Start the projector so nobody can go home

[sovay]

Okay, that last post kind of signed off like Wittgenstein and I am trying not to do that anymore. Especially when I spent the later portions of the day at the MFA with derspatchel, looking at everything from Rembrandt etchings to hippie-inspired haute couture (seriously, it's not a condescending exhibit, it's great) to Dutch Art Nouveau. I insist on doing things despite being dead tired, which is why I'm going grocery shopping this afternoon and then meeting Rob and rushthatspeaks and gaudior for a first-day showing of The World's End (2013) at the Somerville Theatre. Have some links in the meanwhile.

Rob has been reading a lot of Silver Age, mostly Canadian comics that have fallen out of copyright and landed on the internet. I don't have another explanation for where this Tumblr came from. "Next time I must bring an axe and see what is behind that partition."

We weren't disagreeing, but while discussing representation and stereotyping, I found myself saying, "And not all Jews are from New York!" (And most of the ones who are still aren't Woody Allen, thank God.) Therefore I really appreciated finding, later on in the day, this photo sequence of different kinds of Jews. Historical and contemporary. And then I recommend reading Michael Chabon's Gentlemen of the Road (2007) and strange_selkie's A Verse from Babylon (2005) and probably other books I don't know about, so people should tell me.

It's from last week, but I am not on the twenty-four-second news cycle of the internet and so I just discovered this comparison of the 1936 Berlin Olympics and the present situation in Sochi by an actual historian: "Why We Participated in the 1936 Nazi Games: Lessons for Sochi." I like anyone who starts their argument by admitting that history cannot in fact repeat itself, which is not the same thing as all parallels being false.

Oh, Joss Whedon. And a gratuitous slam at the French New Wave, too.

Something about the light must have shifted this morning: I was reminded strongly of late summer in New Haven as I got up and made a rice-cake sandwich for lunch, which of course I never ate when I was at Yale. I wonder if that will be with me forever. Probably as long as I'm in New England. Oh, well. I like it here.

Comments

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Ooh! The World's End! Was it good?

Love the all-shades-of-bread Jews essay.

Nine

[sovay]

Ooh! The World's End! Was it good?

I think it's the best film Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Edgar Wright have made together. I don't know if I can promise a writeup tonight due to exhaustion, but I'll try to get some notes down. I'm hoping it shows again at the 'Thon next year.

Love the all-shades-of-bread Jews essay.

It matters to me, not categorizing people so simply. There's a personal edge to it: I've had my Jewishness called into question even though matrilineal descent is something not even Haredim are going to disagree with, because my father isn't Jewish (isn't any other religion, either, but that doesn't seem to matter to the argument) and I don't like being told that I exemplify the problem of assimilation in American Judaism. But also, I was explaining to derspatchel—diaspora, people. A population is suddenly and vehemently decentralized, exile and the far-flung nature of their different branches becomes a strangely basic component of the culture, why on earth are you surprised when its members turn up everywhere? I think it's wonderful that they do. I really want to learn to read Yevanic.