Taking notes on Eminent Outlaws

And they thought she ate cats.

I'm going back over Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America, by Christopher Bram, taking notes this time.  It's really an interesting nutshell of one take on the social changes that led to this current moment of public displays of gay (swype keeps wanting to write "gassy") affection and institutionalization in the non-psychiatric sense.

Speaking of which, one of the more interesting biographical sketches in the book is of the early life of Allen Ginsberg, about whom I knew only the later highlights.  I hadn't really taken in just how long he tried to live as heterosexual, living with his parents after eight months in a psychiatric hospital (following an arrest for helping steal a car for a joyride and drug possession) and even while living in New York. 

I did not know the world basically owes his later body of work and influence to a psychologist who said, essentially, " Why not live with the guy if you want to?" and "Oh, everyone gets old.  There will still be people who will like you."  So he moved in with Peter Orlovsky, set off hitchhiking across the country, and wrote "Howl."

Amazing what a difference the different shrinks made.  Tho not surprising, pre-APA rethink...

We watched "Kolya," that Czech movie from the early 90s that won an Oscar but I never got around to seeing.  I was afraid it would be cloying, but it was quite restrained, and politically charged.  The kid speaking clearly enunciated Russian was a bonus. 

I'm reading a Norwegian police procedural by a real life cop from the same small seaside town (Closed for Winter by Jorn Lier Horst).  It's OK but not great, not bad as a slice-of-life mystery.  We finally got to go skiing (Nordic) after yesterday's break in our thaw, so reading about snow is not quite as exciting as it was two days ago...  I can't lift my legs very high now, but it was fun in the moment...

Anyway, back to work.

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Translating Dostoyevsky

http://www.moscow-russia-insiders-guide.com/dostoevskaya-moscow-metro-station.html

An interesting piece on the Victorian woman who made Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Chekov, and others accessible to Victorian Anglophones, and several more generations:  Constance Garnett.  It highlights the tradeoff between accessibility and accuracy.  Would they get a crack translation if they hadn't been popularized first?  Or is that a false choice?  Maybe now but not back when?

I got a copy of Crime and Punishment in the original, so I am going to have to read it very very slowly.  I read it breathlessly in translation at thirteen, likely Garnett's translation.  The Classic comic from my Dad's dog-eared collection got me hooked.  There probably isn't a more bowdlerized translation, but it got this reader on the road to learning the language and pursuing rereading several times.  Don't judge a book by its cartoon...

Check out the metro station,  here. 

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Bringing you back

The best version of an old school tune I've seen:  Serve your fellow man.   And the original:  TVP.  And  YMCA.  How people miss the text- it sure ain't subtext- is beyond me.  The foray into  New Wave is pretty awesome, too.

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Quiet night

Coming home after work Christmas Eve

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Dear White People

MOA 12/20/14

All year, I have wanted to see this movie. 

It was supposed to come to the MSPIFF, but it was not finished in time.  Then it previewed here while I was out of town. Finally, it is in general release.  Timely.

The real action in town:  Yes.   Yes.   Yes.  Live blogged.

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Stilyagi/Стиляги

Hipsters (Stilyagi/Стиляги, roughly those obsessed with the latest styles, followers of fashion) is a 2008 Russian musical about youth rebel group centered around djazz and clothing in bright primary colors in the Stalinist '50s.  I got it to work on my ochin plokho Russkii Yzook, but the music and costumes are snazzy and it's very watchable.

Wikipedia says it's fictional, which.is true of the particular charasters. A Russian magazine begs to differ: Stilyagi IRL.  I thought the Hipsters seem a lot like the youth who hung out in the park in the '80s.Hipsters reminded me of Little Vera, from 1989, but much more fun.

Singy Bits and the awesome song "Человек и Кошка" ("Man and Cat")- Yeah.  

I recently read half of White Fever by Jacek Hugo-Bader, a Polish journalist who decided to drive across Siberia, a formidable endeavor as he explains.  Here is a good review explaining the range of topics he covers, from The Guardian. He also has a huge section on the history and ways of Russian hippies and their slang, which is entertaining. Olduvuis should enjoy it... If not, take a Heik back to your Flet...

