retrogradeboy@gmail.com
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Phage
Lovely picture. (credit: Sebastian M. Markert – @sci_bastian)
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Yoon Jung Hee (윤정희), the actress, has died. She was in Lee Chang-dong’s “Poetry” (시), an unrelenting movie that tears your heart to pieces.
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Complete clusterf**k at US Soccer. God save us from soccer moms and dads. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4ouVmmwONc
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Leigh at the BBC
Watching Mike Leigh’s BBC movies (God bless Criterion). So far, I’ve watched four – Hard Labour, Nuts in May, Abigail’s Party and Kiss of Death. All very good. Leigh’s humor is front and center here, and one is reminded how funny his films are. He’s not just a “purveyor of miserablism.” I still have four more to see (Who’s Who, Grown-Ups, Home Sweet Home and Four Days in July).
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Writers’ Rooms
Susan Sontag: Noam Chomsky:
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Annus Horribilis
Human intercourse ended Late twenty-nineteen With me (on Zoom) sipping ovaltine – Masked, gloved, all plans amended And fourteen days in quarantine. Up to then there’d only been An awkward sort of hug, A caress met with a shrug, Faire la bise? (she wasn’t keen) Not on this ugly mug. Then all at once, that virus bit: The whole world turned to stone, She found herself alone Coughing, gagging, sweat and spit, Then, chilled nastily to the bone. So life was never better than Early twenty-nineteen Together, in-person, somewhat keen Before conversation was completely banned And I
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The Tiger is Comin’ Down (범 내려온다)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmTRaSg2fTQ
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A bit more of this, a bit more of that
A little bit of art… Alan Moore is done with comic books. There were an awful lot of headlines saying ‘Comics Have Grown Up’. I tend to think that, no, comics hadn’t grown up. There were a few titles that were more adult than people were used to. But the majority of comics titles were pretty much the same as they’d ever been. It wasn’t comics growing up. I think it was more comics meeting the emotional age of the audience coming the other way.
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notes for a possible piece about 심은하
From namu.wiki 8월의 크리스마스 (Christmas in August) (1998) 미술관 옆 동물원 (Art Museum by the Zoo) (1998) A very nice review (in English) by Anthony Leong. 청춘의 덫 (Trap of Youth) (1999) 텔 미 섬딩 (Tell Me Something) (1999) 인터뷰 (Interview) (2000) 심은하 married 지상욱, a conservative politician. 지상욱 lost his seat in 2020 in a closely-fought election, losing to 박성준 by 5,771 votes. 심은하 campaigning for her husband. Question: how much of an effect did 지상욱’s marriage to 심은하 have on his standing as a politician? Conventional wisdom seems to think that it was considerable.