Ordinary Human Language

2016

by Brian Crane

December 2016

Cloud Atlas

I don’t know what I would have thought about this movie if I had seen it when it came out....

Full Post • Posted December 27, 2016


The Beautiful Room Is Empty

This is the second in Edmund White’s series of quasi-autobiographical novels and like the first, it follows a precocious and...

Full Post • Posted December 27, 2016


I’m Tired of 2016

George Michael has died. He is the first man I ever saw wearing earrings, which mattered to me enormously as...

Full Post • Posted December 24, 2016


New Theme

I've used Suffusion as the theme for this blog fromthe beginning. It was always a bit overkill—you can tweak anything...

Full Post • Posted December 21, 2016


Star Trek: Beyond

To the extent this movie is a TV episode blown up to two hours and with better effects, it’s a...

Full Post • Posted December 20, 2016


The Expanse, Season One

This adaptation of the first half of Leviathan Wakes is an odd combination of imagination and shyness. It leaps forward,...

Full Post • Posted December 19, 2016


True Blood, Seasons 6 & 7

I have a complicated history with this show. I over-invest in the best parts, and gripe about the rest. The...

Full Post • Posted December 19, 2016


Teen Wolf, Seasons 1

I’m not a fan of teen or young adult fiction. I’ve got nothing against it, but it has never been...

Full Post • Posted December 17, 2016


Physicality in a Virtual World

Earlier this Fall, I hurt my shoulder and elbow. Right shoulder, right elbow, and yes, I'm right handed. In the...

Full Post • Posted December 11, 2016


Proust on Reading Change

The heart changes, and it is our worst sorrow; but we know it only through reading, through our imagination: in...

Full Post • Posted December 5, 2016


November 2016

Leviathan Wakes

The Sci-fi Channel’s adaptation of The Expanse put these books on my radar. The show seemed like it might be...

Full Post • Posted November 23, 2016


Down There on a Visit

I bought an old hard cover edition of this book online and it showed up riddled by bookworms (all dead...

Full Post • Posted November 22, 2016


Autocorrecting Life

Mac OSX autocorrect is invisibly great when it's switching "teh" to "the." It's infuriating when you are fighting it over...

Full Post • Posted November 21, 2016


Mourning

Things are silent here. It's the silence of grief. I'm not sure how to explain what I mean, but, here's...

Full Post • Posted November 17, 2016


I’m with Her

Clinton 2016 Pride ...

Full Post • Posted November 6, 2016


Unquiet on the Ranch

It's been quiet around here, but alot's been going on. My brother got married. Work is crazy. There's stuff with...

Full Post • Posted November 4, 2016


October 2016

Montaigne on the Aptness of Love

Si on me presse de dire pourquoi je l’aimais, je sens que cela ne se peut exprimer qu’en répondant :...

Full Post • Posted October 25, 2016


Life is People

There's been a lot of trouble around here this weekend. Thankfully though, things seem like they are going to be...

Full Post • Posted October 3, 2016


September 2016

Game of Thrones, Season 1

I’d seen this season a long time ago and was uncertain about whether to continue watching the show. But by...

Full Post • Posted September 26, 2016


Ready Player One

Reading this book was like sitting on the couch as a kid watching my brother play a level, waiting for...

Full Post • Posted September 25, 2016


The Dresden Files

I started Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files nearly two years ago, but as of spring I was still only through...

Full Post • Posted September 18, 2016


Twitter Break

Dear Timeline, First off, I just want to make it clear that this isn't about you. We've had some rough...

Full Post • Posted September 17, 2016


Goethe on passions

A man is a man, and the modicum of reason he might have counts for little or nothing when passion...

Full Post • Posted September 11, 2016


Baldwin on What’s Inside You

Folks can change their ways much as they want to. But I don’t care how many times you change your...

Full Post • Posted September 10, 2016


September Morning

Limed Fields Beneath Dark Clouds

The woods on Mont St. Hillaire have darkened and dulled to the hard green of late summer. They are ready...

Full Post • Posted September 8, 2016


Goethe on Annoying Others

Now there is nothing that irritates me more than when people torment one another, especially when young people in the...

Full Post • Posted September 8, 2016


The Power and the Pathos

Over Christmas this past year, the Beav and I passed through DC and stopped to see a temporary exhibit of...