Also in looking for Stilyagi, I found an interesting set of articles on Russian graffiti/ Post-Soviet Graffiti.

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As 2014 careens toward its end

Another pleasure of 2014 is seeing so many high school and 20 something folks speaking their minds and being active about systemic injustice.  Also seeing over-thirty friends get involved for their first time.  I'm so jaded, having done police brutality and prison activism and researched the stats and stories starting over 20 years ago now, and having worked for a public defender in a notoriously racist county and then rural legal aid. 

It's really nice to see people discover the power of working together and stuff like all those cheesy old chant slogans.  They're cheesy, but so true.  It's not fun being an old fart who sold out and has to keep most thoughts to herself, but I had my say back in the day and it's more interesting to hear what people made of everything that's been said and done and see what they come up with to address the here, now, and future.

I'm not saying people can afford to not study history deeply or not talk to the old folks who truly have something to contribute.  Just saying Right on.

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On the Ice

From www.ontheicethemovie.com

Netflix occasionally has gems.  When dogsitting, I have been watching movies.  "On the Ice" turned out to be a well-made film using local non-actors who did a great job. 

The movie was shot in Barrow, Alaska.  There is a lot of snow and ice there, which was weird to see during our thaw and rain.  Snowmobiles are the main form of transportation, which remined me of the teens who drive in endless circles around this gas station off 35 by Northfield.

Like the promo materials say, two Inuit teens who are best friends cover up the accidental death of another friend, in the midst of the usual teen romantic turmoil, drinking, and drug experimentation. 

Things go south, and the young man playing the protagonist really shines as the good kid who is caught between the values he was raised with by his solid father and grandmother and his best friend, whose father drank himself to death.  The friend role involves drunken rages and impulsivity, the stuff of many stilted teen movies and afterschool specials, but the tension between the two keeps it real.

This reminded me that I did not discuss "The Lesser Blessed," the movie based on Richard Van Camp's novel about Tlicho/Dogrib teens in Canada.  That movie was similarly well made and acted, creating a bleak and tense atmosphere that did the novel justice.  The guy playing the protag, Larry Sole, carries the movie, which also has Benjamin Bratt and Kiowa Gordon.

Both worth checking out:

On the Ice trailer

The Lesser Blessed trailer/ imdb entry 

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Writing on the fly

This week I was reminded why I so rarely write review or nonfiction anymore, besides noodling here, where my phone throws up random typos that I don't catch from time to time, much as I try. 

I agreed to write the yearly roundup on a tight schedule.  I went in early to work and wrote in the coffee shop, stayed up late after a long day at work, where I write like 20 pages and read up to 1,000 pages of records a day.  I got my thoughts on the pleasures of 2014 and my Christmas mailing done.  I finally got some sleep.

And then I realized the stupid mistakes I had made, like mangling the plot of Belle because I could not remember and the reviews I googled were no help.  I misspelled Cheeky Frawg Press's name, dumb stuff like that, which is no worse than most published books or major newspapers these days.  But of course that bugs me to no end, 'cos I pride myself on clean copy. 

And worse, I totally left out one of the best books I read this year, Roxane Gay's Bad Feminist, likely because I could not read the notes I scrawled on the back of a gym schedule while on the train, d'oh.  I have the ability to focus deeply for long periods of time but also have to use checklists and phone reminders due to mental disorganization and memory lapses.  It's some mental tradeoff for being able to hold a world of information in my head and manipulate it visually.  I am also a Virgo.  This combo means I do not like to agree to short deadlines where I may not get to proof a day later, after the errors come to me in my sleep...

So, ya know, I'm mentioning Bad Feminist here again.  It is an amazingly thought-provoking read.  Here's a recent sample of the kinds of essays Gay makes look deceptively effortless in the book: Roxane Gay talking about how we don't hear stories about rape and abuse well.  Here's what led me to it, another great essay summing up the journalistic fail at Rolling Stone so well. 

I wish I had time to try and write intelligent stuff for the internets, and fiction, and act up, but I have a job to do as a public servant and it ain't happening, so I'm really glad so many people are, who most likely have more intelligent, timely, and informed things to say anyway.  And access to their thoughts is so much faster than ever.  That is truly one of the great pleasures of 2014.

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