Misc.

BAM’s Imamura retrospective comes to an end. It’s been glorious. Only an amateur, I saw just over half of the 20 films. I really enjoyed the mix of dirty realism and fantasy; the acting troupe, especially in the early films; the skillful use of black and white Cinemascope; the exquisite black and white photography of Black Rain. I wonder if my appreciation has an element of atavism to it, some memory to my first years. Because, now I’m thirsty for sake; I want to put my yukata on; I want to undo a lover’s yukata. And I’ve been answering the phone with “mushi-mushi”… a friend who used to be roommates with one of the Cibo Mato rockers (two Japanese screamer chicks) said that she would answer the phone by saying “washing machine” in the same rhythmic way as mushi-mushi.

The Museum of Arts and Design, nee American Craft Museum, has an exhibit called “Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting” that I probably wouldn’t have known about if not for my discussion group’s field trip. Liked it quite a bit. Expansive view of “lace” since some of the material used included lead, porcelain, auto parts, and rubber. Pity we weren't supposed to touch anything; it was quite tempting. I'm a bit of a fetishist when it comes to such tactility. Downstairs there’s superb show of contemporary netsuke.

One of the attendees said she had a bird story for me: last night she was in a bar on Houston and bird flew in the window. Turns out to have been a woodcock (pic above, obviously). The city seems to be bombarded with them this year, with sightings all over. They’re migrating through. The lights and buildings disorient them. They huddle in parks and medians during the day waiting for twilight. While they are supposedly good eating, this bar visitor was captured in a box and then released outside. You know the joke, right? A woodcock walks into a bar…