Full Post • Posted September 8, 2016


Todd Haynes and the Woman’s Film

Over the past few months I’ve been watching Carol. Sometimes for the story. Sometimes for the photography. Once without sound....

Full Post • Posted September 6, 2016


Baldwin on the White City

She looked out into the quiet, sunny streets, and for the first time in her life, she hated it all—the...

Full Post • Posted September 5, 2016


Balzac on students

Indeed, a student can’t have too much time on his hands, if he wants to understand every theater’s individual repertoire,...

Full Post • Posted September 4, 2016


Warcraft

My brother, my sister and I have played World of Warcraft for years. It’s fun, but it’s also a way...

Full Post • Posted September 4, 2016


London Spy

This is the gay spy thriller the BBC put out last year and that has finally come to Netflix in...

Full Post • Posted September 3, 2016


De Profundis

Nearly a year after reading it for the first time, this short book remains one that, when I’m sitting in...

Full Post • Posted September 3, 2016


Romeo et Juliette

The Thêatre du Nouveau Monde staged a translation of Romeo and Juliette this summer. Turns out the Beav had never...

Full Post • Posted September 2, 2016


August 2016

The Scorch Trails

Easily the most disappointing sequel I’ve seen in a long time. Which isn’t to say the first movie was great,...

Full Post • Posted August 21, 2016


Five Years

I first posted to this blog five years ago today. When it began, I was only just back from a...

Full Post • Posted August 21, 2016


Bright to Blue

From fiercely clear sun of Spain to the moody blue clouds of the Netherlands in a few hours. The difference...

Full Post • Posted August 11, 2016


Sunset (Granada, Spain)

The walking and the seeing done. Sitting. Listening to a moment....

Full Post • Posted August 9, 2016


An Allegorical Turtle (Cordoba, Spain)

In a reconstruction of a 12th century Moorish home, a couple of turtles wandered freely in a central courtyard. There...

Full Post • Posted August 8, 2016


White on Virtuoso Change

We were so dazed by the speed with which we were changing that we mistook this virtuosity for insincerity. —...

Full Post • Posted August 8, 2016


Swifts and the Evening Sky (Granada, Spain)

During our time in Spain, the swifts were always there, calling out from above in chorus. High up, the flocks...

Full Post • Posted August 7, 2016


Looking Back

The five year anniversary of this blog is coming up in a couple weeks. Seems like a good time to...

Full Post • Posted August 7, 2016


A Bird in a Fountain (Seville, Spain)

The afternoon heat in Andalusia crushes rather than burns. There's no air, not enough shade, and if you go out,...

Full Post • Posted August 6, 2016


July 2016

Clinton’s the Candidate

What a difference a week makes. I'm as proud now as I was embarrassed and confused last Friday....

Full Post • Posted July 30, 2016


H is for Hawk

It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book as unsettling as this one. Things start off in familiar...

Full Post • Posted July 24, 2016


Reading - Screening Lists

I'm back from Spain as of last night and have stuff I want to write about in the coming days...

Full Post • Posted July 18, 2016


Accounting for the Unspeakable

As I travelled these past few weeks and now again asI'm back home and am getting some work done on...

Full Post • Posted July 17, 2016


Away

I'm away on vacation for a few more weeks. More posts when I'm back. Until then, here's a portion of...

Full Post • Posted July 6, 2016


June 2016

A Watered Garden

The weeds in the garden have been growing, and after several days of hot sun, the tomatoes, cabbages and all...

Full Post • Posted June 18, 2016


Hayes on Dancing in a Gay Bar

I wanted to post “At Pegasus” by Terrance Hayes, another poem about dancing in gay bars, but I can’t make...

Full Post • Posted June 16, 2016


O'Hara on Dancing at a Gay Bar

AT THE OLD PLACE Joe is restless and so am I, so restless. Button’s buddy lips frame “L G T...

Full Post • Posted June 15, 2016


Remembering My Gay Bars

My first gay bar was the Palace Saloon in Fairbanks, Alaska. Like me, the Palace lived something of a double...

Full Post • Posted June 14, 2016


Happy Together

I love Wong Kar Wai’s Happy Together and have since first seeing it in the late 90s. I rewatched it...

