Saw them in Chicago recently, and the place was absolutely electric.

Same here, Alissa. Back in the day, it felt like we were writing for an audience that came for the music but was open to learning about film that might not otherwise have been on their radar, a fun stance to take in a review or essay.

So László Krasznahorkai, notable to cinephiles as the author of Satantago, has won this year’s Nobel Prize for literature. I’ve been mildly curious to read Tarr’s inspiration, but this is a big nudge to finally crack it open.

So glad to hear this. We’ll see her in a couple of weeks in Chicago.

They hatched this whole plan… in the oval office.

And by the way I hadn’t made that connection between Ballast and The Brutalist until now either.

I wonder what Lance Hammer is up to.

Amazing! Is this a paper log, like a notebook?

Brian, sometime I need to ask you about your record keeping system. By the way, where is Ex Libris? Or are you excluding the Little Roxie?

I had Jenny Nicholson’s Star Wars hotel review playing at my desk, split over a couple of days, and I’m still amazed at how thorough and entertaining it is. And tough-but-fair!

An incredible series just started in Chicago: 33 Frederick Wiseman films in 4K restorations of original elements.

I wish I could camp out, but the one I’ll catch, for the first time, is Near Death, screened without interruption (but with an optional box lunch).

www.siskelfilmcenter.org/wiseman

And by the way, The Flick is very readable if you haven’t had the chance to see it performed. You’ll need to imagine the long stretches of dialog-free sweeping, and all the sounds that are familiar to anybody who spent many hours in a multiplex.

As a kid I don’t remember that slowdown at all and may even have been grateful for the pause. That stretch when approaching the wizard was understandably terrifying.

I saw The Flick at Steppenwolf in 2016 and vowed to catch anything I could by Annie Baker. Which was nothing until Janet Planet, a fave for me this year.

Its controlled momentum is driven by visual mysteries (where are we? who’s that?). Baker is a very good playwright *and* — turns out — filmmaker.

I was back in the Bay Area for work a couple of weeks ago, steps from the Stanford, but sadly it was between calendars.

I did rewatch that film at home with the family recently. It’s so brisk and basic, only dragging around “King of the Forest.” Those ruby slippers on yellow brick look fantastic.

The best ginger ale is Bruce Cost Original, and I don’t know of a close second.

I mention this because I buy a few cases of it every spring, I’ve now finished my last bottle, and Chicago is expecting flurries this week. Ginger ale season is over, and I thought you should know.

Sault released* a new record this year, “Acts of Faith,” and I hope we’ll be forgiven for not noticing ASAP.

It’s low-key and lovely, similar in tone to Cleo Sol’s last few. My favorite 3-song stretch: “Turn It Around”, “Lessons”, “Only For You”

(* discreetly uploaded as a wav file somewhere)

That’s cool. I’ve been enjoying her new album.

I wonder what she’d have to say about Chris Marker.

The last section of Rachel Cusk’s new book, Parade, seems to be about Éric Rohmer, although she identifies him (as she does all the visual artists in this braid of observations) as G.

Most of the biographical details I didn’t know — pseudonyms and secrecy — and it made me want to revisit his films.

One of my lasting regrets will be missing Low when they played in Chicago in 2022. Four blocks from home. When I had tickets.

I don’t remember what came up, but I know I’ll be at the Salt Shed tonight to see Alan Sparhawk open for GY!BE, who I haven’t seen in years. Hoping for a cleansing evening.

I’ve been clawing my way back toward a 702-puzzle peak after forgetting to do the crossword earlier this year. I’ll reset to zero today. It’s truly the lowest stakes imaginable for me, but here’s hoping it demonstrates support on the other end.

Oh I don’t know what arrangement they have, just noticing that it’s a similar joint promotion with a similar format. I bet they give them some freebies, though.

Amoeba has done those “What’s in my bag?” videos for years, also fun.

Apropos of nothing, remember when Trump introduced the Space Force and assured us repeatedly that it would be a separate but equal branch of the military. Separate but equal. My god the depths.

Out of all the Landmark theaters in San Francisco, I’m surprised Opera Plaza is the one to last. But I’m kind of glad. I like that intimate space.

That is a little rude, maybe—Lorentzen is talking about his younger self there, and also most definitely about me—but it is certainly not wrong. Anyway there’s no spoiling it, really. It’s all already spoiled; if you’ve read much, you know that those things I’d previously assumed a writer couldn’t do until I read Auster doing them were not really laws or even really rules. If this surprised me at the time, it was because it offered pleasures that I’d assumed were off the table in serious adult books, which were apparently mostly about cheating on your wife. A story that usually does one thing can do something else; a convention or suite of conventions can be treated more brusquely or playfully or just dealt with more expertly than had previously seemed possible; a book can be two or more types of book at once. Small strange doors that you had assumed were locked opened instead onto new rooms and corridors, bathed in strange light or much darker than seems plausible, and you go on throu

I had the thought when Paul Auster died that I'd like to read @davidjroth.bsky.social writing about him and sure enough @flaminghydra.com delivered. flaminghydra.com/issue-76/

Right? Spicy!

This barely qualifies as a cocktail, but I’ve been enjoying:

- two parts mezcal
- one part Ancho Reyes Verde

If you add lime juice, agave nectar, cucumber, and a spritz of absinthe, you get what a local bar calls Fire in the Hole, also lovely. I hit on the simpler variation through sheer laziness.