Good Night, Odd Dreams

Reel Women

Still from "The Ocean Waif"

While in Michigan, I happened to stop in some excellent used bookstores, such as John K. King in Detroit and Dawn Treader in Ann Arbor. However, The Curious Book Shop in East Lansing had the most film-related items, including old movie posters, playbills, and fan magazines like "Photoplay." It was there that I bought a cheap copy of a 1991 book by Ally Acker called REEL WOMEN: Pioneers of the Cinema.

Like most books I own, I've read a third of it and I'll probably stop there, due to my fleeting, hummingbird-size attention span. But what I've read so far has been illuminating! In film school, I took a typical Film History 101 class, (specifically, this one with Hubert I. Cohen) where we learned about the Great Men of Film, like Eiseinstein and Bergman and Godard and Hitchcock. I don't remember learning about Alice Guy Blaché in that class, or in any formal academic setting, and yet, according to this book, she was an instrumental and influential part of film history. As late as 1968, her contributions were being erased and revised. An excerpt from REEL WOMEN:

In The Dictionary of Filmmakers, published in 1968 by Georges Sedoul, the first director in history, Alice Guy Blaché, is listed in this way:

Guy Blaché, Alice... Originally Leon Gaumont's secretary when he was still only making film equipment. She began making short films intended for use as demonstrations for clients. She made her first film, LA FEE AUX CHOUX [1896] some months before Méliès, thus becoming the first woman director in the world.

The entry under "Méliès" in the same book describes him as the first director of "story films." Not the first man director, but the first director. Although Blaché's film was not specifically made as an entertainment vehicle, it was certainly a fictional story film. (LA FEE AUX CHOUX [The Cabbage Fairy], concerned a fairy who "made" children in a cabbage patch). Yet Sedoul chose to invent a subcategory "woman director" for Blaché  presumably in order to reserve the title "first director" for a man. 

From minimal internet searching, it's clear that film buffs and academics alike are now very aware of her work. But if you're like me, and formerly unfamiliar with this remarkable person, here is a lovely, brief introduction to Blaché's life, with University of Nebraska-Lincoln Film Studies professor Wheeler Winston Dixon.

Vanity (Fair)

For a successful pin-up photo shoot, you need: a black backdrop, a camera, an assortment of retro outfits,  a few shots of Jim Beam. Optional, but very fun: free internet photo editing tools.

Alternate Universe Movie Posters

Through a long and unhealthy chain of Internet events, I arrived at a website run by an artist who creates, in his words, "alternate universe movie posters." Maybe it's the post-midnight surfing, but I think they're great, freaky, weird, hilarious. Below are some of my favorites:

Note to Self:

Learning To Love You More

I've always felt torn about Miranda July. On the one hand, when I was in college, I saw Me and You and Everyone We Know and didn't like it. It felt too irony-laden and hipster-ish and generally unreal. Then I saw her short film, Are You The Favorite Person Of Anybody? which was creative and funny and a little sad. Then I read her book of short stories, No One Belongs Here More Than You. Half of the stories fell flat in that clever, post-modern way that I have trouble relating to. Yet, half of them were really moving and wonderful.

Then I forgot about her for a while, until I recently browsed through Learning to Love You More, a book of assignments she and another artist gave to the general public, via this website. The results are posted on the website, and subsequently, were put into a book.

The assignments are so, so, so great:

1. Recreate a poster you had as a teenager

2. Photograph a scar and write about it.

3. Take a picture of your parents kissing

4. Write the phone call you wish you could have.

5. Make the saddest song.

Tonight I decided to complete Assignment #32: "Draw a scene from a movie that you made you cry."

I drew a scene from an admittedly cheesy movie, Riding in Cars with Boys. Whenever it's on television, I end up watching the whole thing. The last scene of the movie, where Drew Barrymore's father picks her up and they drive home, listening to the Everly Brothers, always makes me cry.

Things I Did In Schenectady

1. Visited my friend Liu Xin a.k.a Lucy Liu

On Sunday I drove upstate to see Lucy, my friend from Dalian, who is currently on a Fulbright teaching fellowship at Union College. The drive was beautiful and traffic-free, seeing as it was 8:15 on a Sunday. It's easy to become NYC-centric, but whenever I explore the rest of New York, I'm struck by how beautiful and awesome it is. And it was great to see Lucy, who was so instrumental in my having a wonderful year in China.

2. Ate in the cafeteria

Before we did anything, we ate brunch at one of the campus cafeterias. All the college kids were decked out in Union gear, lining up for food, and shouting about how drunk they were last night. "I totally blacked out." "Oh my God, you were soooo wasted." I was unimpressed. There's nothing more boring to me than hearing how drunk someone was the night before, unless they did something interesting while drunk, like get into a fight or steal a boat. That said, the food was pretty good.

3. Checked out the campus

Union is small, pretty, and quiet, especially on a Sunday.

4. Saw some great art

After walking around and doing some cartwheels, we checked out the Nott Memorial, a beautiful and bizarre dome in the middle of campus. The building housed an art exhibit called Critical Stitch, which "engages and critiques a gamut of social, cultural, and political issues using needlecraft." I loved it. This one is called PMS Quilt:

Thank You X7

Christopher Dodd

5. Explored the Stockade Historic District

Schenectady is like many cities and towns in upstate New York, in that you can drive around and see what it must have been like when it was in full swing, maybe eighty years ago, but is now in a period of stagnation and decline. While I certainly don't want to romanticize joblessness and poverty, there is always something eerie and magical about empty, ghost-town Main Streets that appear to be stuck in time. (Too late! Romanticized!)

That being said, Schenectady has a well-preserved and interesting historic district, which was fun to explore.

6. Played school

7. Went ice-skating

I'm a terrible ice skater, but I forgot how much I love it. It's hard to find cheap places to skate in New York, but there are a few in Flushing and Long Island City, if anyone wants to go with me this winter.

8. Shopped at the Asian Market

Mark, Lucy's friend, drove us to an Asian grocery store in Albany, which had a variety of great offerings, from Tsingtao beer to Pocky sticks to cabbage to frozen dumplings.

9. Made hot pot

We picked up some hot pot ingredients, which we took back to Mark's apartment in Amsterdam. It brought me back to China, which felt great, since we often went out to hot pot for special occasions throughout the year. My plan is to try to do it at home one night, but no guarantees that I'll actually get my act together enough to go through with it.

10. Drove home

By the time we had eaten our hearts out, it was close to 9 pm. I chugged a Diet Coke (I'm pretty hardcore) and began my 3-hour journey home, which was powered by Fever to Tell by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and a jumbled mix CD I made. It had some good songs on it, but I found myself blasting "Total Eclipse of the Heart" on repeat whenever I started to fade. All in all, a wonderful trip. 谢谢纽约, 谢谢 刘鑫, 谢谢80's的音乐!

Ben Shahn

Tiny Furniture

Cartoon Modern

The great part of my new-ish job is that I am learning, learning, learning all the time. It's like school minus the homework, plus a paycheck. Recently, I've been researching jobs in animation and visual effects, in an effort to determine what is still relevant and what is obsolete due to new technology. I've found some really interesting sites, my favorite being an old blog run by Amid Amidi, whose specialty is style and design in 1950's animation.

In one entry, he posted some color keys, which are hand-painted sketches created to establish the color and style of the animation elements. While I think the color keys from 101 Dalmations are beautiful, my favorite part of the post might be the comments, because it reveals a subculture I knew nothing about: those who love color keys and artwork by animation color stylists.

Diane Arbus Graffiti

Spotted somewhere on the Lower East Side

Original photo

I kind of really like it.