This Is A Race: December 2006

Last night I watched LE TEMPS QUI RESTE/TIME TO LEAVE directed by FRANCOIS OZON.

I was in the movie store, lost in choice as usual, when I saw this lonely little cover in the new releases section. The image of a man holding a baby caught my eye because recently I've been having a recurring dream that I have a child and I wake up completely elated. It's quite bizarre because I normally think of myself as someone who prefers to avoid children.

Anyway, now that I've frightened off any potential boyfriends with my talk of children, I rented it and was pleasantly surprised by what I saw.

Romain is a successful asshole of a photographer living with his boyfriend in France (he even uses the same camera and lights that I use...hmmm...). He learns that he is dying of cancer and only has a few months to live without treatment. He forgoes chemo and any chance of survival and doesn't tell anyone that he's dying. He dumps his boyfriend, alienates his family, smokes, snorts coke, goes to bathhouses, and fathers a child with a stranger. He spends the majority of his dying days alone.

In an exchange with his ex-boyfriend he asks if he can sleep with him one last time. The ex, still unaware that Romain is terminally ill, says "What's the point?", and Romain answers "That's what I've been asking myself, all the time, everyday, until today, but you just asked it."

In this beautifully and naturalistically shot film we watch a man choose how he will die. We can't understand why he makes the choices he makes; how could he not surround himself with his family and friends? His solitude seems so selfish and futile - we see this as he licks an ice cream cone alone at the beach, at first pleased with his purchase and then disappointed with the fact that it doesn't fulfill him. We see all this without a word being spoken. But what would fulfill him and why would it matter? Why would it make any difference if his family were around?

Right after I watched this I was really impressed, but then watched the TRAILER online and it was a bit ruined for me (they made it seem like a soap opera and took out all the edge). But I've been thinking about it all day and how effective it was. The darkness of what it is to be human amidst these beautiful and affectionate moments really got to me. He is not really a great person - amidst his aforementioned indiscretions there are even bizarre and energizing scenes hinting at his interest in incest - and this is not a manipulative film where you will cry for hours (either that or I'm empty inside), but it gets to you.

This film comes from the director of SWIMMING POOL, so if you're a fan of big climactic dramatic endings, be prepared that this may not be what you expect...but give it a chance. Or not, I don't care.

Labels: BOOKS MOVIES AND OTHER CULTURALISTICALITIES, DEATH AND DRAMA, DESPERATE AND SAD, REALLY FUCKING GAY

POSTED BY GRAYDON AT 12/30/2006 - 0 COMMENTS - ADD COMMENT

PRETTY

There's no GOAL, just enjoy.

(Click on the text in the rectangle to begin - move your mouse to interact with the light, click for the next variation).

Via JAYISGAMES.

Labels: HOW TO PROCRASTINATE, NOBODY LIKES A NERD

POSTED BY GRAYDON AT 12/26/2006 - 1 COMMENTS - ADD COMMENT

SO TIRED

This is what I do for a living:

Labels: I MADE THIS. ME. GRAYDON.

POSTED BY GRAYDON AT 12/20/2006 - 0 COMMENTS - ADD COMMENT

EVERYBODY POOPS

I just watched THROUGH THESE EYES on TVO. I caught it halfway through a while ago and remember thinking how I really wanted to see the whole thing but never looked into it.

It's about a course taught to elementary school children in the US in the 60s and 70s. Children saw footage of an Inuit tribe in Canada and learned how the tribe lived. They then discussed the rituals and lifestyle of the tribe in comparison to their own lives. The children's minds were stimulated into questioning the way they and their associate contemporaries lived their lives. Then American beaurocrats and hick assholes ruined the whole fucking program and went up to Pelly Bay and Christianized the Inuits and gave them snowmobiles and ruined their lives too.

I mean, I don't want to live in an igloo, but give kids and Inuits some credit.

For more on assholes ruining beauty and art, check out the stories of ANDRES SERRANO (who was persecuted by a Republican for taking a photograph of Christ on a cross in a vat of his own urine, which is an incredibly beautiful and spiritual photograph) and CHRIS OFILI (whom Rudy Giuliani persecuted because he used balls of elephant dung to prop his paintings up in galleries, and one of his paintings was of the Virgin Mary).

Did Mary have immaculate poops, too?

Labels: BOOKS MOVIES AND OTHER CULTURALISTICALITIES, NOBODY LIKES A NERD

POSTED BY GRAYDON AT 12/17/2006 - 0 COMMENTS - ADD COMMENT

IF YOU'RE RICH

THIS is where you can buy me Kwanzaa presents.

Labels: BUY ME THIS, REALLY FUCKING GAY

POSTED BY GRAYDON AT 12/06/2006 - 0 COMMENTS - ADD COMMENT

I'M ASHAMED THAT I'M NOT FROM TEXAS

Labels: I MADE THIS. ME. GRAYDON.

POSTED BY GRAYDON AT 12/05/2006 - 0 COMMENTS - ADD COMMENT

HOW MUCH DO I LOVE THIS?

Jonnie Ross' SLEEPDANCE 1 AND 2.

This link plays his whole reel if you let it go, but I'm mainly excited about his first two clips. No offense.

Labels: HOW TO PROCRASTINATE, THINGS I WISH I'D DONE

POSTED BY GRAYDON AT 12/05/2006 - 0 COMMENTS - ADD COMMENT

FOUND

My dad gave me a bunch of Polaroid cameras he bought at a garage sale. There were a few old photos left in the box by the previous owner of the cameras.

Here are some of them and a couple I took with the expired film myself: