SOAP&SKIN

PHOTO VIA MYSPACE
Listen to Austrian band SOAP&SKIN. Visiting its website is like being at an uncomfortable gallery. But the music is worth a listen.

Hey, this reminds me of…

Sometimes I listen to The Hype Machine. Sometimes, like now, I will listen to the "latest" songs, some of which are unbearable, and I will hit "next" at the bottom right of the screen. In any case, here's a song called Perfect Fit, by a band called Clue, that reminds me a little bit of Islands.

I have been loving the April showers in Houston but am sad to say that, according to my Mac OS X Dashboard weather Widget, we’re to expect sun all next week. On days like today—73 degrees, fair—I find myself saying, “It’s beautiful out,” or “I love this weather,” when actually I prefer dark clouds and an impending storm. Does that depress you?…In an attempt at learning How to Enjoy Sunday, I installed myself at Antidote Coffee (729 Studewood) for several hours, where I enjoyed a double soy latté a piece of moist zucchini bread, the company of my friend F, and the surprising convenience of a power outlet under my seat. How often does that happen at a coffee shop, on a weekend? Also, the folks at Antidote will let you use their scissors if you ask.

After finishing The Wire I did not return that hallowed Netflix disc for quite some time. (Speaking of Netflix, you can watch the premiere episode of The Tudors: Season 3 instantly through April 20—tomorrow!) Some might say I was in mourning. Since realizing there might be life after The Wire, I have watched the following movies, in order: Friends with Money (2006), Shopgirl (2005), The Machinist (2004), and Badlands (1973). Coincidentally, the first three are set in LA, although The Machinist was shot in Barcelona. The first one I loved and will not write about. The second one, well, don’t go off of your antidepressants, kids! You will go through a Blue Period! And I warn, Claire Danes cries, which is one of my least favorite things to watch. It is brief, though.

The Machinist was probably the best in that I’ll probably add it to my small yet selective DVD collection. Or at least add it to my Amazon Wish List (ahem). For those who haven’t seen it, the film is about a machinist—you know, an industrial worker—who hasn’t slept in a year (I know, how is that possible?), which is really painful to watch. I really tried to imagine how the main character Trevor Reznik, played by Christian Bale, was feeling. So I tried to remember, in college, how it felt to operate my car after working in [architecture] studio for however many hours—shit-ty. That’s as much empathy as I could conjure. In any case, The Machinist confirms that Christian Bale is crazy and one of the best actors of our time. (The supporting roles of Jones and Jackson are played by actors in The Wire!)

As for Badlands, my friend L in Austin is working on Terrence Malick’s latest film Tree of Life (starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, wow!) and I figured I’d study up on “Terry’s” (that’s what L calls him) earlier films before watching Tree of Life when it comes out in 2010, according to IMDb. I haven’t finished watching Badlands but I’ll let you know if I have any other thoughts than, “What the f--- is wrong with you, Holly??”…In other news, Gossip Girl is rocking my world. Is it rocking yours?

Weather, Models, Gossip, and Karma

It's been warm in Houston, and as a fan of cold weather, I'm looking forward to the cooler temperatures we're expecting over the course of the next few days. But my new colleague and I feel this will be the last of it, which is too bad…Am looking forward to the second episode of America's Next Top Model tonight (MAKEOVERS). They are looking for girls 5'-7" and under for the next cycle, and I seriously considered applying because, you know, there industry really needs a 5'-6" 140-lb twenty-five-year-old model on the runway (ha ha ha!), but I realized I already have a job…Gossip Girl finally returns with "The Age of Dissonance" on Monday, March 16 (Daily Intel's reality index!) As for the actual episode, according to Wikipedia:

The Constance Billard and St. Jude seniors put on a production of "The Age of Innocence" and find their personal lives mirroring conflicts in the play. Serena develops a crush on the play’s director, Julian, and enlists Vanessa’s knowledge of theater to help her get the otherwise uninterested guy’s attention. Blair receives devastating news about her future that leads her on a witch-hunt for the person responsible. Dan and Rachel agree to stay away from each other in the aftermath of being discovered as more than teacher and student, but find it impossible to keep that promise. Chuck enlists help from an unlikely source to win over Blair, his nemesis Carter Baizen.

