2005-11-18 - 11:22 a.m. In movies, books, and music, I have been encountering stuff lately that tears my November heart open like the claw of Eros ("Craw! C-L-A-W--Craw!") Firstly, I can't get enough of Cat Stevens's Gold collection. These songs are the bedrock of my musical history, as entrenched in my being as Christmas carols and the names of my family members. If there is a more perfect song than "Trouble," I don't wanna know. (And his pre-folk pop ditties are really clever and tuneful, too.) (And, for the love of god, he didn't order the death of Salman Rushdie.) And I am reading Ann Patchett's Truth and Beauty, a funny and tear-jerking memoir of her friendship with Lucy Grealy. And last night I watched what I think will top my 2005 favorite film list, Me and You and Everyone We Know. You've probably already seen it...It's a hypnotic movie that I suspect I will want to watch over and over. It's got the sorta mannered, epigrammatic quality of a Hal Hartley film, but it's not jokey. The poetic dialogue--each line delivered slowly and deliberately--serves a story with real feeling and humanity behind it. The characters do slightly creepy things in misguided attempts to resolve their loneliness, set to a background of gentle, chimey little musical flourishes that make the action seem almost whimsical. But it is heart-rending. thoughts? (11 comments so far) previous - next blog archive contact