Full Post • Posted June 12, 2016


How I Live Now

I don’t know the book but I’d heard good things about this movie. So I was surprised how thin I...

Full Post • Posted June 12, 2016


Ex Machina

A small sci-fi film (it’s scale reminded me of Moon) that I enjoyed. Two things surprised me as I watched....

Full Post • Posted June 6, 2016


May 2016

Self-less

Ryan Reynolds is like a Cinnabon. Both look good, and on a crazy day when you’re feeling “what the hell,”...

Full Post • Posted May 30, 2016


Daredevil, Season Two

The second season of Daredevil is chatty enough that by episode three, I was making mental comparisons to Interview with...

Full Post • Posted May 16, 2016


Mala Noche and Festival Films

When I was in film school (studies not production!), I was curious about “the festival film,” which to me manifested...

Full Post • Posted May 15, 2016


Another Meeting Doodle

It was a doozy....

Full Post • Posted May 13, 2016


Eluard on not seeing

J’ai fermé les yeux pour ne plus rien voir J’ai fermé les yeux pour pleurer De ne plus te voir....

Full Post • Posted May 13, 2016


Phoenix

It was a dreary day and the seriousness of life was getting to me and I just wanted to get...

Full Post • Posted May 11, 2016


Mistborn: The Hero of Ages

Months after finishing The Hero of Ages, I still catch myself lost in thought, imagining its characters and scenes or...

Full Post • Posted May 9, 2016


Lucretius on Cranes

Better the swan’s brief note than that loud call of the crane, wind driven through the clouds of heaven —...

Full Post • Posted May 8, 2016


April 2016

Geese and the River

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Full Post • Posted April 27, 2016


Lucretius on Fiery Words

Now words divide themselves in all directions, since one begets another; a lone word starts, then bursts apart into many,...

Full Post • Posted April 26, 2016


Family Fun in Ashran

After (could it have been?) nearly five months, the stars aligned, tech cooperated, and I signed into Azeroth to goof...

Full Post • Posted April 25, 2016


Challenges Exporting in Tinderbox

A thread on the Tinderbox backstage forum has touched on export and its difficulties. I’ve written here that export is...

Full Post • Posted April 13, 2016


Lilting

Andrew Leung and Ben Whishaw are in bed talking. Leung is on his back, and Whishaw is beside him, head...

Full Post • Posted April 10, 2016


Climbing Out from Under the Backlog

I went on a movie spree a month or so ago, watching or rewatching pretty much anything that struck my...

Full Post • Posted April 9, 2016


Spring. Posting. Geese.

It's spring. The snow is melting away. The sky is clear. The air is warmer. Posting is slow, but last...

Full Post • Posted April 7, 2016


March 2024 2016

Geese in Spring

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Full Post • Posted March 24, 2016


White on Rhetorical Bananas

I felt we were on the level of rhetoric where anything at all could be said. Perhaps the inmost you...

Full Post • Posted March 20, 2016


The Congress

The Congress offers an honest portrait of the weirdness of modern life. It is metafictional, hyper-referential and combines both photographic...

Full Post • Posted March 2, 2016


February 2016

Jessica Jones

This show is a superhero version of Sleeping with the Enemy. It’s gut-wrenching, relentless and left me anxious enough that...

Full Post • Posted February 23, 2016


Amy

I came to this movie knowing nothing about Amy Winehouse or her music. So it introduced me to a new...

Full Post • Posted February 22, 2016


The Doom Generation

Gregg Araki’s early films — The Living End, Totally Fucked Up — were rough affairs, shot, cut and released on...

Full Post • Posted February 21, 2016


San Andreas

Two things occurred to me as I was watching this movie. First, disaster movies give me the same pleasure that...

Full Post • Posted February 20, 2016


Wilde on Love Again

…to love all things are easy. — Oscar Wilde, De Profundis...

Full Post • Posted February 18, 2016


Sense8

Sense8 is a difficult series to get started. The focus shifts constantly between characters and locations without any shared story...

Full Post • Posted February 16, 2016


Sun Falling on Snow

^include(/Blog Videos/2016-vids/TimelapseSunrise.mp4)^...

Full Post • Posted February 15, 2016


Spectre

Watching this movie and remembering what has attracted my attention in the others I’ve seen, I think it’s clear I’m...

