Monday, June 30, 2014

ON TELEVISION – Review of Louie, Season 4 by Emily Nussbaum


“For me, the best “Louie”s have always been the most destabilizing, and one of my favorites is “Telling Jokes/Set-up,” in which Louie himself was raped, in a car, by Laurie (Melissa Leo). It raised the question: Why is this funny rather than horrifying? One answer is the sheer absurdity of it: while a woman might rape a man, she couldn’t do so in the way Laurie does, by scrambling up his head like a spider, then planting her vagina in his face. It was a vulnerable move, played as an attack. In contrast, the Louie-Pamela assault felt provocative specifically because it seemed so real, without the scaffolding of jokes and dreams. The show often plays with such deniability: Was the scene in which Louie rescues his pleading ex from a hurricane a fantasy? Or a “true” story? The Amia affair might feel like lost love until you sought out the translations of her dialogue online, in which she seems more put-upon: when Louie insists that she’s upset because she’s Catholic and feels guilty about sex, she shouts, “I want to be alone and I’m not even Catholic!” Scenes like this were a test of audience trust; if they created misunderstanding, so be it. But there’s a different kind of success, which comes of creating something so unsettling that it’s worth debating, defending, and changing your mind about. While this wasn’t my favorite season of “Louie,” it did embody my favorite quality of the show: its comfort with leaving the door open, the work unfinished.”

 The New Yorker, 7 July 2014

Thursday, June 19, 2014

"Secret Journey"

Upon a secret journey
 I met a holy man
 His blindness was his wisdom
 I'm such a lonely man

And as the world was turning
 It rolled itself in pain
 This does not seem to touch you
 He pointed to the rain

You will see light in the darkness
 You will make some sense of this
 And when you've made your secret journey
 You will find the love you miss

And on the days that followed
 I listened to his words
 I strained to understand him
 I chased his thoughts like birds

You will see light in the darkness
 You will make some sense of this
 And when you've made your secret journey
 You will find the love you miss

You will see light in the darkness
 You will make some sense of this
 You will see joy in this sadness
 You will find this love you miss

And when you've made your secret journey
 You will be a holy man
 [repeat to fade]
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wybYRYOWS0