Must Read After My Death

I need to write about how amazing Must Read After My Death is.

More and more when I see movies I feel like I have to eventually integrate film into my classes when I'm actually a true professor teaching somewhere, probably way down the road.

The film is a pastiche of old Super 8 movies and Dictaphone recordings from a family of six in Connecticut in the 1960s. Morgan Dews apparently somehow found his grandmother's package of all of this (you'll see all of it at the beginning of the film) marked "Must Read After My Death."

It's one of the most sad and beautiful films I've ever seen. Reminiscent, technique-wise, of 51 Birch Street, Tarnation, Capturing the Friedmans, About a Son, and probably some others, the point here isn't originality.

But what makes the film powerful is what's culled together to make it. The images don't necessarily speak for the narrative shred we're listening to, but there are some that won't leave your mind, some that keep playing over different parts of different voices. You can tell this was a labor of love for Morgan Dews, and until close to the end you wonder how he's related to the family at all (you'll see what I mean as you're watching).

And with fifty hours of recordings, winnowing that down to a little over an hour would not be the easiest task. Then we're left to wonder what was left out, and what dictated the choices Dews made in compiling every recording and image.

Another thing is the score, which wouldn't have even needed to be a part of it to make it so powerful. But the score of Paul Damian Hogan the Third somehow combines the guitar washes of Eluvium, the key and tonal glitch of Fennesz, and the warped, warm repetitions of William Basinski. I wouldn't be surprised if someone wanted to put this out as a 70-minute album, with just the voices and the soundtrack. It could easily work that way too.

See it. See it. See it.

The Giants are 10-1

In the past few days I got my contributor copies of Third Coast, American Poetry Journal, and Flyway. I forgot that's usually what happens in the later part of the fall or early winter. Not only that, but I think the subscribers are the folks who get theirs first, and then the contributor copies are sent out, which is something I need to remember.

Third Coast, as always, looks great and includes a great line-up of writers.

American Poetry Journal also looks great and includes a great line-up of writers.

In both of the aforementioned journals, Nick Courtright also has poems. Not only have we been in the same journals together, but a lot of the same issues in the past year or so. I told him I'm going to immediately send to every journal who accepts his work because of this previously unknown fact. Though I'm sure now that I actually know this, the rejections would come on full force. The poetry publishing world seems to be like that much of the time.

And Flyway, which seems to be a combination of I think three issues, oddly enough, almost looks as thick as Gulf Coast, but I don't think it's quite there yet. What I like about Flyway that I didn't know about the issue until I got it was, like Black Warrior Review, there's also a chapbook at the end of the issue, on different paper, which was a cool added bonus.

And Flyway sent two copies instead of one, which was great.

Hopefully I should be getting more contributor copies soon, and then I'll be reading over the holidays to catch up on everything I should be reading while I'm not.

Sometimes it's hard to believe that it's been over a year for some of these acceptances. It seems like just yesterday. And after the fact, the writers have it easy. Sometimes I don't think about all the hard work that goes into producing these issues, when you consider every aspect before it hits the printers, and in some cases, how many people have to work together to make it happen.

*

I've said it before, but this has been one of the best years for ambient music in a while. Though that term is used broadly, I can't get into a lot of the more raucous and / or glitchy noise stuff, or haven't listened to anything that would bring repeated listens. That said, my definition of ambience is a bit different than other folks I suppose. And then what's the fine line with some of these ambient musicians and IDM or post rock? As long as it sounds good, I really don't care.

At any rate, the new Fennesz record, Black Sea, has been growing on me with every listen. I think it's his best solo work to date. There's plenty of glitch and atmosphere, but there seems to be more focus on the melodies, even if they're buried between weird guitar and computer manipulated sounds. A lot to discover with every listen. And as Venice seemed to be a summer record, Black Sea certainly seems right for the winter dreariness.

I'll probably have a separate best-of year-end list just for ambient / instrumental records, in addition to the regular list.

That's how good the year's been.

Speaking of, how about those G-MEN?

Playoffs? Certainly.

Anything more? We'll have to see what happens down the stretch...