Full Post • Posted February 14, 2016


Billy Budd

I have a personal interest in Melville that is not academic or systematic. In my early years at university, as...

Full Post • Posted February 14, 2016


Arrow Season One

My brother finally decided to watch this show and once he got going, tore through all three seasons one after...

Full Post • Posted February 13, 2016


Maurice

Maurice was written only twenty-five years after the publication of The Picture of Dorian Gray and Billy Budd, yet its...

Full Post • Posted February 11, 2016


The Picture of Dorian Gray

This book has been a slog. Short as it is, I never thought I’d get through it. Is the central...

Full Post • Posted February 11, 2016


Boys

A quiet dutch coming-of-age/coming out tale in which two young runners are attracted to each other, kiss, and then have...

Full Post • Posted February 10, 2016


Numbers, with a return to Shame

I ordered City of Night and this book was delivered instead. In it, a young man comes back to LA...

Full Post • Posted February 10, 2016


New Hampshire from Montreal

A few weeks ago, Stephane Dion, Canada's new Foreign Affairs Minister, met with hisAmerican and Mexican counterparts in Quebec City....

Full Post • Posted February 7, 2016


Exporting Comment Sheets

This is my final post about my grading rubric, and I’m going to use it to explain how I set...

Full Post • Posted February 2, 2016


Wilde on Love and Hate

Love is fed by the imagination, by which we become wiser than we know, better than we feel, nobler than...

Full Post • Posted February 1, 2016


January 2016

Rubric: Calculating Grades

Grades are calculated automatically in my grading rubric using attribute values assigned or calculated at each of the three levels...

Full Post • Posted January 27, 2016


bump!

For reasons I'll leave obscure, this entry in my commonplace book is on my mind this evening. Our culture tends...

Full Post • Posted January 25, 2016


Rambling about Reading

Late last year, I was flipping through some passages in some of Edmund White's books (A Boy’s Own Story, Hotel...

Full Post • Posted January 23, 2016


Our Lady of the Flowers

Something of the poetry of this book is suggested by the scene of Divine’s death in its final pages. In...

Full Post • Posted January 22, 2016


Rubric: Prototypes & Agents

In this second post I’m going to go through the prototypes and agents I used to make my grading rubric....

Full Post • Posted January 20, 2016


Genet on Poetry

Poetry is a vision of the world obtained by an effort, sometimes exhausting, of the taut, buttressed will. Poetry is...

Full Post • Posted January 18, 2016


Grading with Tinderbox

Last semester, I spent a few weeks creating an analytic grading rubric using Tinderbox. I don’t generally use rubrics, but...

Full Post • Posted January 17, 2016


Love and Mercy

This movie was a real downer. It didn’t help that (as I discovered watching) I don’t know the Beach Boys’...

Full Post • Posted January 16, 2016


What Happened, Miss Simone?

I discovered Nina Simone in “Where Lies the Homo?,” an autobiographical, found-footage film by Jean-François Monet that moved me deeply...

Full Post • Posted January 15, 2016


Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

This movie mustered real surprises. It also felt like a spy story rather than an action film. So I enjoyed...

Full Post • Posted January 14, 2016


Frozen

For a short while ten years maybe fifteen years ago, I watched most of the animated films that were released...

Full Post • Posted January 13, 2016


Selma

I loved that this movie showed that politics requires calculation and that it also showed both the cruelty and the...

Full Post • Posted January 13, 2016


Métamorphoses. Dans le secret de l’atelier de Rodin.

I first saw Rodin’s sculptures as a student when I travelled to Paris for the first time. Country mouse that...

Full Post • Posted January 12, 2016


Internal Enemy, The: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832

A history of the transformation of white American discourse on race. In the years following the revolution public figures struggled...

Full Post • Posted January 12, 2016


Yourcenar on Leisure

I sought at first the simple liberty of leisure moments; each life well regulated has some such intervals and he...

Full Post • Posted January 6, 2016


"Oops!" with Agents

Tinderbox agents have queries. They also have actions. The first culls notes from a project, gathering up those that you...

Full Post • Posted December 31, 2015


Emerson on the Breviety of Genius

So much of our time is preparation, so much is routine, and so much retrospect, that the pith of each...

Full Post • Posted December 31, 2015