7jul22

Since its inauguration in 2013, Studio for Propositional Cinema had produced work that might be described as paracinematic or paraphotographic—engaging with the material constraints and possibilities of both mediums without necessarily taking a photograph or making a film. For this reason, the collective’s current solo exhibition at Museum Abteiberg, “The Camera of Disaster,” presents an immediate surprise to the viewer: a series of sensuous, large-format black-and-white photographs following three characters through post-apocalyptic land- and cityscapes. 

Well, my friends and I used to like to argue about Thomas Pynchon. Some loved him, some hated him. Literary discussions over coffee or drinks late at night. I thought, what if Annie Savoy loves Pynchon and Crash Davis hates Pynchon, and they get into arguments about him? Then we see them each re-reading Pynchon, and by the end we see them switch views on his work, because they’re falling in love. I cut that out of the script. It was too much, we didn’t need it. But the Pynchon reference was in the speech until the day we were shooting it.

Then, we got a notification from a lawyer representing Pynchon threatening us, saying we were defaming him. I was shocked, because (a) how did the lawyer find the script? (b) we weren’t defaming him, it was going to turn into an argument with the characters switching sides; and (c) I thought Pynchon had a sense of humor, because he always had Professor Irwin Corey accept his awards, which I felt was really cool.

New Sarah Davachi album coming:

Venice is cursed. I walked cursed Venice in a cloud of confusion. Why did so many people bring so many roller suitcases? Did they not know they were coming to Venice? Did they not know Venice has a stone-stepped bridge every fifty yards? Sweat soaked beneath the savage sun, they heaved their suitcases — all of which were big enough to hide a dismembered body or two — up and down and huffed and seemed distraught at the amount of heaving required to make headway.