Sunset Blvd #1 and #2

(Los Angeles, CA, Sept. 16, 2007)

Judy took the second one.

Mooncakes #1

(Alhambra, CA, Sept 15, 2007)

The first time I saw Haskell Wexler's Medium Cool was on a film print earlier this year at the PFA. A great song called "Merry-Go-Round" was used during the roller derby sequence. Today I watched the film on laserdisc and was anticipating the roller derby sequence, but the Harlem Globetrotter's theme song was used instead of "Merry-Go-Round." I was stunned and confused. I thought, maybe, I was remembering wrong until I discovered this on imdb:

When the film was released on video, Paramount was sued by the copyright holders of the song "Merry-Go-Round". Under their 1969 agreement, Paramount had rights to the song for showing the film in theatres and on television. Paramount argued that video release was the same as television broadcast. The courts ruled that the copyright holder in 1969 could not have considered videocassettes to be like television broadcast, as home videocassettes were not invented.

In an age of director's cuts on DVD, this is a film where the director's version is only available on film. Since the film print of this picture is so rarely screened, audiences will only be familiar with the alternate version on home video. Technology and copyright laws are brutally unsentimental.

The shoot with Rob at Black Point was great. We were filming, from what I understood, the final sequence to Used. The scene was a flashback about a cowboy in his youth who used to ride out on his horse to open and lock gates on a ranch. The crew consisted of Rob, Chikara, and myself. For the first time, I think I worked very well with them. We started at 6am and wrapped at 10am. What we shot will screen at the Mill Valley Film Festival early next month with other films of Rob's.

Ask the Dust is finished. Amazing. Each chapter blooms into it's own perfectly written vignette.

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I thought it was time.

I have this place in Berkeley, sadly, to myself now; and it feels like I have a lot of time to fill. I was planning on making my own blog after I learned html, but I'm really lagging on it, meanwhile time keeps passing by. I'm using it to keep Judy updated on things I don't mention on our brief phone calls, and for myself as well. If it sounds like I'm talking to anyone, it is her because it's she who I have most in mind.

I'm almost finished with Ask the Dust. It is easily one of my most favorite novels. I've been having a hard time with fiction lately, actually for the past four five years. It's hard for me to think about another novel I've finished in the past six years. Everything I pick up feels dead, no energy. Plus there's me, I read slow and fall asleep involuntarily. Deathly combination for literature. I've been consuming non-fiction in large volumes: textbooks, user manuals, apple pro training books, Peter Biskind's work, others, but no fiction. I feel like I've been avoiding literature for a long time, maybe I've forgone novels for so long by selecting film as my medium of choice. Dumb, huh? Instead of spending two hours watching a film, I'm going to try to commit that time to reading. I'll be accepting suggestions for reading, but only from those who actually let me borrow the book. Don't half ass me.

I decided to skip the George Kuchar screening at the PFA tonight, to instead do other things, like this. I wish I had gone but I attended two of his screenings in Telluride. They were great and he's amazing to see in person. I prefer his earlier work, the stuff he did when he was young in New York. The material he approached as a youth somehow, for me, doesn't work as well now. I guess that's the case for most aging artists, youth was a time when they captured something truly unique. But he's great, one of a kind filmmaker. Edith Kramer was kind enough to introduce me in Colorado. I would have liked to see her as well.

I have a little thing I wrote about my visit to Telluride. I'll eventually post it, maybe sometime when I don't have anything to contribute.

It's late and I have a 5:45am call in Black Point tomorrow morning.