Skip to main content

incorrect assumptions

It's a weird world. People meet, become friends, separate, get back in touch, and catch up, after which it's easy to assume we know what's happened in the intervening time. We don't though. Not really. Sometimes there are big pieces that have been left out. My friend Marc, over at Misanthropicity is one of these cases. I was planning on writing this even before he threw me a bone, but here it is: Marc and I had a mutual friend, who passed on just over half my lifetime ago, and little more than half of Marc's. The friend was a fan of, among other artists, Spalding Gray. When Spalding's body was found, it struck me as another sad, senseless tragedy, and another part of our friend had gone, well... away. Here was another performer from that time, whose existince, parallel, linear, co-extant still with ours, was at least a reminder that some things go on, even when our friend's life didn't.

For me, the sadness of Spalding's death was remove, something like losing access permanently to a movie or book that I was fond of; it was sad, but impersonal. I assumed that the same was true for Marc, but it turns out he had dinner with Spalding Gray. Which has made me only more sad. I'll just go put on Mister Heartbreak.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

dan simmons’ fiction

“I came back for my own purposes,” said the Time Traveler, looking around my booklined study. “I chose you to talk to because it was . . . convenient. And I don’t want you to do a goddamned thing. There’s nothing you can do. But relax . . . we’re not going to be talking about personal things. Such as, say, the year, day, and hour of your death. I don’t even know that sort of trivial information, although I could look it up quickly enough. You can release that white-knuckled grip you have on the edge of your desk.” I tried to relax. “What do you want to talk about?” I said. “The Century War,” said the Time Traveler. I blinked and tried to remember some history. “You mean the Hundred Year War? Fifteenth Century? Fourteenth? Sometime around there. Between . . . France and England? Henry V? Kenneth Branagh? Or was it . . .” “I mean the Century War with Islam,” interrupted the Time Traveler. “Your future. Everyone’s.” He was no longer smiling. Without asking, or offering to pour me any, he ...
8 comments
Read more

se7en of nin9

You could tell William Shatner that you hadn’t lived until you’d seen his one-man production of Se7en . He”d probably tell you to “get a life.” ( Chad Underkoffler )
6 comments
Read more

review (kinda): collateral

After missing it in the Japanese theaters and on airplanes in-flight service and in hotel rooms’ pay-per-view, I finally saw Collateral last night via rental DVD. Due to a sense of high school nostalgia caused by Manhunter and Miami Vice (forgiving a misstep with The Keep ), I am willing to watch just about anything Michael Mann makes. Moreso that Heat , Collateral felt like a return to the stylings of Miami Vice’s action and drama, with natural, well-paced comedy to even out the emotional pacing. In a word, Collateral was good. With all the freak-out based press Tom Cruise has been given, and hearing what appears to be zealotry in his responses to a German interviewer who questioned the data as Cruise presented it, it is even easier to watch him in the role of a villain. It is probably preferable; he did a good job with the arrogant, untouchable Lestat in Interview with the Vampire , though that character was a bit more ham-fisted than the role of assassin, Vincent, pla...
4 comments
Read more