Bergman

As you may have heard Swedish director/writer/genius Ingmar Bergman died on Monday. Although many great articles have been written on Bergman's life already (Ebert's being my favorite) I thought I'd share a little bit of how I feel about Bergman.

I am not a film critic and don't know very much about film making, but what I do know is that there is almost nothing better than sitting down and watching a Bergman film. I saw The Seventh Seal for the first time a few years ago and discovered Bergman for the first time. Since then I have seen many more of his movies and every one has been a fantastic experience.

You don't need to understand philosophy or psychology or film on any technical level to enjoy the humanity, sadness, and beauty of Bergman's movies. Yet Bergman's films manage to portray everything about human nature with such acute vision that watching a Bergman film is like taking a class in any of these subjects.

My favorite Bergman movie is wild strawberries, in which an aging man and a young woman go on a road trip together. It is simple and beautiful and (unlike many of Bergman's other films) somewhat hopeful.

Bergman's death is not terribly tragic (he was an old dude) but I still can't help feeling sad that one of my heroes is dead. Anyway, what I am really trying to say is: go rent Bergman's films. I can't recommend them enough and now that he is gone it is even more apparent how important the films he made during his life were.

How You Should Read Gravity's Rainbow (and Why)

I am not an English major, but I am not an idiot either. This being the case, I have tried and failed to read Gravity’s Rainbow twice, each time starting from the very first page and ending somewhere around page 250.

Now, on page 200 my third time through Pynchon’ magnum opus, I think I have come up with a strategy that will ensure that I can finally finish GR, but more importantly, I have come up with a way of reading it where I truly enjoy every page.

First, some background info: In case you do not know, Gravity’s Rainbow is a 775 page WWII epic about a guy who gets a boner before a rocket falls on him. There are secret organizations of all kinds that attempt to capture him and use his “skill” for their own purposes as he wanders aimlessly through war-torn Europe. It is almost universally recognized as one of the greatest books of the 20th century (meaning that it is an extremely long book that few people finish).

This is a strange and twisted novel. The narrative jumps all over the place and hundreds (if not thousands) of characters are introduced to the reader and then dropped, only to return a hundred pages later seemingly out of nowhere. Thousands of references and inside jokes are made concerning everything from Jazz to Astrophysics. There is a trained assassin octopus named Grigori. Only one thing is constant: Tyrone Slothrop and his rocket detecting erection.

Why should you care about this book?

1. It rules. Although it is not always the case that critics are right about books, Gravity’s Rainbow is undeniably amazing. Even when I was struggling with the book, I could not help but be blown away by Pynchon’s writing and the level of detail.
2. Lame pretentious people who aren’t smarter than you have read it. Why not try and one-up some English major who is impressing girls because he has read this book? Chances are that the dude you overhear talking about it never even finished it, so go ahead and make him look like an idiot. It will make you feel smart and you can bring justice to the world.
3. For some reason hipsters have decided that they love Pynchon as much as they like fixed gear bikes. For proof, go find an interview with James Murphy, he will totally be talking about it. If you think you are a cool kid then its required that you read this book (although I am not quite sure why).
4. It allows you to understand other things: numerous references in everything from the Sopranos to that Klaxons song (you know, the one called Gravity's Rainbow) are from GR. You know that scene in Trainspotting where the dude goes down the toilette? Straight out of GR.
5. Fun Factor: Reading a big book that is supposedly difficult makes you feel good. Novels are written to be read, GR is no different. Having a good time reading is awesome.

My new strategy for reading the book has 3 tenets:

1. Do not attempt to understand all of Pynchon’s references. When I first started to read GR, I felt like I was missing too many references. This is not the case: Pynchon places these obscure tidbits in the novel to enrich your read, not to infuriate you. Be happy when you understand, move on when you don’t.
2. Do not attempt to understand the plot: Gravity’s Rainbow is insane. It is a mess so intricate and strange that it is almost unnecessary to try and untangle. Just pay attention to what Slothrop is up to and the activity of the few main characters. Pynchon leaves enough clear so that the reader is not totally lost. Just when you think you have no idea what is going on, trust Pynchon to enlighten you in a few pages. You will begin to get it, I promise.
3. Read at a quick, constant pace. You will enjoy the book more if you do no labor over hard to understand passages. JUST KEEP READING.

Keep in mind that I have not yet finished the book, but my new strategy is working extremely well thus far. I am having a better summer because I am reading this book and I urge you readers out there to give it a try. If the dudes from Klaxons can read it, then so can you.

Welcome to STATION!

A Brief History of STATION...

In the Summer of 2002, back when Iraq was still shying away from weapons inspectors and Lindsay Lohan was still a nice girl, two heterosexual life partners sat across from each other on a cramped porch at dusk in a sleepy beach town oblivious to these happenings and to what their mutual boredom would spawn that evening. These lads, who I will now begin referring to as 'we,' were only really sure about a few things in life, at that point, one of which was stickers. Stickers meant global stardom, creative outlet and mischief, if used smartly. Stickers, we knew, would enable us to flood the world with our inside 'jokes' and personal insights, things the world had certainly long awaited. More than anything though, we wanted to confuse people. To do this, we scoured our immediate environment for source material that only we would ever relate to or at least remember. There goes my cat... done: "DON'T JUMP BETTY!" or "JUMP, BETTY, JUMP!" We could use both and really fuck with people, couldn't we? Brilliant. To unite our dissociated tag lines we would need a symbol and a title. STATION was adopted as our brand name and a piece of abstract art from my mom's house as our symbol to represent whatever we would be pushing (which, of course, turned out to be absolutely nothing. not even stickers...)

I seem to recall only those phrases with the least context of the twenty or so we conjured up in the ten minutes of excitement that birthed STATION before we wandered to get a burrito. It is that minimal context that reminds me why STATION was so attractive to us. It was ours. Only we could manufacture it. The fact that our manufacturing process was usually oriented around personal use and involved lots of notebook paper didn't really matter, although, it was somewhat disappointing. The spirit of STATION was kept alive in some way in every symbol we scribbled or carved, or later, in every unrealized creative inclination we experienced. Let's start a band! No instruments or talent? Oh well. Let's write...about...lots of stuff, interesting and funny stuff...because, we're smart...right? Oh well. Many of our youthfully optimistic plans lost what momentum they had in our heads to excuses, lack of required motivation, complacency, what have you. But maybe some of our plans, those broader ones in the background, were incrementally coddled by every passing interest, every good idea, every week's STATION. For five years (and probably for much longer), we've been passing from STATION to STATION and now, as a conveniently adult replacement for the sticker, the blog has given us a second chance to return to the end of the line and build a new one. We will try to be more relevant than aimless pet commands but we can't promise anything. Just that this is ours. And free beer. Welcome to STATION.