Walking home along the frozen river. I had thought I would be cold in my skirt, thick tights and legwarmers but I was fine. Snow was falling down lazily and sticking to my wool coat, my eyelashes and the tips of my hair. Someone was cross-country skiing on the river. I kept pace with her and watched her, noticing her movements. My mother used to cross-country ski in Finland. I thought …
I stand on my parents’ driveway waiting for my friend, who has forgotten what house I am after so many years. It’s so quiet and I remember many other nights like this in high school, waiting for some boyfriend or friend under the light, looking up at the sky and thinking those thoughts all teenagers think about the stars. There’s a tree in the way now. She finds me and …
Two men are sitting diagonally from each other debating the economy. One is getting more wound up than the other. He has a slight French accent and is wearing shorts with white socks pulled up tight. He is giving analogies about “the old days.” He is picking up the newspaper that lies on the table and tears off a corner in support of one such analogy. The other man has …
A man who is balding but also growing his hair long comes into the coffeeshop with a girl who could be his daughter. They sit on the couch in front of me and both pick up a section of the newspaper that is in front of them. The girl reads the front section and the man reads the sports. They share a bagel, barely speaking. After a while, the girl …
Best background noise to read to. This was a few days ago. Last night there was rain, but there was intense thunder and flashing lightning, too, all around us, all the time. All summer I’ve been longing for a really good thunderstorm and then I got what I asked for, one so great it scared me for the first time since childhood (well, the tornado risk scared me, anyway). Yesterday …
There are certain sounds that will be comforting forever: slippered feet on that creaky floor, early morning radio debates, water being poured into a kettle, screen doors sliding open. I stretch and kick the metal footboard as I had done every morning, and before I am fully myself I forget the last nine years have ever happened.
Breathless/À bout de souffle, 1960. I know, I know, I’m the last person alive to have not yet seen this movie. I won’t give a review of it or anything, mostly because I’m terrible at reviews but also because nobody needs yet another review of this classic film. All I can say was I liked it. Groundbreaking, eh? It was also interesting to me in one weird way: Jean Seberg …
Solaris, 1972 – the original! This is another great movie I randomly borrowed from my local library branch (see my previous post if you want to read me gush about the selection there). I enjoyed some of the out-of-context quotes in this one, as you can see. Of course, I also enjoyed the look of it and took many photos of my TV as proof. I haven’t seen the remake …
An Angel at My Table, 1990. A surprising find from my local library (I love you, Nose Hill branch), which reliably has the best movies. I really enjoyed this movie, the story of it, but the imagery was stunning as well. I admit I didn’t know anything about Janet Frame before this, but I really need to correct that. And to think, I probably would have never watched this if …