by Tim Gunn
SPOILERS ALERT!!!
Holy cow, what a wild and unsettling episode! I’m almost afraid to talk about it for fear of spoiling anything! Written by the interesting team of Andre and Maria Jaquemetton, and directed with quite a bit of zip by Christopher Manley, “Commissions and Fees” was a whirlwind of an episode, with so much going on in each and every scene. Let’s see how much:
The episode begins with Don getting a shave and a haircut. Somebody named Jed comes in to lavish praise on Don and, interestingly, Pete who Jaguar was “impressed with.”
We then immediately cut to Lane Pryce having a meeting with 4A, who want to hire Lane as the unelected head of the Fiscal Control Committee (whatever that entails). Lane happily accepts. That’s about the happiest we will see Lane for the rest of the episode. Well, almost the last time …
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by Ryan Held
His first movie viewing experience included a newsreel.
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*
She would never be but a dusky jargon,
Even for so poor a gospel of fragrant youth.
How is our mistake to be shared
When we can hardly absorb the stains?
And every divided day came to a mild relief
That no weedy philosopher subdues,
Whose narrowed ignorance
Couples us, as it satisfies;
The rattle of false anticipation,
Forsaking a stunned connoisseur of suffering.
*
Walking among the sneering ruins
Without growing a stubble of conscience.
Ideas fall into an endlessness of blushing foam
And tend to my abandoned sanctuary of arrogance.
Our bodies yield to a violent silence of exultation
To lie with the thrill of invulnerable appetite.
She remembered the heartache she poured
Into his empty reformed shadow
To know what he might look like lit not by the sun
But by the raw volcanic fumes of her curious agony.
*
by Ryan Held
Words that the dictionary editors left out. This edition, our word is:
morphoclimactic day [mawr-fuh-klahy-mak-tik] - a day in which the temperature differential reaches an extreme value, usually serving to inconvenience anyone who can not alternate his/her apparrel to adapt to such disparate conditions.
Example usage: April can be one of the worst months for the occurrence of morphoclimactic days. I usually have to wear a winter jacket in the morning and short sleeves by lunchtime.
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by Ryan Held
Welcome to “5 Things…..”, where I’ll be posting a series of stray notions about just about any topic. For this edition, let’s check out:
5 Things You Shouldn’t Underestimate the Value of When Traveling Back in Time
As any traveler will tell you, one of the most regrettable things when embarking on an adventure is not being properly prepared for your stay at your destination. With that in mind, here are five things that you should be top of mind in case you ever decide to travel back in time, the seldom discovered frontier that few people ever really talk about traveling to.
1.) A good pair of shoes. It’s easy to forget that the quality and prevalence of transportation vehicles and roads/walkways were rather primitive until somewhat recently. Don’t use this as a time for being trendy by wearing something like the above example. I don’t care what people say, there’s no way you would wanting to be wearing those if you ever had to run all the way to Athens and deliver any war news.
2.) A satisfactory collection of basic pharmaceuticals. People used to actually die from things that you could avoid for just a few cents at your local drug store. Plus, despite your immunizations, there are still a number of antibodies you don’t have. You will likely not want to rely on the medical “experts” that you encounter in your destination. It’s better to be the witch doctor with your magic brightly-colored pills than visit the witch doctor with pale discoloration in your face.
3.) Some good non-digital books to read. Entertainment as we know it was often a little more scarce in the past. The added bonus is that you may have some good stories to share that no one has ever heard before. That and you never know when you’ll get the chance to have a copy signed by the original author.
4.) An era-appropriate map. There’s not much that’s more frustrating than discovering that the road you want to take doesn’t exist yet.
5.) A basic understanding of how to fit into your destination’s culture. Let’s just say that “When in Rome….” can apply to many different cultures. It’s best not to stand out in most destinations unless you’re confident that they’ll accept you as some form of deity because of your “magic”. This hasn’t always worked well in the past.
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*
I am waiting for your jealous dishonesty, felt
in the trembling bruises.
Your voice spat oaths of fumbling stillness, emblems
from a vast coltish anticipation.
Think of those carnal disputes, self-denying, loud
with threadbare passion.
Picking my way through your plentiful lips, fluent
in the fretwork of your russet face.
*
Naked indignity fails to smother us in shame, wearily
savoring a fugitive of halted gestures.
From the verge of our peeled perfection, leave me
to denounce my sins and forsake your dignity.
Do you think we can last until the gulp of dawn, among
the scumble of smiling promises?
Will we ever refuse this climax of exultation? What
was once a dream is now an act of arrogance.
*
… to whoever featured my 25* poem on the edited #Poetry tag. It means a lot and was quite a surprise; I showed my students at school this afternoon and they were super pumped about it. I think I got a little more credibility with them as their writing teacher.
They actually started asking a lot of unexpected questions like, “What does your poem mean?” and “Why do you have to use so many hard words?” and “What makes a poem good?” and “Hey, what if I wrote a poem and you put it on Tumblr on your blog? Would Ryan let you do that? Do you think I would get as many likes as you do? You know, like if you pretended you wrote it?” That last one came unexpectedly from one of my students who has kind of coasted throughout the school year. Unfortunately, though, there are only six more days left in school before summer break … better late than never, though, right?
- Tim
by Tim Gunn
This year has featured two films that take on the Snow White legend. First up was “Mirror, Mirror,” directed by a favorite director of mine, Tarsem Singh. Today across the country, “Snow White and the Huntsman,” directed by commercial director Rupert Sanders arrived. I have not yet seen “Mirror, Mirror,” but plan to at some point down the road. I did see “Snow White and the Huntsman” this afternoon a few hours after I finished with work, though. I wish I could tell you how the two different treatments compare and contrast, but alas I’ll have to stick with the latter film.
Long story short? I wasn’t really all that impressed. I was surprisingly bored for long stretches of the film. Part of the issue for audiences, I think, will be how much they “buy” Kristen Stewart as Snow White. I didn’t enjoy her performance at all, so there’s that, and that dampened things for me a bit. It’s not that I think Stewart’s a horrible actress, and I actually look forward to seeing her in “On the Road,” but she just didn’t really fit this particular role for me. And frankly, I’m sad to report that she seems to have zero chemistry with Chris Hemsworth; perhaps there was a little chemsitry with the Prince William character (performed by Sam Claflin as if he were auditioning for MoCap work for Assassins Creed 4) but that was quickly neutered before it could go anywhere.
Beyond the acting and writing, which for me was the biggest problem, here are some stray notions of what worked for me and what did not:
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by Ryan Held
If a spider were to lose just one of it’s eight legs, do you think that it would really be all that big a deal? I’d have to think that if I had seven legs instead of eight, I’d still be pretty grateful about it and not use it as an excuse for my failures like I do now with only two legs.
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by Ryan Held
Golf tournaments are played on his front lawn.
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