Where I would go if I lived in New York City and had a viable babysitting option: the Open Roads: New Italian Cinema festival at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. From the (admittedly) limited selection of Italian films I’ve seen over the past few years, it’s been my impression that the Italian cinema is in something of a creative slump; Gianni Amelio’s L’America was the last great Italian film I saw. But GreenCine’s James Van Maanen has an enthusiastic dispatch from the Open Roads festival.
Where I will be if I can manage to stay up past 10:00 on a weekday, which doesn’t happen much lately: The DVD release party for David Kraus’s film Musician on June 11 at the Hideout. Details at right, in the "Keep in Mind" section.
What I would not be reading even if I read German, and won’t read when it gets translated into English: Charlotte Roche’s novel Feuchtgebiete (Wetlands). The debate in Germany about the novel says more about the uneven political development of that country that the topic ostensibly examined by the novel: women’s sexual empowerment as a feminist practice. These discussions invariably go nowhere–remember when Madonna tried to do something with the topic back in the Nineties, only to come across as annoying and self-serving? Or the embarrassing academic debate about Annie Sprinkle around the same time?
Where I would go if I still lived in Philadelphia: The newly opened Center for Architecture, created by the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Tourists go to Philly for the colonial-era landmarks, but it’s really a nineteenth-century city. Modern architecture is a mixed bag, to say the least, mostly because Philadelphians don’t really like it. They’re lustily booing the recently-built Kimmel Center, which doesn’t deserve all the abuse it’s been getting. (Local architects, including Robert Venturi, produced lame designs for the new music hall, so out-out-town architects had to be brought in.) If you discount the twentieth century, though, the city’s architecture is beautiful.
Where I would go if I had money to burn on a plane ticket to San Jose: No, not the WWDC08, although that would be cool, too. The 01SJ digital arts festival. The promoters are trying to create an American version of the Ars Electronica festival in Linz, Austria.
What’s coming to me whether I like it or not: NeoCon! I can hear the rumble of a hundred thousand Manolos already.
What I’m going to buy when I walk to Borders on my lunch hour because it’s (finally) nice out: Not really sure yet. Update, 12:32 PM: Aborted! It started to rain as soon as I stepped out of the building. I knew two consecutive hours of nice weather was too much to ask. I was going to look up a copy of Dominique Fabre’s The Waitress Was New, based on Bud Parr’s review in Chekhov’s Mistress.
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One-Way Street 