I lost my "Gossip Girlfriend" to Atlanta so I'm accepting applications for that position…Also, a word on exercising at the gym. Don't make fun of the squat Asian guy on the elliptical next to you, because somehow your earphones will fall out of your ears and to the ground, taking the iPod and you with it.

Please Keep Reading

PHOTO VIA NYTIMES

Never have I craved a book as much as Lush Life. And by that I mean, after a day at work, I actually want to read a book rather than sit in front of an episode of The Tudors like some historical fiction-obsessed zombie. I made the mistake of not buying it after last night's reading, and, tonight, my neighorhood half-price bookstore did not have a copy, or anything by Richard Price, if I looked in the right places. Having stopped in on my way home from the gym, I decided I was too grossly sweat-stained to look for it at Borders. I imagine the local bookstore gods are pleased, as I will probably go to Brazos tomorrow to satisfy this most unexpected craving.

Last night Richard Price read to a large crowd at the Alley Theatre in downtown Houston. Having read—with difficulty—in the Fall 2007 issue of The Paris Review (N0. 182) the Lush Life excerpt "Night Fishing on Delancey," I anticipated the reading mostly out of love for The Wire, for which he wrote screenplays during his hiatus from novel writing.

How can I describe the reading to you? Richard Price has curly hair and is wearing jeans and brown shoes. He steps onto the beautiful stage, the stage set for "The Man Who Came to Dinner," stands behind the podium, wood. Lots of dark wood, Oriental rugs, appropriately, or oxymoronically scholarly. He gets right to it—tells us what we need to know to be able to, you know, get into what he's going to read—three escalating interviews conducted by a couple of detectives trying to solve a murder that takes place on the Lower East Side of Manhattan—Matty (Irish) and Yolanda (Puerto Rican). I imagine The Wire's McNulty and Greggs the whole time, of course. So does my good friend who sits to my right.

Richard Price does voices, sort of. Listening to Richard Price read—granted, his own dialogue—was a little bit like riding on the back of an old boyfriend's blue bicycle (you know, standing up, fingers and toes holding on tight) through the dark streets of Kensington, Brooklyn, late at night. You're sure you're gonna lose hold, fall off, but you don't. With Price, you're sure you're gonna get lost in the dialogue any second, but somehow you're able to hang on, and part of you wants him to go on for a little while longer than you know he's gonna go. When it's over, part of you thinks, He practically read the entire book. But you know he didn't. And now you want to read what he didn't read and what he did read—all of it. Originally you thought you'd like it because it's set in your old neighborhood (of a year), because Berkman's is totally Schiller's. But those details are nothing next to this reading that might be the best one so far in your twenty-five years. It surprises you. (You did love the Congee Village nod, where you, too, have had something comparable to a mojito. You also loved the part about real versus fake absinthe, because you've had that conversation enough times that it's become one of those annoying things that people talk about and can everyone please just shut up. And the part about a summer program—weren't you there, too? RISD Pre-College Summer 2001?) P.S. Richard Price hates people your age (and "hipsters"), or anyone younger than him, for that matter.

Afterward, when Richard Price is asked about the difficulty of writing dialogue (not difficult at all, Price says), he refers to the dialogue he writes as a "heightened reality," which, yeah, it is. It's what I live for.

Recession for Men

A Day Spent

After a few days' hiatus because of, I don't know, other plans (and car troubles), I go back to my fancy ass gym, where I continue to feel uncomfortable until I am too exhausted to feel anything. Although for the most part I try to avert my eyes, I think that every man I "notice" is gay. The fact that they are often with another man taking turns on one machine might cause one to think so. Not that I want to meet my future husband at the gym . . . This morning, in line at Brasil, I overhear two women talking about wild salmon, which apparently is good for your skin and twice as expensive as farmed salmon. The scones at Brasil are pretty good, by the way . . . I've been working on my impersonations of The Wire characters, which include Bubbles, Kima Greggs, Lieutenant Daniels, Marlo Stanfield, Namond's moms, Snoop, Tommy Carcetti, and the crooked politician, whose name I can't remember . . . Am still getting to know my Blackberry Storm, which also means blocking my peripheral vision in the presence of iPhones.