his partner." Seward is... "What did you do with your wife's ring?" "I pawned it." Not once does he look away from her. She asks him about the trees. He immediately breaks his gaze. he calls for a guard to take him back.
Ray spends a lot of time facing away from the cell doors, looking outside toward the trees. A new prisoner comes in that knows Ray.
Twitch attempts to die his hair; he spent Lyric's money on hair die to get head shots with the hopes of modeling. His attempts are delusional. Lyric says she'll go out to turn tricks to get more money. Twitch makes some comment about Callie going with some guy. Bullet breaks in somewhere, it's dark and filthy, the guy she had an altercation with on the street. He comes up behind her, holds her down the camera pans away and we hear him shush her, slight cry escaping her lips. The knife is wide and curved. bullet had tried to force her way through a locked door when he came up behind her.
Sarah goes to check on Adrian. the foster mom takes her into his room. He's playing in the backyard. The foster family haven't ... a copy of the woods drawing is hanging on the wall. Sarah finds the scene, matches the drawing to a real place. I'm not sure where this location is. She walks through the woods, the area is dense with trees, nothing but her own footsteps, peep frogs. A mist grows thicker and the scene becomes more and more frightening. Across the water-- she has discovered several decomposed bodies, in red trash bags. The camera frames her back centered, moves away and we see this is a killer's dumping ground. How does Adrian know this place?
Drink of choice: Lots of coffee.
Friday, April 26, 2013
Interview with Poet Ivy Page
More news: my interview with poet Ivy Page is up at Late Night Library ! Please consider checking it out. Ivy's debut collection, Any Other Branch was published by Salmon Poetry and debuted at AWP Boston.
New Essay at RadiusLit.org
Here's my latest essay for Radiuslit.org. I loved writing about this poem. Check it out at:
http://www.radiuslit.org/2013/04/25/going-up-going-down-getting-stuck-between-floors-in-melissa-culbertson%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98elevator-love-song%E2%80%99/
http://www.radiuslit.org/2013/04/25/going-up-going-down-getting-stuck-between-floors-in-melissa-culbertson%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98elevator-love-song%E2%80%99/
Sunday, March 24, 2013
For the Love of Books! Five Titles I Can't Stop Thinking About
Read what you will, but read passionately! When I select my reading materials it is either by chance or recommendation. Sometimes I browse bookstore and library shelves, open to page one and attempt the traditional 'does-it-pull-me-in' strategy. Here's five books I love that kept me thinking .
My absolute favorite book last year was Angela Sloan by James Whorton, Jr. (Free Press, New York, 2011. Paperback. $14.00). Incredibly fun yet at times a poignant coming-of-age novel about a teenager who suddenly finds herself on her own when her retired CIA officer dad disappears at the onset of the Watergate scandal. A mad-cap adventure filled with quirky, memorable characters. All bookstores should carry James Whorton, Jr. If this text is ever adapted for film I hope they do it right.
A favorite quote: ""I worry about you stealing things, Betty," I said. "That's not how we do it here! Get caught, and it causes me all kinds of problems. Now you're stealing potato sticks. The whole can costs twenty-seven cents! You're an illegal alien. Just pay for the can!""
What to eat: biscuits with sausage gravy.
Another fiction title that kept me engaged and curious was Meg Wolitzer's The Uncoupling (Riverhead Books, New York, 2011. Paperback. $15.00). A new drama teacher is hired at Eleanor Roosevelt High School and soon after rehearsals of the school play begin, relationships between couples throughout the community begin to change as women young and old begin to lose their sexual desire and want for intimacy. A great novel that looks at the value and meaning of love and sex.
A favorite quote: "They lived in a time in which it was tremendously difficult, as parents, to let children endure any pain. If you sensed their despair, you took it on as your own."
What to eat: carrots and hummus.
News Clips & Ego Trips: The Best of Next...Magazine, 1994-1998, edited by G. Murray Thomas (Write Bloody Publishing, Long Beach, CA, 2011. $17.00) is a wonderfully energetic look at the Southern California poetry scene in the 1990's provided by Next...Magazine. This historic catalog provides numerous articles, commentary, and interviews with Patricia Smith, Jeffrey McDaniel, Regie Cabico and many others. [Full disclosure: the editor of Radiuslit.org, of which I do occasional writings, is featured many times over in this incredible text. But that's not why I included it in my best books; it's a best book. Period.]
A favorite quote: "We are all more the same than we are different. Yet, simultaneously, there is a deep and important difference between people -- that of individual identity. Each person is unique. Each person is an individual spirit, and is therefore important."
What to eat: Alpha-bits cereal and beer.
