Errata is a web journal written by Robert Davis who has neither spent a night in a ghost town nor pulled a turnip from the earth. He doesn't even know if turnips grow in the ground. Perhaps on trees, like candy corn. Therefore, Errata is a non-commercial project.

Observation #1: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious."

Observation #2: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious" at the top of your lungs. Bring your eyebrows together before you say it. Effective!

Observation #3: Same for books. Even at libraries.

There is a prize for people who correctly guess the thing about Metropolis, Nevada.

Except where the text specifically states otherwise, Errata's vagaries are indicated vaguely and its authors are indistinct in the traditional way of the Internet, except where the authors lay claim to their work. In some cases Robert Davis lays claim to work that is not his own but has been abandoned like so many ghost towns. Except where held presently, fistfuls of dirt are suspended via dispersal, or dispersed via suspension (in the air), and thus their dissolution is their transcendence, or their transcendence is their dissolution. And yet our eyes tear, and our vision is impaired, demonstrating for the umpteenth time that one entity's gain is another's fit of sneezes. Except where indicated, storms shall outlive the clay upon which they rain, unless storms are improperly delimited by their clouds, which dissolve, rather than by their inevitable return. Thus the clay loses, unless the clay is said to own the storm, to use it to make itself heavy, to make itself cling to white garments, refuse dispersal, cake upon the facades of abandoned buildings, and sit like Man [sic] upon the earth where it is pelted by a storm that it owns. In which case the clay still loses, if you ask us.

Some of the above is legally binding and should be considered a mental contract between Errata and those upon whom it acts. The bit about the prize should be considered an overstatement insofar as prizes differ from dirt and prize dispersal differs from dirt dispersal. Please recall that ownership is a weight and, therefore, hope that you do not win the prize.

One day Errata or its representatives will call upon you for a favor. It is expected that you will hop-to without delay.

You may contact Robert Davis by email unless it's about the rock that was thrown in anger. The rock is more properly called a clod. Why do you continue to raise the topic?

9 August 2004

Movie Log

One blogger's hiatus is another's breath between paragraphs. Or sentences. A comma, even.

I've recently taken on a new project, unrelated to any of the stuff that I talk about here, and I've had to move such things as blogs and movies to the back burner. Waitaminute waitaminute. Blogs, maybe, but not movies:

7-29 The Bourne Supremacy (Greengrass)
7-31 Smiles of a Summer Night (Bergman)
7-31 Wild Strawberries (Bergman)
8-1 In the Bathtub of the World (Zahedi) [DVD]
8-2 I Was Possessed By God (Zahedi) [DVD] [short]
8-3 A Man Escaped (Bresson) [DVD]
8-5 The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi (Kitano)
8-6/7 The Sopranos: The Fourth Season: Episodes 4-5 [DVD]
8-8 Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism (Greenwald)

Posted by davis | Link

Reader Comments

August 10, 2004, 05:46 AM

Darren

If you get a chance, I'd be curious to hear what you thought of Bathtub.

August 11, 2004, 12:21 AM

davis

I thought it was fearless. Caveh sure would be a difficult person to live with, but his girlfriend has the sweetest face, which seems important for some reason. It's a draining 90 minutes.

I've been finding slivers of Waking Life all around me, lately. I think it's time to watch it again.

August 12, 2004, 08:18 AM

Darren

You and me both. I've been on a Linklater binge lately -- mostly because I was so impressed by Before Sunset. I even rented his short, Live From Shiva's Dance Floor, which was as enjoyable, I guess, as any twenty minutes with Speed Levitch can be.

I really enjoyed your review of the Eggers' play, by the way. I've somehow managed to avoid reading him so far.

August 12, 2004, 04:07 PM

Doug

What did you think of A Man Escaped?

August 13, 2004, 10:18 AM

davis

Doug, I thought it was almost as good as some other gangster movies, although it needs a little more action.

Just kidding. :-) It was wonderful. I decided before I watched it that I was going to watch it at least twice before reading anything about it online (starting with your essay on filmjourney and the related thread, which I've filed away). I'm learning that Bresson is all about the details, and I want to have a bit more time to listen to them.

But I already love them, the way he quietly breaks the glass -- why? to take it out of the cell. why? because if someone saw a plate of glass, say, under a bed, it would attract attention. Unexplained and very neat. I haven't fully got my head around some things, like the way he'll talk to people through his cell window, some of whom he can see and some of whom he can't. Sometimes the guy in the next cell is there, listening, sometimes not, sometimes you don't know.

I'm looking forward to a second (and third...) viewing.

August 14, 2004, 05:15 AM

Darren

Okay, this is getting wierd. Last night I watched the new Christopher Hitchens documentary, TEXAS: America Supersized, and one of the talking-head commentators was -- yep, you guessed it -- Rick Linklater.

August 16, 2004, 11:16 PM

davis

Crazy. Did you happen to see von Trier's recent Five Obstructions? I was surprised to see a Waking Life reference pop up there.

He's everywhere!

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