Errata is a web journal written by Robert Davis who has neither spent a night in a ghost town nor pulled a turnip from the earth. He doesn't even know if turnips grow in the ground. Perhaps on trees, like candy corn. Therefore, Errata is a non-commercial project.

Observation #1: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious."

Observation #2: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious" at the top of your lungs. Bring your eyebrows together before you say it. Effective!

Observation #3: Same for books. Even at libraries.

There is a prize for people who correctly guess the thing about Metropolis, Nevada.

Except where the text specifically states otherwise, Errata's vagaries are indicated vaguely and its authors are indistinct in the traditional way of the Internet, except where the authors lay claim to their work. In some cases Robert Davis lays claim to work that is not his own but has been abandoned like so many ghost towns. Except where held presently, fistfuls of dirt are suspended via dispersal, or dispersed via suspension (in the air), and thus their dissolution is their transcendence, or their transcendence is their dissolution. And yet our eyes tear, and our vision is impaired, demonstrating for the umpteenth time that one entity's gain is another's fit of sneezes. Except where indicated, storms shall outlive the clay upon which they rain, unless storms are improperly delimited by their clouds, which dissolve, rather than by their inevitable return. Thus the clay loses, unless the clay is said to own the storm, to use it to make itself heavy, to make itself cling to white garments, refuse dispersal, cake upon the facades of abandoned buildings, and sit like Man [sic] upon the earth where it is pelted by a storm that it owns. In which case the clay still loses, if you ask us.

Some of the above is legally binding and should be considered a mental contract between Errata and those upon whom it acts. The bit about the prize should be considered an overstatement insofar as prizes differ from dirt and prize dispersal differs from dirt dispersal. Please recall that ownership is a weight and, therefore, hope that you do not win the prize.

One day Errata or its representatives will call upon you for a favor. It is expected that you will hop-to without delay.

You may contact Robert Davis by email unless it's about the rock that was thrown in anger. The rock is more properly called a clod. Why do you continue to raise the topic?

26 September 2003

Economist on S. Coppola

While I like the Economist as a way to keep up with world politics and business, I'm not usually a very big fan of their anonymous film criticism.

But I like the way their little review of Lost in Translation avoids pointlessly mentioning who Sofia Coppola's husband is and what movies he has made and instead focusses on some of her own previous work: she directed a "difficult to categorise" feature film debut, co-wrote her father's segment of New York Stories when she was a teen, and spent time in Tokyo as a clothing entrepreneur gathering inspiration and friends for Lost in Translation.

[UPDATE: Sorry, that was a bit of a backhanded compliment. What I meant, but didn't exactly say, was that I like how they put Coppola's movie into the context of her other work without referring to her celebrity spouse, as many lesser reviews have. Her work stands apart from his just fine. Today, a Google search for both her movie and her spouse turns up a staggering 29000 hits, compared to 36000 with her own name.]

(An aside: a friend recently laughed, in his blog, at the cover of the Economist showing a cactus giving the finger to the WTO. I wonder what he thinks of the moose in sunglasses on the current issue?)

Posted by davis | Link

Other Recent Posts

Other Recent Episodes

Favorite Films