It is funny.

I totally have wanted to do a piece like this on fauxluxe for a while now.  I even attempted it around this time last year, but abandoned it because I just could not get the tone right, or could not capture the theme beneath the text.  Psst, for fun, here is a great quote from Whit Stillman's film, Barcelona (about text and subtext):

Fred: Maybe you can clarify something for me. Since I've been, you know, waiting for the fleet to show up, I've read a lot, and... 

Ted: Really? 

Fred: And one of the things that keeps popping up is this about "subtext." Plays, novels, songs - they all have a "subtext," which I take to mean a hidden message or import of some kind. So subtext we know. But what do you call the message or meaning that's right there on the surface, completely open and obvious? They never talk about that. What do you call what's above the subtext? 

Ted: The text. 

Fred: OK, that's right, but they never talk about that.

Plus, the platform for my post would have been different.  mistermix is talking about the film, High Fidelity, Elvis Costello, and YouTube.  I was going to talk about MGMT, their song, Song for Dan Treacy; Dan Treacy's band, Television Personalities; and YouTube.

But, the main thrust of his post would have been the same as mine:  The internets truly are spectacular.

I used to get all my knowledge about new and exciting bands, books, films, art, etc, ... from word of mouth and reading magazines and books.  I guess I am an old fusty, but the convenience of the internets, while spectacular, is also, finally, disheartening and dehumanizing to me, as well. I am not crazy about the trade-off.  (He said on his blog.  I know I know, ... )

Anyhoo, mistermix beat me to it.  Good for him.  Great post on Balloon Juice.





Ardent








P.S.  I love the Nick Hornby novel, High Fidelity, and used to love Stephen Frears' film of the book, but now think it has aged poorly, and is not very good.  The song High Fidelity by Elvis Costello is still an absolute Monster of Angst, from his splendid cracking album Get Happy!

New Whit Stillman film, his first

Since The Last Days of Disco, which was fourteen years ago, comes out right around my birthday this year.  Hoo-ray!

It is called Damsels in Distress and is part musical, believe it or not.  No Chris Eigeman or Taylor Nicols in it, though.  Looks pretty much like all young unknowns.  "Chad" from In the Loop and the sultry, surly Aubrey Plaza (Scott Pilgrim, Parks and Recreation) make appearances.  The trailer is below:

Meanwhile, I loaned out Barcelona to my friend, Meghan, and a bunch of other great films, so Renee and I scratched our Whit Stillman itch the other night by watching Metropolitan again.  It is such a sweet, wonderful, darling motion picture, with a true old-school classical structure full of ingenues, heroes and cads.  And so much great dialogue.  Of course, I identify with Tom Townsend.  I am Tom Townsend.  I quit reading novels ages ago.  I prefer to read literary criticism.  I walk everywhere or take public transportation.  I actually know who Charles Fourier is and used to talk at great length about him with my splendid vegan, Socialist, wannabe ELF member, now author and legitimate environmental protector, Douglas Bevington.  Also, like Tom Townsend, for all my revolutionary rhetoric I would be just as vulnerable to the seduction of the Manhattan UHB-scene, eager to belong to their clique, their world.  But unlike Tom Townsend I most definitely do not have bright red hair.

"It has a lining."



AH