Sunday

Go for a walk to chase away those Sunday afternoon blues. The Fall's 'Reformation Post TLC' playing in my ears ...

The promise
They portioned to promise
They portioned to promise
Tale of “The Usher”
A. No violence
B. Ultimate sorryness
C. A mutual respect for all in the business
The reformation is coming!
It is coming fastly
And:
D. An even cash flow - this cannot be under-rated
E. Cut down on rhythm machines and have more guitars and minidisks, etc.
F. Treat PR, security people, agents, etc. with the respect and honour that they deserve
6. Enjoy film

'F' - in particular - is delivered with such withering sarcasm by Mark E. Smith.

The sort of thing which cheers me up no end.

architectural menace

Dipping into 'Negative Space' by Manny Farber and find this:

“Antonioni’s speciality, the effect of moving as in a chess game, becomes an autocratic kind of direction that robs an actor of his motive powers and most of his spine ... Antonioni gets his odd, clarity-is-all effects from his taste for chic mannerist art that results in a screen that is glassy, has a side-sliding motion, the feeling of people plastered against stripes or divided by verticals and horizontals; his incapacity with interpersonal relationships turns crowds into stiff waves, lovers into lonely appendages, hanging stiffly from each other, occasionallly coming together like clanking sheets of metal but seldom giving the effect of being in communion.”
( p142)



and later on

“ Antonioni uses a wall or building as a menace” (p197)

later that evening ...

... it's all in that gesture: the photographer grasps the imaginary ball, weighs it, then throws it - to wait and see (will they laugh? will the throw fall short? will it be the right ball? can the illusion succeed?) ...




... is it a smile? then the expression darkens ... then the camera angle shifts: the photographer photographed ...

Happy Birthday ...

... to me.

And to celebrate, as the rain falls upon the Velux, the second part of Antonioni's 'Blow Up'. I'd have been two years old when it first appeared. It's the interiors which I find fascinating watching the film this time - the sheets of glass, mirrors, statuary and, here, the Roger Hilton (?) on the wall behind Hemmings.