Every time I run into a reader I ask them if they read John Irving's latest book, In One Person (Simon & Schuster, New York, 2012). What I loved about this text besides Billy Abbott, Miss Frost, and Billy's best friend, Elaine (let's face it-- there are many memorable characters) is the way Irving navigates the reader through questions of sexual identity in the 1950's to the startling, heartbreaking tragedies of all those that passed during the AIDS epidemic in the 1980's and early 90's; the story of Tom Atkins is unforgettable. Beautiful, sad, funny, truthful, satiric, and at times, quirky. In One Person stayed with me many months later.
A favorite quote: "I'd managed to meet Miss Frost only because Richard recognized the absurdity of a small-town thirteen-year-old boy not having a library card."
What to eat: More like what to drink. Whatever you do, leave the beer cans under the old chair.
I love art. And I love the characters in Kevin Wilson's The Family Fang. And there really is nothing I can say without allowing the book to speak for itself. It's incredibly fun, sad, and borders absurdity. The text alternates between performance art (a christmas carol, 1977 is one of my favorites) and the current realities of the Fangs' lives, particularly Annie and Buster (Child A and Child B, respectively) who eventually go in search of their missing parents. If you like Wes Anderson films, you'll love Wilson's text.
A favorite quote:
A & B,
We have art to make in North Carolina. We'll be back in a few days. Don't go into our room.
Love,
Caleb & Camille
What to eat: "Free goddamn chicken sandwiches."
My absolute favorite book last year was Angela Sloan by James Whorton, Jr. (Free Press, New York, 2011. Paperback. $14.00). Incredibly fun yet at times a poignant coming-of-age novel about a teenager who suddenly finds herself on her own when her retired CIA officer dad disappears at the onset of the Watergate scandal. A mad-cap adventure filled with quirky, memorable characters. All bookstores should carry James Whorton, Jr. If this text is ever adapted for film I hope they do it right.
A favorite quote: ""I worry about you stealing things, Betty," I said. "That's not how we do it here! Get caught, and it causes me all kinds of problems. Now you're stealing potato sticks. The whole can costs twenty-seven cents! You're an illegal alien. Just pay for the can!""
What to eat: biscuits with sausage gravy.
Another fiction title that kept me engaged and curious was Meg Wolitzer's The Uncoupling (Riverhead Books, New York, 2011. Paperback. $15.00). A new drama teacher is hired at Eleanor Roosevelt High School and soon after rehearsals of the school play begin, relationships between couples throughout the community begin to change as women young and old begin to lose their sexual desire and want for intimacy. A great novel that looks at the value and meaning of love and sex.A favorite quote: "They lived in a time in which it was tremendously difficult, as parents, to let children endure any pain. If you sensed their despair, you took it on as your own."
What to eat: carrots and hummus.
News Clips & Ego Trips: The Best of Next...Magazine, 1994-1998, edited by G. Murray Thomas (Write Bloody Publishing, Long Beach, CA, 2011. $17.00) is a wonderfully energetic look at the Southern California poetry scene in the 1990's provided by Next...Magazine. This historic catalog provides numerous articles, commentary, and interviews with Patricia Smith, Jeffrey McDaniel, Regie Cabico and many others. [Full disclosure: the editor of Radiuslit.org, of which I do occasional writings, is featured many times over in this incredible text. But that's not why I included it in my best books; it's a best book. Period.]A favorite quote: "We are all more the same than we are different. Yet, simultaneously, there is a deep and important difference between people -- that of individual identity. Each person is unique. Each person is an individual spirit, and is therefore important."
What to eat: Alpha-bits cereal and beer.
Every time I run into a reader I ask them if they read John Irving's latest book, In One Person (Simon & Schuster, New York, 2012). What I loved about this text besides Billy Abbott, Miss Frost, and Billy's best friend, Elaine (let's face it-- there are many memorable characters) is the way Irving navigates the reader through questions of sexual identity in the 1950's to the startling, heartbreaking tragedies of all those that passed during the AIDS epidemic in the 1980's and early 90's; the story of Tom Atkins is unforgettable. Beautiful, sad, funny, truthful, satiric, and at times, quirky. In One Person stayed with me many months later.A favorite quote: "I'd managed to meet Miss Frost only because Richard recognized the absurdity of a small-town thirteen-year-old boy not having a library card."
What to eat: More like what to drink. Whatever you do, leave the beer cans under the old chair.
I love art. And I love the characters in Kevin Wilson's The Family Fang. And there really is nothing I can say without allowing the book to speak for itself. It's incredibly fun, sad, and borders absurdity. The text alternates between performance art (a christmas carol, 1977 is one of my favorites) and the current realities of the Fangs' lives, particularly Annie and Buster (Child A and Child B, respectively) who eventually go in search of their missing parents. If you like Wes Anderson films, you'll love Wilson's text.A favorite quote:
A & B,
We have art to make in North Carolina. We'll be back in a few days. Don't go into our room.
Love,
Caleb & Camille
What to eat: "Free goddamn chicken sandwiches."
