The elements of my style

As I prepare for the spring semester, I face a crisis. In their efforts to look all folksy and down to earth, certain candidates for the Republican presidential nomination have — I’ll say it — stolen the elements of my style. My sweater-vests: gone. My signature look of button-down shirt and jeans: gone. Snatched, swiped, purloined.

I have prepared a sharp and decisive response: come Monday, I’m wearing a tie.

[If you haven’t been following fashion: Rick Santorum stole my sweater-vests; Mitt Romney, my signature look.]

California cubism

[Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles. November 2011. Photograph by Michael Leddy.]

On my first visit to Los Angeles last November, I paid a lot of attention to the signage. Signage, signage, every where. The intersecting planes suggested to me a twenty-first-century California cubism. Compare the composition above to, say, Juan Gris’s Still life with bottle of Bordeaux.

[I’m happy to know that Gris is pronounced just as I’ve always pronounced it: \ˈgrēs\. Dropping the s seems to be a mistaken affectation, like speaking of Gertrude Schtein.]

Going to the movie

Roger Ebert’s recently offered six reasons for the drop in movie ticket sales in 2011. His general conclusion: theaters “are losing their charm.” Yes, they are. Going to the movies at our nearby multiplex means going to the movies, literally: you can hear the crashes and explosions from whatever is playing next door along with the movie you paid for. It’s like living in an apartment building.

There are still great theaters though. Close to home, my favorite place to see a movie is The Art Theater in Champaign, Illinois. The Art offers intelligent programming, atypical and well-priced snacks and drinks, appropriate pre-movie music, minimal advertising, and a terrific sound system. There’s one screen, and the audience comes to pay attention: what a difference that makes. I also recommend the more majestic Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, Massachusetts. For one lovely year in the mid-1980s Elaine and I lived a couple of blocks from the Coolidge Corner and got to see a different double-bill two or three times a week. Now we try to see a movie there when we visit Boston.

I would hate to see independent theaters go the way of so many record stores and bookstores. You too? If you know of a great theater, please, write about it in a comment. And encourage your family and friends to go to the movie, not the movies.

Update, January 10: Here are links to theaters recommended by readers in the comments:

Los Angeles, California
Landmark Theatre

Chicago, Illinois
Doc Films

Cambridge, Massachusetts
Brattle Theatre
Harvard Film Archive

Traverse City, Michigan
The State Theatre

Columbia Heights, Minnesota
Heights Theatre

Minneapolis, MInnesota
Riverview Theater
Uptown Theatre

St. Paul, Minnesota
Mann Theatres

[Theater, or theatre? Garner’s Modern American Usage: “The first is the usual spelling in AmE, the second in BrE.” So I have no problem calling the Coolidge Corner Theatre a theater.]

Woody Guthrie’s to-do list

A list of thirty-three “New Years Rulin’s.”

Other posts with lists
“Ambercroombie & Flitch” (Ways to be cool)
Amy Winehouse’s to-do list (“When I do recorddeal”)
Blue crayon (Supplies for an imaginary camping trip)
John Lennon’s to-do list (“H.B.O. Guy coming between 3–5”)
Johnny Cash’s to-do list (“Kiss June”)
Review: Liza Kirwin, Lists (Artists’ lists)
Whose list? (A found list)

Thanks, Trent.

Recipes I stopped reading

“1. Fold each licorice piece in half and push ends through centers of 12 marshmallows. Set aside.”

I stopped there.

VDP fills out the Bullett questionnaire

[“Contented, I know that I’m 20 feet from the spotlight, where I’m able to see the stars.”]

Van Dyke Parks fills out the Bullett questionnaire. The page is a little difficult to negotiate: click the arrows for the full-page view and do the best you can.

Rick Santorum and Wal-Mart

Watching Rick Santorum on television last night, I felt that I was watching a satellite transmission from Htrae. I was struck especially by Santorum’s explanation of why manufacturing jobs have gone overseas: “It’s because government made workers uncompetitive, by driving up the cost of doing business here.” And then: “When Republican purists say to me ‘Well, why are you treating manufacturing different than retail?’ I say ‘Because Wal-Mart’s not moving to China and taking their jobs with them.’” Wal-Mart: keeping jobs on Htrae!

Browsing around this morning for santorum and wal-mart, I found this page. Suddenly the Iowa caucuses seem to make sense:

[A reality check: in June 2011, Time reported that the average manufacturing wage in China is $3.10 an hour. In the United States: $22.30. According to Time, rising wages in China are driving manufacturing to Cambodia, Laos, India, Vietnam, and the United States.]

Mitt Romney, job creator?

At the Washington Post, Greg Sargent looks at Mitt Romney’s claims about job creation. The conclusion: Romney’s claim to have helped create 100,000 jobs is “at best unsubstantiated.” And the number of jobs created by Bain Capital may be surpassed by the number of layoffs resulting from the firm’s work.

Related posts
The Los Angeles Times on Mitt Romney and job creation
Mitt Romney at Bain
Mitt Romney: the soul of a poet

Ink&paper

Ben Proudfoot’s Ink&paper is a short film about Aardvark Letterpress and McManus & Morgan, the last letterpress printer and the last paper store in downtown Los Angeles.

A related post
The Henington Press (A press closes in Brooklyn)

Thanks, Lisa, for pointing me to this film.

Happy birthday, VDP

Van Dyke Parks turns sixty-nine today. Happy birthday, Van Dyke.

[Sixty-nine is the new fifty-two. The explanation: the special theory of relativity.]