Criterion July

The Critertion Channel’s July lineup, like every other month’s Criterion lineup, is a wow. Noir in color, including Leave Her to Heaven (dir. John M. Stahl, 1945).

A red-herring strategy

James Surowiecki, “Trump Wanted to Join the Mob at the Capitol, and All Right-Wing Media Wants to Talk About Is a Steering Wheel”:

This is, of course, a classic red-herring strategy: by focusing relentlessly on this one minor detail, Trump supporters are trying to draw attention from the substantive, and damning, aspects of what Hutchinson said. And the really striking thing is that they’re doing this even though no one has actually refuted what Hutchinson said.

And trying to parse the blurry footage of Trump in the SUV, as if it were the Zapruder footage of the JFK assassination, is a pointless exercise.

[I always like reading Surowiecki’s one-pagers in The New Yorker. So lucid. They made great models for teaching students how they might construct an argument.]

Dave Lambert and a Blackwing

[From Lambert & Co.: Audition at RCA (dir. D.A. Pennebaker, 1964). Leslie Dorsey, Mary Vonnie, Dave Lambert, Sarah Boatner, David Lucas. Click either image for a larger view.]

Dave Lambert took this group into the studio for what turned out to be an unsuccessful audition. You can watch Pennebaker’s film at Vimeo (free, pixelated) or the Criterion Channel (not free, still grainy). Either way, the Blackwing pencil in Lambert’s pocket is instantly recognizable.

Here’s a 2011 interview with Mary Vonnie with some background about this vocal group came together.

I sent these screenshots to the late Sean Malone a couple of years ago and somehow remembered them today. Sean was the best friend the Eberhard Faber Blackwing (not the twenty-first-century replica) ever had. He was a dedicated researcher of pencil history, a dedicated collector of pencils and ephemera, a brilliant musician, and I’m posting these screenshots in his memory.

Related reading
All OCA Blackwing posts (Pinboard)

“Before my patience are exhausted”

Leopold Bloom is conducting a clandestine correspondence with someone who identifies herself as Martha Clifford. Bloom is writing as Henry Flower, the name on a card he’s tucked inside the leather headband of his Plasto’s high grade ha (the “sweated legend” on the crown of the hat has lost its t ). The correspondence began with a classified advertisement that Bloom placed in the Irish Times: “Wanted smart lady typist to aid gentleman in literary work.” He’s received forty-four replies.

On the morning of June 16, 1904, he finds a reply to his reply to Martha. She has enclosed a flower. From the “Lotus-Eaters” episode:

James Joyce, Ulysses (1922).

Related reading
All OCA Joyce posts (Pinboard)

Squirrels on metal roofs

I saw a squirrel yesterday in a moment of bravery and grace. It was the squirrel that was brave and graceful, making a leap of six or more feet from a branch to a shingled roof. If there had been a panel of squirrel judges present, they’d have raised their little placards:

10, 10, 10, 10, 10.

But I digress.

This scene made me wonder: how do squirrels contend with metal roofs? I’ve read that they can chew metal (keeping their teeth trimmed) and sneak underneath metal roofs to wreak havoc. But what would happen to a squirrel that made a leap to a metal roof? Would it slide down and be left hanging for dear life, like Scottie Ferguson in Vertigo ? Can a squirrel’s claws grip a metal roof? Do most squirrels know not to mess with a metal roof?

[Asking for a small grey friend.]

Leopold Bloom, proto-blogger

As Leopold Bloom sits on the pot reading “Matcham’s Masterstroke,” a prizewinning story in the magazine Titbits, he thinks about writing something himself. From the “Calypso” episode:

James Joyce, Ulysses (1922).

Leopold Bloom, proto-blogger, collecting choice moments of domestic comedy.

Notice that the imagined byline merges Leopold and his wife Molly into a single self: there’s no indication elsewhere that Mr. Bloom has a middle name beginning with M. Androgyny runs through the novel. In the “Circe” episode of the novel, Mr. Bloom will be revealed as “a finished example of the new womanly man.”

And yes, cuffs were once used as writing surfaces.

Related reading
All OCA Joyce posts (Pinboard)

Hill, Sam

As a college student, I worked in the housewares departments of two discount department stores. These days, shoppers still sometimes ask me where things are. On more than one occasion a shopper has told me that they thought I was an employee. I must have the right look.

Today, as I strode a main aisle in our friendly neighborhood multinational retailer, an older fellow asked me, “Do you know where in the Sam Hill the mouthwash is?”

I didn’t hesitate: “Same aisle as the toothpaste, two aisles down.”

As for Sam Hill, he’s in Green’s Dictionary of Slang.

“Seesoo, hrss, rsseeiss, ooos”

From the “Proteus” episode:

James Joyce, Ulysses (1922).

“Better get this job over quick”: it takes a bit of inference to understand that Stephen Dedalus is urinating. He wonders whether it’s safe to set down his walking stick, decides that it is, and the scene dissolves into a play of sound as his urine mixes with the water of Cock Lake. For contrast: when Leopold Bloom goes out to the jakes in “Calypso,” it’s entirely clear what’s happening: “Hope it’s not too big bring on piles again. No, just right. So. Ah!”

Cock Lake, believe it or not, is real, “a tidal pool off Sandymount” (Don Gifford, Ulysses Annotated ).

Related reading
All OCA Joyce posts (Pinboard)

The best pens?

The New York Times Wirecutter offers recommendations for the best ballpoint, rollerball, and gel pens.

I like the Parker Jotter, the Papermate InkJoy, and the Uni-ball Signo RT. The last two go unmentioned in the Times. But I’d rather be using a fountain pen, Pelikan or Kaweco, with Aurora black ink.

Related reading
All OCA pen posts (Pinboard)

Only Murders slight, slight spoiler

[Caution.]

“Is that Shirley MacLaine?” And two seconds later: “That’s Shirley MacLaine!” What a treat to see her in Only Murders in the Building last night (season two, episode two). A one-off guest spot? That’s my guess.