First Person Singular by Wendy Braitman

10 Romantic Comedies I Don’t Hate

This is hard to believe, but I have a friend, a straight man, who LOVES romantic comedies, and sees them all. He used to ask me to come along, then I’d roll my eyes, he’d call me a snob, I’d question his taste, and we’d go off to our corners to sulk. The truth is, I’m a sucker for happy endings in a love story, like most of humanity, but I can’t relax into films that ask me to suspend my disbelief so much so as to require a lobotomy. Occasionally, there are romcoms that I actually enjoy. Here are ten of my favorites, post 1960 (in no particular order). What are yours?

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Portrait of Myself and My Imaginary Wife

Painted by Arshile Gorky, Portrait of Myself and My Imaginary Wife, is part of an amazing retrospective of this influential artist’s work, at MOCA in Los Angeles, until September 20.

5 Reasons to See “I Am Love”

I did not love, I Am Love, a lush new film, directed by Luca Guadagnino, which peeks into the lives of the very rich. But it was still a pleasurable way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Here’s why:

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Why I Don’t Write Autobiographical Poems

Love this!

Why I Don’t Write Autobiographical Poems
by Mary Wallach -

Vengeance doesn’t work in a poem, nor do digs at anatomical parts
or mean-spirited, see-what-I-mean, anecdotal jibes. For example,
you write an epic tirade against “Bob.” Who is Bob to me, the reader?
The fact that he lied, cheated, was lousy in bed, that doesn’t make Bob
special, nor does your problem with Bob make me feel different about my life.
However, speak to me of Bob’s kitchen, of its perfect, painted walls
of deep and shiny teal with high-gloss white moldings, (he was into that
Southwestern look), of the way Bob’s toast had to be cooked evenly on
both sides, and of Bob, himself, draped, regally, in a raggedy old kimono,
dragging on a filthy, filterless cigarette, his hand as graceful as a gazelle in
slow-motion, the nervousness suspended, of how each word he spoke was
always articulated as neatly, separately, yet as packed with juice as a
champagne grape — and I can begin to feel more impassioned. And when,
after several years of cohabitation, he drops you as carelessly as he flicks
an ash, you allow me to be devastated.

Photo: Cigarette vending machine in Italy, 2010, by Miguel Torres

What To Bring To The Beach

It’s not just because I got back from a trip to Italy 15 days ago, and I’m trying to evoke its memories–like that morning in our Rome apartment when Miguel was out shooting photographs, and I had a rare moment, sitting still and alone, and grabbed a random book off the shelf, which I couldn’t put down. Sure, I’d seen the movie, with the dazzling Audrey Hepburn, but never got around to the actual novella, by Truman Capote. I’m here to tell you, Breakfast at Tiffany’s is GREAT. At 100+ pages, it’s not much of a time commitment, and will draw you in from the first sentence. A perfect book for the beach (or the city or the lake or the suburbs.)

Image: Umbrella (Orange): With Figure and Ball (Blue and Green) 2004, by John Baldessari

Sunday updates

From The Best Sauce of Tomato Season – A sliced view of the first home-grown tomatoes from the garden, surrounded by Bufalo di Mozzarella, sprinkled with aged Balsamic (which I carted home from Italy). Corn and asparagus were from Whole Foods. Vodka is from the freezer.

From Joan Rivers, Can We Talk: A Piece of Work, the film by Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg, is really fun, and a great glimpse into what it takes to make it. I’m going with, loving Joan Rivers.

Joan Rivers, Can We Talk?

I’m a stealth QVC addict. It’s not about buying things (okay, I am on auto delivery for Peter Thomas Roth “un-wrinkle” serum). But what really pulls me in are the ingratiating “hosts” and their ability to sell large quantities of crap. If you watch QVC long enough, you’re bound to stumble onto Joan Rivers, who is one of the channel’s most successful brands, with her popular fashion jewelry, skincare, handbags, sunglasses and clothing lines. It’s hard to look away from Joan Rivers, and I waver between admiration and scorn. Apparently I can’t get enough. This weekend, I’m planning on more face time, with A Piece of Work, the documentary about her, that just opened to rave reviews. Where are you on the Joan Rivers love/hate continuum?

Imagining the Female Body as a Paint Brush

Yves Klein the influential and dashing French artist used the term, anthropometries, for his canvases that were filled by slathering curvy nude models with paint and using them as human brushes (while he pranced around in formal wear). Klein died in 1962, of a heart attack when he was only 34, but within his jam-packed seven year career, he riveted audiences and art critics. He had the instincts of a modern marketing genius and patented a gorgeous ultramarine color, calling it “International Klein Blue.” The first major U.S. retrospective of his work in over 30 years is at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., until September 12.               Continue reading »

Why Husbands Flirt?

Sounds like a popular, self-help book. Actually, it’s a silent film from 1918, uncovered in a New Zealand archive, along with more than 70 other movies, now being preserved and on the way home to the States. Most prominent of the group is John Ford’s Upstream (1927), about a backstage romance with an actor and a target girl from a knive-throwing act (how cool is that?). I’m also psyched to see The Active Life of Dolly of the Dailies (1914), featuring an intrepid woman reporter, and The Girl Stage Driver (1914). Must’ve been the turn of the last century, when women were getting the good parts. And it’s comforting to know that a flirting husband is a phenomenon with roots.

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Looking For Some Street Cred

While we were traveling around Italy during the last few weeks, my photographer friend, Miguel, took hundreds of shots of street art. (I posted one of them a few days ago.) And it got me interested in seeing Exit Through the Gift Shop, the documentary film, or as the Times calls it, a prankumentary, directed by the famed British graffiti artist, Banksy. It was a hit at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, and looks really cool. Check out the trailer.