The Borders of Things

Liberal Groupie

So this morning I stood in line for an hour with some friends to get my free tickets to see Noam Chomsky, who is coming here in a couple of weeks. I felt like I was a youth again, trying to get into some rock show. It'll be an interesting lecture, to be sure, and maybe the College Republicans will protest, which would also be fun.

Moving On . . .

So I've watched a lot of movies over the last couple of weeks. Donnie Darko (I know it came out in 01, I'm a bit slow) is a brilliant film. I really, really liked it. I loved it. I want to watch it again. That is about the extent of my critical analysis.

Ingmar Bergman is rapidly becoming one of my favorite directors. Over the last few weeks I've watched Through a Glass Darkly, Wild Strawberries, and Cries and Whispers. His ouevre is remarkably vast, but also consistent. Thematically, its pretty much the big three: life, love, and death. These topics rarely bore me, and it is great to see someone just flat out deliver the way he does. Technically, he is fairly diverse -- TaGD was almost a realist piece, with characters moving in and out of the relatively still camera, while WS and CW are more formalist, with dream sequences and, in CW, bold colors. Apparantly The Seventh Seal, one of his most popular, is like this as well. Anyway, a hearty recommendation to my fellow cinephiles out there.

In other news: I am playing on an intervarsity softball team, comprised of English grad students. It's an excuse to exercise -- if you call standing in right field exercise. We are called "The Benjy Section," a named derived from the earlier team name of several years back "The Bad Mother Faulkners." I expect us to lose by large margins.