cutriver

In the cinema, I identify fully and deeply with Jonathan Caouette in his beautiful film Tarnation, and not only because he has the same record collection as me (Low, Iron & Wine, Mark Kozelek), qnd not only because he is gay, although these factors undoubtedly help. Caouette's family history of minor celebrity, abuse and mental illness is considerably more dramatic than mine, but, ultimately, his attempt to understand the mysterious genealogy that is responsible for all his problems is the same quest we must all undertake at one tiime or another. And, what makes Caouette's film so touching is that, at the age of 31, through his love for his mother and his love for his art, it looks as though Jonathan is maybe gonna make it...

As part of my new regime, last night I went to a yoga class. It cost a fortune (18 dollars!), and I'm way out of practice, but was worth it. When I came round from the final relaxation and opened my bleary eyes, I saw the instructor sitting cross-legged with her hands clasped in prayer and chanting in a language I don't understand, and she looked like the Buddha herself. I walked home feeling like my whole being had been opened to the universe, opened to the openness of being...

(While typing this entry - on a computer in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France no less - I accidentally hit some combination of keys on the keyboard that changed it from a French azerty keyboard into an anglo qwerty keyboard! Good thing I can touch-type: I had to write this entry with my eyes closed so as not to get confused! Sometimes I think computer keyboards are like labyrinths with secret passages and hidden doors to which I resolutely do not have the key...)