Friday, December 28, 2012
Francesca Woodman
Francesca Woodman, Guggenheim Exhibit, Summer 2012
Note: The following post is one that I began over the summer, put aside for a while by other responsibilities. Hence, you'll notice the use of present tense.I don't remember what drew me to her work, but one night I was working in my college library re-shelving art books. I stood beneath the fluorescent lighting in the stacks pausing now and then to flip through monographs and catalogs. And that's when I found Francesca Woodman by David Levi-Strauss et al; it was an extraordinary find. More than once did I check this book out of the library, studying her photographs, reading the essays. I cannot deny that her death was a curiosity to me- a talented woman so young creating work as early as age eleven that even then included advanced techniques in photography . However, I never felt that her photography made any connection to her death. As a college student at Rhode Island School of Design, Woodman created the bulk of her work, mostly self-portraits. So many years later after my 'discovery' of this book, I had to see the Francesca Woodman retrospective at the Guggenheim.
I made myself wait. As excited as I was to be there, I made no rush to the third floor gallery, but traversed the funnel with ease, taking in the abstraction show; chatting quietly with my husband about a few of the works. I was disappointed Joan Mitchell was not represented. Unless I missed her, which I don't think so. I allowed anticipation within myself to build in order to fully take in the Woodman exhibit with as much focus as possible. When we entered the short hall into the gallery I forced myself to read the wall text before beginning a provocative journey.
The exhibit is curated chronologically, beginning with photographs taken while at RISD, including one year abroad in Italy, followed by her residency at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire. The exhibit concludes with the New York photos. At first I was surprised by the size of her early pictures; I had only seen one of her photos on display at RISD 'cornered' with a Nan Goldin photograph during the Aaron Siskind show six or seven years ago. The photos are small, requiring attention. Here and now, I stop at each piece looking as carefully as possible, reading the pictures, sometimes eavesdropping on other viewers: "Hmmm." "Interesting." "Narcissistic." "Hmmm."
The exhibition catalog is a gorgeous tome featuring essays by the associate curator of photography at SFMOMA and catalogeditor, Corey Keller, curator of photography at the Guggenheim Jennifer Blessing, and associate professor of art history at the University of California Berkley Julia Bryan-Wilson. In Corey Keller's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman" he explores as much as one can, her brief life as an artist from her upbringing through the New York years; the but what I love about Keller's piece are the descriptive, near poetic, passages in regards to Woodman's photographs:
Though she sometimes demurred that her sole motivation for appearing in her photographs was that of convenience, it appears to have been rather more a productive compulsion, albeit one she chose not to examine to closely. Despite her perpetual presence in the photographs, she is always on the verge of disappearance. her face is most often obscured from the camera; on the rare occasions when she fixes us squarely in her gaze, the effect is riveting but disquietingly unrevealing (178).
Bryan-Wilson's text, "Blurs: Toward a Provisional Historiography of Francesca Woodman looks at "some of the trends and patterns in the writing about Woodman... the text is not organized around close readings of her photographs, but rather attends to the thematics of interpretation that have surrounded her work since the critical literature began in 1986" (186). The essay does not lend itself to biographical discussion, but considers the historical dialogue as told by other critics, feminist or otherwise, on Woodman as a female artist. Finally Jennifer Blessing's text focuses on six untitled videos created by Woodman during her time at RISD, and "explore[s] the relationship between photography and video... the still and moving image" (197). All three of these essays will remain relevant and important in the study of Woodman and her work. Besides, they are simply a pleasure to read.
What always fascinated me about Francesca Woodman's art was the absence of face, or the blur or conceal of face in the majority of self-portraits, which suggests that her intentions were not narcissistic, but simply an exploration of the self in movement, meaning, and the pre-emptive opportunity to non-acquiesce to any one's gaze: You can look at my body, but I won't tell anyone if I'm pretty or not. I won't let you see me completely, try to read my eyes like you think you might know what I'm thinking. For me, her photographs are playful at times, disturbing at others, and even though she was aware of feminist discourse as discussed in Blessing's essay, I do not necessarily see her work as feminist. I see a young woman exploring her relationship within the frame of a natural and unnatural world. As much as I love her early work as a RISD student, through my experience at viewing this exhibit, reading the catalog and reflecting more on her pictures, I like the MacDowell Colony series the best; clothed and unclothed, her birch bark arms, her stance in patterned dresses that lean to mimic the trees, each picture untitled as they should be.
My latest essay for RadiusLit.org reflects my emotions on the Newtown tragedy. This was a horrible, horrible incident, and I had mixed feelings on responding to it, but at the same time felt there was no other way. My heart goes out to the community. How we live in a world where this is possible is incomprehensible.
http://www.radiuslit.org/2012/12/15/crying-my-little-one-footsore-and-weary/
http://www.radiuslit.org/2012/12/15/crying-my-little-one-footsore-and-weary/
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