What Did I Watch
Days of Heaven (1978) A Terence Malick masterpiece set in depression-era Texas is straight out of Andrew Wyeth’s painting Christina’s World (1948). Terence Malick is one of my favorite directors, and this was his second feature, and he wouldn’t make another film until Thin Red Line (1998). I watched it again because some of the landscape reminds me of where I live now, with the rolling wheat fields and huge skies and emptiness that can haunt a person or bring serenity. Richard Gere and Brooke Adams play migrant husband and wife workers who work a wheat field but pretend to be brother and sister. The owner of the land, played by Sam Shepard, falls in love with the woman and the two decide to take advantage. Beautifully shot and mesmerizing.
What I Read
The latest Harper’s Magazine (May 21) is an article Sign of the Times by James Harkin. The story is about a New York Times podcast called Caliphate hosted by Rukmini Callimachi, which focused on a Canadian Shehroze Chaudhry that went to Syria to join ISIS and kill two people and then coming back to Canada – except it turned out to be not true. Harkin dives into the story by highlighting the problems with current news on the internet, with journalists creating brands, editors protecting those brands, the shrinking pool of paid journalists, and the demand for news faster than editors can fact check. Harkin writes, “But the murkiness of the information wars seem, in retrospect, like a rehearsal for many of our current concerns about “fake news.” We often talk about disinformation as a strategy used by antagonists – Russians, the “alt-right,” Donald Trump – who deliberately seed lies and conspiracy theories. But the truth is that bad information is everywhere. As foreign bureaus become a thing of the past, there are fewer reports on the ground. Journalism is supposed to be a labor-intensive business, one that requires digging up facts. Today, there’s a glut of information there for free, but most of it has been put there for a reason.”
What I Heard
During the 90s, I got into neo-folk, and one of my favorites was Will Oldham, who now goes by Bonnie Prince Billy. Knowing that I am moving away from ‘home’ has made me very nostalgic, and Bonnie Prince Billy has been there for a lot of those nostalgic moments. The lyrics run from pulling out your heart to playfulness, and his voice is haunting and sounds like it is coming out of a copse of paper birch trees and fog somewhere in the Appalachian mountains. This is driving down a gravel road with no destination in mind music, but it will make you think of people and things that have happened. Bonnie Prince Billy has also gone as Palace, Palace Brothers, Palace Flophouse, Palace Music, Palace Songs, and Will Oldham. He has been putting out several singles with Bill Callahan which is great.
What I’ve Seen
@escapist_to_the_country is an Instagram account that posts houses for sale in rural Europe that are $500k and down – some under $100k! When the country was smelling of armed civil war and a global pandemic where my neighbors thought it was the Chinese and their 5G or Bill Gates using the chance to microchip all of us – and this isn’t from a meme or gossip, this is things that people have told me, I sometimes wish to give up all this America bullshit and leave it to the Kardashians and Barstool Sports and move to a lovely farm home in Europe. Maybe this will come true someday, but it is fun just to see the daily house and think, what if? There are other cheap European house accounts, but this one is my favorite.
What I’ve Seen
Speaking of Will Oldham, he was in the movie Old Joy (2006), directed by Kelly Reichardt and starring Daniel London. It is a simple story: a single guy who is still hanging out and free-flowing invites his friend who is days away from having a baby to get naked at Bagby Hotsprings. It is filmed in Oregon. An excellent in-depth look at masculinity of two men in different places in their lives, trying to find that common ground without causing resentment. I surmise that this is basically the same plot as Once Upon A Time in Hollywood (2019), but more minimalist and sincere. This also really tugged at my nostalgic soul because of all the nights and weekends that some friends and I would drive up to Bagby Hotsprings, including the day after my wedding, and I couldn’t help but feel a deep sadness for leaving Oregon. . .
. . . it almost feels like the end of a relationship where we both know it isn’t working, but we can’t help but think back to a time where things were fun, and we were happy. I sat in icy, cold flowing rivers under the swaying Douglas fir trees. I clambered over driftwood to get to the beach before the sun dipped under the horizon of the wild Pacific Ocean. I have sat naked in a hollowed-out log soaking in hot mineral-rich water, telling the new person that there are locals from Estacada that have been known to kill Bagby bathers with axes and chainsaws. They laugh, but their eyes start darting around because a forest on the shoulder of Mt. Hood is full of sounds when your heart starts to beat faster from fear. It gives me a lump in my throat. There were some great times, but now I have a new home, a new family. I have a wife, and she is where I want to be. She left all she knew for the Pacific Northwest, and she talks about Atlantic beaches, Portuguese food, and her family. I will be where I want to be, and I will be a visitor to Oregon instead of one of her sons.