Summer Hours

I’m feeling rather unsophisticated at the moment, having read A.O. Scott’s review of Summer Hours upon returning from the theatre feeling only lukewarm about the film. This happens sometimes; I watch a film, feel unsure about it, then read a review by a respected source and realize it was better than I thought it was. I suppose that happens when you learn about a piece of art in art history class. Upon first glance it’s just whatever you see. Then your professor talks about it while gesturing at it on a screen in an almost dark room, and perhaps you even feel moved to join in on the discussion. And then you see it—the actual piece—in person one summer and you feel close to it, because you read about it, studied it, and feel like you know it. So rather than sum the film up in two words: Antiques Roadshow, you have more to say about it than you thought you would while you were cringing over the characters saying words like “Colorado” and “pretzel” en anglais.

Lala - Where Elvis Perkins plays

At work, because my computer has the best speakers, I am in charge of playing music. Which is hard, when one employee (your boss) likes Bob Mould, newer Bright Eyes, Journey…and another employee likes Lady Gaga ("P-p-p"), Lily Allen ("Fuck You"), and the Darjeeling Limited soundtrack, over and over again. When our iTunes libraries got stale, we tried playing a mix of stations on Pandora. Currently, I am on Lala, which I really like. From what I understand, you can listen to everything once, then, the tracks play as 30-second samples. You can download them as mp3s for cheap, or buy them to listen to exclusively on Lala for cheaper, which uses a player not unlike your iTunes setup. So I immediately "added" (bought to listen on Lala) the newest Elvis Perkins album, Elvis Perkins in Dearland, because I just can't get enough of it. In fact, that's where I'm headed very soon, to Walter's to see him live. We share the same birthday, by the way.

Will clarify what "cheap" and "cheaper" means and all that—later.

Indie Book Festival This Sunday

PHOTO VIA DOMY
This Sunday, I plan to visit Domy—a 0.1-mile walk from my apartment—for the Houston Indie Book Festival after I accompany my mother to church for Mother's Day. If I didn't go, my father would have to pin a flower on her. Which would break my heart. And would also be a bit like Parent Day without a parent. It's also possible that, in light of the recession, the church has cut their carnation budget. Will let you know!

According to the Gulf Coast Web site, the book fest will include R2, which my college writingmates and I helped found, with the author of the highly-anticipated vampire trilogy, Justin Cronin.